As it happened, it was Dragus, and he was smiling like a cat who'd been in the cream.
"Have fun?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied shortly, thinking I'd best change the subject as quickly as possible. "Are you going to move the guys tonight?" I asked. "Dobraton is going to be here, and the last time she asked to visit The Shrine."
"We will be prepared," he said. "The Queen's guard sends me the alert. We've never been caught yet," he added proudly.
"Sends you the alert?" I echoed. "So you
do
have a way to communicate with one another then! I've wondered about that." I'd never seen anybody use a phone or a comlink of any kind, so whatever they used must have been pretty unobtrusive. Then again, given where I was, they probably had a stone for it. "Back home,
everyone
carries a communication device. There's no such thing as being out of touch." I hadn't missed being out of touch myself, but the guards would find it useful, especially given the size of the palace.
As I might have expected, Dragus pointed to a small stone on the left side of his chest armor. "This acti-vates the link," he said. "And then we can converse over it."
As I looked up at him, it occurred to me that he seemed slightly overqualified for his job of guarding slaves who never tried to escape. "Tell me something, Dragus, how do you feel about having to guard the slaves and all?"
"The Queen rewards me well," he said with a smirk.
"Must be a boring job, though," I reflected. "Not much in the way of danger or excitement."
The look he gave me spoke volumes.
"I probably shouldn't have asked that," I mumbled.
As I crossed the threshold, I slipped and would have fallen if Dragus hadn't caught me by the arm. "What's that slippery stuff all over the floor?"
Dragus' sheepish expression was all it took to tell me just how it was that he alleviated the boredom of being a guard.
Trying very hard not to smile, I advised, "Better ask the slaves for a scrail cloth and get that cleaned up before somebody breaks their neck!" When he didn't move I scolded, "Hurry up, now!" before heading off to the Great Hall. Biting my lip in a valiant effort to keep from laughing, I had rounded the next corner when finally I lost all control.
"It's not funny!" Dragus called out, obviously having heard my giggles.
With a shout of laughter that brought tears to my eyes, I didn't reply but hurried on to the recital. I couldn't wait to tell Tychar that story!
Thanks to Dragus and the boys, I'd managed to miss dinner but grabbed a bite or two backstage. The kids were playing before the Edraitians, and one nice thing about Darconian piano students was that I didn't have to worry about them being dressed appropriately, so our preparations mainly consisted of making sure they went onstage in the right order.
The Great Hall was packed with lizards of all sizes and colors and ablaze with light emanating from elabo-rately carved glowstone sculptures, which had been placed in niches high in the walls. Peeking past the curtains, I spotted Dobraton in the audience, and even she seemed excited. Scalia was beaming with pride at the prospect of her children performing onstage.
Zealon went first, and her competent performance drew thunderous applause. Racknay followed, but his performance was a bit spotty and was met with a polite response. The smug expression on Dobraton's face as he exited the stage told me that she undoubtedly saw this as positive proof to support the widely held belief that males were worthless as musicians. However, I still had my ace in the hole, and Uragus was bouncing up and down before going out onstage, barely able to contain his exuberance.
"Do you think they'll like me?" he asked anxiously.
"Are you kidding?" I scoffed. "They're gonna love you! And you won't believe what they'll do after they hear you play!"
"Really?"
"You bet, buddy," I assured him. "You just get on out there and knock 'em dead! They won't know what hit them." Giving him a big hug, I aimed him toward the stage and tweaked his tail.
Grinning at me over his shoulder, Uragus scam-pered over to center stage and climbed up on the bench while the audience waited in silent anticipation as the lights dimmed.
I'd given Uragus three pieces to choose from, and he'd picked "Fur Elise," a Beethoven composition, which was one of my own personal favorites. I'd been skeptical at first because, though it isn't terribly difficult, it is played with both hands and isn't your usual beginner's first recital piece, but the way he played it gave me goosebumps.
Halfway through it, I looked out at Dobraton. Her expression was neutral, but she
had to
be impressed. Even a bunch of tone-deaf Darconians couldn't help but realize that his performance was outstanding—for anyone, and not just a tiny little guy who couldn't even reach the pedals. Scalia looked so proud of him, and I was happier than I'd been in a very long time. Sometimes being a teacher has its rewards.
