The Royal Trials (Last Gate of the Emperor #2) by Kwame Mbalia

Author:Kwame Mbalia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2022-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

I ran.

The WALYA galloped through the shadowy arena, crashing through small towers of what I NOW REALIZED weren’t piles of junk, but scrapper assembly hives. This is where the drones built themselves! But why so many? And why were the hives so huge? The ones back on Harar Station were half the size of these giants.

I knocked over another creepy stack of partially built drones and stumbled into a relatively clear space. The exo nearly tripped over a tangled braid of wires leading to a glowing crack in the wall. The scrappers were in the process of building a new hive over the crack. A secret exit, maybe? Before I could follow it, a cloud of scrappers erupted out of another assembly hive in front of me.

I skidded to a stop and yanked the controls left, sending the WALYA spinning in a whirling cloud of dust, clipping another tower on the way. “Sorry!” I shouted to the angry scrappers that came humming out of the rubble. “Still learning how to pilot this thing.”

We went left, then right, then left again, finally stopping at a larger rocky outcropping that poked out of the arena floor. I let my head fall against the inside of my helmet, sucking down oxygen as I tried to get my heart to stop racing. This was ridiculous! Murderous insect-drones, a creepy robot overlord that could sneak up on me like a ghost, and a super-old exo with incredible dance moves.

What next, a pop quiz?

The outcropping I was hiding beneath began to crumble.

“Oh no,” I said, exhausted beyond belief. “WALYA, how long until the scan is finished?”

“Scan is seventy percent complete,” the system answered.

Great. I just had to hold out for a little bit longer. Then hopefully we’d have a way out of this place.

The outcropping shuddered as a crack began to run up the rock, splitting it in half. Pieces fell to the floor with a crash. Two large serrated legs stabbed through, shredding the column into chunks. The largest scrapper I’d ever seen scuttled out.

It had to be at least the size of Besa in her full Guardian mode, with black shining metal instead of the dull gray of the smaller drones. It had three stasis stingers instead of just the one, and two large spoon-like arms flexed. Glowing balls of energy fizzled at the ends.

I sighed. That wasn’t a rocky column I’d been hiding behind. It was an upgrade cocoon. And those spoon-like arms? You guessed it. Stasis catapults.

The drone crawled across the floor. Several more upgraded scrappers shook themselves clear of the rubble and followed.

“Suit, identify those unknown things,” I said.

“Reminder: Extended active scans are ongoing,” the WALYA said. “Reminder: Database remains offline. Last database update: ten thousand, seven hundred, and sixty-two days ago. Closest approximation, according to current records: the locust, a flying insectoid robot capable of devouring kilometers of vegetation in hours.”

Right, the locust bots it had mentioned earlier. I gulped. “Flying?”

The drone nearest to me shivered. Metallic wings unfurled and began to beat as it lifted into the air.

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