The last of it was still coming down.
From the top of the Hill it looked like the arena was under a squall — sixty metres of ruined platform white from edge to edge, the broken stumps of ice towers standing up out of it, two black holes torn through the reinforced floor, and over all of it a fine continuous rain of ice as the shards that had been hanging in the air came down and kept coming down.
It struck the floor. It struck the collapsed flooring and rang. It struck the containment field and slid off in sheets.
And through the middle of it, spreading slowly out across the white from underneath a man lying on his back, was a wide dark shape that did not soak into anything.
Alice stood eight metres away with her wings half open and ice falling off them.
James stood over his cousin.
---
`[CHALLENGER BLOOD WRIT COMPLETE]`
`[CORMAC GANNER — DECEASED]`
`[VICTOR — JAMES GANNER]`
The screens at both ends of the ground carried it four storeys high.
