His eyes shone with amusement. “That has to be the worst proposal ever.”
“I’m not hearing a no.” She knew she should let the tease drop. But something about playing coy was too much fun to let go of.
He merely smirked and relented, “All right.”
“All right?” she repeated quickly. “Then it’s a yes.”
“A yes to us helping each other,” he said when he finished chuckling. “If I find your stone, I’ll send a signal of a Lightspinning glyph high above.”
Eira nodded.
“Please, in a line.” Five attendants approached them. One attendant squared off against every competitor. “You’ve provenyourself quite capable, but this will be easier if you don’t struggle.”
“Wh—”
“Loft not,” every attendant said in unison.
Eira’s lids went heavy, she swayed. She’d been caught off-guard and succumbed to a deep slumber.
Consciousness returned to her with unnatural speed. The Lightspinner had released their hold on her awareness and Eira woke to find herself in a stone room with no ceiling. She could hear the excited chatter of the spectators and the initial cheers.
Standing, she spun, trying to get her bearings. She could make out the very top rung of the arena—the vials of sand visible on one end. That would be her waypoint to keep her bearings.
A roar reverberated from an indiscernible distance. It could be very close, but the stone walls muffled the sound, making it hard to tell the location. Was it Harkor? Or was it another horror that awaited them in this maze? She wouldn’t find out the answer standing here.
Eira quickly ran her hands over the walls. They were smooth and solid. No illusions. The obvious answer was to go up. Perhaps that was the goal—to see if they could tempt anyone to break the rules.
A low rumbling shook the ground from somewhere in the distance. An explosion, perhaps? Eira spun, searching again for a way out. They wouldn’t have put her somewhere she couldn’t escape from. That would make for a boring game. There had to be something she wasn’t seeing.
She pressed her palm against the wall, a sheet of frost growing from her fingertips. It coated the walls, sinking into the cracks between the stones. Searching…searching for a way out.
There.
Her ice had sunk into the cracks around a panel of wall that wasn’t connected to the rest. It was set perfectly flush, but could, in theory, be moved. She put her shoulder to it, pushing off with her legs. It didn’t swivel or turn like a normal hidden door. Instead it gave way, tumbling back with a crash of stone. Eira tumbled with it, landing awkwardly, bruising her elbows and knees to avoid smashing her face against the rock.
She was in the center of a long hall that made sharp turns at either end. Left or right? It didn’t much matter. She started to the right.
Along the walls were alcoves, statues inset in some of them. They took the shapes of all manner of beasts.A cat, a hawk, an owl, a fox… Eira tried to repeat them in her head. She could track her progress with ice along the wall, but that could give away her position to any others who came along and she fully expected Harkor to make every effort to sabotage the rest of them.
Rather than turning the corner, Eira pressed herself against the wall. It was another long walkway. Completely empty.
She started walking again. Nothing happened—even the rumbling and shouts in the distance had silenced. Eira turned left at a fork, and then right again. Left once more and ended up in a dead end.
Time to backtrack.
Right, then left, then—it should be right. But she was faced with another left. Eira looked at the statues on the walls.Fox, owl… The next one was a hawk, as she would expect. Turning on her heel, she retraced her steps.
Except this time it wasn’t a dead end. The passage continued onward. Her feet slowed. Lumeria had said that this trial was designed by the Twilight Kingdom. They were the ones who made this maze—there was no other explanation for how it was created so quickly. Solaris or Qwint probably helped with Groundbreakers and Qwint’s runic equivalent…but this much change all at once had to be the work of the shift.
The shift looks at what is, and transforms it into what could be. Ducot had taught her about the magic when she’d first arrived. She couldn’t look at what was…she had to think of what could be.
A cry rang out, cut short sharply. Her insides knotted. She couldn’t make out who it was. Was that noise brought on by a surprise in the maze? Or by another competitor?
Eira pressed on. She marked the base of the statues with her thumb as she passed. The fingerprint of frost was hopefully subtle enough that others would miss it…but it could track her progress. After walking for what seemed like long enough to lap the whole arena—and without running into anyone else—Eira noticed a statue with her thumb print ahead, not behind.
Her arms were limp at her shoulders. She’d gone in a circle. Choosing paths at random, trying to keep herself heading toward the royals’ box by way of the vials in view, she’d somehow managed to go in a circle.
The crowd was beginning to cheer and jeer. She wondered if some of the latter was for her. How foolish she must look. Eira spun. A dead end was now behind her. She barely suppressed a shout of frustration.
