Chapter 26 – On the Line
The first thing I noticed was light cascading down from above me, warm and natural, and then I stumbled as the platform jostled, settling into its final resting place.
Around me, the teal shield shimmered and crackled, colour fading away to only a pale skin laid atop the scene before me.
I took in my surroundings with wide eyes.
I'd watched enough compilation clips to know that the arena changed its design each competition, although sand was always a prominent feature for important cultural reasons.
This year, the ground looked to be a washed-out gray with massive boulders strewn around.
Dense bushes were clustered everywhere that I could see, forming walls and barriers all around me; in the distance at the top of a ridge, spindly silver trees stretched upwards in a tangled mass of limbs, leafless and dead.
I shifted a little, squinting at the closest bush.
The branches were thick with giant thorns, each as long as my thumb and bristling along every inch of bark, some hidden behind spikes of silvery foliage.
The land wasn't flat, either, curving up into dunes and even rising into a sharp embankment to the north, which was littered with loose rocks and shards of shale that looked potentially ankle-breaking.
I whirled, taking it in and working to orient myself.
The walls stretched off in the distance, vast plinths of orange sandstone that soared upwards.
And while I couldn't see the crowd beyond, I could hear the screaming – frenzied, a crescendo growing louder and louder like the destructive and unstoppable roar of a tidal wave.
It thrummed inside the hollow space of my chest, my guts clenching with a feeling of wrong, like the first time I'd been on a shuttle that punched its way into weightlessness.
I looked for the north wall and found it.
I stared upwards, marking where I thought the mid-way point would be.
Overhead, clusters of silver cameras moved like shoals of fish, darting and flowing in the air above me and zipping off into the distance.
Far above, massive screens drifted through the air, showing the live audience dozens of angles of the contestants on the sands.
I couldn't make out much from the ground, but one rotated slightly and I saw Andiri's form, her narrow black eyes, her bared teeth, her heaving chest, her haloed crest flicking and rippling behind her.
Fear prickled at the back of my neck. She was coming for me, I was sure of it. I just needed to keep my distance and find Araxis before she caught up.
My job was simple: run fast and hard, and stay the fuck out of her way.
"Alright," I said under my breath, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
I'd be faster without my swords in hand, so I rolled my shoulders to loosen them in case I needed a quick draw.
I jogged on the spot, and then braced myself, ready to launch into a sprint toward that distant point on the far wall.
Overhead, a massive chime sounded, reverberating through the air.
The branches of the bushes shivered with the sound.
"You've got this, Sashen. You're fast. You're smart.
You've got a great ass, and that's going to be a major distraction for anyone coming up from behind.
" I added that part mostly for Silver Sea's benefit and because being flippant made me feel a bit less like I was going to projectile vomit all over the sands the minute my feet stepped off the platform.
I'd been fine with dying, mostly. At least that was what I told myself. But Araxis had given me a sliver of hope – and now fear was a living, violent beast inside of me, clawing against every scrap of sinew and meat.
The chime sounded again. More silver leaves quivered on the nearest bush.
One more, and it would be time to go. I flicked my eyes upwards again, trying to catch anything on the screens overhead, but they were just a blur of colour and vague shapes. The audience continued its roar, and I willed myself to let that chorus fade into white noise.
Five.
Here I was. The path I'd been walking, or stumbling along, had led me here.
Four.
Odds were that I was well and truly fucked. But at least I'd made the most of the weeks since Seraphim had decided to throw their weight around.
Three.
I had told him I'd try. I was going to try.
Two.
Because what if it worked? What if he did have a way to fix this? What if we got to ride off into the sunset together, way beyond where Seraphim could ever reach?
One.
What if everything worked out in the way I hadn't even let myself fully want, because the wanting hurt too much? What if I got that? What if we did?
So I was going to fucking try.
The chimes boomed overhead, the energy field around my platform fizzled out, and I launched myself forward.
The ground was soft underfoot, softer than I expected, so I stumbled when my feet planted in the gray sand before righting myself and taking off toward the wall.
The arena was massive – I'd known the scale from the map – but it was different being on the ground.
