Metz's stony face remained unbothered. "My creation is ready." Next to him stood a proud creature. It resembled a pony with small wings sprouting from its back, although they looked much too small to carry the creature's weight. The pony had two eyes, one on either side like a regular equine, but instead of hooves, it had clawed paws that scratched at the reflective ground. Its mane was the same faint pink of its arbiter master.
And on they went. The next arbiter was Gem, dressed in the sheerest robe I'd seen so far on an arbiter. It revealed her skinny form underneath—no genitals, like a child’s doll. She was bald but had a set of immaculate eyelashes in a shade of electric green. For a moment, I almost smiled at her two proxies. One was a large feline creature with leopard spots and one giant cyclops eye. Atop his back sat an adorable companion. Gem must've taken some inspiration from koalas, because it was the cuddliest proxy I'd ever seen, despite its fearsomely sharp claws. When I glanced at it, the small proxy yawned. Its mouth extended unnaturally to reveal a jaw three times the standard size and featuring several rows of sharp teeth. It released a cloud of green mist from its throat, which from my angle I saw was spiked with thorny, fleshy spines all the way down. I quickly averted my eyes. Okay, not so cuddly.
The last fellow looked the most skeptical about Dorian and me. Un called him Contra. He had intricate braids of a soft yellow piled on top of his head and wore a gorgeous silver robe that trailed behind him several feet. His two proxies couldn't have been more different. One was something like a chimp but had the head of a rooster. Wings, too large for its body, spread out of its back. The proxy flexed as if to show off its form, then enveloped itself in its own wings. Next to the ape-like proxy, a serpent sat coiled. It was massive and streaked with gold all the way down its body. More unsettling? It had no eyes, only a long blue-and-green striped tongue. The tongue unraveled from its mouth and darted over to my feet, stretching to an unnatural length. I jerked back, startled despite myself.
"Don't worry," Contra said with a half-mocking laugh. "He just wants a little taste of the competition."
All five arbiters burst into discomforting laughter. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard or like undercover aliens in human society trying to produce the sound of mirth. It sent a chill down my spine, but I pushed it away. These proxies were more disturbing than the last ones we’d seen, but they didn't look any worse than a shrieking decay or an ash wraith. I eyed the koala-looking one again, though, just for good measure. He did seem like he might eat me, given a chance.
And of course, Un's spider-canine companion curled at his feet. It made no move toward us, but I could hear its bizarre legs clicking and those mandibles clacking together unnervingly.
Nearby, Debt Keeper's large pink form floated around an excited crowd. They all vied to get to her, shouting their bets.
"We are only permitting the inclusion of whole units of energy this time," Debt Keeper said in a monotone. "Do not bother offering me energy that is bound up in estates. I have enough work keeping track of a specific one right now."
Ruk pretended not to hear the jab, merely rolling his eyes, though it earned a laugh and jeers from a portion of the crowd. He simply stood and looked ahead at the course. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” he muttered.
Leaving the other contestants, I walked away and peered over the edge of the cliff with Dorian. As I did, the mist vanished, and the obstacle course revealed itself in all its terrifying splendor.
The arena, built from scratch to ensure Dorian and I didn’t have any advantage in the challenge, was convoluted. The cliff formed one side of a giant crevice at least five hundred feet deep, but it was hard to tell from this height and the Higher Plane's odd structure. I noticed a pit in the shape of a rough rectangle, reminding me of the strange waterfall valley in the Immortal Plane where Ruk had taken us before we transported here. At the bottom, shimmering in response to some sourceless light, was a pool of the same odd silvery liquid. I swept a gaze over the length of the track. Each stage of the game after the pit appeared to be a lengthy rectangular platform with an equal amount of space in between each of them. It wasn’t clear what was on the islands, but they were probably treacherous. Far down, I spotted blue flames like the ones from our training. I dug my burned heel into the ground, but there was no pain. Small floating islands hung in the air between each stage. The flames were evenly distributed among the islands at the bottom of the arena. I spotted a tree on one island and floating fire on another. A series of rocks and a building caught my eye, but if there was anything beyond that, I couldn't see from this distance. Each island spiraled down farther and farther into the valley, some of them close enough to one another to jump to, but others looked far too large to make in a grand leap, even for Dorian.
