“This isn’t going to work.” Barys stridently sheathes his sword and goes to the cart. He removes the harness from one of the cougars. It snaps at him, but he prods it toward the Tunnel cage with his gladius. Tattoos unlocks the Tunnel cage door.
“Wait.” Helene reaches out a hand. “This is wrong. We’ll get sent back to the Arena for this!”
Her words make no difference. Barys nods to Tattoos, who swings open the gate to let the cougar in.
I abandon my cover and bolt from the mist. I grab the coliseum gate keys from the tree and stuff them in my belt, then shout, “Hey!”
The Vetters spin.
I throw a handful of glowing wheat kernels at them. The tiny seeds bounce off their chests as if I’d tossed canned lima beans, but the cougar leaps away. So these work only on the nightbeasts and not on Tenebran citizens who have sold their souls to the nightmist. Good to know.
“It’s Icarus,” Tattoos breathes. He fumbles for his sword and, in doing so, releases his hold on the cage door. The cougar leaps inside, making a beeline for the prisoners.
“Stop!” I run to the cage and throw another small handful of kernels inside. The cougar screams its banshee scream and dances around the tiny seeds, banging against the wood of the cage.
“Get out of there!” Helene shouts at the prisoners, hauling one out by the arm when there’s a clear pathway. I’m glad to see she’s not an enemy. Still not sure if she’s an ally.
Barys advances on me with his sword. Tattoos reaches for the second cougar’s harness. This is about to get ugly. I reach for my belt before I remember my kris dagger is gone. My hand finds the crossbow, but that won’t stop the cougar.
All I truly have is this wheat.
Which is probably good. I don’t want to kill people, but if it’s a choice between the murderous Vetters and the trapped Fears, I know who I’ll take down if I must. They know me as Icarus, and they’re afraid of me. They don’t know that I don’t control nightmist anymore.
The second cougar tears away from its loosened harness and comes for me. I dive to the side. The cougar skids across the dirt and claws at me. I kick out my feet.
They connect with soft underbelly, and I catapult the giant cat over my head. Meanwhile, the other cougar in the Tunnel cage has managed to tiptoe its way around the scattered kernels toward its prey. Some of the Fears scramble for the stray kernels. Others go for the door, but Tattoos slams the door shut and clicks the padlock, even though Helene is inside.
“Hey!” Helene pounds her fist against the wood. “What are you doing?”
The first cougar jumps on her back, and she screams as she drops to the ground.
I’m on my feet and reach to create anything I can with a kernel of light. Instead, my focus spins away into the mist—almost like an emissary calling for help. It’s outside my control, and I don’t quite understand it until the ground pounds beneath us.
My rhinoceros bursts into view and lumbers for the Tunnel cage. It smashes its head and horn into the side, bursting the wood beams apart. Helene has managed to get a wheat kernel from the dirt and shoves it in the cougar’s face. It leaps backward through the new hole in the narrow prison.
The rhinoceros stomps the cat to bloody smithereens until it’s nothing more than a motionless pelt on the ground.
The prisoners scramble for freedom, seeming to have lost their fear. Every one of them has a couple wheat kernels in his or her hand. I swell with pride for a moment, though I have nothing to do with their courage. But there’s something about seeing people step up despite fear to defend and protect what is good.
Helene runs to the other two Tunnel cages, banging at the padlock of the first with a rock. Barys goes after her with a sword. I throw a wheat kernel after him, this time channeling my thoughts into the kernel instead of expecting it to defend us with its light. It turns into a whip. The handle forms in my palm, and I grip it tight as the upper portion wraps around Barys’s ankles.
I yank and he tumbles to the ground.
“Help her!” I yell to the rhinoceros who has been huffing and snorting after the second cougar. It obeys immediately and blasts through the second cage, almost trampling a couple people in its path, but miraculously no one gets squashed. Rhino does the same thing with the final cage.
The prisoners are free. There are about a dozen total. They go for Tattoos, and I holler after them, “His citizenship! I need his citizenship scroll!” But Tattoos bolts. The remaining cougar chases him into the mist, and all we hear is screaming.
I can’t tell if it’s him or the cougar.
Barys attacks with his gladius, slicing my whip from its handle. I chuck the handle at him and it thunks into his forehead. He growls, but it gives me enough time to put some space between us again. I bring up the crossbow but can’t quite manage to pull the arrow back all the way.
I let the shaft rest in the weapon—he doesn’t need to know it’s not fully cocked. I go the intimidation route. “Your fellow Vetter is gone, and there are a dozen of us. You sure you want this fight?” I don’t mention Helene. She stands with the prisoners, sword in hand and pointed toward Barys.
She’s chosen her side.
Barys’s glare is fierce. He was willing to kill the prisoners to avoid encountering an Adelphoi. Survival instinct is his god. Why would he fight alone when he has no loyalty to anyone but himself?
He glances over his shoulder then his lips curl. “I don’t need to fight anymore, anyway.” He turns and dashes into the mist, taking a different path than Tattoos and the cougar.
I scan the air beyond this hill for what may have given him the confident smirk.
Dark, distant shadows move, weaving through mist. Growing larger.
A stingray.
Luc is coming.
“Heidi!” I call out the girl’s name intentionally. Helene’s head jerks to me. I meet her eyes. “Heidi is safe.”
She stills for a moment, then eyes me skeptically. “How do you know where she is? I’ve been monitoring these Tunnels day and night.” So that’s why she became a Vetter—to find Heidi, not to further Luc’s kingdom.
“The younger kids don’t arrive in the tunnels. They come through a wheat field. That’s where she and the others are now.” At least I hope Heidi is at Castle Ithebego. And I hope Helene believes me. “Follow the rhino. It’ll take you to a castle beyond the edge of the Nightmare. I’ll be right behind you. There are nightbeasts along the way, so keep the kernels in hand. The wheat field is protected from beasts, but not people. It’s the gateway.”
I pray this is making sense to her. I speak quickly because I need her out of here and to take the others with her. I need to keep Luc from following them. They should be safe at Castle Ithebego . . . if they can get in. The veil let me out, but I don’t have a magical Adelphoi sword to get back in.
I have to trust that the veil will know the new arrivals are not enemies.
I look at the sky again, but the shadows have disappeared in the mist. “You have to go now.”
