Page 44 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 44

Matthias

I ’d nearly surrendered completely to the sweet lull, when it shifted into a panicked growl urging me to breathe. My world remained dark, but my face warmed as if I were lying in the grass back in Emeryn instead of drowning in a lake far from home.

My chest ached as air filled my lungs, expanding them as far as they would go before rushing out again.

“Breathe!” The growl echoed in my head, reminding me a bit of King Durand when he was angry. Or Connor, for that matter. My friend’s temper could rival his father’s, under the right circumstances.

More air rushed into my lungs, more refreshing than painful this time.

“Breathe.” The command came again, softer now, bordering on desperate even.

I must have been dead and imagining it. No one in a deadly tournament would go to the trouble of saving me; they weren’t all fools like me, trying to help my competition when I should be trying to win the damned thing and finish the mission.

Air came again and with it came the sound of water lapping against my ears and somewhere far off the calls of birds flying overhead. Then something hit me in the face, like the one time my sister had slapped my cheek for making a crude joke at her expense.

Water bubbled out between my lips, and my eyes flew open only to slam shut against the sudden brightness.

I received a couple more light taps on the cheek. “Wake up, general. It’s over.”

“What happened? What’s over?” I whispered, trying again to open my eyes and see who had saved me—assuming I was indeed still alive. Phillip’s face came into focus.

“You nearly died,” he said.

“And you saved me, how? Why?”

As if in response, a gust of wind swirled by. A memory flashed through my mind of us registering at the castle and Phillip demonstrating his power.

Air.

“Got you breathing again. You helped me push past my fear; figured saving your ass was the least I could do. Though don’t get used to it. We’re still opponents.”

“But you weren’t supposed to?—”

“Would be a dick move to report me to the general now,” he said, his brow rising in challenge.

“Fair,” I said around a quiet laugh that brought a stabbing pain to my side.

“Can you swim back to shore?” he asked, but before I could answer he shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll get you out.”

We remained silent as he hauled me back to the lake’s edge, and when he dropped me with a thud onto the grass, I simply lay there for a long while, staring up at the sky, watching it fade to a cerulean blue as the sun sank lower. Then Isa’s face slid into view, regarding me with a peculiar look that seemed a mix of relief and impatience, as if my nearly dying had caused me to return late.

“Welcome back, general. Whenever you’re ready, we can award points,” she said flatly.

I lay there for a few moments longer, slowly moving my muscles little by little to ensure they still worked. It wasn’t until I bent one of my knees that pain shot up my leg. Oh, right. I’d been stabbed. Twisting my leg a bit, I noted the wound had just barely started to heal, still slowed by the earlier poison.

Damned Korben. Apparently the punishment he’d received hadn’t been enough to deter him.

Hissing through my teeth, I inched my way up to sitting and then groaned as I pushed to stand. My injured leg buckled under my weight, and I would have toppled to the ground like a toddler learning to walk had Phillip not caught me by the arm. I nodded my thanks, glad that he released me just as quickly and simply walked attentively beside me the whole way back to the carriages.

Isa stood beside her carriage, a portable table setup beside her with a brass scale waiting. Near her, Graham sat in the grass, his long legs bent so he could rest his arms and forehead on them. Unlike my leg, his appeared to be healing nicely—at least from what I could see through the rip in his trousers. The bleeding had been staunched and the ragged edges of his flesh and skin had begun to reconnect. He’d have a pretty impressive scar from that one.

Phillip walked me over to my carriage, opened the door, and directed me to sit there. It groaned slightly under my weight, and I once again offered Phillip my silent gratitude as Isa cleared her throat.

“Congratulations on surviving the second trial,” she said. “General”—I jerked my head up to acknowledge her—“the others have described the unfortunate fates of Seb and Beck, and my own guards have ventured under the water to verify. For this reason, I am not waiting until dark to close this event. Did you see anything under that water that would warrant waiting the entire allotted time?”

Blinking slowly, I flicked my gaze to Korben, who stood proudly opposite Isa, his foot resting on the large stone lying in front of him in the grass and a purpling bruise over his right eye where I’d kicked him. He leered at me, daring me to accuse him of attacking me––but doing so would have been a waste of precious air. It had happened during the trial; it was fair play.

