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By this time we had reached the edge of the light just behind the booths. Peter turned to face us and nodded. “I’ll be around, and thank you.”
“For what?” I wondered.
He smiled. “For delivering the message from Aria, and for protecting the thunder races. Both are my life.”
Ben inclined his head. “It’s our pleasure.”
“And our hobby,” I quipped as I nudged on Ben’s arm with my elbow. “But we’d better get going.”
“But we have an hour,” he reminded me.
I pulled him toward the booths. “That isn’t nearly long enough to try all these foods.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
By the timewe walked through the arena area, my arms were full of half-finished delicious goodies. There were all kinds of meat-on-a-stick meals which I didn’t ask of the meat and more flavors of candies than I could count. Ben held only a single stick of meat but he had a broad smile on his face as he watched me balance my treasures.
“Did you want me to hold anything?” he offered.
I shot him a look of death as I hugged my goodies against my chest. “So you can take a bite out of it? Oh no. You’ll have to pry this stuff out of my cold, dead-” I tossed another candy into my mouth, “-sticky fingers.”
We exited the arena and were promptly met by a half dozen of the officials flying the colors of the empire. One of them stepped forward and held up his hand. “Badges, please.”
My heart dropped into my stomach as I recalled the required attire for company members. “Certainly,” Ben replied as he dug into his pocket and drew out the two badges Mouse had given us.
The man inspected the pair before he nodded and handed them back. “Thank you.”
“Might I ask, why the extra security?” Ben inquired.
“You may not,” the man snapped as he stepped aside, as did the rest of his crew. “Now continue on your way.”
“Friendly fellows,” I commented as we made our way toward the tower.
Ben examined the area around us. “They must be as worried about another magic attack as us.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Then you think they know it was magic?”
“How could it be otherwise?” he countered as we neared the lookout.
One of the lit metal baskets stood nearby, and a smaller one provided both heat and light to each tower. Three figures were huddled around the fire and their voices floated over to us.
“That’s not fair! I want a do-over!”
“You’ve had six of them already.”
“And it’s not mathematically possible for me to lose all of them!”
We reached the trio and Ben smiled at the trio. “What seems to be the problem?”
Mouse whipped his head around and pointed at his two compatriots who stood opposite him. “We’re trying to draw sticks to see who’s driving tonight, but they keep cheating.”
“We’re not cheating, you’re just bad at drawing sticks,” Grant countered.
“I can’t lose six times in a row without you cheating!” Mouse insisted.
The two proceeded to enter a bickering match as I sidled up to Chase and lowered my voice. “Is he really losing that badly?”
“With loaded sticks, yeah,” Chase confirmed with a devilish glint in his eyes.
