Reading the Underland Chronicles 2 Part 2
Chapter 2
Hello everyone, and welcome back to RTUC2P2! Sorry this took a while, I've had quite a bit going on, but here it is! Thank you everyone for the kind reviews, faves, and favorite authors! Those made my night! I hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations. Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: For those of you who can't tell, TUC sadly does not belong to me. If it did, Gregor would have stayed in the Underland. Anyway, the idea for this story also does not belong to me, it belongs to AllyJackson.
For this story to make any sense, you should read AllyJackson's stories first.
Luxa opened the book to chapter twenty-four and began to read.
After they had flown for a while, Gregor remembered that Ares hadn't rested after the long trip through the tunnel. "You want to find a place and take a nap?" he asked. "I can keep watch." But even as he spoke, he yawned. He hadn't had much sleep, either.
"I am strangely wakeful," said Ares. "Why do you not sleep while we fly? I will rouse you when I have need of rest."
If possible, Mrs. Cormaci's appreciation for the bat grew even more. He may very well have been the nicest person down in the Underland, save Vikus, and she never even met any of them!
"Okay, thanks." Gregor stretched out on Ares's back. The fur was damp, and it smelled of rotten eggs, but Gregor's clothes were in no better condition. Beneath the fur was the warmth of Ares's body. He closed his eyes and let oblivion take over.
Ares let him sleep about six hours before waking him. They camped in a niche high in the rocks of a cavern. The bat conked out immediately after providing Gregor with a few raw fish.
Gregor picked up one of the fish and ripped of a strip of skin with his teeth. Then he took a bite of the cold meat.
"Wow Gregor, you're going full caveman on that," said Lizzie, giggling.
Gregor rolled his eyes in response and gestured for Luxa to keep reading.
Howard had always cleaned the fish with a knife, cutting neat pieces away from the bones. Gregor didn't have a knife or even a sword now. And what did it matter, anyway? Still, hunched over his fish on the stone ledge, he felt like he was in a time warp. He'd become a Neanderthal man or something,
Now everyone laughed. Lizzie had been right, Gregor was getting barbaric.
tearing into raw flesh, just trying to get the life-sustaining calories into his body. That must have been a hard life. Of course, his own wasn't exactly a picnic.
He thought longingly of rich, fatty foods. Mrs. Cormaci's lasagna, loaded with cheese and sauce and noodles. Chocolate cake with thick frosting. Mashed potatoes and gravy.
"Gregor knock it off, you're making me feel hungry," said Ripred.
"You're always hungry Ripred," said Gregor.
He ripped off a stubborn piece of fish with a grunt. It didn't take long, he thought, to erase hundreds of thousands of years of change if you were hungry.
Gregor wiped his hands on his pants and leaned back against the stone. He found himself staring into his flashlight beam, drawn towards the one bit of light in this huge, dark place. He was down to his last set of batteries. If they ran out, he'd be entirely dependent on Ares to get him out. Who was he kidding? He was already entirely dependent on the bat. In fact, it didn't really seem fair. Ares kept them alive about ninety percent of the time, anyway. Gregor didn't feel like he'd really been holding up his end of this bond thing.
Luxa grabbed Gregor's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
'And I got him killed,' thought Gregor helplessly.
"So, stop staring at your flashlight and keep an eye out for trouble!" he thought. Disgusted with himself, he swept the beam over the surrounding rocks. Nothing new. Still, he had to get better about being on watch. Howard had said there were tricks to keeping your mind alert. Gregor did his multiplication tables for a while; that seemed to help. Next he tried to remember the capitals of all fifty states. But that only lasted for, well, fifty states. Finally, he forced himself to calculate something he'd been consciously ignoring: the number of days he'd been in the Underland.
It was almost impossible to figure out. He'd been in Regalia less than two days before they'd set sail on the Waterway, he was pretty sure of that. He thought someone had said the trip to the Labyrinth was about five days. Then another day or two until he met up with Ripred? Nine days? Ten?
His family must be a complete wreck.
