Opening
The quest reaches its brutal climax as Gregor confronts death, prophecy, and betrayal. With Ripred, Luxa, Henry, Ares, and Boots (Margaret) at his side, Gregor faces losses that force him to grow from a frightened boy into a decisive leader. The reunion he seeks comes at a devastating cost.
What Happens
Chapter 21: The First to Fall
After the rat attack, the questers stand over Treflex’s body—the first death foretold by the prophecy. Ripred urges Gox to consume her fallen comrade, a practical horror that shocks Gregor, Luxa, and Henry. Gregor and Luxa quietly promise to protect each other from such an end, a chilling reminder of the Underland’s ruthless reality and the harsh logic of War and Conflict.
As they move on, Ripred suggests the rats target the spiders to cripple the quest and stop them from reaching Gregor’s father. Luxa explains the sacred human–bat bond—hers with Aurora, Henry’s with Ares—and reveals how she manages fear after her parents’ murder: she wakes each day assuming it will be her last. Her honesty deepens Gregor’s understanding of her aloofness and sharpens the book’s exploration of Courage and Fear. The chapter ends with a jolt—Boots burns with fever.
Chapter 22: The Bridge
Gregor wakes to Henry trying to kill Ripred in his sleep. Gregor’s shout saves Ripred, injuries are exchanged, and chaos erupts until Gregor stops Luxa from attacking the rat by telling the truth. In that moment, he takes command, marking a turning point in his Coming of Age. Henry admits his treachery, exposing a fracture in the group and bringing Betrayal and Loyalty to the forefront. Gox binds the wounds with silk.
Boots grows worse. Ripred identifies a fever cure, and the group straps Boots to Temp for transport. At a long, swaying bridge, an army of rats ambushes them. Ripred physically restrains Gregor from running back into danger for Boots. Last across are Tick and Temp; Tick turns to face the rat horde alone, buying a heartbeat of time. The bridge severs. Tick and the rats tumble into the river and are consumed—an unforgettable act of Family Responsibility and Sacrifice.
Chapter 23: The Canyon
Shaken, the survivors shelter in a tunnel. Gregor weeps for Tick, a grief that cements his bond with the crawlers and rebukes Underlander bias, complicating Prejudice and Alliances. Luxa comforts him and confesses she hasn’t cried since her parents died, a vulnerable moment that deepens their connection. She also admits she understands why her grandfather, Vikus, insisted Ripred travel with them.
Near their destination, Ripred silently kills two rat sentries and guides the group along a knife-thin path skirting an immeasurable canyon. The trail widens into a road ending at a deep, round pit. Huddled at its bottom is a frail, white-haired man. Gregor recognizes his father.
Chapter 24: The Last to Die
Gregor's Dad is hauled up from the pit, feverish and skeletal, too delirious to know his son. Before Gregor can process the reunion, Henry whistles in an army of rats and declares his plan to rule the Underland by allying with them. He implores Luxa to join him; she refuses with icy calm.
The rat king, King Gorger, arrives wearing a golden crown Gregor believes belonged to Luxa’s parents. After trading barbs with Ripred, King Gorger flicks his tail and kills Gox, then fixes on Boots. The threat makes the prophecy snap into focus for Gregor—he understands that the “last to die” must choose where he stands. To save the others, he bolts past King Gorger and lures the rat army toward the canyon.
Chapter 25: Death Life Again Reaps
Gregor sprints off the cliff and plunges into the abyss. The brittle ledge collapses, dragging the entire rat host—and Henry—down after him. As Gregor falls, Ares defies his bonded human’s pleas and dives to save Gregor, catching him seconds before impact. Henry dies, the fourth quester to fall, and the prophecy resolves: Henry’s choice seals his doom; Gregor’s leap gives life to the remaining eight.
Ripred, joined by a few rats who turn against King Gorger, bids the group farewell and vanishes. The survivors are stranded and breaking: Luxa is in shock, Aurora is torn up, and Ares is grieving. Gregor steps up, stitching Aurora’s wing as rats begin climbing toward them. Then Gregor’s father’s fever breaks. Clear-eyed, he uses a lodestone and a metal needle to make a compass, pointing north to Regalia. The party escapes, flying back through caverns littered with war dead. In Regalia, celebrations erupt, but Gregor and Luxa are numb. Gregor tells Vikus of Henry’s betrayal. Luxa, frozen since the fall, sheds a single tear.
Character Development
Even as the quest succeeds, it reshapes everyone who survives. Grief and choice—more than combat—define who leads, who breaks, and who keeps faith with a higher good.
- Gregor: Becomes the group’s steady center—stopping violence, comforting Luxa, risking himself at the canyon, and improvising under pressure. He reads the riddle of fate not as a sentence but as a charge to act, fulfilling the arc of Prophecy and Destiny.
- Luxa: Her armor cracks. She comforts Gregor, admits her inability to cry, refuses Henry, then collapses into shock after witnessing betrayal and mass death.
- Henry: Reveals a cold creed—survival through power at any moral cost. His alliance with the rats and dismissal of old loyalties doom him.
- Ripred: Pragmatic to the end, he protects the quest, spars verbally with King Gorger, and exits with a rare benediction, signaling reluctant respect.
- Ares: Redefines the bat–human bond by choosing the greater good over his vow to Henry, saving Gregor and accepting the cost.
- Gregor’s Dad: From broken captive to lucid problem-solver, he steadies the endgame with ingenuity, restoring hope with a needle and stone.
Themes & Symbols
Betrayal and loyalty entwine to drive the climax. Henry’s treason embodies loyalty to strength over people, while counter-acts of fidelity—Tick’s bridge stand, Ares’s rescue, Gregor’s leap—reframe loyalty as a moral choice, not a contract. Family responsibility intensifies every decision: Gregor risks everything for Boots and his father, and the crawlers embrace Boots as their own. The pressure of conflict forces the young to grow—courage is not fear’s absence but its companion.
Prophecy functions as a riddle that demands interpretation and agency. Gregor’s insight transforms a fatalistic stanza into a strategy, turning “death” into the means of survival. The compass—fashioned from scrap in darkness—emerges as a potent symbol of hope, reason, and direction: a way out of physical peril and emotional chaos. It marks the moment when despair yields to ingenuity and leadership.
Key Quotes
“The last who will die must decide where he stands. The fate of the eight is contained in his hands...”
- The prophecy shifts from ominous poetry to tactical instruction. Gregor’s realization that he is the “last to die” unlocks a path that privileges sacrifice and choice over brute force, aligning fate with agency.
“Fly you high.”
- Ripred’s parting words carry cultural weight and personal respect. For a hardened survivor to offer this blessing signals Gregor’s earned place in the Underland’s web of alliances.
“I wake each day telling myself it will be my last.”
- Luxa’s coping creed lays bare the psychic cost of her parents’ murder. It explains her severity and frames courage as preparation for loss rather than denial of it.
Ares ignores Henry’s cries and dives for Gregor.
- This silent rupture of the sacred bond reframes loyalty as ethical, not merely ritual. Ares chooses the community’s survival—and the prophecy’s completion—over personal obligation.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters deliver the novel’s emotional and narrative peak: the father is found, the prophecy resolves, and the costs of victory become impossible to ignore. The bridge ambush, Henry’s betrayal, and the canyon leap force Gregor to lead decisively, binding him to allies across species and reshaping the rules of loyalty. The aftermath—Luxa’s shock, Ares’s grief, Ripred’s departure, and the improvised compass home—ties resolution to responsibility, setting the stage for future conflicts born from both triumph and trauma.