by Gage Lee
“Of course not,” she said. “But Kam should remember that every challenge is more than opportunity for us. It's also a chance for our competitors to widen their lead.”
She is very pragmatic. I think I like her. If we have to kill our teammates for an advantage, she will die last.
Taun couldn't imagine a situation where he'd have to kill any of his classmates. Even Auris, as horrible as he was, didn't deserve that.
Yet.
The Broken Blades remained quiet after that, as did the rest of Professor Lors' class. Twenty-six pairs of feet shuffled down the stairs, the tension building with every step. No one knew what to expect, and the professor had made no effort to explain what was about to happen. Even when they'd all reached the bottom of the spiral stairs, what felt like hours after they'd left the classroom, he simply stood in silence while the students filled the room in a nervous crowd.
Finally, the professor flared his wings to get the students' attention. A ball of red light appeared before him, casting his face in sinister shadows and turning his crimson eyes a deep, oily black. “Welcome to the Raid Vault Challenge,” he said. “Let's find out how well you listened in class today. Behind me lies the door to a treasure vault filled with unimaginable wealth. When this red light goes out, the door will open. You will then have time to raid the vault for any treasure you can carry out.”
An excited murmur passed through the students. Kam nudged Taun in the ribs. “This is made for me. My family are merchants. I can spot valuables a mile away.”
The knight's thoughts raced. This might be the chance they needed to leapfrog the other lodges.
“There are only three rules to this challenge,” Professor Lors continued, raising his voice to drown out the students' excited chattering. “Only two members of each lodge may enter the vault. Final scores will be based upon the total value of all items removed from the vault. However, any items that do not match the elemental attunements of your lodge members will not count to your total. If someone from your lodge cannot add an item to your hoard, it does not count toward your total score.”
Sutari grabbed Taun by the shoulder and turned him to face her. “I'm going in there,” she said. “I'll take Kam with me. We'll find the best weapons and armor and use it to gain an advantage in the next challenges. We want to get as much Glory, but it won't matter in the long run.”
Taun had no idea how much time remained before the vault would open. The red light showed the knight every member of his lodge looking to him for guidance. His palms felt slick and clammy with sweat, and there was a lump in his throat that made it impossible to speak. He swallowed hard, unsure of how to deal with all the responsibility hanging from his shoulders. He'd planned to take Kam in with him. He was sure Sutari would be upset when he revealed that. He had to be phrase his decision carefully to avoid offending her.
Do not let them push you around. You and I are in charge of this lodge, no matter what the others may think. If you allow them to challenge authority, things will turn ugly in a hurry.
“We have to be smart about this,” Taun said quickly. “What are your attunements?”
Sutari glared at Taun, and said nothing. Moglan leaned forward, his enormous frame dwarfing the silver dragon's. “Water,” the big dragon said. “You know, because shaman.”
“Wood,” Lira said quietly. “I'm a scout.”
Sutari had still said nothing, and Taun had to make a decision. They didn't have time for pride or arrogance. If they wanted to win this challenge and earn Glory, there was only one smart thing to do.
“I can detect all of the elements,” he said quietly. “Kam will point out items of value for us to grab. Everything we bring out of there will count toward our final score.”
Kam threw a fake punch into Taun's shoulder and stifled a laugh. “You're just full of surprises,” he said excitedly. “Next you'll tell me you're a secret dragon in disguise.”
Taun and the others chuckled, but Sutari just tapped her foot. “I'm stronger than you, Taun,” she said. “And Moglan's stronger than all of us combined. He and I should be the ones to go into the vault because we can carry the most treasure. If what you say is right, then it doesn't matter what we get, as long as we get a lot of it.”
The red lights had nearly gone out. There wasn't much time left for strategizing.
“That doesn't make any sense,” the knight countered. “Without Kam there to guide you, you have no idea what you're grabbing.”
Sutari's sly smile revealed rows of even, sharp teeth that reflected the red light. “And it doesn't matter. Whatever we grab will match one of our attunements, right? Grabbing a lot of stuff has to count for more than only taking the most valuable stuff, right?”
Taun wasn't sure Sutari was right, but there was no time left to argue with her about it. He knew the rest of the Lodge would back his play if he took control of the situation. But doing that would turn Sutari against him, and he couldn't afford to lose an ally with so much potential. The young silver was sick, now, but she was still stronger than he was. And if they earned enough Glory to upgrade the lodge, she'd be back on her feet in no time. “You're right,” Taun said as the light faded. “Moglan and Sutari, grab whatever you can get your hands on. If you want my advice, look for a container of some kind. A chest or a bag, something you can stuff treasure into. That'll give you even more of an edge.”
The big shaman nodded, and extended his heavy fist to Taun. The pair bumped knuckles, and Moglan nodded again. “I'll be Sutari's pack mule, boss.”
The silver dragon's eyes widened a bit when she heard the shaman say boss, but she didn't fight it. “This will work,” she said, her eyes gleaming in the last rays of crimson light. “Thank you for hearing me out, Taun.”
Then full darkness fell, and Taun yelped as he felt arms wrap around his neck and a warm breath brush against his ear. “Thank you,” Sutari whispered so low no one else could hear it.
