by Jason Letts
Hesitating, Neeko scanned the others for the merits of her threat. Mira shot to her feet and lunged at him with arms outstretched and gritted teeth. Everyone else quickly grabbed her to hold her back. They all began shouting at once, and Neeko scampered away.
“Not now, Mira!” Vern shouted.
“See you from the top!” Neeko called in the distance.
Though all four of them had their hands on her, they could barely keep hold of her. A bloodthirsty rage bled through her face, and it didn’t die down until her friends began to worry her fervor would outlast their strength. Roselyn began to sing, the sound of her notes calming Mira into submission.
“Come on, let’s forget about him and get some sleep. You’ll get your chance soon enough, Mira. Calm down and sit back. There you go. OK, we’ll have to keep a watch through the night in case the Rite starts so whoever is on guard can wake everyone else. We’ll sleep in shifts. Who’ll go first?” Vern asked.
“I will,” Roselyn volunteered immediately. When her friends curled up to sleep, she sat at the tent’s entrance where she could see the torch on the closest pillar. A faint lullaby escaped her lips as she stared out at the vast mound of rock concealed within all that darkness. The others settled in behind her. Still vigilant of Mira, they gradually let go of their guard and allowed sleep to overcome them.
When the first rays of sunlight filtered around Shadow Mountain, it was Roselyn who sat awake to see them. On her second shift, she drowsily fought the urge for sleep. Those first rays of light were enough to lift one of those behind her out of it.
“Why didn’t I get a turn at keeping watch?” Mira barked, immediately waking the rest of them up. Startled, Roselyn shifted around to face her awakened companions.
“It must have been an accident. I don’t know what to tell you,” she covered.
Mira rolled her eyes and shook her head as she got up. She stepped past Roselyn and exited the tent, the others trailing behind her. The light of dawn bloomed around them, and they saw that many more tents had sprung up through the night. Shadows trickled in even at that late hour.
A narrow encampment encircled the mountain completely, and they saw academy uniforms of every color of the rainbow. Yet for all that color, the grim gray of the mountain and the black clouds overhead remained constant. Flames burst forth continuously from the tall pillars, and no one could go more than a few minutes between checking them just in case the signal appeared.
The hours rolled by without any indication. Breakfast gave way to lunch, and lunch gave way to an anxious and idle afternoon. The trickle of arrivals slowed to nothing more than the occasional straggler, usually panting and stricken with the fear of being late. The grand portion of those assembled kept close to the innermost line, and yet no one had the gall to step over it.
Casting an eye among the different groups, one could spot every emotion humans could produce. Some were confident while others were fear-stricken. Some fed their anticipation with anger, while many regarded the Rite with a spiritual reverence. Indeed, watching the shadows from Dustfalls Academy for a few minutes would be long enough to glimpse all of these and more.
“Are we sure we’re the only ones here from our team?” Will asked, striking up conversation to divert him from the agony of waiting.
“I can’t believe Jeremy would pass this up,” Roselyn added.
“I agree with you there. Hopefully The Shadowing has taken some of the rotten out of his egg,” Vern said. “But we might never know who has made it here until it’s all over and we’re back together at home. I have to think Chucky and Mary would know better than to risk a challenge so ill suited to their powers. Even Dot and Kurt wouldn’t have much of a chance, but who knows?”
“I’m sure there are many here who find a chance at glory outweighs their best interests,” Aoi said.
Mira stood near them along the line, ready to run. They could see her gear hidden around her uniform and the thick, black rubber gloves on her hands. She had tied the rope securely around her waist. The wind blew through her hair, and she stared ahead without concern for the threatening clouds or anyone else around her.
A nearby group of blue uniforms huddled in a circle and stoked a rowdy chant. Others had paint and markings on their faces. Altogether, an electric tension ran between every individual, the specter of this once-in-a-lifetime event drowning them in anticipation. Everything seemed to happen so fast, even though it simultaneously felt like slow motion. Someone bumped into Will, jostling him harshly.
“Hey, watch it!” he shouted.
