Go back. What was that?”
“I don’t know, but this is interesting,” Dmitri said, flicking another knob. The room echoed with a low buzzing and static.
Santer wrinkled his brow. “Now what’s going on?”
Myron groaned and leaned over, placing himself protectively over the receiver. “Everyone back.” He held up a hand until the other dragons retreated. “Luckily, this is only one part. I found these too.”
He pulled out a jumble of wide metal bands that looked like thick bracelets.
“And those are?” Dmitri asked, his hand already lifted to grab one.
“I think they were communicators. I got the incoming transmissions working, likely due to the outside world strengthening, or perhaps altering, the signal on their—”
“In simple terms,” Santer groaned.
Myron blinked at him. “They’re portable versions of the bigger receiver.”
“Oooh.” Ksenia snatched one of the bands and slipped it onto her wrist. “How do I make it talk about the fights again?”
Myron handed one of the bands to Dmitri and kept one for himself. “I’ve only fixed these, so we’ll have to share.” He gestured at the barely raised grooves along the sides of the metal cuffs. “Volume here. Selection here.”
Santer fiddled with the device on Dmitri’s wrist for a moment. “And this?”
The bracelet emitted a gentle tone, and the top displayed a faint image resembling waves resonating from one end of the screen to the next.
“That’s the ping,” Myron said. He pushed back a wisp of hair that had fallen into his eyes and indicated a tiny button. “I believe it was originally a troubleshooting component, but when I was working on them, I got the idea to have it trace the source in a series of information packets that—”
“Less technobabble, please,” Ksenia interjected.
Myron rolled his green eyes. “It’ll help you find spots in the caves with better signal, which could theoretically allow you to access more channels. Also theoretically, it could help you find a broadcast tower on the surface.”
“This is actually rather impressive,” Santer said.
“Thanks.” Myron beamed. “Now go experiment. I’m going to get this one to Leo and Demyan.” He shook the device on his wrist.
“Where are your other halves?” Dmitri asked.
“Wrangled into a last-minute family thing. I dodged because I’m sneaky, but they’re too slow.”
Ksenia was in the doorway first, then turned back for a moment. “Thanks. It’s nice that your pursuits have led to something impressive for once.”
The dragons filed out, each already distracted by their small, yet powerful link to the surface world.
Ksenia barely looked up from the wrist device on her way back to her quarters. The tiny controls clicked under her touch, and a high-pitched squelch sounded just as she rounded a bend in the tunnel. Two other Sandrekar warriors were passing by and eyed her with alarm.
“Uh, too many sand beans,” she muttered, feigning a belch and patting her stomach.
They chuckled and continued on as she sped up to a fast walk, slipping beyond the door to her private room in the barracks and shutting it behind her. She threw the lock and made a beeline for her bed, climbing on and settling back to focus on the device. She hadn’t mistaken what she’d heard. Arena fights on the surface. Gladiatorial contests.
She slowly skimmed the channels until the voice she’d heard earlier filtered through the static.
“. . . this season’s full bracket has yet to be set. Tryouts are scheduled throughout the month, so perhaps some new contenders will appear. The exhibition matches are underway now, and there are always surprises in store during those. Remember the year when the Hot Wings duo’s mate gave birth in the stands? Not much can top that.”
The voice was joined by a second one, as if the pair were engaged in speculative banter about the contest. “That was something else. Personally, I’m curious to find out if Midnight Star will continue her reign as top solo champion. No likely candidate has appeared thus far, but there is still time for new teams to throw their gauntlets in the ring at every level. The new duo, Silver Fangs, rose through the ranks in their bracket last season, coming out as the champions among two-man teams while Hot Wings took a break. Unlike Midnight Star, there is one clear contender to unseat them now that Hot Wings have announced their return after a brief hiatus to welcome their second child into the world.”
She left the audio on while she undressed and bathed, then made herself a dinner of rations with viper jerky mixed in. Normally she’d head out to