On the other side of the maze, the Ghosts let out a shriek as they’re given their freedom. They charge blindly into the maze. My eyes dart back to the Strikers. Every single one of them turns in the direction of the Ghosts’ screams and shifts into a fighting stance. I see Aramin sign to the others. He’s telling them to stay together.
Then they move forward as a unit.
It is the wisest strategy—together, they can take out the Ghosts heading down one path while avoiding those in the others. But barely a minute after they make their way down one of the maze’s paths, the maze moves for the first time, sliding along those grooves I’d seen in the way that I’d feared. One moment, the four of them are traveling together—the next, a wall suddenly turns after Aramin and Adena have made their way down the front of the path.
Tomm and Pira get caught behind the moving stone. Tomm leaps out of the way in time to keep from being swept and crushed against the side of another wall, but they are now separated from the other two, forced down a new path in the maze. In the audience, people shout outin delighted surprise and try to call down advice. My gaze skids to the other end of the maze, to where the first pack of Ghosts is well on its way toward where Aramin walks.
Adena pauses first, holding up a fist as she tilts her head in the direction of the Ghosts. The beasts aren’t loud, but a lifetime of training has alerted her to some telltale hint of their gnashing teeth and rasping breath. She signs at Aramin. Aramin nods and points, and Adena moves without a sound to where he indicates. She kneels a short distance in front of him.
As the first Ghost lurches around the corner and into view, Aramin sprints forward and kicks off Adena’s shoulders, launching himself into the air. He’s on the Ghost’s shoulders before the creature can react, and stabs it three times in the neck before he leaps up and grabs the top edge of the maze wall with both gloved hands.
He’s going to try to get to the top of the wall. Of course.
The people in the stands roar, excited by Aramin’s deadly grace. Aramin pulls himself onto the top of the wall, and for the first time, he gets a clear view of the entire game space. Down below, Adena spins and delivers a fatal arrow to the injured Ghost’s neck, while Aramin darts forward down the path toward the second Ghost.
I realize I’m leaning forward, my heart in my throat as I will Aramin to break down the game and sprint along the top of the maze wall to the end. But as soon as he begins running, the maze shifts again. The wall he’s on begins to move—at the same time, spikes embedded in the top of the maze wall shoot up, anticipating his plan.
Aramin flips off just in time. He sails through the air in an arc as the spikes make it impossible to travel on the top. He kicks off against the wall’s side on his way down, then lands next to Adena with a light flourish.
The two of them press their backs to each other as more Ghostsreach them. They draw their weapons at the same time, then dart forward, slicing at the beasts that snap at their limbs. The largest Ghost, a creature taller than the maze’s walls, manages to cut between them—Adena dodges its swipes, but the move separates her from Aramin. Aramin slides under the Ghost’s legs, but the creature twists, snapping for him, and he’s forced to retreat again with his back to the wall.
Behind him, Adena creeps like a shadow, her movements so silent and smooth that none of the beasts realize she’s made her way around the fight. She pulls out her gun and fires twice at one of the Ghosts. It whirls, confused by the direction of the attack, but by the time it turns, Adena has moved again—she skips up the side of its back. As she does, she swings off her Striker coat and flings it up at the wall. The cloth catches against the spikes still jutting out from the top, and for an instant, her coat becomes a swing. She spins in a sharp arc and releases the coat, launching herself on top of the largest Ghost that has backed Aramin into a corner. She takes her blade and jabs it deep into the Ghost’s neck, hitting its vulnerable vein.
The people in the stands scream as the Ghost stumbles and falls. As it does, Aramin and Adena scatter again, soundless, Adena’s coat left to hang on top of the wall. The other Ghosts whirl around and lunge for them again, but Aramin has taken advantage of a shadow in one corner to vanish completely into, and the beast is momentarily thrown off. It sniffs angrily around for its prey.
Suddenly the maze shifts again. Adena is caught this time, forced to jump backward to avoid the moving wall. Aramin races toward her, trying to pull her back so that it doesn’t separate them—but the shift happens too quickly. Suddenly, he is torn between darting through the narrowing shift with Adena, or staying in his path.
Adena is the one who shoves Aramin back. It’s a single, sharp gesture, and even from here, I know she’s giving Aramin the firm stareI’ve often seen her give on the warfront. This is her silently begging for Aramin to stay on his path. Then she disappears from Aramin’s view as the wall finishes turning, sealing her away from the others.
My gaze goes farther down the maze. Adena has an entire pack of Ghosts to face up ahead, while a second pack is heading down the altered corridor where Aramin is now trapped.
They are all going to die. And even as I still try to temper my emotions, I feel the fear of that thought coursing cold through my bones.
Down a separate path, Tomm and Pira hit a new pocket of Ghosts. The audience roars as they sync their movements and cut the beasts down. Each group of Strikers has survived half of the maze, but there is still so much left.
The roar of the audience forces me to look elsewhere. It’s Adena, who has somehow used a strip of her old coat to tie together her daggers into a serrated whip. She swings it at one of the Ghost’s neck and it wraps all the way around, the blades all digging in. Down on his own path, Aramin leaps out of the way as a Ghost lunges forward at him, then sweeps into a ferocious attack.
But their movements are beginning to become more labored, the gaps between each attack slightly longer than the last.
And they are all tiring.
Abruptly, the audience gasps as one. The sound is so terrible that I jerk my head toward what has caught everyone’s attention.
A Ghost has managed to bite deeply into Tomm’s leg.
It drags him down the path as he scrambles desperately against the ground, reaching in vain for his blade. Even now, in the throes of unimaginable pain, he doesn’t make a sound.
Out in the arena, I feel Red’s emotions twist. He has witnessed the same thing.
Pira rushes at the Ghost. She arcs underneath it and shoots at itsknees. It stumbles, hobbled and screaming, but behind it come three others.
She and Tomm meet each other’s eyes for just an instant. The audience doesn’t know yet, but I recognize their expression immediately. It is a look I know all too well from the old warfront. Then Pira turns her blade down—not at the Ghost, but at him. She skids next to him, then pulls him to her in a sudden hug.
I don’t see the dagger go in, but I know she has stabbed him in the heart.
I wince and jerk my gaze away from the scene so suddenly that Constantine looks at me.Corian.Corian, Corian. The memory flashes through me like a bolt of lightning—the Ghost opening its jaws behind him as he crouched there on the forest floor, paying his respects to the creatures he had just killed. Me, rushing forward too late. His bright blue eyes looking up at me, filled with tears, knowing what I have to do.
Me, slashing down with my blade. Ending his life.
