Luna Park's Arc

Chapter 12 of 14

Luna left the showcase floor with the board behind her gate showing three notches against her name. Three tall wooden posts stood at the entrance, each carved with cut slots for the round count. Her column held one notch. The rival's column held four. Snow had settled in the empty slots above her marks. The pipeline scout climbed the ladder of the glass-cabined tower and took his seat behind the rail to watch the platform crew seal the final stage for sunrise. Luna had one round left. Without a clean run on the crystal floor, he would cut her before her solo aired. She walked the rim of the raised platform while the crew worked. Tall cut pillars rose from the deck in a half ring, clear as window glass, throwing back the work lights in cold bands. The deck itself was sealed ice over a stone base, rimmed with open air on three sides. She knelt and pressed her palm flat. The surface gave nothing. Her training shoes would skate on the first push. The storehouse was empty. She had until sunrise and no shoes that would hold. She sat under the tower and took off her shoes. She turned them over and looked at the worn rubber. She thought of the seams between the stage panels that had saved her in the last round. The grip came from the rough edge. She pulled her pocket knife and cut shallow lines across each sole, four crosswise and two long, scoring the rubber down to the tread. She rubbed the cuts with grit from the ice rim until the rubber held a tooth. Then she climbed onto the platform, ran the chorus once at half speed, and pushed off into the jump that opened it. Her foot caught. She landed on the beat. She ran the jump again at full speed. She held the landing. At sunrise the pipeline scout came down from the glass cabin and watched her demonstrate the cut soles on the sealed deck. He marked her clear to perform. The crew opened the gate for the broadcast crowd. Luna took her mark between the pillars with the cut shoes laced tight. She ran the song clean from the first count to the last and held the final pose square on the center. The scout's runner walked the deck and added two notches to her column on the wooden posts. The rival held the lead by one, not three. The pipeline scout came to Luna's shoulder and said the final tally would be set by the live broadcast vote that night, and the rival's crown had already pulled the early count.