As the last notes died away and Uragus took his bow, the applause and tail-thumping was positively deafening.
Standing just offstage, I was watching Dobraton, trying to gauge her reaction, so I was staring right at her when she raised a pulse pistol and shot Scalia point blank.
I never heard the shot, and, given the noise level, it was doubtful that anyone else had, either, but when Scalia hit the floor with a loud thud, it got everyone's attention. Uragus was crossing the stage toward me at the time, and I knelt down and held out my arms. He ran to me, oblivious of what had just happened, and as the curtains closed, I gathered him up in my arms, turned, and ran. Zealon and Racknay were waiting in the wings, so they hadn't seen, either. They both stared at me in surprise.
"Run!" I shouted as I hurried past them. "We've got to get out of here!" It didn't take a student of history to know that when a queen is deposed, her children are in just as much danger as she. I had no idea which direction we should take, but away from the Hall seemed best.
The Shrine seemed like a good place to go, but for the life of me, I couldn't have said why I was thinking that, other than the fact that Tychar was there.
I knew we'd have to get out of the palace somehow, but Dobraton undoubtedly had followers, and I had an idea that any conventional entrance would have been blocked by then. They were probably swarming all over the palace, killing off anyone loyal to Scalia. But how to get out? The Shrine was high up, but the portico went all the way around the palace...
Rope. We needed rope to scale the wall. Surely backstage there would be something! The Edraitians were all milling around back there, doing stretches and practicing their leaps, and I ran to Nindala screaming for help. "You're in danger!" I yelled. "Dobraton hates offworlders! If she's taken power, she'll probably have the whole lot of us executed!"
Stately Nindala seemed taken aback for once. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "Who has taken power?"
"Dobraton!" I shouted. "With any luck, all you'll be is deported, but I wouldn't count on it. Dobraton would just as soon kill you as look at you."
"She would not dare!" Nindala said with all the con-ceit of her kind evident in her tone.
"She just killed the Queen, Nindala!" I snapped. "I'm sure killing a bunch of blue acrobats wouldn't bother her a bit. We need food, water, clothes, and a way out of here, and we need them now!"
The Edraitian manager looked at me aghast. "They have killed the Queen?"
"Either that or stunned her real good," I said in a grim voice. "We've got to get moving. Bring anything you can carry. Don't suppose you've got a gun or two in your bags, have you?"
"We are entertainers!" he insisted, sounding rather prim. "Not soldiers!"
"Are you people stupid, or what?" I yelled. "This is a coup, and if we don't get going, we're all dead!"
Still holding Uragus, I looked around wildly. We needed rope and lots of it. Zealon and Racknay just stood there, apparently struck dumb by the news. Then I remembered the curtains! "Cut the lines to the curtains!"
I shouted. "Bring the rope!"
No one moved. They all just stood there, staring at me like I was insane. Then the sound of screams and pulse-rifle fire from the Great Hall became more audible. "Believe me now?" I yelled. "Let's go!"
If he wasn't off duty by then, Dragus was probably still guarding The Shrine. I was sure he would let us in, and we'd go out on top of the portico and climb down the wall. And then go where?
"The mountains!" I said aloud, echoing Tychar's reply to my question as to where he would go if he ever left the palace. "We've got to head for the mountains!"
It seemed like eons ago when I'd asked him that. Perhaps he and the other slaves had already escaped. If so, I'd find him there—that is, if he lived after crossing the desert wearing nothing but a collar! Oh, God, we needed clothes! And I was the only one who had any. The trouble was, my quarters were nowhere near The Shrine.
One of the Edraitians, presumably their pilot, said, "We should go back to our ship and leave this world."
I wondered how organized this coup was and decided that it had to be pretty well planned, because if Dobraton killed Scalia and didn't intend to sacrifice herself in the attempt, she had to have backing. "They've probably got control of the spaceport by now," I warned. "It might not be safe."
Zealon and Racknay may have been momentarily speechless, but Uragus was not. "My mother is dead?"
he asked.
