13
The tentative friendship between Wynnora and Howard was shattered, but at least they ignored each other instead of argued. Gregor's anger with Howard disappeared after he saw how upset the Underlander was. Now Gregor was just mad that he could not ride with Luxa. Instead he had to ride with his cousin who just mumbled curses at Howard in every language she knew. At least this time he got to ride with Hippolyta.
The company continued on at a leisurely pace for two days. Everyone got into a sort of routine. Luxa called for breaks, Howard distributed supplies, Lapblood kept the shiners quiet. During breaks Gregor tried to entertain himself by practicing his sword skills, but that was getting dull.
Now they were flying in a particularly narrow part of the tunnel, and Wynnora lay with her face straight down in Hipp, trying to imagine she was not underground. It left Gregor to entertain himself, so he looked over at Luxa who was riding with her cousin. He gave her an over exaggerated sigh of boredom. She him a sarcastic pout, probably meant to mean "aw poor thing." He stuck his tongue out at her in return, and she laughed out loud before clamping her hand over her mouth. Howard turned around.
"What are you laugh-"
Out of nowhere, a buzzer appeared from behind him and knocked him off Aurora. A dozen more buzzers appear from the darkness, then several more drop in from above. The fliers try to take evasive action, but the tunnel is too small for them to perform their best. Gregor remembers the last time he saw buzzers. They tried to assassinate Luxa, so his first thought is get to her. Wynnora has already dropped off Hipp onto Nike, like she practiced.
"Careful, Wynn!" he calls to her. "Hipp. Can you get me to Luxa?"
"Of course I can." The small tunnel allows the shiners' light to completely fill it. Gregor aims at wings with his sword, and severs three. Hipp is a great partner, and in no time he is near Luxa. Not that she needs help. Luxa and Aurora spin and dive flawlessly around the buzzers, and there do not seem to be many near her. Gregor looks down to dive attack a buzzer, sending his sword into its eye, and sees a swarm of them around Howard on the ground.
"We have to get to Howard!" he calls to Luxa. They try to make it down to her cousin, but the buzzers keep them divided. He cannot cut off wings anymore, because they will simply drop to Howard. Gregor decides to give into his rager senses completely. His sight narrows to kill shots. He leaps from Hipp, landing on a buzzer, and hacks its head off. As the creature falls, he rolls back to Hippolyta. She goes higher, and again he leaps to another buzzer. This time the buzzer tries to throw him off, and he must hold on long enough to stab its eye.
Luxa catches on, and follows suit leaping from buzzer to buzzer then back to Aurora. She is a lot faster and more graceful than Gregor, but does not deliver a kill shot as consistently as he does. Between the two of them, though, they are able to send the buzzers into retreat. If it were not for Hippolyta turning him around, Gregor would have followed to the creatures.
"Calm yourself, Gregor. They are retreating," Hipp says. Gregor shakes his head, and tries to focus.
"Right. Thanks, Hipp." She nods in return.
Hipp lands next to the rest of the group, and Gregor assesses the situation. The crawlers and gnawers had not caught up with everyone yet, so they were not in the fight. Gregor looks at the pile of wasp like bodies on the ground, and sees dozens of metal arrows in them. Wynnora is already collecting them.
"Get off, Gleam! This is my piece!" Lumis yells. They were fighting over a buzzer body, even though there are several to eat.
"I got to this one first! Find your own!"
"Quiet! Both of you! Or I shall add your bodies to our enemies'!" Luxa yells at them. She is kneeling beside her cousin, who holds his side in pain. "He must have broken a rib. Gregor, find the medical kit." Gregor finds it with Nike.
Besides Howard's broken rib, Nike has a small tear in her wing and Wynnora's hand is badly cut from her bow string. They help Howard first, then he sees to everyone's injuries, no matter how small. By the time they are finished, Lapblood returns with the other half of the expedition party. Luxa quickly explains what happens, and Whiptail shakes with fear. Though Gregor likes Whiptail well enough, he wonders why Ripred would pick such a scared gnawer. The crawlers eat some of the buzzer bodies while the shiners are not looking.
"Buzzers do not attack without reason," Lapblood says. "It must have been an assassination attempt."
"But Regalia is at peace. Who would want to kill me now?" Luxa asks.
"I'm not sure they were focused on you, Luxa," Gregor says. "Didn't you see them? A few kept us busy, but most of them were focused on Howard. That's who they attacked first. To separate him."
"That is ridiculous." Howard shakes his head. "There is no reason for anyone to want to assassinate me."
"Well it's either that, or they attack for no reason, because they didn't go after us," Lapblood says, clearly done with the conversation. "No sense in thinking about it now. We have maybe one day until we should find that cave. Then we go home. You will all have time to think about it on the journey back."