Someone yanked him up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Hamnet. His face bounced against the reptile skin shirt as Hamnet ran. They were back to the campsite in a minute. Gregor could feel his boots being tugged from his feet. His socks stripped off. Water gushed on his toes.
"Hazard! Hold this water bag!" said Hamnet.
There was a pause while the bag changed hands and then more water running over his feet.
Gregor saw Nike a few yards away. "I am all right. I am fine," she was telling Hamnet, who was examining her leg.
"The bone to your claw has been snapped in two. I do not call that fine," said Hamnet.
Someone was crashing through the vines, no longer worried about what he damaged. Ripred dragged Lapblood into the camp by the scruff of her neck. The minute he released her, she tried to crawl back in the direction they'd come.
"Mange..." she said.
"He's dead, Lapblood!" snarled Ripred. Lapblood kept moving until Ripred flipped her over on her back and pinned her to the ground.
"He's dead! I killed the plant that did it! The pod opened and what was left of his carcass fell out! Believe me, he's dead! And the rest of you should be as well!" shouted Ripred. "Who started this? Whose brilliant idea was it to leave the camp?"
The rat turned his focus on Nike, perhaps because she seemed best able to answer, but she remained silent.
"Not Nike," said Gregor. "She only came to rescue us."
"So, was it you?" Ripred's muzzle poked in Gregor's face.
"Mange smelled food. Lapblood and I went to help him look. We didn't know..." Gregor got out.
"Didn't know what? That the plants here could kill? You'd been told! You'd been warned! How can I keep you alive if you won't even listen! All you had to do was lie here and drink water! And you couldn't even do that!" fumed the rat.
"Enough, Ripred. Let me patch them up," said Hamnet.
"Oh, yes, patch them up. So they can hatch some stunning new plan to save the day. Worthless pack of fools," said Ripred. "You could have gotten us all killed, you know! Following one stupid idea like that, that's all it takes! Good-bye us, good-bye cure, goodbye Underland!"
"Enough!" said Hamnet. "Just sit over there and calm down."
Ripred moved off by himself but did not calm down much. He would mutter to himself for a while and then unleash a volley of insults at Gregor and Lapblood. Mutter, unleash, mutter, unleash. It went on for quite a while.
Hamnet sent Hazard over to pour water on Lapblood's eye. It had been splashed with pod acid. He got the medical pack and daubed Gregor's toes with a blue ointment and then bandaged them with white fabric.
"Does it hurt?" asked Hamnet.
"Not really," said Gregor. There was a strange, almost electric sensation on the tops of his toes. That was all.
"Well, it will," said Hamnet, shaking his head.
"The water's almost gone," said Hazard.
"I will get another bag," said Hamnet. He stood up and looked around. "Nike, where are the water bags?"
"With the plants. The vines ripped them from my back," said Nike.
"Stop!" Hamnet whipped around and caught Hazard's wrist, but it was too late. The last trickle of water was drizzling out of the bag.
"What is it, Father?" asked Hazard, puzzled. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No. No, you did what I asked," said Hamnet, running his hand over Hazard's curls. "It is just...the water. This was our last bag."
CHAPTER 18
"What?" said Ripred.
"Nike lost the water bags when she went to help the others. We used the remainder of this one on the acid burns," said Hamnet.
"No water. Just exactly how long do you think we'll last without that?" asked Ripred.
Hamnet shook his head. "Not long. It will take another couple of days before we will near fresh spring water. We will simply have to do our best."
"I have some water." Gregor pushed himself up to a sitting position and reached for his backpack. He pulled out the quart of glacier water. "It's not much, I know."
"It is a great deal, Gregor, if it keeps the pups from dying of thirst. They will be most vulnerable as they will dehydrate the fastest," said Hamnet, taking the bottle. "The rest of us will have to do without."
Gregor nodded. Of course the water should go to Boots and Hazard. He was okay, anyway. He'd chugged down a lot before they'd left in search of food. He could get by.
"Did you two find any food?" he asked hopefully.
"No, nothing wholesome," said Hamnet.
"Mange said the fruit we found was edible. He could smell it was okay," said Gregor.
"Oh, why don't I just pop back and grab us a bushel or two?" said Ripred in disgust.
"Well, at least we have your water," Hamnet said almost kindly. "That may make all the difference. It was good thinking, to pack it."
"Mareth put it in. He said pure water wouldn't be easy to find," said Gregor.
"Mareth?" said Hamnet. "Has he managed to stay alive all these years?"
"Yeah, he lost his leg, though. On the trip to get the Bane," said Gregor. He realized Mareth and Hamnet must be about the same age. "Were you guys friends?"
"Yes," said Hamnet. He turned the bottle of water over in his hands, but didn't elaborate.
It was on the tip of Gregor's tongue to ask why Hamnet had left Regalia, where he had family, where he had friends, to live out in this dangerous, lonely place. What was it he had said when Vikus had asked him what he could do here that he couldn't do in Regalia? "I do no harm. I do no more harm." Gregor hadn't paid much attention to that at the moment. But the words had been enough to send Vikus back to his bat without further discussion. What harm had Hamnet done? It was hard to imagine.
Hamnet rose and put the water with the medical supplies. "I know everyone is spent, but I believe we must keep moving if we are to reach water in time. Can you manage?" he asked Gregor.
"He can manage," hissed Ripred. "So can Lapblood. And I better not hear any complaints out of either of them."
Hamnet anointed Lapblood's eye with medicine. For Nike's leg he made a splint with strips of stone and fabric. But when he tried to give her a dose of pain medicine from a large green bottle, she refused. "I do not want to muddy my thoughts. Not in here." Hamnet tried to talk her into it, but she was adamant. "All right. We may need your head clear. But you will ride on Frill," he instructed the bat.
"I can fly," said Nike.
"You can fly, but you cannot land well. The foliage is getting too thick for easy access to the ground. Ride, Nike. And try to sleep," said Hamnet.
Gregor helped Hamnet position Nike lying flat on her back atop Frill. They had to secure her with strips of bandages so she wouldn't roll off.
"I'm sorry about all this," Gregor told her.
"But why?" said the bat cheerfully. "Now I get to take a lovely nap while the rest of you walk. I should be thanking you."
Somehow, her being such a great bat made Gregor feel even guiltier about her injury.
Hazard climbed up in front of her onto Frill's neck and curled up in the folds on the ruff to go back to sleep. When Gregor laid Boots on her stomach on Temp's back she didn't even stir. He hoped she would sleep for a good long time. With no food and precious little water, he didn't know how he'd handle her.
His boots had been ruined by the acid. As Gregor was looking down at his bare feet, his bandaged toes, and wondering how he'd walk, Hamnet peeled off his reptile-skin shoes. "Here, Gregor. You must wear these," he said.
"What will you wear?" asked Gregor.