by D P Rowell
“Rest,” Ace said. He wiped a line of dribble from his mouth. “Tomorrow we’ll recruit some more.”
He turned away and walked out the hotel door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Juneg Disappears
Ace’s eyes shot open to a tap on his shoulder. He sat up and shook his head to wake himself up. He rubbed his eyes and turned to his left to find a human woman. She had tapped him on the shoulder; a hotel employee. She leaned over the couch where he lay.
“Kid, you can’t sleep here. Do you know where your parents are?” The lady said. Her hair was red and pulled tightly back into a ponytail, her eyes were blue, and her voice was soft and high.
Ace shook his head. “No,” he coughed and sat up again, “No, I don’t know where my parents are.”
The lady frowned and patted Ace’s head, then leaned into his ear. “I can get you a room on me. It’ll be our little secret.”
Ace offered a light puff of a laugh. “Thank you, but I’ll be fine.” He turned behind him to see dawn had just begun from behind the glass doors and windows in the hotel lobby. “Time to get up anyway.”
She smiled, nodded, then walked away.
Ace yawned and stretched. Three hours of sleep would be all he had to work with. He turned to his right at the sound of footsteps. Sebastian walked towards him from from the elevator hallway. Dressed in navy blue slacks, a black collared shirt, and a brown leather jacket. The first time Ace had seen him dress different than a hunter. The pale elite reached the couch and sat next to him.
“What?” Ace said.
“You okay?”
Ace scoffed and wiped his face. “I’m fine, Sebastian.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You really think you’re in any place to be telling me how I’m doing right now?”
Sebastian sighed. “Ace, you’re different. You’re not the same kid I remember Rio introducing me to.”
“Oh, really? Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the entire world is out to get me.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Sebastian said. “Your eyes, your attitude. You’ve been so aggressive lately. It’s good to see you stepping up and taking ownership, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a lot of anger pent up in you, and everyone can see it. I mean, last night you made that . . .” Sebastian looked around the room suspiciously, then leaned closer to Ace and lowered his tone, “you made that witch vanish without even trying to capture her.”
Ace's bones rattled. It was too early in the morning for this discussion. He stood from the couch. “Don’t you remember our agreement? We find the Peppercorns first. Then, maybe, I’ll trust you. You’re not my therapist, alright?”
Sebastian stood slowly, his face drooped. “I’m trying to help you, Ace. You have a lot of pressure on you right now and—”
“I don’t need lessons from you. A parcel was able to climb his way to the top in Gathara under your watch, so you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ace walked calmly away from Sebastian and got on the next elevator.
When Ace returned to the hotel room, he gave Easley and Juneg a good talking to. He warned them of his strong perception of sorcery and what he’d do if they betrayed them. The message was received, and Easley thanked Ace for rescuing him from his tormenting witch. Because of which, it didn’t take much to persuade them to join the Israh and start learning to perceive witchcraft and attack it.
Everyone agreed to continue recruiting while the search continued for the Peppercorns. Ace kept the basketball tournament a secret from Sebastian as his skepticism persisted. Sebastian and Trilo parted from the group early on. Easely went with them and Jueng with Ace and Cameron. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually Juneg and Easley agreed to be separated. Once they began walking along the sidewalk, Ace stopped and turned to face Juneg.
“Alright, now it’s time to hold up your end of the bargain,” Ace said.
Juneg nodded timidly.
Cameron placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. Your drake friend is fine. He’s actually much safer now. Ace did him a favor.”
She nodded and glanced at them both. “I know. I just—I had no idea he . . .”
Ace gave her a moment after she trailed off, but once she said nothing else, he jumped in. “We need you to help us with something.”
“Right,” Juneg said, dismissing the previous topic, “who friend you look for?”
“Well, actually,” Ace said, “we kinda know where he is. We just need you to help us get to him.”
“How?” Juneg said.
“Can you get us into the Neutral Colosseum without tickets for tonight’s game?”
