Chapter 2

Gregor spent the entire following morning pondering what the Regalians could do concerning Sandwich while Mrs. Cormaci and Howard sold the red necklace to Mr. Mott at the pawn shop. A promise to take him to a local hospital had convinced Howard to brave the Overland, leaving Gregor alone for the first time in days. He thought he'd better take advantage of his alone-time before he did something stupid, like sleep the hours away.

So he thought… and thought… and thought. But no matter how he spun things, he didn't see a way out of his current predicament. If he did anything about ending Sandwich's hold on Regalia, he'd end up hurting a bunch or people or a bunch of people would end up hurting him. He had to at least consider that Ripred had been right in saying they had to work with the Regalians' belief in Sandwich and his prophecies rather than to completely disregard them. Though at the same time, he'd been right to suggest to Nerissa to let the guy die. He was over 400 years old. He couldn't be right about everything.

But killing off the guy wasn't likely to do much for Luxa's rule. Gregor supposed he could learn to work with the prophecies if he had to for Luxa's sake. If he was even given the chance now. They might not let him back into the Underland after this. He might lose any connection he had to Luxa, to the Warrior, to Regalia, to Ripred and the others. How would he live without a link to all that?

Thinking for several more hours didn't give him any answers. But it did give him a pounding headache. He wondered if Mrs. Cormaci had anything for pain. Then he wondered if Overland medicine would mix well with the Underland medicine Howard had already given him. He might end up dead if they didn't mix. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Having a headache was better than being dead.

The arrival of Howard and Mrs. Cormaci distracted him from his headache.

Howard was beaming as he laid aside the winter coat he'd borrowed. "The wheeled chairs people use to get around when they cannot walk are marvelous!"

Gregor realized he meant wheelchairs.

Howard went on enthusiastically. "They are so clever, and the concept so simple! What is it that is used for the wheels?"

What was used for wheelchairs? "Do you mean rubber?" Gregor said.

"Yes! Soft but hard at the same time. We also saw tables that looked like beds on wheels. And Mrs. Cormaci convinced a doctor to let me follow her on her... " He turned to Mrs. Cormaci. "What did she call them? Her walks?"

"Her rounds," she corrected him.

"That is it." He turned back to Gregor. "I was allowed to watch a speech… speech..." He stumbled over the unfamiliar words.

Mrs. Cormaci finished for him. "A speech therapy session. My niece is a speech therapist at the hospital, and she let us observe a session." She laughed. "Howard got so excited I thought he'd start dancing on the spot!"

"And the medicine!" Howard exclaimed. "The Overland has some remarkable medicine."

"Maybe you can eventually set up some kind of sharing program between the Overland and the Underland," Gregor said. "You could be the go between person, the… what's it called?" This was another one of Mr. Avery's vocab words for English.

"Do you mean the liaison?" Mrs. Cormaci said.

"That's right, the liaison."

Howard said, "You would make a better liaison, Gregor. You have much Overland knowledge."

Gregor frowned. "That's if they let me back in the Underland. I'm not sure I'd be so welcome after this."

"The Underland will always welcome its Warrior," Howard said.

Gregor wasn't nearly as sure as Howard sounded. He squirmed in discomfort.

"Maybe this will make you feel better," Mrs. Cormaci said. She held out a bunch of bills to him.

Gregor's mouth dropped open. He had never seen so much money at one time in his life. "Where did you get this?" he asked in awe as he slowly took the bundled cash. "Did you rob a bank?"

"No, I sold that necklace you took from the museum. Guess how much I got for it."

Gregor tried to estimate how much money he was holding. "500 dollars."

"More."

"A thousand."

"More."

"Two thousand."

"You're holding five thousand, but that's only the down payment."

Gregor gaped. What was the total if five thousand was only the down payment? "Twenty thousand?"

"Fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Cormaci said in satisfaction.

Gregor's mouth dropped open for a second time. "Uh… uh…"

She said, "I told you those were real rubies. Mr. Mott sent me to his cousin, who works in rare gems. He bought it on the spot. It was probably worth more than fifty thousand, but I didn't want to push my luck." She sat back with a smile. "I thought you'd be pleased."

