The Banished

Chapter 21

The air felt much warmer on the way back to the palace of Regalia. Gregor knew, of course, that it was all in his head. How could it not be? There was no real temperature change in the Underland. Or, well, not the areas surrounding Regalia. They were typically a comfortable temperature constantly. It was when you went into the pits of the Dead Lands or the jungle in the nibbler's land that things changed.

So, of course, he readily realized that it was just his body that had turned into a scorching mess. He was not as certain, however, if it was due to an infected wound perhaps or his hangover. Or perhaps, it was his nervousness about seeing the queen once more. He figured, though, that it was just a combination of the last two.

The High Hall was an eerily quiet chamber when they landed there. They had gotten through the gates well enough, but none of the guards had told them any news. It was once they were in the usually bustling High Hall that Gregor knew something had changed.

"All the fliers," Gregor mumbled as he climbed off Aurora's back. "They really are gone."

"Not all, Overlander."

"Mareth!" Gregor turned at the sound of the man's voice before grinning widely at him. Mareth only stood there, leaning against a crutch, at the doorway to the High Hall. He did not return the smile. Slowly, Gregor's faded away. "What is wrong? Why are you-"

"I have had a relapse of sorts," the man told him with a slight shrug. "It is no matter. They are here."

"Who is here?"

"Vladimir and his wife."

Gregor glanced back at Aurora before turning his eyes back to Mareth. "In the palace?"

"Aye. They meet with the queen as we speak. Of course, I am not allowed in there. She forbad me. Says that I am to rest up. Rest up. Ha. I ought to have run her harder when she was a child."

Gregor didn't have time for Mareth's own drama though as he said, "I must go then. To see her."

"See her? Oh, no. She is already in the meeting."

"Why didn't she wait for me?"

Mareth gave Gregor a long look. "You left, Overlander. Without telling anyone of your plans. Hazard told us that you were headed to the fliers' lands. And yet, when I and York got there, you were nowhere to be found."

"Something…came up."

"You are untrustworthy."

Gregor righted himself immediately. "Excuse me?"

"They are not my words, Gregor," Mareth told him, a frown now present on his face. "They are the queen's. She believes you to be conspiring with the enemy."

"I hate the banished as much as she!"

"Not the banished," Mareth said with a shake of his head. Then, slowly, he pointed a finger at Aurora. "It is you, Aurora. You and Gregor are considered traitors to the queen, currently."

"Oh, God," Gregor said, rolling his eyes. "I am not sitting through another trial."

"She does not bring you up on charges," Mareth assured Gregor. "Not you. Neither you, Aurora. She has merely…expressed her anger. Many times. Loudly."

"Drunk then?"

Mareth didn't look amused. "I will not stop you, Gregor. They are in the war room. Head there, then, if you wish. I would not suggest it, but then, I am an invalid."

"Mareth," Gregor sighed before coming closer to him. He moved to pat the man on the shoulder, but Mareth dodged him.

"Do not, Gregor." Mareth wouldn't look at him. He was a proud man if he was anything. "I am not someone to be pitied."

"Aye," the Overlander agreed slowly. "You are not."

"So you're going to go then? Interrupt her?"

"She is meeting with them?"

"Yes."

"Then yeah, I am. There are things that she does not know about them that I myself have just recently discovered. I have to tell her."

"She will not be happy with you."

"She is already ready to mount my head on a spike. What else have I got to lose?"

Gregor left Aurora in the High Hall then, both of them knowing that there was no way Luxa was ready to forgive her yet. Gregor also feared that Aurora was unprepared for the same task. To be forgiven and to be forgiving. And there was no way Luxa was going to be forgiving. At all.

A few people called out to Gregor as he rushed down the halls, but he thought not of anyone. His head was already pounding, a remembrance from the night before that seemed like days ago at the moment. Perhaps it was the fact that he knew he was walking into an unwinnable situation that gave him his courage. If he interrupted, she'd be mad. If he did not interrupt, she would be mad. Queen Luxa. Ha. In the Fount, he carries just as much weight as her. Just as much. If not more, considering he is not of Regalian birth, something they no doubt harbor against her. So there. So freaking there.

There were guards posted outside the door to the war room, but Gregor paid them little mind as he moved to open one of the only doors in the Underland.

"You cannot go in there," one of the guards tried, but you could hear the hesitance in his voice, no doubt unsure about questioning his commanding officer. So good, they still thought he was in charge. Luxa hadn't revoked his status yet. At least not fully.

