The Banished

Chapter 31

"You know, even Hazard turned his back on her."

Gregor glanced over at Howard, who was poking at the fire. "Huh?"

"Luxa," he clarified. "After your trial, he headed to the Fount without telling her."

Gregor shook his head, staring into the flames. He felt warm for the first time, there in front of the fire. "She brought it upon herself."

"Aye," Howard agreed softly. "But you know as well as I that sometimes, she gets herself into situations without any thought of how to get out of them or how they will turn out."

Gregor snorted. "After this is all done-"

"I am sure that she had the best for you in mind."

"Oh did she? When she locked me away in the-"

"Didn't you do the same thing once?"

"What?"

"During the Prophecy of Bane…no. The Prophecy of Time, yes? You locked her away to keep her out of the battle field."

He glanced at Howard. "That was different. I was trying to keep her safe. I was-"

"She's trying to keep her entire kingdom safe."

"So you're taking her side then?"

"No," the older guy said slowly. "I do not like many things my cousin does. I was ready to flee back to the Fount and tend to the wounded from the war we fought against her. However, I also know that Luxa has put a lot on the line with this, so to speak. If you die out there with the banished, there is no recovery from that. Everyone shall blame her for your death and never believe that she honestly had good intentions."

"I won't die."

"You will die, Gregor," Howard sighed then, still poking at the fire. "One day."

"Aye," he agreed softly. "But not today."

They were camping out for the night. Luxa had sent another flier out to them, Hypnos, who was sworn to her through something or other. Whatever. He and Eos had flown them out further away from Regalia. Gregor was pretty sure they were headed somewhere close to the Dead Lands, but he was not totally sure. Barrett was off by himself, sleeping with his bond standing guard over him. Not that Gregor was concerned with him.

"How shall this all play out then?" Gregor asked Howard after a moment. "Back in Regalia?"

"They shall say you escaped, I assume. And Luxa shall fend off any attacks from the Fount and the gnawers for as long as possible while you keep the banished busy. And once you have finished, you shall return victorious and you shall bend your knee to the crown once more and we can all get back to our lives."

"Just like that?"

"Aye, it is what Luxa had envisioned."

Gregor shook his head. "I think people are going to be a little pissed, aren't you?"

"I don't see why. They shall never know that we betrayed them."

"Then-"

"Helix is a scapegoat."

Gregor glanced behind him as Barrett spoke up. The man was still lying on the ground, but had apparently not been asleep like previously thought.

"A scapegoat?" Gregor repeated. "In what way?"

"The blame shall fall to him, as he is the one that brought the allegations against you."

"And he is just okay with this? Helix?"

"He is does not know."

"So Luxa is going to sacrifice an innocent man-"

"He is not innocent, Overlander."

"Then what is his crime?" Gregor shook his head. "I will not be a part of something that-"

"Who do you think informed the banished of our plan?"

He paused for a moment before shaking his head and facing the fire once more.

"Luxa knew much more than she told me," Gregor said softly then.

"Yes, well, secrets are best kept between lovers, yes?"

"Is there something you want to tell me, Barrett?" Gregor wouldn't turn to look at him again. "Because last time I checked, we were cool. We were fine. We might not have been friends, but we were not enemies. And now-"

"In what way have I ever picked you to be my enemy?" Barrett made a noise. "For such a fearsome warrior, you have some mighty thin skin."

Rolling his eyes, Gregor spoke to Howard then. "You are forgetting Mareth."

"Mareth? What about him?"

"When Barrett came to free me, he was there. He was trying to get me out first. He saw Barrett take me. When you guys say that I am missing, he will only tell them that you executed me secretly."

"I am sure that Luxa will cover that. Perhaps even inform Mareth of her plan."

"That is doubtful," Barrett spoke from behind them once more. "The whole point of not even informing you, Overlander, was to keep it hush-hush."

"Yeah? Then why the heck do you know anything about it?"

