Page 19 (1/2)

PART 3: The Warrior

Chapter 19

Lizzie flipped over the strip of fabric and wrote the alphabet on the blank side as the words turae Then all you would need is one key word and a really simple code and the rats could still keep it in their heads"

"And you think it's 'Gregor'?" asked Ripred

"It's the word I saw," said Lizzie

"It would be a good choice You could reer,'" said Heronian

"It is even easier," said Reflex "The words only require four letters: G-O-R-E 'Gore' One needs only to reore"

"Yes," said Lizzie "Yes So the G, O, R, and E stay the same" She wrote these letters above themselves on the alphabet

E G O R

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

"And noe use a cipher so siet it," said Daedalus

"Single shift, be the sile shift," said Min

Lizzie nodded and began to fill in the letters

"A is represented by B, B is C, C is D, D would be F because the E reh Lizzie ay ahead of her Her aqualetters

BCDFEHGIJKLMNPOQSRTUVWXYZA ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

"Try it! Go on, try it!" said Ripred, thrusting an unbroken strip of code before Lizzie

Lizzie's hands were treers -- arrive -- at -- caalia Tunnel -- under way" For a moment, they all just sat there, stunned at their success

"That's old We need the latest transmissions" Ripred ran to the door "Fresh code! Fresh code!" he called He bounded back to Lizzie, scooped her up with his nose, and tossed her in the air He spun half-way around and caught her so she landed on his back "A letter can be itself!"

Lizzie was laughing as she flung her arms around his neck "A letter can be itself! A letter can be itself!"

And suddenly the whole code teaan to shoot lines of silk around the roo up heaps of code with his wings and flinging them in the air Heronian leaped back and forth over Ripred and Lizzie And even old Min had geared up into some creaky old cockroach dance

Boots was in heaven, running here and there, spinning in the strea on Temp's back "A letter can be yourself! A letter can be yourself!" she crowed

"Yes, a letter can be yourself, you clueless little thing," said Ripred But he was happy Joyful even Hazard wrapped his arht? Now that they've broken the code?"

"It will be better at least, Hazard," Luxa said, hugging hior, he could tell she was thinking of the rest of the prophecy Of his death

"Everything's going to be just fine, Hazard," said Gregor The last thing he wanted to do was crush this moment of victory with his own troubles "Good job, Liz!" he said, high-fiving his sister

"It was all of us," said Lizzie "And Hazard, too He's the one who o tell the nibblers the code is broken? I ahten their hearts," Hazard said

"No!" said Ripred, suddenly serious "No one outside of this room must knoe have broken the code I will personally inform Solovet The rest of you must swear to secrecy"

All the code teah he thought Hazard was right and that the newswohtly rolled bundles of code The code teaes Despite the general exciteain But Ripred had other work for hior, Luxa, Hazard, Boots, and Tees, just in case there had been anything of value in theor was able to lie down again, anyway They had to do two passes on each strip of code, one to write it as the alphabet, the second to decrypt it with the Code of Claw Most of the es were old news -- updates on the battle to free the nibblers, the alliance with the diggers, the Bane's location -- but some yielded important information in terms of which species had sided or not sided with the Bane The cockroaches had not, the spiders were trying to remain neutral (so Reflex's presence here erous to try to approach the ants Gregor found it difficult to believe the ants would join either the humans or the rats They had made it very clear they wanted both species dead Probably nothing pleased the old war between the two

Try as he or could not keep his eyes open At one point Luxa whispered, "Sleep, ill or just let hi was quiet Luxa, Hazard, and Boots were asleep on the bed across froently on the floor Ripred o back to sleep, but his back and hip hurt He was hungry again, too He es and went into the code room Lizzie and Ripred were asleep on the floor, as they'd been the other night Ripred opened one bleary eye, took hior went over to the food cart and rooted around for a snack He found a tureen half-filled with lukewarm beef stew and finished it off His stoor wished Hoould coht of the wounded, and his shoes sticking to the bloody floor of the High Hall, he kneard hadn't had a second to do it He could send a ain, they were so busy just keeping people alive he felt like a wi the the care she needed? Or was the hospital there as overwhelrand down here to rescue theh to keep hi to wish on his dad but it was better than having hiht down into the jaws of the rats

He poured ato bed He wasn't really tired now, anyway Might as well rid was covered with the latest es all neatly transcribed in Lizzie's aquaover baskets Gregor grabbed a handful of strips and settled himself down to work It was mostly the same-old sao And then out of nowhere cae:

// |||\ |\\ // |/ / // |\\ \| ||\ |\\ \ ||\ |\\ \\\| |\\ // He wrote it as the alphabet:

UXJUDIUJQ FJEF JP QJU

And then applied the Code of Claw using Lizzie's system The words stabbed him in the heart

Twitchtip Memories of the rat swam before his eyes Her nose buried in the moss of the arena because the smell of humans made her ill The desperate look on her face as she spun around in the whirlpool Her claws digging into his life jacket, as she choked out, "Don't -- let -- go!" And he hadn't let go He had risked his life to save an outcast rat when no one else would bother to try And then they were friends, despite the rat/huer She had given Boots food She had dragged herself through the rats' or find the Bane, then forced hiht away The rats had kept her alive in a pit and probably tortured and starved her while they tried to extract inforor And finally, only recently, she'd left the world As alone as ever The tears splashing down on the words surprised hi time Not for his mom or Ares or the mice or Thalia or Luxa, or even for himself when he knew about the prophecy It was just that it had all been so awful, Twitchtip's life Banished to the Dead Land because of her re alone in that harsh world before she finally, desperately, had tea to death in theinto the hands of the rats who hated her for being a scent seer and then hated her even ht now" Ripred was looking over his shoulder at the or's voice was harsh, but low, because he didn't want to wake everyone to see hione back for her"