CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 

After they landed beside the tree where Finley nervously paced, everybody except Evangeline climbed off the tigers. They staked out the Solarians as they crept away. The lizard men seemed oblivious that they were being watched. Either that or they didn’t care. With the way the Solarians were moving so sluggishly, Gabriel figured it would take them a year to get anywhere. That gave them time to plan and act. Tahlita had said the Solarians’ portal was close to Ericville, so Dacho couldn’t be too far.

Gabriel needed to find the Solarian leader and the empress before the other lizard creeps told Dacho about what had happened. Who knew what Dacho would do when he learned the princess had escaped?

Tension fell over them like a heavy blanket. Everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing. Princess Evangeline rubbed the back of her neck, slumping forward, and immediately conked out on the tiger’s back—definitely not her usual giggly self.

“You okay, Princess Evangeline?” Piper asked her.

She slowly opened her eyes. “Just … tired. But please”—she yawned and rubbed her hooded red-rimmed eyes—“get my mother. They’re coming soon. Dacho said he would be coming through the portal with her shortly after the others left with me. He’s bringing her to exchange her for the duke.” She coughed, then her lids fell shut.

Soon they headed out, keeping a safe distance behind the Solarians. Gabriel wished he could just zip ahead all speedy style, find the empress, and smack Dacho upside the head. Too bad it couldn’t be that easy. With a groan, Gabriel followed behind Finley with Brent, knowing their best hope to find Dacho and the empress was by trailing behind the lizard men.

Gabriel’s hands trembled and he felt jumpy all over, like he’d eaten too much candy or something. He thought about how the Solarians had laser guns and wondered what other weapons they might have. When Dacho found out they had rescued Princess Evangeline, he’d be peeved. An angry Solarian with powerful sci-fi weapons was definitely not someone Gabriel wanted to face. And when Dacho saw they didn’t have Duke Malgor with them, Gabriel knew he’d try to get the princess back. Evangeline wasn’t able to protect herself either.

Then it hit him.

“Wait,” Gabriel whispered, turning around and holding his hands up. The tigers padded to a stop and Finley rushed back.

“What wrong?” Finley asked.

“We shouldn’t take Princess Evangeline with us,” Gabriel said.

Brent tugged his head back an inch. “What are you talking about? We can’t leave her here alone.”

“Not leave her here. But it’s obvious she’s not feeling well, and we’re just bringing her right back into danger.” Gabriel looked at Piper, hoping she’d side with him.

Piper nodded. “He’s right, Brent,” she said, making Gabriel inwardly sigh with relief. He wasn’t in the mood for an argument. Piper hopped off the tiger and gave Princess Evangeline’s leg a gentle shake.

The princess woke up with a groan, then forced herself upright. “Is everything okay?” she asked, tucking her long blond hair behind her ears, face pale.

“Yeah,” Brent said. “But we think you should go home. You wanna go see your brother?”

Just as her face began to light up into a smile, Piper spoke up. “Hold on a sec,” she said to Brent. “She shouldn’t go home either.” Brent threw his hands up, his lips twisting in what looked like annoyance. Piper shrugged, then looked up into Princess Evangeline’s blue eyes. “At least not yet, Evangeline. You should go see Leejor first. You seem sorta sick, and he’ll have a potion to make you feel better like he did for me and Gabriel the last time we were here. If he could cure gruock bites, I’m sure he can fix what’s wrong with you. You’ve probably got some Solarian flu bug or something.”

Gabriel hadn’t thought about sending her to Leejor, but Piper was right. The princess needed to be checked out by the wizard to make sure she was okay before going home. Even Brent nodded in agreement.

“But what about my mother?” Princess Evangeline coughed. “I read that Solarian’s mind back there. They want to keep only a manageable number of humans without worrying about a revolt—something about finding a cure to their health problems—and kill the rest. Everywhere. Mother is very worried.”

Awesome.

Definitely sucked to be human about now. “Um ... ” Gabriel balled his fists, trying to hide the fact that he was scared from showing on his face. “We’re gonna go and get her right now. And we’ll have to stop the Solarians before they can finish their plan.” He forced a smile that he was sure came out looking kind of goofy. When you fake a smile that is mixed with mega-scared-to-death, sometimes it just doesn’t turn out right.

Gabriel sunk his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He didn’t tell the princess that the letter Dacho had left said to meet him at Duke Malgor’s castle with the duke—and that they weren’t doing that. And he didn’t tell her they hoped to find the Solarian leader where Tahlita had said she caught Dacho and Malgor conspiring. And he definitely didn’t mention that if they didn’t hurry, the Solarians would kill the empress. That totally wouldn’t go over well.

He swallowed against the burning in his throat at the thought of anything bad happening to Empress Malina, while doubt crept into his mind. Maybe they should have done what the empress had said and gotten Leejor and Eric to make a huge bomb to blow up Solaria. What if by not listening to the empress, they’d messed everything up? But they seriously wouldn’t have had time to find them even if he believed that was the right thing to do. And he still wasn’t so sure anyway.