Barrett only sighed. "You can hate me if you'd like, Overlander, but you will slowly find that I am not your enemy. Or at least not the one that you need to spend all your time on."

Gregor only shook his head again before addressing Howard once more. "I am still not clear on what she wishes for me to do to the banished. Merely kill Vlad and Usha? Then may I return? Or am I supposed to do more?"

"I am not certain either. I believe though that if that were just the case, she wouldn't have gone through all this trouble. Whatever she found in those prophecies is what is troubling my cousin, I am certain."

"If you are not my enemy then, Barrett, then tell me what it is in there that she does not wish for me to see? What? I already know that I am to help them bring upon her demise, yes? What else is there that would tempt me so that I would go through with their prophecies if I knew them?"

"It is not my place to tell you anything. I have only been charged with making sure that you make it to the banished and then from there, you are on your own."

"How am I to make it back then? If I follow them into the Uncharted Lands? And I can't fight them all. I do not think that this was truly thought of. It's almost as if you are sending me out on a death mission."

"Why do you think I didn't take the job?"

"So how am I to find them exactly?"

"Scouts," Howard told him as they flew through the air on the back of Hypnos. "We have a basic understanding of roughly where a small group of banished are. You shall drop in on them and they shall lead you to Vlad and his wife."

"Zander as well," Gregor said softly.

"Aye," Howard agreed. "I am sure that the child will be glad to see you, Gregor, but you know that you have a more important job than a rescue mission, yes?"

"I know that I am being forced to go into lands unknown with people that very well might just want to sacrifice me for their gain."

"I doubt that is their plan."

"Why do you doubt that, Howard?"

"It just seems unlikely to me that they would wish to kill you. What would it do for them, for you to be dead?"

"Howard, they believe that I need to swim down to the bottom of a pond or something to unlock some sort of monster to wipe out Luxa from existence. I put nothing passed them. And if my hunch is correct, that is one of their more mild prophecies." Then, in a snarky tone, he called over in the direction of the other flier, "Ain't that right, Barrett?"

The man only sighed loudly from his spot atop his bond. "They are hardly prophecies to begin with."

"Meaning?"

"Our prophecies give two sides. The right one and the wrong one. Had you fallen instead of Henry, then the prophecy was still right. Had the Underland fell to the plague, the prophecy was still right. Had you killed the Bane, the prophecy was still right."

"Your point?"

"These give one option. Either complete and utter devotion to the text and doing exactly everything it says from beginning to end or you get nothing. They are not prophecies at all. They are delusions of a madman."

"And your prophecies are not?"

"You cannot make me angry, Overlander," Barrett told him then, with a forced laugh that said otherwise. "So stop trying."

"No matter what these prophecies say, Gregor, you shall be fine. We both know this. You have faced death countless times and yet your light shines bright evermore."

"The brightest stars burnout the fastest."

"I fear I do not know that reference."

Shaking his head, Gregor only responded with, "Nothing. Never mind."

"You have not been above in a number of weeks, if not months. And your last stint was only a week," Howard said as if suddenly realizing that.

"It's not as if I could go to the Overland when you had the gnawers breathing down your necks and then the banished. And especially not when the fliers were gone. Then I had the banished to worry about again. And then, I got locked into a dungeon with no light whatsoever. So really, I don't know when I would have had time for such a treat as a trip to the Overland."

"Your bitterness shall only help you get the banished to believe in the theatrics that were in court."

"Luxa had better hope that I am in a better mood after I get to find Zander. Because if not, there's a very good chance I might just swim to the bottom of that water and unlock that inner beast or whatever it is."

"I fear, Gregor, that if you were to swim down there, you would only find stagnant water and dead animals."

"Given some of the things I've done for Regalia, that seems like the least I can do for the banished."

"You have never done a thing for Regalia that you did not wish to do."

"I never did a thing for Regalia that I did not have a choice in. What were my options then? Run from the Prophecy of Time? Leave you all to die from the plague? Let all of the nibblers be exterminated? The only thing I have chosen was your cousin and that's been told to me a thousand times that I cannot make that decision."