Gregor was so pleased he couldn't say anything for a minute. "But where's the rest of it?" he finally asked.

"I deposited it in your dad's bank account," Mrs. Cormaci told him. "Howard had a million questions about the bank, too."

Howard's eyes lit up again behind the dark sunglasses. "There are so many people here. The Overland is amazing!"

Gregor didn't know if he should tell Howard that he'd seen only a small portion of the Earth's population or not. It might boggle his mind to know that there were many cities like New York in the Overland.

Howard was going on before Gregor could make up his mind. "I must tell Luxa of my discoveries! Being queen, she will know how best to proceed."

"Wait." Gregor didn't want to rain on Howard's parade, but he didn't want his enthusiasm to run away with him, either. "I still don't know what to do about Sandwich and his prophecies. I told Nerissa to stop letting him run her life."

Howard's beaming expression slipped into a frown. "Yes. You said we should let him die."

Gregor said, "I'm not sure we should do that now."

Howard eyed him in confusion. "Are you saying that we should continue following his prophecies?"

"No," Gregor said slowly, still thinking. "We might - um, maybe it would be a good idea to - what was the reason Sandwich brought people down to the Underland in the first place?"

"He predicted all life in the Overland would cease," Howard said. "He wanted the Underlanders to escape that fate."

"You just saw today that prophecy didn't come true," Gregor argued. "They'll have to believe you. You're from the Underland."

But Howard's face was already downcast. "They will argue that life hasn't ceased yet."

Gregor wanted to protest, but thoughts of global warming and Earth's multiple wars stopped him. Maybe what Howard said had merit. "Well," Gregor said hopelessly. "What do you suggest then?"

There was quiet as thought consumed Howard and Mrs. Cormaci.

Finally Mrs. Cormaci said, "This Sandwich fella is the guy all you Underlanders fall over backwards to prove right, right?" Glumly Howard nodded. "Why don't you - "

A knock on the door interrupted what Mrs. Cormaci was about to suggest. Irritation flashed through Gregor. The last thing he wanted to deal with was useless pauses in fixing the Sandwich problem.

Mrs. Cormaci hurried to the door, muttering, "Don't know who that could be. Haven't got any appointments that I remember." She pulled the door open. "Yes?"

The wide opening allowed Gregor's family to enter unimpeded.

"Is Gregor -?" asked his mom at the same time Mrs. Cormaci said, "Grace!" at the same time Gregor exclaimed, "Mom!"

"Gregor! What are you doing here?"

His answer was superseded by a tight high voice that Gregor recognized in an instant. "Gregor?"

Gregor gaped. "Luxa!"

She hurtled between his parents, around Lizzie, and straight to the couch in the living room, where she threw her arms around him. "You got away! I knew you would."

"It was Howard," Gregor said, hugging her back but wincing when her arms contacted his back. "I never would have made it if not for his fast thinking. I see you're okay too."

"Thanks to Ripred," she said. "You knew he would get us out. I will not tell him, though."
Gregor smiled. "Right. His head is big enough already. But what are you doing here? Not that I'm not glad, but -"

"Ripred's all right?" Lizzie asked then, reminding him he and Luxa had an audience.

Luxa reluctantly loosened her grip. "Yes. He helps Perdita with the prisoners even now."

"Prisoners?" his mom sharply asked. "What was going on with any prisoners? And Gregor, where's your shirt? And why didn't we know you were here? What are you… Gregor!"'

She'd caught sight of his back. Her reaction was exactly as he'd predicted. She rushed over to him, upsetting Luxa in her hurry to reach Gregor's side. She gaped at the raw stitches on his back. "What did that awful place do to you?"

"It wasn't like that, Mom," Gregor patiently explained. "It was my fault."

Howard chose that moment to say, "He did not fight them. That is why they were able to whip him."

His mom gaped. "They whipped you?"

Gregor closed his eyes to shut out the horror expressed on her face. "I didn't mean to let them, but it's good I did. They forgot all about going after Luxa and Nerissa. They had me instead."

"You should have fought them," Luxa said, peering disapprovingly at Gregor's back. "Nerissa and I are not worth this."

