17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Kya
M y head was spinning, and I felt disoriented once Odarum brought us back to the Temple of the Fallen God. My legs wobbled and I stumbled, holding a hand over my mouth in an attempt to fight back the nausea. I never wanted to travel like that again.
I instantly breathed a sigh of relief as my magic returned, and I could feel the muted vibrations through the soles of my boots.
The aches in my body returned but thankfully, I felt my wounds already healing.
Yet something inside had an unfamiliar burn that I couldn’t place, and it wasn’t diminishing.
I shook it off as a result of the Spirit Travel.
I instantly thought of Njall. I wanted to curse Kleio for taking me before I could save him. I should have known better than to get close to a contestant. To care.
After a moment, my focus came back and I realized we weren’t alone.
Standing near the other side of the temple between the outer pillars was another contestant, a Worthy female with black hair, shaved on one side, and rich, dark skin.
Her hair was a clear indication that she was from Ulrik, and I wondered if it would be her own Lord that she would have to challenge .
Next to her was a wolf. Its back was nearly as high as my shoulders. Covered in pure white fur, it seemed to glow in the dawning sunlight shining from the glass dome above. The wolf’s tail swished, sweeping the marble floor. Her Spirit… companion? Animal?
Now that I thought about it, I didn’t know what they were to us. I didn’t know what to call them other than animal, but that seemed too mortal of a word for Spirits.
I whispered to Odarum, “What are you to me?”
“ Learn to speak through the bond. ”
“Do I have to?” It took a lot of concentration to speak through our minds, and I just didn’t have the energy for it.
He gave me a look. I would have to learn the expressions of Spirit horses because I couldn’t read him.
“ Fine, ” I grumbled through the bond. “ Are you my Spirit animal? Match? Friend? Don’t you have a special name for what you are?”
“ Fylgjur is what we are called.”
My lips pursed, “ Felgej—I can’t even think it let alone say it. Is there a translation? ”
He huffed, “ Guardian of the Worthy .”
The Worthy female and her Spirit Guardian made to leave the temple and I realized that, even though I could see the wolf, I couldn’t feel it through my terbis. I couldn’t feel Odarum either. I found that curious and I saved that bit of information to ask Odarum later.
The female turned her head to look at me and raised her chin in acknowledgment. I returned the gesture. No matter where we came from before, we had both gone through the Trial and were deemed Worthy. A title deserving of respect.
When the doors opened, I could see a glimpse of the Sages lining the top of the steps outside, facing the temple where two other returned contestants stood before them.
Both with Spirit animals. A slight breeze entered the temple and with it, an intoxicating but faint scent of cedar, bergamot, and something else that nearly had my eyes rolling into the back of my head.
I rapidly blinked away the intrusive thoughts.
Odarum bobbed his head and nudged me toward the doors, ruffling his feathers as we exited Odes’s Temple and stepped up with the others.
I stood next to the female with the wolf.
Next to her were two males, one with a Spirit that had a lion’s body and a bird’s head and wings, and the other with a large snake, bigger than I had ever seen, with fangs so long that they rested outside its mouth and past its jaw.
I shuddered. These creatures were the things of nightmares.
One of the male Sages, the same one who spoke upon the dais inside just days ago, stepped forward.
He made a long look up and down the line of the four contestants who had returned and were all in some way battered and beaten.
When his gaze landed on me, his eyes widened and flicked between Odarum and I before turning forward again.
“Returned Worthy.” He bowed his head quickly. “You have completed the Trial of the Gods. We give thanks to—”
“ Where is everyone else? The others who completed the Trial? ” I said to Odarum through the bond, not paying attention to the Sage. I quite liked speaking through my mind without anyone else hearing.
“ They were brought back once the Gods refused them. Plus one other .”
A failed contestant.
“—only three of you will challenge, being that one of you has been chosen by Kleio .” The male Sage, as well as everyone else, looked directly at me, followed by whispered murmurs from the Sages and the Worthy alike.
One Sage in particular, a female with white hair, glared at me with malice in her eyes. I ignored her.
