She had to keep her wits about her, and her head level. There was a trick to this. A way to win. Unless she was being sabotaged individually? Arwin was clearly in on the game…but that didn’t mean Pillars hadn’t infiltrated the attendants. The thought of Pillars had her mind spiraling. The walls seemed closer. Sheturned away from the dead end and walked faster, as if she could outrun the panicked thoughts trying to crawl up from the dark pits of her mind she’d tried to hide them in.
They were going to keep her here forever. A mouse in a maze. Trapped.
Eira spun as fast as her thoughts. Even when she tried to calm them, they wouldn’t slow. Then…the smallest of breezes tangled with her fingers.
Cullen.
Stopping, she took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. She couldn’t see him, but he could somehow see her and the notion calmed and grounded her, encouraging Eira to focus on what she knew. She could still see the sun—still see the flags of the uppermost ring of the coliseum around her. She wasn’t trapped. At any moment she could ascend to the top of the walls and the game might be over but she would be free. There was no reason to panic. That was just what they wanted.
Blinking into the sun, realization shone on her. The sun was shining from behind the vials…but that would be impossible. The royals’ box was on the north side of the arena. The sun should be shining to their right.
In her second trial at Solaris, she’d made an illusion over the whole of the training ground to conceal herself from archers. What if they were doing something similar here and now? Eira started walking again. She focused on the statues, like she had. Looking up only periodically.
On the third time she looked up, the vials were no longer in front of the sun, but to its right, south facing. They were changing the wallsandcasting an illusion over the arena, at least for those inside the maze. But the sun hadn’t moved. It was consistent. Either because they hadn’t thought to illusion it, because they couldn’t, or they left it as it was as a clue.
But what did she do with it? There was also still no sign of her stone. Or anyone else.
Think of what could be…not what was.You have all you need for victory.
Eira slapped her palm against the wall with purpose. She took a breath and dredged all the power she could from within. A chill mist began to fill the air around her as frost surrounded her. Like a wave, it crashed against every wall. More power. Eira pushed all she had into the magic that was covering every last surface of the maze before her.
Her maze.
You will be presented with a maze tailor madeforyou, Lumeria had said. Notbeforeyou. They were racing each other in mazes created only for them. The Twilight Kingdom—Arwin with Vi and Taavin, no doubt—had designed a game that would double their chances of winning because Eira and Olivin couldn’t be meddled with. Every maze no doubt was designed with the competitor’s unique skills in mind, ensuring equal—or perhaps not so equal—difficulty.
The path mapped out before her, Eira held out her other hand. Sweat rolled down her neck, streaming down her back. Even though her breath clouded the air, she was dripping with exhaustion. As she balled the fingers of her left hand into a fist, one word crossed through her mind:hold.
It was the same principles as Adela’s technique to freeze someone. But this time, she wanted to hold the walls in place. She wanted to freeze her maze into stasis.
With one labored step after the next, Eira marched forward. She was panting as she turned the first corner. Her right hand still slid against the wall, keeping her frost in place and the map of her maze sharp in her mind. Her left fingers were still clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned ghostly pale.
Magic writhed against hers, fighting for freedom. To shift the walls and change the paths she’d mapped. Eira wasn’t going to allow that to happen. She’d collapse from exhaustion before she did.
The cheers of the crowd began to escalate. Another explosion rattled the ground under her feet. But Eira kept her focus.
Had the other competitors figured out their tricks? Were they moving faster than her? Every labored step felt slower than the last. Her breath was fogging the air so thickly that it was making it hard to see in front of her. Could the magic be bleeding through her flesh, rising to the surface and freezing her as solid as the rest of her maze?
Eira slipped. Cracks raced across the sheet of frost that covered the walls. Chunks rattled off and her control wavered. The magic of the morphi trying to fight against her was getting stronger. The walls began to ripple with pulses of magic.
She ran.
Her magic was spinning out of her control more and more with every step. The walls came to life, like living mirages. Trying to close in on her. Racing with all her might, Eira followed the path she’d seen in her mind’s eye through her frost. It wasn’t far now.
The walls ahead were closing. She leapt.
In a blink, she was in another room, similar to the first she’d woken in. But this room had a statue of a woman in the center. Three interlocked circles stretched up a line from her back. Her carved hands reached forward, cupping, expectant.
Eira pulled at the ribbon the attendant had tied around her wrist. “These are the color of your stone and, when the time comes, will help you find it,” she repeated the attendant’s words. Then, Lumeria’s: “You have all you need for victory.”
It wasn’t about what was, but what could be. She saw Ducot shake a piece of metal into a key. He’d explained how the shiftkey would present itself naturally when it was brought before its corresponding lock.
Eira dropped the ribbon into the statue’s hands. As it fell, it curled on itself in midair. In a blink, it had transformed into a small, faintly glowing stone that landed in the statue’s hands.
Trumpets blared.
The crowd roared.
“Eira Landan wins for Solaris!”
