First Year (16 page)

I stared at him. “You must have had a dark childhood if you mistrusted anyone who was ever kind to you.”

Darren tilted his head and gave me a wicked smile. “You’d rather I tell you what you want to hear?” The prince took a step closer, effectively closing the gap between us. “What do you want me to tell you, Ryiah?” His hand was still on the doorknob, leaving me pressed against the wooden frame as he leaned closer, his face only inches from my own.

My breath caught in my throat. I could feel tingling from the top of my spine to the tips of my toes, and my skin was unnaturally warm. My heart rate slowed. I felt light-headed, thrown off by the dark, bottomless eyes boring into my own.

What are you doing, Ryiah?
Some part of me, conscious of the disaster that was about to unfold, pleaded to return to sanity. But all my senses were in chaos.

I didn’t like how Darren was able to turn my body against me. He had stolen reason and made me no better than a swooning convent girl whose only purpose was to marry and waste her life away bearing spoiled palace brats. Like the one in front of me now.

“You should never trust a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Darren said faintly. His eyes burned, scalding my flesh as if he had torched me with flame. “Because the only thing the wolf will ever want to do is break you.” He reached down to catch a strand of my hair that had somehow fallen loose, twirling it with his finger and watching me the way a hunter regarded its prey. “Is that what you want me to do?” he murmured. “Do you want me to break you?”

Yes.

Wait…

What was wrong with me?
I snapped free of the tempered fantasy to glare up at the manipulative young man in front of me. “I don’t know what lines you feed the ladies at court,” I told him angrily, “but they won’t work on me.”

He laughed softly. “Are you sure?”

I opened my mouth to protest, and Darren stepped aside. “Rest assured you are not one of my conquests, Ryiah.”

I choked indignantly. “I would never!”

The non-heir raised a brow. “You have a long road ahead of you, my dear. If you want to join the victor’s circle, you are going to have to stop taking offense to everything I say.”

“If I want to join your ‘victor’s circle?’” I shot him an incredulous look.

The dark-haired prince opened the door and waved me forward. “I wasn’t lying when I said you might have potential.”

“Well, as long as it’s been decided,” I said sarcastically.

“That,” he said slowly, “is a decision I have yet to make.”

I woke the next morning feeling as if I had downed an entire bottle of my parents’ precious wine stores. My head spun, my limbs ached, and my dreams had been alarming to say the least.

If you want to join the victor’s circle.
 

Frustrated, I heaved my pillow at the wall.
I don’t want or need your help, you self-inflated peacock.
 

Do you want me to break you?
 

I felt bile rise in my throat as I recalled my weak-willed reaction during the prince’s attempts to disarm me.

No. I want you to leave me alone.
I tore off the bed sheets and hastily pulled on my breeches and tunic.

“Bad dream?” Ella inquired from the bunk beside. She looked groggy as well, and I could tell from the way she stretched, flinchingly, that I wasn’t the only one who would be suffering during today’s lessons.

“You have no idea.”

“Well, it’s a new day,” she remarked. “I’m sure another session with Piers and Cedric will leave your nightmare far behind.”

Not far enough though,
I grumbled.

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the last day of Combat’s orientation, no one had resigned, and Piers came into practice with a raging fervor.

“I told Barclae I’d cut this flock by five!” he roared. “And yet you have all remained to spite me… Apparently your lot has a backbone. I intend to break it.
No one
leaves my class today until I have five.”

I exchanged nervous glances with Alex and Ella. We had all known this was coming. Piers had been growing increasingly upset as the week progressed, and today would be the accumulation of his wrath.

We were not mistaken.

Piers had teamed up with Master Cedric and his team of assisting mages to create the four most intensive hours of our time thus far. Instead of the traditional obstacle run around the stadium we were led out to the mountainous terrain just east of the Academy and the Western Sea.

Today there was only one rule: don’t ask for help. There would be no healers. The only way we would receive treatment was if we withdrew. We’d had almost two months of training: “At this point you either have what it takes—or you resign.”

