I’m safe. For now. I survived the first trial, and I look around the room trying to decide how many other competitors made it. More people appear, most of whom look harried and tired.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I spin, pulling away from the touch as I reach for my dagger. But it’s Darian’s hand suspended in mid-air, a grin on his face, rather than an enemy. Behind him are Ainslee and Rhion, both of whom are smiling widely.
“You made it,” Darian says as he drops his hand. “See, it wasn’t too tough. I knew you’d make it. Though, you may want to find a towel to wipe off some of that…” He runs his finger across my cheek and brings it to his nose. “Phew, that’s disgusting. You ran into skryths on your Shadow Road? That’s a tough break. Not too bad if there’s only one, but I bet there were many more than that. Is that where all the blood came from?”
Blood? I look down at my hands and see them covered in it. Half my cloak is a darker shade of black, especially where it’s torn. “No, the skryth didn’t really hurt me. It was the duskthorns.”
Darian frowns and shrugs. “Different Roads for each competitor, I guess.” Then I really get a look at him. He barely looks any different from when I left him at the party earlier this evening. It’s almost as if he didn’t go through that trial, and instead had a quick jaunt through the castle. Am I really at that much of a disadvantage here that Darian can get through a trial that nearly killed me without breaking a sweat?
“It wouldn’t make sense for everyone to have the same Shadow Road,” Ainslee says with a smile. “But it doesn’t matter now. One trial down and three more before we can all go home.”
That’s when I notice the number of people who are looking at me. No one expected a human to survive the Shadow Road, and now I won’t be able to hide myself nearly as easily any longer.
“Can we talk somewhere a little more private?” I ask with a glance around the growing number of competitors, some who look like me, and many that look closer to Darian. How many of these people were alive when the war began? How many of them have lived far longer than that?
Rhion nods and leads the way into a shadowed alcove of the Great Hall. I hurriedly whisper, “I knew the trials would be hard to survive, but how am I supposed to survive the time in between? The people here will want to kill me. I can’t protect myself at all times. No one’s going to allow me to sleep in the Great Hall.”
Darian smiles. “You’re rooming with me from now on. On that note, how’d you survive after you left the party?”
I purse my lips and glance around me to make sure there’s no one nearby. In as quiet a whisper as I can manage, I say, “Azric sealed my door with stone.”
All their eyes show shock at that comment. “Hehelpedyou?” Ainslee whispers just as quietly.
I nod to them, and she grabs me by the arm immediately. “We’re going to find you and Darian a room where you can be safe. Then we’re going to have a long talk.Hedoesn’t help anyone. Why he’d help you is beyond me, but if he is, there’s a reason for it, and it’s certainly not because he’s just bored.”
I let her drag me through passageways far from the Great Hall. When we’re standing beside a strangely empty wall, she raises her hand. Light flows from it like the perfect lantern, illuminating the wall as if the sun were shining on it with none of the glare you’d get from a candle or torch.
What she’s looking for is obvious, yet she doesn’t seem to see it. I reach out my hand to the brick that’s just a little unlike the others, and I press it sideways. It slides into a recess behind the one beside it, revealing a latch.
She cocks her head toward me and frowns, but then she shakes her head as if she rethought asking a question. Her finger flips the latch, and this empty section of wall spins as if a metal rod ran through the center. It’s a secret room right off the hallway. When my father took me to help him find god-touched relics, they were almost always hidden in some secret room, so this isn’t exactly a new thing for me.
Instinctively, I let my mind quiet to see if there are any hidden god-touched relics here, but there aren’t any hums coming from within.
Ainslee walks into the room, which is covered in cobwebs and dust, an excellent sign in my experience. It means no one goes into it to clean it, and we’ll be relatively safe. The room itself is simple, a fifteen-by-fifteen foot closet, that’s made of simple streaked slate like the rest of the castle. There are no adornments; no rugs or furnishings. There are no beds, and there certainly isn’t a bath. It’s going to be a long, very primitive two months if this is where we’re going to spend them.
The thought of beds makes me remember that the Tortoise is going to come and bite me in the ass any moment now. What am I supposed to tell them? Am I supposed to reveal my secrets?
“Ah, home sweet home,” Darian says as he looks around the room. “A bit of paint and some rugs, and it’ll be as good as my chambers in Selithar.”
Ainslee grins at her brother. “It’ll be a little… uncivilized, but it’ll be safe, and that’s what matters. We’ll bring you some beds through a mirror soon.”
“I assume you’ll bring a few servants, too. I’m the brother of a champion, and I certainly can’t be expected to clean cobwebs.”
Rhion doesn’t hide his laughter before he pushes the secret door shut. “Yes, you’ll get some servants. They’ll be here in about three months. Sorry, there’s a lot of bureaucracy to get through to requisition servants all the way from Selithar. Then there’s travel time…”
“Typical. Well, I’m sure Fi’s cleaned cobwebs and swept a few floors. I have complete confidence that she’ll manage in the place of servants.”
I chuckle and shake my head, but Ainslee doesn’t let go of the reason she dragged us all away from the party that easily. “Tell me about what happened with Azric. This is important. I’ve known Azric since the day he was born, and after Lysara took him as her champion the day he turned eighteen, he hasneverhelped a single person. Why is he helping you, and what does he have to gain from it?”
I look at Rhion and Darian, both of whom are entirely focused on me. “Well, he says I’m important because I’m not a part of the Pact. He says that if I killed someone, that they’ll stay dead.”
Ainslee’s eyes sharpen at that, and Darian shakes his head. “No, that’s not possible. Is it?” He looks at his sister. “The only Godforged that can die permanently are the champions, right?”
“I…” Ainslee says slowly. “I don’t know. It’s possible that Azric’s right. If he is, then that’d mean that the last person anyone wants to win this is Fiona. Other than us, of course.”
“What about me?” Rhion says. “I wasn’t part of the Pact. The House of Steel didn’t bow before any of the gods.”
“No, but you were an ally from the beginning, and your expected impact on the war was obvious. My mother wrapped the House of Steel into the Pact, I’m sure. Not even she wanted to wrap random humans into it. No one foresaw Sylvantia would hold back the armies of the gods. How many people know that the people of Sylvantia can keep the Godforged from Returning? I doubt very many since it happens so rarely.”
