Chapter 22

The friends raced back to the arch, and Angela rode with them to Bishop’s house. They collected all their weapons from the armory, and Angela added a bunch of her own. They stashed everything on their persons and congregated in Raleigh’s old bedroom so Hiram and Mrs. Mitchell wouldn’t see anything.

As soon as they got all their gear collected, all eyes turned to Dax. “Are you sure about this?” Angela asked.

“Are you sure you can do this, Dax?” Raleigh asked.

Dax nodded down at the floor. “I’m sure.”

Raleigh sighed. “All right. Take us to the amphitheater.”

Angela looked around the room. “They’ll be on top of us as soon as we show ourselves.”

“I don’t think so,” Raleigh replied. “The Eol’i will be too preoccupied with the entertainment to notice. No one will attack until we make our move.”

“And what move is that?” Angela asked.

Raleigh shrugged. “Grab Bishop and run.”

Angela snorted. “Is that your whole strategy.”

“Yep. That’s all of it. Now let’s get this over with and get home as quick as we can. Dax?”

He looked up at her.

“Go ahead. Do it.”

He closed his eyes and bowed his head, and a dizzy vertigo seized Raleigh’s head. She reeled, and when her vision cleared, she wasn’t in her room anymore. The little band stood in the clouds with the clear blue sky all around them.

The three friends looked all around them, but they could see nothing but clouds. “Where are we?”

A rumbling noise answered her. The babble of thousands of voices bubbled out of the nearest cloud bank. Raleigh followed the sound into the amphitheater.

She paused on the threshold and surveyed the scene. “Good job, Dax. You did it.”

He didn’t smile or even look at her. He observed the cats crowding into the seats. “It was nothing. I can do it anytime now.”

“What else can you do anytime?” Angela asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out.”

Raleigh turned away. “Come on. Let’s find our seats. We’ll get as close as we can.”

They climbed down through acres of seats. The cats moved aside to let them through. Angela scooted one furry body out of the way with her shoe. Raleigh took her seat. “Everything seems the same as last time. Can you detect any change, Dax?”

“Only that there seem to be more Eol’i here than last time.”

“Where’s Bishop?” Angela asked.

“He’ll be here soon,” Raleigh’s hand moved to her weapons, and she scanned the clouds overhead. They still billowed fluffy and white high above. She checked the vial of the chemical she would uncork when the Uk showed themselves.

Her hands trembled in anticipation, but she had to sit still for now. She had to wait for her chance, but the prospect of seeing Bishop again set her heart fluttering. She could only pray this fight went their way instead of going pear-shaped.

While she sat there looking around, she spotted a familiar tiny shape. “Teif! Teif, over here!”

She waved the kitten toward her. He strutted through the crowd and sat down at her feet. “Back again? You seem to be finding your way around better than before.”

Raleigh bent down and scratched behind his ears. “It’s good to see you again. How are you doing? Getting ready for school to open?”

He cocked his head. “What do you mean? It already started three weeks ago.”

“Three weeks!” Raleigh exclaimed. “Last time we were here, you said it would start in two weeks.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The school term was always scheduled to start on the seventh of February.”

“The seventh of February!” Raleigh cried. “It’s October.”

Angela laid her hand on Raleigh’s arm. “Not here, it isn’t. Time doesn’t operate the same way up here.”

Raleigh fidgeted in her seat. “If the school term already started, where are they keeping…the prisoner? He can’t still be in the basement.”

“No, they moved him to the Reading Room of the Grand Library and Research Center, but he won’t be there much longer.”

“Where are they moving him now?”

At that moment, a big commotion broke out in the cats across the amphitheater. Raleigh’s heart leapt. They must be bringing Bishop in.

The next minute, her spirit crashed into her guts. A bunch of strong, stout men strode through the clouds to the rim of the amphitheater. They scanned the masses of cats with calculating eyes. Raleigh knew the truth before Angela murmured under her breath. “The Guild! The Guild of Martial Arts.”

The friends watched in horror as more and more Guildsmen filed into the amphitheater. They pushed the cats aside a lot more roughly than Angela did. They kicked them and threw them off their seats until they packed the stands.

