Gregor didn't think he would be able to fall asleep with the knowledge that they might be attacked at any moment, but he must have, for he was awoken some hours later by Luxa roughly shaking him.
"Are the cutters attacking?" he mumbled.
"Of course not!" said Luxa, "If they were, you would know it. Trust me!" Gregor buried his head back into his blankets. "You have to wake up!" she said. "We're leaving soon!" She bent down a jerked the blankets away from him.
"Mean girl take blankets!" moaned Gregor.
"Just get up!" said Luxa, whacking him with her hand.
"I can't help but think you are enjoying my misery," said Gregor. Luxa laughed, then left the tent.
Gregor yawned, then stretched and reluctantly sat up. He slowly stepped out of his tent to see that the rest of the group was already bustling around getting ready to leave.
After a quick meal of beef jerky and dried yam chips, the party took to the air once more. They flew for almost half an hour before they spotted their first cutter. They continued to fly slowly onward. As they did, more and more ants began appearing. After another fifteen-minute flight, the number of cutters below them had reached several hundred.
"This should do it," said Vikus. The bats instantly started to slow down until, at last, they were merely hovering midair. "Are you ready?" Vikus asked Gregor.
"Yeah—erm—alright," he said. "Hey, Boots, remember how I had you say some stuff in crawler? Well, I'm going to need you to do that again... okay?" She nodded. "Oh," said Gregor, remembering something, "You need to project—be loud," he added, as he caught her confused look. "Can't we get any closer?" he asked Vikus.
"We could," he said, "but we don't want to get too close in case they see it as a sign of aggression."
"Okay," said Gregor. "Let's do this." He leaned forward next to Boots and began whispering the speech he had prepared into her ear. She began translating it rapidly into crawler. Once she had finished, Gregor looked down to see the cutters' reaction. Below, all motion had ceased. Then, one cutter began to make several clicks and a long, drawn-out hissing noise, then another few clicks. "What's it saying?" asked Gregor eagerly.
"It says, says it, to the queen, take it, they take."
"The message, you mean?" said Gregor. The bug nodded. "I guess all we can do now is wait," he said.
"I suppose so," said Vikus with a sigh. Before they knew it, the two ants who had run off, returned.
"Ask them what the queen said," Gregor told Boots. Boots did, and a moment later, the ants answered.
"They say yes!" said Boots.
"They said yes?" said Vikus like he couldn't believe it. "Really?"
"You sound surprised," said Gregor.
"I am," said Vikus. "In truth, I did not expect the cutters to even think of resolving this peacefully. A war would likely benefit the cutter immensely. I only did this because the alternative was to do nothing." Before they could talk anymore, Boots piped up, "They say to—to meet them at... at..." She couldn't find the word. She leaned over to Temp and whispered something in his ear.
"Meet us, say they, meet us, at Shan's rock in an hour's time," said the bug.
"And now comes the difficult part," said Vikus.
"Which is—?" said Gregor.
"We must convince the cutters that peace is desirable. It will be a great challenge."
"How difficult?" asked Gregor.
"Very," said Vikus.
"Well, luckily, I can't think of anyone who could do it better than you," said Gregor with a faint smile.
"Let us hope you are right," said Vikus. He sighed. It seemed to Gregor that a great weight was upon Vikus's shoulders.
"So..." said Gregor. "How are we going to convince them not to attack?"
"I am unsure," said Vikus slowly. "In all truth, it would be a wise decision to attack us now. The warm-bloods are still weak from the plague and the war."
"Well maybe don't say that to them," put in Gregor with a smile. Vikus, however, remained stony-faced.
"Yes, that is not the best angle to exploit," he agreed. Vikus and Mareth huddled together, consulting with each other. Sensing his presence was no longer needed (or wanted), Gregor turned and walked away.
The rest of the underlanders were packing up the tents. Gregor walked over to the person who seemed to be in charge and asked what he could do to help. He was put to work helping load the folded tents onto the bats. As soon as all the tents had been loaded up, the party took to the air once more. It was a short flight—maybe ten minutes. Before he knew it, the bats were landing. Gregor felt his jaw drop as he got a good look at the rock. What was it called? Oh, yeah, Shan's rock. Well, the rock was spectacular. It was enormous, almost perfectly flat, and covered with small bits of crystal with seemed to shimmer and glow. Gregor walked slowly over to it and placed his hand down on it. It was cool and rough under his fingers.
It was less like a rock and more like a stage. It was at least twenty-five feet long and almost thirty feet wide. Gregor had never seen a rock that came close to comparing with it. The group only had to wait a few minutes before the first cutters arrived. More followed until, at last, the queen arrived. She was by far the biggest cutter. The ants climbed onto the rock, maybe 20 feet away from them. The cutters formed a straight line with the queen in the middle. A few ants stood directly in front f the queen, presumably guarding her.
"Boots, you're going to say somethings in crawler," Gregor whispered to his sister.
"Okay," she said. Gregor stepped a little further in front of Boots. The cutters being so close made him feel deeply uneasy. Almost unconsciously, he felt his hand drift toward his sword. Supposedly in response to this, several of the cutters hissed and made clicking noises. Gregor withdrew his hand and took a precautionary step back. No need to anger them!
"We are ready to begin," said Vikus. "We—" he said. But he got no further. There was a deafening bang followed by a spurt of scarlet from the cutter queen. She crumpled to the ground and was still. In an instant, the surrounding cutters turned from peaceful spectators to blood-thirsty warriors. They surged forward.