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“Hey, Ares, can you keep a secret?”
For a moment, Ares thinks of Henry. His former bond who did not entrust him with any secrets. Who acted recklessly without informing him of his plans, and expected Ares to follow him blindly, and to catch him if he should fall. Bound by an oath that wore on the bat like chains.
But Ares is not with Henry now. Henry is dead, and Ares is with Gregor. His second bond. A boy of stronger morals, of kinder heart, yet somehow doomed to the same fate. A fate that he may meet in mere minutes.
“I would say it is one of my few talents,” Ares replies. If only Henry had known that. But what would Ares have done if he had been confided in? Would he have exposed Henry for the traitor that he was before the boy went public with his allegiance to the rats? He wonders if it would’ve changed anything. Perhaps such accusations of his bond, which would no doubt be denied and therefore disregarded, seeing as Henry was once respected royalty, would have resulted in Ares being exactly where he is now: Lonely, cast out, and all but banished. With few individuals remaining who care for him, or even tolerate him.
Gregor’s voice brings him back to the present moment. “Ripred doesn’t believe in the prophecies,” he says. “He thinks Sandwich was a crazy fool, and that we’re all running around trying to make what he said come true.”
Ares did not know that the gnawer believed such a thing. Now that he thinks about it, he isn’t all that surprised. If anyone were to disregard Sandwich’s prophecies, it would be Ripred. And perhaps Ares himself. He tells Gregor so: “I would be a liar if I said similar thoughts had not crossed my own mind.”
It is the truth, though he has never uttered it to anyone. Disclosing such feelings to anyone other than Gregor would strip him of any remaining approval that’s been bestowed upon him. Ripred, he assumes, must feel similarly, otherwise he would’ve made his opinion known long ago.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Gregor asks.
“Because everyone treats his words with such reverence,” Ares replies. He almost adds his fears of being further ostracized by the citizens of Regalia, but decides not to mention it. He’s not blind to the guilt that Gregor experiences whenever he must leave the Underland, the struggle that plays out in his heart as he’s forced to choose family and safety over his bond. Ares does not take it personally. Their bond is one without precedence, and its mere existence proves that Ares is forever in Gregor’s debt, regardless of the hard choices the Overlander must make that separate them. No, guilt is the last thing he’d wish on Gregor. He shall not demand sympathy for his rather hopeless situation. “But who was he, really?” Ares continues, speaking again of Sandwich. “Not a kind or wise man. His words are full of doom and only terrorize us into killing one another.”
Gregor nods in agreement at this. Ares has to wonder if it was Ripred who so quickly shifted the Overlander’s views of Sandwich, or if it was a combination of other knowledge he’s obtained. Ares realizes that he may never find out. The battle with the Bane will soon commence, and if the prophecies are to be believed after all, then his bond will not survive the encounter. Leaving the bat without a bond once more, and this time, with no one to save him from the wrath that will follow.
“You know, when I first got down here, I didn’t believe in his stuff at all,” Gregor remarks. There’s a certain sadness in his face that makes him look much older than he really is. Sadness as he briefly remembers what once was, who he used to be. “Then,” he continues, “as things happened, it seemed like it was coming true. But what if we did just make Sandwich’s words fit?” Somehow, the Overlander manages a smile. There’s a spark of life behind his eyes. “Take ‘The Prophecy of Gray’. That whole thing about me leaping and then Henry dying. I could have died and the prophecy would have still made sense. So maybe the only really remarkable thing that happened that day… was that you decided to save my life.”
Ares ruffles his wings. The life he’s lived for the past year, it all goes back to that one moment. That one choice. Henry or Gregor. “I was not thinking of Sandwich’s words. I was thinking of what was right,” Ares tells him. And he did choose right, he’s sure of it. The loss of Henry is one that has never truly left him, but of the two boys who fell that day, Henry was not the one worth saving. Even if doing so would have somehow provided Ares with a better future. That future was a worthy sacrifice if it meant that the Overlander could live.
Looking at Gregor now, Ares feels a violent pang of despair in his chest. How could it be that this young boy is to die within the hour? His bond, the only bond who has ever truly been there for him? The bat decides then and there that not only is the Prophecy of Time not to be believed, but that he will do anything to prevent its unfolding. It is of this one thing that Ares is certain: The Warrior will not die tonight.
“Do you know, when a prophecy does not fulfill itself in a coherent manner, we always say it was not yet its time,” Ares says. “And we blame ourselves for not realizing it.” He’s mostly thinking out loud, but he can see Gregor sitting up straighter at his words.
“I’m beginning to think the main thing we ought to be blaming ourselves for is letting Sandwich boss us around instead of doing what we think is right,” Gregor replies. The more he speaks, the more he seems to believe what he says. There’s a passion that grows within the words, a desperation for them to be true. But more than anything, for the first time in days, his voice is hopeful. “Using him as an excuse to kill one another,” Gregor continues. “At the end of the day, we’re the ones holding the swords.”
“There must be better words to follow,” Ares says. There must be. Anything to follow other than the path that Sandwich has laid out for them. Anything but the untimely death of a boy who never asked for this. Better words. There must be.