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes. But the images of Seb being yanked into the darkness and Beck being killed instantly played against the dark backdrop of my eyelids. I opened them quickly to find Isa still staring at me, concerned confusion playing across her features.

“No,” I said, my voice still hoarse. “There’s no one to wait for.”

She nodded once in acknowledgment. “As of this morning, Graham had fifty points, Korben had forty, Phillip had twenty, and Matthias had zero.”

Of course, Korben sniggered at my pitiful performance. Graham raised his face wearily, his gaze landing on me, though I couldn’t read his expression at all. Was he angry at me for saving him? Did he even know I had saved him? Phillip had been the one to carry him back to shore, after all. If he didn’t know, then it would have been for nothing. Not that his life was worthless, but finishing last in two trials was not going to keep me in the running long enough to learn what I needed to.

“Graham, do you have a stone to present?” Isa asked, glancing down at him. He reached a hand into the pocket of his pants and produced a stone about the size of a chicken egg. Isa picked it up and then placed it on one of the scale’s plates, which crashed to the table with a heavy clang.

“Phillip, you next.” Isa gestured for him to step forward and place his palm-sized stone on the opposite plate. The scale gradually shifted until Phillip’s side now rested on the bottom. Isa hummed and moved Graham’s off to the side of the table.

“Korben?” she asked, but he was already on his way, heaving his stone onto the table which creaked under its weight. When he started to retreat, she flicked a hand at him. “On the scale, please.”

Korben balked, rolling his eyes, but obeyed, though he seemed to drop it haplessly onto the scale so that a resounding clank rang out. Haughtily he walked back to where he’d been standing, glaring at me as he passed by.

“And Matthias? How about you?”

Patting my still-damp shirt and undershorts, I frowned. “Damn thing must have fallen out while I was busy doing other things.”

Isa’s gaze narrowed. “And what things were you doing?”

I pinched my lips together, but I was too exhausted to take this act as far as I normally did. Shrugging, I answered, “Stabbing the vestiliaga to save Graham, trying to save Beck but getting stabbed, and killing the beast so Phillip could get Graham safely back to shore.”

Isa stared at me with unblinking eyes for a moment before swinging her attention to the others in turn. “Is this true?”

Korben, as expected, scoffed loudly. “Sounds like an elaborate excuse for not completing the trial.”

Graham shrugged slowly and muttered, “It’s possible. Last thing I remember was him calling my name at the surface and then seeing him swim toward me as that monster dragged me down by my leg.”

Phillip glanced thoughtfully at me, and my gut hollowed out. Would he betray me now? Even after saving me?

But then his lip curved into a slight smile.

“While I didn’t personally witness most of those claims, I have no doubt he’s telling the truth. He could have left me to panic at the surface when the trial started, but he didn’t.”

Isa returned her attention to me and asked, “Why? This is a competition. Do you not care about winning?”

Korben started to laugh but stopped as soon as Isa glared at him. I didn’t answer at first, taking the time to stretch out my stiff neck and roll my aching shoulders.

Finally, I cleared my throat and explained. “I absolutely care about winning, general, but winning isn’t everything. The pursuit of it should never blind us from what truly matters: helping others—even our competition. I wasn’t able to save some in the forest, and I regret that. Figured if there was something I could do here, I would.”

“Give me a fucking break,” Korben muttered, but everyone ignored him.

Isa rubbed a hand at the back of her neck and pressed her lips tightly together as she studied me, as if trying to decide if I was as full of shit as Korben seemed to think.

“And who stabbed you?” she asked, gesturing to my leg.

I shot her a half-smile. “I think you know. At least the blade wasn’t poisoned this time.”

She nodded several times, humming to herself. With another snap of her fingers, the guard brought her a small leather ledger where she presumably logged our points. Flipping open to a page marked with a black ribbon, she pulled an ink pen from her pocket and began to scribble something onto the page.

“We will start with the points for stones. Korben retrieved the heaviest, so he will receive fifty points for that. Phillip, forty. Graham, thirty, and Matthias, zero.”