"All I know, Gregor, is that what's done is done," Howard told him in an absolute tone. "Now it is time for you to clean up the mess, as always."

"Yeah and after, I think it's time to teach Luxa to stop making them."

They could only take Gregor so far. Eventually they had to land and let him go. Howard promised that should he not return in a reasonable time, he would explain the situation to his father and York himself would come for him. Gregor only told him to help Luxa keep his father under control, as there was no need for a civil war at the moment, not when they all had a common enemy known as the banished.

"This is where we see you off then, Overlander," Barrett said when he was finished with Howard. "You should head north; that will take you to the trail of them. We'd leave you with one of the torches, but I assume your echolocation shall fair you well."

"Aye," Gregor agreed. "It shall."

"Here." Barrett was quick to remove his own sword belt. "I beg your forgiveness, but I do not have a dagger on me."

"What are you-"

"Take it. Sword and all. They shall never believe that you escaped Regalia without it." Barrett smiled at him then. "Good luck, Overlander. And do not die, for if you shall, I am sure Luxa will somehow figure out how to turn it back into being my fault."

Gregor nodded slightly, at them and at the fliers before turning his back to head out. He knew the basic locations of many scouts, as not to be spotted by any, or if need be, to run to them for help should he find himself in a tight spot. Or if he couldn't find the banished at all, which was his main worry, honestly. The Underland was a vast place and he had no idea how he was supposed to be able to pinpoint a small sect of people.

Still, he set out then, leaving Howard and Barrett behind. He was shocked that he felt no nerves about it. Shouldn't he? In theory, he had killed many of the banished's people out there in that battle. He was certain that more than one of them would wish for vengeance. So what? They were just going to accept him into the tribe after that? He found it unlikely, but knew better than to question the plan.

It was rather weird, walking out there all alone. Gregor was rarely completely alone in the Underland. He almost always had another human or a flier with him, if not a rat. Sometimes even a crawler. The only time he was ever alone was when he was out running and even then, there were normally farmers around and even when there weren't, he was only just outside the walls of Regalia.

It was so calm, out there all along. So empty. Gregor had no real bearing on where he was and there for had no idea where he was headed. The best he could equate it to in the Overland was walking through an empty desert at night. There's no one around, only emptiness and silence. And isn't that the funny thing about silence? It's never as loud as it is when you're alone.

"Stupid Luxa and Barrett and Howard and Aurora and Eos and Hypnos and…and everyone else too," Gregor grumbled as he slowly walked along, headed north as was instructed to him. "They always think they know more than me. Everyone thinks that they know more than me. When will they realize that I know things too? I know a lot of things. I know many things. I know war. I know death. I know how to keep people safe. And clearly, they do no."

He walked for at least an hour, if not more. He had no food and water, as that would have seemed suspicious or so he assumed. He was supposed to have just escaped Regalia. He needed a good cover story. Hmmm.

Mareth. Mareth had come to get him and led him out. From there, Gregor had…what had he done? Hmmm.

Nike. Nike had given him a ride outside of Regalia, fighting the guards along the way. Yes. And then she left him and told him to head for safety with Ripred or the fliers. That was it.

…but why hadn't she just taken him to the Overland?

Hazard and Nerissa. Gregor could not just leave the two of them as it was. Not with Luxa on a rampage. He had to stay behind to take her out of power, to ensure that Hazard and Nerissa were okay. Not to mention York and his family. Vikus. Perdita and Mareth. All of his other friends. He had to protect them above all. Gregor was the dead warrior, a ghost of his former self, but he still held his current traits. He was honorable, dutiful, and faithful. Even if Luxa thought that those did not exist.

That was his story and a fine good one at that. A believable one. He could almost see it happening, the passionate fights he and Luxa had and all. It would be very easy for one of those to escalate further than any one before and come to this level. Perhaps too easy, considering their relationship.

