Page 95 of Once the Skies Fade

Korben’s features twitched as he silently fumed. Before he could make the mistake of arguing with the general, Graham spoke up with his own question.

“Are we all going in at the same time or individually?”

“For the sake of time, you will all go in at once. While this is not a race and points are determined solely on the weight of your stone, we will not wait past sundown. If you are not back by then, we will assume you did not survive.”

“So when do we start?” I asked, my nerves thrumming with the same excitement that hit before a battle.

Isa looked at each of us in turn, as if she were committing our faces to memory should we not survive, and then stepped aside as one of her guards stepped up beside her holding several daggers.

“You will be issuedonesheathed blade and gauntlet. Once you’ve received yours, you’re free to begin.” She swung her gaze to Korben, a warning bite entering her tone. “The trial does not officially begin until you hit the water. Attack a fellow competitor before then, and you will be disqualified.”

Seb was first to rush forward, request a weapon, and take off running ahead of us. Kicking off his boots and leaving them in the grass several meters from the lake’s edge, he stripped down to his skivvies—his clothes discarded in a hapless pile—strapped the gauntlet to his wrist, and dove into the water before anyone else had even moved. All five of us watched as he swam out further. When he was about a quarter of the way across, he turned and waved back to us.

Cupping his hands to his mouth he yelled something that sounded like “What are you waiting for?”

We all seemed to hold our collective breath, waiting to see if one of those mysterious dangers might claim him, but he was soon turning away from us, taking a deep breath, and diving below the surface. Korben nudged Beck with his elbow, nodding to the guard. Once the smaller male had received his dagger, they went on toward the lake. Graham followed close behind them. The three of them each left a pile of garments behind on the beach, and, with blades in place, dove into the water.

I stole a look at Phillip who was still as pale as before, his head shaking slowly from side to side. Reaching forward, I accepted my weapon from the guard and tossed my head in Phillip’s direction. “I’ll take his to him, if that’s okay.”

The guard looked to Isa, who offered a quick nod.

Tapping Phillip’s arm with the sheathed blade, I tried—and failed—to get his attention. He didn’t seem to notice me until I snapped my fingers in his face and held the dagger in his line of sight. Even then his stare remained blank.

“You okay?” I asked. “You can swim, right?”

Phillip blinked a few times, as if just now realizing where he was. “Huh? What? Oh, yeah. I can swim.”

“Then what’s got you so nervous?”

“The Vestiliaga.”

“The what?” I asked, wondering how many secrets Arenysen had effectively kept from my scouts and me.

Phillip seemed to be choking on his own breaths, and then with wide eyes he whispered, “The monster.”

I peered up at Isa, but she didn’t appear to be listening, having fixed her gaze on the water where the other three swam away from the shore.

“What is it?” I asked, more curious than anything else. Most of these lake monsters were pure myth meant to con travelers out of coin, but Phillip had survived the forest, so seeing him so spooked was off-putting.

“They say it has a snake’s body with the head of a dragon. And it’s massive.”

“You haven’t seen it before?”

Shaking his head, he gawked at me. “Not personally, but my cousin used to live in a nearby village. He saw it.”

I tapped a finger to my pursed lips before asking, “And how much had he had to drink?”

Phillip’s face fell a bit. “Go ahead and make your jokes. No one ever believed him.”

“Okay, okay. Well, you could always leave the competition,” I said.

The male’s vision glazed over again, his mouth forming the word “no” before he found his voice and explained. “The Assembly would kill me if I quit.”

I froze, briefly remembering how the original five Arenysen competitors had all been forced to enter. At the time I had assumed it had been their villages as a whole who had made them step up. Had it really been the Assembly members?

“Well, then,” I said and started to reach for his left arm. “Which is your knife hand?” I asked. When he lifted his right hand, I snatched his left and promptly bound the gauntlet above his wrist, sliding the blade out and back in to test it slid well enough. “You’ve got nothing to lose, right? So come on. I’ll go with you.”

Phillip’s eyes locked on mine, focusing on me for the first time this morning. “Why would you do that? Why are you helping me?”

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