Juneg chuckled. “That it?”
Ace smiled. “Can you do it?”
“Course I can.”
Ace and Cameron smiled at each other and high fived. Juneg led the way through the light crowds of late morning. The Colosseum turned out to only be a thirty-minute walk from their inn. Along the way, they got to know each other a bit more. Juneg's family had been taken from her at a very young age due to rampant crime in the Neutrals. She’d been learning to live on her own ever since. She met Easley soon after and they teamed up in helping each other survive. She was almost recruited into Inan, the red drake’s gang along with Easley. She tried to convince Easley not to join Inan because something seemed strange about him; and now she knew why. Ace wrestled his heart as the jag girl’s story went on. He found himself heartbroken over her circumstances but impressed of her ability to pick up on sorcery. She would make a fine hunter.
The Colosseum stood a hundred feet in the air, capped in a blue dome. Elegant pillars of stone held the saucer-shaped ceiling to the ground and wrapped around the block in a massive cylinder. People had set up tents and gatherings in the parking lots surrounding the Colosseum. The companions walked through the sound of laughter and the smell of roast conies cooking on portable stove tops. Cameron and Ace broke through the crowd of tailgaters and stood across the street from the Colosseum.
“Security is probably really tight around here,” Cameron said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Ace said. He turned to his brother, then to the other side. He looked behind him and in front and grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “Uh, Cameron, where’s Juneg?”
Cameron turned around and they each combed over the sea of laughing families in the parking lots. “She was right next to us the whole time.”
Ace’s eyes rapidly looked over every person in front of them. She was nowhere to be seen. How difficult would it be to spot a child jag in a parking lot full of jag and human families? He turned his brother and sighed. “Great. She ran away.”
Cameron shook his head. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. She wouldn’t leave without her drake friend.”
“She was freaked out when I freed Easley, Cameron. She probably has no idea what happened and is scared of us now.”
Cameron smacked his teeth and sighed. “Why would she do that?”
“She—”
“Hey! Stop her!” Yelled a voice. Ace and Cameron looked straight to the lots full of people and found a familiar red drake wrestling through the obstacles of tailgaters with his finger pointing down. The crowds gave the drake dazed looks and saw nothing where he was pointing. “Stop her!” The drake yelled again.
“Cameron,” Ace said, smacking his brother’s chest, “That’s the drake from Carnival Square, the one who was looking for Juneg!”
“Then . . .” Cameron began to say. The people let out a few gasps as Juneg burst through the crowds and knocked down a couple of tables and one tent. Leaving a pile of trash to cover her path from being followed by the red drake.
“Go, go!” She yelled as she zipped by Cameron and Ace. The Halder brothers looked at one another, unsure of how to respond. They turned around to find Juneg crossing the street, ignoring the red lights glowing from the glass roads. Cameron and Ace bolted after her.
“Juneg!”
They were a bit more cautious about crossing the street than Juneg, but luckily the lights turned green shortly after they arrived at the intersection. They hustled through the city and weaved their way around pedestrian traffic. At one point, Ace turned around to find the red, dragon-like drake climbing over the obstacles Juneg had left for him in the tailgating area. When Ace turned forward, Juneg had disappeared.
“Where’d she go?” Ace said.
Cameron pointed his finger, but Ace couldn’t see where to. He followed his older brother into a store down the street from the Colosseum. The door chimed, signaling their entry. It was a toy store. Barely populated.
Juneg stood in the foyer, waving her hands to them, “Come, follow me.” She turned and ran along an aisle with shelves of Narakian toys stacked to the ceiling. She cut a couple corners swiftly. Moments later, after she’d taken them through a maze of toy aisles, the front door chimed again, and Ace heard a drake voice speaking in the background.
“I’m looking for a little jag and two humans, have you—”
Juneg led them out of a metal door into an alley. She turned and climbed up a rusty metal ladder hugging the wall. Ace and Cameron followed her. It led to a ledge with an old wooden door. She opened the door and went inside, followed by the Halders. They entered an abandoned apartment with walls peeling off the studs and insulation scattered on a rotten hardwood floor.
