The memory fades away as I get down the steps in front of the pathway towards the Decidere. I never did see her again. I don’t know if she’s the king’s favourite anymore, but I hope so. She was the closest thing to an actual female friend that I ever had before Catherine. I find Catherine in the crowd, after leaving Daegan, and stand at her side. There are considerably fewer of us here for the second test, and I try not to think about what happened to the others. I turn around when someone touches my shoulder, surprised to see Calix there. He grins at me, and at his side are the twin guards from the Moon Dynasty. “Good luck today. I hope we will ride our dragons through the ground tunnels when this is over.”
One of the twins elbows him. “Introduce us, or we just look like we’re guarding you.”
I smile as Calix winks at me. “Maybe I need protection from—”
“Calix,” one of them terrifyingly hisses.
Calix rightfully looks concerned and turns to me. “This is Estrid and Astrid, twins and guards of the Moon Dynasty.”
“That’s our brother over there.” She points at the guy that pushed me over the bridge.
I narrow my eyes at his back. “I can’t say we’re friends.”
Astrid winces, while the other one smiles. Calix just shakes his head at them both. “They were coming over here to wish you good luck, and somehow they managed to freak you out. That sums up the twins.” His eyes drift over my shoulder, and I follow them just for a second to see him staring at Etena. She’s at Daegan’s side, and they’re talking quietly between each other. She looks over like she can sense his stare, and for a second, they just seem to look at each other like there isn’t anyone else here before she sharply turns away. He doesn’t stop staring for a few seconds before he looks down at me. “Good luck today.”
Stupidly, my eyes are searching in the Moon Dynasty group for their king. “You too. Where’s Ziven?”
Calix smirks. “Our king is not here. He had something he had to do, but he sent me.” I nod once and Calix lowers his voice. “Don’t die, I want to see you beat Ziven in training in the future for all the times he has been a dick.”
I chuckle as he leaves, surprised he just called his king a dick. I mean, he is, but I wasn’t expecting him to say it. He goes back over to the rest of the ones that I barely know the names of, yet I’ve sat around and eaten with them for dinner. If I survive this, maybe Ziven won’t lock me in a room for the entire three days next time. I might actually get to speak to some of them. Catherine stays at my side, her shoulder nearly touching mine. “You seem to have made friends in the Moon Dynasty.”
“I don’t know if friends is a good title for it yet.” I smile at her. “Good luck today. I know you’ll do great.”
“So will you,” she answers, and I notice her hands shaking. I don’t know how I’m not as scared as she is. She follows my gaze, and I quickly avert my eyes. “I don’t know how I got through the first Decidere. I’m terrible at training. No matter how much I do, I just never seem to lose my curves. The only thing I’m good at is a bow and arrow. Considering my last one didn’t have those in there, I barely got through.” She gasps. “Shit, I shouldn’t have spoken about it. I probably just cursed myself for the next round.”
“You’re okay, Cath. You didn’t tell me anything.”
“Oh, my deities, you just gave me a nickname. Does that mean we are best friends now?” She sounds so genuine and excited, even as the title best friend sinks my heart a little. I can’t give that title to anyone else. It belonged to my best friend who saved my life.
Thankfully, Daegan walks in front of the doors, a light show flashing above our heads to gain attention. “There’s no speech this time. You do not need any more words to prepare you. May the dragons and deities judge you well.”
He looks at me for a fraction of a second, a tic in his jaw pulsing, and the look in his eyes makes me think he wants to stop me from going in there, but he steps aside. The doors click open, and everyone rushes forward like soldiers heading to the front lines. I stay at Catherine’s side, knowing I have to help her. “Come with me.”
She frowns my way, but she nods once. I get to the door first, and I glance back through the chaos to make sure Catherine is right behind me. Dragons’ roars echo, sensing us in their space, and I don’t linger. My shoes clap on the ground as I run to the left, taking Catherine with me straight towards the steps that lie away from the crowd. There are two dragons hovering, flying in the air above the pillars across the bridge, and they don’t waste time sending cascades of fire down on the group rushing across the bridge. Catherine looks at me in surprise as we start running down the steps, down and down, straight to the massive lake. Breathless, we both pause. “How did you know this was here?”
