Chapter 13
“Why did you kill her, Pet?”
“She was cracking, Lady. She would have broken before they came. You ordered me to be ready to command all of Nyth when the enemy arrived. She would have been a weakness.”
“Nyxthos is furious.”
“Good.”
~Conversations between Lysara and the Prince of Bones
Fiona
I’m standing in the Great Hall again amongst the other competitors, the champions, and a great number of people in court attire who obviously aren’t competing in the trials. There’s drinking and laughing, and yet, I just want to breathe for a moment.
I’m safe. For now. I survived the first trial, and I look around the room trying to decide how many other competitors made it. More people appear, most of whom look harried and tired.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I spin, pulling away from the touch as I reach for my dagger. But it’s Darian’s hand suspended in mid-air, a grin on his face, rather than an enemy. Behind him are Ainslee and Rhion, both of whom are smiling widely.
“You made it,” Darian says as he drops his hand.
“See, it wasn’t too tough. I knew you’d make it.
Though, you may want to find a towel to wipe off some of that…
” He runs his finger across my cheek and brings it to his nose.
“Phew, that’s disgusting. You ran into skryths on your Shadow Road?
That’s a tough break. Not too bad if there’s only one, but I bet there were many more than that. Is that where all the blood came from?”
Blood? I look down at my hands and see them covered in it. Half my cloak is a darker shade of black, especially where it’s torn. “No, the skryth didn’t really hurt me. It was the duskthorns.”
Darian frowns and shrugs. “Different Roads for each competitor, I guess.” Then I really get a look at him.
He barely looks any different from when I left him at the party earlier this evening.
It’s almost as if he didn’t go through that trial, and instead had a quick jaunt through the castle.
Am I really at that much of a disadvantage here that Darian can get through a trial that nearly killed me without breaking a sweat?
“It wouldn’t make sense for everyone to have the same Shadow Road,” Ainslee says with a smile. “But it doesn’t matter now. One trial down and three more before we can all go home.”
That’s when I notice the number of people who are looking at me. No one expected a human to survive the Shadow Road, and now I won’t be able to hide myself nearly as easily any longer.
“Can we talk somewhere a little more private?” I ask with a glance around the growing number of competitors, some who look like me, and many that look closer to Darian. How many of these people were alive when the war began? How many of them have lived far longer than that?
Rhion nods and leads the way into a shadowed alcove of the Great Hall.
I hurriedly whisper, “I knew the trials would be hard to survive, but how am I supposed to survive the time in between? The people here will want to kill me. I can’t protect myself at all times.
No one’s going to allow me to sleep in the Great Hall. ”
Darian smiles. “You’re rooming with me from now on. On that note, how’d you survive after you left the party?”
I purse my lips and glance around me to make sure there’s no one nearby. In as quiet a whisper as I can manage, I say, “Azric sealed my door with stone.”
All their eyes show shock at that comment. “He helped you?” Ainslee whispers just as quietly.
I nod to them, and she grabs me by the arm immediately.
“We’re going to find you and Darian a room where you can be safe.
Then we’re going to have a long talk. He doesn’t help anyone.
Why he’d help you is beyond me, but if he is, there’s a reason for it, and it’s certainly not because he’s just bored. ”
I let her drag me through passageways far from the Great Hall. When we’re standing beside a strangely empty wall, she raises her hand. Light flows from it like the perfect lantern, illuminating the wall as if the sun were shining on it with none of the glare you’d get from a candle or torch.
What she’s looking for is obvious, yet she doesn’t seem to see it. I reach out my hand to the brick that’s just a little unlike the others, and I press it sideways. It slides into a recess behind the one beside it, revealing a latch.
She cocks her head toward me and frowns, but then she shakes her head as if she rethought asking a question.
Her finger flips the latch, and this empty section of wall spins as if a metal rod ran through the center.
It’s a secret room right off the hallway.
When my father took me to help him find god-touched relics, they were almost always hidden in some secret room, so this isn’t exactly a new thing for me.
Instinctively, I let my mind quiet to see if there are any hidden god-touched relics here, but there aren’t any hums coming from within.
Ainslee walks into the room, which is covered in cobwebs and dust, an excellent sign in my experience.
It means no one goes into it to clean it, and we’ll be relatively safe.
The room itself is simple, a fifteen-by-fifteen foot closet, that’s made of simple streaked slate like the rest of the castle.
There are no adornments; no rugs or furnishings.
There are no beds, and there certainly isn’t a bath.
It’s going to be a long, very primitive two months if this is where we’re going to spend them.
The thought of beds makes me remember that the Tortoise is going to come and bite me in the ass any moment now. What am I supposed to tell them? Am I supposed to reveal my secrets?
“Ah, home sweet home,” Darian says as he looks around the room. “A bit of paint and some rugs, and it’ll be as good as my chambers in Selithar.”
Ainslee grins at her brother. “It’ll be a little… uncivilized, but it’ll be safe, and that’s what matters. We’ll bring you some beds through a mirror soon.”
“I assume you’ll bring a few servants, too. I’m the brother of a champion, and I certainly can’t be expected to clean cobwebs.”