The course had been designed for Combat, but we were still expected to participate even if it wasn’t our intended faction. Endurance and stamina were prerequisites for all lines of magic. Any student that chose to leave would never have made it far anyway.

Now we were now supposed to race up and down a treacherous trail dodging a random assault of castings. The constable’s team had been invited to participate too, only unlike the last six days they now lurked throughout the entire mountain, awaiting unsuspecting first-years to engage.

We were to reach a ravine that was only accessible by a long climb and descent a good hour or two in each direction. And, of course, somewhere in the middle of that narrow valley was a chest filled with a hundred copper tokens.

There were one hundred and twenty-two of us.

“You have not completed my course until you hand me your token,” Piers warned. He didn’t tell us what would happen if we didn’t, but it was clear that those without would be subject to some sort of horrific test, the kind that wouldn’t end until he had gotten his five deserters “by whatever means necessary.”

There was no direct path to our destination, and it seemed that whichever way I turned, a new obstacle was waiting.

The first route I tried seemed simple enough, until giant bolts of crackling lightening appeared out of nowhere. They struck the ground with frightening intensity, spawning a huge grass fire that rapidly spread.

There were large barrels of sand nearby. I realized they were probably reminiscent of the barley sacks we’d been required to push and conjure the previous week, an aid to those that could exert the casting necessary to reap their benefits. Unfortunately I knew from past experience it would be a futile effort. The bags were easily twice if not three times the weight of the sacks we’d used earlier on, and I’d been less than successful with those.

I had no way of cutting a path across the flames.

Ahead of me some of the first-years, including the prince, were conjuring up two of the barrels. They spilled a trail of sand across the fire. The flames nearest the group were immediately extinguished.

I considered running after, but I held back.

My choice was justified a minute later when a desperate boy shoved his way past in an attempt to utilize their opening. I stopped what I was doing to watch the chain of events unfold. One of the first-years pointed. Eve whirled around and sent the surrounding sand flying so that Ralph was encased in a circle of hungry flames. The boy was trapped. Like me, Ralph did not have the magic necessary to conjure an escape.

I turned away and started off after a group of first-years to my left.

A minute later I heard Ralph cry out for Piers.

One down, four to go. Maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about those tokens after all.

First-years were starting to act merciless. It did not surprise me in the least that Darren’s friends had been the first to lead the charge.

The new path I took was more challenging than the last, and it was the one more traveled. I was following a horde of scrambling first-years up the rocky side of a cliff. Many members of the constable’s staff hid out behind boulders. I had to be doubly careful. The assisting mages were casting arrows as well.

Eventually our group reached a dead end. Before us was a raging stream, easily twenty feet across. Its waters were white, dangerous, and not particularly appealing. There was no other way to get around. It was immediately evident that if we were to continue our trek, we would have to cross the slippery logs and moss-covered stones to the other side.

Like the fire and its barrels of sand, I recognized this challenge as another of Piers’s makeshift obstacles. Only instead of a tightrope and shattered glass, we were now expected to cross a river. The commander and Master Cedric had stuck us in the middle of a real-life obstacle course.

Cautiously, I started my way across, following the crowd of first-years in front. Seconds into my progress a girl in front of me lost balance. She cast out her magic just in time, a long pole stuck out from the river to hold her in place. As I approached the same slippery rock, I reached out to grab her stake for extra support. It vanished.

The girl laughed loudly. She was one of Priscilla’s friends. I should have known better.

I barely kept my balance, and I would have fallen if Alex hadn’t caught my sleeve at just the right moment. Apparently, he’d been forced to take a deviation from his original route as well.

“Thanks,” I told my twin.

His eyes were locked on the shore ahead. “Thank me when it’s over.”

By the time we had crossed the stream, we were even further behind than when we had started. Another group of first-years had passed, having used their combined magic to secure a long climbing rope atop an extremely tall pine in the distance.

