Gabriel Stone and the Divinity of Valta (16 page)

She walked toward him, and her gaze darted over his shoulder, a look of horror crossing her face. She gasped—the last sound Gabriel heard before something slammed into the side of his jaw, and he fell to the ground. Blood filled his mouth, and he drifted toward unconsciousness.

“Wake up!” Piper screamed, shaking Gabriel by his shoulders.

Gabriel opened his eyes. His vision blurred, and the world spun. He heard humming in his ears. It reminded him of waking up from the anesthetic after he’d had his tonsils out. His mother’s was the first blurry face he’d seen then. This time, the blurry face belonged to Piper. Her panicked brown eyes widened to saucers, so big he could see them even through the haze.

“Cedric stole the Divinity!”

Gabriel eased up, the pain in his jaw intensifying. At first, he didn’t understand her words. His head ached too much to try.
Cedric stole the Divinity …
“Oh, no!” he moaned, patting his neck and chest, jaw gaping, then snapping his head left to right. But it was too late—Cedric and the Divinity were gone.

“We have to get it back.” With every word, fire radiated through his jaw. He tottered to his feet, feeling woozy, and touched his swollen face. Piper grabbed his arm, steadying him.

“You’re not gonna believe this, but he ran straight for the castle. I chased him, but he was too fast. I’m sorry, Gabe.”

Gabriel kicked the ground. “He’s been trying to steal it all along. I’m such an idiot for trusting him. He even admitted that he wanted it.”

“He hit you with a rock and grabbed the Divinity right out of your hands as you fell. And, like, after we totally let him come with us when we didn’t want to. I swear, if I get my hands on him—”

“I bet he thinks Malgor will reward him, like when you find a lost wallet or something. We’ve gotta get it back.”

Pain pulsated through his jaw with every step as they ran toward Malgor’s castle. The wind sent snowflakes swirling all around them, until they were enveloped in white. Gabriel’s eyesight blurred at first, by pain and snowflakes, but he managed to focus, letting his powerful vision lead the way.

They followed the river’s edge. The river, about a quarter of a mile wide, encircled the castle like a snake coiled around its owner’s neck. Malgor’s castle towered above them, so tall it reached the clouds. Moss covered lots of the enormous, gray stones of the narrow structure. The entranceway looked like an open mouth with pointed teeth for a gate, like a bear trap ready to snap. A drawbridge loomed nearby, but it was useless to them because it stood straight in the air. Even worse, several guards marched in front of the castle.

Taking cover behind a huge oak tree, Gabriel and Piper caught their breath.

“Just great,” Piper said. “Now what?”

Gabriel shook his head, watching the guards closely. “I’m not sure … but look! There are four guards, and two of them just walked around the other side of the castle. The other two … ” Gabriel looked at his watch, “are out of sight now.”

“What’re you doing?” Piper asked.

“Timing them.”

They waited for what seemed like forever. Then, from around the other side of the castle, the first two guards came marching back.

Gabriel jerked his head back behind the tree. “We have five minutes in between the two sets of guards. We’ll have to really move.”

“I’ll swim,” Piper said resolutely. “It’s the only way. Good thing the empress gave me the gift of the merfish.”

“But you’ll freeze in that water. Besides, how are you supposed to get over there, lower the bridge, and get me over there in five minutes?”

“We’ll have to do it in two of their trips around the castle. The first time they’re out of sight, I’ll swim across. Then, I’ll wait in the water until they’re gone again. I’ll give you a signal.” Piper peeked around the tree. “When I lower the bridge, just bring my coat.” She slipped it off and handed it to Gabriel.

“Get ready, Piper. They’re about to go out of sight,” Gabriel said as the second set of guards neared the far corner of the castle. “Ready … set … go!”

Piper dashed to the fast-flowing, frigid river, and jumped in. Gabriel watched from behind the tree.
Please, let her make it safely.

The guards twisted around and ran toward the water. One guard signaled to another, who signaled to yet another. Gabriel had no idea what the signals meant, but he figured it couldn’t be good.
Stay down, Piper.
A huge search light hovered over the water. It paused, then slowly panned from left to right. The guards seemed to be in an uproar over whatever they were looking for. He hoped it wasn’t Piper.

The guards kept yelling and the spotlight stayed fixed on one spot in the river where something obviously caught the eye of a guard.
They’ve found something. Oh, please don’t let it be her.

