A HENRY STORY 2: Trials Of The Fallen Prince

III. Familiar Strangers

"It is time for us to go to bed. If I am not gravely mistaken, we will have a long and arduous day ahead of us tomorrow."

Gregor looked up at Hamnet from where he had sketched the starshade with the charred vine. Hamnet gave him a smile, then moved over to the fire to extinguish it, and Gregor's eyes met Luxa on his other side instead. In the month since they had separated, her hair had grown to touch her shoulders; it fell freely, held back only by the crown she still wore. Gregor looked at her and asked himself how someone could mature so much in such a short time. It was not only the scar; her entire face was leaner, more hardened, and she had lost weight. But she didn't look bad. On the contrary, her pale skin looked almost like it glowed in the dim light of the lake.

"I believe Aurora and I should sleep here as well tonight." Her voice competed with the loud rushing of the waterfall, and she took a step toward Hamnet. "Can we bring her here? I am certain she will feel easier with another flier by her side." Her gaze met the peacefully dozing Nike.

Hamnet rose back up and nodded. "Certainly." His gaze trailed toward Gregor. "Will you come and help us?"

"Sure." Gregor sighed and, despite his overwhelming fatigue, got up. He regarded Boots, who had curled up with Hazard and Temp on Frill's back; they were nearly invisible between the dense vines that bordered the clearing. Then Lapblood, a little offside. With all his might, he hoped that she had recovered a little from yesterday's experience with the quicksand. For a moment, Gregor was confused when he didn't find Ripred, then he remembered Hamnet had sent him to gather more food after their last attempt to decipher the Prophecy of Blood.

Gregor turned back to the curtain of vines that concealed the mouse colony and silently followed Luxa and Hamnet in. He could hardly believe they had already spent more than a day here; it seemed like they had just arrived. Here, in this place that couldn't feel more like a haven, shielded from the rest of the slumbering death trap that was the Underland jungle.

Then again—his mind wandered back to the beginning of their journey: the Arch of Tantalus and their first encounter with Hamnet, the episode with Boots and the frogs, the plant that had eaten Mange and taken their water, and the chaotic blur that had followed—how much time had passed since he had arrived back in the Underland?

Gregor sighed, trying hard not to begin counting days again—the days he had spent in the Underland so far. They had to have been traveling for less than a week, but he couldn't tell exactly; his memory after losing the water was fragmented and vague. Maybe that was for the best.

Why didn't he want to count the days? Gregor asked himself when he stepped into the little chamber where Aurora had spent the last weeks. Despite the painkiller she had received earlier, the golden bat looked up as soon as they entered.

But Gregor knew why. As he helped Hamnet lift Aurora and carry her down the tunnel that led back outside, with Luxa and her lantern leading the way, he forced himself to acknowledge that it was because he didn't want to think about his mom or Howard and Andromeda. If he counted the days, he would also have to consider how sick they probably were at this point. And . . . about how Ares was probably—

Before Gregor could think it, he stopped himself. He could not think about Ares now. Because if he thought about Ares, he would lose hope. And they were already so close. This wasn't the time to give up.

Gregor determinedly gripped Aurora's fur tighter and followed on Luxa's heel when she shoved the curtain of vines aside for them to step through. Gregor focused on keeping his balance on the slippery rocks in front of the curtain, but then something darted out of the dense vine network on the other side and over his head, making him almost trip.