Gregor opened the door easily before throwing it open and heading in. Luxa was in there, of course, standing there, arms crossed in a defiant stance, halfheartedly listening the words of the man standing in front of her. That man was, of course, Vladimir, who was speaking loudly about something while a woman, who Gregor assumed to be his wife, stood to the side, looking just as defiant as the true queen.

There were others in the room, of course. Perdita was there, off to one side, looking bored. She did not rather like political talk, Gregor knew. She was much more suited for battle plans than who is aligned to who. Barrett was in the room also, though he stood off to the other side, looking more annoyed than anything. His eyes were the first that found Gregor's and, shockingly enough, they looked happy to see him.

"We are in a meeting," Luxa snapped then, not even glancing at the door. It was the other queen, Usha Gregor though her name was, that turned to look at him. She smiled at him while he just stared in shock at her.

"And the Overlander returns," the woman said while Gregor just took in her whole…appearance, "I hope, Overlander, that there are no hard feelings from the last time."

Gregor's mind died for a moment, words coming out that he did not mean to. "You're…a Halflander?"

The woman just smiled. "Something of the sorts, yes."

"H-"

"Gregor," Luxa snapped then, turning to look at him finally. "Get out of here. Now."

His mission revived in his mind, Gregor shook his head, taking another step into the room. One of the guards in the corner though just pulled his sword.

"Shall I escort him then, your grace?" the man asked, staring Gregor in the eyes. Luxa hardly glanced at him though, instead focusing on shooting daggers at Gregor. She had known, she had to have, that he was returning that day. Messages had been sent to Regalia detailing at least that much. She had to have known that he would want to be a part of the meeting. Her attempts to exclude him were certainly her way of punishing him. He knew though that it would not be the extent of her punishment. Something so simple was never the end of it. Never.

"No," she said slowly. "Leave, Gregor. You are not welcome here."

"Luxa, you don't understand." Gregor moved to walk around Usha and Vladimir, headed over towards Luxa. "I was in the Dead Lands and-"

"Oh, were you?"

"Yes, Luxa, I was."

"And for what reason?"

He was trapped then, of course. He shouldn't have said that. At all. Now Vlad would automatically assume it to be Nike. Why would he have gone to the Dead Lands? What else was there in that forsaken place? What would-

"You were angry with me. You would not let me…kill these people," Gregor told her. "I went to see Ripred. He-"

"Oh, is he your master now?"

"Luxa, you don't-"

"Then go back to him. You are no longer welcome here."

He frowned. "You're not listening. I-"

"Barrett, escort the Overlander to the High Hall. No doubt his treacherous little Aurora is there, awaiting him."

"Lux-"

"As you say, my queen," Barrett said, though he was clearly hesitant. "Come then, Overlander. Let us cause no more trouble than is necessary, yes?"

"Luxa-"

"Go, Overlander. Before I have you-"

"Would you shut the hell up and listen to me?"

Everyone fell silent then. Everyone. Then, slowly, Vlad let out a slight laugh.

"I see why you were so intrigued with this one, Usha. He is very lively."

The woman, dressed in rags with a band around her head similar to her husband, just moved to push back her brown hair, staring at Gregor with her blue eyes. "Yes, Vlad. He would have made an excellent court jester."

"Would have?"

"I would find it best to leave now, Overlander," Barrett said as he came closer then, walking faster. In a soft tone, directed only to Gregor, he said, "The queen is not going to-"

"Detain him," Luxa said then, staring into Gregor's eyes. It was the other guards she spoke to though. "Take him to the dungeons. You insubordinate little traitor."

"Traitor?" Gregor shoved Barrett off when the other man tried to lay a hand on his shoulder. "I'm trying to help you, idiot."

"Drown him in the waterways," Luxa said then to the guards in the room who all drew the weapons. Gregor only snorted, drawing his own. Barrett left his sheathed, taking a step back then. It was not his fight, after all.

"Stop it," Perdita finally spoke up. "Both of you. Children, you act like. Honestly-"

"Silence." Luxa didn't look at her as she said, "Before I lock you away as well."

"This is what I get then? For trying to protect you?" Gregor spit on the ground, at the feet of one of the guards in front of him. Vlad and Usha had both taken steps back though their faces showed their interest. They had no doubt heard tales about the warrior, but to actually see him in battle? That was treat in itself. "God, I wish I had left you in the jungle when we were twelve. Or better yet, I wish that I had let Ripred kill you the, oh, thirty times he tried. Or one of your own people who, by the way, don't even fucking like you. No one likes you, Luxa, but you. And that's only half the time."