“Shh,” Juneg said as Ace stepped on a piece of broken glass. Cameron came in and slowly shut the door. The only sounds they heard were their huffs of breath and the muffled busy city outdoors. Juneg leaned out of a window, overlooking the ledge they just climbed over. Seconds later, the metal door leaving the toy store clanged open and smacked against the brick wall. The red drake stepped out and looked around the alley. After not being able to find Juneg, he screamed in anger and kicked one of the dumpsters. He clicked his tongue in such a fierce way, Ace was sure he was swearing, and stomped out of the alley. Juneg turned around and sat on the floor, her back leaning against the wall.
“You wanna tell us what all that was about?” Cameron asked.
Juneg smiled. She reached into her tattered pocket and pulled out three tickets to the Colosseum game. Ace snatched them from her hand. “Were you just planning on stealing them the entire time?”
“No,” Juneg said, “only after you asked me.”
“I never asked you to steal!” Ace said.
“You said you wanted get in Colosseum and you didn’t have tickets. So, I got you tickets. We even, alright?”
“No, not alright,” Ace said. He turned to Cameron, “We can’t accept these, we have to give them back.”
Cameron glanced at Juneg for a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t see why we have to do that, Ace.”
Ace thought he might blow a gasket. “How could you say that! We’re not taking stolen tickets!”
“I don’t just steal things, okay?” Juneg said. “It not like I walk around taking whatever I can from whoever I want. Inan is evil man, okay? He captured Easley when he just little kid and forced him to work in horrible conditions for little to no food. I . . . helped him escape and we been stealing back what Inan owes him ever since.”
“How’d you know he was gonna have tickets?” Ace asked, his brow furrowed at her.
“Inan goes every Fetch Fly game. He usually invited by team to sit in box or whatever. City and team are always inviting each other to their events.”
Ace squinted. “Inan works for the city?”
Juneg nodded.
Ace scratched his head and pondered over this a moment.
Here’s a drake with power, capturing children and turning them to slaves. One of which turned out to be controlled by a witch.
Inan was a parcel.
“Dude,” Cameron said interrupting Ace’s thoughts, “we have to get into the Colosseum somehow, alright? It’s the only way at finding the Peppercorns.”
“Woah,” Juneg said, “hold up. Peppercorns? As in Marcus Peppercorn?”
Ace smacked Cameron’s arm. “Why’d you say that out loud?”
Juneg stood to her feet. “Look, I can get you tickets, but I can’t help you get point guard for Eveland’s team.”
“We can handle that part,” Cameron said.
“How?” Juneg said.
“We’re relate—”
“We have our methods,” Ace interrupted Cameron.
Juneg eyed them curiously then folded her arms. “Something shady is going on between you two.”
Cameron chuckled and stood to his feet. “Trust me, little girl, you have no idea,” He turned to his younger brother, “Ace, look. I don’t like the fact that we’re using stolen tickets either, but what other options do we have?”
Ace looked at the tickets in his hand, then to Juneg and Cameron. “Alright,” he said. He pointed at Juneg, “But no stealing anymore. Got it?”
Juneg shrugged. “Whatever.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Out of Options
Ace, Cameron, and Juneg waited until most of the line had already gone inside the stadium after the doors opened. After the scene they'd caused in the tailgating area, Ace thought it best to stay out of sight. Upon entering, they immediately bought Naraka Fetch Flies jerseys and hats to blend in. Ace scanned the people in the Colosseum for anyone suspecting them. The walls of the stadium had murals of famous Fetch Fly players over the years. Most of them were shots of them in action, dunking or shooting. The team consisted mostly of jags. They passed under one banner hanging from the metal ceiling of Yug Orn, a basketball held between his left hand and hip. His hand looked nearly as big as the ball.
