Disclaimer: I just own Merilye Ryske (you'll have to read this chapter to find out who she is) nothing else. (Oh, and I made up the name, so this is how you pronounce it; Mare-ill-I Rice-k)

Author's Note: Thank you so much for your patience, I know it's been waaaay too long and the wait for the next chapter will definitely be shorter than this ones wait. Thanks for your understanding about Grace Kelly. She's undergone her second chemo and steroids treatments, and has been coming to school via Skype, and can still use your thoughts and prayers. Also, thanks for all the reviews/subscribing/favoriting! Now, without further ado;

Chapter 9

All eyes in the court room were fixed on her as she stated, "Romulus, Court Scribe, if you're ready?"

He was sitting on a small stool with piles of scrolls, a few quills, and about a dozen ink bottles around him. Romulus was a stocky man with barely any hair, and looked like he was in his early fifties. He gave her a curt nod and poised a quill over the scroll lying on his lap and started scribbling away.

"Judge Merilye Ryske presiding over the cases of Luxa, queen of Regalia, and Gregor the Overlander, also known as the Warrior. Queen Luxa's right to overrule all verdicts and punishments has been revoked for both trials. That being said, is the Council all present?" Ryske said brusquely.

Vikus slowly stood and replied in a clear voice, "Every single one of us, Merilye."

She nodded and continued, "Queen Luxa, you are being charged with absconding the Underland without probable cause, or permission, eschewing your duties, and living in danger without protection."

Luxa rolled her eyes at the last charge, but showed no other emotion.

"Do you have anything to say to these charges?" Ryske asked.

Luxa looked her right in the eye and said, her voice ringing throughout the court room, "Yes, actually, I do. For the first charge, I was visiting a few friends. You make it sound as if I were running away like a coward with no intention of ever coming back. As for the second charge, the Underland was in good enough hands, what with Vikus, the rest of the council, and"—she wrinkled her nose slightly at the last one—"Ripred. Now, that last charge is simply ludicrous. We live in nearly constant danger everyday down here, and the Overland is the pinnacle of safety compared to Regalia."

"Oh really?" Ryske said smiling slightly. "Because, we have an account from a witness who testifies that it is indeed quite the opposite."

"May I ask who this witness is?" Luxa asked in a bitter-sweet tone.

"Yes, Your Highness, this witness is Dr. Howard of the Fount. Romulus, what was his testimony?"

"Yesterday, fourteen days after Queen Luxa's departure to the Overland, Dr. Howard testified, 'I saw Luxa nearly get beaten to death by a few Overland boys, and would not have escaped without the assistance of the Warrior.'," Romulus droned in a croaky voice.

"Oh, so you're saying that Howard was in the Overland as well?" Luxa asked, slightly, both she and Gregor knowing Ryske was caught.

Ryske sputtered and ruffled her papers and finally called out angrily, "Dr. Howard to the stands!"

Gregor watched as Howard got up from a seat in the auditorium and made his way up to Judge Ryske's stand where he stopped.

"Did you, or did you not witness Queen Luxa being attacked by Overland boys?" she asked in a tight voice, standing up and leaning against the front edge of the stand as she glared down at him in fury.

"No, Your Honor, I did not witness Queen Luxa's attack, but I heard from the Overlander himself that Luxa was attacked," Howard replied facing the judge with his back turned towards the audience.

Turning sharply toward Gregor, Ryske asked, "Is this true, Warrior?"

Shooting a quick look at Luxa for confirmation, Gregor replied, "I have no idea what he's talking about."

"What!" Howard bellowed, wheeling around and stalking towards Gregor's platform. "You were there! You know you said it! Your-your sister Lizzie was there! And Ripred! Ask them. Ask them Judge Ryske. They'll tell the truth."

"Ripred, Lizzie," Ryske beckoned, "please come forward.

Ripred slunk over, following Howard's footsteps with Lizzie on his shoulders. When he reached the front of the judge's stand, Lizzie slid off and Ripred lazily laydown.

"Did Gregor the Overlander say anything about Queen Luxa being attacked?" Ryske asked gazing down at Ripred.

"None at all. I believe Howard was remembering when he said that the Overland must be dangerous 'when people like Gregor live among them'. Your Honor, I believe that in this particular case we cannot take Howard's words fully into account, due to the fact that he may be found…biased, so to speak, in this situation," Ripred said, twirling his whiskers.

Ryske nodded, and said, "Just to check, you confirm this, Lizzie."

"Yes."

"Very well, then. You may all return to your seats, you too, Howard."

Ripred picked Lizzie back up and loped off to their seats again with Howard sulkily trailing behind them.

"We shall drop your third charge, though the first two are still relevant despite your protests. I believe you could have suggested a visit to the Overland to the council. Any objections, Your Majesty?" Ryske continued as if nothing had happened. She looked at Luxa questioningly, daring her to object.

Luxa clearly wanted to, but thinking better of it, she replied coolly, "None at all."

"Very well, then we shall proceed with the Overlander's charges, and then the council and jury will take a thirty minute recess to review both of your charges and reach a verdict.

"Overlander, you are being charged with harboring a runaway queen of Regalia and—" she hesitated; looking agitated and looked at a scroll and then returned her gaze to Gregor.

"A fifteen minute recess shall be taken in order for the council and the court to revise the charges for the Overlander," Ryske muttered uncomfortably.

Murmuring broke out in the crowd as Judge Ryske stood quickly and walked out of the room followed by two of the jury members and the council. Ripred emerged from the crowd and started up to Gregor with ever present Lizzie at his heels. Luxa was getting off of her stand and making her way towards him too.