“Ry, behind you!”

I spun just in time to conjure a defense against the downward swing of my attacker. It was the same servant I had faced during that first day of Combat.

Our staffs collided with a loud smack. The man rushed off, having lost any advantage now that the element of surprise was gone.

“That was close,” I breathed as Alex grabbed my arm, dragging me forward.

“Come on,” he panted. “We’ve got to get to the chest before all the tokens are gone.”

I rushed after him, breathing heavily as we climbed the increasingly steep face of the bluff. We had just reached a level break when I caught sight of its clearing.

Just beyond reach, a cluster of first-years was engaged in a full-on assault with Darren and his friends. The non-heir’s group was fewer in number, but it didn’t seem to matter.

I could see Darren throwing out blasts of howling wind, knocking his opponents to the ground with the sweep of a hand. In a matter of seconds he had disarmed a large group and given his team an opening.

Meanwhile, Jake and his burly brother William were conjuring daggers mid-air. The blades were quickly embedding themselves in the remaining rivals’ limbs.

It was a blood bath.

Alex and I didn’t move, waiting instead for the prince’s friends to finish their attack and pass. I watched from a distance as they ended the skirmish and took inventory of their surroundings. They had just begun to move out when Darren turned around.

His eyes met mine, and a shadow of a smile played out across his face.

Moments later the dirt-packed earth Alex and I were standing on began to quake. I jumped back, pulling my brother with me as the ground before us split open.

In the place we had just been standing was a deep fissure, too wide to jump and too deep to climb. It effectively cut us off from the trail we needed to follow. When I looked back to Darren he was gone.

“That pompous jerk just destroyed our chances!” Alex burst out.

I bit back a scream of frustration. The non-heir had gone out of his way to do this. I had the distinct impression that if it had just been Alex it would not have happened.

“We can still make it,” I said finally. “We just need a running start.”

“And break both legs in the process?” Alex grabbed my arm. “It’s not worth it, Ry.” He motioned for us to turn around.

I refused to budge.

“What is it?”

I stared at the gap, envisioning a thick fallen pine covering the hole. It would be bigger than anything I had ever attempted, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work.

“I’m going to get us across,” I told him. “Just make sure no one interrupts me.”

Alex opened his mouth to protest and then thought better of it. He knew just as well as I how much time we would lose if we were forced to turn around again. He reached down to grab a jagged piece of loose granite and took a few steps down the path to keep watch for anyone who might pose a threat.

I set to work, concentrating on my breathing until it became a slow, even pace. I willed myself to lose focus of the distractions around me: the buzzing of summer insects, the humidity of the sun’s ever present rays, the dull and aching sensation of my limbs.

Slowly the distractions trickled away until all that was left was the image of a sturdy robust pine, a mixture of textured amber and darkened wood. I breathed in the intoxicating scent of its sharp, resinous odor. I tasted the tang of its bitter needles.

I heard the trunk land, thudding against the dense clay earth. I imagined it spreading across the length of our hole.

Gingerly, I opened my eyes and saw the log that now covered the gap in front of us. Alex emitted a low whistle, returning to stand next to me.

“You’ve been holding out, Ry,” he remarked.

I shook my head. “I didn’t even know I could.”

Alex took a step forward, but I quickly cut him off. “I don’t want you to break your neck if this doesn’t work.”

Hesitantly I put one foot forward, and then another, until both feet were firmly planted on the tree. I was still on the part that covered the ground. Now came the hard part.

I took another step, testing my weight. The trunk felt stable enough, and the coarse bark seemed to hold me well enough in place.

I quickly crossed the rest of the distance. An immense headache started to set in as I watched Alex follow suit.

He was about three-quarters across when the casting gave out. Without warning, the dull ache in my forehead became a mad pounding. The trunk vanished.

Alex fell forward, grasping at air. Crying out, I only just managed to catch my brother’s hand before he was plunged into the shadowy abyss.