As a disc flew overhead, I watched, counting seconds until the next one came along. Twenty seconds passed between each disc. Perfect.
Every twenty seconds, I jumped and caught a disc, and soon enough, my basket was full to overflowing. When the wind came to a halt, a bell rang out. I remained still with my basket piled high behind my back, until the others stopped grabbing for the remaining discs.
Liv stood on the bottom step near the castle. I caught her eye and shot her a grin. She looked suspiciously back, but it wasn’t like I’d broken the rules.
“That’s enough,” said the Air Element, lowering their hands. The wind died down and the remaining discs bounced into the mud. “Who has the most discs?”
Sledge elbowed his way to the front and dropped the basket, revealing his treasure trove. “Did I win?”
“Nope.” Stifling a grin, I stepped aside and revealed my own haul. “I did.”
Now Liv definitely looked suspicious, but it was Sledge who looked the most disgruntled when he saw the number of cantrips I’d collected. The other contenders showed off their spoils, most of which they’d hung onto by hiding in their clothing or in their shoes. I, meanwhile, wedged my basket between my feet to be sure nobody tried to swipe them before they’d even been counted.
It was at that point that I realised the coins were cantrips, but unmarked ones, like spares from the market. They might not be capable of magic on their own, but if someone applied the right tools, they could be. I casually slipped a couple of the discs into my pockets and then handed the others to the Elemental Soldiers.
“The next trial will take place in the dungeon,” said the Water Element. “Come with me.”
So there was a dungeon, after all. Maybe this was where the Death King would finally make a public appearance. It was about time he did, though perhaps he’d planned to save it for the final day. Just to lull us into a false sense of security. Who the hell knew?
While the other Elemental Soldiers retreated into the castle via the oak doors at the top of the stone staircase, the Water Element led us around the back, past the dormitories and through the corridor I’d been in earlier today. Then we headed down a winding staircase which led into a vast hall, presumably the dungeon. It contained nothing but a layer of sand covering the stone floor and was as cold as a refrigerator.
The sand clearly hadn’t always been there, but nobody offered an explanation as we filed into the room and assembled below a stone balcony. Liv and the Elemental Soldiers gathered on the balcony, and the Water Element moved to the front of their group.
Once we were all inside, a loud grating noise filled the dungeon, echoing off the high ceilings as a slab of stone moved into place, blocking the staircase we’d come in through. That… doesn’t look good.
“Your test is to find a way out of here,” said the Water Element. “Don’t bother trying the stairs over here. They’re barred. And so is the way you came in.”
No shit. But how were we supposed to get out? Sledge, genius that he was, walked over to the wall and punched it, then bellowed with pain.
I rolled my eyes and turned to Harper. “Do you think he’ll try climbing it next?”
A gasp rose from among the others as the Water Element raised her hands, sending a current of water sweeping across the floor. At once, the fire inside me shrank to a spark. That’s not good at all.
The sand vanished below our feet as the water kept on coming, sweeping higher and higher. First to ankle-height, then up to my knees, then my waist. Shock and alarm rippled through the crowd, and more than a few people made for the doors and attempted to shove the block of stone aside. It didn’t budge an inch.
I tilted my head to the balcony, and anger flared inside me to see the smirk on the Earth Element’s face. He thought it was funny that we’d had our magic snuffed out, did he? Within a few seconds, I had to tread water to keep from being submerged. Sledge was okay, being six-and-a-half feet tall, but the shorter among us found ourselves treading water, not very well. Some of us hadn’t even learned to swim.
The water finally stopped at my neck, and the panic gradually died down among the contenders as the ones with their heads still comfortably above the surface started looking around for a way out. The odds of us using our magic to get out were less than zero, but they couldn’t have given us an impossible challenge, so there must be a way through.
Someone jabbed a finger into the air, pointing at a section of the wall opposite us which glimmered around the edges, hiding a magically concealed door. Thanks for helping us all out, mate.
The first contender to reach the door grabbed the edge, but nothing happened. She pushed the brick as though hoping it would reveal a hidden passageway, but that didn’t work either. Others caught her up, surrounded her, and tried climbing the wall. Sledge gave it a punch, with predictable results.
Harper, who’d dived under the water, resurfaced with a gasp. “There’s something hidden under the sand!”
“There’s a keyhole!” someone shouted.
Aha. So that’s how they expected us to get out. Problem was, the key was out of my reach already as the crowd converged on the spot Harper had pointed out.
Sledge grabbed the girl who’d found the door and shoved her under the water. “Go on, grab the damn thing.”
“Hey, stop that!” I shouted at him.
The Air Element had already spotted him. With a blast of air, they knocked Sledge flat on his back into the water. The others backed off as a wave crashed over their heads, then he stuck his head out and clambered to his feet. “Spoilsport.”
One of the contenders surfaced and their fist rose into the air, holding up the gleaming key. At once, everyone swam for the doors, only to be knocked aside by the Air Element’s magic. These people had no survival instincts, that was their problem. I waited for the inevitable rush to die down and saw the girl with the key manage to get it into the lock. The doorway opened, revealing a small corridor. She sprang through the gap, but when someone tried to follow, the door closed, knocking everyone back into the water.
