Page 39 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

“Oh, that’s right,” Azura said and snapped her fingers.

A massive silverleaf oak flickered into existence in the center of the ring.

The bark was red like blood, and clusters of pearl-shaped flowers speckled a dense canopy of leaves that shone like burnished silver.

“What game of tag would be complete without a place for your enemies to hide? ”

Taly blinked, but the tree was still there, taking up space that had only moments ago stood empty. “How…?”

“Pocket universes,” Azura said simply. “They make wonderful storage. Now then—”

She clapped her hands twice, and Taly raised her staff, eyeing the fairies still hovering around the periphery.

There were ten in total, and their forms began to shiver, churning the air around them with a near-electric spark.

Their light began to deepen, going from a gentle blue to something more fierce, something that made Taly think of cold and ice, winter and snow.

They were already moving to surround her when Azura shouted, “Begin!”

There was a beat of hesitation, and then the fairies were moving, hurtling through the air, little more than streaks of blue light painted against the brightening horizon.

Taly dipped into her aether, already weaving the spell, but they crossed the wide expanse of the training arena faster than her eyes could track.

Instinct had her dancing back, and a swing of her staff sent out a shrieking gale of wind. The swipe was erratic, kicking up a cloud of red dust, but three of the fairies got caught in the blast, and they immediately pivoted, veering off to the left at a sharp angle.

Two more fairies converged on the right, but she waited.

Her aether shuddered, pulsing with each breath.

The air split behind her, and Taly dropped to the ground, releasing the spell as the fairies sailed overhead .

Gossamer threads of golden magic flickered and then faded.

The fairies abruptly halted, suspended and frozen as her web began to tighten. Even their light seemed to dim, and when they stopped moving altogether, Taly couldn’t help but let out a crow of victory.

Two down, she thought as she regained her feet . Maybe this wouldn’t be so—

Something slammed into her knee, throwing her to the ground.

The pain was electric, like grabbing a live wire, and maybe she screamed.

Maybe she was still screaming as the agony reverberated up and down her spine, singeing every nerve.

She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure about anything as she spat out a mouthful of dirt and groped for her staff.

There was another crackle of pain at her shoulder, her wrist, then her other knee.

The fairies were converging on her, barely grazing her skin, but each touch, each kiss of aether, made her body jolt.

She only vaguely registered the veins of blue energy that spread along her arms and legs, down the length of her spine, as a voice announced, “Game!”

Azura waved a hand, and a rush of gold swept across the training arena, washing away the blue glow but only a fraction of the pain.

Still, she could move again, and Taly immediately flung herself to her feet, snarling as the Queen entered the ring. It was a vicious sound, and even after months of adjusting to this new immortal body, the instinctive reaction still surprised her.

“Oh dear,” Azura muttered. “Dear, dear, dear…” She picked a piece of gravel from Taly’s br aid, and it was a struggle to plant her feet, to stop herself from reaching for her staff and knocking that smug grin off the woman’s face. “Did I forget to mention that the fairies can hit back?”

“What the hell was that?” Taly hissed.

But the Queen just tsked her tongue and looked to the fairies who were regrouping just outside the edge of the arena. “Again.”

“No.” Taly backed up a step. “I’m not doing that again.” Just the memory of that sizzling pain was enough to make her wince.

The Queen turned to exit the arena. “That’s too bad,” she said over her shoulder. “I was going to send you home after you won.”

Taly’s heart leapt into her throat. “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh, but I do,” Azura said. Behind her, Leto’s light looked uncharacteristically dim in the shadow of the arch. “Our agreement was that I would send you back when you earned your third seal. You have the knowledge. Now all that’s left is to show me you know how to apply it.”

“You give me your word?” Taly stooped, picking up her staff. “If I win a game, then I get to go home?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Azura smiled, but it was far from comforting. “Consider this a part of your final examination.”

Taly swore under her breath. She was missing something.

She knew it. Nothing with the Queen was ever so cut and dry.

But right now, she had no other choice. It was never her choice.

Not anymore. It was a pretty cage, no doubt—with soft beds and good food.

