"So, we're all here," said Gregor softly.
"What do you mean?" asked Henry.
Gregor pulled the prophecy from his pocket. "Sandwich was right. We're all here together. At least we were for a few seconds." He read aloud:
"two over, two under, of royal descent, two fliers, two crawlers, two spinners assent. One gnawer beside and one lost up ahead. "
He couldn't bring himself to say the next line, but Ripred could. "And eight will be left when we count up the dead. Well, one down and three to go," said Ripred, poking the spider with the end of his tail. "Stop it!" said Gregor.
"Oh, what? We can't pretend that any of us was very attached to this spinner. We don't even know its name. Except maybe you," Ripred said to the orange spider.
"Treflex," said the orange spider. "I am she called Gox."
"Well, Gox, I suppose you're hungry after your journey, but our food is limited. None of us will think less of you if you'd like to dine on Treflex," said Ripred.
Gox immediately began to pump juice into Treflex.
"She's not going to -- oh, man!" said Gregor.
"Spiders are neither squeamish nor sentimental," said Ripred. "Thank goodness for that."
Gregor turned away so neither he nor Boots had to watch the cannibalism. He was glad to see that Henry and Luxa looked a little green, too.
"Look, if anything happens to me or Boots, don't let that spinner drink us. Toss us off the cliff, in a river, anything, okay?" he said.
They both nodded. "You will return the same favor for us?" said Luxa wanly. "And our bats?"
"And Tick and Temp, too. I promise," said Gregor.
He could hear the slow sucking sounds as Gox drained Treflex's body. "Geez," he added.
Fortunately it didn't take Gox long to eat. Ripred began to grill her about the rat attack. She told him an entire army -- several hundred rats, at least -- had invaded the land of the spiders. The spiders had held them off, but many had died on both sides before the rats had finally retreated. Vikus had come by after the carnage and had sent Gox and Treflex on his bat to the tunnel entrance. "Why?" asked Gox. "Why do the gnawers kill us?"
"I don't know. It may be that King Gorger has launched a total Underland attack. Or it may be they caught wind of two Overlanders heading toward our land. Did they mention the warrior of 'The Prophecy of Gray'?" asked Ripred.
"There were no words, only death," said Gox.
"It is quite fortunate you found us. It would have taken much time to free two spinners from King Gorger's prisons unnoticed, and we have no time to waste," said Ripred to Gox. He turned to Gregor. "This attack on the spinners does not bode well for your father."
"Why? What? Why not?" asked Gregor, feeling his insides go icy.
"Vikus has done a remarkable job of concealing you. No rat save me has seen you and lived to tell of it. The rats do not know the warrior has arrived. But the fact that humans have brought Overlanders to the spinners will make them suspicious," said Ripred. The wheels seemed to be visibly turning in his head. "Still, there is much confusion in war and no rat has identified you. We move on now!"
No one argued. They packed up and headed out the far side of the cavern into a drier, roomier tunnel. Aurora and Ares were able to fly now, although the space was dangerous for riders.
"We shall go on foot," Luxa told Aurora. "Even if you carry the rest of us, what will be done with the gnawer?" So, the bats took to the air with the remaining packs.
Gregor watched them enviously. "Lucky I'm not a bat. I might just fly out of here and not look back."
"Aurora and Ares would never do that. They are bonded to myself and Henry," said Luxa.
"How does that work exactly?" asked Gregor.
"When a bat and a human bond, they swear to fight to the death for each other," said Luxa. "Aurora would never leave me in danger, nor I her."
"Does everybody have a bat?" asked Gregor, thinking it would be nice to know somebody was going to hang around and defend you in this place.
"Oh, no. Some never find a bat to bond with. I became one with Aurora when I was quite young, but this is not common," said Luxa.
"How come you bonded so early?" asked Gregor.
"After my parents were killed, I went through a time where I never felt safe on the ground. I spent all my waking hours in the air on Aurora. It is why we fly so well together," she said simply. "Vikus convinced the council to allow us to bond early. After that I was not so afraid."
"Are you afraid now?" said Gregor.
