"Did they make any mention of my granddaughter?" asked Vikus. "Queen Luxa?"
"Run you, Queen Luxa said, run you," said Pend. "Many gnawers, there were. Temp said no more."
Vikus reached out and fumbled with Boots's hair. "Temp seepy," she said. "He shut eyes. I ride flutterfly." She looked around. "Where Temp?"
"He's still sleeping, Boots," said Gregor. Sleeping like Tick was sleeping, probably.
"Shh," Boots said, putting her finger to her lips.
Someone had wakened Dulcet. When she tried to take Boots out of Gregor's arms, he resisted. "It is all right, Gregor. I will bathe her and bring her back directly," said Dulcet. Since it was Dulcet, he made his hands let go.
He followed Vikus to the dining room, where they'd last eaten with Ripred, and they both took a seat. Gregor tried to piece it together in his head.
"It seems," Vikus said at last, "they did not perish in the Tankard."
"No," said Gregor. "But Twitchtip was sure there was water between us, and they didn't answer Ares."
After a while, Dulcet came in with a clean and shiny Boots. Vikus sent for food. Gregor held her on his lap while she gobbled up enough dinner for ten toddlers.
"Boots," said Gregor, "you know when we saw the big..." He didn't know what to call those things. "Serpents" wasn't a word she knew. "Those big dinosaurs."
"I no like," said Boots. "I no like dinosaws."
"Me, either," said Gregor. "But remember when we saw them. And they knocked us off the bat. And Luxa caught you and Temp. Where did you go?"
"Oh, I swim. Too cold. I bump head," Boots said, rubbing the top of her head.
Gregor separated her curls with his fingers. He could see little scrape marks on the delicate skin of her scalp. Where had she been? Not in the Tankard. "Was it a big pool, Boots?"
"Baby pool," said Boots. "I bump head."
Gregor suddenly remembered the tunnel Twitchtip had been guiding them to. The one half under water. If Luxa had dived for that tunnel and made it, the entrance soon would have been flooded with the waves churned up by the serpents. Maybe that was the water between them. At some point they all must have been floating in water, or Boots wouldn't have said she'd been swimming. How had they kept from drowning? Then he remembered the life jackets. Boots was not wearing hers when she came in, but she had had it on at the Tankard.
He told his theory to Vikus. "Yes, something of that nature must have occurred. But then they would have been trapped in the Labyrinth," said Vikus. "Boots, did you see rats?"
Boots put her hand to her nose. "Ow," she said. At first Gregor thought she had hurt her nose, but when she said, "Bandidge. No touch. I no touch it. Ow," he knew.
"Twitchtip found them. Or they found her," he said. "Was it Twitchtip, Boots? With the bandage?"
"I no touch. Ow," Boots confirmed, pressing her nose.
"And then what happened, Boots?" asked Gregor. "What did you do with Twitchtip? Did you see more rats?"
"Temp give Boots ride. Fast ride!" Boots said, but that was all they could get out of her.
"They were attacked, no doubt, by gnawers. Luxa told Temp to run with Boots, then stayed to fight with Aurora and perhaps Twitchtip," said Vikus. "I am sure their odds were not good." Gregor was sure their odds had been next to zero, but he tried to be encouraging. "Well, if they had Twitchtip, they could get out of the maze, Vikus. Or maybe the rats wanted to keep them alive and took them prisoner. Like they did my dad. I mean, she's a queen, she's important."
Maybe Gregor shouldn't have said that, because the idea of what the rats might do to Luxa if she was their prisoner was almost scarier than thinking of her dead. He thought of his dad, waking up screaming from nightmares...
Vikus nodded, but his eyes shone with tears.
"The point is...the point is...we don't know," said Gregor. "A lot of things could have happened to them. And remember the gift you wanted to give me? The last time I was here?"
"Hope," whispered Vikus.
"Yeah. Don't give that up yet, okay?" said Gregor.
"I done," Boots said, pushing her plate off the table and watching with satisfaction as it banged to the floor. "I done."
"Well, if you are done, Boots, how would you like to go home?" said Vikus.
"Ye-es!" said Boots. "I go home!"
"I can stay, Vikus. Or I can take Boots home and come back and help you look for Luxa and —" Gregor started, but Vikus cut him off.
"No, Gregor. No. If they are dead, there is nothing any of us can do. If they are held prisoner, it will likely be months before we can locate them. In that time, who knows? They could reverse Nerissa's verdict and execute you. If I have need of you, believe me, I will find some way to send for you," said Vikus. "For now, you must go home. You have worries of your own there, yes?"
Well, yes. Gregor had worries wherever he was.
In about half an hour they were down on the dock, dressed in their own clothes, climbing on Ares's back. The only ones who had come to see them off were Vikus, Andromeda, Howard, and Nerissa.
"Give my best to Mareth," Gregor said to Andromeda.
"Yes, Overlander. He would wish you well also," said the bat.
Gregor turned to Howard. "If you hear anything about Luxa and the others, let me know. My laundry room's right at the top of one of those gateways. Ares knows which one. Leave me a note or something, okay?"
"I will get word to you," said Howard.
To his surprise, Nerissa tucked a scroll in his coat pocket. "The prophecy. So you can reflect on it sometimes."
Gregor shook his head. "I don't think I can forget it, Nerissa. But thanks." What did she think he was going to do? Take it home and frame it?
Vikus handed him a flashlight, a large package in the shape of a cuckoo clock, and a silk bag that held a heavy stone jar. "Medicine," he said. "For your father. The instructions are written inside."
"Oh, good!" said Gregor. Maybe they had something down here that could cure his dad. He gave Vikus a hug. "Hang in there, okay, Vikus?"
"Yes. Fly you high, Gregor the Overlander," said Vikus.
"Fly you high," said Gregor.
"See you soon!" Boots said as they took off, but there was no response from the dock. Last time, he had been horrified to think that they would ever return. Now, with Luxa and the others on his mind, he felt reluctant to leave.
"You let me know!" he called to them, but if anyone answered, he couldn't hear them. Ares carried them down the river, across the Waterway, up through the tunnels, and back to the foot of the steep staircase that led to Central Park. He climbed off the bat's back with Boots.
"You going to be okay?" he asked Ares.
"As well as you," said Ares. "Fly you high, Gregor the Overlander."
Gregor lifted his hand to grasp Ares's extended claw. "Fly you high, Ares the Flier."
Ares took off into the dark of the tunnel, and Gregor and Boots headed up the stairs.
It took a little while to move the rock — it had frozen into place — but finally Gregor was able to wiggle it loose. It was night. The park was empty. Lamplight shone down on the foot of snow that covered the ground. It was beautiful.
"Sedding? We go sedding?" asked Boots.
"Not now, Boots," said Gregor. "Maybe another time." If he could find another park with a hill. He'd never bring her back here.
They caught a taxi. New York City was ablaze with Christmas decorations and lights. "Do you know the date today?" he asked the driver, who tapped on a cheap block calendar on the dashboard. December 23. They hadn't missed it. They would all be home for Christmas. And that idea, which had been so impossible a few hours before, made him feel like the luckiest person alive.