Korben let out a low laugh. I gritted my teeth together, trying to keep my disappointment from playing on my face, but stars. Even for all that talk of winning not being important, I sure despised losing.

“Now for the discretionary points. These are awarded using my own judgment, based on the information I’ve received from each of you and from what my guards can glean from what they found in the lake. These points are awarded—or lost—based on the strength of spirit displayed during this trial. Her Majesty and I value strength in all its forms. Arenysen needs a king who not only has the strength to defend his kingdom, but also the conscience to do what is right. Even if it means potentially sacrificing one’s own desires.”

Everyone seemed to lean in toward Isa as she explained this, and even her guards standing behind her appeared to shift closer to hear her decision.

“Graham, for this portion you receive zero points, as you unfortunately were rendered unconscious soon after the trial started. This leaves you at a total of seventy points.”

I risked a sidelong look at the fae, but he was uncharacteristically calm, shrugging casually as if this outcome was expected.

“Phillip, you not only hauled Graham to safety, but also took the risk to swim back out to find and save Matthias, despite already having your stone. For that I am adding forty points, bringing you to one hundred.”

Phillip smiled and dipped his chin graciously, obviously thrilled to have come out so well in this round.

“Korben,” she said, letting out a low sigh before she continued. “You were issued no weapon at the start of this trial, yet you returned with someone else’s. Each dagger had a number etched into the handle so we could know who was issued which blade. The one you had—the one that still had blood on it—had been Beck’s. While I cannot know for sure what happened under the water, based on your past actions it’s safe to assume you did whatever you could to win this trial, even at the expense of the others in that lake with you.”

Korben scoffed loudly and lifted his eyes to the sky.

“For this, I am deducting thirty points.”

He snapped his head down and glowered at the general, throwing his arms angrily out at his sides. “Thirty?! You don’t even have any proof of?—”

“Be glad it wasn’t more,” Isa said with impressive calmness. “Now, Ma?—”

“This is bullshit!” Korben shouted, taking a step toward her, but he didn’t make it very far before her guards had him restrained, his hands pulled tightly back behind him, and a sword point pressing against the base of his throat.

Isa strode slowly up beside her guard wielding the blade and stared confidently into the male’s eyes. “Your mother should have taught you some manners. Speak to me—or anyone—like that again, and you won’t just be disqualified from the tournament.”

“You can’t—” Korben started to protest.

“I can, and I will. Do not test me again,” Isa said with such finality that Korben finally closed his mouth and remained silent, even when Isa called her guards away from him.

“Now, Matthias,” she said, lifting her ledger once more. “I watched you at the start of the trial. The care you took to help your rival overcome his fear is commendable. As Phillip has attested, you saved Graham and ensured he was brought to safety. You also devoted your energy—to the point of nearly drowning—to defeating the beast that guards those stones, all so your competition could survive their swim back to shore. Some may think you foolish for caring more for the welfare of others than for your own success, but for the purposes of this trial, it was precisely what we were hoping to see. You not only demonstrated the impressive physical strength necessary to push your body to its ultimate limits and still defeat the vestiliaga, but you also displayed a prime example of a strong spirit. For this, I am awarding you one hundred points.”

I froze, unable to speak—possibly for the first time in my entire life. No one spoke, in fact, as all four of our mouths fell open.

Isa didn’t seem to notice as she concluded. “This leaves us with you and Phillip tied at the top and Graham and Korben trailing behind you. Now, let’s return to the castle. I’m starving, as I’m sure you are as well.”

As we all climbed into our carriages, I braced myself for some snide comment from Graham, undoubtedly upset that Phillip and I had each knocked him from the lead, but it never came. As he settled into his seat, the guard closed the door, giving a single tap on the side of the carriage to signal the driver.

After several minutes in tense silence, Graham finally whispered, “Thank you.”

“It was nothing,” I said.

“No, it wasn’t.”

I exhaled loudly. “I know. You’re welcome. You would have?—”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Graham admitted, his eyes wide in awe. “Who knew that you could end up winning by losing?”