Each of Gregor's family sat in silence remembering the horrid time when they were gone. Every night was sleepless, and every day was spent worrying about what had happened to them.
He would be coming home right around Christmas. Without Boots. Forever.
Gregor went back to his multiplication tables.
When Ares woke up, there was more raw fish and then they took off again. They followed the same pattern for a day or two. Gregor sleeping while Ares flew, Ares sleeping while Gregor kept watch, until finally Gregor woke to the words, "Overlander, we are here."
They were not moving. Gregor sat up and rubbed his eyes. The light was brighter than any he'd encountered for days. He slid off Ares's back onto a polished stone floor and looked around. They were in the High Hall. It was completely empty. Somewhere, not too far away, he could hear music playing.
"Where is everybody?" asked Gregor.
"I do not know. But if there is music, there must be some sort of gathering," replied Ares. "I believe it is coming from the Throne Room."
They shuffled along a few corridors and came to the doorway of a huge room that Gregor had never seen before. The floor sloped down slightly, like a movie theater, and was filled with rows and rows of stone benches. The place was packed with bats and humans, who were dressed a lot fancier than usual. Many people held objects wrapped in cloth and tied with ribbons. Presents, maybe? Everyone's attention was on a large stone throne at the far end of the room. Nerissa was sitting on the throne.
They had cleaned her up for the occasion. Her unkempt hair had been worked into elaborate braids and piled on top of her head. A jewel-trimmed gown hung loosely off her bony shoulders. Vikus stood behind her. He was reciting some sort of speech as he lowered a large gold crown onto her head. It was hard to imagine either Nerissa or Vikus looking sadder than they did at this moment.
"What's going on?" whispered Gregor.
"Well gee, I really have no idea what could be happening Gregor," said Lizzie with and eyebrow raised.
Everyone chuckled as Gregor stuck his tongue out at her.
"A coronation. They are crowning Nerissa queen," Ares said softly.
Luxa had been right. If she died, Nerissa would be crowned, and not Vikus, and his family. At least, not yet.
"So I guess Howard and those guys got back," said Gregor. How else would they know that Luxa was dead?
"So it would seem," said Ares.
If Mareth had survived, he would be down in the hospital, but Howard and Andromeda should be here. Gregor looked around the hall but couldn't find them.
Vikus finished speaking just as he settled the crown on Nerissa's head and released it. Her thin neck bent forward under the weight, and Gregor thought how ill-suited she was to be queen of this violent, warring place. Whether she was mentally unstable or actually could see the future wasn't the issue. The girl was too weak to hold up her head with a crown on it. The image of Luxa shoving back her gold band flashed before Gregor's eyes. Whether she wanted to be queen or not, there was no doubt in his mind that she would have been up to the job. But she was gone now.
Gregor gave a silent thanks that she wasn't actually dead. He never would have truly become the Warrior if she had.
Howard was right: They should have made Vikus king. Vikus would make a good leader; he was smart and diplomatic. And he did not seem like he would let power go to his head.
As Nerissa braced her arms on the arms of the throne and managed to raise her head, her eyes caught Gregor's. Something registered on her face, and then she fainted dead away, tumbling to the floor. The crown hit the stone with a clank and then rolled off.
There was a big commotion. A stretcher appeared almost immediately, and Nerissa was carried away. There was a lot of head shaking and murmuring in the crowd from the Underlanders who had probably been opposed to Nerissa being made queen in the first place.
Then somebody spotted Gregor and Ares. They had been standing in the doorway, unnoticed, since everyone had been watching the crowning. Now hundreds of faces turned their way and began to shout questions. Gregor could see Vikus waving for him to come down. This wasn't really how he would have chosen to reveal the story about the Bane. He had planned to tell Vikus, alone, and then head home. But that option was gone.
As Gregor and Ares made their way down the aisle to Vikus, the crowd parted and gradually grew silent. By the time they'd reached the throne it was as if everyone was holding their breath.
