Chapter 27
There was anger and argument and a lot of talk about the law, but in the end, they couldn't banish Ares. The fact that Gregor bonded with the bat carried more weight than he had expected.
One old man still dug furiously through his scrolls until Vikus said to him, "Oh, stop rattling your skins, we clearly have no precedent for this."
Gregor turned to his new bat. "Well, I probably won't be here much longer."
"It matters not," said Ares. "While I have flight, I will be here always for you."
As soon as things settled down, Gregor made a bee-line for the hospital. He braced himself before entering his dad's room, fearing he might have relapsed, but when he went in, a happy scene awaited him. His dad was sitting up in bed laughing as Boots tried to feed him cookies.
"Hey, Dad," he said with a smile.
"Oh, Gregor ...," said his dad, beaming at him. His dad held out his arms, and Gregor rushed into them and held on tightly. He could have stayed there forever, but Boots was tugging on them.
"No, Ge-go, Da-da eat cookie," she said.
"The nurse told her to make me eat, and she takes her job very seriously," said his father with a smile.
"You feel okay?" asked Gregor, not letting go.
"Oh, a few square meals, I'll be as good as new," said his dad. They both knew it wasn't that simple. Life would never be the same again, but they would have their life back, and they would have it together.
Gregor spent the next few hours just hanging out with his dad, Boots, and Temp, who came in to check on the princess. He wouldn't have asked his dad about his ordeal, but he seemed eager to talk. "That night, the night I fell, I couldn't sleep. I went down to the laundry room to play a little saxophone. I didn't want to wake anybody."
"We fell from there, too!" said Gregor. "Through the air duct."
"Right. The metal grate just started banging up and down out of nowhere," said his dad. "When I went to check it out, I got sucked right down here. See, they have this strange phenomenon with the air currents...." And his dad went on for twenty minutes about the scientific aspects of the current. Gregor didn't know what he was talking about, but it was great just to listen to him.
"I was in Regalia for a couple of weeks and I was just going crazy missing you all. So, one night I tried to escape with a couple of flashlights and a BB gun I found in the museum. Rats got me before I made it to the Waterway," said his dad, shaking his head.
"How come they let you live?" asked Gregor.
"It wasn't me. It was the gun. After I ran out of ammo, they closed in on me. One of them asked about the gun, so I just started talking a blue streak about it. I convinced them I could make them, so they decided to keep me alive. I spent my time making weapons that I could use, but that fell apart when the rats touched them. A crossbow, a catapult, a battering ram. Lucky thing you showed up when you did, I think they were beginning to suspect I was never going to make them anything that worked twice," said his dad.
"I don't know how you stood it," said Gregor.
"I just never stopped believing I'd get home again," said his dad. A cloud came over him, and he had a lot of trouble getting the next question out. "So, how's your mom?"
"Probably not too good right now," said Gregor. "But she'll be fine once we get you back."
His dad nodded. "And you?"
Gregor didn't talk about any of the bad stuff, just the easy stuff. He told his dad about track and school and playing his saxophone at Carnegie Hall. He never mentioned spiders or rats or what he'd been through since his dad had disappeared.
They spent the afternoon playing with Boots, trying to make each other eat and often, without any particular reason, reaching out to touch each other.
Dulcet showed up eventually and insisted Boots and his dad needed rest, so Gregor wandered off into the palace feeling happier than he had in two years, seven months, and he no longer cared how many days. He was done with the rule now. For good. Even if times got bad, he would never again deny himself the possibility that the future might be happy even if the present was painful. He would allow himself dreams.
As he was making his way back to his bed, he passed the room he'd been taken to as a prisoner the night he'd tried to escape Regalia. Vikus was sitting at the table alone, surrounded by piles of scrolls and maps. His face lit up when he saw Gregor, and he waved him into the chamber.
"Come, come, we have not yet spoken since your arrival," he said eagerly. "How does your father?"
"Better. Much better," said Gregor, sitting across from Vikus.
"And the princess?" said Vikus with a smile.
"She's good. No more fever," said Gregor.
For a minute they just sat there, not sure where to begin.
"So, Warrior ... you leaped," said Vikus.
"Yeah, I guess I did," said Gregor, grinning. "Lucky Ares was there."
"Lucky for Ares, too," said Vikus. "Lucky for us all. Know you the rats are in retreat?"
"Mareth told me," said Gregor.
"I believe the war will soon be at an end," said
Vikus. "The rats have begun to battle one another for their throne."
"What about Ripred?" said Gregor.
"I have heard from him. He is assembling a party of rats sympathetic to his cause in the Dead Land. It will not be an easy task to take leadership of the rats. He must first convince them that peace is desirable, and that will be a long struggle. Still, he is not an easy rat to ignore," said Vikus.
"I'll say," said Gregor. "Even other rats are afraid to fight him."
"With good reason. No one can defend themselves against him," said Vikus. "Ah, that reminds me. I have something for you. Several times on the journey you made mention of your lack of a sword. The council asks me to present you with this."
Vikus reached beneath the table and brought out a long object wrapped in very thick silk. Gregor unrolled it and found a stunningly beautiful sword, studded with jewels.
"It belonged to Bartholomew of Sandwich himself. It is the wish of my people that you accept it," said Vikus.
"I can't take this," said Gregor. "I mean, it's too much, and besides, my mom won't even let me have a pocketknife." This was true. On Gregor's tenth birthday his uncle had sent him a pocketknife with about fifteen attachments, and his mom had put it away until he was twenty-one.
"I see," said Vikus. He was watching Gregor carefully. "Perhaps if your father kept it for you, she would allow it."
"Maybe. But there's another thing ... ," said Gregor. But he didn't know how to say the other thing, and it was the main reason he didn't want to touch the object in front of him. It had to do with Tick and Treflex and Gox; it had to do with all the creatures he'd seen lying motionless on his trip back. It even had to do with Henry and the rats. Maybe he just wasn't smart enough, maybe he just didn't understand. But it seemed to Gregor that there must have been some way to fix things so that everybody hadn't ended up dead.
"I pretended to be the warrior so I could get my dad. But I don't want to be a warrior," said Gregor. "I want to be like you."
"I have fought in many battles, Gregor," said Vikus cautiously.
"I know, but you don't go looking for them. You try to work things out every other way you can think of first. Even with the spiders. And Ripred," said Gregor. "Even when people think you're wrong, you keep trying.".
"Well, then, Gregor, I know the gift I would wish to give you, but you can only find it yourself," said Vikus.