Gregor saw the light of a fire before he saw the people. He could smell something roasting as well and held down his gag. Oh, God, he'd found them. Why, oh why, did he have to walk upon them performing their cannibalistic ways?

"There! Listen! Someone comes!"

Gregor could hear them then, yelling out things, but he continued to walk further, arms up in the air as if to seem submissive. He thought that was best, to let them think that they had overtaken him and not that he had just given in.

"It is the Overlander," one of them yelled, the closer he came. He could see them then, silhouetted in the firelight. "The warrior."

Swords were drawn and a an archer led the group, bow drawn as well, as he came walking towards them. Gregor closed his eyes and clicked, wanting to see what his eyes could not tell him.

"What is your business here, Overlander?" one of them yelled at him.

"I come bearing forgiveness. I have been run out of Regalia and my own queen has turned her back on me. I see the error of my ways and wish to speak with Vlad and Usha."

"Oy! Come no further." The archer came running up on him then, arrow poised too strike him dead in the heart. "On your knees. On your knees, Overlander!"

He fell to them almost immediately. The last thing he wanted was to be killed by some careless archer that he could easily disarm in normal combat. That could very possibly be the most anti-climactic death someone like him could have.

"How did you get out here, Overlander?" another man asked as he came rushing up, sword drawn. The archer was standing over him then, aiming at the top of his head. A slip of the hand and Gregor's brains would be scrambled.

"I escaped the dungeons. They were planning to execute-"

"Aye," another spoke up as she too came over. "We have all heard the stories. The gnawers march and the Fount rebels. Is quite the tale."

"I know not what you speak of," he said softly. Luxa was right. Gregor had many tells. That's why he liked gambling so much, honestly. It was a fair fight for his opponents whereas sword combat rarely was. "I was freed from the cells by one of my friends. Mareth. He took me to the High Hall in the dead of night and the flier princess flew me to safety. She left me here and told me to find the gnawers. That Ripred would protect me from Luxa."

"What was all that noise you said about King Vlad and Queen Usha then, ah?" The archer was not about to let him get away with lying. "Overlander?"

"When I saw you guys, I knew what I had to do. Luxa is out of control. The gnawers have not enough power to take her out of her own. Vlad told me though, about some sort of…prophecies?"

"Get him up then," the woman sighed. "And take his blade. Then search him."

"And who gives orders then? You, Luce?"

"Well, it certainly isn't you, Brand," she retorted to the archer. "Step back. Or would you rather tell King Vlad that your finger slipped and you killed our key to victory?"

The guy, Brand, spit to the side. "He is of no king to me. Countless slaughtered for-"

"Then go find a new tribe to follow," one of the men told him before shoving him away from Gregor. Then, to the man on his knees before him, he said, "Get up. Like they said. Get up."

Gregor got to his feet slowly. "Is Vlad not here? I-"

"King Vlad, Overlander," the woman sighed before nodding him towards the fire. "Go. Sit."

He couldn't even look over there. "I-I can't."

"What do you mean you can't? You-"

"Th-the meat."

"What?"

"I can't stand it," he told the woman, hanging his head. His nostrils were burning at the moment. "Human flesh. I-"

They laughed at him then, all but the archer who regarded him with disdain. Gregor couldn't look up at them though, having to hold his anger down. In what way was cannibalism funny? In no way was it interesting or funny or even right. It was just one of those social taboos that needed to finally die out.

"Get up then," the woman finally said, kicking him slightly with her foot. She was bare foot, but many of the banished were. Gregor was sure that the bottoms of their feet were so callused and hardened from the Uncharted Lands that they did not need them. "We are not eating humans, warrior."

"You-"

"Not tonight anyways," she told him with a sigh before turning to walk away. He finally looked at her full on. She was a Halflander. Her eyes gave her away as well as her hair. It was not silvery at all. More of a dull black. "Come. You shall feast with us then and on the morrow, we shall take you to Vlad."

"You're not going to kill me?" he asked, breathless.

