They sat watching, tense and poised for takeoff.
The mouse pyramid was nearing the top of the pit. Soon they would be able to begin freeing themselves. Still the boulder didn't budge.
"If there were to be lava, would we have some warning?" asked Howard.
"Generally, I believe there's a rumbling, some sort of sound," said Ripred. "Although I am no expert."
The first nibblers began to climb over the edge of the pit. The escape plan was working.
"Maybe the rats won't come back," said Gregor. "Maybe they didn't figure the mice could get out."
The mice were sending the pups up now. Trying to save them first. When five little ones had reached the top, a pair of full-grown mice began to corral them away from the pit as fast as possible. No rats appeared to interfere.
Back in the tunnel, they watched silently for a few more minutes.
Then Luxa broke the silence. "Something is wrong. Why would the rats allow this?"
"They wouldn't," said Ripred. He paused. "Unless they were expecting something else to do their work for them."
"But there's no lava. The volcano isn't even erupting," said Gregor. Suddenly Temp began to wave his antennas, his feet stepping nervously on the ground. "Not lava, it be, not lava," said the cockroach.
"What is it, Temp? What's wrong?" asked Gregor. One thing he had learned from past experience: If Temp was alarmed, there was good reason.
"Not lava, it be ... it be —" Temp did not know the words for it. He broke off and began clicking in agitation.
"What's he saying, Hazard?" asked Gregor.
"I don't know. It doesn't make sense. I think he's saying the volcano is breathing," said Hazard.
Boots puffed out her cheeks and blew a stream of air in Gregor's face. "Like this. It goes breathing like this." She blew again. "Like balloon goes out."
"The nibblers. Something is happening to them!" said Howard.
Gregor squinted to make out the scene in the distance. His eyes flew to the boulder first to see if the rats had pushed it aside, but it was still fixed in place. He scanned the mice. They looked okay. They looked fine. Then one mouse at the top of the pyramid fell. Then another. Then the entire pyramid disintegrated.
Every last mouse left in the pit had collapsed in a heap. But they weren't dead. He could see their bodies flailing around.
Chaos broke out in the cave.
"What is going on?" cried Gregor.
"We must go!" cried Luxa.
"Not go, you do, not go!" begged Temp.
"Take flight, Aurora!" insisted Luxa.
Aurora seemed as eager to go as her bond. She extended her wings to take off. With lightning-fast speed Ripred leaped at the pair, flipped Aurora onto her back, and threw himself across her body. Luxa, who was trapped under Aurora's shoulder, yelled at him furiously, but Ripred completely ignored her.
Gregor upended his backpack, dumping the contents on the ground, and snatched the binoculars. He trained them on the mice and felt his heart start to pound.
"What do you see, boy? What's happening to them?" said Ripred.
Gregor stammered as he tried to describe the nightmare unfolding before his eyes. "I don't know! They can't! They —" The mice were rolling on the ground, pawing at the air, at their necks, their bodies wracked with terrible spasms. "They can't breathe!" he finally burst out. "They're suffocating!" Luxa was screaming like a maniac. Hazard pushed on Ripred's shoulder, trying to move him. "Let her up! Let her up!"
Howard grabbed Hazard and forced the boy's face into his shoulder. "No, Hazard. She cannot go. She cannot help them," he said. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
Now they could hear the desperate screams coming from the pit. Cartesian limped to the cave opening and tried to fling himself into the air, to either catch a current to help the other nibblers or simply kill himself. Gregor didn't know which. But Ares caught Cartesian before he fell.
"It's poisonous gas," said Ripred. "It must be leaking from the volcano."
"But I can't see it! I can't see anything!" said Gregor. His hands shook as he tried to adjust the binoculars.
"It has no color," said Howard.
"Nor odor that I can detect," said Ripred, his nose twitching furiously. "Of course, the wind carries it away from us — will you hold still!" he growled at Luxa. "Temp, are we in any jeopardy here?"
"Heavy, the poison be, heavy," said Temp.
