Page 33 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

I t was only a few hours later, in the early hours of the morning, when Miles knocked on my door as we agreed upon.

Kessara jolted awake, but I rolled out of bed, speaking to him quietly and then headed for my clothes.

“What’s wrong?” Kessara asked.

“Nothing. It’s time. For the trial.”

She looked to the window. “It’s not even close to morning.”

I tossed her a bag with training clothes. “Perk of being married to your general, you aren’t getting the rude awakening the others are about to have. But if you move it, you can help us hurry them along.”

She was moving without another word. Within fifteen minutes, we were walking in the forest back to the barracks.

“Do I need to do this without either Enchantment because that’s the way I started training?”

I gave my head a shake. She was nervous. I recognized it in her breathing. “No. Don’t overthink it. You are to utilize your strengths. So, I suspect you will need those Enchantments in addition to that cunning brain of yours.”

She opened her mouth as if to ask another question, but I grabbed her hand and squeezed. “You’re going to be fine.”

“But you told us if we don’t pass, we are out?”

“Correct.” I stopped and turned her toward me gently. “Look at me. Do I look like I have any doubts you will pass? Do I look concerned?”

“No. You look as arrogant as ever.”

I felt my lips twitch. “Exactly. You are going to do this, Kess.” And because I knew she had a competitive streak, I added, “And if not, at least you slept with a winner.”

She groaned before pulling her hand away and hurrying toward the barracks.

Miles and Emric were standing together waiting on the women, so I headed for them. I was fairly certain all the groups would pass today. They had trained hard, but they needed to do this and pass for themselves.

“Ready?” Emric asked me.

“Yes. Just today and tomorrow left. Then training break.”

Miles added, “The maze is perfect. Enough to make them struggle. But not so difficult as to weed them out.”

I normally helped in the design with Team One, but this time I was going to have to take his word for it. I wondered if he fully understood the different strengths of the team. A team like no other because three of the five Enchantments of the realm were present on this team.

As the women all arrived, I began without delay. “This is your final trial. Fail, and you do not make it to the second session of training. Fail your fellow trainee, and they won’t either. This trial is designed to test your teamwork abilities and individual strengths both.”

“But what is it?” Sam whispered to Wren .

Wren shrugged.

“A maze,” I told them, just like I had any other time they’d asked.

“If you would not interrupt and allow me to tell you, I will.” I paused intentionally.

“In the meadow between the castle and the forest awaits your maze. You will go in groups of three, one group of four. You pass or fail it together. You have twenty minutes to get through it. The team with the best time will receive bragging rights and the right to sit out of our run later this morning. The fact that we are going to do this while it’s still dark is intentional and designed to further test you. ” I glanced at my wife. “Most of you.”

The brat was pressing her lips together to keep from smiling.

“Let’s go. I will call out the first three names when we arrive, not giving you too much time to strategize.”

“Except the group that goes last,” Sam said as we fell into step. “That one will obviously have a bit of time to strategize.”

That woman could strategize water away from a man dying of thirst. “Yeah. But they also have a huge disadvantage I cannot disclose.”

Once we got there, I looked toward the tree that Kessara and I had just been married under.

The meadow looked nothing like the meadow, as we were met with a wall of stacked square haybales.

They were stacked high enough that they would be higher than the women once they were inside.

The entirety of the meadow was now a square with walls made out of hay; the maze had eaten the meadow whole.

All of Team One was there, waiting for my call. There were men stationed in different areas of the maze waiting to challenge the team. They would use orbs in one part, throw a rolling log in another, and chase them through another.

“A quick rundown of the rules,” I told the team.

“You may not use your Enchantments to see above the maze. You must stay within it. There is one exit only, you may not create another one, you must find it. You may run into another team while in there, but you may not join with them. You are to stick to the people assigned to you. No splitting up. Everyone got it?”

They were nervous. I could see it clear as day.

“You have twenty minutes to make it out and earn your spot in the next session of training. Jessina, Wren, and Elsie, you’re up first.”