Damn. Surely there couldn’t be only one way out. This was only the second day of the trials. There must be more keys hidden in here. Which probably meant we all had to dive under the water and get one.
Rule two for living in the Parallel… do whatever is necessary to survive. I drew in a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface of the water, scanning the floor for any signs of another hidden key but seeing nothing but people’s legs and murky sand. I surfaced, noting that I wasn’t the only one who’d figured out that they might have hidden more than one key. Hands stirred the sand, and more gleaming lights appeared as other keys were unearthed. Sledge shoved the others aside and did his best to wrestle any key that the others got from their hands, but the combined efforts of the rest of the crowd kept him from getting his paws on one. Punches flew left and right, blood streamed through the water, and each time someone escaped, everyone lost their shit.
“There can’t be enough keys for all of us down here,” said Harper, sounding panicked. “I bet this is how they eliminate a bunch of us from the contest.”
There aren’t enough keys. Bastards. I shot Liv and the others a glare from below. I couldn’t be kicked out at this stage. No way in hell.
As a shorter dude dove through the exit, Sledge grabbed him from behind, and once again, the Air Element’s magic forced him to let go. He fell back in the water with a splash that took half of us along with it. Coughing and spluttering, I surfaced, no longer able to feel the sand beneath my feet. That wasn’t a good sign.
The water was rising again.
I kicked out, treading water, but I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been swimming and none of those times had been by choice. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be in real trouble. Where’s that bloody key?
I dove down to look as panic brewed within the crowd. After several frantic seconds, I kicked my way to the surface and sucked in a painful breath, and my heart jum
p-started when I realised my feet were no longer within reach of the bottom.
“We’re all going to die!” someone yelled.
“I’m gonna kill those Elements!” bellowed Sledge.
“It isn’t them.” None of them had used magic, and even the Water Element looked shocked as the currents surged higher, higher. People panicked, screamed, kicked one another, and generally hastened their own demise. I held my breath and dove down once again to search the sand, but no key appeared. Worse, the next time I surfaced, the door was totally submerged.
Oh, hell.
A loud splash and a scream prompted me to look up—no, across—to the balcony, where a wave had swept the Elemental Soldiers into the water. Liv, too. I might have laughed at the irony, but at this rate, all of us would drown before we got out.
I dove again, and under the water, I spotted a transparent figure hovering nearby. A Spirit Agent? Had someone come to give me a hand? It was about damn time. Wait. They were too small to be a person.
A… sprite?
My lungs screamed for air, but a sudden blast rocked the water around me. The doors burst open, and the current escaped in a flood that propelled me out of the dungeon. I landed in a heap halfway up the stairs, coughing up water, shivering uncontrollably. That was a close one.
I climbed to my feet, but the tide surged from the dungeon at my feet, carrying me up the stairs and into the corridor above. I half-swam, half-scrambled across the bare stone, drenched to the skin and still coughing as though I had half an ocean lodged in my lungs.
If we were expected to use our fire magic in the day’s trials, mine would be out of commission for a while. It also looked as though the whole castle had flooded. Which would have concerned me if I didn’t know most of the staff didn’t need to breathe. It’s all right for some people.
The question was, did the person who’d flooded the place know that? Had they been trying to kill off the competition… or had the Death King been the intended target?
I climbed to my feet, coughing, and staggered through puddles of water. Now would be the perfect time to break into the storeroom, assuming that hadn’t flooded, too. But I saw no signs of Harper among the other contenders, most of whom lay sprawled in the corridor, stunned and soaking wet. Judging by the Elemental Soldiers’ evident surprise, they hadn’t seen this coming either.
I trod down the corridor towards the storeroom, then halted when a glinting light caught my eye. A transparent figure, hovering out of sight.
I approached it. “Hey. Who are you?”
“Bria?” Harper stuck her head out of an alcove. Her wet hair was plastered to her face, and the brief flicker in her gaze towards the sprite told me everything I needed to know.
Shock rooted me to the spot. “That’s a water sprite. Was the flood your fault?”
The sprite recoiled, and Harper shot me a pleading look. “I can explain.”
“People might have died.”
She flinched. “I wasn’t trying to kill anyone.”
“Uh-huh.” I arched a brow. “Going to tell the Death King?”
“No!” she said. “He’ll kill me, and then… and then I’ll lose everything. It’s not just me whose life depends on me staying in the game.”
Her words hit me in the core. She was trying to protect someone, just like I was.
“If you wanted to win the contest, you might have tried something a little more subtle.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to go that way. I have… I have a cantrip that boosts my magic. I didn’t know it’d affect hers, too.”
“You told me you didn’t have any cantrips, though,” I said. “They were confiscated.”
She fidgeted. “I used it before I came in here. I figured they’d probably take my weapons off me, and I wanted to guarantee my victory.”
“Right.” Dammit. While part of me wanted to leave her to deal with the consequences of her ill-conceived plan, her words had hit on a sore point, and I had the sneaking suspicion it wasn’t the Death King whose retribution she feared. “Why do you want to win so badly?”