Seeing no other way off the platform, Gregor jumped and promptly fell to his knees.

"Now that you've got your echolocation down, we can start working on your athletic technique," Ripred smirked, stopping in front of him.

"Shut up, Ripred," he muttered, standing up and brushing himself off.

Luxa reached them and stated, "I wonder what's wrong with your charges."

"They may have found a few, ahem, errors if you will pertaining to your case," Ripred said, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Wait," Gregor started, "what did you do, Ripred?"

"Oh, you'll see, and by the way, you owe me."

Luxa rolled her eyes saying, "What a lovely place to stand with Ripred."

"Watch it, Highness," he snapped. "Or have you forgotten that you, too, are in my debt?"

Luxa blushed.

Gregor looked back and forth from them in confusion and started, "Wait, why do you owe—"

"It is none of your concern, Overlander," Luxa barked.

"Um, okay?" Gregor said hesitantly, somewhat surprised by Luxa's abrupt outburst.

"We'd better get back to our platforms now," Luxa said, cooling off as quickly as she'd gotten mad, and pushing at her gold circlet. She indicated to the doors before adding, "The council is back."

With that she glided back to her platform and leaped up onto it, while Ripred and Lizzie took off towards the stands. Gregor made a less than graceful attempt to get back onto the platform, but did make it up by the time the council and Judge Ryske were sitting down.

"Ahem," Ryske cleared her throat, and silence fell throughout the room. "The charges for Gregor the Overlander have been dropped."

Astonished murmuring sounded throughout the room, and Judge Ryske banged on the front of her stand with a piece of rock shaped like a hockey puck and called out for silence.

"However," Ryske continued through gritted teeth, "he must agree to stay down here till he has full filled out latest prophecy. What say you, Overlander?"

Everyone in the room turned their attention toward him in anticipation for his answer.

"Uh...can my sisters leave at any given time?" he asked, not wanting either of them to be trapped in the Underland like they were during the War of Time.

"Yes," Ryske said grudgingly.

Gregor did want to stay in the Underland, and whether or not he agreed to join in the quest, he'd probably have to anyway, so he replied, "Yes."

"You may step down then, Warrior." He obliged and headed to join Ripred in the crowd as Ryske turned to Luxa, "Your verdict has been given as so,"—Ryske held out a piece of parchment and read—"'Queen Luxa of Regalia shall be suspended from all council meetings and other governing duties for three weeks' time and has been forbidden to attend the quest with the Overlander. Should she break these regulations, she shall be thrown in the dungeon for fourteen days, and to of those days-should they occur-will be spent in isolation'."

Ryske looked up with the ghost of a smile on her lips, looking very pleased with herself and gauging Luxa's reaction, while Gregor saw Vikus slump in his chair some and bring a hand to his face. Meanwhile, Luxa's cheeks were flushed with anger and looking very much like she wanted Aurora to sweep her up so she could skewer Ryske with her sword.

Luxa managed to contain herself though, and instead asked in an acutely strained voice, "Is that all?"

"Yes."

And Luxa swept out of the room with her head held high.

Gregor found Luxa an hour later in the arena thrusting her sword repeatedly into a dummy's torso, and vehemently saying some very choice words about her opinion on Ryske and the rest of the council.

"Whoa, Luxa chill!" Gregor exclaimed when he tapped her on the shoulder and she whipped around, bringing her sword's blade to his neck.

"I will not 'chill', Gregor," she grunted as she turned back around and plunged her sword into the dummy again.

Gregor sighed and tried again, "You can get around the quest thing. Even if you can't get the council to change their mind, you'll probably sneak on anyway."

"You just don't get it, do you!" she shouted, spinning around to face him. "I'm watched like a traitor now! I am NEVER alone."

"We're alone now," Gregor said, glancing around the empty arena and seeing no one.

"No we aren't," she replied tiredly. "See?" Then, turning her head away from Gregor she shouted, "I need a new dummy!"

A middle-aged guard came rushing out of a tunnel on the adjacent—for an oval, anyway—side of the arena lugging a new-intact tan dummy, that appeared to be made of cow hide behind him.

"Here you are, Your Majesty," he panted before bowing hastily and retreating to the tunnel in which he'd been lurking.

"People are always watching. There are probably more of them put there than I know about, but there's nothing I can do," she said bitterly, watching his retreating form.

"I wonder," Gregor began, seizing the sword from Luxa's relaxed hand, "if they'd stop me from assassinating their queen."

"Ha," she said, grabbing a new sword from the wall and taking a fighting stance of her own. "You can't beat me, even if you are a rager."

"You're on," Gregor grinned as he lunged.

Author's Note: I hope you like the chapter! Thanks again for your patience. And if you live in the Midwest like me, I hope you're enjoying the 2 inches of ice covering everything! I've had three days off of school, and was ice skating down my street today! It's so much fun. My cousin, Anna, (she goes to Wheaton in Chicago) went sledding down some football bleachers on Wednesday. Not sure how she did it, but it sounded like fun. Also, Grace Kelly finished her second round of chemo treatment on Friday, and is responding to treatment well. Her immune system isn't in its best shape, so she caught the flu from her sister and is having to take medication for that on top of her cancer medicine. You can join the Support Grace Kelly Leon page on Facebook to find out more on how shes doing. And, question of the chapter; what is your favorite movie from 2010? I thought Inception was really good. Also, my pole is still up on my profile. Anyways, like always, please/por favor/si vous ple review!

~~~~~Charla~~~~~