Chapter 13

Gregor went to Hera's room as fast as his hurt leg would carry him. She was standing by her door, waiting. Without word, Gregor jumped, and seconds later Hera was under him, soaring down the hall silently. When they got to a place where they could converse quietly, Gregor dismounted. Hera looked around to make sure they were alone.

"I, too, noticed they were not there. Where could they have gone?" she asked.

"I know. Hera, do you know where the spout is?" Gregor asked.

"Yes, I do know, but why?" Hera asked.

"Just meet me there as soon as possible. Try to make sure no one sees you." Gregor said. Hera flew off, looking back at him quizzically. Gregor made his way to the old nursery, ducking into doorways when he saw Underlanders. He could only hope Dulcet wasn't there, with the baby mice.

Finally, he got there, and fortunately, Dulcet and the mice weren't. There was a scroll in the nest where the mice usually were, and it said. "We have gone to the arena to get some exercise." Gregor tiptoed to the statue of a turtle in the room, and reached his hand in its mouth. He twisted a piece, and its upper body popped open. He slid his body in.

Even though the Regalians knew about this passageway, it wasn't guaranteed they would look here, since nobody had seen him go in. Hopefully Luxa was here.

He descended the steps, and when he neared the bottom, he realized something. He had forgotten a sword! Who knows what could be lurking down here, waiting for him? No sooner had he had that thought when he stepped on something, and it clanked. His automatically went down and felt it, and he nicked his thumb. It was his sword, the one he had left in the tunnel when he and Luxa snuck out to save the nibblers! He fastened the belt on and continued the steps. He got to the bottom and waited.

"Drop, Overlander." A voice purred. For a second, Gregor thought it was Ares, and he was about to give a cry of alarm. Then he realized the voice had a much more feminine accent. It was Hera. Gregor sighed, but came to his senses and dropped, his legs spread far out to the side. He landed right on Hera's back.

"I heard you on the stairs. I now know what you meant when you were speaking of the Spout." Hera said. "Which way do you think they have gone?"

"We normally take that tunnel there, but if Luxa's trying to hide, she would be in the one on the right." Gregor answered. "What do you think?"

"I vote the right." Hera took off down the selected tunnel. This one was a little thin, and Hera had to keep swerving to avoid pieces of popping out rock. Gregor remembered taking this path with Ares, and how it had been hard for the big bat to avoid the rocks. Two big ones stuck out from the side at once, and Hera had to do a full roll to avoid them. She was actually a very flexible bat, just like Aurora. That explained why they were sisters.

Gregor and Hera began to call softly. "Luxa, Aurora?" they called, but there was no answer. Suddenly a flash of gold startled them, and Gregor thought he heard, "Shh, Aurora!" "Luxa?" he called. Gregor and Hera entered a cavern, and came face to face with Luxa and Aurora.

"Oh, it is only Gregor and Hera. How did you know to find us here?" Luxa asked, and gave a sigh of relief. Gregor cocked his head.

"How do you think I found you? I know you, Luxa." He said. She just gave him an innocent look and turned her head to a hangnail. "Why'd you come here anyway?"

"Because I found this under my hospital bed." Luxa removed a scroll from a small pack and handed it to Gregor. He unrolled it, but couldn't read it right away because it was written in code. "It is Code of Claw. Do you remember it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so." He applied what he remembered from studying the Code of Claw during his last visit. He was shocked to read what he read. In English, it was this:

Future Queen of Regalia,

Light hidden in tunnels near Spout. Answers to prophecy.

The words were enough to get Gregor excited, but then he looked at the name signed below. It was not in code.

Bartholomew of Sandwich

Sandwich wrote it! How was that possible? He was dead! "How did Sandwich write it?" He asked Luxa. "And how did he know you would read it?"

Luxa shrugged. "I do not know. Perhaps he foretold this happening as well. I would not be surprised. However, it is the words that confuse me." Gregor reread them. "Light" could be meaning "Life", as it usually did in the Underland. If it did, then where was "life" hidden in these tunnels? And how would Sandwich now about it, over four centuries ago? And how would this give away answers to the prophecy?

"Well, what should we do now?" Gregor asked.

"We shall continue what I was doing, looking for this 'light'." said Luxa. She and Aurora started circling the cavern, and Gregor and Hera followed. They looked in every crack and space, and behind every rock. There were absolutely no signs of anything living, and Gregor was getting frustrated. He thought Sandwich was an old fool, and that his prophecies weren't real. But just to humor Luxa, he continued searching. Luxa was a strong believer of his prophecies, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her. So he searched and searched. Eventually they moved down to other tunnels, moving at a slow pace so if there was any "light" they would see it. Still, there was nothing.

"Luxa, I really don't see anything. I don't think Sandwich was sane when he wrote this. I mean, how could he be, writing to a queen who wasn't even born yet? There's no possible way!" Gregor had a sudden outburst that surprised even him. Luxa stopped Aurora and turned to Gregor.

"Is that what you think? That Sandwich, the man who founded my city, was a fool? Is that what you believe?" Is it?" Luxa glared at him, eyes narrowed, hands on the hilt of her sword. Was what he said really going to make him fight her?

The bats were circling, with worried looks on their faces. They didn't want them to fight, and Gregor supposed they could always carry them away from each other. He doubted Aurora would do that, though, she would stand by Luxa no matter what. But he and Hera weren't officially bonds yet, even though they acted like it. There was no telling what Hera would do.

"Well, it's just that..." his voice trailed off. He couldn't take Luxa's icy glare.

"If that is truly what you think, you might as well leave Regalia and never return!" Luxa was practically screaming.

Gregor was having déjà vu. Hadn't he just gone through this with Howard? They had the same icy glare, only Luxa's was harder and meaner.

"Luxa…" He attempted to continue.

"No, Gregor. I cannot take this. You should go back, and I would not give a look back!" Luxa screeched. She flew off. Hera turned her head and gave Gregor a look, and after his nod, they flew off after them. It was a wild goose chase for a while, but then Aurora began to tire and slowed down a bit. Not once did Luxa look back, not once did she even think to apologize, even though Gregor knew he was the one who should.

Gregor was lost in thought for a while, but then he saw something that made his heart take a leap. Luxa had seen it too, and jumped off Aurora. She just stood still, unsure of what to do. Gregor walked over to her and stood by her side, and they both forgot they were mad at each other.

They had found themselves in a cavern off the Plain of Taratarus, where the gnawers and humans had fought a bloody battle during the War of Time. Gregor knew the cavern, and he recognized it at once. It was the place where he had fought the Bane to the death. It was also the place where Ares had died.

His body was still in the same place, but there was movement coming from it. Wait, no, that wasn't right. The movement was coming from a small form hunched over Ares's body. It stuck it's head up and Gregor could see it was a rat, too small to be an adult, but too large to be a pup.

They had found their light.