Chapter 61
Chapter Sixty-One
T horne
I step through the doorway and into a maze, tall rambling hedgerows blocking my view and my path.
Immediately, I sense danger. It is nothing I can see. Nothing I can hear. But I do feel it right in the core of my body.
Beneath my feet the earth is hard and solid and above me the sky has changed – full of angry clouds, thunder and lightning crashing between them. It means little light filters down towards me. I look up and behind me, searching for the stand full of spectators but the hedges are too tall – formed from a tangle of brambles and vines.
I look down at my hands and carefully remove the leather gloves. Then I close my eyes and let my shadow magic race from my fingertips, it skids and swerves ahead of me through the maze, round corners and bends, through and past the dead-ends, searching for whatever this maze hides, seeking out the danger. There are several obstacles, both organic and inorganic, that block the path. My magic scorches easily through them all, driving deeper into the heart of the maze, halting when it reaches the center. My magic doesn’t recognize what lies there, but it is neither threat nor reward. I think it is simply the end.
I sigh in annoyance. This was easy. Too damn easy. Not a challenge at all.
I set off at a steady pace. The shadows have cleared a path for me and now all I need to do is follow it.
As I walk, I think of the girl. How hard will she find this? How dangerous?
The traps laid out were nothing for my magic. But for a girl without any? Without even brute strength to aid her?
I don’t like the idea of leaving her to her fate.
It is forbidden to help her. It is against the rules to provide aid to any other student. Do I care?
If I’m caught, I’d be expelled from the trial and stripped of my points.
I stare down at my bare hands and ask myself again, do I care?
I walk around corners, passing over and through the remains of the traps laid out. Most of the students out there won’t make it this far. They definitely won’t make it to the center.
Three more minutes and I’m there. The heart of the maze – a square bordered by low-manicured hedgerows, a fountain spurting water in the center, a dark crystal spinning in the current. My intuition tells me that if I reach out and take it, the trial will be complete.
I call the shadows back to me, feeling them drive back inside me like a thousand knives – sharp, lethal, deadly.
I unhook my gloves from my belt and tug them back onto my hands, the leather feeling stiff and even more confining than it did before. Thunder booms above my head, shaking the fountain and the bushes. I reach forward, through the cold water, and take hold of the crystal in my hand.
“Trial completed,” a voice whispers.
Immediately the ground spins away, and I’m gone.
Gone all but for a sliver of shadow I leave behind.
Something to protect her.