Eventually the ministers and red robes arrived, all on bull-horses, and behind them I saw the other two champions approaching: Ash, with Ruby behind him, and Nikolay with his human.
I rose to wave at them, and Tejus instantly appeared at my side.
“I trust you don’t have the stone on you,” he warned quietly.
“Of course I don’t,” I hissed back.
“Good.”
He remained standing next to me, his arms folded, gazing stonily at the approaching champions. I turned away from him and, avoiding Nikolay, headed toward Ruby. We stood watching as the crowds rolled up the hill, some clearly having walked most of the way. The turnout was much larger than I’d expected, and I overheard a few of the ministers grumbling about it behind us. I idly wondered if that was why the trials were taking place here—had they wanted to reduce the crowd?
Queen Trina arrived with her personal entourage, and they set about building a small dais for her precious royal backside to be seated on.
“Sentries! Welcome!” the minister of ceremony addressed the crowd. I slowly made my way back to Tejus, and stood to listen by his side.
“Only three champions remain for the penultimate kingship trial. The test today will measure each champion’s integrity—a vital and rare quality, but paramount to rulers of Nevertide. Champions, remember this—integrity will be measured by who can succeed, without losing one’s sense of self.” He paused for dramatic effect, and then continued. “Ahead, at the end of the Ghoul’s Ridge, you will see three blue lights at the summit. The first one to reach them will win the trial.”
I looked over at the mountain summit. I could faintly make out blue, iridescent and flickering lights nestled in the rock that I hadn’t noticed before.
This is too easy.
The ridge path to the lights was narrow, but it was clear and straight. I recalled the words Queen Trina had passed on to Ruby—that not all would be as it seemed. A sense of dread unfurled within me.
“There are no rules,” the minister continued. “You know your task. When the horn sounds, the trial will begin.”
The three champions positioned themselves at the start of the ridge, their bodies tense as they waited for the horn to sound. The crowd was completely silent, readying themselves to cheer on their hero when the trial began.
Just when I thought I was about to burst from the tension, the horn sounded, low and lingering. The champions sped off, just about keeping pace with one another as they ran along the ridge.
The crowed bellowed loudly, chanting Ash’s name over and over again.
Ruby hurried over to me. “I don’t get it.”
“Me neither. Maybe there’s a trap or something at the other end?”
We watched as all three made it to the halfway point of the ridge. Just then, a dark shadow ran over the grass in front of me, and I glanced up at the sky.
I only glimpsed the large, scaly talons of the vulture before they grabbed me by the collar and it lifted me clean off the ground.
“Hazel!” Ruby screamed, reaching out for my hand.
It was too late. Another vulture had grabbed her too, and we both hung in the air, our legs thrashing about wildly in panic. Nikolay’s human was grabbed as well, and all three vultures soared upward.
The noise of the crowd echoed across the mountain range, mingling with my and Ruby’s cries for help. The champions stopped still and stared, lips parted, as the vultures carried us swooping and gliding—circling around them.
Don’t look down, whatever you do. Don’t. Look. Down.
I looked down.
The drop had looked intimidating from the ground—now it made me almost pass out in a dead faint as its black, bottomless depths swam and blurred through my panicked vision.
I had never been so terrified in my life.
The vultures stopped their swooping and stayed positioned on either side of the ridge, in full view of the champions.
My eyes met Tejus’s for a brief second before the talons of the vulture released me and I fell, hurtling through the air.
The Shade flashed across my mind. The thick forests, the sparkling lakes, the pristine beaches. The smile of my mother. Dad picking up Benedict and throwing him over his shoulder, both of them laughing. Our kidnapping from Murkbeech. Tejus standing at the window of the castle.
I’m not ready to go yet…
I closed my eyes, ready for oblivion.
Instead, I was yanked backward through the air, claws digging into my back, and then flying upward, away from the blackness below. The huge wings of the vulture flapped on either side of me till the pinnacle of the ridge and the waiting crowds started to grow closer.