“Watch where you’re going!” the boy shouted back.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Will hollered.
“Now you are!” mocked a voice from behind him, and a sudden shove sent Will onto his knees. Vern and Aoi turned and started to shout, but the instigators didn’t shy away. Smirking viciously, a girl motioned to kick Will as he got up, but Aoi stepped in, drove her shoulder into the girl’s stomach, and knocked her flat on her back. The others closed in to pummel him further, but suddenly the orange glow vanished from everyone’s faces.
“The torches are out!” Roselyn shuddered.
Heads turned to the pillars, and a deafening outcry echoed as the shadows raced across the line to the mountain. Vern looked away from Will’s harassers to see Mira sprint forward. As another shove sent Will to the ground, Vern called to Mira as she darted away. Caught between them, he had only an instant to choose.
Chapter 13: The Quagmire
A wave of bodies crashed inward along a bare stretch of earth before the mountain’s initial incline and its decaying trees and zigzagging paths. A few frontrunners led the pack, enjoying nothing but open space before them and content to leave the work to their legs. But many of those behind looked at them as hungry dogs look at a piece of red meat. The frontrunners couldn’t see those who closed in on them until they’d been tackled to the ground and trampled.
As soon as the Rite had begun, the powers of those present distorted the chaotic atmosphere. Sections of ground suddenly became hazardous, transforming to quicksand, ice, or mud just as someone stepped onto them. A sickening smell left one whole swath of shadows vomiting uncontrollably. A separate group suffered from sudden hallucinations and haphazardly crashed into one another.
The ultimate effect of all of these impediments created a massive pileup barely a few hundred meters from where they had started. The race ground to a halt and became more like a brawl as none but the luckiest managed to reach the foot of the mountain, but even then someone found a way to drag them back. People punched and grappled, striking out in all directions as they struggled to make it through while holding the others back. Screams, some of pain and some of anger were as consistent as the wind and the sprinkling rain falling from the gloomy sky.
Watching someone reach back to deliver a blow to Will, Vern knew he couldn’t leave him. He shouted out to Aoi, signaling for her to follow Mira, and she took off for the wall of bodies circling around the mountain. Will’s attacker floated off of the ground and tumbled closer to Vern’s outstretched hand. As he spun, Vern delivered an elbow to his stomach that knocked the wind out of him and dropped him to the ground.
Their adversaries were too focused on thrashing Will to recognize Vern’s impact until the thuggish boy who started the fight suddenly floated away. For all of their anger, a curious wonder overcame them and they watched with amazement as Vern knocked him away. Seeing their leader beaten so easily, the rest fled over the starting line. Will got to his feet and regrouped, joining Vern and Roselyn.
“Are you OK?” Vern asked.
“A few bumps. It’s nothing to worry about,” Will answered.
“Come on. Let’s go!” Vern called, waving the others out toward the mountain. People along the starting line were running in all directions. Will ducked another on-rusher and tripped him by extending a foot. Vern raced alongside him, keeping an eye out for Aoi and Mira. Behind them, Roselyn strolled over the starting line ex
uding a patient confidence. Her song constantly flowed forth from her lungs, and anyone who approached her dropped to the ground under the weight of the most devastating depression. She stepped over the poor souls who collected in her wake.
A fierce gust of wind swept around the mountain, and Vern and Will watched it pick up a girl in a pink and crimson uniform who had climbed to the top of the human heap. Leaving the ground behind, she sailed into the air, her arms and legs outstretched. Looking at her from the side, she seemed as thin as paper. A few arms reached up to grab her, but the wind quickly lifted her beyond their reach.
“We heard about her, remember! We can’t let her get away!” Will shouted to Vern.
Trying to keep an eye on her in the air as they approached the pileup, Vern struggled to catch her with his gravitational force. He maneuvered around the fracas, stepping over unconscious bodies and trying to get closer to his target. But he couldn’t pay attention to everything at once, and a blind runner collided with him and knocked him flat on the ground.