Maybe it was his time in the Fount, that short day, that made him so bold. Or maybe he had finally reached his breaking point. Either way, words were irreversible. And his words were enough to get Luxa to take the bait.

She crossed the room quickly, shoving passed her guards and over to Gregor. She slapped him. Or, well, tried to. He was not as naïve as he was as a child and was expecting it. He easily caught her hand, holding her wrist tightly in his own.

"I'm not the enemy," he told her harshly. Then, with his sword, he pointed at Vlad and his wife. "They are."

One of the men, the guards, moved to attack Gregor then. They had a clean shot at him to, from the side. He was without armor, without protection. They would have done some damage. Their sword, aimed at Gregor's side, was met with another sword though.

"She'll be back in love with him in the hour," Barrett said simply, his sword making a clank when it hit the other man's. "You kill him now, you'll be dead in an hour."

Now completely done, Luxa jerked out of Gregor's hold, not even turning to look at the guard that nearly gutted him.

"They're cannibals, Luxa," Gregor told her then, sheathing his sword while keeping his eyes on her. "And when they fight us, they will eat us. I saw them, eating people in the Dead Lands. They eat humans."

Luxa took a step closer to Gregor then before taking in a breath. After having whiff of him, she asked, "Are you drunk?"

"You do smell of alcohol," Barrett agreed softly.

"No, Lux! Or, well, I was last night, but I'm not now." He let out a loud groan. "They eat people. Ask him. Don't you? You're disgusting."

Luxa turned then to look at Usha and her husband. Vladimir merely shrugged slightly, staring right back at her, adjusting his sword belt.

"What else do you think we'd eat out there?" he asked simply with a slight shrug.

Luxa paused then before letting out a long breath. Then, turning from Gregor, she said, "I shall think about what we have spoken on today, Vladimir, Usha. You-"

"What is there to think about?" Vlad puffed out his chest then. "You either yield to us or we kill you."

Usha reached out then, laying a hand on her husband's arm. Gregor only continued to stare at her.

"I would be very careful," Luxa told Vlad slowly, still watching him. "You are not in the lands of your people. You are in mine, with many of my guards and generals. The only reason I have not killed you yet is I fear a revolt of your people and then I would have to kill them as well. I do not know if we shall reach an even agreement, but I know that I shall not allow you to disrespect me in my own kingdom."

Vlad stared hard at her for a long moment before turning to head out of the room. "We shall be staying in the palace, my wife and I. Have us a room prepared, yes?"

After they were gone, Luxa dismissed her guards, leaving only her, Gregor, Barrett, and Perdita. The head of the army was still standing there, arms crossed, no doubt upset by what had taken place. Gregor was pretty annoyed by it as well.

"Well then," Barrett stared again after a moment. "I think-"

Luxa turned then, quickly moving to face Gregor again. He didn't have any time to think of what she could possibly doing other than yelling at him. Then she hit him. Hard. In the chest. With all her strength.

"What is wrong with you?" Gregor growled, his chest on fire. Luxa merely looked at him, then to Barrett who looked very shocked and extremely terrified that he was next, and then Perdita who only stared with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Nothing now," Luxa said as she turned right back around. Letting out a slight breath, she headed out of the room. "Nothing now."

"She bruised you pretty well."

"Yeah, well, Luxa isn't queen for nothing," Gregor said with a slight shrug as Mareth hobbled into his sleeping quarters. He was getting changed at that point, back into his guard attire. He wasn't sure exactly where he stood as far as the position of his job went, but figured it best to just get finding out over with. "Who told you?"

"Barrett first. Then Perdita came to complain that without my presence, you all misbehaved."

"She acts like we are children."

"You are children," Mareth told him simply, leaning heavily against his crutch then. "Aurora has taken off for the fliers' land. She heard that Luxa was not yet ready for her return and took off."

"Good for her. Unfortunately, though, I have no lands to run to when Luxa is upset with me."

Mareth nodded up at the ceiling. "You do, Gregor. You just choose not to go there."

"What did you want again, Mareth?" Gregor asked after pulling a shirt on, moving just as quickly to get his chest plate. "Not to be rude-"

"No, go ahead. Be it. I have gotten quite used to it in your absence."

"-but what do you want?"

"What I want, Overlander, is for you to try thinking of someone else for a change."

"And you lost me. Not that you ever had me, but-"

"You left us, Overlander, without an explanation. And while you were gone, your little queen went on a tirade. She's threatened to take my job from me for not being able to find you in the fliers' lands! I could lose my job because of you." Mareth shook his head. "And for what? I do not know. Where did you go off to? Where did you run off to that you just couldn't-"

"I can't tell you."