"I couldn't fight them," Gregor said. "You know that."

His mom's laughter was grim. "Gregor doesn't know how to fight anybody."

Gregor rose up to a sitting position, pleased that the marks on his back only tugged a little. This put his chest scars in relief, however. "Mom - "

His mom's wide eyes stopped him. "What did you do to yourself?"

He grabbed his mom's hands. "Mom, this is what it means to be the Warrior."

"I am sorry, Gregor's Mom," Luxa said from where she had been pushed to the floor earlier.

"Why are you sorry?" Gregor asked. He fingered one ragged scar. "You didn't do this. It was the Bane."

"But Gregor…" his mom said helplessly.

Gregor's dad carefully lifted her to a standing position. "Why don't you sit here, Grace." he said, and led her to the chair near the window. "Let him explain. It's about time you knew."

"Knew what?" she shrilled. "What is this? Have you been fighting, Gregor? You know how I -"

"Mom, of course I've been fighting. I'm the Warrior."

"Who have you possibly been…" his mom began, then looked in horror at Lizzie. "Were you both involved in that war with those rats?"

"Mom." Gregor reached over to squeeze her hand. "Lizzie broke the rat's code. You know that. I killed the Bane. But not before he killed Ares." His voice turned bitter at the end.

"You… you… Did you bring Boots into this?" she accused.

"Mom," Gregor sighed.

Luxa said, "Ripred watched over them."

"Ripred? Who's that?"

"He's a rat."

"You said you fought the rats!"

"A good rat," Gregor said. Luxa and Howard nodded. "He's a rager. That's why they were safe with him." He thought they'd already gone over all this stuff, but apparently not well enough. Maybe a tiny refresher course was necessary.

Maybe it was time to finally reveal the rest of his secrets. "I'm a rager too." It felt good to reveal this at last. That was when Gregor realized something. Hiding secrets took far more energy than he'd ever expected.

His mom reared back at his announcement. "What's this rager stuff?"

"I'm a…" Gregor looked to his dad, willing him to explain. But his dad was mute. Luxa and Howard were mute as well.

It was Boots who broke that dreadful silence. "He fights! He kills! Gregor and Boots fly on bat!" And she flapped around the room at a run.

"What!" His mom gasped. "Gregor, you know how I feel -!"

"I know mom! Do you think I wanted this? That I like it? But I can't just shut it off or… Steve happens."

"What? Like it just explodes out of you?" His mom's shrill voice echoed around the apartment.

Mrs. Cormaci chose that moment to quietly say, "Grace, I know how you feel about fighting, but perhaps you should let Gregor show you."

"Show me?" she said, like Mrs. Cormaci spoke in a foreign language, "How?"

"Gregor," Luxa said then. "I am sorry to interrupt. I would leave you to your family, but I cannot. Look you what Nerissa found." She thrust a piece of paper torn from a notebook at him.

Gregor took the paper from her and smoothed out the creases so he could read Luxa's spidery handwriting better.

IN THE SUMMIT LIES A BOY.

FUTURE CASTS HE MUST DESTROY.

MASS TO PURGE AND TO PROTECT.

STING TO SURGE THRICE HARM INJECT.

WIDOW HELPS THE BROWN AND LIGHT.

UP AND DOWN UNITE.

"What does that mean?" Gregor said. He handed the paper back to Luxa. Lizzie's fondness for puzzles made her crowd around them. She took the paper from Luxa and sat beside Gregor.

"In the summit lies a boy," she read. "That could be you, Gregor. You were laying down when we came in."

"Yeah but, Howard was laying down just as much as I -"

"Future casts he must destroy." Lizzie frowned. "Future casts… future…" She looked up at Luxa. "Is that the prophecies, do you think?"

"No way!" Gregor said before Luxa could answer. "This isn't one of those dumb prophecies again!"

"That is what I tell you," Luxa said imploringly. "I bade Nerissa copy all the prophecies to keep her occupied while I assisted Perdita -"

"With the prisoners," Gregor finished for her. "You've told us already. But I'm not in another of those prophecies." He looked at her helplessly. "I can't be."

Her eyes showed her anxiety. "It looks as if you are."