Rhion doesn’t hide his laughter before he pushes the secret door shut. “Yes, you’ll get some servants. They’ll be here in about three months. Sorry, there’s a lot of bureaucracy to get through to requisition servants all the way from Selithar. Then there’s travel time…”
“Typical. Well, I’m sure Fi’s cleaned cobwebs and swept a few floors. I have complete confidence that she’ll manage in the place of servants.”
I chuckle and shake my head, but Ainslee doesn’t let go of the reason she dragged us all away from the party that easily.
“Tell me about what happened with Azric. This is important. I’ve known Azric since the day he was born, and after Lysara took him as her champion the day he turned eighteen, he has never helped a single person.
Why is he helping you, and what does he have to gain from it? ”
I look at Rhion and Darian, both of whom are entirely focused on me. “Well, he says I’m important because I’m not a part of the Pact. He says that if I killed someone, that they’ll stay dead.”
Ainslee’s eyes sharpen at that, and Darian shakes his head. “No, that’s not possible. Is it?” He looks at his sister. “The only Godforged that can die permanently are the champions, right?”
“I…” Ainslee says slowly. “I don’t know. It’s possible that Azric’s right. If he is, then that’d mean that the last person anyone wants to win this is Fiona. Other than us, of course.”
“What about me?” Rhion says. “I wasn’t part of the Pact. The House of Steel didn’t bow before any of the gods.”
“No, but you were an ally from the beginning, and your expected impact on the war was obvious. My mother wrapped the House of Steel into the Pact, I’m sure.
Not even she wanted to wrap random humans into it.
No one foresaw Sylvantia would hold back the armies of the gods.
How many people know that the people of Sylvantia can keep the Godforged from Returning?
I doubt very many since it happens so rarely. ”
She turns back to me. “If he’s trying to help you win, then he wants you to be a danger to everyone. Why? Did he say anything else?”
My conversation with the Prince of Bones runs through my head. “He said we needed to prepare for the real war and stop this game.” I feel exhaustion creeping into me. I need to find a place to sleep very soon.
Rhion’s expression becomes thoughtful. “There have been whispers,” he says slowly.
“Azric has tried to convince some of the other champions to talk to their gods about ending the war. I heard Echo talk about how she’d laughed him off when he’d brought the idea up to her.
I doubt she was the first since she was widely known as one of the most dominant champions, second only to Azric in battle prowess. ”
Ainslee shakes her head. “But why? What’s he planning to get out of this if Fiona wins?”
“How many people does a champion typically kill in a battle? And what would happen if they stayed dead?” I ask.
“Hundreds,” Rhion says softly, a look of shock on his face. “Hundreds of Godforged die each time a champion takes to the field, especially one as powerful as Nyxthos’s. No god or champion would allow their army to go to war with them.”
It’s obvious now that we’re putting words to it. “Azric wants to convince the gods to stop the war. That would be a very big stumbling block to continuing, wouldn’t it?”
“Someone could always try to kill you,” Rhion responds. “If you died, then the war would continue on as planned.”
I turn to him. “And if Azric backed me, if he truly allied with me. Not with Nyxthos, but with me. How many champions would attempt to kill me in battle? How many assassins would risk their lives then?”
The room’s silent as the realization hits us all at the same time. I could end the war by winning this.
“Then we make sure you win,” Ainslee says.
“Even more than before, you have to win. I’ve fought this war for eighty years.
It needs to end. For the first time since it began, we have a chance to do it.
” She looks from me to Darian, and finally to Rhion.
“That’s my order. For the next two months, we’ll do everything we can to make sure that Fiona wins. ”
She looks at Darian then. “And if you can, during the trials, I need you to help her. Remember, it’s not about survival anymore. It’s about making sure that when this is done, her eyes burn black.”
He nods to her. “Yes,” he says respectfully, without an ounce of sarcasm or laughter in his voice.
She looks around the room at all of us. “The plan remains the same, though. You stay here. We’ll get food and drink for you, and if you need to leave the room, you’ll always be escorted.
I’m sorry, Fiona, but for the next two months, your safety and training are the most important things to every human and Lesser Fae in Nyth. ”
I take a deep breath. I’ve lived my life knowing what I did was rarely in my own hands, but my father’s words keep echoing in my mind. Don’t forget that you can’t trust any of them.
While I don’t know why they’d lie to me if they’re trying to stop the war that’s ravaged Nyth for eighty years, my father had a reason to give me that advice. As Ainslee said, no one could have foreseen that a human kingdom could stand against them all.
But he did. It would be idiocy to ignore his warning, even if I don’t know why or how they’d be lying to me.
For now, at least, I’ll remain cautious. I’ll remember the laws I’ve lived by and trust only Priests. Ainslee, Rhion, and Darian may be allies, but that doesn’t mean they’re Priests.
I just wish my father was here to help me navigate this new world.
That’s when the side-effects of the Tortoise hit me, and I have to lay down on the hard stone.
I should have said something sooner, should have prepared in some way.
Now it’s too late. I know that everyone is staring at me even as my eyelids refuse to open, and I quickly say, “Infusion side-effects. Don’t worry. ”
Then sleep overtakes me.