Princess Evangeline heaved a sigh and agreed, drawing Gabriel out from his tormenting thoughts that were making him feel sicker by the second. The princess reached out her hand toward Piper, then pointed at the amethyst ring on her finger. It was the jewelry Piper had given her the last time they’d been in Valta. “I love this purple ring you gave me. I haven’t taken it off—” Her voice broke on a coughing fit. When she stopped, she tried again. “I haven’t taken it off since you gave it to me. You’re my best friend, Piper.”

Piper reached up and squeezed Princess Evangeline’s hand. “And you’re mine.”

“Talk about a long distance relationship,” Brent said with a chuckle. Piper gave him a steely glare and Brent chuckled again. “Valta … Earth? I’m just kidding. Chillax already.”

Gabriel stepped forward in front of the tiger the princess sat on. Running his hand up the bridge of the tiger’s nose, he asked, “Take her to Leejor’s cave, okay?” He peered into the tiger’s eyes. “And please keep her safe.”

The tiger bowed his head as if he understood. Then he fanned his large white wings and soared into flight.

“Hold on tight,” Piper called after them. “We’ll come and get you soon, I promise.”

Gabriel noticed Piper’s glistening eyes. Bumping shoulders with her, he said, “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay, Piper. Leejor can fix anything.”

“I know,” she said solemnly, securing the vase under her arm.

They headed out again and followed a safe distance behind the Solarians, skirting around trees and over fallen logs. Gabriel could just make out their red forms in the distance like three moving cherry popsicles—holding deadly laser guns.

After walking for about five minutes, Piper’s eyes suddenly widened. “Gabe!” She gasped and grabbed Brent’s arm. “Look!”

The tigers padded to a stop right behind them, their hot breath tickling Gabriel’s neck. Finley clambered up on top of one of the tiger’s backs to get a better look.

Up ahead, the three Solarians were busy tugging back branches and twigs and tossing them aside. Beams of light in a rainbow of colors shot out from the thick tree line, growing larger with each branch they pulled away.

“Dude, what is that?” Brent whispered as they edged closer.

With a final yank of the branches, a glowing oval-shaped archway appeared. With the vines dangling around it, and its shape, it sort of looked like a gate to someone’s backyard—except for the crackling tendrils of light that snapped and sizzled across it.

Brent and Gabriel exchanged looks.

“Must be the Solarian gateway,” Brent said, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck.

A sickening feeling wormed through Gabriel’s stomach. It was just like the portal drawn on the cave wall in the black witch’s cave.

But then something else caught Gabriel’s eye. A few feet beside the electrical gateway, the scenery blurred in and out of focus. Gabriel blinked and shook his head, then did a double take. In a space about the size of a set of double doors, the green grass, trees, and vines shimmied and rippled like a holographic image. Then the wavy scenery turned into a clear view of a city. Gabriel’s jaw dropped when he saw a bus zoom on the other side of the portal. On the side of the bus was written: Harmony City. Then, the space went blank like a black slate. After a couple of seconds, the whole thing started again like a tape playing on repeat.

Gabriel pointed. “What the—”

“Oh, my God,” Piper said. “It’s another portal! That must be the one Tahlita talked about. You know … the one Duke Malgor pushed her though to Harmony City!”

Gabriel kept staring at the shifting images. “But how can there be two different portals so close together?”

“Weird, right? But that’s definitely Harmony City through there,” she said.

“Holy crap, man,” Brent exclaimed. “It’s one thing to hear about this stuff, but it’s totally different when you see it. This is freaking me out just as much as when we saw the portal we came through. And seriously, not to wimp out or anything, but Harmony City sounds pretty cool right about now. Food and a bus ride home to Willow Creek would be like heaven.” Piper gave him the stink eye. He shrugged. “Relax. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just saying.”

“Where be Master?” Finley asked.

No sooner did Finley speak before a group of Solarians showed up on the Solarian side of the crackling gateway. When they appeared, the scenery behind them lit up. It was bright on the other side of the portal—which made sense when Gabriel remembered Solaria has three suns.

Gabriel’s gaze drifted over the thick layer of red soil covering Solaria’s ground, and any drop of a doubt he had about his visiting Solaria before vanished. There had to be about ten or so of the creatures standing just on the other side of the portal. Behind the red scaly Solarians, buildings towered into the sky, their tips disappearing into a veil of gray smog. Some kind of cars without wheels hovered in the air. Their high-pitched whirring rang out, distorted by the snapping of the electrical beams surrounding the gateway. The hover cars zipped around at supersonic speed in a grid that looked like rush hour traffic in New York City.

“No good,” Finley murmured, wrapping his tail around Gabriel’s leg.

Then, one lone Solarian stepped forward toward the portal. As he did, the others around him parted and bowed their heads.

It’s gotta be Dacho.

As the Solarian leader approached, face shield covering his face, he tightened his grip around a woman’s arm, dragging her behind him. She kicked and screamed, shuffling up the red soil around them as they neared the archway. Gabriel’s fists clenched as Dacho pushed the blond-haired woman through the gateway ahead of him, giving Gabriel a clear look.

Empress Malina.