The bushes around me loomed tall, gathered in sinister clusters that formed jagged walls.
I dodged around a boulder, quickly reviewing the other starting points in my head.
Andiri was the closest, maybe only a few minutes away. If it was a straight shot, I might get to the wall in fifteen or twenty minutes. I had a head start and a destination, and I was faster than her. Andiri would have to find me to come at me.
I just really hoped I didn't run into anyone else on my mad dash to the meeting point.
And I really fucking hoped I was as fast as Araxis thought I was.
At least it was hot: that would play to my favour, and I was pretty sure Andiri hadn't been working on her tolerance in the hot training room like Araxis had.
A line of bushes cut off the straight approach to the wall, so I had to swerve around them, sprinting over loose rocks as I launched myself up a slope. Getting higher ground would be good: I could map the best route to our rendezvous point and make sure I didn't have anyone on my tail.
I skidded over a loose patch of gravel, slamming down to one knee. A distant jolt of pain stabbed up my leg. I shook it off before surging back up again and taking off toward another boulder. Had to get some cover.
Around me, the crowd screamed, suddenly shrill. Like one massive, living organism that had just found prey and was yelping and chittering with excitement.
I slid behind a boulder, pressing my back to its hot surface, and looked up at the screens overhead. I couldn't make anything out except a violent spray of dark – black or maybe blue.
Who bled like that? I let myself catch my breath while I ran through my mental catalogue. Mar. Brin.
What colour did abaya bleed? How did I not know that?
Araxis was fine. He had to be fine.
I licked my lips, my skin already parched from the air of the arena – so much drier than the air in the rest of the complex.
Heat shimmered from the gray sands. The rock against my back was uncomfortably warm.
These conditions would be hell for species who liked it colder, like abaya.
But Araxis would be okay; he'd prepared for everything.
And maybe Andiri would be erratic, clumsy.
I could sweat all over her if she came close.
I tried to tune out the sound of the crowd screaming and listen instead to what was around me. If I could hear stones skittering down the slope, I'd know someone was coming – but it was too loud, even down here.
My heart pounded hard in my chest, so hard that I wondered if it might actually give out. Fear prickled at the back of my neck, sweat gathering in the small of my back under my armour. I twisted my arm so that I could run my fingers down the seam of my sword's sheath, feeling the quill there.
Survive. Get to Araxis. Yield. Listen to whatever he had in mind.
I blinked stinging sweat from my eyes, shifting a little so I could look around the boulder to the slope below, careful to tuck myself in the shadow as best as I could. Evasion was key, Araxis had said, so I took my time, going still and quiet and scanning the scene below.
It was so fucking hard to see anything: gray sand, gray boulders, and silver trees painted everything in monochrome and made it hard for my eye to differentiate what I was seeing. And Andiri was gray too, because of course she was.
I caught a tiny flicker of movement around the edge of one thorny bush. Just there, a branch bobbed, and I squinted. As I stared, I saw a shadow moving, low to the ground. I watched, perfectly still, willing my pulse to slow.
Andiri, maybe. Definitely someone in black armour.
I leaned back, just slightly, so that I was out of line of sight, and took in the slope ahead of me.
Whoever was below was cutting their way west. I needed to go north, but the embankment was rocky and open, except for a few boulders, and any step I took would send a shower of stones down the slope.
What did that mean? I was about a third of the way up this ridge, so it wasn't like I could quietly slip back down to the base and look for another way up.
Maybe I'd wait it out. I'd have to wait it out. Evasion, Araxis had said. That meant being patient.
I reached over my shoulder and eased one sword out, and I immediately felt better with the familiar weight of the hilt in my hand. Okay. I could do this. I could wait. I was good at waiting, I told myself, the lie feeling implausible even as I willed it to be true.
I didn't let myself slouch or sink down, instead resting against the boulder and doing my very best to listen for any skittering stones. Somewhere in the distance, I heard a shrill scream – high and frantic – that made my stomach twist.
I licked my lips again. Fuck, my throat was dry. But it was only an hour. I could do an hour without water.