"Then it's all settling in the pit," said Ripred grimly. When Gregor saw a pup, gasping to draw air, fall lifeless from its mother's back, he had to drop the binoculars. But now that the currents had cleared the air, the nibblers' agony was visible from the tunnel. They went into convulsions, teeth snapping on empty air, claws lashing out to battle an enemy they couldn't see.
"Nike, can you shield Thalia's view?" said Howard. "She has seen too much!" Nike enveloped Thalia in her wings.
"Come here, Boots!" said Gregor, scooping up his sister and laying his hand over her eyes to block the gruesome scene, although it did not seem to be upsetting her. She wriggled to get free.
"No, Gre-go, I want down!" said Boots.
"Get off of me!" Luxa freed her sword and stabbed it into Ripred's shoulder.
"Aah!" cried the rat, leaping back. Blood poured from the wound. His gums pulled back, showing his newly sharpened teeth.
Aurora righted herself and Luxa sprang to her feet, Ripred's blood dripping off her blade.
Gregor dropped Boots and was pulling his sword to step between them when Ripred snarled at Luxa,
"Fine, you stupid brat! Fly right into it and get yourself killed!"
"Shh," said Boots, putting her forefinger to her lips. "You are too loud."
Luxa spun around to the cave mouth, preparing to mount Aurora. Then Luxa saw the mice and froze, one hand clutching the fur at her bat's neck.
The screams had faded away. Here and there was a bit of movement. Then all was still.
The only sound in the cave was Howard, softly weeping.
"Shh," said Boots, patting him. "Shh. The mouses are sleeping."
***
CHAPTER 23
"They sleeping? Right, Gre-go?" asked Boots, frowning slightly.
"That's right, Boots," said Gregor, trying to keep his voice steady. "They're sleeping." This was what he always told her when something died. Even if they found a dead bird on the playground, he'd tell her it was asleep and then pick it up with an old newspaper or something and hide it in the trash when she wasn't looking. Later she'd see it was missing and be happy it had flown away to its home. And Gregor would act happy with her. If he couldn't tell her that a pigeon had died, there was no way he could tell her about the mice.
"I know. They take a nap. Like in the song," she said, reassured.
"That's right. Like in the song," said Gregor.
"Ripred. Is there anything we can do?" said Luxa hoarsely. "Please."
"No, Luxa," said Ripred. Gregor thought this was the first time he had ever heard Ripred call her by name. "Nothing can be done for them."
"May I see your glasses, Gregor?" she asked.
Gregor was reluctant to give her the binoculars. It was bad enough from a distance. Magnified, the scene was even more horrific. "They're not really working," he mumbled. But she took the binoculars from his hand and pointed them at the mice.
"So this is it," she said. "This is how they plan to kill them all."
"Without the nibblers resisting," said Ares.
"You may let me go," said Cartesian quietly, and Ares released him. The mouse curled into a ball and buried his face.
"I thought they would starve the nibblers, attempt to drown them perhaps. But this ... this has no precedent," said Nike.
"This has too much precedent," said Ripred grimly. He began lapping away the blood from his shoulder.
"Let me," said Howard. He gave Hazard to Luxa and got out his medical kit. "It is not too deep," he said, examining Ripred's shoulder.
"It's deep enough," said Ripred, s
hooting a look at Luxa. "I consider my debt paid. My life for your life."
"Yes. Paid in full," said Luxa.
Everyone sat there stunned, watching Howard bandage Ripred's wound. They avoided looking out where the murdered mice lay in the pit.
Gregor could not make sense of what had just happened. He had seen death before, plenty of it. But nothing like this. It was not just the number of dead. When they had fought the ants in the jungle, the ground had been covered in corpses. But that had been a battle, with two armed forces facing each other. It had been horrible, but at least everyone had had a fighting chance to survive. What had happened to the mice ... trapped in the pit... unable to even defend themselves against the gas ... not just soldiers but everyone, even the pups ... it was murder on a grand scale. It was a massacre. And probably only one of many.
Only Boots seemed unaffected by what had just occurred. "Hazard dances with me?" she said, tugging on her friend's hand.
"No, Boots, I cannot," said Hazard.
