Page 13 of Ironhold, Trial Three

Malira must see me look his way, because she turns at the last minute, arresting her charge and bringing her sword up to block. It means that she stops the blade aimed at her throat, but she still cries out as she suffers a nasty wound on her side.

Malira falls back, looking from me to Vesper, as if trying to decide if she can take both of us. She clearly decides that she can’t, because she stands and runs from the chamber, leaving the two of us alone.

“Are you all right?” Vesper asks.

I nod. “Thank you for saving me. I owe you my life.”

“Well, you can repay me by helping me to get out of here,” Vesper says. “I figure we stand a better chance of getting through the maze if we work together.”

That sounds good to me. I have just seen the danger of trying to progress alone when there are other gladiators here who are my enemies. There are so few of us in the Champions Trial. How is it that most of them seem to be interested in hurting me?

“I can find the way,” I tell Vesper. “If you stick with me, we might be able to overcome any challenges in our way.”

He gestures for me to lead the way, so I do, picking one of the tunnels out of this chamber and testing the ground ahead of me again with my spear.

“You're sure this is the way?” Vesper asks.

“I can see through the eyes of one of the birds above,” I explain. “My powers are more limited than they were, but I can still do that, and I can sense when beasts are close.”

It's a combination that means we can make progress, avoiding the most dangerous spots while continuing through the maze. I hear the sounds of battle again somewhere behind us. Through the eyes of the bird, I can see Vex taking a more direct route, using his knives to slice through a spider the size of a small horse.

He has the advantage in that respect. I must move around all the animals within the maze because I cannot control them. I must find a route that does not involve so much combat.

It means winding our way deeper and deeper into the maze, then finding a route out again. The way to the exit seems clear, although I know better than to trust that, still testing the ground, still trying to make sure we're not about to fall into any traps.

Ahead, there is another large chamber, and the lack of obvious threats within it makes me cautious. Perhaps there is a trap there that I do not see, but as far as I can tell, there are only the broken bases of several pillars, casting shadows on the ground from the sun above. There is a passage beyond the chamber that I know will lead to the exit. Given how far we've come, there is no other route that makes sense. We must go this way.

“What are we waiting for?” Vesper asks.

“I'm not sure. Something just feels… wrong about this.”

“We need to go this way, don't we?" he says. He might not have my bird's eye view of the maze, but at this point, there isn't any other way we can go.

“Yes,” I admit.

“Then waiting here won’t do us any good,” Vesper says. He starts to lead the way, moving forward into the chamber, so that I must choose either to stand there alone or follow him. I do the latter, keeping my spear ready just in case.

All my caution is for nothing, though, when we reach the center of the room and I suddenly feel the presence of almost a dozen beasts around us. A familiarkindof beast: shadow cats.

A dozen of them slink from the shadows of the broken pillars, looking half-starved, snarling at us and ready to attack. They are not pouncing yet, but I get the feeling that's only because they're waiting for one of us to move, one of us to give them an opening in which to strike.

I also know that the pause won’t last forever. Sooner or later, their hunger will overcome their need to wait for the perfect moment. The instant one of them attacks, I know that all of them will do so.

Vesper looks around with obvious fear at having walked into such a dangerous situation, but he looks over at me as if he expects me to solve it easily.

“You can persuade them to leave us alone, can't you?” he says.

I wish it were that easy. I wish I still had the power to do something like that. As it is, controlling one bird is pushing me to my limits.

I hold up my arm, showing him the dampener. “This is restricting me too much.”

“Then I will cut it off you,” Vesper offers.

It's the same offer Alaric made, and I can't accept it for the same reasons.

“If you do that I will be punished, even executed, afterwards. It's one thing that Naia cut it from me without me knowing shewas going to, but for someone to do it when I've asked them to would just be open defiance.”

“Then we will do this the other way,” Vesper says.

---