Raleigh groaned. “Do there have to be so many of them?”

“What did you think was going to happen?” Angela asked. “Bishop is their blood enemy. They want to gloat over his suffering before they take him back.”

A thunderclap announced the arrival of the Uk. Storm clouds churned overhead and turned the sky dark grey.

“So where is he?” Dax asked. “Why don’t they bring him out?”

Teif hopped up into Raleigh’s lap. He stuck his cool nose under her hand to nudge her to pet him. “I was about to tell you. They changed the program. They won’t bring him out, today or any other day. The show’s over.”

“Then what are all these Eol’i doing here?” Raleigh asked. “What is the Guild of Martial Arts doing here?”

“The Eochehxea decided the prisoner’s condition wasn’t strong enough to stand another day in the ring. They have another spectacle for us today. The prisoner will leave Solaris with the Guild as soon as this is over.”

Raleigh exchanged glances with her friends. This couldn’t be happening. All their plans couldn’t be wrecked at the last possible moment. “What are we going to do?”

Dax bent close to her ear. “Let me transport us to Bishop now. I can take him home in a second.”

Raleigh nodded. “You better try. It’s our best shot. Taking him here won’t work.”

Angela started to get up. “Let’s go.”

Dax’s hand shot out. “You two stay here.”

“What for? We can all go together.”

“They’ll see you,” Dax replied. “If you and Raleigh suddenly vanish in the blink of an eye, the Guild will notice. They’ll attack, or get the Eochehxea to attack you before you can go anywhere. Stay here, both of you. I’ll walk out of here. No one will pay any attention. I’ll take Bishop home and come back for you.”

Raleigh surveyed the Guildsmen across the amphitheater. They put their heads together and pointed to different spots around the stands. “I guess you’re right. Getting Bishop out is the most important thing right now. Get him safe. We’ll take care of things on this end until you can come and get us.”

Dax got to his feet and strolled out of the amphitheater. He disappeared in the sea of bodies and ducked through the cloud out of sight. Raleigh turned back to the empty ring. “I wonder what they have in mind for us today.”

A scream answered her. She looked around at the same time the Eol’i surged toward her from all directions. They converged on the spot where she sat. She braced herself to fight back when another scream ripped through the noise. In front of her eyes, Angela rose off her seat. She kicked and thrashed, but some unstoppable force lifted her into the air.

Angela screamed. She clawed the air to get away. She put out her hand in desperate fury. “Raleigh! Hold onto me.”

Raleigh caught her by the ankle and hung on, but the invisible power raised Angela into the air against all Raleigh’s efforts. The Eol’i stampeded down the stands toward them, all clawing and scratching and yowling at once.

Raleigh kicked Eol’i off her pant legs. She did her best to drag Angela back down, but her own weight scraped her off Angela’s slippery dress. In a few moments, she hung by her hands from Angela’s ankle before she fell off.

“Angela!” Raleigh cried. “Angela!”

“Raleigh!” Angela screamed. “Don’t let them take me!”

It was already too late. The Guildsmen watched the scene with their hard, cruel eyes. They hadn’t come to gloat over Bishop’s suffering at all. They came to watch the Eochehxea get revenge on Angela for breaking the covenant between the Guilds.

Angela hung suspended in the air. She sailed over Raleigh’s head toward the center of the ring. She moved her arms and legs without restraint. Whatever force moved her around never slackened until it set her down in the open space between the ring of feline bodies.

Raleigh whirled one way and then the other. She couldn’t sit still and watch Angela go through the same torment these beings inflicted on Bishop—or worse. Angela feared they would kill her if she set foot in Solaris. Why, oh, why didn’t Raleigh listen to her? Why did she insist Angela come along on this hopeless mission?

The clouds boomed overhead. The Uk would start falling any second. Raleigh’s hand went to her pocket. She would disable the Uk and rescue Angela—but how? She couldn’t get out of Solaris without Dax.