"I dance myself," said Boots. She began singing as she spun in a circle.
"Dancing in the firelight
See the queen who conquers night.
Gold flows from her, hot and bright.
Father, mother, sister, brother,
Off they go. I do not know
If we will see another. "
Gregor vaguely wondered if he should stop her. It seemed disrespectful to the nibblers. But he could not seem to speak.
Boots turned into a mouse now, pawing the air and spinning here and there.
"Catch the nibblers in a trap. Watch the nibblers spin and snap. "
It was too awful, watching her dancing around like a mouse after what they had just witnessed. With Cartesian lying beside him. "Stop it, Boots," Gregor said, but she was caught up in the song. She curled right up on the ground and pretended to sleep.
"Quiet while they take a nap. "
"Stop it!" repeated Gregor, more harshly than he had intended. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet. Her lips pressed together and he could see tears filling her eyes. Gregor hugged her close to him. "Sorry, I'm sorry. It's just not a good time for dancing," he told her.
"Mouses do dance," she said. "I just do dance like mouses."
"I know," said Gregor. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"I want to dance like the mouses do dance," said Boots, sniffling.
"It's okay. Don't cry," said Gregor, stroking her curls. He guessed the writhing of the mice had looked like a dance from the distance. In fact, the words from the song: Catch the nibblers in a trap. Watch the nibblers spin and snap.
They very accurately described what he had just seen....
Quiet while they take a nap.
Gregor turned and took in the lifeless bodies in the distance. If you didn't know they were dead, like Boots you'd think they were taking a nap. The words of the song began to drum in his brain.
Catch the nibblers in a trap.
Watch the nibblers spin and snap.
Quiet while they take a nap.
"She's right," he said aloud. "How so?" asked Ares.
"That song. That part about the nibblers," said Gregor. "We just watched it happen."
Father, mother, sister, brother.
Whole families had died out there.
Off they go. I do not know If we will see another. They wouldn't see another, if the Bane had his way. He was determined to kill them all and — "That's not a song," said Gregor suddenly. "That's a prophecy! Don't you see?"
He could tell by the expressions on their faces that they didn't. It had been a song so long, for hundreds of years. It was like someone telling him that "Hey Diddle Diddle" would explain a train wreck in Nevada. But Gregor had not grown up singing the song and doing the happy little dance that accompanied it. To him, the words were still new, and now they were sinister.
"Sandwich wrote it, right?" said Gregor. "He carved it in the nursery."
"Yes, he carved it in the nursery, not the room of prophecies. And we do not know who wrote it, it is so old," said Luxa.
"It didn't come from the Overland. We don't have nibblers. It's from down here and Sandwich made it up and it's happening now!" said Gregor, totally convinced. "We just watched the nibblers get caught in a trap and dance all around and take a nap, only it isn't a nap, not the kind you wake up from! 'Father, mother, sister, brother, off they go'! To die! Don't you see?"
The others didn't look convinced, but Ripred pushed aside Howard's hands and began to pace. "What is it? That nonsense in the first verse. How does it go? Someone sing it!"
Hazard's high voice piped up.
"Dancing in the firelight
See the queen who conquers night.
Gold flows from her, hot and bright. "
"That's enough. 'Dancing in the firelight...'" The rat stared out at the glowing volcano. "We've got firelight, anyway."
"'See the queen who conquers night,'" said Nike. "Luxa, you could be the queen."
"I am not dancing," said Luxa. "Nor have I been."
"Maybe it's not the queen who dances," said Howard. "Things may be said to dance in the light. When it flickers. Someone's eyes, water, anything really...."
"The nibblers danced in the firelight," said Aurora.
"We still need a queen," said Ripred.
"'Gold flows from her, hot and bright,'" said Ares. "Luxa has no gold."
"I have nothing but rags," said Luxa, looking down at her tattered clothes. "I cannot be the queen."
There was a low but unmistakable rumble. Everyone's head turned to the volcano. A thin stream of lava bubbled out of the top and ran down the side toward the pit. As gold as gold can be.
