As the former speaker of the Ikarus council descended the staircase of the arena to the animal cells, he heard a scream. It was Anna’s scream.
Montague ran, almost tripping down the steps.
Next to the cages, he found Anna holding onto the metal bars of the cat cage. She looked horrified.
Montague gasped at what he saw inside the cages. Rayne was there, kneeling next to the injured cat, which lay uncomfortably against the corner wall, bloody and wounded. The other feline was gray with black spots and growled while it paced around, guarding them.
Anna cried.
“Rayne!” Montague yelled. There, unarmed, he was helpless against the giant beasts. He grabbed a spear from the holder on the wall and approached the gate. But the chain on it was still locked. Montague was perplexed.
His fear of the cats went completely absent. Montague’s instincts to protect the Volpi king blinded him from the danger. Juggling through his keychain, he picked at the lock. But the other larger beast claimed the entrance with his staggering size. Montague found his heart beating harder when the cat’s eyes were fixed on him as if he were a piece of bloody meat dangling in front of its drooling mouth. It came up to the cold steel bars and roared. Montague dropped the keys.
Rayne seemed to ignore everything that was happening outside of the cage. Montague could only watch as the boy placed his hand over the wounded cat’s bloody flesh and closed his eyes. The cat’s leg twitched, but Rayne kept a stable hand.
When the king lifted his hand from the wound, there was nothing more than scarred skin, hairless and clean. Montague was astounded. As soon as the other cat walked away from the gate, he jabbed the spear tip in the lock and shook hard, breaking it.
Then he heard the clanking of armor approaching. The Ikarus guards must have heard Anna scream, he thought.
“Rayne, please come here,” Montague urged. He ripped a piece of his stockings and quickly soaked it in the fresh blood trailing out from the cage floor. Then he handed Rayne the bloody, torn cloth. “Here, wrap the cat’s leg with it,” he said with haste. “Please, hurry!”
Gretchen, another handmaid, and three guards came marching down the dungeon staircase.
Montague finally opened the gate and Rayne stepped out. Anna grabbed him.
If this event had been witnessed by anyone other than himself and Anna, the king would be a suspect of witchcraft. Montague was sure of it. Since the laws of the United Kingdoms of Naan strictly prohibited supernatural practice, anyone caught using magic or any other advanced science not yet documented by their civilization was dubbed a mage and sentenced to die.
Before Gretchen and her company reached them, Montague turned to both Rayne and Anna and whispered, “Not a word about what has happened here. Do we understand?”
They nodded without objection.
The sky was still thick with clouds. But it had been weeks since the land had seen a storm. The ground had stabilized, as it had been given a chance to dry out.
Anna Lott peered around the granite doorway of the king’s room, where she found an untouched bed. She walked in and jumped high enough onto the mattress for it to shake on impact. “No lessons today and its actually warm outside. Everyone is going to The Ponds. You said you would come to the next gathering. You promised!” she said, leaning over the bed.
The Ponds was a special place to Anna and Rayne. They would sneak out of the castle whenever the rain settled to travel a mile through muddy terrain. Being away from the kingdom, the politicians, and the conservative rules was worth the risk. There, there was no need to censor conversations. They could talk about whatever they wanted. Sometimes they would just watch the stars without speaking a word. But today, they wouldn’t be alone. A gathering was flocking to The Ponds.
Between satin blankets and several fluffy pillows, Rayne resisted Anna’s reaching arms. “I said I would only go if I can take Apollo!” he replied, giggling softly.
She assumed Rayne would remind her of that. With the addition of company at The Ponds, Anna knew that his tremulous nature would make him feel uncomfortable engaging in conversations with people he’d never met. He clearly didn’t think that bringing the giant cat would be a possibility. So she dangled Apollo’s chain over the side of the mattress. “I managed to get the key to her cage last night. We can take her with us!” They had never taken the cat outside the Ikarus arena before.
From the moment Rayne had healed the cat, only weeks ago, the feline had formed a bond with him. And not only with the king, but the cat was friendly to Anna and Indrid as well. In fact, both cats were friendly, but only to the children. Older men and women must remind them of the harsh treatment of their captors. They roared and lunged at their cage masters daily. Indrid had been more reserved in his affection towards the cats and would join Montague in the stadium seats during their visits in the open arena.
They’d named the cat that Rayne had healed Apollo, and the other, Maul. Apollo was all white with ice-blue eyes and turned out to be a girl. Maul’s eyes were as green as Anna’s. Almost twice the size of Apollo, he had to bow down for the children to pet his head.
Neither Anna nor Rayne said anything to anyone about the incident, not even to Indrid. Montague swore not to speak another word about it either. And even to them, he would act as if the event had never happened.
“Where did you get that? Does Monte know?” Rayne asked, creeping out steadily from his feathered cave.
“Of course not. But I know he