Then she backed away from Taun, and he was alone in the darkness.
Brilliant white light flooded through the open doorway. Moglan shouted and grabbed Sutari around the waist. Before she could react, the shaman had tossed the silver dragon onto his shoulder and bulled through the crowd. Other dragons shouted in surprise as he shoved past their ranks, and Taun couldn't hide his smile when Moglan brushed Auris out of his way with no more difficulty than an ox pushing open a barn gate. The Broken Blades had taken the lead, at least for the moment.
Now they just had to hang onto it.
A moment later the vault door slammed closed, and the surrounding wall shimmered with azure radiance. When the rippling blue light had vanished, the stone was transparent. “Enjoy the show,” Lors said to the students in the waiting area with him. “I imagine it will be very exciting.”
Taun grabbed Lira and Kam by the wrists and pulled them to a prime viewing spot next to the wall. “I don't know if they can hear us or not, but let's cheer for them.”
“Good idea,” Lira said, her eyes sharp as a hunting hawk's. “It will put the other teams off their game.”
“We have this in the bag,” Kam said with a maniacal cackle. “This'll be amazing.”
The three of them clapped their hands and whooped and hollered. The treasure vault held more money and valuables than Taun had ever seen in one place. The octagonal room was a good fifty feet across, with coins, gemstones, jewelry, and an assortment of other treasures piled up so high that Moglan was up to his knees in the stuff. Sutari had shifted into a seated position on the shaman's shoulders, her hands curled into his long, dark hair to maintain her balance. She shouted and pointed at something on the far side of the vault, and her dragon mount rushed toward it.
“Look at that big moron,” Venki said, clucking his tongue. “Does he think the chest will be unlocked?”
Taun's heart sank when he realized the sarcastic dragon was probably right. Whoever had designed the challenge wouldn't want it to be too easy. Regular traps were probably out of the question, but
tricks that would drain time or otherwise derail the contestants would be common. If the chest that Moglan and Sutari were headed for was locked up, they might waste too much time trying to open it instead of just grabbing something else.
The young knight hoped he hadn't made a mistake sending Moglan and Sutari to represent the lodge on this challenge.
“They'll do fine,” Taun said to Venki. “With a mouth as loud as yours, I'm surprised you weren't the first one into the vault for your lodge. Or did Auris buy out your slot in this challenge, too?”
The copper glowered at Taun, a deep rumbling growl emanating from his chest. “I could've taken you as easily as Auris. Maybe I still will.”
“Maybe,” Taun said with a shrug. “Looks like you were wrong this time, though.”
The knight's heart soared as he watched Moglan hoist the chest off the mound of coins with one hand and hook the fingers of his other hand beneath the edge of its lid. The shaman's massive biceps bulged as he strained to open the chest. People were laughing and pointing, but Taun didn't care. He had faith that the shaman was stronger than any of them knew.
The chest's lid cracked, then tore free of its hinges. Moglan threw his head back and howled at the ceiling, flinging the ruined top out of his way. Sutari thrust both hands into the air, her long, silver hair dancing down her back as she shook them and cheered.
“Who cares,” the copper said. “The chest was empty. What good is it—”
Moglan grabbed one end of the chest with both hands then dug the other end into the mound of coins. He turned in a circle, dredging up treasure to fill the chest in one ferocious swipe. When he lifted it, Taun let out a whooping cry of victory. The chest held thousands of coins, not to mention the other items that jutted up from the mound of precious metal. From where Taun stood, he spotted what looked like a heavy crossbow, a pair of swords in leather sheathes, a glowing crystalline vial filled with pure blue water, and a dozen other gewgaws that he couldn't quite make out.
“You should let him fight Auris next time the gold shows up,” Kam said with a grin.
“Let's hope it doesn't come to that,” Lira said. “Our shaman is a pacifist, remember.”
Taun almost had forgotten that little detail. Seeing the musclebound dragon in action had filled his thoughts with hopes of never losing a duel again. Oh, well. Moglan had more than proved himself useful in other ways. Once they got Sutari up on her feet, she could be the champion for all of them. Hope swelled in the knight's chest. They could make this work. As a team, they were far more powerful than they could ever be on their own.
Remember that. A wise general can make a mediocre army great, but a foolish general will make a great army mediocre.
“I'm no general,” Taun muttered. “I just encourage people to do what they're best at.”
As if spurred by his whispers, Sutari slithered down from Moglan's shoulders and scrambled through the treasure vault. She grabbed two swords by their hilts and tossed them up into the air. Sutari followed that up with a helmet, a breastplate, and a shield.
Moglan moved his chest with surprising dexterity to snatch the tossed items out of the air. A mound of treasure grew on top of the coins. Sutari likely would've filled the chest with an entire armory if the light inside the vault had not begun to fade. The shaman hoisted the chest onto his shoulder, then grabbed Sutari by the back of her robes and lifted her into the air. His long strides got them across the treasure vault before any of the other teams could reach the door.
Taun shouted with victory, and Kam hollered right along with him. The two of them made more noise than the rest of the lodges combined, and they didn't care. They were the lowest of low, the very bottom of the school's social structure. And they'd just won their first big challenge. Things were looking up, and Taun wouldn't let anything sour his mood.