I was dropped unceremoniously on the ground, where I collapsed. My heart pounding in my chest, I tried to catch my breath while I looked up at the blue sky above.
“What the hell are you doing!” Ash yelled at someone, and for a crazy moment I thought he was yelling at me.
I sat bolt upright, looking around for Ruby. I found her leaning upright against Ash, who was standing in front of the ministers, his face a puce red.
“You could have killed them!” he roared.
I staggered over to them and took Ruby’s hand. She embraced me instantly, looking as dazed and confused as I felt. I looked over to the ridge, where Tejus and Nikolay were still running toward the blue lights.
“Oh, God. Where’s Nikolay’s human?” I breathed out.
Ruby looked at me in alarm, and simultaneously we rushed over to the edge of the mountain drop.
Sitting down, as if floating in mid-air, was Nikolay’s human. He waved at us weakly, and I exhaled a sigh of relief. The ministers must have built an invisible barrier to catch us if we’d failed to be saved by our champions.
The realization that they weren’t willing to let us die comforted me a little, but not much.
“What do they think they’re playing at?” Ruby hissed. “I’m sick to death of all this! I hate the ministers and the stupid trials! It’s ridiculous!”
“Are you all right?” Ash had come over, having momentarily finished giving the ministers a piece of his mind.
“Not really,” growled Ruby. “I can’t believe they did this.”
“And I’ve failed.” Ash groaned. “I should have used mind manipulation on the vultures while I ran—not jumped on its back to get you.”
“What are you talking about?” Ruby replied, shocked. “How could you have failed? You did the right thing—didn’t you?”
Ash shook his head.
“Tejus will win. He saved Hazel without neglecting the task. Succeed without losing one’s sense of self, remember?” he prompted.
“That’s crap!” Ruby exploded. “You should be winning first place! The only one willing to sacrifice a stupid competition to save a life!”
I got what Ruby meant, but privately I agreed with Ash. As much as I hated to admit it, Tejus had done the right thing to win the trial. He had kept his eye on the prize. I didn’t like the fact that I’d come second place, that the shock of seeing me drop through the air hadn’t made him lose all sense of self-preservation and fly in gallantly to save me, but that was Tejus. He had told me he was selfish, that his needs would always come first. Why did I expect any different?
It must have been the adrenaline and the shock, but irrationally I wanted to cry—and I didn’t want to be around Ruby and Ash for another second. Ash might have lost the trial, but he’d done what a resident of The Shade would do—put a life first.
He was more human than any of the other sentries I’d met.
I went to stand and watch the rest of the trial play out. Tejus and Nikolay were both flying back toward us on their vultures, each clutching bright blue egg-shaped stones in their hands.
Nikolay looked downcast. I shook my head in disgust. After this afternoon he’d plummeted in my estimation. He could say all the romantic sentiments and give me all the flowers on the earth, but it would never hide what he was. A monste
r.
“We have a winner!” the minister of ceremonies announced as Tejus’s vulture landed. “Tejus gains twenty points! Ashbik gains ten points for bringing back his human without the stone, Nikolay gains ten points for bringing the stone but no human. But alas, as Nikolay has the least points to date, our great and esteemed champion is now out of the running for the kingship trials. The last trial will be between Tejus and Ashbik alone!”
The crowd went berserk, chanting Ash’s name once more, jubilant that their hero would be in the final tournament.
I just wanted to get out of here.
Turning away from the crowds, I went in search of Tejus’s bull-horse. Soon I heard heavy footsteps and panting behind me.
“Hazel! Wait!” Nikolay called out to me.
I kept walking, utterly uninterested in anything he had to say.
“Wait—Hazel, I swear to you, I knew the barrier would be there.” He had stopped in front of me, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “Think about it. My mother’s a minister. I know how they think—I thought I would win if I got to the lights, and let my human fall…I wasn’t thinking straight, you’ve got to believe me!” he pleaded.