“I just need to get the job, that’s all,” she whispered. “I’m indebted to someone dangerous, and I’m still safer here than out there even if they find out it was me.”
“Indebted to whom?” Suspicion gripped me like a vice. “You’re not from Arcadia, are you?”
She shook her head. “No. As for who… you’ve probably heard the name.”
The House of Fire. They owned her, somehow, and she’d come here to escape them.
Ah, crap. Why had I picked her as my confidant? I’d wanted to avoid the House. If they have Tay, you’re involved no matter what. I might have managed to cut all ties with my background, but not everyone else would have. Even in here.
“Look,” I said in a low voice. “I think I might know who you’re indebted to, but trust me, it’s not worth doing shit they ask in the hopes that they might spare your life.”
“It’s not just me who’s involved in this,” she muttered.
“Family?” I guessed. “Do you really think this job will guarantee their safety? Why are you here, then?”
“Because it’s my only way out.”
Didn’t that sound familiar. We’d already made an arrangement, but if I were sensible, I’d back out now. I’d get the transporter back, with or without her help.
“Please,” said Harper. “I didn’t mean to harm anyone. I’ll help you get into the storeroom, and I won’t do anything else like that again.”
Dammit. “Look, I’m trying to protect someone, too. I get it. I want to help you, but I’m in deep enough crap already.”
Now I sounded like a complete arsehole. Okay, she’d flooded the entire castle and risked bringing the wrath of the Death King down on the pair of us if the Elemental Soldiers had caught on to our friendship, but I’d be a hypocrite to call her out for bending the rules, considering she at least wanted to be here.
She blinked, hard. “I understand.”
“Wait.” The word came out before I could quite consider my plan. “I’m still planning to get into that storeroom. But I think you should run your next scheme past me first before you start screwing around with magical cantrips. Deal?”
She shot me a faint smile. “Okay.”
I might be ready to leave, but I could at least give her a shot at winning in my place. She might have cheated, but who hadn’t?
“We’d better go back before they catch us alone here and draw their own conclusions.”
She nodded, walking alongside me until we found ourselves in another damp corridor where the Air Element was helping revive some of the contenders. An equally damp Liv looked directly at me, as though she thought… no, she knew, I had something to hide.
She didn’t know how right she was.
7
Harper and I joined the others, as nonchalant as we could possibly be, considering the circumstances. I couldn’t help thinking I’d made a mistake in not turning her in, because she could easily drag me down with her.
Then again, wasn’t that what I wanted? To get the hell out of here and back to Tay?
The Air Element, still soaking wet, addressed all of us. “Everyone, get into the main hall. Cal, can you get some heating cantrips to dry them off?”
The Earth Element muttered something unfavourable under his breath. God forbid he help us stay alive. Everyone was soaked through and miserable, but we all dutifully trailed into the main hall. I watched the Earth Element walk across to an oak door and push it open, presumably fetching the cantrips to dry us off. So the Death King did have his own private collection. Hmm. I’d bet they wouldn’t be watching that room as closely for thieves as the place where they’d stashed our confiscated belongings.
Liv reached the front of the hall, climbing onto the dais which I assumed belonged to the Death King.
“Hey!” she said. “Excuse me. I want to talk to you.”
The murmurs among the crowd faded to silence.
“One of the people in this room is responsible for this recent act of sabotage,” said Liv. “If anyone would like to make a confession, now is the time to do it.”
Shockingly, nobody stepped forward.
“Your choice, then,” said Liv. “All of you are going to be questioned by myself or one of the Death King’s Elemental Soldiers. If any of you saw anything that might point to who did this, then you can tell us that information in confidence and it won’t be held against you.”
“Wait, who are you?” said Harper. “You’re not an Elemental Soldier.”
“I’m head of security,” Liv told her. “And I think you’re up first. None of you is to leave this hall until everyone has been questioned.”
I could only assume the Death King had given her permission to question all of us, unless she was acting behind his back. I mean, he hadn’t come in here to yell at us in person, so perhaps he wasn’t even in the castle at all. Which made this the perfect time to break into the storeroom.
Liv climbed down from the dais to speak to the Air Element, who then beckoned someone to follow them into one of the side rooms. I, meanwhile, sat down on the damp stone floor with the others and tried to stop shivering. My gaze travelled around the hall, from one closed door to the next, until my attention came to a halt at a door of dark metal, sitting at the right-hand side of the entrance.
Is that the hall of souls? The metal door, engraved with symbols and radiating power, must lead somewhere important. A faint shape hovered in front of it, vaguely humanoid. A sprite. Not Harper’s, judging by the orange glow around his shadowy form. A fire sprite.
A sprite was the guard? If anything, I’d have thought the Death King would have given the job to his liches, but Liv’s warning about the liches possibly betraying their master came back to me. Maybe he didn’t trust them after all. Sprites were strange beings, made of pure magic and rumoured to be as intelligent as humans were, but that was about as much as I knew about them.
The Earth Element emerged from the storeroom and started handing cantrips out among the crowd. I took one and the dampness vanished from my clothes, while I finally stopped shivering. I made a mental note of the room’s location for later. It wasn’t even locked.
Cage of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 1) Page 7