"Of course not." Mareth glared at him, hard. "I believed us to be friends, Overlander."

"We are friends, Mareth."

"Friends let others lose their jobs?"

"It was not my intention, alright?"

"You-"

"You talk of me only thinking of myself? What of you, Mareth?"

"What of me?" he scoffed.

"You are only worried of your job. Constantly. That's all you worry of."

"I have no family, Overland. If I lose it, then how shall I support myself?"

"What of me? You don't think going to do what I did put my job on the line? My job is still on the line! And you don't care. You don't take a second out to think that I had something important to do. Because I did, Mareth. I had something really important to take care of."

"And what would that think be, Overlander?"

"I can't tell you, alright? Huh? Is that alright?"

"You-"

"You are the one harboring secrets."

"What secrets?"

"Talking to York about moving to the Fount." Gregor snorted. "That's your plan isn't it?"

"It is not that simple," Mareth said, red in the face from his anger. "You-"

"I have other friends, Mareth. A friend. I had a friend in need. And you know what I did? I put myself at risk to help that friend."

"Ripred is hardly a-"

"It was not Ripred," Gregor told him as he moved to put his sword belt back on. "And even if it was, you are no better than he."

"I? I am not better than Ripred? In what way?"

"You, Ripred, Luxa. You're all out for yourselves. For your status. Your title. Well, guess what, Mareth? Ripred's getting old. He's going to be dead soon. And Luxa? Hell, maybe there is someone better to run the kingdom than Luxa!"

Mareth's face lost its color then as he looked around, over his shoulders. "Never say that again. If someone hears you-"

"Let them hear me. They think it. She thinks it. Hell, I think it half the time. We all think it. So what? So what? She would kill us all to save her title. You know it as well as I." Gregor shook his head. "And then you."

"What of me, Overlander? Since you are so willing to judge today, what of me?"

"You are disabled, Mareth. You have trouble keeping up. Instead of retiring or taking a less important job, you keep on," Gregor said with malice in his voice. "At first, may thought it courageous. Now, it is just dangerous. You are not fit to hold the title you have currently. If you really cared about the kingdom, about any of us, you would-"

The sound of Mareth withdrawing his sword stopped Gregor's words. Throwing his crutch away from him, Mareth stood up as tall as he could.

"Your words are poison since you have returned. And now they shall be the death of you." Mareth shook his head. "Fight me then, Overlander. I am the one who taught you everything. You would be nothing without me."

"That might be true," Gregor said slowly as he moved to walk around the man. "But we shall never know, will we?"

"Fight me! Like a man. You call me things and yet you won't admit what you are. You do not belong here, Overlander. You keep another man from ascending to the crown. And why? For just as selfish reasons as the rest of us." Mareth threw his sword to the ground then before spitting. "You self-centered bastard."

Gregor just kept walking though, ignoring the looks in the hall and the fact that he was really, really hurting inside. Of all the friends he had lost in life, through death or sacrifice, he thought, in that moment, that Mareth had been the worst loss of all. But everyone knew the true secret to life; that no matter what happened, what didn't happen, or the hell that you were going through, life was just that. Life. And it would go on.

"I have been looking for this for some time, Hazard. Where did you find it?"

The Halfland teen just shrugged his shoulders. "It was with Zander's things."

Gregor replaced the helmet on his head with a sigh. "He must have found it or something. I probably left it somewhere in here."

"Yes, you must have."

Gregor sighed before taking a look around the teen's room. "I had best get out of here then. Luxa is on a war path."

"If you must."

"Before I go, I have been meaning to ask how my sister is?"

"We got her back home."

Gregor shook his head. "I feared with all the fliers gone-"

"They all did not leave. Andromeda took her up. Her and Mareth."

Gregor paused at that before nodding and turning to head out of the room. "I shall have to thank him for that."

"He's a good friend."

"Yes," Gregor sighed. "Yes, he was."

Hazard stood by, watching Gregor leave. It was when he got to the curtain though that Gregor stopped, taking a moment before saying, "Hazard, there is one other thing."

"Yes? What is it?"

"As of late, it appears that many of my…friends are upset with me," Gregor said slowly. "Tell me before I get too far if you are also one of those people."

"Of course not, Gregor," Hazard told him, shrugging slightly as the older man turned to look back at him. "What have you done for me to be upset with?"

"I do not know. That is why I have asked."

