Page 29 of Trial of Thorns
Shadow-vryns use magic similar to my own. In my homeland, they live and breed in the caves between us and the human world. A distant cousin of mine made a name for himself by taming one.
The fae over the middle of the cavern seem to have noticed their predicament as the wire shudders, the red dot on the other end glow growing brighter.
The top wire goes slack with a pop, and the fae in the middle scream and scramble for balance. One of the fae falls into the pit with a horrifying scream.
“She’s melting it!” one of them yells. The red glow begins anew—the wire beneath their feet is next.
They can’t make it. Even if they sprinted, they wouldn’t make it to the other side before the rickety wire beneath them fell to the depths, taking them with it. They’re as good as dead. Unless...
There is only one way to make it across now, and if I’m going to do it, I may as well do it while I have the chance to take one or two of the helpless fae with me.
I sprint across the wire in front of me, getting as far as I can before the wire goes slack, the connection of the other end loosened. A chorus of screams echo through the canyon and I dive forward, past the careering fae and my form turns to shadow. I jerk, using the shadow-vryns magic against them, and I jolt forward until I’m on the back of the closest one.
I don’t exactly have time to make friends with the creature, but darkness will calm it, and if it’s calm I might be able to influence its movements with my magic.
It roars in anger, but my shadows cover its eyes, little stars twinkling soothingly. “It’s okay,” I whisper to it, and the creature’s muscles still. I pull my magic around the skin under its wing. I have just enough control to pitch the creature into a dive, towards the fae falling through black smoke.
I reach for a young fae and the dwarf as they free fall. I use my magic to influence my new wyvern pet, pulling his wings back to induce a quick dive, and using it to steer beneath the falling fae. The dwarf sees, eyes wide but stare determined and grips my shoulder the moment I’m in reach.
I groan as his fingers dig into the injured muscle, the pain potion not strong enough for this. I hold strong as he grips me and attempts to hold onto the smaller boy by the forearm, but he slips through his grasp and drops into the smoke below.
The dwarfish fae cries out but immediately pulls himself the rest of the way onto the creature, arms around my waist.
The wyverns around us gawk confused but quickly begin to turn on us, so I cover us both in darkness. This confuses them enough to allow me to push my pet’s wings up and down to rise above the cavern. We soar seamlessly through the air, not bothered by anyone. Even my wyvern seems content to be controlled by my soothing black magic.
“We should jump just before the edge,” my nameless friend shouts over the wind. “The creature can’t fly past the barrier.”
He points over my shoulder, and sure enough, there’s a slight glistening to the edge of the far cliff going high into the sky. That’s why the wyverns turned to new prey the moment the others reached the edge.
“We don’t have enough time!” The challenge ends in minutes. Ticking away. I don’t think we can run the last two miles and still make it. “Do you think we can go over it?” Maybe I could fly high enough.
“No!” he shouts. “Or they’d all be doing that.”
Shit. My heart pounds as we approach the barrier, I slow the creature so we have more time to think. “Go down!” he shouts in my ear. “Ram the cliff side as hard as you can manage and I’ll do the rest.”
Well, shit. If you say so, dude. I don’t have another plan so I follow his instructions. I flow extra soothing magic into my shadow-vyrn and I steer it straight down, taking every ounce of momentum I can obtain. I might die, I realize, as I crash the creature into the cliff side. We’ll be splattered onto the stone with nothing left to identify us.
But the stones on the cliff shudder, vibrating violently until a hole forms right where I’m aiming. No, not a hole. A tunnel.
I steer the shadow-vyrn straight into the dwarf made tunnel until blackness surrounds us. “You’ll have to tell me where to go from here!” I shout. Because all I can see is black, I have no idea where we’re going.
“Just fly straight,” he yells, annoyance clear in his tone. I consider being offended by his anger, but I realize he’s doing some big magic at the moment so he probably needs to concentrate.
We fly underground, a sheet of pitch-black shadows surrounding us. The wyvern’s wings graze stone, and he squawks in fear. “A little further!” the dwarf shouts.
I can hear the count down, dim and echoing. The crowd cheers above us—they have no idea we’re just below them.
“Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight.”
“Go up!” he shouts. I obey, as stones fall around us, slamming into our skin. Dammit, now I could use some armor! The creature roars as a sharp boulder smashes into its shoulders and head, but he continues to move. Sunlight blasts us as we emerge from the ground only feet from the finish line arch.
“Ten. Nine.”
The crowd roars so loud at our appearance I can no longer hear the count. We’re moments away from losing.
I whip my magic against my creature’s wings, and he swerves right, straight through the arches.
“Two. One!”
