As they walked, Albert looked down to his left, at the valley floor. Below him clearly visible was the Square, but it was no longer a square, it wasn’t any real shape at all, just a large curvy space, its outline vaguely delineated where the light from the hundreds of torches merged with the myriad shadows of the people holding them aloft. At the centre of the ring of light stood the Praetor, clearly visible. He had swapped his maroon robes for rich purple ones. On either side of him were two huge cauldrons. Behind one of the cauldrons stood June and Father, and behind the other, Gideon, and just behind him, glaring around, was Ucho. Four Collegium members hovered about, flitting from cauldron to cauldron.

Kieran glanced at him, followed his line of sight, and grinned. ‘Jus’ like the cap’n said. Count’s begun, an’ the whole world’s out there watching.’

‘How does it work?’ asked Albert, suddenly curious.

‘Aw, pretty simple. Yer see them two big pots? One’s fer Vail, one’s fer Father. Collegium guys’ll be giving out voice-stones ter everyone. Drop yer’s in the one yer want. When everyone’s done, the Praetor counts and tells yer who won.’

‘And who do you think will win?’

‘Oh, Father, o’course.’

‘Aye,’ said Joe.

‘Why are you so sure?’

‘’Cos ’e always wins, don’t ’e? Plus we were there till five minutes ’fore the count began an’ Vail was way, way behind, weren’t ’e? Tell ’im, Cap’n.’

‘He’s right about that,’ said Colby. ‘The people may have showed up to the Arena, but the vote didn’t look good for him, not one bit. Something tells me the captain might have played his cards a little too early.’

Albert looked at him. ‘Captain? Is that how you think of him?’

Colby frowned. ‘Well, he was my first captain. Guess old habits die hard. Now shall we forget the politics for a bit and focus? All right, this way.’

As they went on, the terrain became increasingly treacherous. Small rivulets of water ran through the rocks at their feet and around them, making it difficult to grip with their feet. As they got higher, the rock got damper and more and more slippery, until they were actually inching forward. Colby made sure Albert was between Kieran and Joe at all times, so one of them could steady him when he failed to find a foothold, which happened, on an average, every thirty seconds.

They climbed on till the rock smoothed out in front of them, hollowing into what was a definite path. Around them was nothing—just sheer walls of rock with water streaming down the sides. They followed the path up higher and higher, until Albert saw it.