Sage wondered briefly what his father’s colors had been... He’d probably be disqualified for even thinking of wearing them.
“Well, fancy meeting you here,” Reysha said, smiling. “Looks like we’re rivals.”
“Yeah.” His fists tightened. “Guess so.”
“Are you okay?” Reysha asked, her grin fading.
“Just eager to get this over with,” he lied.
“Well—” she extended her hand. “I hope I get to fight beside you someday. Even if I have to kick your ass in the fourth trial.”
Sage nodded, and clasped her forearm against his. Through everything, she’d been the one good thing about the last few months. He hoped she did well. “I hope so too.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of that same mountain of a man. Was he one of their peers too? To his right stood the frail-looking boy with the long violet mane of hair, and to his left, the girl with the pale silver skin and short onyx hair.
Were they somehow related to the Council?
Guess we’ll find out soon, he thought.
Dirkus the Third approached the doors and everyone held their fists over their hearts. He faced them, staring up at all of them with pride in his eyes. Well, almost all of them.
“This first moon, you take your first steps into a larger world,” Dirkus said. “Gone will your petty struggles and adolescent squabbles be, replaced by a duty to your people and a devotion to eradicating the Shar from the face of Gaiulen, whether you pass or fail.
“Be certain that you give your all in these tests, for your future and the future of your people hang in the balance.”
Dirkus pulled the lever, and the metal doors to the Hall of Trials ground open to a chamber lit by the ever-burning fires and torches held by statues of legendary Sulekiel warriors.
Sage stepped forward, determination in his heart, and a fire burning in his soul.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KIRANA
The metal doors opened to a dark chamber lit by the ever-burning fires and statues of legendary Sulekiel warriors who held great flames in their stone hands. With the way open, the familiar lingering scent of fumes that accompanied the fires filled the corridor outside the Hall of Trials. Her peers poured into the chamber, including the son of Kyrties and Reysha, who paid her no mind.
Kirana clenched her teeth, her hands balled into fists.
You may think that I am not a contender, Kirana thought, but I promise you both will regret such thoughts.
The ever-burning fires was the longest of the Trials, because only three Sulekiel could balance on the Pillars of Thought at a time. Kirana glanced around at her peers, crowding into the massive chamber where she had spent so many hours in punishment.
There had to be at least four hundred of them. Many betrayed themselves with expressions of worry or let their emotions seep into their Sulen. They would be the first to fall.
“Welcome,” High Elder Geidra’s voice boomed through the chamber.
Kirana’s eyes drifted to the cascading stone seats that rested high above their position, where the Council of Elders and many Valier would judge them.
Those rows of seats all led to a set of doors that would take the spectators to each chamber that made up the Hall of Trials. They would never be on the same level as the participants.
“The first Trial is the ever-burning fires.” Geidra gestured to the three burning pits and the pillars which rested at their centers. “Three of you will balance on the pillars at a time. You must remain on your platform until the hourglass is drained of sand. Failure results if you use a barrier, or if you generate any amount of Sulen that is not used to regulate your body temperature. This is a test of control, endurance, and balance.
“Begin.”
She’d waited through almost sixty participants before someone she knew took to the pillars. Now three more participants mounted the platform, including one of Kirana’s fellow students, Vyce. Of the three, only he managed to remain on the pillar the whole time. The other two fell into the burning pits, screaming and crawling out with shame and ash covering their faces.
Pathetic.
Vyce hopped down once his time ran out; he exuded arrogance as he made his way to the steps leading to the next chamber.
Reysha and Sage were next, along with another boy from their class, Daos. Sage and Reysha’s expressions barely changed, while Daos’s crimson hair dripped sweat and his balance wavered on more than one occasion. All three managed to pass this round. Sage and Reysha jumped down off their pillars, crossing their arms and moving to the staircase that would lead to the next Trial chamber as though they hadn’t dropped a single bead of sweat—while Daos bent over his knees to catch his breath.
Kirana tried not to be too disappointed. There would be many more opportunities for the son of Kyrties and Reysha to fail later.
The next three were all from her class—one of them being her own brother. All but Takarus fell. She had hoped he would fall sooner; he had no business being here, and part of her feared he would be one of the few to have their life claimed by the crusher in the next chamber.
Three more students, all people she didn’t know, mounted their platforms, and all three fell. Doubtless they weren’t worth knowing anyway, and would likely become lowly farmers, craftsmen, miners, or market distributors.
Next, it was her turn.
Those that had failed the first trial were escorted out of the chamber. Only the worthy were allowed to be spectators. Kirana’s eyes found Father among his Valier in the seats. She hoped she would make him proud.
Of the two others that approached the pits, one with skin like garnet and hair that shimmered like flaming opal turned to her.
“Good luck,” he said, before leaping up to his platform.
Kirana’s heart nearly ruptured its chamber when she landed on the platform. Her boot slipped, and if she hadn’t caught herself with her other foot, she would have fallen into the burning pit.
