Page 55 of A Court of Ash and Midnight
The massive fieldat the edge of the cliff is encircled by flag posts, each one flying the house emblem of its champion. House Harkyn is situated on the cliffside, at the apex of the circle.Myhouse. Though I couldn’t feel less connected to it. To the family who stands behind me.
It’s hard to believe I’m related to the cold, stoic figures here with me, who haven’t spoken a word to me this morning. Or to believe that I have some sort of royal blood running through my veins. It doesn’t change who I am. It’s just blood, and I still bleed like anyone else. Cillian, at least, seems tolerable. For a spoiled rich boy. He’s standing to my right, and he looks well rested, unlike me. Of course, he’s not the one who’s about to face off against about three dozen house champions. Not unless I die.
The wind coming off the sea is savage, the kind of wind that sends ships to their doom. All of the flags are snapping like whips, and my cloak is tangling around my ankles. I have my curls tied back with a thin strip of leather, and my heart can’thelp but pound along with the waves below as I watch steel-gray clouds roll swiftly across the sky. The salt air is so strong, it seems like it’s trying to force its way down my throat. I’ll be lucky if I’m not blown off this cliff before the challenge even begins.
I still don’t know what the contest even is. Hand-to-hand combat? Spell casting? Some sort of race? I can’t imagine what else we’re going to do in an empty field. I’m strapped with five daggers, an axe, and a sword at my hip, but if the challenge is magical, I’m completely out of luck. I’m about to find out, apparently, because on the far side of the huge circle of flags, the tournament council members, five of them, begin making their way to the center of the space.
My eyes can’t help but wander around the circle to the other champions. Each champion has their second as well as their heads of house standing with them. All guards remain outside the circle, waiting near the sea of tents. Toryn is off to my left, about a quarter of the way around. Even from a distance, I can feel his gaze on mine, feel the hatred in his eyes. His stance is cocky, as always, and he swings his arms across each other a few times, keeping his muscles warm and loose. He’s wearing deep blue, the color of his house, with a stag emblem emblazoned on his chest, a sword at his side, and what look to be daggers strapped across his chest.
Nearly opposite him, to my right, Daemon is waiting with his family. They are wearing all black, their house emblem a crescent moon and a single star. I’m not sure who the heads of house are, since his parents are dead. Grandparents, like mine? An aunt and uncle? His second is a woman who looks older than him, her blonde hair plaited down her back in a thick braid. They stand still, unmoving. I try to meet Daemon’s eyes, but he stares resolutely ahead.
And then my time for roving eyes is at an end, because the council members reach the center of the circle, and the woman who spoke the night before calls out for all to hear.
“Royal houses of Aureon! The first challenge of the tournament is upon us. It is a simple one: each champion must make their way across the field. The first to obtain the scepter wins the challenge.”
Scepter?My brow wrinkles, but a moment later a collective gasp rolls across the cliffside.
What only moments before had been an empty field is far from empty. The space is now dotted with fire pits, stone walls, shimmering orbs that hang in the air several feet above the ground, banks of ominous looking fog, and giant boulders. In the very center of the field is the largest boulder of them all, rising some thirty feet above the ground. And atop the boulder is a marble pedestal which holds a huge bronze scepter.
For the barest of moments, I wonder if maybe this is something I can survive. I don’t care in the slightest about winning. I just want to keep breathing. But then, as I watch, all the obstacles on the field vanish and reappear in different places. Fire, stone, fog, orbs, all of it. Two of the boulders crash together as they rematerialize practically right on top of one another, and the boom reverberates across the cliffs. My breath leaves my lungs in one big rush. This is asimplechallenge?
The councilwoman’s voice booms across the field like thunder. “Champions—ready yourselves!”
Cillian nods and gives me an encouraging slap on the back. “Don’t die, cousin. I’d like to keep sitting here on the sidelines looking pretty.”
I can’t think of a witty comeback, so I offer a smile that no doubt looks more like a grimace, and I pull one of my daggers, feeling glad I have fingerless leather gloves since my palms are already sweaty. There’s enough adrenaline in my veins for me topush past the usual pain and stiffness radiating throughout my body. Just another of the many things stacked to the sky against me.