“No, Nikolay, I don’t have to believe you—and I don’t. You’re just like the rest of them,” I sneered.
“Hazel, please—I promise you, I’m not the monster you think I am,” he cried beseechingly, but I turned away.
“I’ve really had enough of sentries for today. Just leave me alone,” I muttered, locating Tejus’s bull-horse.
He didn’t follow me. I didn’t know whether I believed him or not, but right then I didn’t care either way. Tejus’s win felt like a hollow victory, and though it put him in the final trial with Ash, I just couldn’t find it within myself to feel happy that freedom was in our reach—now, either way, we’d be out of here.
But I just felt empty.
Julian
I had escaped the servants’ kitchen, where Ruby and Ash and all the kids were celebrating Ash’s entry into the final trial, and stepped outside to get some air.
On hearing a blow-by-blow account of the insanely dangerous trial that Ruby and Hazel had just endured, and realizing that Tejus had won yet another tournament, my mind was made up.
Before the trial I’d overheard Tejus and Hazel discussing a mysterious stone when they thought they were alone in the courtyard. I’d hurried away before I could hear all of it – but I felt that I’d heard enough. Enough to tell Ruby at least – to level out the playing field.
Clearly Tejus was benefiting from some weird power the stone had given Hazel. It wasn’t making it a fair fight, and if Tejus won the next trial, I still didn’t trust him completely to set us all free when the Imperial trials would be up next. I also now knew enough about Nevertide to know that it needed a leader like Ash, not one like Tejus.
From every single angle, it felt like telling Ruby about the stone was the right thing to do.
When I got back inside, I saw Ruby sitting with Ash on the two large chairs by the fire while sugar-hyped kids sat around the counters and greedily ate everything in front of them. Jenney was running around looking harassed, mopping up spills and picking up rubbish. I hoped that if Ash became king Jenney would be able to live a life of leisure—weaving all day, or whatever it was sentries did when they weren’t mind-sucking.
“Ruby, can I speak to you for a second?” I asked, approaching the chairs.
“What is it?”
“Let’s go outside.” I nodded to the doorway. I didn’t want anyone else overhearing what I was about to tell her for Hazel’s sake.
“Are you all right?” she inquired once we stood in the moonlight.
“Yeah, but I overheard something about the trials, about Tejus… and I think you should know.”
I told her what I’d heard, and watched as Ruby’s face fell on hearing about Hazel’s part in it all.
“I can’t believe she’d keep that from me,” she whispered. “Are you sure you heard right?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure. You should speak to Hazel about it though—I dunno, maybe it was all a mistake,” I replied lamely.
“Yeah, maybe,” Ruby replied. I could tell she felt let down, and I kind of felt sick that I had been the messenger.
She went back inside, but I needed a few minutes by myself. For the first time since I’d arrived in Nevertide, the castle actually felt quite peaceful—out here at least. I leaned back against the stone walls and looked up at the huge blanket of stars that covered everything.
“Hey.” Jenney stepped outside a moment later, wiping sweat off her brow. “I’m not disturbing you, am I?” she asked.
“No. I was just getting some fresh air,” I replied.
“You do look kind of pale. Anything the matter?”
“No, not really. Looking forward to the final trial—and then getting out of here. Well, if Ash wins, that is,” I replied.
“You don’t think Tejus will lift the boundaries and let you go home?” she asked, evidently surprised.
“Err, no. He and his brothers kidnapped us in the first place, remember?”
“Yes,” she replied slowly, “but I think he’s a man of his word – and he did release you after the first trial. Perhaps you need to give him some credit. I’m not a fan of the Hellswan family, but Tejus is honorable. I know that much.”
“I don’t trust him,” I replied bluntly.
“And maybe you shouldn’t,” Jenney replied. “I’m just telling you my experience.” She shrugged.
