“Can you at least tell me if Faiza gets through okay?” I whispered back to him. He paused in tying the blindfold for a moment, possibly from surprise. I hated not being able to see him to see why he stilled. Reading people’s expressions and body language was a helpful skill in both thievery and court. My mother had started my education, with help from my nanny, Juvela, who’d been like a second mother to me, but Ula had finished it. I had been so determined to do both Juvela and my mother proud that I’d been an apt student. It wasn’t foolproof by any means, but my own veil of truth was created bit by bit through those lessons, refusing to allow anyone to read me.
Not being able to read someone in turn made me irrationally uncomfortable, however.
“Fine, but only because you’ll know once you take the blindfold off anyway,” he sighed with an air of long-suffering annoyance, and I could practicallyfeelhis eyes roll.
Even without my sight, I could still hear the crowd’s reactions as Faiza began. I bounced on the balls of my feet, anxious despite myself. I shouldn’t care. It didn’t make any sense for me to worry. And yet, I found I actually liked Faiza. She was a trulygoodperson; a rarity in this world.
One who would hate me as soon as I accomplished my goal.
Azurill was her friend, a close friend at that, and one she’d known for many years. She would never forgive me for killing him. Which shouldn’t even matter, considering that I would disappear once I got my vengeance. I’d be back to skulking through the streets and ensuring no one found me—except even more paranoid after assassinating the High King.
My life would never be like Faiza’s. It wasn’t fair, but life never was. I ached for the future I had imagined for myself as a child, the one that had been so cruelly ripped away from me. This wasn’t that life, despite the similarities they shared. This was all make-believe, and allowing myself to believe anything different, as if I were really Lady Jacinth Tawny, would only lead to heartbreak.
So I listened to the crowd’soohsandawws, focusing on bringing my mind back to the void I always found inside myself before breaking into targetedplaces. That was what I needed now—the agility and grace of a dancer paired with the cunning and skill of a thief.
I sank into that mindset and stilled my anxious movements, breathing calmly as I waited. Time passed, but I couldn’t even tell how much as it all blurred together in the darkness, until finally Alfrikr leaned in to whisper in my ear.
“Faiza’s gotten through. She had some trouble with a few obstacles, but you’ll see her on the other side.” He chuckled, his words good-natured but laced with the ominousness of whatever lay on the other side of the course.
The moment the blind fold came off, and I finished blinking into the sun as my vision adjusted, my eyes unerringly found Azurill in his box. He was leaning forward, watching intently, and I sent him a smirk, letting my cockier side come out to play. I may have gotten myself captured by Carnelian, but I’d escaped ridiculous odds until that point. I knew I was good, and now it was time to prove it, even if this uppity ass believed it had something to do with him. Azurill raised a brow at me, his lips twitching like they wanted to match it, but too many eyes were on him.
“Lady Jacinth,” Alfrikr stepped in front of me, taking up my vision and successfully blocking the king. “You will be ranked according to both how fast you get through the course and how quickly you make it back to the palace. Those points will continue through each challenge, being weighed when discussions of eliminations come about, and should the need arise, those final points will be used to break any ties.”
He eyed me intently. “Do you understand?”
“Crystal clear,” I responded, knowing that each moment that eclipsed was vitally important, and I wouldn’t take that knowledge for granted.
“In three…” He raised his hand, and I spotted Azurill watching me from above as I adjusted my stance, preparing to run. “Two…one…go!”
I took off immediately, letting Azurill and the crowd fade into the background completely. This was just like when I broke into an Earl’s home in Sapphire; they had put in all sorts of traps that I’d had to navigate. It still stung that I managed all that, and yet got caught in Ruby Court’s ancient castle of all places.
The first obstacle lay in front of me, with a dangling rope leading up to a high wooden platform with low walls on each side. I grabbed the rope firmly and pulled myself hand over fist up to the top.Easy. Looking around after I landed, I realized nothing but empty space stretched in front of me,the next tower some distance away. Much too far for me to jump, even with a running start.
Looking down, there was no rope, no ladder, just a too-high distance clearly not meant to be traversed, and what seemed to be a number of wooden planks lying across the ground, like a bridge had been ripped down. Checking over the platform I stood on, I noticed the small tiles scattered across the floor, and on one wall, there it was: a puzzle set into the wall. I groaned, but knelt down and turned my attention to it.
I ruminated on it for a moment, eyeing the row of blocks that each had a word or two written across them. Underneath each block, there were differing numbers of empty spaces where the tiles would go. Each tile depicted a gem, and I figured we must need to find the right combinations used in the alchemy of gem magic.
The first block read “future love”, and there were two empty spaces beneath it. I merely needed to fill them in with the gems necessary to fuel the magic of a potion that would reveal a future love. I grabbed the pearl and sapphire tiles, fitting them into the puzzle. Sure enough, a piece of the bridge below popped up to the platform’s height.
The next word was ‘honesty’, and I grabbed the diamond, filling it in. ‘Self-protection’ followed, and I put in the emerald and onyx. The combinations got more and more complex, but I quickly matched them all up until the bridge was whole and I sprinted across it.
Upon reaching the tower, I found a series of bars leading out over a large pool of water. I jumped up to grab the first bar and then swung myself over to the next. I nearly squealed when I felt a splash hit me, more water circling and wrapping itself around my legs like a pair of boots. I looked down to see the pool below had risen like a giant tidal wave, making me swallow slightly as it loomed below me, threatening more than I could handle. When it began to yank on my legs, weightier than water should’ve been, I let out a stream of all the vicious swears I’d learned on the streets.
I fought against its hold, kicking and flailing my legs until I finally broke free. The moment I did, I acted quickly, using all of my core muscles, and I lifted my body until it was flat against the bars. I watched the wave below to see what it would do, even as my muscles burned from my position. To my surprise, the water lowered back down until it dispersed into the pool. I took the opportunity presented and resumed swinging across the bars.
Unfortunately, the water must have hit the bars when it rose, leaving it wetter than I’d expected, and my grip began to slip. I tried to tighten my fingers around the bar, but I couldn’t get them to stick, and despite my struggle, the fingers of my left hand slid off, causing me to nearly lose my hold on the bar entirely. I was hanging by one hand, my body heavy as I fought to keep my right hand wrapped firmly around the bar.
A spark of fear rushed through me. I couldn’t lose this, not wheneverythingwas at stake. I took a deep breath, calming myself as I ignored the crowd. They were all sitting forward in excitement, the anticipation of watching me fall into the water below nothing but a thrilling show to them.
As the wave began to reform and rise again, I thought through the options available to me. Try to grab another handhold and hope it worked, or…
I moved my free hand back to the last bar I’d left behind and swung myself up above the bar itself, the wave crashing against it just as I lay myself flat on top of it, the bar digging into my waist. The wave seemed to hover for a moment, as if looking for its target, but I seemed to be out of its reach now. Thank Erodite, it was just as I suspected. They’d rigged it to pull us down, but didn’t think of setting it up to reachabovethe bars.
As soon as the water fell again, I quickly maneuvered over the bars and began to make my way across them. I took a moment to congratulate myself on outsmarting the damn water and the king as I hit the last bar and began lowering myself down the ladder that led to the ground below.
Except once I’d lowered myself fully, the ground I had seen on my way down was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I was in some sort of dark corridor, enclosed on all sides. Dread filled my throat, nearly choking me, but I managed to take a step forward.
And let out a scream as I was attacked.