“Dumb luck,” I breathlessly mutter back, resting my hands on my knees. My breath halts in the back of my throat when I see the dragon. At the edge of the pillars, there’s a dragon curled up. It’s asleep, its stone body crackling with every breath, its giant wings spread out in front of the pillars.
Catherine is still, and I don’t need to ask if she has seen it. “We need to get past it.”
I gulp. “Without waking it up might be a good idea.” Although it’s pointless to say that out loud, as we both know it. I see the red light in the distance, deep in the pillars, calling to me. Catherine throws her head that way, too. But her gaze drifts further to the left. She must see something, too. “Out of curiosity, what colour do you see?”
She frowns. “Yellow, like sunlight. Everyone sees yellow.” I don’t dare tell her that there isn’t an ounce of yellow in mine, that it’s pure, blazing red. I’m silent as we manage to make our way past the dragon, across the cracked wing, and just as we get in the pillars, I hear it. I turn around and see the dragon climbing to its feet, opening its massive mouth, and fire spreads out of it in thick flames. I scream, jumping behind a pillar just as it blazes past me, rows of it dancing between the stone. Flames burn the sides of my boots, my arm and leg, and it takes everything in me not to scream. I take a second to breathe through the pain before I run. I charge down the pillars, feeling the heat at my back, seeing Catherine running too, not far from me. Our eyes meet for a second, and I nod at her. Don’t die.
I throw myself at the red light of the pillar, barely seeing the dragon symbol before I fall straight through it and land face-first in a bed of roses. I pick up a petal off my face as I roll over, thorns cutting into the backs of my arms and the burns on my legs.
I wince as I stand and look around me. There’s nothing but empty fields as far as I can see, and in front of me is a path. Not a path. It’s too big to be a path, but more like a racing track for horses. Rows of stripes line it for miles, and in the far distance, there’s a cliff face. A single cliff of ragged stone reaching far up into the sky, and on the edge of it is a wooden shack that’s on fire. A scream echoes to me as the front wall of the shack falls away straight towards the end of the track.
My blood goes still when I see where the scream came from. There’s a little girl in the room. I can only see her red hair. She’s curled around herself as she screams for help repeatedly. I don’t know how I’m going to get up there, or how I’m really going to help her when I get there, but I take off without a second thought. I only get so far before I come across a big empty stretch of water, and inside, there are creatures swimming around fast, their powerful bodies slithering through the water. Every so often I catch a flash of teeth, sharp enough to make me hesitate. “Deities, dragons, whoever designed this is mad!”
I don’t know if anyone is listening to me. Turning back, I see the bed of roses and the pillar I came in on waiting for me. I can go back. This is a test of choice, and if I go back, I will have the one dragon mark to show for it. The girl screams again, and her scream is familiarly terrified. I’ve been that scared before, screamed like that more than once. I can’t leave her, even if this might not be real…it could be.
Think, Story. If I go in that water, whatever these creatures are will very likely rip me apart. I search around the edge of the water to see that the one side has stones. Circular stones, rows of them, but they’re quite far apart. Each jump is going to be difficult. If I fall… I can’t fall.
I glance at the girl screaming. This is the test. If I fail it, that girl could die, and I’m not a coward. She could be real for all I know. I don’t know who she is, but she could be. With every bit of strength I’ve got left, I force my legs to move. I get to the first stone and jump onto it. The creatures come closer, sensing me, wrapping tightly around the stones, waiting.