Dark goddess, if you get me through this…
An especially violent gale of wind blows in off the ocean, nearly hurling me onto my knees, and a shadow falls over the field. An earth-shattering shriek breaks across the sky, and this time I do cower, along with everyone else around the field, as a huge, black nightmare circles the field and then lands near the tents. Its wings flap several times, sending cyclones of dust across the valley.
It’s then that I notice the lone figure sitting astride the giant monster.
Everyone in the valley prostrates themselves on the ground, a sign of respect for the Queen.
After several long moments, her voice rings out across the field. “Rise, my people. I only came to watch the tournament. I do love a challenge.”
Slowly, I climb back off the ground. I can’t help but stare across the field at Queen Sarielle, sitting on her nightmare almost directly across from me. She looks my age, not centuries old. Her silver-lavender hair hangs like silk down her back, and her golden eyes glow in the dim gloom of morning. I can’t tell for sure from this distance, but I’d swear she was looking at me, too.
“Let the tournament begin!” she calls, and the nightmare roars again, shaking the entire valley.
My concentration is completely ruined, but I don’t have the luxury of thinking further on my strategy, because champions from the houses on each side of me, two on the right and one on the left, charge toward me with weapons drawn. They’re all fae, tall and lithe and covered in shining armor, and they’ve apparently formed an alliance with one goal: ending me.
I can’t fight one fae, let alone three, so I do the only thing I can do. I run my ass off, out into the middle of the field. My heart races in my chest, my breath coming in short gasps, my lungs instantly burning like fire. I can hear footsteps behind me, but I don’t look back. If I can lose them in the maze of obstacles, maybe I’ll have a fighting chance. An arrow whistles past my head, grazing my ear. Warm blood wells up and it stings like hell, but I don’t falter.
One of the boulders looms ahead, standing next to one of the glowing orbs. The orb shimmers a silvery color like a mirror, though I don’t see anything reflected in it, and I can’t see through it, either. I’m a fast runner, but I’m not faster than fae. I’m not sure that I’manythingcompared to a fae. The footsteps are right behind me now, so close I can feel the heat from my pursuer’s body, and a growl as he closes in…
There’s a blink, and everything on the field shifts. One of the fire pits is abruptly in front of me. It’s got to be six feet across, and the flames roar about the same in height, licking the morning sky. I’m too close to stop myself. I’m going to run right into it. But I’d rather take my chances with the fire over the fae.
I leap at the last moment, hearing a scream from the fae behind me as they pull up short. One of them crashes into it, I can hear the snap of the logs and awhooshas something catches fire. My jump isn’t going to carry me high enough to clear the flames, but I tuck my legs up, hoping I clear the logs. Heat blazes around me and the world becomes a haze of golden-red. Sparks surround me, but I don’t close my eyes. I’m not afraid of the fire, even though I should be, after everything that’s happened.
My body slams into the ground on the other side of the bonfire. I roll several times, which helps to put out the flames that caught on my cloak, though not entirely. Undoing the clasp, I climb to my feet and hurl the thing to the ground. Then I look around to get my bearings for a moment. The fae that had beenbehind me are trying to help their friend who fell in the fire. Up ahead, champions from all around the perimeter are making their way inward across the field. There are a couple to my right, and the ones on the left are further off. Everyone else seems fixated on getting the scepter.
A flash, and the field shifts again. I have only a half-second warning, some sound, some instinct making me jump back as one of the stone walls appears where I’d been standing a moment before. It’s only about four feet tall, but still big enough to crush me. Someone across the field in my line of sight isn’t so lucky… one of the boulders crashes down right on top of him, only a single splayed limb left visible. A shudder of horror moves over me, but I shake my head and keep moving.
I need to distance myself from the fae behind me, who no doubt are going to be after me again any moment. But I don’t want to get too close to the boulder in the center of the field, where everyone is going to be congregating in a mad scramble to obtain the scepter. After a moment’s hesitation, I head right, because I also want to steer well clear of Toryn. That’s when I notice that the banks of fog, that had before been dotted here and there across the field, are now forming a perimeter around the edges of the circle near the flag poles and slowly spreading inward. I also know that the fog isn’t just fog… everything it touches vanishes completely from view, and it carries a noxious odor.
Not only are the champions now trapped within the magical obstacle course, but we have no choice but to head for the center. So much for my plan.
