Chapter 1
"Gegor, wake up."
The voice was barely loud enough to reach his ear. Gregor rolled over to continue the pleasant dream he was having.
"Gregor."
The voice was louder this time, more urgent.
"Gregor!"
The third interruption had Gregor blinking in the half light that filtered through his window. He didn't need the light since his breathing lit the darkness like a small explosion, but it lent a comforting yellow hue to his dad leaning over him.
Gregor took a breath and rubbed his eyes. "Dad. What is it? Is it Grandma? Boots?" He sat up with a start. "Mom?"
"No," said his dad in the same low whisper. "You have to get up. Howard's here."
This confused Gregor more than enlightened him. "Howard who?"
Smiling softly, his dad explained, "Underland Howard."
Gregor jerked awake. If Howard was here… "Is it Luxa?"
But his dad only said, "Get dressed. He'll explain."
Gregor jumped out of bed, no longer even trying to be quiet. What if it was Luxa! What if -
"Sh! You'll wake the girls."
His dad slipped from the room, leaving Gregor to hastily throw a shirt and jeans on while his heart pounded in his chest. Socks that didn't match, and shoes that were already too small finished off the outfit. Without a thought to the noise it made, he stumbled out of his room.
Howard stood in a shaft of streetlight flowing through the kitchen window. He had grown taller in the two months since Gregor had last seen him in the Underland. "Howard!"
"Sh!" his dad said again. "Howard's here to take you back."
But Gregor was still stupid with sleep. "Back where?"
"To the Underland," Howard said, whispering too. "We must hurry, Overlander! We have already tarried too long." Howard grabbed his arm in a grip made solid by holding reluctant patients and led him towards the door.
But Gregor planted his feet. "Wait! Is it Luxa?"
"No." Howard's eyes glittered in the half light. "It is Vikus. He is dying."
Vikus... dying? But Vikus always seemed so strong. Even after his stroke, there was always that glint of hope in his eyes. "What's wrong with him? You said he was getting better."
"I thought he was." Howard pulled him to the door, and this time Gregor didn't resist. "After he read your letter to Solovet, it was as if all hope left him. He has been slowly dying ever since."
Gregor stopped again. This just didn't make sense. "Dying? What-?"
"No time! Hurry, Overlander!" Howard relentlessly headed for the door, pulling Gregor along behind him.
Gregor tripped over his feet in his too small shoes. "Dad!"
"It's okay, Gregor. I'll tell Mom and the others. Go with Howard. Get something from the museum while you're there."
His dad's encouragement was all it took. Gregor hurtled into the corridor with Howard on his heels like they'd both been shot from a gun. He didn't even slow down when his dad closed the door behind them. The lock clicked into place.
That sound should have made him pause. He had forgotten to grab his key on the way out.
But Gregor didn't pause. He continued down the corridor without looking back.
He hadn't realized until that moment how much he wanted to go back to the Underland.
He and Howard had already reached the stairs when he jerked to a stop with a suddenly painful beat of his heart. Forget about the key…. he was in such a hurry that he'd forgotten a flashlight! This made him pause.
With the next heartbeat he remembered that he no longer needed a flashlight. His echolocation would be enough, as had been proven in his room minutes before.
Gregor let the stairwell door bang against the wall as he flung it open. "Tell me true. How is he?" He gasped for breath in the echoey stairwell.
"He cries all the time," Howard reported, following. "Does not eat. Sleeps even less. Stares at the wall and says something that sounds like 'Ree, so ree'' over and over again. I realized tonight that he was saying 'Sorry, so sorry.' The only person alive he might apologize to save Luxa is you."
"But why did you think seeing me would help?"
Howard grimaced. "I have tried all else."
Gregor gripped the iron hand railing tighter as they ran. "Everything?"
"No one cares to try any longer. Vikus is not a young man, after all." Howard's voice was cold and emotionless, "It is natural to expect death."
But it wasn't natural at all. Not for one so full of life, of hope, as Vikus.
It occured to Gregor just then that Howard had been inside his apartment. But how had his dad heard a knock on the front door if he'd been asleep? "Did Dad let you in?"
"Lizzie gave a key to Ripred. I borrowed it from him."
"Okay, I won't be telling Mom that."
"It was a precaution," Howard said. "In case we needed one of you quickly. No one has ever used it before now."
That was good to know. But somehow he didn't think it would set his mom's mind at ease. "How did you get up here?"
"On a break from the reconciliation Council, Nike flew me to the opening in your laundry room. Lizzie left instructions of what to do then."
"What, like a secret knock or something?"
