Page 59 of The Song of Sunrise (The Prentice Teller #1)

Leaf runs toward me, nocking another arrow and releasing. A thick, heavy thud sounds from ahead, and a large shadow pools on the ground.

“Do I want to know what that was?” I ask as Leaf offers me a hand to get up.

“No, probably not.”

I walk closer anyway.

A giant wolf lies on the ground. But wolves aren’t translucent and made of swirling gray shadows, nor do they have an extra tail or two rows of pointed teeth. A milky white substance pools around it. Blood.

“Ghosthound,” Leaf confirms my suspicions. The renderings in my library books were close, but nothing compares to seeing this creature up close. “They usually don’t travel alone. We should get going.”

Leaf and I continue through the maze together. Neither of us will admit the silent alliance we formed because we know at one point or another, only one can win.

I cast that thought aside for now.

We trade spotting ahead and checking around corners. Only twice since the ghosthound did we run into other creatures. A firemonkey and a tarthill. Though the firemonkey left a pretty large burn on my leg, the tarthill conveniently decided to earthwalk through the wall, effectively ignoring us.

I make a mental note to thank Atlys.

We turn another dark corner and nearly collide head on with Kauri and Artemis, the two other champions from the Forest Tribe with Leaf. We stand there staring for a few moments, knowing full well that this is an individual game.

Leaf steps in front of me, standing eye to eye with Kauri. After a moment of hesitation, they nod. Wordlessly, we part, each running down a separate aisle.

Leaf takes my hand, and we run.

After a few minutes, I sing quietly, memorizing the notes of our moves: right, left, left. Leaf doesn’t question when I tug him along.

My boot slips on something.

I scream as I fall on top of a body. Blood pools around dark coils of hair.

“Selene!” I scramble to kneel next to her.

Her breaths are shallow as she lies there. “No!” I press my hand over her shoulder wound where an arrow juts out.

Her eyes widen as she recognizes me. She begins to stutter. “T-t-tra,”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay.” I will not believe otherwise.

“ Trap !” she warns. Leaf stands and backs away, surveying the dark aisle.

Thhhunk .

Leaf stumbles forward. An arrow protrudes from the side of his leg.

“LEAF!” I scream.

He slides carefully down the side of the wall, grunting in pain.

I crawl to him, keeping low to the floor, and grab ahold of his large, warm hands.

He is always so warm. It kills me to see him injured like this.

I let the fury bubble inside at the Sponsors and their political games.

It’s one thing to compete in the Summit as a way of reforming an alliance and peace between treaty members.

It’s another thing to prepare the maze to kill champions.

For what? To kill your opponent’s champions so yours can win?

Is the advantage of negotiating the treaty first really worth the death of others?

I think of Atlys and the people of Terraguard, trapped under the surface, unable to feel the sun’s warmth, see its light, because of other’s biases being written into law.

“I’ll be alright,” Leaf adjusts his position, gripping the arrow. “I just need to rest for a bit. I’ll pull it out and cauterize the wound. I can take care of Selene. Keep going, Akemi. One of us should win.”

“No, I can’t just leave you here!” I blink away the tears furiously.

“You will,” Leaf insists. Those brown eyes split me down the middle. “We will be okay. They won’t just let us die in here. Go! Plus, my spoiled Elven sponsor doesn’t need the prize. Go!”

I slowly stand and face the darkness. I cast a sunfyre spell and hover the orb of light ahead of me. Sure enough, small slits line the sides of the walls, likely prepped with arrows and other weapons.

“Take care of her, Leaf.” I look at Selene. “Promise!”

“I promise,” he says, already starting to pull the arrow. I wince and turn the other way, not allowing myself to see the graphic scene he is about to inflict on himself.

I throw a star down the corridor. One by one, arrows, axes, and spikes dart out of their hiding spots. I throw a few more until I’m certain all of the traps have been triggered.

“Just a game, huh,” I mutter and jog forward to retrieve my stars.

Time passes quickly in the maze, each hour slipping between my fingers.

I’m exhausted from the constant vigilance, but I continue on, dragging my fingertips along the walls until they are raw and bleeding.

The commander never specified how long this would take, but surely it couldn’t be much longer.

No more monsters or traps spring out at me after roughly thirty more minutes of walking along the stone corridors. The burn from the firemonkey on my leg screams in pain with each step, rubbing and chafing on my loose trousers.

Must… continue… forward.