"But he didn't call me the Warrior this time!" Gregor protested.

"No." Luxa sent him a look as if this didn't reassure her. "But even you cannot argue that you are a boy. Ripred even calls you that from time to time."

Gregor shook his head as if to clear away that argument. "Then what's this mass thing? Don't Catholics go to Mass? I'm not Catholic. Besides, you've always said that Sandwich wasn't in to all that religious stuff."

Looking confused by the talk of religion, Howard said, "Can mass not mean something else?"

"It can mean a bunch of people, a crowd," Lizzie said. "Was there a crowd of people there, Gregor?"

"Yeah but…" Gregor looked around at all of them. His mom's eyes were wide and staring in abject horror. Luxa looked sorrowful. Lizzie questioning. His Dad tried to corral Boots, who was flying around the room now with her arms stuck straight out. Howard and Mrs. Cormaci were both leaning forward in obvious interest.

Gregor sat up straight in disbelief. "Hold on! You've got this all wrong this time. I mean -"

"Thrice harmed." Howard pointed to the three ragged lines crossing his back. "Three whip marks."
"Three… what?" Gregor was aghast. "No!"

"Widow helps," Mrs. Cormaci said. "I'm the widow. Mr. Cormaci has been…" Her voice trailed away. "And I've been helping," she said at last.

"Brown eyes," Lizzie said right away. "You have brown eyes, Gregor. Just like the poem says."

"I do not! They're hazel!"

"Brown!" Boots declared, almost poking Gregor in the eye in her haste to make her point.

"Your eyes have been growing darker," his mom said then. "I've been noticing it ever since we got home."

"Maybe it's because of that echolocation bit," his dad said thoughtfully.

This was insane. "No, they're just -"

"But what's the last line mean?" Lizzi asked. "Up and down unite. Unite how?"

"You spoke just today about being a liaison, Overlander," Howard said. "Perhaps Sandwich speaks of this."

"But that was about a medical liaison," Gregor said. "Sandwich didn't have anything to do with the hospital!" He turned to Howard. "Did he?"

Howard looked like he was trying to squeeze his memory out. "I do not recall he did," he said. "Cousin, do you remember this?"

Luxa shook her head. "I have never heard of such a thing."

Howard said, "I do not know of this prophecy. Do you?"

Luxa and shook her head. "Nerissa didn't even know it was there. She thought it was a shadow until she pointed the lightflash Gregor gave her right at it."

"Flashlight," Gregor automatically corrected. Then he jerked upright. "Wait. I didn't give my flashlight to Nerissa. I gave it to Liz."

Everybody looked at Lizzie, but it was Luxa who said, "She must have given it to Nerissa before you left to come to the Overland. She was able to produce her…" Luxa stumbled over the word. "... her flashlight. A torch is not bright enough."

Lizzie spoke then. "I did give it to Nerissa. I forgot about it because I was upset about Ripred."

"Do you even know Nerissa?" Gregor asked, trying to remember if he'd ever told his sister about the strange girl.

"Of course I do," Lizzie instantly said. "She's the skinny girl who always looks like she's falling down, right?"

Gregor nodded, surprised at such a brief but good description. Usually Lizzie added lots of useless details to her descriptions

Lizzie said, "She's the first person I met in the Underland."

Then Gregor remembered how Nerissa had tried to calm Lizzie after a scary rat attack on the way down from the vent in the laundry room. "And you gave her my flashlight?"

Lizzie shrugged. "She liked the shiny metal. And we have so many."

Gregor couldn't argue on that one. He had made sure to leave plenty of flashlights and batteries in the museum in case he needed a light source on short notice. He'd forgotten about them after his echolocation made the need for flashlights obsolete.

"I still don't get it," he said a minute later. "I can't be the boy in this… whatever it is." He looked helplessly at Luxa. "I can't be."

The look in her eyes was just as helpless. "Sandwich does not call you the Warrior. But the rest… I can think of nothing to argue against this interpretation." Her own helplessness glared from her eyes. "If only Vikus…"

"But he is not here," Howard said and stood up. "And I can think of only one way to fulfill the last line. To unite Over and Under. You and Gregor must marry."