"This is no good!" shouted Gregor over the hissing. "They'll just keep up until we're beat!"
If only Ripred were here! Much as the rat infuriated Gregor, there was no better companion in a fight. Ripred would know how to get out of this alive!
Ripred ... Ripred ... what would he do? Gregor tried to picture the big scarred rat beside him at this moment. But he couldn't. Ripred wouldn't be standing in the cave mouth swatting at snakes. He would be, he would be ...
"I'm going to try something!" yelled Gregor. "Get the bats out if you can!"
And before Luxa could object, Gregor was slashing his way back to the rock. He had no more than an image in his head. The image of Ripred, fighting off the humans in the arena, shredding the plants that held the yellow pods, in battle with the ants. When he was far outnumbered, Ripred always relied on the same fighting technique. He spun. He spun in a circle so fast that no matter what adversary reached him, they would encounter his claws. Gregor had only one sword, but he had a torch and he was a much smaller target than Ripred. If he could just spin quickly enough ... !
The second Gregor's feet hit the rock they began to turn him in place. He spun with his sword in front, his torch straight behind his back. Faster and faster until there was only a blur of shooting heads, spurting blood, and twisting bodies. He stopped thinking, abandoned himself, and let his rager senses completely take over. At some point, the number of snakes lessened, but he did not let up. It was Luxa's sword, thrust out to block his own, that finally brought him back to reality. The clash of metal as their blades made contact had such force that he broke hers in two. The second he stopped spinning, he was reeling wildly around the clearing, overcome with dizziness. He crashed into the vines, which were entangled with headless snakes, and grabbed hold of anything he could as the world careened around him. It was one of the worst feelings he had ever experienced. He thought he vomited but could never clearly recollect the moment.
Then a pair of claws lifted him into the air and deposited him on Ares's back. "No," Gregor said. "Too dizzy."
"Hold fast to my fur!" ordered Ares. "We must be gone from here!"
Gregor clutched Ares's fur and just wished for the whole thing to be over.
Time passed. The world steadied. Ares landed somewhere and Luxa helped Gregor off the bat's back. Gregor sat on the ground and tried to get his bearings. Luxa held up cupped hands filled with water to his mouth, and he eagerly drank. His heart slowed down. He was all right. They were no longer in the jungle. Gregor gratefully felt the stone floor of the tunnel beneath him. He dipped his whole face into the cold stream, less to drink than to clear his head. When he sat up, feeling refreshed, the other three were staring at him uneasily.
"Are you ill?" asked Ares.
"No, not now," said Gregor. "I just got a little dizzy spinning around."
"Your mind ... it is calm?" asked Luxa tentatively.
"Think so," asked Gregor. "Actually, I feel pretty good." He did. Like when he'd run miles in track and then gotten a buzz. Only this was a much deeper sense of well-being. "Why?"
No one answered.
"What's wrong?" he said.
"When you fought, it was as if something had possessed you," said Aurora. "Your face changed. You made sounds that were not human."
"I was fighting off about a zillion snakes. It was just that rager thing," said Gregor.
"I have never seen it before," said Aurora. "Except when you hit the blood balls, but that was not the same."
When Gregor thought back, he realized that was true. Aurora had never been around when he was actually in battle. "Well, that's how I always get. Tell her, Luxa."
"No, Gregor, it was different this time," said Luxa. "Not like when I saw you fight the cutters."
"How?" asked Gregor. It had not felt that different to him. He'd felt a little more in control for a while.
Luxa chose her next words carefully. "You seemed ... to be enjoying it."
"What? Well, I wasn't!" Gregor said. "And that's a really rotten thing to say."
"I did not mean to —" Luxa began.
"Let's just go home," he said. They scrubbed the gore from their skin in silence and mounted the bats. Not until he was up on Ares's back, away from Luxa and Aurora, did Gregor dare to ask, "What did I do?"
"You fought magnificently. You will one day be every bit the warrior that Ripred is," said Ares.
"See, that's what I was thinking about. How would Ripred get us out of there? That's how I came up with the spin!" said Gregor excitedly, and then stopped. Why was he excited? The whole thing had been a terrible, bloody encounter. It must just be the relief of having survived it. Or was it something else? "Why did Luxa say that about me enjoying it?"
"Because, as the fight progressed, you began to smile," said Ares.
"I smiled?" said Gregor. His skin crawled at the thought. At home, he never got involved in fights unless he was forced to. He had never liked physical violence and had a low opinion of kids who did. It sickened him to hit another person. "I smiled?"
"Overlander, do not make too much of this. Everyone knows being a rager is not a choice," said Ares. "Only it took us by surprise to see you so. As we know you do not revel in death."
Gregor didn't say another word the rest of the trip to Regalia.
They had left the torches in the jungle. Gregor ripped the duct tape off his arm and returned the flashlight to his belt, flipping it off. He wanted darkness to hide in while he tried to understand this new thing that had happened to him. But he didn't understand it. His postbattle exhilaration drained away, leaving him feeling empty and quietly afraid of himself.
He had a desperate desire to see Ripred, to talk to the only other rager he knew about what he had just experienced. But he had no idea where to find the rat. Ripred had taken off after the Bane; they could be anywhere....
It was only when Gregor and Luxa were climbing back into the old nursery that he realized he had another problem.
"Listen," whispered Luxa, grabbing his arm. Footsteps were coming down the hall. They had been gone all night and well into the day. Both Gregor's mother and the Regalian council would freak out if they knew about the secret trip.
"Lose your weapon," Luxa told Gregor. They both quickly unhooked their belts and set them down on the stairs. Luxa flipped the turtle's shell closed, shoved Gregor onto an old pallet, and dove onto one about ten feet away. "Sleep," she told Gregor, and immediately pretended to do so herself.
Gregor had just flattened out and shut his eyes when the footsteps stopped at the door.
"Did Mareth have them check the old nursery?" he heard Vikus's voice say.
"I do not think this wing was checked at all. It is so rarely used," Howard replied.
"I believe I see a light," said Vikus. Gregor had switched on his flashlight so he and Luxa could climb into the nursery and never thought to turn it off. Too late now, though. He could hear Vikus and Howard entering the room.
Vikus gave a chuckle of relief. "Ah, here they are. Slept the whole night here by the looks of it. Luxa, awaken," he said softly.
Gregor felt Howard's hand give his shoulder a shake. "And you, Gregor. Before the council sends out the army to find you."
"What?" said Gregor in his best sleepy tone. He sat up and gave a fake yawn. "What's going on?"
Luxa rubbed her eyes and blinked up at her grandfather in confusion. "Oh. Have we been here all night? I was showing Gregor the nursery. He started telling some endless tale about his bravery in the Labyrinth. I must have dozed off."