The crowd volume bounced off the tile floors and open ceiling and echoed throughout the facility. White beams of light hung in rows from the ceiling. A little jag boy to the right tried to fit an entire wad of sugar clumps in his mouth. Half the people started team chants and the other
half frantically tried to find their seats before tip-off. Ace and Cameron kept their heads down and stood behind Juneg.
“I never been in here before,” Juneg said. “It really cool.”
“Ace,” Cameron said in a hushed tone, “I don’t know if we should head to our seats.”
“Why?” Ace said.
“Because, whoever was supposed to sit with Inan is gonna be looking for us. We should head to the opposite side of the stadium.”
Ace nodded. “Good call.”
A burst of cheers came from inside the stadium. Tip off must have begun.
“What should we do?” Cameron said. “We really didn’t think this through. I don’t know how we’re gonna get to Uncle Marcus unnoticed.”
“Uncle?” Juneg said and turned around, eyes full of unbelief.
Ace shrugged and turned to his brother. Cameron had a good point. Most people on the team would recognize he and Cameron, including Coach Brigs and his staff. They had been to plenty of Sabercats games in the past. But they needed to get to Uncle Marcus inconspicuously. They needed to trap him before he could let the council know about the Israh’s plan.
Ace and Cameron looked about the Colosseum while Juneg feasted her eyes on the festivities.
“Let’s see if we can get a look at Uncle Marcus,” Ace said.
Cameron nodded, and they nudged Juneg to the hall leading to the stadium seats. The moment they stepped through another burst of crowd cheers occurred as a member of the Fetch Flies made a slam dunk. Jags playing basketball never impressed Ace.
When you’re nearly eight feet tall, of course you can dunk the ball.
On either side of the hall the stadium seats sloped upward. The three of them stood on a ledge overlooking the game, guarded by black rails. The ledge dipped a couple feet into the closer stadium seats.
Ace and Cameron combed their eyes through the basketball players. Whose squeaky sneakers echoed throughout the stadium as they scurried along the court. A man selling drinks and Heorg Frujies bumped into Ace as he ma
de his way up the steps.
Time froze a moment and Ace’s body went cold accordingly. At the passing of the candy salesman from his vision, Marcus Peppercorn came into sight. The six-foot-five, black haired, hazel-eyed uncle himself. Dribbling the ball slowly and scoping out which teammate to pass it to. Ace clenched his fist. He hadn’t realized what seeing him in person for the first time since his life had changed would do. He gritted his teeth and furrowed his brow. He fought every urge arising to plunge through the crowd and take him down right then. He shook his head to bring himself back to reality. The mission was finding Julie and Tamara, not revenge on Uncle Marcus.
“Well,” Ace said softly, “he's definitely here.”
“Hey, that’s them!” shouted a voice.
All three of them turned around. Ace’s eyes widened as he saw Inan, the red drake, staring them down. Ace shook his head nervously. How did the drake find them? Ace glanced backward to Uncle Marcus on the court. Now wasn’t the time to be getting mixed up in this. They had to get to the Peppercorns.
Inan stepped a little closer with eyes like dark magic. Ace’s senses ran a thousand miles a second. He was face to face with a parcel only a couple feet away from him; and unlike his time with Rio, he knew it.
Juneg backed into them, spreading her arms out wide and gently nudging them backward. “Guys,” she said quietly, “He really wants me. Not you two.”
Ace grabbed the jag girl’s arm. “We’re not leaving you.”
“Security!” Inan yelled.
Ace and Cameron halted at the sight of two jag security guards blocking the exit way. Their muscles popped through their outfits. Whispers and rumor trickled through the surrounding crowds. The eyes of the audience nearby slowly fixed on them. Ace swallowed.
“Great,” Cameron whispered, “What now?”
Ace looked behind him again. Some of the crowds below were looking up in their direction, curious about all the fuss. He felt no fear. Only fury. This wasn’t happening. Just as he was getting close to finding the Peppercorns?