Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
T hea’s last dawn as a shieldbearer bled into the sky quietly, marred by ominous clouds rolling in from the north.
At last, armed with a sword of steel and a sturdy shield, she locked all thoughts of Wilder away and waited with her cohort by the Plains of Orax, as the Guild Master had instructed.
There, she steeled herself against what was to come.
She didn’t like being out in the open like this, vulnerable and unprepared, but she gathered that was how they were meant to feel: on the precipice of panic before the trial even began.
In the distance, she could see the dark seas roiling beyond the scattered islands, and she prayed that whatever chaos loomed there would hold at bay until their test had been completed.
Kipp and Cal shoved their way through the ranks to stand beside her, both trying to catch her eye, but Osiris, joined by King Artos, the masters and commanders, beat a spear on the face of his shield, demanding silence, demanding undivided attention.
‘The initiation test is simple,’ his voice called out across the freezing fields. ‘You are to retrieve a Guardian totem from the Chained Islands.’
Thea felt the tension grow taut around her, felt her own body seize up at the thought. No one had ventured onto the Chained Islands in decades.
Until now , she thought as she turned her focus to the lands just off the coast of Thezmarr.
Whoever had named the islands had been literal, for the Chained Islands were exactly that: a small archipelago that had been physically linked by thick chains.
There were at least seven that Thea could see, towering high above the crashing waves below, their white cliff faces cold and taunting —
‘There are fifty of you in this initiation test and only thirty totems. Those who fail to retrieve a totem and those who fail to return in the allotted time will be dismissed from our fighting ranks. Should those poor bastards wish to remain at Thezmarr, they will be no more than staff: cooks, stablehands, launderers and the like. When it comes to this guild, I will make it plain: there is no room here for anything less than a warrior. If you have not learnt our ways by now, you never will. You have until sundown.’
That was it.
Within seconds, two shieldbearers threw their weapons down on the grass and turned on their heels back to the fortress, apparently deciding then and there that nothing was worth the dangers ahead.
For a moment, the rest of them stood in a daze, letting the reality of the Guild Master’s words sink in, until Esyllt barked, ‘What are you waiting for?’
Thea lurched into action, starting down the hill, following the Bloodwoods towards the sharp drop of the bluffs, two familiar figures falling in step beside her.
‘Thea, please, look at us,’ Kipp said.
‘This is not the time or place,’ she muttered, gripping her sword as the edge of the cliffs came into view, the dark swell of the water surging below.
‘It’s the only time and place,’ Cal countered, resting a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know you heard me. I said things I didn’t mean, some stupid things in the aftermath of what happened.’
‘I’m aware,’ Thea replied, still charging forward, the rest of the shieldbearers jostling alongside them.
‘But I didn’t mean them!’ Cal argued.
‘You did,’ Thea snapped. ‘And to be honest, I don’t blame you. What you went through that night… It was horrific. I saw you there, both of you, strung up to die —’
Cal took both her shoulders and stopped her mid-stride. ‘It wasn’t your fault. I know that now.’
‘I always knew it,’ Kipp offered.
‘I was being a fool. The shock got to me. Please, Thea,’ Cal said, ignoring him. ‘I cannot go into this test without you by my side. The three of us, we are stronger together. We’re a team, a unit of our own, remember?’
Thea did remember. She remembered them working as a single force throughout the mock battle, she remembered how they’d had each other’s backs during the battle amidst the ruins of Delmira.
‘Holy gods,’ someone shouted ahead of them.
Their conversation forgotten, Thea, Cal and Kipp craned their necks to see what was happening.
Thea’s breath whistled between her teeth as she saw it with her own eyes.
There was no bridge to the closest isle of the Chained Islands; no rope; no path down… Only a death drop into the sea and jagged rocks below.
‘Shit…’ Cal murmured from beside her.
If Thea wasn’t so terrified, she would have laughed. ‘Perhaps it’s best we stick together, just for this round…’
Kipp’s mouth was hanging open as he stared at the death-defying leap they were expected to make. ‘I’ll take all the help I can get.’
For a moment, they watched as some of their peers tried to foolishly tackle the jump.
The isle was slightly lower than the cliff upon which they stood, but that gave Thea little comfort.
She didn’t know the first to fall, nor the second, but the third she recognised from the countless meals they’d eaten together.
All three lives now at the mercy of the waves and rocks below.