"Besides, if I was angry with you, I would tell you. Why would I not tell you?"

"Another thing that I do not know."

"It is foolish to not just tell someone when you are upset with them," Hazard told the guard with a slight shrug. "How else would they know?"

With that, Gregor headed out of the Royal wing, then off to find his men. Or Luxa, so he could find out if he still had men. Not to mention, he was still unsure about their whole relationship. Not that it was a prominent issue at the moment, given what was going on, but still. He did not like the thought of that lingering around them, what with war on the forefront of everyone's minds.

On his walk, searching for anybody willing to tell him exactly what was going on, Gregor found himself headed towards the hospital wing. At first, he figured that subconsciously he wanted to go see Howard, after spending that time with the other man's family. It was only once he was there that he realized who he was really going to see.

"Overlander. How did you know that I was here?"

"Lucky guess," Gregor said as he walked into the room.

"Ah, yes. Where else would I be then? But here? My room, I suppose, but that is rare."

"You are merely unwell."

"I am merely dying. Not too different, but still enough so that I felt the need to point it out." Nerissa moved to sit up more then in her hospital cot. "What brings you to me then, Gregor?"

"Worry, I suppose."

"Not over me."

"What makes you so certain?" When she gave him a look, he just shook his head. "A lot is going on, I fear."

"I still can see it in my mind," Nerissa told him softly as he took a seat in one of the chairs by her bedside. "That horrible, horrible vision I got, of you entranced in a battle with these people. These vicious, vile people."

Gregor just stared at her. "They're cannibals. That is one of the ways that they survived in the Dead Lands."

"Vile," Nerissa repeated softly. "Just vile."

"Two of them are here. Their king and queen."

Nerissa seemed troubled at hearing that. "And Luxa has-"

"It was on your cousin's order."

"Luxa has lost her way," Nerissa told him softly. "I told you that before. When I first saw the vision. Do you remember? I warned you that this would happen."

"Aye," Gregor agreed slowly, reaching out to grab one of the woman's hands. "I remember."

Nerissa smiled at him then. "I heard that you left the palace and could not be found."

"I had something to take care of," Gregor said slowly. "I only-"

"Do not fret, Overlander." Nerissa settled back into her bed, sounding tired just from him being there. "We can have secrets amongst each other."

"Can we?" he asked softly.

"We can. It is good for friends."

"For friends." Gregor snorted. "I am tired of that word. It is meaningless, apparently. No one wishes to use it correctly anymore."

"All words are meaningless, warrior," she told him. "They are just like people. They only hold the value that we allow them to."

"I fear then that I have given your cousin far too much power."

"Then take it away."

"Hmmm?"

"Take it away from her. Just decide that she holds nothing over you."

"I have sworn a vow that-"

"Luxa swore to protect you, yes? Howard told me that she attacked you."

Did everyone know about that? Gregor rolled his eyes before saying, "She did not attack me. She just struck me."

"Regardless, she should not have done it."

"I agree with that," Gregor said, nodding his head. "She seems to forget that I am only trying to help her."

"If she could, Luxa would fire you all. Run the kingdom all alone. And then, when it got to be too much, she would call you all cowards for leaving her on her own." Nerissa sighed. "My cousin is complex."

"Very," Gregor agreed.

"And yet she is only stressed currently. It does not make all of her actions right, but it does add insight into them." Nerissa closed her eyes. "All she has ever wanted was for men to respect her. Her father, my brother, and now the people that serve her. Mareth, Barrett, other top officials. She wishes to be one of the boys terribly."

"She's worse."

"She is her grandmother," Nerissa corrected. "Solovet wanted to be respected and in the end, did she accomplish it? Who knows? Who cares? She is still dead. And soon, should Luxa not learn to take help when it is offered, she shall be too."

"You didn't like Solovet, did you?"

"I did not hate the woman," Nerissa said with a sigh. "She was not kind to me, no, nor did she think highly of me. She did me no wrong though and for that, I cannot dislike her."

"I did not like her."

"You are remembering only the end of her life, Gregor," Nerissa told him softly. "Should Ripred die today, what shall you remember about him? You understand my point?"

"I suppose so."

"Leave me now then, Overlander. They expect me to rest here. And I think I plan to, right now. I am most tired."

"Of course." Gregor stood, slowly releasing her hand. "I shall be back to see you, Nerissa. Before…"

"Before what? Before I die? Before you die? Before my cousin leads us into war and we all die?"

"I dunno," he whispered, shaking his head slightly as he turned to head to the door. "I just don't know anymore."