Bright pink movement caught my eye. Birds the color of flamingos swept through the air, back and forth, in a repetitive motion. They formed intricate patterns that repeated over and over. I squinted. It was as if they were puppets running on strings between specific endpoints.
"Impressed?" Un asked, coming to stand beside us.
"It’s suitably overblown and ridiculous,” Ruk said, his tone pleasant even though the words were cutting.
Un narrowed his eyes, the raised golden skin around his eyelids moving more like scales. "Krysh will explain the rules. This is her design."
An arbiter stepped forward. She was bald and smaller in stature than many of the other arbiters. Her pink skin reminded me of a faded version of Ruk's bodies. Her dark eyes swept over Dorian and me, analyzing us in moments. I remembered her being mentioned before.
"I will explain the rules for this particular course so that everyone will understand, including our newcomers," she said and gestured to the crowd. Everyone fell into a hush except the few still placing bets. "We have six teams. Each contestant must try to find one of the three blue flames on the course. You must then return with the flame to the large island at the top of the pit." Her long hand extended outward to point to a building. It was shaped like an ancient Roman temple and was surrounded by thorny black trees that grew up and around the structure, their needled vines curling around the white stones in the distance.
"You must bring the flame into the temple. The flames will not hurt the contestants and can be picked up, but otherwise, the flames will behave much like Immortal fire. Well, as far as I can recall. It's been such a long time." She let out a strangled laugh. The crowd chuckled along with her.
I suppressed a flash of rage. They all thought it was amusing how long they'd been shirking their duties? Dorian tensed next to me, and I saw a slight stain of red begin to bleed into the air around his head. He took a deep breath, and the color drained away. I gave him a reassuring smile as Krysh continued speaking.
"The first team to successfully return with a flame will win. And I must stress once more… there are only three flames, so the competition will be fierce. First come, first served." At this, her lips curled into a pleased expression.
My stomach clenched as it hit me just how intense this course was going to be, even after all the training Dorian and I had done. The competition would begin very soon. Were we ready?
"If the flames go out, you are allowed to reignite them if you can find a way. Otherwise, you'll need to grab one of the remaining two. If all teams fail to bring a flame to the temple, then no one wins, and it will be ruled that the designers have outsmarted the teams. In that case, all the participants will forfeit the pot to the designers of the game." She gestured to herself and three fellow arbiters. It must take a lot of work even for arbiters to construct something like this. "For the newcomers, I must clarify that it is statistically possible to complete this course, but failure is equally possible. No flying proxies are allowed, for obvious reasons."
Contra sighed and snapped his fingers. His chimp proxy morphed until its wings transformed into hunched, broad shoulders and a set of extremely muscled arms.
"My dear proxy’s wings are only for decoration," Metz
simpered. As if to support his statement, the pony proxy gave a pathetic quiver of its wings.
Krysh gave him a narrow-eyed glare but eventually nodded. “Very well. But if that turns out not to be the case during the course, consider yourself disqualified and all bets forfeited. Understood?”
Metz nodded begrudgingly, and the wings on the pony shrank a little—apparently, he hadn’t been completely honest until threatened with forfeited bets.
"There is no time limit, and there are no other rules." Krysh ended her explanation by tucking her hands into her flowing robe sleeves.
Ruk touched my shoulder, pulling Dorian and me aside for a moment. We huddled together, away from the other opponents, for one last discussion before the game officially started. I suddenly missed Bryce, remembering the way he’d pulled us together for team talks before and after missions… even if they were occasionally harsh in nature.
