I knitted my bitterness and fear around my heart and willed it to give me strength.
Dowser drew the dristic Relic from its sheath. The irrelevant pieces of it—the hilt and pommel—had been removed, so it was just the red blade. He held it up for everyone to see.
“Behold the second Relic of the Scion—a blade of dristic forged in the molten heart of the Sun and given to Meridian’s daughter, Aliette, as a celebration of her strength,” Dowser cried. “The second Ordeal of the Scion will test these Heirs’ strength, both physical and mental. It will test their mettle, their bravery, their resolve. But most of all, it will test their resilience. Do you witness this Ordeal?”
The crowd’s screams hurt my head.
“Then let the second Ordeal of the Sun Heir begin!”
Dowser lowered the blade toward the dais. The dristic Relic settled into its hollow with a hiss of metal against stone.
This time, when every single light in the grand chamber exploded into darkness, I was ready. My heart throbbed a warning, but I stood perfectly still until pale light bloomed above the dais. It was like candlelight on a moving sword, or liquid ice.
As before, lines of dristic fire wove a frozen tapestry along the floor before narrowing to two lines of silver. I didn’t look at Gavin before taking off along my path.
The silver light resolved itself into an object hanging several feet in front of me. It was a sword—not the dristic Relic; this blade was slimmer and new-forged—hanging in midair in front of my face. I swallowed, and regretted my joking words:Is Arsenault going to hand us both a sword and make us fight to the death?The last thing I needed was for this ancient mystical death chamber to have a sense of humor about its Ordeals.
I grabbed the hilt of the sword. It was cool to the touch, and grooved to fit perfectly against my palm. I pulled. The blade released, its weight grinding my wrist bones together. I lowered into a crouch as icy white light flung itself to the ceiling. A silvery dome encompassed the space.
The floor fell out from beneath me without warning. Vast blocks of iron-grey stone surged up with a sound like blades screaming against each other. I pitched to my knees as I dropped, fighting nausea as my stomach turned inside out. Although part of me wanted to close my eyes, I forced them wider. I clutched at the sword and scrabbled for purchase on the slick stone beneath my fingers.
The mechanism ground to a halt, jolting me onto my hip across two flagstones. I stared up at the ceiling, but the tiers of spectators seemed impossibly far away—nothing more than dots of silver amid a sea of grey. If they made sound, I couldn’t hear it over the throb of low continuous noise emanating from all around me. Already the buzzing was eating into my ears like a worm with teeth. I put a hand to my head, and climbed to my feet.
Panic spackled my heart when I lifted my eyes to the Ordeal. My gaze went up, and up, and still my eyes didn’t touch the top of a dristic-and-stone mountain lofting toward a distant silver gleam. No, not a mountain. Scion, not a mountain at all. A tower of whirling mechanisms and glowering barriers and glittering metal, operating in a monstrous symphony of noise and motion.
It was an obstacle course.
All Dowser’s and Gavin’s admonitions slammed down on me like a curse, and for a long moment I couldn’t move.If you think the Oubliettes won’t test you with sharp edges and cold dristic …
The flagstone beneath my feet groaned, then fell away without warning.
Iwould have fallen to my death, if I hadn’t been standing with one foot on its neighbor. My boot tasted air, and I pitched to the side, my arms flailing. My knee struck granite and instinct plunged my sword arm down. The impact sent numbness coursing to my elbow, but the tip of the blade stuck into the stone. I hauled on the hilt, dragging my weight away from the edge. I gasped, stars dancing against the backs of my eyelids and my fingers cramping.
The Oubliettes were much too fond of dropping the floor out from beneath me.
The flagstone beneath me groaned.
I barely had time to think. I wrenched the blade from the stone and flung myself toward the next block. The one I’d been standing on sighed away into the dusk. I sent my gaze dancing over my surroundings. A sea of square blocks rose like steps toward the mountain of impediments looming before me. And they were all beginning to complain.
I ran.
I barreled over the field of boulders, my skirt tangling around my legs and the heavy sword banging against my hip. The groaning of the blocks was a poor warning—some fell away immediately while others clung on long enough for me to catch my breath. Still, I never stopped moving for long, leaping from stone to stone. They fell away like rotten teeth in a savage mouth, and I dodged each gaping smile with a curse, climbing higher as my thighs burned. I was close now to the first level of the mountain, where glinting metal doors slammed up and down.
I threw myself forward, sucking air into my flaming lungs. But I’d made a mistake—the rock fell out from under me as my foot struck stone. A terrible, deadlywhooshof air caught the hem of my dress. Blackness yawned.
My arms caught the lip of the neighboring stone. My body slammed into its side, impact jarring my elbows and pushing a shout from my throat. I poured every ounce of my strength into my arms, dragging myself bodily over the edge. But I didn’t have time to rest. The stone below me growled a warning. I plowed forward, shoving trembling legs until I collapsed onto the steps at the bottom of the mountain.
The last of the stones fell away into a sea of shadows. My breath was a knife in my chest. I clutched my will to my thrumming heart like a talisman, and turned to face the next obstacle.
A narrow passageway skirted the base of the hill. Four burnished doors studded its length.Four doors.If I’d been in the mood to smile, I might have appreciated the Oubliettes’ sense of parallel. They opened and closed seemingly at random: sleek, heavy doors screaming down before gliding gently up.
The objective seemed oh so simple: Pass each door without losing a limb.
I approached the first, counting its rhythm in my head.
DOWN. Two, three, four.
UP. Two.