Howard's brief amusement came through in his otherwise tight voice. "That your apartment is on the fifth floor, number 512. And then, yes, I gave the secret knock."
It was only the grimness of the situation that kept Gregor from laughing. "Secret knock. That's so melodramatic. Do you mean you gave an SOS?"
"I said 'help me' in the Code of Claw."
Okay. That meant business. "The Code of Claw. Nothing's too dramatic for Lizzie."
They had reached the laundry room now. The vent was open, and light wisps of air current seeped out. "Geez, you left the vent open," Gregor exclaimed as they headed toward it. "Anyone could have fallen through."
"It is the middle of the night."
"So? New York never sleeps."
"I do not know what that means, Overlander. But never mind now. I must warn you." Howard grabbed Gregor's arm again and pulled him to a stop just shy of the vent. "Nike is there to catch us the minute we go through the vent, but she is much changed."
Gregor wrinkled his forehead. "Changed. How?"
Howard shuffled a bit. "You will see."
He would see? Gregor turned reflexively to the vent. In the next second, a bat's head appeared, and Gregor instantly understood what Howard was talking about. "Ares!" he gasped. But it couldn't be Ares, even though he was staring at a completely black bat. Ares was dead. Gregor had seen him die. Worse yet, he had felt it happen in his heart.
So that wasn't it. One painful head shake later, Gregor understood. "Nike, what happened to you!"
Nike said, "Greetings, Overlander. It has been a long time."
After the first startling moment, Gregor was able to see immediately that he wasn't staring at his dead bond. Or even his resurrected bond. The look in the eyes was all wrong. But the fur around those eyes was definitely black, as was the rest of the head, and that had thrown him. "Where'd your stripes go?"
The laugh peculiar to bats sounded in the empty room. "We dyed them. Howard and I both thought that an entirely black bat would be more difficult to spot in the Underland. We wanted to bring you to Vikus, not bring you to trouble."
Trouble? "What could cause trouble? I thought the war was over."
Nike gave an uncomfortable flap of her wings. "It is, Overlander. But some humans clearly wish it was not. It is those we avoid."
Howard broke in, "We should hurry. It might already be too late."
Gregor hurtled through the vent with no more questions. He squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't inadvertently see the dizzying height when he breathed. Nike caught him before he could take more than one breath. Howard landed right behind him.
"Go, Nike!"
Nike flew fast through cloying darkness to Regalia. The minute the lights of the city came in sight, Nike asked, "Where to?"
"The hospital," Gregor answered. If Vikus was so sick that even Howard was worried, that was enough to make him worry, too. "Take us straight to Vikus."
This must have pleased Howard, for he squeezed Gregor's shoulder.
The next minute, they neared the isolation hallway. "Why is he here?" Gregor said, confused. "He's not contagious."
"He needs to be easily observed, but we do not wish to wake him in case he is asleep," Howard answered as they landed.
But Gregor wasn't listening even though he'd asked the question. He'd caught sight of who was standing in front of the observation window, staring right at Vikus, an empty, agonized look on her face.
Luxa.
Wearing a long tight dress made out of some kind of shiny material that looked rich yet uncomfortable, Luxa breathed slowly in and out, in and out. She otherwise didn't move from her position. But even still as she was, she also looked every inch a queen. The typical golden crown adorned her head. As he was staring, barely able to breathe, she gave the crown an irritated shove.
They slid from Nike's back, then Howard slowly crossed to her side by the window. "Our hope returns."
A perplexed look twisted her worn features.
"Do not cry out," he warned her. "Some patients scare easily." He turned to send a look back at where Nike and Gregor stood.
Luxa followed his gaze and her eyes landed on Gregor.
She didn't cry out. But her eyes widened to the size of small saucers. She slowly walked towards him as if she'd seen a ghost.
She poked at him with a finger. "You are real?" she whispered, astonished.
He nonchalantly said, "My shoes are too small."
Her eyes lit up like Boots on Christmas morning when she'd heard from Temp. Luxa was her own blazing Christmas tree. In a whisper as low as Howard's, she cried, "Gregor!"
She flung her arms around him. She was also taller than she'd been before, rounder in places than she'd been before, thinner than he remembered. "You need to eat more," he said into her shoulder.
She laughed and kissed him. Not some peck on the cheek, this kiss, but a real kiss from one to another, as if he completed the best dream she'd had all year. "You're back."
Gregor cradled her cheeks and kissed her again like there was no tomorrow. For them, there might not be. His dad hadn't said how long he could stay. He might need to return home in an hour. "I came to see Vikus. To help."
She smiled. "He is sure to get better now."
Gregor wasn't so sure. "Howard said he's awful sick."