"Why would we kill someone we need?" One of the men pulled him to his feet. "Ghost."

"Ghost," he whispered back.

"You are the dead warrior, yeah? You are a ghost among the living." The man took his sword belt before he shoved him slightly then to get him to walk forwards. "Go sit by the fire."

He nodded slightly before walking forwards then. "Where are we? Was I close to the Dead Lands?"

"You are a prisoner here, Overlander, just as much as you were with your queen," the woman told him. "You should have ran when you saw us."

"Leave him be, Luce. He ain't going nowhere." The man that had helped him up went to slice him a piece of flesh from the roasting…what was it that was roasting? It looked like cattle or something. They much have stolen it from one of the local farmers or something. They seemed rather far from Regalia for that to be the case, but it was possible. "Are ya, Overlander?"

He looked around at them before shaking his head. "I am an enemy to my people. I have nowhere to go to."

"I told you, the Fount," the woman, Luce, told him with a frown. "Or back above."

"And betray those that do still need me in Regalia?"

The archer, Brand, snorted then. "If King Vladimir were here, he'd have gutted him. He'd-"

"If it was the Regalian Queen, she would be gutted. We need him," Luce told him with a shake of her head. "Do not let your emotions get the-"

"Do not let my emotions…are you mad, woman?" The archer was animated again. "He killed my brother. You understand this, yes, Luce? He-"

"We waged war on them," the woman told him with a shrug. "Their men were killed to. You should be lucky to say that your brother was one of the brave men who were chosen by the great King Vlad to go fight that battle."

"Is that why I should be, Luce?"

"It is what you should be."

Gregor only stared down at the ground, wishing to be very inconspicuous at the moment. It always came back to him later, the fact that the battles he fought had consequences. Honestly, he was waiting around for his Hamnet moment of sorts, when the guilt became too much. When he can no longer face not only others, but what he has become. He did not have that driving force such as Solovet was to her son, but still. He carried a lot of weight on his back. If he fought, others died. If he did not fight, those he loved died.

It was truly a lose-lose situation.

So he sat there and he ate, not speaking again that night. Luce eventually sent Brand off, telling him to walk off his tension and to only come back when he was ready to be a part of the group again. The other men went about their night as usual, setting up a schedule for sleep rotations while joking all the while about what they were going to do when they got back home.

Home. They must be heading back for the Uncharted Lands.

Luce was not the only woman there. One other sat off by herself, clearly wounded from some attack. The only one that spoke to her was a man that seemed to be caring for her. He fed her and made sure that she had plenty of water. Gregor assumed it was her husband or something, the way he kept rubbing her shoulders and whispering things in her ears.

"You shall sleep here, Overlander," one of the guys, who he'd learned was name Gant, said, pointing to a spot on the ground. "Do not fret. We shall not let anyone harm you."

He didn't trust them, of course he didn't, and he knew that he would get no sleep that night. Still, he went to do as told, laying down where instructed. Most everyone ignored him after that as they settled down for the night. He was sure that travel had been hard on them all and that they were grateful for all the sleep they were able to get.

"We heard stories about you."

Gregor peeked an eye open to find the man next to him speaking. The guy was flat on his back, staring up at the emptiness above him.

"What?"

"It spread through the Underland, when you killed the Bane. That you had fulfilled the Prophecy of Time without dying. That was when we knew. Knew for certain that you were the one."

"How did you hear about-"

"There are many creatures in the Underland that go to and from the Uncharted Lands," the man told him. "We are never too far out of the loop, as an Overlander like you might say."

"Oh," he said slowly. "Then-"

"You are quite the fighter, warrior," the man told him softly. "The best, they tell us. You shall bring us to victory. We shall reclaim Regalia."

You couldn't reclaim what wasn't yours. And why were they so trusting of him so easily? Were they really that deluded in their prophecies that they thought he could truly turn his back on Luxa and the rest of his friends?

…Or was it that they had so little hope left that he was all they were clinging to?