"Good luck to both of you," he whispered, keeping his voice low enough that the others couldn't hear. A stitch of worry formed on his face. "I’m going to go and continue with my… assigned task that we discussed while this unfolds.”
Ah, yes, it was time for him to hunt through the empty estates while we served as the distraction.
“I don't want you to get hurt,” he said, a note of earnestness in his voice that I hadn’t heard before. “If it comes down to it—if you're really struggling or in danger out there—then please send me a signal. Ask the universe to get a message to me. I'll try to help you, but—" He looked into my eyes with a fierce expression. The same look he'd given me before he left during the battle at the Hive. "I consider you two fully capable of giving all these narcissistic patricians a shock that they never could've hoped to expect in their infinite lives."
"Contestants, prepare to begin," Krysh said, her voice booming over the crowd.
We gathered with the other teams. My nerves jumped, but I told myself to be brave. Ruk had trained us as best as he could. It was now or never.
"Go!" Ruk yelled over the murmuring crowd. "Win!"
The other teams scattered quickly along the edge of the arena's pit. We hung back and watched as three proxies—Alai’s alligator twins and Un's spider—scrambled for the prime position. I studied their movements closely as the three of them fought for the best starting point. Krysh released a cloud of smoke into the air from her hand, and the proxies exploded into action. All three jumped off the cliff at once, aiming for one of the islands, but Un's proxy landed on top of one of the alligator beasts. The extra weight caused the alligator to sink lower than his twin, and even lower when the spider launched off his back to the next island. Un's proxy landed perfectly, but the proxy of Alai's that it had used as a springboard fell short. Alai let out an annoyed hiss as he watched one of his proxies plummet toward the silvery liquid below. The beast's tail struck one of the pink birds on the way down, sending it spiraling out of its trajectory. In the meantime, Alai's other proxy had successfully made it to the island.
In an annoying but unsurprising turn, Un's proxy landed on the edge of another slab and crawled underneath it, easily keeping its grip even while upside down. It began to descend on a line of sturdy web that spooled from its mouth instead of its back. I stared at the pink birds, utilizing a similar strategy as they ran along their strings. Dorian and I, still on the cliff edge, shot each other an understanding look. Riding the birds would make our travel easier and keep us out of the way of the other proxies.
"Let's go for the birds as our strategy," Dorian said as the pony proxy attempted a leap. “But we’ll need to get to one of the islands first to catch a ride.”
Could we use the universe's help to jump between the islands? Wait, we had to play dumb for the moment. We couldn't show our strength yet. I scowled. What an annoying limitation, however temporary. I spotted one of the closer floating islands. They were drifting in the air, moving at a slow speed, not at all stationary. If it moved closer to the edge where we stood, we could travel via intent to its surface… but the devastating pit lay below. We’d be screwed if we misjudged the timing, or the distance we could travel with this method. I swallowed my nerves and slid my hand into Dorian’s. I gave him a wink. "Let's keep it simple," I whispered. “Travel via intent.”
He nodded. Together, we focused on the universe to pull our intentions into existence. We took a step forward together, and suddenly we were on the floating island with the world blurring around us. We stood side by side, exchanging one final look of preparation before, in an act of seamless collaboration, we leapt farther into the arena.
Blue flame, we're coming for you.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Almost in complete sync, our feet hit the ground running. The island was small, no more than a couple yards across, so we kept up our momentum to leap to the next floating island, which was much farther down. Thank goodness the physics here were easier on the joints. Dorian jumped first, and I focused hard on reaching the next island successfully. His feet hit the ground with a solid, satisfying thud, and I cheered inwardly as I landed a moment later. Movement caught my eye as we paused to scope out our next jump point.
