A deep breath settled her stomach enough that she didn’t need Thal’s support, but the ashling’s arm tightened around her shoulders as if he were afraid to fall off a cliff.
“It’s all right, Thal. We’ll be all right.”
Thal nodded, but the expression on his face told her he was barely hearing her. Something was going on with him, and had it not been for the now-silent crowd of students, she would have gladly sat down with him and triedto talk him through it, but Captain Falcrest had climbed onto the banister of the balcony and was stalking directly for them, eyes on the point where Thal’s hand covered her shoulder, then skipping to where her hand appeared around the edge of his waist. Behind Falcrest’s shoulder, the hilt of his saber glinted in the sun, and at his hip, his sword dangled at his belt. He didn’t deign to look her in the eye, nor did he give any other sign they shared more than one secret. How he managed to keep his expression aloof when Lory’s skin was tingling as if he had his hands all over her was beyond her, but she did her best to mimic that cold distance in his eyes that promised death to anyone who dared step out of line.
“Failing this test means death.” Falcrest’s eyes flashed dangerously as he balanced past them. “You won’t be able to hold on to anyone. Out there, it’s only you and whatever hand- and footholds you find. No one will catch you if you fall.”
They turned to watch him continue all the way to the end of the balcony, where General Ycken and Nefetari Brunn were waiting for him. She hadn’t noticed them join the group, but apparently, the Master of Steel and the Master of Veils wanted to see for themselves how many blue ashlings would be left when the day was over, when the sun kissed the day goodbye.
Brunn inclined her head at the captain, who instantly leaped off the banister, vanishing from sight.
Lory didn’t mean to hold her breath, but her stomach tightened, and her free hand curled into a fist as she waited for the impact of flesh and bones on stone.
Silence was all that followed, the wind playing with her hair and the croak of birds of prey waiting for a piece of meat at the end of the test the only interruptions until, from a roof so far away, Lory could only make out his tall, powerful form, but not his features, Falcrest shouted, “Good luck, ashlings.”
How he’d gotten there so fast, Lory could only attribute to magic.
“You’ve heard the Veiled Hand, ashlings.” Nefetari Brunn took Falcrest’s place on the banister, her grizzled hair and lined face at odds with her smooth movements as she stalked to the other end of the balcony, where Falcrest had started out. “Pick any path from here to Captain Falcrest’s location. I don’t care how you get there. You pass if you don’t fall. And if you do fall”—she braced her hands on her hips, looking out at the cluster of roofs and deadly gaps that paved the way toward the man Lory was afraid of yet couldn’t wait to face—“well, you know the drill.”
“You die,” Jarek quoted Falcrest’s favorite phrase, and Lory’s stomach tightened yet again.
She’d die for her magic if she didn’t fall during this test. Only a few more days until the Knowledge exam, where hiding her magic would be equally a death sentence as presenting the magic she’d manifested.
Flame-born.She’d tried not to think about it too much over the past days for fear someone would pick it from her brain, but there was no denying it. She was Flame-born.
The fact that no one was bolting from the balcony to save themselves told Lory everyone who’d made it to this test was serious about making it at Ashthorn. None of themhad missed the second bell at breakfast or gotten themselves killed during combat training, Veiled practice, or through their magic.
Even Aiden, who hadn’t chosen this life, just like her, seemed determined to survive.
“You go in alphabetical order,” Brunn barked, and before Lory could wonder if this was the day she’d lose another person she’d allowed into her heart, the Master of Veils called Aiden Bellmont, and he climbed onto the banister and disappeared over the edge.
Lory’s fingers dug into Thal’s side as she waited for the punishing thud that would mean he didn’t make the leap, but a soft scrape and the rhythmical thuds of Aiden’s feet on the roof below echoed from the walls, and she allowed herself a breath as Frost took a running leap for the next roof and landed safely on the gravel.
“He’ll be on the other end in no time,” Thal whispered while the rest of the group was watching with bated breath, some of them because they couldn’t wait to see the criminal fall to his death, Lory was sure.
Three more roofs and a narrow bridge, not wider than a hand’s span. Aiden could do it, despite the heat and the walls he needed to climb to make it across the buildings.
He was at the third building now, scaling the wall one deliberate step after the other. His hands found crevices on the smooth stone that Lory couldn’t make out from this distance, but it gave her comfort that he could do it. If he could, it meant there was a way. She only needed to consider her shorter frame and, therefore, shorter reach.
“What’s behind that building?” Tabi asked from a few steps away, leaning over the banister to get a clearer view of the tallest of the houses Frost had mastered and which blocked the view of a good portion of the path.
“You’ll need to wait until you get there to find out,” Dunveil responded, stalking closer between students shuffling aside to make way for the Knowledge Hand crossing the threshold onto the balcony. “But I can assure you, it’s the place most ashlings fail.”
Lory didn’t imagine the way Dunveil’s eyes landed on her at the wordfail, like he expected her to do just that, and for a moment, she was tempted to hold on to Thal, but no matter what he knew about her magic—if Dunveil hadn’t executed her yet, she might as well show him what she was capable of when it came to overcoming obstacles. Her entire life had been one long path riddled with traps and walls blocking her from advancing, with fear and dependency—and she was done with it.
Forcing calm into her veins, she dropped her arm from Thal’s waist, stepping toward the edge of the balcony to take a closer look.
“We’ll see about that,” she murmured, waiting for Aiden to show up from behind said building and nearly shouting out loud when he emerged at the wall below the roof where Falcrest stood like a statue, the sun reflecting off the blades sheathed at his back and hip the only proof of his occasional movement.
“Next!” Nefetari Brunn waved the ashlings forward one by one the moment Aiden stood beside Falcrest on the roof,and they all leaped off the balcony as if it was nothing. As if there weren’t stone and packed earth waiting to split their skulls and break their necks.
“Jarek Grivor, Thalric Heener.”
Lory’s stomach lurched as she watched two of the few people in the world who meant something to her step toward the edge, climbing the banister with moments telling a tale of both their training and their nerves.
“Please don’t die,” Lory whispered after them, and Thal, who turned his head just long enough to give her a tight smile. “If I do, I’ll be with Ariel. See you on the other side.” And he let himself drop over the edge, catching the steel bar forged into the wall at least twenty feet below.
Jarek was already climbing up, reaching for the flat roof and cursing violently as he touched the frame of metal at the edges.
