"I'm going to Mrs. Cormaci's to let her know where you are, then back home." Me and my dad sit in the old car, pulled up against the curb by Central Park where one of the two entrances to the Underland is hidden. "If you can't find any Regalians, or after two weeks when you come back up, just go to her place. You can call me from there and I'll come and get you, okay?" I grip my flashlight tightly in my hand and nod. During the long ride here I was trying not to think about what would happen if I didn't find anyone down there. We'd talked about trying the grate in the laundry room of our old apartment but I knew it was very rare for anyone to fly that way and even rarer for the mists to be blowing right to let you down without killing you. So we decided on the Central Park entrance.
"Alright then. See you in two weeks, hopefully." He tries to sound upbeat and positive but  I still don't say a word back to him. I'm so excited, nervous, and terrified of what will happen if I can't find them, that I don't trust myself to speak. I might end up screaming or crying or something in between, then my dad definitely won't let me go. So I just get out of the car, turn and wave, then trudge through the moonlit grass toward the cement platform.
The flashlight is the only thing I have with me. I know that when I find the Regalians they'll cloth me and feed me as well as give me a place to stay. Although I can use my echolocation if I need to, I still feel safer with a real light.
I stuff the flashlight in my pocket and heave the stone lid to the side. It's not as stuck as I thought it would be, since it hasn't been used for months, in fact it looks like it's recently been opened and I wonder if Luxa has been coming up here to see New York. I step down into the dark and flick on my flashlight, then pull the stone slab back over the opening, sealing me up inside the earth.
As I make my way further down the tunnel that runs above the Waterway, a huge underground river that flows next to Regalia, I feel the heaviness of the blood memories lift off my shoulders. I feel more free down here in the enclosed space and the pitch dark, the exact opposite of how I felt the last time I walked by here.
The air smells clean and like the spring I left behind in the Overland, which is strange since it should smell moldy and damp after months of being sealed up. But it doesn't bother me. Luxa probably has been coming to sneak looks at the Overland again, maybe even hoping she'll find me. If that's true then she might be here now, somewhere in the tunnels or in the Waterway beneath.
I jog over to one of the holes that opens into empty space. Bending down over the gap I shine my flashlight down into the blackness. The sound of water comes from far below and I hope it's concealing the sound of a flier's wings. "Luxa?" I call. "Hello? Anybody there?"
Everything is silent for several heartbeats. I open my mouth to call again but someone responds, the voice doesn't come from the Waterway though. It comes from behind me.
"What the hell are you doing down here?" I turn around slowly until I'm facing the voice, scooting away from the hole so I don't fall backwards into it. Squinting, I try and make out the person's face, but all I can see is a streak of black hair topping a tall figure with dark skin as he shines his flashlight into my face. His other hand holds what appears to be a pick axe, a coil of rope hangs from his belt.
"Hey!" His voice is rough and deep, but I can tell he's younger than he sounds, in his late twenties maybe? "I said what the hell are you doing down here? Answer me. Now!"
I stay silent, too confused and surprised to talk. Why is there another human down here? And this late at night? He isn't a Regalian, his skin is much too tan for that. And he can't be a sewage worker... Can he?
I cough--I have to use a louder sound than my breathing since I haven't practiced since the battle with the Bane--and the strange sixth sense of my echolocation gives me a clearer view. The man's face is rectangular, with a flat chin and sharp jaw line. His nose curves upward into a slight point and his cold eyes are deep set. The coldness of his eyes surprises me, his entire body is about the same reddish color, but his eyes are black in the heat sensor my echolocation provides.
"You have exactly five seconds left to talk before I throw you down the hole." He threatens, and I know he isn't kidding. I can tell by his tone that he'd do it in a heartbeat. Definitely not a sewage worker.
"Uh...I'm--" I stammer, trying to find an explanation that he'll believe. I'm about to say I'm lost but then I hear it. A swishing sound coming from the hole behind me, like leather on paper. I know that sound better than my father's voice, so without a pause I step backwards in the hole and do the man a favor. It was the swish of a flier's wings that I heard and as I'm falling through the blackness I shine my flashlight beam back and forth yelling, "Hey! Over here!"
Less than a second later I'm sitting on the back of a dark black bat with fur so close to the color of Ares that I have a brief flashback of the last time I fell through that hole. Ares caught me and I was mad at him for taking so long.
"I was retrieving your light stick." He said as an explanation. I can hear his voice so clearly in my mind that I have to shake myself. Ares is gone. This is some other Underlander who caught me, and they're probably wondering why they just had to rescue a thirteen year old boy who tried to jump to his death.
I shine my flashlight on my face so whoever is on this bat with me can see who I am. Every Underlander knows my face.
"Warrior!" The man gasps in surprise. "Why are you here again?" I know why that's the first thing that comes to his mind. Every visit that I've had to the Underland has been to fulfill a prophecy and save the Regalians from some horror. The first time I helped save them from King Gorger of the rats who was planning to attack them, although I didn't even have a sword with me. The second was supposedly from the Bane, although he was only a baby at the time. Then I went on a quest to find the cure for a horrible disease, but the cure turned out to still be in Regalia. I couldn't do anything the next time to save the hundreds of mice from the murderous rats but I did save the Underlanders from the Bane the last time I was here. He grew up to be a giant, maniacal murderer and I killed him, but not before he killed Ares. No wonder this guy wants to know why I'm here. He must be terrified that another war is about to begin.
"I just came to visit." I flick my flashlight off so I can begin adjusting to the dark, breathing deeply to get the sight from my echolocation. "Can you take me to Queen Luxa?"
"Of course, Warrior." The relief and respect in the man's voice is obvious and I wonder if he fought with the Regalians during the last battle with the rats. He probably did. If he's out scouting then he must be part of their army.