“Oh, no,” Lira groaned.
Auris and his teammate surged toward the vault's door, dragging heavy satchels filled with treasure behind them. When they were only a few yards behind Moglan, Auris shouted something and slung his satchel to his partner. The other gold grabbed the straps out of the air, his shoulders sagging as he took on the weight. All that loot slowed him down, but now Auris was free to move more quickly.
The gold surged toward Moglan's back, coins kicking up behind his heels as he covered ground far faster than the shaman. Taun saw what the gold planned to do, and he shouted at Moglan to turnaround, to watch his back. The knight hammered his fists against the wall, but the big dragon couldn't hear him over all the ruckus. With the threat gaining ground, Moglan kept up with his long, steady strides, a broad smile across his face. In the next few seconds, Auris would catch up to them, and then...
Taun didn't know what the gold dragon would do, but he was sure it wouldn't be good.
But when Auris closed within striking range of the shaman, Sutari suddenly lost her grip and fell off the big Dragon's back. She slammed into the gold dragon's chest, the two of them rolling down a mound of coins in a tangled heap, arms and legs flailing as they triggered avalanches of coins and gemstones. The pair ended up dazed, Auris trapped under Sutari's body, both of them gulping air to recover their breaths.
And Moglan stepped through the now open door, chest cradled in his arms, a heaping pile of treasure waiting to be counted.
Taun's heart pounded, he could barely breathe. They'd been so close to losing everything that he couldn't believe his team had pulled out a win at the last possible second. He drew in a whooping breath and shouted Moglan's name over and over again, Kam and Lira joining in with him.
The young knight couldn't hide his pride or his excitement.
Despite everything, the Broken Blades had won their first challenge.
Chapter 10
TAUN FORCED HIS WAY through the crowd to reach his teammates. He stood on tiptoes to ruffle Moglan's hair and grabbed Sutari around the shoulders in a bear hug. Then he slapped both of them on the shoulders. His headache was still there, but the knight didn't care. He was too happy to hurt at the moment.
“You did it!” he said. “Nice work in there with Auris, Sutari. The two of you crushed the competition.”
While the Broken Blades had clearly gathered the largest amount of loot, Lors did not immediately proclaim them as winners. Instead he snapped his fingers to summon another door. This one opened to reveal a wide chamber outfitted with five heavy wooden tables, each surrounded by five sturdy chairs. “Find the table with your lodge's name on it, and take a seat students,” Lors called out. “Place your loot on your tables and I will begin the counting procedure presently.”
You have won. He wants more attention. All shamans do. That is what happens when you spend your life forcing others to do your work for you. One day the spirits will rise up against those who use them, and it will be a very different world, indeed.
While Taun didn't know much about shamans, he'd never heard of them forcing spirits to work with them. Most who followed that path were kindly sorts who relied on a combination of their personal charisma and ritual bribes to convince their spirit allies to help them. Axaranth obviously viewed that relationship quite a bit differently. The young knight added it to the list of things to discuss with the dragon when they had more time alone.
Not that there was any guarantee the dragon would feel talkative when Taun was in the mood to chat. The ancient dragon could be remarkably stubborn when he felt like ignoring his host.
The Broken Blades found their table near the door and dropped into their seats. Moglan and Sutari grinned like a pair of cats who'd just rooted out a nest of mice. “We did it,” the silver dragon said excitedly. “Our plan worked, Taun.”
Moglan scooped up a fistful of gold coins and let them trickle through his fingers back into the chest. “Finally, my muscles are good for something other than plowing a field. If I never wear a harness again, it will be too soon.”
Taun's jaw dropped at the thought of the powerful shaman doing work meant for livestock. “You have to
be kidding. You pull the plow by yourself?”
The big dragon shrugged like it was no big deal. “After taxes and tithes, my family didn't have much left to pay for a yak. It was my duty to help around the farm, so I did. Not that I enjoyed it. There's a reason why I came to the Academy.”
He grinned at that and banged his fist on the table loud enough for other dragons to whip their heads in his direction. Moglan gave them a shrug as if to say, “Look at me, what do you expect from someone my size?”
“Thank you for calling the other students to order,” Professor Lors said to Moglan. “Now you will all see handprints on the table in front of you. Please place your palms flat in the center of them. Do not move your hands until I tell you otherwise. Don't worry, it won't hurt. Much.”
Don't worry about the professor's jokes. This is an assay table. It will read your attunements and compare them to the treasure on the table. That's how Lors will count it.
The Broken Blades did as they were told, and Taun felt the faint tingle through his palm. A strange, shivery sensation washed through him, as if threads of ice had melted into his veins. The feeling vanished a breath later, and colored lights from an orb in the ceiling poured down on the treasure. A sharp ticking noise filled the air, just loud enough to hear.
“We have more colors than the others,” Lira said quietly. “No one else has all five.”
“No one else has Taun,” Kam said with a smirk. “There's more to this human than meets the eye, I tell you.”
He is not very big. If we wait until he sleeps, and put a pillow over his face, he'll be gone before anyone notices.
