Chapter 16
Sixteen
“Is it even hotter than usual?” Brycon complained as they filed up the narrow staircase to the balcony where Falcrest had first shown them the task they’d fail at for their Veiled test.
“Shut up and climb.” Surprisingly, it was Thal, who had put on a grumpy face that morning and kept it through breakfast and warmups before they headed up to their potential death.
Lory had asked him if something was wrong, to which Thal had responded with a shrug and a sideways glance that was so unlike his usually sunny character.
“Are you worried about the parcours?” Lory gave it another try, falling behind so she walked next to Thal, and squeezing his arm.
Again, Thal shrugged. “No.”
In front of them, Aiden and Jarek made the last turn before the stairs opened onto the balcony.
“Did anything happen?” she tried again.
“Not yet.” Thal pulled his arm from her grasp and slipped around the corner on silent feet.
No one was paying attention to their conversation, the general murmurs and whispers too loud for anyone to pick up a word unless they were specifically listening.
“So, something will happen? Or are you just shitting your pants because, this time, we’ll be graded?” Keeping her tone casual was the only thing Lory could think of to do. It had helped whenever Evven dove into his worries.
Thal threw her another look. “Something will happen if you don’t shut up.” But at least he was smiling again, even when it didn’t reach his eyes.
“What? Are you going to throw me off a roof? Get in line.” With a wink, she put her arm around Thal’s waist, squeezing her friend to her side in a tight hug that would have wiped her twin brother’s concerns away and made him forgive any lies and missteps leading to another sparse meal.
Thal’s responding chuckle warmed her chest long enough to forget they were actually climbing to perform a test that would either earn them respect or a broken neck.
“Nobody has actually tried to kill you since Ricca,” he pointed out, sliding his own arm around her shoulder as they reached the top of the stairs.
“Maybe they’re worried you’ll try to kiss them. ”
She would have never admitted his statement stung, so she grinned the way she’d learned to when the rest of her wanted to burn from pain or shame or despair, and her tone was almost credible when she told him, “Maybe I should start with Ricca herself. Then she’ll stay away from me for good.”
The only person she’d like to kiss again was Khayrivven, but he’d disappeared for the past three days without an explanation, and Anees had resumed Veiled training as if nothing ever happened.
Whether he’d told her what occurred in the stone chamber that second time or not was a question Lory didn’t dare ask because there was no way it could lead to anything good.
That left Lory with no choice but to ignore the dreams starring Falcrest’s eyes and the searing sensation of his hand on her skin, his lips on hers, and his sculpted body against hers.
Lory swallowed.
If he avoided her, that had to be fine with her, as long as he didn’t rat her out and deliver her to the butcher’s block all over again.
But a small piece of her was worried about him.
What if he ran into trouble for not coming forward right away?
What if he wasn’t just hiding from her but was locked up in the dungeons or had lost his head?
“We’ll be fine.” Thal encouraged her with a squeeze of her shoulders, probably misreading her sudden pensiveness for worry they wouldn’t survive the test.
Lory let him.
The sun stood high in the light-blue sky, an unforgiving ball of fire, ready to bid them to cross Eroth’s Veil as they stepped out onto the already crowded balcony. Not a wisp of a cloud graced the horizon, and the limestone walls radiated the heat they’d stored all morning.
Great—they’d not only need to watch their steps but also worry about burning the skin off their hands when touching the wrong pieces of the walls.
“This will be the first real challenge you’ll face, ashlings.
” Falcrest’s voice almost startled her out of her skin as it boomed from the other end of the long, slim rectangle attached to the side of the pyramid, where the rest of the students blocked him from view, but relief quickly followed now that she knew he was all right, and Lory couldn’t help the flutter in her stomach at the memory of how different he could sound when he murmured beside her ear.
“You have survived almost a month at Ashthorn Ward. Good for you, but you’re still untested.
You’ve had weeks to improve your Veiled skills.
Stealth and stalking are what will help you survive when you move up in your training and go on missions.
Since we don’t believe in sending students who aren’t ready on missions, we are testing you here. ”
He paused, probably for effect. Since Lory couldn’t see even a sliver of him, it was hard to tell if he was trying to intimidate them or merely waiting for natural fear to settle in.
