Page 24 (1/2)

Chapter 24

After they had flown for a while, Gregor reh the tunnel "You want to find a place and take a nap?" he asked "I can keep watch" But even as he spoke, he yawned He hadn't had ely wakeful," said Ares "Why do you not sleep while we fly? I will rouse you when I have need of rest"

"Okay, thanks" Gregor stretched out on Ares's back The fur was daor's clothes were in no better condition Beneath the fur was the warmth of Ares's body He closed his eyes and let oblivion take over

Ares let hi hih in the rocks of a cavern The bat conked out ior with a fe fish

Gregor picked up one of the fish and ripped off a strip of skin with his teeth Then he took a bite of the coldneat pieces away froor didn't have a knife or even a sword now And what did it e, he felt like he was in a ti into raw flesh, just trying to get the life-sustaining calories into his body That must have been a hard life Of course, his oasn't exactly a picnic

He thought longingly of rich, fatty foods Mrs Corna, loaded with cheese and sauce and noodles Chocolate cake with thick frosting Mashed potatoes and gravy He ripped off a stubborn piece of fish with a grunt It didn't take long, he thought, to erase hundreds of thousands of years of change if you were hungry

Gregor wiped his hands on his pants and leaned back against the stone He found hiht beae, dark place He was down to his last set of batteries If they ran out, he'd be entirely dependent on Ares to get hi? He was already entirely dependent on the bat In fact, it didn't really seem fair Ares kept theor didn't feel like he'd really been holding up his end of this bond thing

"So, stop staring at your flashlight and keep an eye out for trouble!" he thought Disgusted with hi new Still, he had to get better about being on watch Howard had said there were tricks to keeping your or did his multiplication tables for a while; that seemed to help Next he tried to remember the capitals of all fifty states But that only lasted for, well, fifty states Finally, he forced hi: the number of days he'd been in the Underland

It was alalia less than two days before they'd set sail on the Waterway, he was pretty sure of that He thought someone had said the trip to the Labyrinth was about five days Then another day or two until he met up with Ripred? Nine days? Ten?

His faht around Christor went back to his multiplication tables

When Ares woke up, there was ain They followed the sa while Ares flew, Ares sleeping while Gregor kept watch, until finally Gregor awoke to the words, "Overlander, we are here"

They were not hter than any he'd encountered for days He slid off Ares's back onto a polished stone floor and looked around They were in the High Hall It was completely e

"Where is everybody?" asked Gregor

"I do not know But if there is ," replied Ares "I believe it is co a few corridors and caor had never seen before The floor sloped down slightly, like a movie theater, and was filled with rows and rows of stone benches The place was packed with bats and humans, ere dressed a lot fancier than usual Many people held objects wrapped in cloth and tied with ribbons Presents, e stone throne at the far end of the roo on the throne

They had cleaned her up for the occasion Her unkempt hair had been worked into elaborate braids and piled on top of her head A jewel-tri loosely off her bony shoulders Vikus stood behind her He was reciting soold crown onto her head It was hard to i sadder than they did at this or

"A coronation They are crowning Nerissa queen," Ares said softly

Luxa had been right If she died, Nerissa would be crowned, and not Vikus, and his fauess Howard and those guys got back," said Gregor How else would they know that Luxa was dead?

"So it would seem," said Ares

If Mareth had survived, he would be down in the hospital, but Howard and Androor looked around the hall but couldn't find the just as he settled the crown on Nerissa's head and released it Her thin neck bent forward under the weight, and Gregor thought how ill-suited she was to be queen of this violent, warring place Whether she was mentally unstable or actually could see the future wasn't the issue The girl was too weak to hold up her head with a crown on it The ior's eyes Whether she wanted to be queen or not, there was no doubt in his one now