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The soldier shook his head. “For health reasons, large gatherings are being discouraged. There are no exceptions.”
“What?” one of the girls close at hand shrieked. She latched on to the front of the soldier’s armor and yanked him downward to face level with her. “The concert is still going to happen, right?”
Her loud question caught the attention of all the rest of the groupies.
“What?”
“What do you mean canceled?”
“You can’t cancel it!”
The leader of the soldiers held up his arms and raised his voice above the panicked din of the women. “The concert is not canceled, but for your own safety we suggest you not congregate around any of the Halls.”
“You’d better not!” one of them snapped.
“You guys wouldn’t last a minute against us!” another jeered.
The soldier flashed the last woman such a sharp look that the others were cowed into silence. “Whatever your desires, dear ladies, I have my orders directly from the emperor. If you desire to disobey what he has ordered then there is plenty of room in his dungeons. Now disperse.”
The air filled with sullen disapproval, but the women obeyed his command. In a few minutes, the last of the women had dragged her feet out of sight. That left Ben and me alone with the soldiers and the musician. With the crowd gone, Phantom noticed our standing to one side.
So did the soldiers. The leader frowned and marched over to us. “What are you doing here?”
Ben smiled at the stern man. “My friend here had hoped to find some tickets to the concert.” He looked past the soldier and at the Phantom. “Might we be able to dig up a few tickets around here, or must we scrounge up some bones elsewhere?”
The corners of the Phantom’s lips twitched downward. “I’m afraid there’s no more to be had anywhere, sir.”
Ben bowed his head and took up my hand. “Then we shall obey the captain and be on our way.”
And with that, he moseyed us past the soldiers and down the street. I was only too glad to obey Ben’s steerage, but something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. A raven sat atop one of the arms that held a lamp, and its beady black eyes watched me. I wouldn’t have given the bird a second look except that its feathers appeared to be so ragged as to be rotten.
The brief sight forced me to do a double take, but my second look was foiled by the bird spreading its wings and flying away in the opposite direction we traveled. I pursed my lips, but shoved the creature into the back of my mind.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
I let outa breath only after we were well out of earshot of the soldiers. “That was awkward.”
“But telling,” Ben countered as he set a hand on the small of my back. “And well worth the risk, as the Phantom’s reaction to my question proved.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean is that I believe it was no coincidence that the trail of our prey led us to the Halls of Joy,” Ben explained.
I stopped and turned to face him. “You. . .you mean you think the Phantom’s involved? Why?”
Ben sighed. “He has a rather impressive collection of magical items, that much we witnessed during our first meeting with him. That would mean he may have the ability to conjure up such trouble. Then, the trouble didn’t begin until he arrived.”
“You meanafterhe arrived,” I reminded him. “The Phantom didn’t show up until the day after.”
“So Wexelman told us, but few artists who can attract a crowd such as he would give a definite or even truthful, date of arrival,” he pointed out.
I folded my arms over my chest and furrowed my brow. “But why? What does he have to gain?”
Ben pursed his lips. “Unfortunately, that is one piece of the puzzle I don’t hold. Perhaps another talk with our rotten friend at the house would answer the question of motivation.”
A thought struck me as we strode through the dark streets. “What would he have been doing in the Totten graveyard, though? I mean, that place was already hit, and there aren’t any members of the academy buried there, either.”
“That is rather odd,” Ben agreed as a dark cloud settled on his worried brow. “It seems we have more questions than answers.”