Great. This really wasn’t the best time for Jenney to suddenly become pro-Tejus. I was starting to feel guilty, and regretted sticking my oar in where it didn’t belong.
“Still, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about. Ash will stop at nothing to beat him.”
The realization dawned on me. If Ruby told Ash he would almost definitely get Tejus disqualified from the trials. But that was a good thing, right?
Yeah, but you’ve betrayed Hazel—idiot.
I started pacing again. The decision I’d thought was so right didn’t feel so black and white anymore.
But Hazel betrayed Ruby first, I told myself. She kept the stone a secret!
“Julian?” Jenney interrupted. “You’ve got to tell me what’s going on. You never know, I might even be able to help.” She smiled wryly, waiting for me to speak.
I couldn’t tell her the whole truth, but maybe that didn’t matter.
“I think I’ve stirred up stuff between friends. I heard parts of a conversation I shouldn’t have—and passed it on. And I feel crappy about it.” I sighed, running my hands though my hair in agitation.
“Only parts?” she asked.
“Yeah—but enough,” I added defensively. “I got the gist of what they were saying.”
“Did you check what the truth was before you passed on what you heard?” she asked.
“No,” I replied. “I know what was said. I didn’t need to!”
She grinned at me suddenly.
“Julian, you feel bad because you’re not sure of the truth. When you’re not sure of the truth, all you’ve done is pass on gossip. Do you want my advice? You need to go and tell whoever you overheard what you’ve done. Give them a heads-up at least—that would be the kind thing to do. If you’re interested, that is.”
She put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a quick squeeze before she went back inside.
I leaned back against the wall.
Dammit.
She was right. I needed to speak to Hazel.
Hazel
I spent the evening trying to avoid Tejus.
I could hear him moving about in the living room, but I stayed tucked away in the cubby hole. It reminded me of the night I’d been blackmailed by Jenus to kill him—hearing his movements and willing him to go to bed so that I could somehow pluck up the courage to stab him in the back.
This time it was me who felt betrayed.
It was silly—Tejus had done what the
trial required, and he’d made sure that I was safe by mentally controlling the vulture to pick me up. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d been an afterthought, and for some reason it bothered me more than it should.
Ash sacrificed coming first to save Ruby.
It was a thought that kept going round and round in my head.
“Hazel? Are you awake?” Tejus peered in through the cubby hole.
“What do you want?”
“I need to go out for a while. I want you to stay here while I’m gone.”
“Okay,” I muttered.
“I won’t be long.” He started to shut the door.
“Leave it open,” I commanded.
He reopened it and peered into my emerald-green gloom.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked, frowning. “You’ve been very quiet since we returned from the trial.”
“I’m fine,” I replied. “I’m just tired.”
“I thought you’d be happy with the outcome.” He looked at me quizzically. “You’ll get to go home either way now.”
“Yes, okay,” I replied stonily. “As I said, I’m just tired.”
He let out a sigh and rose up from his knees. A moment later I heard the door slam behind him.
I left the cubby hole, taking my blanket with me, and curled up on the sofa. I wished, not for the first time, that I had my e-reader with me so I could escape into a reassuring and clichéd romance with a happy ending.
I was starting to doze off when I heard a knock at the door. I went to answer it, suddenly feeling nervous. I opened the door a crack, ready to jump back if I didn’t like what I saw, but it was only Julian. I sighed with relief and swung open the door.
“What are you doing here so late?” I asked with concern. “Is Benedict okay?”
“He’s okay,” Julian hurried to reassure me. “It’s just…I’ve got something to tell you that you’re not going to be happy to hear.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, instantly panicked.
“I overheard you and Tejus talking in the courtyard—about the stone.” He looked shamefaced. “And I told Ruby. I’m so, so sorry, Hazel. I was worried that Ash wasn’t going to win the trials…and we wouldn’t get home.”
A Race of Trials Page 13