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."Jack leaned over to study her journal."Then you should mark in everything except those four errors in her solution as tried and confirmed, and add it to the list of variables we have already confirmed.Now how does it look?""That confirms every lord except the Green Lord— who must be Carad since no other is left!" Illyth's voice rose in excitement."And every kingdom except the Green Lord's, which must be Dues! Jack, I solved it!""Quick, summon a Game attendant! No sense waiting now!"Jack helped her up and ushered her to the corridor outside the box.Together, they hurried down to the theatre floor, winding down the steep stairway at the side of the building.They rounded the last flight in a breathless rushand ran right into Tiger and Mantis.The two were speaking with a couple of theatre ushers just inside the curtains separating the lower corridor from the theatre floor.Jack and Illyth halted in surprise, as did the other couple.They stood a long moment on the carpeted staircase, staring at each other in fox, crane, tiger, and mantis masks, frozen for two, then three heartbeats.Applause rippled from the theater beyond, then laughter and catcalls, the play must have resumed, Jack thought.Lord Tiger—Toseiyn Dulkrauth—took one menacing step toward them, drawing a long knife from his belt."You two, go," he said to the ushers.The men nodded and ducked outside."I've been waiting for this," he hissed through his mask."Mantis, watch Fox! He is a mage!""We have urgent business elsewhere, sir," Jack said, backing up a couple of steps."If you'll forgive us?" He quickly worked the spell of shadow-jumping——only to be blocked at once by Mantis, who raised her hand and countered his spell with a snarl."You won't vanish into thin air this time!" the lady snapped.Then she followed by conjuring a ball of roiling black acid and hurling it at Jack's head.The rogue ducked and hauled down Illyth, slipping on the stairs as the murderous spell hurled over his head and scorched a foot-wide hole in the wall behind him.Tiger lunged forward and missed his stomach by inches, burying the wide-bladed knife in the step below Jack with a wooden thunk!Illyth screamed, "Jack, watch out!"The rogue rolled away from a second thrust and found a perfect opportunity to plant one boot in the center of Dulkrauth's chest, shoving him back hard.The merchant captain flailed his arms for balance and staggered back three steps into Mantis, almost knocking her down too.Jack took that as his cue to scramble to his feet and leapup the staircase back toward their box.He caught Illyth by the hand as he went.Behind them, Mantis dodged away from Tiger and turned to track Jack and Illyth up the stair.She snarled something else and hurled a lance of dark energy at the two of them, destroying the wooden banister in a shower of splinters and gouging a great dark furrow in the wall beyond."Come back here!" she shrieked."Not likely," muttered Jack.He burst back into their former box and hauled Illyth close.Tiger and Mantis pounded up the stairs, only a few steps behind them."Jack, we're trapped!" said Illyth."They have us cornered!""Not yet," Jack said.Without even stopping to think about it, he caught hold of Illyth and vaulted over the balcony edge, working the spell of jumping even as he did so.Below them Game-players screamed or gasped at their sudden appearance, but instead of plummeting into the stage twenty feet below, Jack alighted easily and set down Illyth.All around them the players in the current skit gaped in astonishment, utterly unprepared for a member of the audience to leap into the middle of the play."Do continue," he told the actors, and then half-dragged and half-carried Illyth back down into the orchestra pit.In the balcony box, Tiger and Mantis stood fuming for a long moment, evidently considering whether or not they dared to continue their assault in the full view of everyone present, but discretion won out
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