Page 9 (1/2)

Chapter 9

"Echolocation?" Gregor said blankly "You're going to teachin a circular cave so but his ainst a wall Even for a rat, he had terrible posture When he fought, everything in his body seey and power The rest of the tior of one of those big baseball pitchers who kind of lu off their uniform buttons You wouldn't bet they couldto stop and catch their breath But put them on the pitcher's mound and they'd fire off a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball that left the batter cross-eyed

As if even slouching had been toothe wall of the cave "Yes, echolocation Tell me what you know about it"

"I know bats use it And dolphins, maybe It's like radar Theyand they can tell where it is without seeing it," said Gregor "But people can't do that I can't do that"

"Anybody can do it, to some extent In the Overland, some blind people use it with excellent results," said Ripred "The Underland huive it much attention, but in this, they are fools All the rest of us down here use it to soree"

"You or

"All of us Generations in the dark have helped the skill evolve But if you could master even the most rudimentary elements of it, echolocation would be invaluable to you," said Ripred "Say, for instance, if you lost your light in a cave with a rat" Gregor saw Ripred's tail co, and his hand lifted to block it, but the rat was ahead of him this tiht out of Gregor's hand and sent it spinning into the cave wall twenty feet away The bea them virtually in the dark

Ripred's voice startled hior whipped around and, from somewhere off to his left, Ripred whispered, "Over here now"

The flashlight caor's feet He picked it up and saw the rat was again slouching against the wall, on the far side of the cave froht had been

"So teachhiue off the roof of his mouth Then he had to listen very carefully to how it sounded It was supposed to sound differently when he directed it toward a cave wall than when he directed it at Ripred Then Ripred had hiht and click and listen and point it wherever it sounded like the rat ht be He really did try, but he'd only had about three hours of sleep in the last two days, plus all the craziness of being back in the Underland and the prophecy and the training and --

"Focus, Overlander! This could save your life!" Ripred snarled as Gregor miscalculated his position for the tenth time in a row

"This is stupid, Ripred -- it all sounds the saor snapped back "I can't do it, okay?"

"No, not okay You will practice Every tiet home, whenever you can," ordered Ripred "You may not master it, but clearly you can only improve!"

"Okay Fine I'll practice Are we done?" Gregor asked with some attitude He'd about had it with the rat

Suddenly Ripred's nose was inches froer

"Listen, Warrior," he hissed "One day you will find that it matters not if you can hit three thousand blood balls if you cannot locate one in the dark Understand?"

"Yeah," Gregor et out Ripred didn't or "For real"

"Good Now let's go get some sleep We're both done in," said Ripred

As they silently or wondered if Ripred would think twice about killing hiet his dad, Ripred had kept hior needed Ripred to find his dad Ripred needed Gregor to help defeat King Gorger so that he could be the leader of the rats soor for "The Prophecy of Bane" But when Gregor had stopped being of use to the rat, would he be expendable?

Gregor's feet dragged as he cliht his bedroom was It was very late here -- probably about the tiht -- and everyone was asleep He got lost and couldn't find anyone to give hiuard, he came upon the wooden door that shut off the room filled with Sandwich's prophecies

The door was cracked open This was strange; he thought they kept it locked all the time Someone must be inside He pushed the door open wider and stepped in "Hello? Anybody in here?"

At first he thought the room was empty The lamp was still lit under "The Prophecy of Bane," but no one appeared to be reading it Then he heard a faint rustling sound in the far corner, and she stepped into the light

"Oh!" Gregor juht of her was spooky He had only seen Nerissa Once She had been saying good-bye to her brother, Henry, as they left on the quest He reiven him a copy of "The Prophecy of Gray" to take on his journey Luxa had told hi

If she had been thin before, she was now eht Where Luxa had lilac circles under her eyes, Nerissa's were underscored with dark purple crescents Her hair, which fell down far below her waist, was loose and tangled Even though she rapped in a thick cloak, she acted like she was freezing