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"Just one, I think," said Ares "It is hard to tell The path spirals" His chin jerked up again This ti hied froor knehy

"It's the Bane," he whispered to Ares The bat gave a nod of agreement It had to be The other rats would si hunted By a human By an Overlander By the warrior

The words of "The Prophecy of Bane" ca down below,

Rat of long-forgotten snow,

Evil cloaked in coat of white

Will the warrior drain your light?

Yes, he would That hat the warrior had come to do

There was another faint scratch It was in there then Just a few feet away Waiting

The tunnel h and four feet wide There would be no flying in on Ares The Bane must know that It wanted to lure hior slid the pack off his shoulders and onto the ground He didn't want anything restricting his ht; it was already on high beaan tocaht hi out," said Gregor

"Wait, then," said Ares

"For what? Another bunch of rats to show up?" said Gregor

Ares dropped his wing reluctantly

"Look, I've got a feeling it was supposed to be this way, anyway Like I was supposed to do it alone," said Gregor "But you be ready, because after I kill it, we've got to get out of here fast Okay?"

"I will be ready," said Ares He extended his claw, and Gregor grasped it with his hand

Then Gregor turned to the tunnel In the dozen paces it took hi into rager htened senses, the rush of adrenaline, the selective vision Everyto kill

He moved swiftly inside and almost immediately encountered the spiral Ares had mentioned Another corkscrew-like path With his bad hand tracking along the wall and his good one leading with his sword, he went around one, two, three full turns and burst out into a square cha to hide frolimpse of white fur, a flash of pink tail in a cave off to the side of the chaht of Luxa, ould never be queen, of Twitchtip bleeding on the ground, of his dad crying on the phone, and of Bootssweet, trusting Boots

Heart pounding, blind to everything except that patch of fur, he lunged toward the cave He raised the hilt in the air, flipping the sword so it would coood one, and with every ounce of strength he drove the blade toward the Bane

But just before the point or like a cannonball

"Ma-maa!"