But at the end of the day, she couldn’t leave.

Not until the Queen said so .

The fairies were already lining up—ten dots of blue energy that circled the arena.

Taly fell into a defensive position. This is going to hurt, she thought, adjusting her grip on the staff. Oh Shards, is this going to hurt.

The Queen signaled the start of the next game, and Taly let out a sharp bark of pain as a blast of crackling energy immediately crashed into her shoulder.

Taly doubled over.

The pain was a living thing, clawing at her chest, crawling beneath her skin.

It knocked the breath out of her lungs and brought her to her knees.

Even after six hours of this nightmare, the intensity of each blow hadn’t waned.

Her sense of pain hadn’t dulled. If anything, she had just grown more sensitive to each strike.

Another fairy crashed into her shoulder, and her arm went limp. Shit. She needed to focus. She raised her staff with her off-hand, flicking the switch embedded in the grip and barely managing to deflect another bright-blue ball of energy hurtling towards her with a gust of wind.

Grunting, Taly lurched to her feet and hobbled across the open area of the training yard. Her left leg was almost useless at this point, and she had to lean on her staff, dragging her leg behind her .

One hit stunned. Two hits paralyzed. Thankfully, the effect was transient and didn’t radiate beyond the point of impact.

A few more minutes, and she’d get her leg back thanks to the miracle of fey healing.

The blow on her arm had only been glancing, leaving her a small amount of movement.

If she could keep from getting hit again, she just might be able to win this thing.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, and her boots slid on the damp, red dirt. Her vision was a cloud of gold, but the premonitions were erratic—unreliable.

Taly hated her Sight. Maybe one day, when she learned how to use those visions that had signaled the initial manifestation of her power, it would be useful to her.

But right now, amid this bizarre fairy war game, trying to glean anything valuable from the flickering afterimages that danced across her field of vision was a near impossibility.

There was a flash of movement, but it skittered away. Taking a breath, Taly grasped at her aether and tugged.

The arena exploded in a wash of gold, gilded in a fog only she could see.

Three seconds. Since she had started training her Sight, she could only see three seconds ahead.

How disappointing, the Queen had said. Your grandmother could see 10 seconds backward and forward when she was your age. I expected more.

It had been an effort not to rip her face off.

A tinny buzz sounded from her left, and the hazy wash of magic surrounding her rippled. A small mental tug laced with a sliver of carefully honed intent was all it took to summon more aether .

Three seconds. She saw the fairy’s afterimage zip past her three seconds before she dropped to the ground and rolled, just managing to dodge the shrieking blue orb that careened through the air. Another tug on her magic and her net tightened, freezing it in mid-air.

Six down .

Panting, Taly scanned the yard and the six dots of blue fairy fire that hung suspended.

Their ghostly forms shivered despite the spell that held them in place.

This was another rule of the game Azura hadn’t explained until it became necessary.

It wasn’t as simple as just tagging the fairies out.

No. She had to keep them contained until she had managed to stop time for every fairy in play.

Even now, Taly could feel the fairies struggling. If they managed to break free, they could rejoin the game.

She had learned that rule the hard way.

Just four more, she thought, trying to push past the pain. She was exhausted, her aether nearly gone. But if she could just tag out four more of these little bastards, she’d be done.

Taly moved to take a step, and the pain almost had her crying out. But she didn’t stop. She took another hobbled step forward, towards the tree in the center of the arena. She needed something solid at her back—just until her leg recovered.

Navigating the group of suspended fairies that peppered the arena, she scanned the branches overhead.

Early on, the fairies had taken to hiding in the foliage, darting in and out of the spindling limbs in a way that made it almost impossible to predict their next attack.

Even if she used her Sight, trying to trace the chaotic pattern of her premonitions through the leaves, she was still left scrambling.

As though her thoughts had summoned them, one of the fairies chose that moment to dive towards her.

Acting on instinct, she immediately lifted her staff and fired off a column of condensed air.

The wind threw the fairy back through the branches, shaking loose a rain of leaves and petals that fluttered to the ground like snow.