“She’s too far!” Vern shouted, dusting himself off.
“I’ve got an idea!” Will shouted, and he ran headlong for the area from which the girl lifted off. She floated high overhead, steadily rising into the air. Another attacker rushed Will, and he dropped flat to the ground the instant before impact, making the attacker trip over him. Scrambling to get up, he worked his way onto the contorted bodies, stepping on the backs of some and trying to get to the top of the heap.
Standing on the shifting human embankment, Will expelled the force of his lungs up in the face of the wind that swept through. He succeeded in disrupting it enough to make the floating girl start to drop. Blowing as hard as he could, she sank further even as she tried to flap her arms to regain height.
“It’s working!” Vern hollered, trying to get closer.
Suddenly a hand slapped against Will’s bare calf and plucked out all of his leg hair. He yelped as he picked up his leg, causing him to lose his balance and tumble down among the scrambled human omelet. He struggled to regain his spot at the top, but someone had a hold of his arm and someone else twisted his foot. As much as he tried to push away, he couldn’t gain any leverage. Hopelessly stuck, he thrashed about as he watched the floating girl above regain her altitude.
A body lying sideways across him, there seemed no way to get loose. But suddenly the body lifted itself and started to float away. Will kicked at a hand that held the writhing body, which drifted off to the side as soon as nothing held it.
As Vern picked away at the others who surrounded him, Will did what he could from inside the scrum to free himself. Tearing another body away, Will’s foot touched the ground, and he twisted himself around to climb back up. Spewing a gust against the direction of the wind, the loss of air pressure made the girl in the sky sink. He held those near him in place and howled at the wind like a wolf.
Once Vern drew close enough, he could feel the link that connected him to the girl in the sky. He reeled her in, but like a kite she tugged him along, forcing him to follow her even as she gradually sank closer to the ground. She drifted closer to the foot of the mountain, and Vern had no choice but to try and make it past the quagmire to maintain his link. Alas, as soon as he came within reach of the scrum, he caught someone’s attention, and a threatening figure jumped on Vern from behind. He kept his pull on the girl, struggling fruitlessly to fend off the attacker.
Knocked on his back, the lazy-eyed attacker kneeling over him, he could do little to block raining punches while maintaining his grip. The girl hung just above anyone’s reach. A heavy fist struck Vern’s face until Will careened into the assailant from the side. Unfortunately, throwing his body did little to abate the attacker, and Will quickly found himself on the defensive, catching a sharp elbow to the shoulder.
A hand covered Vern’s mouth, smothering him, but Vern couldn’t stop looking at his adversary’s creepy eye. Will knocked up against their opponent, but he wouldn’t budge. Behind them, the floating girl continued hovering until someone took a wild leap, colliding with her in mid air and pulling her down. Soon she was fully entrenched within the convoluted mess.
Vern immediately began retaliating against the thug kneeling over him. He struck his stomach and his sides, trying to get him off. Will had stepped back a few paces and ran at him, jumping in the air feet first, and drop kicking the body off of Vern. The attacker fell to the side and slumped against the ground. Relieved, both Will and Vern took a moment to catch their breaths.
“Now where did Mira and Aoi go?”
Mira stormed along the outside, searching for a place to break through the scuffling heap. A lanky, bearded boy ran at her, and she deftly grabbed him by the legs and flipped him over her back. He landed on his head and groaned as she persistently continued on. Bodies of the unconscious and wounded littered the ground, and Mira showed no notice when she trampled on hands and faces.
Someone watched her though as she scoured the battlefield. A blonde-haired boy with blood trickling from his mouth and bodies piling at his feet spied his next victim. He raised his hand, ready to unleash some special horror, when an arm caught his and forced him over backward.
Confused and rattled, he glanced at the short, dark-haired girl who had sent him down. She looked kindly at him, her hair curving around her face, but there was nothing nice about the force she exerted through her small body. He raised his arm against her, but she grabbed it, picked him up, and swung him around. When she let go, he sailed through the air and landed amongst the other frenzied wrestlers. Twisting, Aoi quickly scanned for Mira and moved on.