"At times," she admitted. "But it is no worse than if I were in Regalia. You see, I tired of constant fear, so I made a decision. Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it."
Gregor thought this was the single saddest thing anyone had ever said to him. He couldn't answer.
"And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day," she said. "Do you see?"
"I think so," said Gregor numbly. An awful thought struck him. Wasn't Luxa's strategy just an extreme form of his own rule? True, he didn't think about dying every day, but he denied himself the luxury of thinking about the future with or without his dad. If he hadn't fallen through the grate in his laundry room and discovered his dad was still alive, if his dad had never come home, how long would he have gone on refusing to be happy? His whole life? "Maybe," he thought. "Maybe my whole life." Gregor hurried on with the conversation.
"So, how do you actually bond with a bat?" he asked Luxa.
"It is a simple ceremony. Many bats and humans gather. You stand face-to-face with your bat and say a vow. Like so," said Luxa, extending her hand and reciting a poem.
"Aurora the flier, I bond to you, Our life and death are one, we two. In dark, in flame, in war, in strife I save you as I save my life."
"And then your bat recites it back, but using your name. Then there is a feast," concluded Luxa.
"So what happens if one of you breaks the vow? Like if Aurora flew off and left you in danger," asked Gregor.
"Aurora would not, but a few vows have been broken. The punishment is severe. The one at fault is banished to live alone in the Underland," said Luxa. "And no one lives long in the Underland alone."
"Fascinating as your native rituals are, do you think we might proceed in silence? Given that the entire rat nation is on the lookout for us, it might be prudent," said Ripred.
Luxa and Gregor shut up. Gregor wished they could talk more. Luxa acted differently when she wasn't with Henry. Friendlier. Less arrogant. But Ripred was right about the noise.
Fortunately Boots dozed off. For several hours all they heard were the light tap of their footsteps and the scraping sound of Ripred's teeth on a bone he'd saved from lunch.
Gregor felt consumed with new worries about his dad. From what Ripred had said, it seemed like the rats might kill him to keep Gregor from reaching him. But why? That wouldn't change the prophecy, would it? He guessed no one really knew. And what about that last stanza? He unrolled the prophecy and read it so many times, he memorized it without trying.
The last who will die must decide where he stands. the fate of the eight is contained in his hands, so bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps, as life may be death and death life again reaps.
He couldn't make heads or tails of it. All he could figure out was that whoever died fourth had a pretty big responsibility to the eight who were still living. But how? What? Where? When? The final stanza of "The Prophecy of Gray" left out all the details that would have made it useful.
Ripred kept them moving until everyone was stumbling with fatigue. He gave the order to stop in a cavern that at least had a dry floor and a spring with drinkable water.
Gregor and Luxa passed around their dwindling food, which was disappearing much faster than he had anticipated. He tried to object when the roaches gave their food to Boots, thinking he would share his own.
"Let them f
eed her," said Ripred. "A crawler can live a month with no food if it has water. And don't bother feeding Gox. Treflex will hold her for longer than our journey will last."
The cavern was cold. Gregor stripped off Boots's damp clothes and put on a fresh set. Something was wrong with her; she seemed too quiet, and her skin was clammy and cold. He curled up under the blanket with her, trying to warm her up. What would he do if she got sick? They needed to be home with his mom, who always knew just the combination of juice and medicine and pillows to make it all right. He tried to console himself with the idea that his dad could help when they found him.
Everyone was so tired from their trek that they fell asleep immediately.
CHAPTER 22
Gregor opened his mouth to scream "No!" just as Ripred's eyes flickered. Henry was behind the rat. All Ripred could have seen was the expression on Gregor's face, but it was enough.
In the split second Henry drove the blade down, Ripred flipped onto his back and slashed his terrible claws. The sword cut across the rat's chest as Ripred tore a deep gash along Henry's arm.
About this time, Gregor's "No!" had actually left his mouth, and his yell woke up most of the party. Ripred rose up on his hind legs, bleeding, furious, and terrifying to see. Henry looked weak and small by comparison; he could barely lift his sword with his injured arm. Luxa and Aurora were instantly airborne. Ares flew straight for the rat.