Gabriel pinched his eyes shut and bit his lip so hard he almost drew blood. He couldn’t watch them take Piper away. He just couldn’t. But then the commotion stopped, and everything became quiet. He opened one eye, then the other. One guard smacked another in the head. The smacked guard shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. In his hand, he held a shiny white stone. The first guard knocked the stone away with a growl.

Gabriel smiled as he realized what had happened. They must have thought they’d found the other half of the Divinity in the water.
Idiots!

The guards retreated just as Piper popped her head out of the water. She turned back to Gabriel, signaling she’d made it.

He grinned and waved back as she climbed the embankment, hurrying to find a way to lower the bridge.

“Come on, Piper,” he muttered.

She stepped gingerly through the jaws of the gateway, closer to the doorway. She pointed to a lever sticking out from one of the castle walls, turned, and gave Gabriel a thumbs-up. She jerked the lever. The drawbridge began to lower. Piper jumped up and down, waving at Gabriel.

Gabriel bolted onto the drawbridge. Piper sped out to meet him. Just as Gabriel returned her coat, a shockwave hit the ground. It was like a sonic boom, a deafening clap throwing them to the ground.

Piper lay on the bridge, covering her ears. “
Ay, caramba
! What the heck was that?”

“I have no clue.” Gabriel helped her up. “But let’s go before it happens again, or the guards come back.”

Piper snatched up her coat, shoved it on, and ran back to the entrance. When they reached the gate, they stepped over the sharp teeth. She dashed to the lever and yanked it up. The bridge moved, but creaked and moaned, the sounds threatening to give them away.

“Now what do we do?” Piper asked through chattering teeth.

Gabriel pointed to a small window beside the door. Motioning for her to follow, he peeked inside and saw a face he recognized from the empress’s chamber of memories—a face frozen in his mind forever—Duke Malgor’s face.

“What is it? What do you see?” Piper’s voice cracked.

Gabriel couldn’t answer.

Malgor tugged his dark blond hair from under his black cloak, allowing it to stream down his back. Dark circles surrounded his hollow eyes. His lips curled back in a snarl. He sat on a throne with feet carved like the claws of an enormous bird, and pounded his pale, fisted hands on its arms. A long, rectangular table stretched down the hall in front of him. At the far end of the table sat two others, a man and a woman. The woman’s long, pointy, fingernails, painted black, strummed against the table. Her messy gray hair sprang wildly from her head, like she’d been struck by lightning. The man sitting next to her stared out from behind oval bifocals.

Gabriel eyed them curiously, before his gaze shifted to Cedric, cowering on his knees in front of the table. Gabriel’s mouth dropped open in surprise, and his gaze snapped back to Malgor. Malgor’s face contorted and his arms flailed in the air as he yelled at Cedric. Cedric’s eyes bugged out as he offered the Divinity he’d stolen from Gabriel.

He was handing over the Divinity! Fire burned in Gabriel’s throat. He wanted to strangle the loser. Cedric held up his other hand, revealing a matching crystal. The two Divinities, together in the same room!

No, no, no!

As Cedric pressed the two together, Gabriel found his voice. “No!” he yelled, but another sonic boom swallowed his voice, and seemed to shake all of Valta. Piper and Gabriel dropped to the ground from the forceful tremor.

“That’s what’s causing those earthquakes,” Gabriel said, breathless.

“What?” Piper shrieked.

“Cedric and the duke are trying to join the two Divinities! It’s what’s causing the earthquakes! Shh. Stay down. The guards are coming.”

They shimmied across the ground to hide behind a huge fang in the gate. All four guards rushed around the far end of the castle. They must have felt the sonic booms, too. Red-hooded capes swirled around black fitted pants tucked into black, knee-high, pointed-toe boots. Sharp spurs stuck out from ankle to knee, and blades protruded from the toe of each boot. Gabriel shuddered, imagining what it would be like to get tangled up with one of those guys.

“Cedric has both Divinities,” he whispered. “Malgor must have given him the other one, and he’s telling him to connect them. I don’t think this is the first time they’ve met. I bet Cedric lied when he said he got lost when we first came to Valta.” The idea of Cedric making plans with Malgor made Gabriel’s mouth turn to sawdust. “But for some reason, he can’t connect them yet … ”

Gabriel’s gaze drifted to a piece of Piper’s coat sticking out. He motioned for her to pull it in, but her eyes were squeezed shut. The pounding of the guard’s footsteps drew closer, and Gabriel sucked in a deep breath, and held it.