Somehow, in the dark, the pillar felt taller than it had during her punishment. The pillar swung back and forth atop its gears. The fires loomed, their flames licking at her pants, their heat cutting deep into her bones at the pillar’s most extreme angle. She struggled to keep her balance, maintaining the proper one-foot stance while using her weight to shift it into a more stable position—cursing Sage and Reysha for making it look so easy.
She took a deep breath and focused. She’d done this so many times before in her punishment, she could do this blindfolded, couldn’t she?
She remembered what Father had said the day he’d made an example of Sage in front of their unit. How doubt and rage could undermine the power of her focus.
I have to be like Father, she thought. I have to be focused.
With tiny shifts in her footing and position, she manipulated the pillar atop its rolling gear, slowly bringing it under control.
Once she got control of the pillar, the time passed quickly. Another participant fell into the pit, but not the one that had spoken to her.
Time was called, and she was allowed to come down off her pillar and leave the rest of the waiting Sulekiel behind.
She looked to Father; he nodded to her.
The one who had addressed her approached again.
“You’re Kirana, aren’t you?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’m certain that should be obvious by my colors.”
“Yes, how stupid of me.” His eyes narrowed at her. “My name is Liyo. We should stick together in this. We’ll have better chances if we work together.”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head, blowing past him. “I need to do this on my own.”
“Have it your way.” She could feel disappointment, maybe even anger, coming from him.
At the end of the chamber was a set of stone steps leading down into a darkened pit where her peers waited for her.
2
Of the four hundred students that had begun, only two hundred remained.
And at the head of this pack were Sage and Reysha, standing before a stone gate that towered over them in the waiting pit so they couldn’t see what awaited them in the maze beyond.
“You’re dead, Son of Kyrties,” Vyce said. “I’m gonna make sure you get crushed here.”
Sage did not look back at the boy. “If you can catch me.”
“What?”
“Vyce, give it a rest,” Takarus said, emerging from the crowd. “We both know you’re not going to do anything. You’re all talk.”
“Really?” Vyce approached her brother. “I’m surprised you even dared to show your face here. You’re even weaker than Sage.”
Sage turned around, glaring at Vyce. His Sulen...it had changed. It felt as though it was...boiling. She didn’t know how else to describe it.
It was a feeling that permeated the air around him and sent shivers up her spine.
Her heart was in her throat.
What if Father making an example of him had sent the wrong message? What if he’d only trained harder after that and surpassed them all? It was said that before his defeat, Kyrties had been a mighty warrior paralleled only by Father and a few others.
Sage is nothing, she told herself. He’ll fall in this test.
“Got something to say, Son of Kyrties?” Vyce said, grinning and tightening his fists.
Everyone besides Reysha gave Vyce and Sage a wide berth.
Sage grinned. “I hope you make it to the fourth round.”
“Yeah?” Vyce seemed taken aback by this. “Why?”
“You’ll find out,” Sage said, turning back around.
“Shut up, all of you,” Reysha said. “The Elders are coming.”
The Elders filtered into their seats from the previous chamber, followed by the Valier.
High Elder Geidra was the only one to remain standing once the others had taken their seats.
“The crusher,” High Elder Geidra said, gesturing to the doors that bounded the waiting pit where they now stood. “Many of you are going to fail this test. It is a test of speed and strength. In each chamber, the walls will close in on you, and the speed at which this happens, as well as what obstacles you will be faced with, will increase in severity as you make your way to the end of the maze.
“To pass this test, you must reach the end of the maze. Failure results if you leap out of the maze, fall into the river current, or die.”
“Shit,” Takarus whispered, approaching her. “That’s kind of extreme...”
“Silence, brother,” Kirana said. “You will be fine.”
“No,” Vyce said, grinning and pounding his fists together. “He won’t.”
“Some of you may be wondering what other rules there are,” High Elder Geidra said. “There are none. Some of you who become Valier will learn what it means to be forced to make tough decisions in service of your people.”
A sound of grinding stone filled the pit as the doors rolled back into the dark. Yce Ralakar’s river roared, filling the waiting pit with moisture and the smell of wet sediment.
Slowly, auras brightened the pitch-dark, fifty-foot-long rectangular chamber before her, revealing platforms jutting out from the walls at different heights above the rush of the river. There were great, rectangular pathways two on the leftmost wall, one on the right wall, and one at the end of the long, rectangular chamber. Four different paths for them to take; not all of them would be the right one.
If some of them fell here, they would be swept out into the city, and some of them might even drown.
“Begin!” High Elder Geidra shouted.
Kirana was nearly taken off guard by the rush of her peers, dashing and leaping into the chamber that marked the start of the maze as the sound of grinding stone filled the damp air. She could see the walls slowly being pushed by great pistons over the platforms and the rushing river current. She watched some of her so-called peers slip from platforms, falling into the rushing current. Her eyes found Vyce, who was chasing her brother, leaping from platform to platform after him into the next room of the maze.
