Chapter 24
Huntyr
Once again, we’re standing in the arena.
The air today is misty with a heavy fog and overwhelming humidity, leaving my skin damp and uncomfortable.
I’m wearing my typical training clothes, leather pants tucked into heavy-soled boots and a tight cotton tunic covered by a firm corseted leather vest. Blades are strapped to nearly every inch of me, two on my waistband, two on my thighs, and a sword across my back.
Thus far, the setup for the second trial is much the same as the first. Derian and Caldren are watching, along with all the warriors from the fortress.
Although, there might be more common folk present for this trial than before.
Taric, Rhen, and Parker are ahead of us.
Roland stands at their side, looking nervously between the sky and Derian.
Wait, is he responsible for the shitty weather?
I glance at the stands and catch his eye. His face is a mask of unhappiness, his brow furrowed and lips pinched as he stands, leaning over the banister.
A gust of wind suddenly blows against me, brushing my braid back over my shoulder before fading. Though it lingers against the back of my neck just a bit too long to be natural. As he meets my eyes, he bows his head in acknowledgement.
“Let’s begin,” Roland announces, handing a heavy satchel to Parker. “Today you will face the shadow maze. The task is rather simple. All you have to do is make it out alive.”
Alexandria shifts awkwardly next to me. “I doubt it will be that easy.”
That’s pretty much a guarantee.
Parker begins pulling crystal balls from the satchel, handing one to each of us. As he places it into my waiting palm, a glowing light emerges from the center.
“These orbs will be your only source of light within the maze,” Roland explains. “They are controlled by your thoughts. If you want it brighter, simply think about it. If you want it dimmer, try the same.”
Doing as instructed, I think the simple phrase no light and the glow from the orb extinguishes in my hand.
“That’s so creepy,” Alexandria mutters.
I nod my agreement.
“Why would we want to dim them?” Mara, the metal-wielder, asks.
Taric's grin can only be described as mischievous. “Because the brighter the light you use, the faster the magic in the orb runs out.”
He leaves the rest unsaid, but the message is pretty clear. Good luck finding your way out of the maze without any light.
Great. Dark maze, filled with enemies, and a light that has a timer on it. I roll out my neck, loosening my muscles.
“Are you ready to begin?” Roland asks us.
Alexandria sighs heavily. “Do we have a choice?”
No, no we do not.
“Any advice?” I ask Kaia. She sits at the edges of the arena, behind Roland. She isn’t allowed to help me through the trial, but there was no way she was allowing anyone to force her to stay back at the fortress.
She tilts her head towards me. “Do not fall. Do not injure yourself. Kill anyone who attempts to harm you.”
Sage words.
I can’t help myself. I look up one last time towards Derian before the ground shifts under my feet, before I feel like I’m falling weightlessly as walls of earth climb around me.
Magic slides around me just as it had for the first trial, and I brace myself against it.
Clenching my fists at my side, I breathe in deeply, and surrender to the darkness that begins clouding the corners of my vision.
I'm alone. I sense that fact far before I send a dim light into the orb in my hand and glance around. Whatever magic brought us into this maze also managed to scatter us throughout it.
Around me, the shrubs rise nearly twelve feet high, surrounding the space to the left, right, and behind me, making the only path possible that which comes before me.
And I have a good suspicion why.
They want to lead us in a direction where we might stumble upon each other.
After all, if the only way through the maze is to use our lights to make our way out of the darkness, then turning the light all the way up would help us move through as fast as possible.
But if I were to turn my light all the way up, it would eventually run out.
And what was a girl to do if her light ran out?
Take another from someone else.
We aren’t just fighting the maze, we’re fighting each other.
Before I can even come to terms with that, I feel something wrap around my ankle, pointed and biting. My sword is in my hand in an instant, slicing through the vine that had launched itself out of the shrub wall—just as another comes soaring through the air towards my throat.
Shit.
I duck, feeling the sudden urge to send light to my orb so I can see where the attacks are coming from, but I stop myself from doing so. Instead, I run, focusing instead on the sounds and changes in the air to alert me to danger.
I neither want to lose my light or alert anyone to my location.
I sprint, feet falling lightly on the ground as I weave, duck, and leap over the vines that continue snapping out at me, each one faster than the last. I can practically sense their hunger for me.
When the path finally splinters, I hesitate for only a second before rushing into the shadowy darkness to my left.
The air stills.
The vines stop attacking.