I ignore them, will myself to pretend they don’t exist, and jump to the next one. I’m absolutely terrified as I go from one to the other, and just as I’m second to the last, my foot slips. My legs fall straight into the water as I cling to the stone, digging my nails into the grooves. A scream wrenches out of my throat as one of them bites into my thigh, tearing at my skin with its long teeth. I pull myself up on the ledge, screaming as I yank the silky creature off me. It kind of looks like an eel but with razor-sharp teeth. I throw it back in the water and wince at the state of my leg. There’s a huge bite mark there, four puncture holes, deep and bleeding everywhere. It is oozing some yellow kind of fluid out of it—poison, maybe. I need to move quickly before the poison sets in. Everything is spinning as I manage to stand, trying not to put too much weight on my bad leg. One stone left. Just two jumps and I’m done for now.
The girl’s screams make my heart beat faster and give me enough courage to jump. I stumble on the stone, barely catching myself before I fall straight off the other side. Before I can talk myself out of it, I run and jump off the stone to the other side, landing harshly on my knees. A jolt of pain radiates through my leg, and the entire world spins.
Once the spinning has stopped, I dizzily stand and begin making my way down the path. The path is sloped up and down hills, and I drag my leg as I try to run. Going down them is quite easy; up is another thing altogether. I’m sweating from head to toe as I get to another clearing and pause. There’s nothing but an empty gap between two cliff walls, and three pieces of long rope hanging between it. I glance at the sky. “You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t like heights!”
The girl is still shouting, screaming for help, and I glance up to see there’s a metal ladder to the room at the top. If I can climb the stone wall, I can get to her and then get back down. It’ll be safe. This can’t stop me. I grab the rope. I can do this. Just jump across. Just jump across.
For a moment, I can’t make my feet move through the pounding fear. I can’t manage to get them to move at all as my hands freeze on the rope. What would Kyrell tell me to do? He would laugh, tell me to fucking jump and live a little. He would be right, of course. Eventually, I tell myself I’ve got to do it, I’ve got to move. I pull the rope back as far as I can before I run and jump. My hands slip down the rope as my feet take off, and I scream all the way across as I barely manage to hold on to it before I slam onto the other side. Breathlessly, I climb to my feet.
“I did it!” I whisper to myself, pride burning through my chest. It only lasts a second as the world spins and dark spots prick my vision. I’m running out of time. Climbing is not exactly my forte, but I can manage to do it. Still, I stop at the bottom of the cliff and look up. Give me strength, deities. Show me how to do this. The rocks are jagged enough that I easily find bits to hold onto as I pull myself up, higher and higher, and I don’t dare let myself look down. Rocks cut into my trousers as I climb, using the small ledges to get higher.
Sweat is dripping off me, down my face, my cheeks and back, by the time I get halfway. The ladder is swaying as I look up, or maybe it’s my vision. Either way, I feel terrible. I can’t stop. I’m breathing heavily by the time I manage to pull myself to the ladder and climb onto the bottom step, clinging to the bars. Keep going. I have to keep going before I pass out. The ladder is metal, and the higher I go up, the warmer the bars turn until they are uncomfortably hot to touch. It doesn’t burn my hands, but it won’t be long before it does. I manage to climb onto the top step to look inside the wooden room, at the little girl, who looks up at me. I pause.
She looks just like I did as a child. Long red hair, black tips, and a white dress that is now covered in ash. “You came for me. You came for me when it’s terrifying to do so?”
“Yes,” I breathe, climbing into the room. How is this possible? “I came for you. Come on, we need to go.”
“I’m scared.” Her cry echoes to me as I carefully walk across the burning planks of flooring.
“It’s okay to be scared, just…you have to walk through it and know there is something better on the other side. A room that isn’t burning down, and it is standing on its own,” I whisper, offering her my hand. She looks right into my eyes with eyes that mirror my own before she stands up and takes my hand. The second her hand touches mine, she fades away into nothing, and the flames burn high into the surrounding sky, blocking the ladder off. I fall to my knees, everything swaying and blurring within seconds.
I don’t remember passing out, but I must have, because the next thing I’m aware of is water flooding my lungs. I cough, lifting my head out of the water and pushing on the rocks under my feet to stand in it. I’m not alone. I see someone watching me from the steps.