Aoi followed Mira in this way, lurking in the distance and disabling any who tried to prey on her. Another boy raced up behind Mira, but before he could even get in earshot, Aoi dragged him away. As she did so, an identically short and thin girl lunged at her from the side. Touching her to shove her away, every inch of Aoi’s skin suddenly became red and itchy. Her clothes seemed to scratch her raw, making the impulse to claw at herself irresistible. She scratched so furiously that the threads in her uniform began to fray.
The girl, wearing a purple uniform, rushed back for a second attack, kicking Aoi in the hip and trying to push her over. Aoi deflected her push, but touching her again only further inflamed her itchy skin. She tried to breathe, to calm herself, and remember the peaceful clouds over Darmen, even focusing on the brittle straw bridge. The girl stampeded toward her, this time reaching out and grabbing Aoi’s bare forearm. Staring out of rounder eyes, she looked into Aoi’s face, becoming surprised when Aoi remained placid and calm. Angered, she threw a punch at Aoi, but she ducked just in time.
Still holding on to Aoi, the girl smiled when Aoi scratched at her own arm, but an instant later someone crashed into her and knocked her down to the hard earth, the collision driving the wind out of her.
“It’s just like walking on the straw bridge,” Aoi whispered, regaining her meditative tranquility, as she departed.
Mira stood near an opening that grew in the pileup and started to sprint for it. Beyond, there was open field for another hundred meters or so before the mountain incline with its decaying forest began. She stepped into the space, no wider than the width of her body, handfuls of fighters on each side, but someone flailed backward after being hit and blocked Mira’s passage.
Kicking at the back of his knees, he dropped to the ground with a thud, but before she could resume her sprint a firm arm closed around her neck, pressing hard against her throat. As she struggled against the strangler, Mira spotted a handsome boy among the wrestlers on the other side reach into his mouth and pull out a bright blue orb no larger than a cherry. Producing something so strange and hazardous looking made Mira squirm and wriggle more intensely. She scratched and clawed at the arm, but nothing she did loosened its hold. She strained her face and neck, trying desperately to get to the oxygen hovering in front of her face.
Struggling, a fist caught her in the side. The impact made her cringe, but she didn�
��t take her gaze off the boy in front of her, who prepared to launch the blue orb. Menacing laughter sputtered from the strangler, who beckoned his companion to perform the knockout blow. The boy pitched the blue orb and it sailed straight through the air at Mira. She tried to twist, writhing against the strangler’s grip.
A blur darted in front of Mira a second before impact, and she jerked her head to see what had happened. Aoi tumbled and rolled back to her feet, standing up straight and appearing completely unharmed. The blue orb fizzled against the ground and died out.
In that instant of confusion, Mira stamped the foot of the one holding her, elbowed him in the side, and twisted the arm that had held her neck. Leading him around by his grappled arm, she slammed his head into someone’s unprotected skull.
Eyeing Mira, who disposed of his comrade, her dashing competitor removed another blue cherry from his throat. He reached back to hurl it, but a hand closed around his wrist. The boy struggled to let go of the weapon that began to burn his hand. The blue orb dropped to the bare ground and began eating into the soil until a hole had formed and its glow died away. He swung his fist at Aoi, who ducked and spun out of the way. His punch struck a girl in a striped uniform who had jostled against them from a nearby skirmish and soon the two were caught in a scuffle of their own.
Slipping between them, Aoi searched for incoming assailants and drew alongside Mira, who had just fended off another opponent.
“I didn’t need your help!” Mira scolded her. She appeared so scornful, and it startled Aoi to think how often she had given in to those very same feelings. There was no way she could respond, remorse making her turn her head away as she heard Roselyn’s song in the distance.
All over, shadows began breaking through the quagmire as the ranks of the defeated outnumbered those still fighting. Leaving their fallen companions behind, they scurried to the foot of the mountain, glad to have made it through the brutal opening skirmish and yet wary of what they would find upon the mountain itself.