I keep my sunfyre orb to a minimum, listening for the distant song of the Helios Stone to guide my steps.

I hum lightly to myself, remembering each turn until it’s committed to memory. I have only had to turn around a few times after a dead end. If I have my song right, I should be closer to the center of the maze, or at least headed in the right direction.

Loud footsteps approach from behind. Then another pair. The distinct sound of a sword unsheathing slices through the air, followed by shouting.

I snuff my sunfyre and quicken my pace. Left. Wall. Right.

“Shit!” It’s a dead end. I’m trapped.

The sounds of fighting draw nearer. A small, much younger part of me wants to shrink into the corner. But I am not her anymore. I crouch into a Corediver fighting stance and ready a star in my palm. I’ll be damned if I get this far only to lose now.

A large figure turns the corner, almost running straight into me. Eyes bright with moonglow , an advanced night vision spell for Moon’chers.

“Castor?”

“Throw!” he bellows, then slides onto the ground with incredible grace for a man so large.

I throw my stars straight where Castor’s chest was moments ago.

Clank. It bounces off the armored chest of the incoming opponent.

Armor? What the fuck?

Sabra’s snarling laugh ricochets off the stone walls. Armor is not standard protocol for our formals. She must have been warned about the task.

I ready two more stars and hurl them toward the back of the shadowed aisle. I can barely make out her lithe form, but the grunt followed by silence tells me I hit my mark.

“Let’s go. Behind me.” Castor leads me away from the dead end, past Sabra. He’s limping pretty badly.

“Men,” I mumble and tug on his hand until he is behind me.

“No, get behind me. I’m clearly in better shape than you right now.

” Even though the burn on my leg would disagree.

Castor must be in a lot of pain, because he does not argue back.

He takes my six as we edge past Sabra. She is slumped against the side of the wall with one of my stars wedged into her armpit, the other on her thigh.

She must have knocked herself out against the wall on her fall.

We brush past and re-enter the maze.

“We have to be getting closer,” I say. “How many champions have you passed?”

“Vega and Kauri are out, passed them earlier on.”

“Selene and Leaf are out too. Got held up by a trapped section.”

Castor’s voice is strained and low. “I’m not sure about Pictor, but I think he’s out too.”

“I can confirm that one. He and Cassiopeia dueled right at the start. I doubt he made it any further. Have you seen Artemis or Gryphon?”

“Not sure. I passed Gryphon and Ragnar dueling on my way here, but then had to change course when Sabra saw me.”

Ragnar and Gryphon are the two largest cadets at the academy. My hopes sink for Gryphon. “Ragnar is a third-stone; chances are, he beat Gryphon in the duel.”

Castor grunts his agreement with a haggard breath.

“With Sabra out, that leaves you, me, and Ragnar.” Great, the big, hulking, red-headed beast with a scar on his eyebrow is the only one left with us.

“We cannot let the Jord Lord win. Ragnar has to be taken out,” Castor says.

I shiver at the thought of the Jord Court gaining any more favorability with the treaty.

Especially since they cannot even handle their own rogue attacks on human villages.

I’m not even sure how they are managing to remain allied members of the treaty.

Surely Elder Markus is sharing this information along with the Lux’Civitas.

“Agreed,” I say.

We keep a brisk pace for a while, passing another tarthill that growls at Castor until I swat it away. It disappears into the stone walls immediately.

After a while, Castor’s pace begins to slow.

“You were right,” he mutters.

“About what?”

“My father,” he says. “I overheard him talking with Elder Davenpath before the ceremony. He was rigging certain doors to lead straight into traps, other champions, or creatures… except mine.”

I think about my door. There weren’t any traps or creatures… unless there was one. Tarthills have been keenly avoiding me this whole maze. I smirk, knowing who must be responsible.

“I should have believed you from the start, but I let my pride get in the way. I thought my father would have let me win an honest fight, but instead, he set me up. How can I possibly go forward knowing that I was given an easy path? There is no honor in that.”

“I’m sorry,” is all I can offer. Above, faint traces of light trickle down, the last dregs of night resisting to give way to the imminent dawn.

“No. Don’t be. I care about you, Akemi, and you were right. I should have believed you.”

A low, vicious growl vibrates so loudly I can feel it through my shoes. A dark gray ghosthound turns the corner ahead, prowling forward with its shadowed head hanging low. Saliva drips from its rows of pointed teeth, eyes glowing red in the darkness.