Then the sounds stopped.

Gabriel slowly exhaled. When he peeked out from behind his hiding place, a guard stood over him, glaring. As he tried to dart away, a hard, cold hand jerked him back. He looked at the hand holding him, and screamed.

It was the hand of a decaying corpse.

Chapter Twenty-One

Terror cemented their feet to the ground. The guard’s ghoulish faces startled them into silence. Bits of rotting flesh and skin clung to his skull and flapped in the wind. Where there should have been eyes were glowing red pupils, like laser beams. Two other skeleton guards flanked the one that held him. Gabriel gagged.

He kicked at the guard’s legs, but the guard only squeezed his arm harder. Silently, the fourth guard headed toward the doors of Malgor’s castle. With a nod to the others, he lifted and released the cobra head door-knocker. It dropped with an iron thud.

Silence took over. Seconds seemed like hours while they waited until, with a creak and a groan, the door to the castle opened. Duke Malgor stood before them, waiting. His cavernous eyes seemed to brighten for a moment. Then, a wicked smirk crossed his face.

“Ahhhh. Children … of the human variety. I see you have met my death-mongers. Not very handsome, but quite effective, wouldn’t you say?” Malgor laughed. He stretched his pale, cool hand toward Gabriel, and grasped his sleeve. “Are you the one called Gabriel?”

Gabriel didn’t answer. He avoided Malgor’s cold, hollow gaze.

The duke shoved him to the ground. “Answer me, boy!”

“I’m Gabriel. What do you want?” Gabriel yelled. He looked up at him, and immediately regretted shouting. Malgor worked his jaw, like he was grinding his back teeth.

“That’s
two
mistakes you’ve made already, human.” He grabbed Gabriel by the scruff of his shirt, lifting him until Gabriel stretched onto his toes. “Your first mistake was not answering me when I spoke to you. Your second mistake was raising your voice to me. You’ll only have one more chance to redeem yourself,
Gayy-bree-ullll
. Do exactly as I command, and perhaps I’ll let you go.”

“Gabe!” Piper struggled to free herself from the death-monger. “Please let him go,” she pleaded. “What do you want us to do?”

“Now
this
one has some sense,” Malgor hissed. “Bring them inside.” The death-mongers obeyed.

As the guards shoved them into the dimly lit castle, Gabriel spotted Cedric kneeling on the floor, facing Malgor’s throne. Cedric’s face was flushed as red as ketchup, as if he was actually embarrassed. That was a new one for Morley.

Malgor shoved Gabriel toward Cedric. “How
could
you, Cedric?” Gabriel blurted. Cedric buried his head in his hands.

“He did precisely as commanded. And you’d be wise to do the same,” Malgor sneered. “But he is not an innocent,
nor
the chosen one. Therefore, he is no longer of use to me.”

“Chosen?” Piper asked. “For what?”

“Are you blind, child? Can you not see that Valta is dying and needs its rightful emperor? If I had not mislaid the one Divinity that day after I … after I
retrieved
them from the castle, I would be emperor now. The so-called
empress
cast a spell so that only an innocent finder of the lost Divinities could connect one to the other. He who connects the two must be someone of good heart, who has never done something purposely evil.”

Malgor kneeled next to Gabriel. He seemed to look directly into Gabriel’s soul as he spoke. “Cedric tells me it was
you
who found the Divinity in your world.”

Gabriel averted his gaze, glaring at Cedric. “So you did lie! You met the duke before! You’re so lame, you know that?”

“I’m sorry.” Cedric sounded as if he meant it. “I didn’t have a choice.”

Malgor’s sinister laugh was straight out of a horror film. “But there is always a choice, boy. I could have thrown you to the gruocks, after all.”

Gabriel faced the two other people in the room, but Malgor grabbed his shoulders, twisting him back around.

“You
will
connect the Divinities for me, Gabriel,” he hissed. “If you agree, I will send you back to Willow Creek unharmed. But if you refuse, I
will
feed you and your little girlfriend here to my gruocks.” Malgor’s grin spread into a wide, dynamite-laced smile.

A piercing pain shot behind Gabriel’s eyes and he shook his head; the thought of what Malgor threatened made him nauseous. “I will never connect them for you. They belong to Empress Malina.” He blinked his eyes, willing away the pain.