Fear triggers magic.
A deep breath settled her stomach enough that she didn’t need Thal’s support, but the ashling’s arm tightened around her shoulders as if he were afraid to fall off a cliff.
“It’s all right, Thal. We’ll be all right.”
Thal nodded, but the expression on his face told her he was barely hearing her.
Something was going on with him, and had it not been for the now-silent crowd of students, she would have gladly sat down with him and tried to talk him through it, but Captain Falcrest had climbed onto the banister of the balcony and was stalking directly for them, eyes on the point where Thal’s hand covered her shoulder, then skipping to where her hand appeared around the edge of his waist. Behind Falcrest’s shoulder, the hilt of his saber glinted in the sun, and at his hip, his sword dangled at his belt.
He didn’t deign to look her in the eye, nor did he give any other sign they shared more than one secret.
How he managed to keep his expression aloof when Lory’s skin was tingling as if he had his hands all over her was beyond her, but she did her best to mimic that cold distance in his eyes that promised death to anyone who dared step out of line.
“Failing this test means death.” Falcrest’s eyes flashed dangerously as he balanced past them. “You won’t be able to hold on to anyone. Out there, it’s only you and whatever hand- and footholds you find. No one will catch you if you fall.”
They turned to watch him continue all the way to the end of the balcony, where General Ycken and Nefetari Brunn were waiting for him.
She hadn’t noticed them join the group, but apparently, the Master of Steel and the Master of Veils wanted to see for themselves how many blue ashlings would be left when the day was over, when the sun kissed the day goodbye.
Brunn inclined her head at the captain, who instantly leaped off the banister, vanishing from sight.
Lory didn’t mean to hold her breath, but her stomach tightened, and her free hand curled into a fist as she waited for the impact of flesh and bones on stone.
Silence was all that followed, the wind playing with her hair and the croak of birds of prey waiting for a piece of meat at the end of the test the only interruptions until, from a roof so far away, Lory could only make out his tall, powerful form, but not his features, Falcrest shouted, “Good luck, ashlings.”
How he’d gotten there so fast, Lory could only attribute to magic.
“You’ve heard the Veiled Hand, ashlings.
” Nefetari Brunn took Falcrest’s place on the banister, her grizzled hair and lined face at odds with her smooth movements as she stalked to the other end of the balcony, where Falcrest had started out.
“Pick any path from here to Captain Falcrest’s location.
I don’t care how you get there. You pass if you don’t fall.
And if you do fall”—she braced her hands on her hips, looking out at the cluster of roofs and deadly gaps that paved the way toward the man Lory was afraid of yet couldn’t wait to face—“well, you know the drill.”
“You die,” Jarek quoted Falcrest’s favorite phrase, and Lory’s stomach tightened yet again.
She’d die for her magic if she didn’t fall during this test. Only a few more days until the Knowledge exam, where hiding her magic would be equally a death sentence as presenting the magic she’d manifested.
Flame-born. She’d tried not to think about it too much over the past days for fear someone would pick it from her brain, but there was no denying it. She was Flame-born.
The fact that no one was bolting from the balcony to save themselves told Lory everyone who’d made it to this test was serious about making it at Ashthorn.
None of them had missed the second bell at breakfast or gotten themselves killed during combat training, Veiled practice, or through their magic.
Even Aiden, who hadn’t chosen this life, just like her, seemed determined to survive.
“You go in alphabetical order,” Brunn barked, and before Lory could wonder if this was the day she’d lose another person she’d allowed into her heart, the Master of Veils called Aiden Bellmont, and he climbed onto the banister and disappeared over the edge.
Lory’s fingers dug into Thal’s side as she waited for the punishing thud that would mean he didn’t make the leap, but a soft scrape and the rhythmical thuds of Aiden’s feet on the roof below echoed from the walls, and she allowed herself a breath as Frost took a running leap for the next roof and landed safely on the gravel.
“He’ll be on the other end in no time,” Thal whispered while the rest of the group was watching with bated breath, some of them because they couldn’t wait to see the criminal fall to his death, Lory was sure.
Three more roofs and a narrow bridge, not wider than a hand’s span. Aiden could do it, despite the heat and the walls he needed to climb to make it across the buildings.