Read Online Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods-3 by Suzanne Collins - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Suzanne Collins
Tags: Fiction, General, Fantasy fiction, Fantasy, Medical, Action & Adventure, History, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Epic, Brothers and sisters, Large Type Books, Animals, Siblings, Plague, Health & Daily Living, Diseases; Illnesses & Injuries, Civilization; Subterranean
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planning to take me and Boots on some road trip to find the cure."
"You've read the prophecy. All it says is to bring you from above," said Ripred. "Now you've made an appearance, it's fine with me if you go home. Trust me, I could do without another quest with your chatty little sister and her six-legged friends."
"Is that what everybody thinks?" asked Gregor. "That I'm just here for the meeting?"
"Well, you'll have to ask around, won't you? I can hardly answer for what goes on in the crawlers' pea brains." Ripred dug at the powder behind his ear and called out, "Can we get this fiasco started, Vikus? Some of us have lives to live. However briefly."
"But where are the nibblers?" Vikus asked.
"I don't know. Lapblood and Mange were supposed to get word to them," said Ripred, indicating the other rats with two flicks of his tail.
"Well, we didn't," snapped Lapblood. "Why would we?"
"She's right," said Mange. "We didn't spend all that effort driving the nibblers out of our land to join up with them now. If they die of the plague, good riddance."
"Who needs them, anyway?" said Lapblood. "The prophecy doesn't even mention the nibblers." She began to scratch frantically at her shoulder. "What is this poison? Does it kill the fleas or just make them extra hungry?!"
"You had very specific orders!" said Ripred, grinding his back into the moss to relieve the itching.
"Well, if you hadn't noticed, we don't take orders from you!" said Mange.
Ripred sprang to his feet and turned on the two rats. They crouched into defensive positions, waiting for his attack, but he only said, "We'll finish this discussion in the tunnels."
"This is not ideal, but if the nibblers are not to be present, then we lack only Doctor Neveeve and Solovet," said Vikus. "Ah, here they are now."
A bat flew in from Regalia and Neveeve and Solovet climbed off its back.
Solovet called the meeting to order and asked Neveeve to speak about the plague. The doctor hoisted a large leather book off the back of the bat. She laid it on the moss and knelt before it. The book was only about a foot tall, but it was at least three feet wide and very thick.
When Neveeve opened it, Gregor could hear the crackling of parchment.
"I have been scouring the old records in an attempt to find any similarity between this current plague and one in the past," said Neveeve. "Some two and a half centuries ago there was an epidemic markedly like 'The Curse of the Warmbloods.' Another just over eighty years ago. In both cases, a pestilence brought fever, painful breathing, and large violet buboes on the skin.
Thousands died in the Underland."
"Lovely. Do they happen to mention a cure?" said Ripred.
Neveeve turned a page in the book and revealed an ink drawing of a plant that had distinctive star-shaped leaves. "This plant. It is called starshade. Only a single field of it exists."
"I've never seen it," said Lapblood. "It must grow in the Overland."
"No, according to the records, it grows in the same place from which the plague first emerged," said Neveeve.
"'In the cradle find the cure,'" said Vikus, quoting from the prophecy.
"On the island with the mites?" asked Gregor. He didn't see how they'd ever get the cure from there. The mites would devour them in seconds.
"No, Gregor. That is a new island and, as Neveeve said, the plague has been cropping up for centuries. The mites may have carried the plague to the island, but it is not the cradle," said Vikus.
"So, where is it?" said Mange.
"It seems the cradle lies on the floor of the valley in...the Vineyard of Eyes," said Neveeve.
There was dead silence. Finally, Lapblood spoke, "We may as well just slit our throats now, as enter the Vineyard."
"Yet you had no trouble driving the nibblers into it," said Queen Athena.
"The nibblers had the whole of the Underland to choose from," said Mange.
"Where? The Dead Land? The Fire Points?" retorted Solovet.
"You're a fine one to talk, Solovet, given
"You've read the prophecy. All it says is to bring you from above," said Ripred. "Now you've made an appearance, it's fine with me if you go home. Trust me, I could do without another quest with your chatty little sister and her six-legged friends."
"Is that what everybody thinks?" asked Gregor. "That I'm just here for the meeting?"
"Well, you'll have to ask around, won't you? I can hardly answer for what goes on in the crawlers' pea brains." Ripred dug at the powder behind his ear and called out, "Can we get this fiasco started, Vikus? Some of us have lives to live. However briefly."
"But where are the nibblers?" Vikus asked.
"I don't know. Lapblood and Mange were supposed to get word to them," said Ripred, indicating the other rats with two flicks of his tail.
"Well, we didn't," snapped Lapblood. "Why would we?"
"She's right," said Mange. "We didn't spend all that effort driving the nibblers out of our land to join up with them now. If they die of the plague, good riddance."
"Who needs them, anyway?" said Lapblood. "The prophecy doesn't even mention the nibblers." She began to scratch frantically at her shoulder. "What is this poison? Does it kill the fleas or just make them extra hungry?!"
"You had very specific orders!" said Ripred, grinding his back into the moss to relieve the itching.
"Well, if you hadn't noticed, we don't take orders from you!" said Mange.
Ripred sprang to his feet and turned on the two rats. They crouched into defensive positions, waiting for his attack, but he only said, "We'll finish this discussion in the tunnels."
"This is not ideal, but if the nibblers are not to be present, then we lack only Doctor Neveeve and Solovet," said Vikus. "Ah, here they are now."
A bat flew in from Regalia and Neveeve and Solovet climbed off its back.
Solovet called the meeting to order and asked Neveeve to speak about the plague. The doctor hoisted a large leather book off the back of the bat. She laid it on the moss and knelt before it. The book was only about a foot tall, but it was at least three feet wide and very thick.
When Neveeve opened it, Gregor could hear the crackling of parchment.
"I have been scouring the old records in an attempt to find any similarity between this current plague and one in the past," said Neveeve. "Some two and a half centuries ago there was an epidemic markedly like 'The Curse of the Warmbloods.' Another just over eighty years ago. In both cases, a pestilence brought fever, painful breathing, and large violet buboes on the skin.
Thousands died in the Underland."
"Lovely. Do they happen to mention a cure?" said Ripred.
Neveeve turned a page in the book and revealed an ink drawing of a plant that had distinctive star-shaped leaves. "This plant. It is called starshade. Only a single field of it exists."
"I've never seen it," said Lapblood. "It must grow in the Overland."
"No, according to the records, it grows in the same place from which the plague first emerged," said Neveeve.
"'In the cradle find the cure,'" said Vikus, quoting from the prophecy.
"On the island with the mites?" asked Gregor. He didn't see how they'd ever get the cure from there. The mites would devour them in seconds.
"No, Gregor. That is a new island and, as Neveeve said, the plague has been cropping up for centuries. The mites may have carried the plague to the island, but it is not the cradle," said Vikus.
"So, where is it?" said Mange.
"It seems the cradle lies on the floor of the valley in...the Vineyard of Eyes," said Neveeve.
There was dead silence. Finally, Lapblood spoke, "We may as well just slit our throats now, as enter the Vineyard."
"Yet you had no trouble driving the nibblers into it," said Queen Athena.
"The nibblers had the whole of the Underland to choose from," said Mange.
"Where? The Dead Land? The Fire Points?" retorted Solovet.
"You're a fine one to talk, Solovet, given
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