The three of them moved toward Miles standing at the small gap in the wall, the entrance. Miles had four stopwatches, one for each group, that he would begin once they entered. Wren had wisely began pulling her power toward her skin, becoming a light herself to guide their way.

I used my magic to climb to the top of the maze, so I could see the teams moving. I noted that Keir and Krew were talking to some of the team members, walking toward the wall near the end.

I turned back to the women, making sure they were all set. I should give them some sort of pep talk, but if they really needed it at this point, then I hadn’t done my job. “And go,” I commanded.

They began taking the turns and spins, quickly getting around the first turn of orbs and climbing over a muddy pit with ropes. “Miles, start the next group five minutes apart.” Though it was dark, with Enchantments being used, it was typically easy to watch and figure out where the women were.

“Pippa, Viv, and Fern,” Miles called out. Pippa and Fern had a little tension since Pippa had admitted she wasn’t sure of Fern’s loyalties, and I thought what better way than to throw them all in together. Vivian was way too competitive to let the two of them bicker for long.

Vivian took the lead as they stepped in.

Before Miles started Magnolia, Remy, Summer, and Jaya, the first group found the door out of the maze and realized it was locked. They’d need a key. Keys were hidden in various places throughout the maze .

The most brutal part of the maze was seeing that door and then realizing it was locked.

Realizing you had to go back the way you came, and only hope to find your way back to it again before the time ran out.

But it also made you dig deep and find out what you were made of.

This maze was just as much of a mental trial as a physical one.

Because the truth was that there were many dead ends and locked doors in life.

Things you wanted and strove for, just to find that door locked at the end.

What mattered was that you kept going. That you learned from the dead ends in life.

That you didn’t let them defeat you, and if life was going to be cruel to you, you’d forge a damn key and find a way.

I had moved from the starting point by the time Miles started Kessara, Sam, and Molly.

I almost wished I would have been there because I knew that Kessara would be annoyed she was going last. I hadn’t wanted anyone to think she was getting special privileges, so I made sure she was going last. Which also made it the hardest group to go, because though there was one spare key hidden in the maze, there were far less options than the first group had access to.

Jessina, Wren, and Elsie ended up finding one key dangling from the top of the hay barrier on one of the shorter walls. It had been there the whole time, but unless you knew you needed a key, you didn’t really look for one. You didn’t look up, just ahead.

Wren easily snapped the key away from the chain holding it with her magic, and they were moving back through the maze.

Though it was possible they’d run back into another team, part of Team One’s job was to delay certain teams so that it didn’t happen often.

We wanted each team to find out for themselves they needed a key.

I watched as Pippa’s group made it to the door, finding it locked.

“We need a key,” Fern supplied. “Let’s go back. ”

“A key?” Pippa groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That would have been nice to know.”

“They call it a trial for a reason,” Viv snapped. “Let’s go.”

Kessara, Sam, and Molly were flying through the physical part of the maze. Kessara was using her shadows to reach out and see where there were dead ends or not, so their time was brilliant thus far.

Sam’s wrists were still hurting her, so after the climbing rope section, Kessara waited at the top, encouraging her and giving her a hand when her grip started to fail.

As they turned a few corners later to the log that began rolling toward them, Molly stopped it in its tracks and sent it rolling back at the man standing there at that challenge point.

I bit back a laugh. Most people just stopped it. Molly wanted vengeance.

Jessina, Wren, and Elsie made it out of the maze in sixteen and a half minutes. Plenty of time to spare. They were safe and had passed the trial.

As Fern’s team made it to one of the mud and rope sections, Fern crouched down and touched the mud.

“What are you doing?” Pippa snapped.

“Mud is nothing but watered dirt, is it not?” Fern answered just as sharply.

She dried the mud, sending the water shooting toward a Team One member who got a face full of water, and was now looking quite pissed. The key sticking into the ground was easily found after that.

Fern walked over to it, picked it up and said, “Shall we finish this thing, then?”

“Damn,” Pippa laughed, finding joy in the team member who looked like he wanted to shake them.