I'd almost forgotten he was still in my arms. Looking down at his bright little eyes, I said gently, "I'm not positive, babe, but it sure looked like it to me."
"Put me down," he squeaked. "I want to see."
Wriggling his way out of my grasp, Uragus ran to the edge of the stage and peered through the curtains. "They are fighting!" he reported. "I can't see my mother."
Just then, Wazak came storming across the stage with six guards and Scalia's other three boys. "We must flee!" he shouted, scooping up Uragus. "There are too many of them for us to fight."
"Do you believe me now?" I shouted at Nindala, who still appeared to be in denial. "That's what I've been trying to tell you!" With Uragus no longer in my arms, I looked around. There was a tablecloth where the food was laid out for the performers—presumably their own, because I'd yet to see one during my sojourn on Darconia—and I gathered up the corners and handed the bundle to one of the guards. "Take this," I said. "We'll need it. Got any water?"
"We will get it when we reach The Shrine," Wazak said. "It is the only way out."
"That's what I thought," I agreed. "We should bring the curtains. We may have to shred them to make rope."
"No time," Wazak said tersely. "Besides, there is a way down from The Shrine."
"Really?" I said. "There's a way out from there? How do you keep the slaves from escaping?"
"They do not know of its existence," he replied.
So, the tigers had lived there for twenty years without knowing they were sitting on an escape route from the palace. I stared at Wazak in frank disbelief.
"They are slaves," he reminded me. "We do not tell them everything."
"Oh, yeah, right," I mumbled. "But couldn't you have at least told me?"
Wazak herded us out into the corridor. If he thought this was a ridiculous question for me to have asked, he didn't let on. "There was no need," he said simply.
"Now, run!"
With the possible exception of their stage manager, the Edraitians were all in prime physical shape, as were the guards. I was probably the weakest one there, and I wished I'd done some running with the tigers, but I'd never been in The Shrine at night, so I'd never had the chance. Still, I was in better condition than I'd been when I arrived and somehow managed to keep pace with Zealon and Racknay. My only hope was that Wazak wouldn't mind carrying me again if I crapped out, because I had no desire to be left behind to become Dobraton's slave.
I could imagine just how much she would enjoy torturing me to death, and it made escape seem that much more imperative.
Of course, staying alive without Tychar was... well, simply not acceptable! It occurred to me then that with Scalia dead or at least deposed, the slaves were now freed, which was one obstacle out of the way, but her death also created at least a dozen others.
We sprinted on through the corridors with Wazak and half of the guards in the lead and the other three bringing up the rear. I'd have felt a lot better if we'd all been armed, but all we had to rely on was the safety in numbers. Then I heard shots behind us. We were being pursued.
One of the Edraitians fell, and we kept right on running. Wazak barked out an order, and the guards fell back slightly and opened fire on our pursuers. I didn't look back, but, after a moment, I noticed that the shots being fired at us had stopped.
It was hard to believe just how fast those Darconians could run! Wazak was setting a blistering pace, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to go the distance, but I'll have to say, being chased by a bunch of trigger-happy Darconian rebels will put wings on your feet.
We passed through an intersecting corridor and— thank God!—met up with Hartak, who must have just been relieved by Delorian at my quarters for the night.
Wazak bellowed out another order—presumably in Darconian—and he joined up with us.
A squadron of the rebels met us at the next corner, and Wazak and the guards fought a fierce battle while the rest of us waited further down the corridor for the outcome. It was apparent that Wazak resented the slowdown, because after several shots, which demonstrated that the battle would end up in a standoff, he fired wide beam stuns and took them all out at once, and then covered us while we ran on to The Shrine. I heard Wazak trying to call ahead to someone called Jataka, telling him that the Queen had been overthrown and to open the passage—whatever that meant—but he received no reply.
Arriving at the doors, we saw why. As Zealon gasped in surprise, I was horrified to see a dead Darconian lying there, and the doors to The Shrine standing wide open.
Realizing that it wasn't Dragus made me feel much better, but I had no idea who it was, though Wazak would certainly know. Running past the dead lizard, I realized that he must have been the night guard on The Shrine, but I'd seldom seen him and didn't even know his name.