Page 22 of A Sea of Secrets
I scrunched my brow at Ace as he faced me. He angled his head towards a small group of Potentials attempting to make their way across. Ace may have been an asshole most of the time, but he was smart. A different kind of smart to mine, but a valuable one all the same. And whilst I may not have been comfortable using others in experiments, he made a good point.
The four of us weren’t the only ones waiting as three other Potentials took the most obvious paths that posed the least risk. It didn’t take long before the floor began to rumble as if with an earthquake, sending rocks and Potentials bouncing and fumbling around from the turbulence. A large fissure appeared straight down the middle of the room with a loud crack.
“If the foundation of the floor gives way, we’ll be crushed,” I said, eyeing a path away from the Potentials who were doing anything possible to avoid the crevice. “This is the Trial of Mind, meaning this is a puzzle we must solve. I suggest we get a better view of the room from higher up.”
“No brute strengthening our way through this and relying on chance,” Kayden agreed, following my lead towards a cluster of dead trees.
“Correct,” I replied. Blocking out the pain in my leg, I navigated the obstacles in the ballroom, climbing over rocks as I went.
“This is bogus. There has to be a way to get out,” Zane grumbled from behind me. “Those trees look like they’re blocking us from going forward. If only we had a river or lake. Better yet, an ocean.”
“Firstly, any body of water is one hundred per cent not what we want right now. Secondly, we need to assess our best path forward,” I replied, going around a cluster of tarnished forks and knives. Their handles had been buried with their points facing the sky mural. “There’s already been lightning and an earthquake.”
“So?”
“So, we appear to be experiencing weather extremes,” I replied, remembering images and videos from history classes. “I’d hazard a guess this is how Old Earth looked when humanity left, at least to some degree. And if that’s the case, we can expect weather events much like what was experienced there. If we get somewhere high, we will be able to find the safest way forward if there is another such event.”
We clambered over the broken furniture. My injured leg refused to be ignored, yet I pushed on. Getting through the trial was the quickest way for me to get to a healer, so forward wasmy only option. We moved around deep holes in the floorboards, following the trees that towered over the ballroom.
Another thunderous rumble echoed through the ballroom. It was so loud it felt like my bones rattled with it. The air became thick from a sudden humidity, and I glanced back at the others to see Zane’s eyes go wide.
Shit.
“Run!” he shouted.
I didn’t hesitate, bolting towards the thickest cluster of trees. My panic overrode the pain, pushing me on and giving me the drive I needed to save myself.
Once I reached the trees, I wasted no time and started climbing. The others followed as rain began to fall. No, not fall,plummetto the ground. The water flowed in a deluge, soaking us with hard pelts, as if trying to force us back to the ground where it was already starting to flood. My hands were slick and my body trembled as I clenched my jaw and forced myself up against the storm’s fury.
I made it to one of the larger branches, lying flat and wrapping my arms around it. The sound of rushing water filled my ears as I peered through the thick rainfall to see how the other Potentials were faring. It was no use. The curtain of rain blocked out the entire world. I braced myself, holding on tight to keep myself from falling.
Fuck this trial. Fuck the Overseer and Masters. And fuck House Jupiter, the hooded guy, the Drakes and anyone else involved in all the terrible shit in the world. If it weren’t for all of them, I’d be safe and sound back home in the Verdant Plateau, not drenched in a tree.
As quick as it had begun, the rain stopped, but I didn’t dare move. I watched as the flood rushed in one direction. Muddy brown water stole the evidence of the storm, tearing away all that was broken and dragging with it three Potentials towardsthe fissure that had appeared earlier in the floorboards. Their bodies were pulled into the dark abyss.
“First an earthquake, then Monsoon rain,” I said, sitting up. My clothing stuck to my skin, every inch of me soaked. “Definitely weather extremes.”
“Yeah, yeah, forecast boy,” Kayden hissed, looking like a drenched cat stuck up a tree. His red hair was plastered to his head as he hugged the trunk. “But what’s the puzzle?”
I assessed the layout of the room. “There! I can see a metal door at the far end of the room. We just need to arrive in one piece.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Zane said with a salute.
“Check her out,” Ace called from another tree. I looked over and saw him standing on a branch, one hand on the limb above him, the other pointing to where a drenched woman was scaling the walls. “She’ll be toast in a minute.”
The young woman clung to the vines, which had already etched multiple scratches into her arms and back. Red trickled from the cuts down her limbs, leaving a blood trail behind her. She moved slowly and was by far the closest to the exit, but she appeared to be faring better than the rest of us. Yet Ace was right; there was a flaw in her plan. The vines had led her up the wall to the ceiling, moving in a diagonal line. At about the halfway point of the room, she would reach the top and wouldn’t be able to progress any further.
The woman seemed to realise the flaw in her plan at the same time I did and looked around before grabbing hold of a curtain rail. Torn fabric hung from the metal rod, stained from age and blackened from old lightning strikes. It held at first, but as soon as she shifted her weight from the vines to the rusted bar it snapped from the wall, tearing the bracket from the wall completely.
“Another one down,” Ace said as she fell, hitting the wet ground hard, the rail landing atop her. She lay still beneath the curtain rod, her limbs at irregular angles. Blood blossomed out from the back of her head where it mixed with the dirty flood water. “How many more to go now?”
“Too few,” I whispered. Slowly, I climbed down from my tree, the wound blazing with pain in the process, as if angry that I had forgotten about it for the moment. Blood spilled from it through Kayden’s makeshift bandage. I didn’t want to think about the yellow that seeped into the fabric as well. I needed to finish this trial because whatever the slug-thing had infected my leg with, its teeth couldn’t be good. Bacteria would be slow in debilitating me. My body would have more time to fight it. But if it was venom, I would discover its symptoms much faster than I’d like. Either way, all this running and filth wouldn’t be good for it. My foot slipped as I neared the bottom, mud splashing me as I gingerly dropped to the ground.
“You alright there, Kaydey Cat?” Ace shouted up to Kayden, who remained wrapped around a branch high above us. “Do I need to call the fire brigade?”
“Kitty Kayden,” Zane chuckled, helping me to my feet, a mischievous grin spread across his face.
“Fuck off,” Kayden barked, face reddening.