“Worthy Kya,” the male continued. “You have no challenger, as your God has never before chosen. You and your Spirit are free to go.” He turned away from me and addressed the other Worthy.
“As for the rest of you, your challenges will take place immediately. Please make your way to the rings along the edge of the Rip. The sitting Worthy are waiting for you.”
In one swift motion, all of the Sages turned on their heels and made their way down the steps with the Worthy following behind. I hesitantly walked down the marble steps, making to head to my tent and retrieve my horse to go home. Odarum walked beside me.
When I reached the bottom and stepped onto the grass, some of the Sages gathered around me. They crowded and bombarded me with questions I had no answers to.
“What was Kleio like?”
“Did she say why she chose you?”
“Was she magnificent?”
“What gifts did she grant you?”
“Did she speak or is she actually silent?”
The sound of all their voices rose to a dull roar and blended together.
My breathing quickened. I didn’t like the attention.
I didn’t like being in the spotlight when I was so used to staying in the shadows.
Is this what the rest of my life would be like as a Worthy?
Never again invisible to the world as I had grown so accustomed to?
“Enough,” the male Sage that had spoken before commanded. The Sages reluctantly dispersed back with the others up ahead. Once they all left, he offered a tight-lipped smile before turning and joining them. The sorrowful expression on his face left me confused and uneasy.
I released a shaky breath, grateful to be left alone, then continued to my tent.
Their questions bounced in my head. Kleios’ gifts.
I would need to work on discovering what they were and train in order to master them.
I had a feeling I would need all the help I could get to complete the Goddess’s task.
Everyone stopped in their tracks as a female around the side of the temple began to scream.
Running around frantically, her fingers were pulling at the roots of her hair.
Her skin was completely covered in marks, even her face.
It was the mark of a failure of the Trial—one of the Gods’ punishments.
Most of her screaming was incoherent but I could make out one phrase she repeatedly shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“MAKE IT STOP.”
I recognized that voice. It was the Torx female who had strung up that male to the tree. The one who tried to kill Njall and I. I had thought she died.
“ The failure, ” Odarum said beside me, watching the female.
We remained frozen as we watched the torture tear her mind apart. I couldn’t fathom what she was seeing as she hallucinated her worst nightmares and greatest fears—a punishment from the Gods that would last for the rest of her life.
She won’t last long. They never do.
I was right. Unable to bear the torment any longer, the female ran straight for the edge of the Rip and gave her soul back to the Gods.
I looked away just before I felt her step off the edge of the world.
Even though the female was vile, no one deserved that kind of death.
The sentence for failure in something we had no say in competing in in the first place never sat well with me. This was their own form of damnation.
One thing still bothered me that I couldn’t let go. I ran ahead, Odarum staying behind, and approached one of the Sages at the end of the group. I was glad to be able to run again without panting for air or the pain in my leg.
“Sage, if I may have a word,” I said to the pale male. He stopped and turned to face me as he offered a bright, toothy smile.
“Of course! What can I do for you?”
“The other contestants, the ones who returned, was Njall of Oryn one of them?” I needed to know. The last time I saw Njall he was badly injured, and an arrow was headed straight for him before I was taken from the Woltawa Forest.
“I’m afraid that I don’t know their names. The Spirits tell us only of those that are Worthy. We don’t even know who all perished in the Trial.” He placed a hand on my shoulder.
“You mean to tell me that the Sages don’t even bother to take record of who entered the Trial?” I crossed my arms and offered a stern look.
Absurd. Absolutely absurd. Scholars would never be so negligent as to not even document the names of the contestants .
“It does not matter to the Sages who enter the Trial. Only the Worthy who return.” His voice was apologetic.
I took a deep breath. “How many returned?”
His face turned downcast. “Not counting the Worthy, such as yourself, five completed the Trial. Plus the…failure.”
I huffed in disbelief.
Only five out of nineteen .
In the shape he was in, it was unlikely that Njall was one of them.
“And where are the returned now?” There was still a chance, and I’d like to see for myself.
“After their marks were removed, they departed.”