Thea looked around desperately, anxious that they’d encountered an obstacle of this magnitude before they had truly started. She eyed the bow and quiver at Cal’s back.
‘You could shoot a rope across?’ she ventured. ‘Secure it on the isle, and secure it to one of the trees in the Bloodwoods…? We could climb across that way?’
‘I don’t trust those on either end…’ he said slowly. ‘Not after everything. There are some who would cut the rope and let us fall to our deaths.’
Thea’s heart sank. He was right. Of the three of them, it was possible that Kipp, with his long limbs, could make the jump without aid, but Thea was too short and though Cal was lean and tall, she wasn’t sure it would be enough for him either.
Kipp, however, had not for a moment considered leaving them behind.
‘Remember on the way to Harenth…’ he started, the crease between his brows deep as he looked from the Isle to the Bloodwoods.
‘You’ll have to be more specific, Kristopher ,’ Cal said.
‘Remember when we crossed that river? Using those branches as aids to vault ourselves across?’
Thea groaned. ‘I don’t like where this is going…’
‘Nor do I,’ Kipp admitted. ‘Especially considering I was the one who ended up in the river. But I don’t see another way.
’ He paused, something grabbing his attention before he pointed.
‘Look! There are already some trying the technique you suggested, Thea. And there! A handful who are scaling down the cliffs trying to find a safer path…’
Thea felt sick to the stomach. Was this truly their best option? Some evolution of a stupid game they’d made up on the road to get to a better fishing spot?
Apparently it was. Kipp was already heading into the Bloodwoods.
Her heart in her throat, Thea followed, scouring the forest floor for a decent branch. It had to be strong, but pliable, one that could launch her across.
Gods, was she really going to do this? She had her fate stone; she knew she would not be greeted by Enovius today – but she couldn’t say the same of her friends.
Far sooner than she would have liked, each of them held a long branch in their hands, their weapons firmly secured to their bodies.
‘I can’t watch you go,’ Thea croaked, her heart hammering in her throat.
‘Ladies first then,’ Kipp gave a mock bow, though he looked as terrified as she felt.
‘You’ve got this, Thea,’ Cal said. ‘Think of it as just a really big river.’
‘Thanks,’ she muttered, taking a few steps back and lining herself up with the target on the other side. She secured the satchel Wren had refilled over her shoulder, so it rested against her back.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, pushing aside the fear, pushing aside the urgency and the image of the waves breaking upon the jagged rocks below.
‘I do not die today,’ she muttered to herself, tensing in anticipation. Another minute and she’d lose her nerve. Thea opened her eyes, and gripping her branch in both hands, she sprinted for the edge of the cliff.
Planting her branch in the earth, Althea Nine Lives launched herself up and suddenly, she was soaring through the air —
For the briefest of seconds, time stopped and Thea was weightless above the roaring sea. Then, she felt the kiss of the wind on her back and the icy salt spray of the waves as they broke upon the rocks below.
She braced her whole body as she carved through the wind, the other side of the isle drawing closer and closer as she leapt – as she fell.
Thea released the branch from her grasp. It had served its purpose. Heart still in her throat, she landed deftly on solid ground, gravel crunching comfortingly beneath her boots, and when she looked up, she saw chaos.
She hadn’t realised how many other shieldbearers had actually made it across. Drawing her sword, Thea crouched behind a boulder and motioned to the others, who were still on Thezmarrian soil, to hurry.
The clang of steel and angry shouts sounded from nearby and Thea peered from behind her cover to see that fighting had broken out…
‘There are fifty of you and only thirty totems…’
It appeared that some had felt the call, and those who had not were sabotaging their peers.
Kipp landed a few feet away from her with a grunt, dropping his branch alongside him.
‘Over here.’
He darted towards her, his face horror-stricken at what he, too, now saw.
‘Gods, it’s chaos.’ He crouched beside her, unsheathing his own blade.
But Thea was watching Cal size up the gap between the cliff and the isle on the other side.
‘Come on, Cal…’ she muttered, gripping the hilt of her sword so tightly that her hand ached.
He took a run-up, just as she and Kipp had done, his long legs pounding the grassy earth. Burying his branch in place just shy of the edge, he leapt, suddenly soaring towards them —
The branch snapped.
Cal’s arms and legs flailed, his scream silent as his body pitched through the air.