I nearly choke on my sigh of relief, searching left and right for the next danger… when I hear a voice.
“Come on now, Mortal, just give me your orb and I’ll make it quick.”
The light in my hand goes out completely as I sink backwards into the shadows, becoming a part of the darkness as easily as I always have.
It takes a quick moment for my eyes to adjust, to seek out the spark of light down the path, about two hundred yards away. My steps are light and silent as I creep carefully towards it, to whoever holds it.
Mara is standing still, her back towards me, with three blades suspended in the air around her.
Jeseina, another Mortal, cowers close by, trying helplessly to climb the shrub wall that blocks her from escape.
I can’t see for sure, but based on the small hisses of pain I hear, I imagine those shrubs are cutting into her hands.
“Please,” Jeseina whines.
“Please what?” Mara laughs darkly. “You knew it would come to this.”
She’s going to kill her. Jeseina has no hope of fighting back, and Mara is going to send those blades slicing through her. I only have a few moments to move. I palm the dagger on my hip, pulling it slowly, breathing energy into my muscles before I—
“Stop!” Kaia hisses in my mind.
I startle slightly at the sound of her, pausing my movements. “She doesn’t deserve this.”
There’s a pause. A pause that feels like an eternity.
“None of you do, but she will die. Do not risk your own life by attempting to stop the inevitable.”
Her declaration pounds down on me, cutting off my airway until I swallow down the sudden lump in my throat. Kaia’s right. Even if I do rush out to help Jeseina, to save her, Mara will just turn those weapons on me. As a metal wielder, she’ll turn my own weapons against me.
And if I manage to kill Mara? It won’t actually save the girl.
This Conclave is a fight to the death, and there is only one winner. Nothing I can do will save Jeseina now.
I feel Mara’s haunting laughter in my bones as she steps forward.
No. I may not be able to save her life, but I can at least save her from this torment.
My fingers tighten around my dagger again. I move—
The blades hiss as they fly through the air, punching into Jeseina’s back in a split second before I can take even a single step towards them. She falls, sputtering, to the ground, and I feel the crash of her knees against the ground deep in my stomach.
Mara stalks forward, tutting her tongue at the girl who lies bleeding out on the ground at her feet. She doesn’t even bother to ease her suffering before she picks up Jeseina’s orb and prowls off into the darkness.
I’m frozen to my spot, not daring to move until I’m sure Mara’s gone, until I can no longer hear her boots smacking boldly against the ground.
I wait until the only sounds that remain are my own pounding heartbeat and Jeseina’s labored breaths.
Then I rush to Jeseina.
“Huntyr?” She pants. Her head turns toward me just as I send a dim spark into my orb, just enough to illuminate our faces. Just enough that the poor girl doesn’t have to die in the dark. “She took my light.”
“I know,” I smooth down her auburn hair, keeping my voice light and calming. “That’s okay, you don’t need it.”
She’s fallen forward onto her stomach, and now her wounds leak blood onto the ground, coating my fingertips in a familiar red sheen. Based on how labored her breathing is becoming, this won’t take much longer.
“It hurts,” she whispers. “Can you help me?”
Of course it does.
Disgust rolls through me as I glance at the positioning of the blades still pressing into her back. Mara isn’t stupid, she has to have known what she was doing by striking these areas. These were fatal blows to be sure, but none that would cause immediate death.
Mara wanted the poor girl to suffer.
A cold stillness washes over me, the kind of icy focus that narrows in right before a fight, before a kill. Because now I don’t just need to win this Conclave in order to save Tyla and earn revenge for my father.
No, now there’s another tally on the list of reasons why the Fae need to pay for their injustices.
This Mortal noblewoman, who now bleeds out under my touch, had just wanted to find a handsome suitor.
She is only here because she happened to be wearing a dress that looked like mine on the one night I’d accidentally let myself be seen.
This was on me.
And if I can’t save her, then I can at least avenge her.
“I can help you,” I promise her. “Close your eyes.”
She obeys.
“Thank you for—”
I jam my dagger into the thick vein of her neck, without hesitation, relieving her from what would have been a drawn-out, agonizing death, even as I feel the mark of her murder ingrain itself as another splotch of darkness inside of me.
“I will help you get your revenge,” I whisper to her as she releases the heavy exhale of death. “I vow that to you.”
When I rise, blood dripping from my hands, it’s not Lady Lachlan who lifts the orb and sends brightness rushing into it without fear.
No, it’s the Huntress who now marches on.