He’s already staring at me.
I’m completely obscured by my uniform, but he easily picks me from the row of decurio and holds my gaze through the mesh over my eyes.
There’s a shift in Kaidren’s countenance. His entire bodyseems to exhale, as if he was holding his breath until he laid eyes on me.
There’s an intensity to his stare. A glimpse of the ruthlessness lurking beneath his calm exterior. It’s enticing.Heated. Even from a distance, he manages to scorch me from the inside out. I shudder and look away. He’s a distraction I can’t afford. One I’ve been actively avoiding since we said our goodbyes outside Luc’s study.
Today isn’t about him. It’s about winning.
For this trial, the candidates are equipped with crossbows and given the task of shooting the opposing team’s targets. The first candidate to reach fifty points wins.
The targets are wooden circles propped up on posts just behind each team’s boundary line. There are three targets, each of a different size. The largest is worth ten points, the second largest is worth twenty, and the smallest—barely wider than a coin—is worth fifty.
We soldiers are responsible for guarding our targets, preventing the other team from gaining any points, and doing what we can to get our candidate close enough to the other side to aim effectively.
The most important rule for this game: only the candidates have crossbows. The rest of the soldiers can have weapons, but they’re not allowed to fire the crossbow on behalf of the candidates.
For the past ten days—since Flynn was arrested, Kaidren and I were cleared of murder, and the Tournament was back on schedule—Luc and I have spent nearly all our time refamiliarizing him with the crossbow.
Target practice has been useful, but in my timenotwith Luc, I fashioned two bolts of my own. Wood on the outside,indistinguishable from the other bolts in his quiver, but on the inside, they have a tshira core.
We had no way of knowing which quiver was going to be Luc’s ahead of time (at least, not without marking them in a way someone might notice), so Sef slipped one bolt in each bag before the start of the event.
Thanks to Luc’s efforts at the masquerade ball (and no doubt the influence of his parents), his team is well equipped. Each soldier has a brand-new sword in a scabbard around our hips. Kaidren’s team only has one.
This final event is as much a test of political prowess as it is a test of warfare. Aside from the crossbow, teams are only allowed to use weapons purchased by benefactors.
The rest of Luc’s team cheered when General Fain delivered our swords. I didn’t. To a trained soldier, it’s a weapon. To me, it’s just a heavy object I’ll have to try not to stab myself with by accident.
I’m a ball of sweat as General Fain begins the countdown. The energy in the arena has been tempered by Flynn’s absence, but as the General reaches “one,” there are scattered cheers.
Blood roars in my ear.
Two soldiers—myself and a quick-footed decurio named Medin—stay behind to guard the targets and Luc. The remaining four run forward.
Luc loads his first bolt. There’s no way to tell which is the modified one, at least not from the outside. I feel nothing from this one. It’s solid wood.
He fires his first bolt, aiming for the largest target, worth ten points.
The bolt grazes the edge of the wooden circle but falls to the ground.
I swallow a curse. During target practice, he would have made that.
I scan Kaidren’s team. He developed his strategy to make the best use of their single sword. One unarmed soldier stays near the targets, to guard them. The other five form a ring around Kaidren. The soldier at the front of the human shield wields the lone sword.
As Luc’s team races across the narrowed arena, the circle around Kaidren parts.
He raises the crossbow, takes aim, and releases. He’s immediately enveloped by his team.
The bolt launches in the direction of our twenty-point target.
Medin slashes it from the air with his sword. The splintered wood falls to the ground.
Luc shoots again. He makes another attempt at the ten-point target. His aim looks better this time, but Kaidren’s soldier leaps, kicking it out of the way.
One of Luc’s soldiers, Caspian, reaches the circle around Kaidren. Caspian begins a battle with the lone armed soldier on Kaidren’s team.
Another one of Luc’s team members reaches the circle and launches an attack of her own. In seconds, she draws blood from an unarmed decurio. She swipes her sword again and the unarmed soldier collapses, leaving a gap in the formation around Kaidren.