“Sure there are,” Gregor says. “You and me, we could make up better words in our sleep.”
That sounds nice, Ares thinks. Together, they could decide their own futures. Gregor would get to go home with his family. He would get to live again. Not just survive, but live. Even if it was a difficult life to return to, even if Ares never saw him again. Gregor the Overlander would live.
And Ares… he’s never really thought about what he wants for himself. Before Henry, he was written off as a troublemaker, but that was before he knew any better, really. With Henry, he at least had status. If he wasn’t liked, he was respected by the association of his bond. But he hasn’t been anybody at all since he let Henry fall to his death on that momentous day, that day that has brought him to where he is now. Sitting with an Overlander boy who is not Henry. A boy who is unlike Henry in just about every way, but right now, the most important distinction is that this boy will live.
And all at once, Ares knows that now is not the time to plan his own future. If by some miracle he and Gregor both make it out of here alive, then he will allow himself to hope for better times ahead. For peace. For friendship. For life. But Gregor is his top priority. I save you as I save my life. Ares will honor their vow until his last breath. Even if that means his last breath comes sooner rather than later.
We could make up better words in our sleep.
Ares is about to agree, but his ears twitch at the sound of wings beating. The attack is starting. They are out of time.
“What? What is it?” Gregor asks.
“It has begun,” Ares answers solemnly. I save you as I save my life. I save you as I save my life. I save you—
They watch the battle unfold together. Ares remains aware of Gregor’s presence beside him. Tense, anxious, determined. Strangely, the bat has to resist the urge to cover his bond’s eyes with his wing. Gregor is more than accustomed to the blood and violence by now, as are most Underlanders his age. But Gregor isn’t an Underlander, and as his bond, it is Ares’ duty to protect him from the horrors that are on display before them. For just a second, the bat wonders if it would be at all feasible to get Gregor out of here before the Bane even shows up. Let the monster be someone else’s problem. We could make up better words in our sleep.
But of course, Gregor would never agree to that. He wouldn’t want that. And his will is just as precious as the life that Ares has decided to prioritize. So when Gregor realizes his sisters are trapped in a tunnel by the battlefield, when he jumps onto Ares’ back and asks him to fly to them despite his orders to stay hidden, Ares does not hesitate. He reminds Gregor what is at stake, but he does not hesitate to take him where he needs to go. While I have flight, Ares had told him once, I will always be here for you. And when the Bane finally emerges, when Gregor can be sure that Ripred and the others will do all they can to protect his family, Ares takes them into their final battle with a heart of hardened resolve.
I save you as I save my life.
Their training has done them well. Gregor fights like the warrior he never asked to be. Maybe he doesn’t have to be. After this, he will never have to be the warrior again.
When the warrior has been killed.
Is that what the prophecy meant? That Gregor’s role will be retired, that he will no longer be forced to fight in wars that don’t concern him? No, no, the prophecy doesn’t matter. Forget the prophecy. Keep him alive.
I save you as I save my life.
Ares hears Gregor’s voice in his ear: “I’ve got to get in closer if I’m going to take him out!” He remembers Solovet’s reminders to watch his wings, to be mindful of the Bane’s larger size and therefore wider reach. None of that matters now.
“Hang on!” Ares tells Gregor, diving directly for the Bane’s leg. It’s a risky move, one he wouldn’t have made under normal circumstances. Gregor manages a deep stab and the rat lets out a scream.
“Get out!” Gregor yells. “Get out, Ares!”
The fear in his voice is unmistakable. In a matter of seconds, Ares opens his wings and feels the Bane claw through them. He meets the giant rat’s eyes as he’s pulled up towards it’s face.
“Ares!” Gregor cries out. “No!”
Ares watches Gregor’s sword stab the Bane in the heart in the same moment that the rat’s teeth pierce through his own flesh.
I save you as I save my life.
In a startling moment of clarity, Ares thinks that Henry’s death was merely a catalyst. From the moment his old bond hit the bottom of that pit, his own life has been set in stone. Not by any prophecy, but by his own choices. By the goodness that Gregor, his new bond, carried in his heart. A goodness that Ares had to protect, and would protect, unflinchingly.
Gregor the Human, I bond to you.
Or perhaps it was a hand being extended to him in an act of mercy. Of forgiveness. Of opportunity. It was Gregor extending his hand and offering a second chance. Promising protection on that stage in front of an angry crowd. Perhaps it was that moment that cemented Ares’ fate.
Our life and death are one, we two.
Ares is falling now. It is odd, to be one of flight and to fall.
In dark, in flame, in war, in strife.
It was always going to be this way, one of them dying so that the other could live. And Sandwich was wrong about which one of them it was going to be, Ares made sure of that. He remembers standing on that stage as Luxa fed the words of the vow to Gregor, remembers how that last line came to the Overlander without prompting.
I save you as I save my life.
No prophecy brought them to this moment. Just the sacrifice of one bat, predetermined ever since he and his bond became one. Ares hears the Bane hit the ground in the same moment he does, and then everything goes dark.