But Gregor got there first. He sprang between Ripred and Henry with his arms spread out. "Stop!" he cried. "Stop!"
Unbelievably, everyone paused. Gregor guessed this was the first time any of them had ever seen someone try to come between a fighting rat and a human. Their second of hesitation gave him just enough time to blurt out, "Anybody who wants to kill anybody else has to go through me first!"
Not particularly poetic, but it had the desired effect. No one wanted Gregor dead. Everyone knew the warrior was essential to the quest.
"Move, Overlander, the rat will kill us all!" ordered Luxa, preparing to dive at Ripred.
"The rat was merely trying to sleep. Believe me, pup, if I had wanted to kill you we would not be having this conversation," said Ripred.
"Do not waste your lies on us, Gnawer!" said Luxa. "Do you think we would believe your word over one of our own?"
"It's true! He's telling the truth! He didn't start it! It was Henry!" Gregor shouted. "He was trying to kill Ripred in his sleep!"
Everyone turned to Henry, who spat back at them,
"Yes, and he would be dead now were it not for the Overlander!"
Now there was confusion. Gregor could tell by the look on Luxa's face she hadn't known about Henry's plan. She'd assumed Ripred had attacked first. She didn't know what to do next.
"Stop, Luxa! Please!" said Gregor. "We can't afford to lose any more questers here! We have to stick together!" He'd made up the word "questers" on the spot, and it seemed right.
Luxa slowly descended to the ground, but stayed on Aurora's back. Ares hovered uncertainly in the air. Gregor wondered if the bat had known about Henry's plan. But if he had, why hadn't they attacked together from the air? It was so hard to tell what the bats were thinking.
Gregor noticed for the first time that Temp and Tick were literally standing over the sleeping Boots, shielding her. Gox still perched in the makeshift web she'd built at bedtime.
"It's over," Gregor said with an authority he didn't know he possessed. "Put down your sword, Henry. Ripred, just -- just sit down! It's over!"
Would they listen to him? Gregor didn't know, but he was determined to hold his ground. It was a long, tense moment. Then Ripred lowered his lips back over his bared fangs and broke into a laugh. "I will say this for you, Warrior, you do not lack boldness."
Henry let his sword clatter to the ground, which was no big concession since Gregor saw he could barely hold it. "Or treachery," said Henry softly.
Gregor narrowed his eyes at Henry. "You know, where I come from, we don't think much of someone who sneaks up and stabs a person in their sleep."
"He is not a person, he is a rat," said Henry. "If you cannot make the distinction, you may surely count yourself among the dead."
Gregor held Henry's cold gaze. He knew that later he would think of several tough things he should have said to Henry, but he couldn't think of any now. Instead, he turned to Luxa and said gruffly, "We'd better patch them up."
They weren't much better at first aid than they were at cooking, but Luxa at least knew what ointment to use. Gox turned out to be the biggest help of all. She spun a special web and instructed them to press handfuls of the silky threads into the injuries. In minutes, the bleeding on both Henry's arm and Ripred's chest had stopped.
While Gregor patted extra layers of silk onto Ripred's matted fur, the rat muttered, "I suppose I ought to thank you."
"Forget about it," said Gregor. "I only did it because I need you." He didn't want Ripred thinking they were friends or anything.
"Did you? I'm glad," said Ripred. "I thought I detected in you a sense of fair play. Most dangerous in the Underland, boy."
Gregor wished everybody would just shut up about what was dangerous to him in the Underland. The whole place was one big minefield. He ignored Ripred's comment and continued to apply the spider-webs. Behind him he heard Luxa whisper to Henry, "Why did you not tell us?"
"To keep you safe," Henry whispered back.
"Safe," thought Gregor. "Right." Even if he got back to the Overland, Gregor didn't think he would ever feel safe again.
"You must not do this again, Henry," he heard Luxa say. "You cannot take him alone."
"I could have, if the Overlander had not interfered," said Henry.