"Greetings, Gregor the Overlander, Ares, we are happy to see you alive. What news do you bring us? asked Vikus. "Did you find the Bane?"
"We found it," said Gregor.
Gregor winced as he remembered what was coming up ahead. Lizzie took notice.
"Gregor, what are they gonna do?" she asked, knowing something bad was coming.
"It's coming up," he replied.
The Underlanders broke into chatter. Vikus motioned for them to be quiet. "And did you drain its light?" he asked.
"No, we took it to Ripred," Gregor said.
There was a moment of disbelief, and then the crowd went crazy. He could see the faces, human and bat alike, twist into fury. Something hit him on the side of his head. His hand went up and came away bloody.
Grace gasped while Lizzie looked horrified.
A small, ornate crystal jar was down by his feet. It must have been meant for the new queen. More objects began to rain around him. An ink pot. A medallion. A goblet. The one thing they had in common was that they were all made out of stone. Gregor realized that it didn't matter how beautifully the gifts were carved. You could call them works of art, but it didn't change the fact that he and Ares were being stoned to death.
"WHAT?" cried Grace, looking to Gregor in horror.
All eyes turned to him, and he shrugged.
"They expected me to defeat this insane monster, and I didn't, at least not yet. What else would they do?" he said.
"That still doesn't justify that they almost killed you!" said Grace angrily.
"I was fine mom. I was actually more worried about Ares, since he took a lot more than I did." replied Gregor.
Grace grumbled about the Underlanders being too violent as Luxa resumed reading.
Ares tried to get between Gregor and the mob, but it was no use. It was pressing in, forcing the pair up against the back wall. Voices cried out for their death.
Gregor remembered Ripred's words. "And you know, there will be hell to pay in Regalia." The rat might have been a bit more specific!
"Oh sure, blame it on the poor rat. First he dumps the Bane on me, now this," Ripred muttered to Lizzie, who giggled.
Through the chaos he heard a horn blowing and then the crowd was falling back. A ring of guards formed a semicircle around them. They were escorted out of the room.
"You will follow," said a woman who seemed in charge, and Gregor did, happy to be getting away from the mob.
They went down flight after flight of steps, and eventually reached a quiet hallway deep under the palace. The woman held a stone door open for them, and Gregor sensed that this was odd. There were few doors of any kind in the palace.
He and Ares went inside the torchlit room, and the door shut behind them. There was the sound of something sliding into place. "Where are we?" he asked Ares. "Is this like a special room to keep us safe?"
"It is to keep others safe from us," said Ares. "This is the dungeon. We have been placed under arrest for high treason."
"What?" said Gregor. "What for?"
"For committing crimes against the state of Regalia," said Ares. "Did you not hear the charge?"
Gregor hadn't heard anything but a bunch of people yelling.
"Oh, man!" He pounded on the door with his fist. "Let me out of here! I want to talk to Vikus!" There was no response. He gave up pretty soon since it really hurt to hit the stone door.
He turned back to Ares. "So, treason, huh? That's great. What happens if we're found guilty? We get banished or something?"
"No, Overlander," said Ares. "The punishment for treason is death."
There was a shocked silence for a few moments.
"Gregor, my wonderful son," said Grace. Gregor gulped in fear. "YOU GOT ARRESTED?!"
"I mean, yes, but it's understandable," he replied.
"HOW CAN ARRESTING MY CHILD FOR NOT KILLING A RAT BE EXPLAINABLE?!" she yelled. Everyone winced at Gregor's misfortune in this.
"I mean, their prophecy said that I was going to save them from extinction, and I didn't, so they would've thought that I turned on them. They treated me better than Solovet did at least," he said. Then he realized exactly what he just mentioned.
"Excuse me?" said Grace.
"Uh... it'll be in the last book," he said quickly, before picking up the book to read.
Well, there it is folks. Chapter 2, which is technically chapter 24, but whatever. If you see any mistakes in this chapter, tell me and I'll fix them. Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed/followed/added me to your favorite author list! It really make me happy to know you all enjoy this. See y'all later!