Page 18 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

RACE TO THE TOP

W e continued the Dreamweaver exercises for the rest of the morning.

And then it was our lunch break. For Bronte and Dutch, that meant an opportunity to squeeze in more physical fitness.

They decided to take a run to the Magic Emporium, and I joined them.

The alternative was hanging out with five Apprentices who didn’t like me very much.

I’d rather run midday in Australia’s scorching summer sun.

Which I did. It was hard to keep up with Dutch and Bronte, particularly when they were locked in a heated competition to see which one of them was the fastest. Huffing and puffing, I pulled up the rear in a very distant third place.

“Hurry up, Savannah! You want to impress the General, don’t you?” Bronte’s breathing was hardly even elevated.

Neither was Dutch’s. “She’ll never move up the Scoreboard like that.”

“She doesn’t seem to be giving it a full one hundred percent,” Bronte agreed.

“I can…hear you guys…you know,” I puffed out.

“Really? From all the way back there?” Dutch chuckled.

I made an inhuman growling noise. It was all I could manage in my current state of absolute misery.

“Only half a kilometer to go, Savannah!” Bronte sounded way too cheerful for someone exercising this hard.

I gritted my teeth and ran faster, trying to close the gap. My teammates took that as an invitation to run faster.

A few minutes later, we were walking down the busy main street of the Magic Emporium, ice-cold juice cups in hand. Lively chatter buzzed in the air.

“There’s a large crowd around the Black Obelisk,” Bronte commented.

“That’s Ainsley’s team. And Nala’s team,” Dutch said. “I wonder what all the fuss is about.”

“Let’s find out.” Bronte marched toward the crowd that had gathered around the Watchers’ headquarters.

We followed her.

“What happened?” Dutch asked Zoe.

“Not sure. We were training our magic until a few minutes ago, when a group of Watchers came and escorted our mentors into the Black Obelisk. They told us to wait outside. All six mentors are in there now. They’re probably meeting with the General.

We heard the Watchers talking. One of the Apprentices misbehaved and is going to be punished. ” Zoe shot me a triumphant look.

I glowered back at her but otherwise held my tongue. What could I say anyway? Zoe was right. If any Apprentice was going to be punished, that Apprentice was me.

Bronte didn’t seem to think so. She sprang to my defense. “Savannah isn’t going to be punished.”

Laughter burst out of Zoe’s mouth. “Oh? And why is that?”

“See for yourself.” Bronte pointed at the Scoreboard outside the Black Obelisk. The crowd was growing. All the Apprentices were standing outside the gates now. The mentors must have summoned them here. “Savannah is higher on the Scoreboard than you are, Zoe.”

“I am?” I gasped and looked up at the Scoreboard.

Zoe was looking too. She’d stopped cackling. “How is this possible?”

I was wondering the same thing. Because Bronte was right. I’d moved up ten spots overnight.

Dutch looked very surprised.

But not Bronte. She was as confident as always. “The General sure awarded Savannah a lot of points. Does that sound like something he would do if he was going to punish her?” She grinned at me. “See? I told you all the extra training would help. It’s already working!”

“I didn’t think it would work this quickly,” I said quietly.

No, this wasn’t about the run we’d just taken.

It was about what had happened yesterday in the conference center.

And it wasn’t about rewarding me either.

The General was protecting himself. He wanted everyone to think he’d ordered me to bewitch the Court and now he was rewarding me for a job well done.

That was the reason my ranking had improved so drastically.

I read the Scoreboard again. I still couldn’t really believe it. I’d jumped over so many Apprentices.

I was still below Bronte and Dutch, but if things kept going this way, I’d earn more than enough supplies to keep my hometown fed and prosperous. For the first time ever, it actually looked like we had a chance of winning.

The other Apprentices had realized that too. They were staring at me and muttering. Some were even shooting me dirty looks. The dirty looks came from the Apprentices I’d leapfrogged over.

“Whatever.” Zoe slammed her shoulder against mine as she moved past me. “Cheating won’t save you, Savannah.”

I hadn’t cheated. But good luck explaining that to a shining example of virtue like Zoe.

Bronte smiled at me. “Ignore Zoe, Savannah. She’s just…”

Bronte stopped talking. Her eyes grew wide.

The gates of the Black Obelisk slid open, and Ms. Featherdale, the Apprentice Program Manager, stepped outside. “Good day, Apprentices. I have an announcement to make. There was a…development earlier today. New information has come to light which has changed the list of Apprentices for this year.”

Zoe snickered. My heart sank. So the General had decided to punish me after all. And it was the ultimate punishment of all: he was kicking me out of the Program.

Ms. Featherdale clicked the remote in her hand. The Scoreboard’s text changed to reflect the new ranking. I quickly scanned the list, hunting for my name, even knowing it probably wasn’t there.

But it was! I was still there!

I was so excited and surprised by this new development that it took me a few moments to notice who wasn’t on the list but should have been: Bronte.

I turned to look at my friend. Bronte’s unblinking eyes were glued to the Scoreboard, panning up and down it over and over again, like she was trapped in a never-ending nightmare. Her lips quivered, and her knees buckled. She collapsed. Dutch and I caught her just before she fell.

All the while, Bronte kept muttering, “What happened, what happened, what happened…”