I tried to console myself by remembering that at least Selene, Eli, and Paul were still available to check out the Terra Tribe’s meeting tonight, but it didn’t help very much. I desperately wanted to be with them.
At half past eight, the kitchen manager—a witch who would’ve made a perfect Mrs. Claus with her white hair, prodigious belly, and red cheeks—told me I could leave. I bolted for the door, pausing only long enough to flip the bird over my shoulder at the stupid dishwashing machine. As I escaped through the door, I thought I heard it make a gurgling noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
I checked my cell phone as soon as I was out of the kitchen and read a text message from Selene informing me that she, Eli, and Paul were staked out in the theater hall and that they were going radio silent until it was over.
“I’ll fill you in when I get back to the dorm,” her message concluded.
Selene and the boys had another thing coming if they thought I was going to sit this one out. Not after the stuff with Melanie. If the Terra Tribe was up to anything even remotely dangerous, I wanted to play my part in taking them down.
I sprinted all the way across campus to the theater hall, stopping just outside the door only long enough to catch my breath. Lights were still on inside, and I figured I’d gotten here in time. I opened the door and walked in, trying to look completely at ease, as if I had business in this building. A late-night appointment with a teacher perhaps. Maybe even another detention.
I needn’t have bothered. There was no one in the foyer or down the long hallways leading off in both directions as they wrapped around the theater. The only guard the group had stationed was a sign hanging on the main doors into the theater:
PRIVATE MEETING IN SESSION
DO NOT DISTURB
I peeked through the narrow window beside the sign, saw a group of people standing on the stage, and then moved past the door, down the hallway on the left. When I came to a door marked BALCONY, I opened it as quietly as I could and slipped inside.
It was completely dark in here, the only light the faint gleam around the door seams. It was enough that I could make out the first couple of steps leading upward, but that was all. I walked toward them, placed my hand on the banister, then started climbing.
As the darkness increased, I considered doing a fire spell, but I held back, hoping to come across another door soon. And at least I had the banister to guide me. At last I saw the faint glow of the door ahead. Without a window on the door, I had no idea what I would be stepping into, so I crouched down, pulled it open, and slipped through as quickly and quietly as I could.
It was brighter up here, but not by much. I heard voices down below, and I crawled into the nearest row of seats. I waited for someone to sound the alarm that they’d spotted me, but when the timbre of the voices didn’t change, I risked a peek around the edge. I was too far up to see much, except for the blurred shapes of maybe twenty people congregated on the stage. Some of them appeared to be wearing the brown cloaks from yesterday.
Even worse than not being able to see them, I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The Terra Tribe might be meeting in the theater hall, but they weren’t exactly practicing for a play. I pulled my head back behind the cover of the seats and then glanced around, trying to figure out if I was small enough to squeeze underneath the seats. Yeah right. A toddler would have a hard time managing it.
Sighing, I slowly crawled out from the row and made my way down the aisle, sticking as close to the nearest edge as I could and trying not to speculate when the last time the carpets had been cleaned. I wondered where Selene and the boys were hiding out. If they’d only told me.
I pressed forward, focusing on the sounds ahead. Soon I was close enough to catch snippets of the conversation. One voice rang loudest of them all—Oliver Cork. He seemed to be giving a speech:
“I know some of you are feeling nervous after what happened yesterday at the demonstration, but believe me, things will be different at the festival. Our message will be heard and seen and no one can stop it.”
There was a murmur of agreement. I crawled on, finally close enough to start making out a couple of faces. Melanie was there, wearing one of the brown cloaks, same as Oliver. So was Irene Stark as well as a boy from my English class.
“It’s time we let the magickind world know that we won’t tolerate it anymore, the abuse of the earth, the constant rape of her natural resources. They take, take, take with no thought or concern about the consequences. It’s bad enough that we let millions of ordinaries tear down forests and pollute the waters, but even our own leaders stand by and let the witchkinds and darkkinds do the same. But change starts here.”
I froze in place at once shocked and completely taken in by the fervor of Oliver’s speech. Who knew the guy was such a powerful speaker? For a moment my mind filled up with the images from Britney’s dream—of poisoned rivers and dead forests, animals starved and deformed.
I shook my head, refocusing. I could hear Oliver just fine, but not the others. I needed to get closer. I moved on more quickly for fear that someone down below would look up and see me.
A hand closed around my wrist, and I nearly screamed. I held back at the last second as I saw Paul’s face peering out at me from where he was crouched between the rows of seats.
“What was that?” someone said from down below.
Paul yanked my arm, pulling me into the row and right on top of him. My heart thudded against my rib cage like a hammer against a slab of meat. I was certain they had seen me, although that worry seemed inconsequential when compared to the shock of finding myself lying on top of Paul Kirkwood. But I didn’t dare move off him, as I braced for the shouting to start below.