Two proxies, one of Alai's gator beasts and Metz's pony, clashed a few islands away from us. Lower down, Alai's other proxy had managed to avoid falling into the silvery goop at the bottom of the valley by catching onto an outcropping on the cliff. It snarled as Un's spider-dog chased it, before whipping its tail like a propeller, powering itself away from the cliffside and onto an island. But moments after it landed, the island trembled and suddenly flipped upside down. Alai's second proxy officially plummeted into the pool below and didn't resurface. I heard a cry of outrage from the crowd, but I tried to focus on the task ahead of us. The spider-dog had a clear advantage now. It had no issue running upside down on surfaces. If I got the chance to take out those legs, I would.
I had no idea where Gem's team was, but Contra's ape and serpent were working together to rappel down the cliffside. The snake beast lowered itself, and the ape used it as a makeshift bridge from the jutting stone in the cliffside to another floating island. Whatever their form, each proxy used what they had to their advantage. I swept my gaze across the landscape. If we wanted to win, Dorian and I needed to find what our advantage was in this arena. If we couldn’t, then I doubted we would beat the current lead held by Un's proxy.
"Let's go for the flame farthest from us, the one on the wall," I said to Dorian silently, via the mental messaging we’d learned. He nodded, and we raced the length of the island we were on, leaping to land on the backs of two of the birds. As we settled on them, I realized they had fur rather than feathers. It was like riding on the back of a fuzzy, emotionless redbill. I spared a thought for Drigar and hoped he was doing well, wherever he was.
The birds crossed the arena in a series of swoops, each moving up and down between different levels. They only occasionally crossed paths, so Dorian and I had to time it perfectly for each jump from bird to bird. All our training with Ruk really came in handy at this point. Sometimes we missed an opportunity and had to wait an agonizing extra few seconds for the next bird to come along, all the while watching the proxies race farther ahead.
I glanced ahead at the others as Dorian and I rode the third bird across the arena toward the enticing blue flame we needed to grab. We were significantly behind. The crowd's roar grew farther away, though, fading behind us. I sometimes heard a cry of excitement or outrage, likely due to the proxy action that I couldn't keep eyes on at all times.
At the bottom of the pit, the central flame was snatched up by none other than Un's proxy. He circled the area like a puppy proud to show off his prize. Meanwhile, Gem's team of the cat and koala-creature rushed toward the same flame that we had in our sights. They were still far from it, but we were even farther away. The powerful feline was able to easily leap between the islands, making his journey much faster. We were too far behind to make up the distance with just speed.
"We need to jump again," Dorian said with a
determined grunt. "Or they'll be on it in a few minutes."
I wracked my mind for everything I could think of. Alai's proxy smashing into a bird and Un using him as a personal plane gave me an idea.
"We’re above them… what if we use the proxies to break our fall? We can take them out before we have to fight them."
Dorian let out a wild laugh. "Picture it well, because I have a feeling that we’ll need to get it right the first time."
Gem’s team made it to the island. I focused as Dorian and I prepared; we practically hummed with our collective energy. Dorian leapt off the back of the pink bird, and I swiftly followed him, concentrating on the image of where I wanted to land. We landed on top of Gem's team, taking out the leopard and creepy koala proxy in one fell swoop. I muttered a quick apology to the proxies, who collapsed under us with a series of yowls and screeches. The damage must have been significant, as they simply dissolved into air. I blinked, almost forgetting that these proxies were much like the towers that Ruk had dissolved and reabsorbed. Faraway shouts of surprise and anger arose from the crowd. A few laughs followed. Sounds like nobody bet on us.
We walked cautiously on the floating island, scanning the area for any visible traps, steps light for those that might be hidden. There were no crevices that might emit flames, but we kept close to each other and moved slowly toward the self-sustaining flame. It sat in a stone torch the same color as the bricks that made up the temple building. The whole thing sat floating in the sky just a bit higher than my head. We were so close—
My foot suddenly disappeared as the ground gave way under my weight. Immediately, the stone beneath me melted into the silver metallic liquid, and I shouted as I fell backward into the mess. It stung like ice on my skin, the liquid around me forming a whirlpool. I sucked in a huge breath in preparation as it attempted to pull me under.
Darklight 6: Darkbirth Page 28