"No, the risk is too great, and we may have need of him," said Luxa. "Let the rat be."
"Is that an order, Your Highness?" asked Henry with a slight edge to his voice.
"If that is the only way you will heed my advice, then yes," said Luxa earnestly. "Hold your sword until we better understand our condition."
"You speak most exactly like that old fool Vikus," said Henry.
"No, I speak as myself," said Luxa, stung. "And as one who wishes us both to survive."
The cousins realized their voices had risen to the point where everyone could hear them, so they stopped talking. In the silence, Ripred resumed gnawing on the bone he'd been carrying around. The scraping grated on Gregor's nerves. "Do you think you could stop that, please?" he asked.
"No, actually I can't," said Ripred. "Rats' teeth continue to grow our entire lives, which necessitates gnawing to keep them at a manageable length. If I didn't gnaw frequently, my lower teeth would soon grow through the top of my skull and puncture my brain and alas, kill me."
"Glad I asked," said Gregor, slapping a last piece of web on Ripred and leaning back against the cavern wall. "So, now what?"
"Well, since obviously no one's going back to dreamland, we may as well make tracks for your father," said Ripred, rising to his feet.
Gregor went to get Boots. As soon as he touched her he felt alarmed. Her face was burning like a furnace. "Oh, no," he said helplessly. "Hey, Boots. Hey, little girl." He gently shook her shoulder. She whimpered something in her sleep but didn't wake up. "Luxa, something's wrong. Boots is sick," he said.
Luxa laid her hand on Boots's forehead. "She is fevered. She has caught some pestilence from the land of rats." Pestilence. Gregor hoped that wasn't as serious as it sounded. Luxa dug through the vials Solovet had left with them and held one up uncertainly. "I think this is for fever."
Ripred took a sniff and wrinkled his nose. "No, that kills pain." He buried his snout in the pack and rooted out a blue glass bottle. "You need this one.
Give her only a few drops. She cannot handle more at her size."
Gregor was reluctant to give her any of the strange medicine, but Boots was so hot. He slipped a few drops between her lips and thought she swallowed it. He tried to lift her up to put her in the pack, and she moaned in pain. He bit his lip. "
She can't ride with me; it hurts her."
They laid Boots on a blanket on Temp's back. Gox spun a web to secure her to the shell.-Gregor felt sick with worry.
And eight will be left when we count up the dead.
He couldn't lose Boots. He just couldn't. He had to get her home. He should have left her in Regalia. He should never have agreed to the quest. If anything happened to Boots, it would be his fault.
The gloom of the tunnel soaked through his skin and into his veins. He wanted to scream out in pain, but the darkness choked him. He would have given almost anything for just one glimpse of the sun.
The party limped along slowly, painfully, suspi ciously, preoccupied by the worries they all shared, but no one spoke aloud. Even Ripred, by far the most hardened of the group, seemed to hunch down under the weight of the situation.
This general despair was just one of the reasons they didn't detect the score of rats until they were almost on top of them. Even Ripred could not distinguish the smell of rats in a place reeking of rats. The bats couldn't sense them in the narrow tunnel as they approached the increasingly loud river. The humans could see nothing in the gloom.
Ripred led them out of the tunnel into a huge cavern divided by a deep canyon. A wide, powerful river ran through it. A swinging bridge spanned the river. It must have been made with the combined efforts of several species in better times. Thick silk woven by the spiders supported thin slats of stone cut by the humans. They must have needed the bats' flying abilities, too, to build such a bridge.
When Gregor shone his flashlight up to see how the bridge was secured, he caught sight of them. Twenty rats sitting motionless on the rocks above the opening to the tunnel. Right above their heads. Waiting.
"Run!" Ripred yelled, and literally snapped his teeth at Gregor's heels. Gregor stumbled forward onto the bridge and began to cross, his feet slipping on the worn stone slats. He could feel Ripred's hot breath on his neck. Henry and Luxa were flying ahead of him, jetting across the river.
He was halfway across when he remembered Boots wasn't on his back. She had been with him so continually on the journey, he had begun to think of them as inseparable. But now she was on Temp!