It was over. Had I made it? I rolled onto my side, panting as I pushed myself up.
There were dozens of people around me, and some of them looked offensively fresh even after having run so far. Including Yeshar and the dark-haired woman who had dropped a man off the taller wall. I counted them in my head as I tested my arms to see if they could hold weight. Henrick gave me a weak wave from where he lay resting in the sand a few yards away.
My stomach dropped. There were more than one hundred people gathered here.
Some unknown emotion filled me up with feeling, hot and tight. It was overwhelming.
“Look who's come around,” piped up a warm female voice. The same woman who had announced the start of the race stood ahead of me, eyeing me as I pushed myself into a sitting position.
“Congratulations,” she continued. “You got 92ndplace. You have officially qualified for Voyager training.”
Chapter 5
You clean, I appreciate
It was hard walking home after the Mistrun last night. It was even harder packing up a lifetime's worth of possessions into two bags in one night. Hauling them to the Voyager’s outpost was no picnic, either. But the hardest thing of all was saying goodbye to my family.
The Voyager's outpost imposed its silhouette against the menacing gray sunrise, the entire structure rising out of the ground like a moored, petrified Arc.
Eerie shivering moss had reclaimed most of the ancient runic stones that the outpost was built from, with waterfalls of jungle vines rupturing out from the cracks as if they’d been birthed from within the heart of the darkness itself. Tall bamboo spires jutted up toward the sky like skin around the outpost. It was capable of housing at least a hundred people, and trepidation rooted my feet to the ground at the sheer intimidating scale.
The large hollowed out entrance yawned open at the top of the steps, waiting to eat me. I took one hesitant step forwardunderneath the archway. I was cast abruptly into shadow.
The Mistrun had qualified me, but it wasn’t too late to turn away from the long road ahead. Gravity tugged at me, luring me toward the nearest exit.
That’s not gravity.
I exhaled, continuing forward.
There was a large central area open to the elements, several flat benches interspersed throughout. Robust enclosed areas were strewn about, with tall banyan doors veiling their contents from my view.
Some of the participants and organizers from the Mistrun were here, including the woman who had announced the rules.
She had weathered skin and silvering dark hair, and a presence about her like a tree, something that couldn't be budged. I had the insane impulse to try running at her to see if I could get her to stumble even a bit, but I shook off the sensation.
The other organizer though, the rude stranger who I now shared an unwanted Skinscript with, was nowhere to be seen.
Spying Henrik by one of the walls, I wandered over. He straightened his posture as soon as he noticed me.
It was flattering, even if I wasn't interested.
I dropped my bags on the ground next to his, leaning up against the wall with him. My legs still ached from yesterday's Mistrun, and taking the full weight off them helped.
“That’s some rotten luck.” He tipped his chin toward the side of the courtyard. A small group took up the area, and I picked out Yeshar somewhere in the middle. “Now we have to put up with him here, too.”
“He’s never really bothered me,” I lied, curling my bandaged finger into my palm. “Sure, he’s creepy, but he usually keeps to himself.”
Henrik scoffed. “That’s because you don’t really know him.” He tilted his face up toward the ominous clouds cloaking the sky. “It better not rain before we can get inside.”
“It'll probably pour on us because you said that.”
“See that,” he jerked his thumb to a petite redhead who I recognized as the one who had been helped through the rope net obstacle. “I'm placing my bet now that she'll be the first one to wash out this year.”
I scanned the girl, she was small with a stubborn set to her jaw, a riot of freckles and a discerning gaze. “Nah.” Looking around the rest of the courtyard, I spotted the man who had helped pull her through. If I'd learned anything in the Reformatory from Henrik, it was that hindering yourself to help others would multiply the eventual strife sum by a factor of how many people were involved. “He will.”
A loud clanking noise startled me, and I turned to see a metal portcullis descending over the entrance we'd come in through. There was no turning back.
A trumpeting noise boomed. The short girl Henrik had pointed out visibly jumped.