Oh, hell no, Kirana thought, summoning her full power and easily giving chase, leaping from each stone platform after them. Vyce was fast, maybe faster than Takarus. All three of them chose the fourth doorway and made it into the next chamber, where she caught sight of Sage, standing on a platform suspended by chains, surrounded by three other Sulekiel as the walls slowly ground toward them.
Kirana couldn’t help but grin as she passed him by.
A bright flash filled the chamber behind her, followed by the sounds of an explosion, as she turned the corner and leapt to the next platform.
So fell the son of Kyrties, she thought.
Then she shouted “shit!” as the platform she’d landed on plummeted. As she fell towards the rushing current, she heard others in the dark scream and plummet as well.
No way in hell I’m falling here!
She thrust her palms at the enclosing wall to her left, blasting it with a beam of pure Sulen, redirecting her momentum until she was headed for a platform that was rising out of the current.
They’re on tracks! she thought.
She landed on the platform, then, as she felt it plummet, she thrust her palm down at a forty-five-degree angle, firing another blast of pure Sulen and launching herself spinning back into the air.
“Fall!” A boy shouted at her back. He had leapt through the air at her, his hands clasped together, a small barrier construct forming around them, ready to axe-handle-smash her into the river current.
Instinct took over as she thrust her palms behind her and unleashed a lightning bolt, launching her into the next room and sending the poor bastard back the way he’d come.
She tumbled along a long stone platform in the next chamber.
Kirana stood, facing three silhouettes in the dark. To her surprise, all three came at her without hesitation, blasting lightning and fire. She raised a barrier as a shield, blocking and deflecting their attacks into the stonework around them. Then, just as she was going to counterattack, a blur of violet and citrine leapt over her head, landed behind her and grabbed her with such grip that their strength threatened to crush her ribs.
Damn it, Kirana thought. Should have used a full sphere construct!
“Hello, darling,” a familiar voice whispered in her ear.
Kirana screamed as her attacker tossed her off the platform, sending her plummeting into the dark. She had one chance not to be swept away by the current, and she took it, firing a wave of plasma at whatever waited for her in the darkness below.
This chamber had a floor! Her beam of Sulen created great fissures and cracks in the stone tilework and slowed her descent.
She hit the floor and rolled into a crouch just in time to catch sight of a silhouette with long hair leaping onto a platform and darting down the first of three branching paths.
Had that been Reysha?
No. The voice had been feminine, but it had belonged to a boy.
“Byshun,” she said, cursing and getting back to her feet. So the others that attacked her must have been Nelic and Cyra. It didn’t surprise her that the Council’s own grandchildren were here, or that they were working together. She’d deal with them later.
The small platforms above were being swallowed by the walls, sliding into hidden slots in the mechanism. These wouldn’t be on tracks, most likely. She had to hurry. The doorway Byshun and the others had taken was closest.
With deft movements, she kicked her way up three platforms until she neared the end of the chamber, only to feel the rush of someone’s approaching Sulen. A familiar feeling.
She dropped off the platform in time, catching the edge and hanging from it as he landed in a crouch and glared down on her with those emerald eyes she loathed so much, his long, flowing navy-blue hair flaring in the wind generated by his raging aura.
“Better hurry,” Sage said, before launching himself into the darkness of the next chamber.
Reysha’s boots hi
t the platform next; her mocking laughter made Kirana want to vomit.
“Bye, princess,” Reysha said before chasing after Sage.
The walls were grinding nearer and nearer to Kirana’s fingers. If she didn’t do something fast, she’d be crushed. She cursed and swung herself forward, kicked off the collapsing walls, spinning herself around and using a wave of Sulen to push herself into the next chamber as the walls crashed together.
Behind her, there were screams, and she felt a few sources of Sulen vanish in an instant. She hoped against the odds that her brother was not among the dead before picking herself up off the chamber floor and assessing her surroundings.
Here, the walls were closing in on her at a faster rate. If she had to wager a guess, each room’s traps must have triggered upon first entrance of one of her peers, leaving anyone straggling at the back of the pack of each potential pathway completely screwed.
Wait, she thought, does that mean I’m at the back of the pack now?
This filled her with such rage that her aura exploded around her, revealing the second trap of this room.
Spikes. She counted herself lucky she hadn’t rolled further, because the floor was covered in them, and it looked as though several platforms had collapsed. Skeletons of participants past who were unlucky enough to be impaled by the spikes stared up at her. Sage and Reysha had already come through here., She swore she would not become one of those pathetic skeletons, rotting and staring up at those who entered.
To make matters worse, there was a fork at the end of this chamber.
She rushed forward, leaping from platform to platform. There were several Sulen signatures coming from both paths. Two of those signatures were turning back toward her.
She decided she’d take the other one, and immediately regretted it.
The walls in the next chamber were not only closing in faster than the previous room, but now certain sections were covered in long, metal spikes. The platforms here were suspended in a row in the center of the chamber, hanging over another pit of spikes, and there seemed to be only one way out.
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