"'Gold flows from her, hot and bright...'" said Nike. "You do not think —"
"I think the Overlander's right," said Ripred. He nodded at the volcano. "There's your gold."
"And there's your queen," said Gregor.
***
CHAPTER 24
Asecond, louder rumble shook the ground under their feet. "Get out of here!" shouted Ripred. Everything fell into confusion as they tried to mount the bats. They had changed riders so many times during the trip that no one was sure where their designated seat was. Gregor grabbed Boots and jumped on Ares, only to remember that no other bat could carry Ripred. He slid off and slipped on a battery, which was lucky, because it reminded him to scoop all the stuff he had dumped out earlier into his backpack and sling it over his shoulder. By that time, Boots had run off and had climbed on Temp's back.
"Stop!" called out Ares. "Luxa, Hazard, Gregor, and Boots on Aurora. Howard, Temp, and Cartesian on Nike. Thalia, fly under me in case you tire." He assumed the takeoff position and said to Ripred, "Let us go."
Everyone stumbled around but by following Ares's directions managed to get a seat. Gregor ended up at the front of the bat with Boots hugging him around his neck. Hazard and Luxa swung up behind them.
The second the bats left the cave they were swept up in the strong current that was blowing in from a cave overhead. It was the same current that had cleared away the ashen air and assured that the poisonous gas did not drift their way. Now it was carrying them directly toward the glowing volcano.
Gregor was afraid the bats were going to flip out again, but they were doing all right. It was not one current that overwhelmed them but the convergence of multiple airstreams that had occurred earlier. Almost immediately he felt Aurora turn away from the volcano and begin to head into the wind. It was so strong, they made little forward motion. He wrapped his arms around Boots, trying to block as much of it as possible. Switching tactics, all the bats suddenly whipped back around and flew straight for the volcano. At first it seemed insane, but then Gregor realized that the only way they could get away from the volcano was by riding the current that blew right over it.
Between the force of the wind and the bats' own wing power, they were moving through space at an incredible velocity. The volcano, which had been a distant vision, q
uickly rose up in front of them.
Gregor was awestruck by the "queen." She was majestic and imposing but most of all furious. Clouds of steam hissed from fissures in her sides. Molten lava oozed out of her top and flowed downward in fiery streams. Even with the wind whistling in his ears, Gregor could hear her rumbling growing into a roar.
As they flew out over the volcano, Gregor could see the bubbling lake of lava brewing inside. The air seared his lungs. Everything was suffused with a hot red light, including the pit where the dead mice lay. Gregor pressed his cheek against Boots's so she couldn't turn her head in the direction of the mice. But he forced himself to look at the bodies, to keep the image clear and alive in his brain. He knew he had to be able to tell their story, and tell it as fully as he could, when he returned to Regalia. He had to be able to impress upon people the magnitude of what had happened. Was happening. So much counted on it. Gregor began to feel dizzy. Some of the fumes rising out of the volcano must be riding along the current with them. He knew the fumes must be affecting the bats as well, but none of them showed any sign of slowing. They left the volcano behind as quickly as they had approached it.
Another ominous rumble rattled the earth below them. Gregor was feeling sicker, not better, as they flew on. What if they were just riding along in a pocket of poisonous gas and it was only a matter of time before they were overcome? He tightened his hold on Boots.
"You okay, Boots?" he hollered over the wind.
"I sleepy," she said. "I take a nap."
"Oh, no. No naps!" shouted Gregor, alarm shooting through him. "You stay awake, okay?"
"Okay," said Boots faintly, but he could feel her trying to nestle up against him.
"A tunnel! Find a tunnel!" he heard Ripred shout.
They were approaching a giant stone wall that signaled the far end of the cavern. The bats began to dodge in and out of openings on the wall, trying to judge what was merely a cave and what might be a tunnel and a means of escape. Above him Gregor saw Nike begin to circle at an opening. Howard was waving his arms wildly for them to follow. Aurora made straight for the tunnel. Nike disappeared inside it first, followed by Ares, who now had Thalia locked in his claws. Aurora brought up the rear.
The Underland Chronicles: Books 1-5 Paperback Box Set Page 70