Dax would have found Bishop and taken him home long since. How long would she have to wait before Dax came back? Considering the convoluted time scale separating Solaris from the rest of Hinterland, she could be stranded here for weeks or even years.

Angela’s feet touched down in the ring, and the force let her go. She immediately began the agonizing search on all sides for the first attack. She scuttled backward to the center of the ring. She turned right and then left to face every direction at once. She crouched to spring, and she glared at every eye watching her.

Teif sat on Dax’s vacated seat. He licked his whiskers and blinked at nothing. “I told you it should be good. She’ll have more energy than the other one. I guarantee you that.”

Raleigh floundered in confusion. She had to get Angela out of here. This was all her fault. She couldn’t let Angela take the fall for her mistake. Her hand closed around the vial in her pocket when another roar of excited voices rose across the ring. The crowd parted, and the biggest lion Raleigh could imagine stalked into the ring.

Raleigh stared at it in disbelief. She only ever saw lions in pictures, but this one dwarfed any real lion ever to set foot on planet Earth. Teif’s voice hooted and called from the level of her knee. “Yay! It’s Ariel!”

Raleigh rounded on him. “Are you telling me you know this…this thing?”

“He’s Eol’i,” Teif replied. “He’s our greatest hero.”

Raleigh went back to staring at the lion. “He…he can’t be Eol’i. I thought you were all small, like you.”

“He’s a freak,” Teif told her. “Isn’t he magnificent? Yay, Ariel! Tear her to pieces!”

Raleigh’s mind seethed in a tempest of emotion. Where was Dax? He wasn’t coming back anytime soon. She couldn’t rely on anybody but herself. She had to free Angela alone against all these forces.

The lion lowered his head between his shoulders and strode into the ring. Angela cast glances back and forth over her shoulders. She kept backing away, but that invisible force stopped her from leaving the ring.

The longer Raleigh watched, the more she understood that force. The Eochehxea must be watching this spectacle along with their so-called inferior countrymen. Wherever they lived in the realm of thought, they must be just as fascinated by this blood-sport as the cats all around.

The lion grumbled low in his throat. The sound reverberated into the stands, and the smaller Eol’i went nuts. They leaped over each other. They attacked and bit each other in their excited frenzy.

Raleigh waited while Ariel walked a few more steps toward Angela before the awful truth sunk into her mind. The Uk wouldn’t come. The Eochehxea planned some worse torture to punish Angela in the sight of her fellow Guildsmen. The chemical Raleigh worked so hard to procure from Chivvy would be useless in this fight.

Ariel quickened his pace. He trotted forward until he broke into a run. He jumped and glided across the ring. He extended his forepaws toward Angela, and a bone-crushing roar split from his throat.

Angela’s hand flew to her waist. She pulled the weapon she used at Hallbreck. She aimed it at Ariel and fired. The impact sent the lion hurtling backward. He hit the ground—or whatever solid substance held them so far above the ground. He landed on his side and rolled up onto his feet.

He sprang at Angela one more time. She took aim, but before she could fire again, an unseen hand smacked the weapon out of her hand. It flew across the ring and fell among the Eol’i.

The cats screeched and cavorted wilder than ever at this development. Raleigh wrung her hands. This was terrible. Angela didn’t try to reach any of the other weapons stowed all over her body under her clothes. The Eochehxea would disable them, too. They would find a way to stop her fighting back.

Ariel pounced on top of her. His forepaws came to rest on her shoulders, and he lunged at her face to bite and tear. He towered a head taller than she when he stood on his hind legs. She dodged aside just in time and buried her head under his chin where he couldn’t damage her.

He sank his claws into her clothes and wrenched her sideways. He dragged her down and pinned her under one enormous paw. He let out a stomach-wrenching snarl and drove his bared fangs at her face.

Raleigh couldn’t stand around a second longer. She couldn’t watch this, and she couldn’t leave Angela to face it alone. She yanked her cube weapon in one hand and her throwing blade in the other and charged into the ring.

Teif’s voice followed her down the last steps. “No! You can’t!”

Raleigh paid no attention. She hurdled the last cats and broke through to charge the lion.