But Luxa wouldn't listen. "Come." Still smiling, she pulled him into Vikus's room.
Luxa leaned over the bed, careful not to hover directly over his head. She gently shook the old man. "Vikus, wake. Someone is here to see you."
Vikus turned his head away to stare at the far wall.
Luxa didn't give up. "He has come a long way… from the Overland."
The head whipped around. Vikus blinked. His good eye slid immediately to Gregor standing behind Luxa. His eye lit up. "Ggrrr!"
He sounded like Boots. Gregor knew just how to talk to him. Like he mattered. "Hello, Vikus. Long time no see." And he gave Vikus a hug through the sheets.
One side of Vikus hugged him back. "Ggrrr!"
"Howard came all the way to my apartment to get me. Nike flew us here. She's all black now, no stripes. Boots will be so disappointed not to have her zebra anymore." He grinned.
Howard held up a chart filled with letters. "He looks to the letters to spell words and talks in a shorthand that I will do my best to interpret."
Luxa gave Gregor's arm a squeeze. "I must tell the others of your return. They will wish to say hello."
"Sounds good to me. Meet you at the old nursery." That corridor was only used for storage. They wouldn't be bothered there.
Luxa nodded. "Promise you will not leave before you… Promise!"
Gregor squeezed her hand. "I promise. Wild… uh…" He couldn't say horses. She wouldn't know that Overland saying about wild horses anyway. "Wild cutters couldn't tear me away."
If he got what he wanted, he'd never be torn away again.
This satisfied Luxa. Smiling, she turned away, but maintained her grip on Gregor's hand until the last possible minute. She bounded up the stairs and out of sight.
Gregor turned back to Vikus. "I love your granddaughter," he said without an ounce of embarrassment.
Vikus gave a one-sided grin to show his approval.
"Yes. I like," said Howard, interpreting.
Gregor sat down in the chair drawn up to Vikus's bed. "Howard said you read my letter to Solovet."
Vikus's expression instantly dimmed.
"I didn't write it to make you sad," Gregor quickly said. "I didn't mean for you to read it at all. I didn't think anybody anybody would read it."
Vikus looked at the chart in Howard's hands. His good eye moved fast over the letters. Gregor didn't know how Howard could possibly keep up.
But Howard did. "I feel sad," he translated. "Solovet said. The Warrior - not you. Family ruined for nothing."
Gregor stared straight into the old man's eyes. "But I'm your warrior, Vikus."
Vikus grinned that half smile again.
"It's too late for me, anyway," Gregor said. "I already crossed a jungle, met your son, killed a rat, lost a bat." He choked on that last part, but was able to finish. "You're stuck with me."
Vikus gripped Gregor's arm with his good hand.
"You - hope," Howard said. Gregor remembered that Vikus had called him their hope before. "Bring peace now."
Gregor wrinkled his nose. "Peace is hard."
Vikus looked at him reproachfully like he had when they'd first met.
"You right. Fighting easy. Peace hard," Howard said. He laid aside the chart. "We should let him rest." He glanced at Vikus. "Doctor's orders."
Vikus looked at Gregor, his eyes beseeching.
Howard laughed. "I know what that look means even without a chart… say goodbye before you leave."
Gregor grinned again. "Wild cutters, Vikus, wild cutters."
Vikus half smiled. He was still smiling when Howard and Gregor left the room.
"That is the first time he has smiled in many days." Howard and Gregor reached the corridor.
"Really?" This amazed Gregor. "I don't see how I helped all that much."
"Just seeing you helped greatly," Howard said. "Come, Overlander. Luxa will have alerted one and all to your return. Half of Regalia wishes to pay their respects."
Gregor followed Howard without a word. He wanted to see his friends, too.
Boy, did he want to!
He sprang up the stairs, ran around a corner, and slid to a stop.
The corridor was lined with smiling people staring right at him.
He stared back, too surprised to smile.
They all dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.
Eh! With a jerk, Gregor reached for the person nearest him, a boy, and hauled him to is feet. "Don't do that," he said. "I'm not a king, or even the queen."
The boy looked confused. "No. You are the Warrior."
"I can't be," Gregor said without thought. "I killed the Warrior."
"The Warrior cannot be killed," the man beside the boy said. "Kellum is right. The Warrior lives as long as you live. All hail Queen Luxa and the Warrior!"
"Hail!" They were applauding now.
Howard's hand was on Gregor's shoulder again, urging him forward.
So Gregor started forward through the aisle of applauding people. Embarrassment flooded him. "I bet Luxa put them up to this." he thought.
He would get back at her. Oh, he would get her back in spades!
