Facets of Revolution, page 35
Not to mention, she was almost certain there were those lying-in ambush waiting to pick off the unwary.
“Is there any reward for being first?” Kira asked, trying to use logic rather than force.
Devon wasn’t her soldier. She couldn’t order him to stay put and expect obedience. Not to mention, by explaining her reasoning, she hoped he would learn something.
Unfortunately, Devon stubbornness didn’t allow him to see the concession she was so graciously making. That was a trait he and Jin shared.
Through the comms, Jin snickered. “I like his fire. Let him go. I think he could make it across by himself. If not, he’ll make a stellar pin cushion distraction.”
Kira wasn’t doing that. For some reason, she felt an obligation to Devon.
Whether that was because of Jin or the fact she could see his potential, she didn’t want to abandon him unless he made her lose her temper.
“Not officially,” Joule answered for him. “But impressing the audience can lead to a more advantageous position in your birth House or another should you choose to relocate.”
“Neither of you are planning to join a House,” Kira pointed out calmly. “So, what’s the point of assuming all the risk when there’s no reward at the end of it?”
Devon avoided her gaze, the stubbornness in his face fading but not entirely disappearing.
Ah. Reputation.
Devon’s flaw was that he was ambitious. He wanted to create a name for himself. Like Graydon. And his father.
Ambition wasn’t always a bad thing, but if he wasn’t careful, it would get him killed.
Possibly others if he did stupid things in their vicinity.
“Legends often have short lives,” Kira told him.
If he wanted to be one of those idiots, he was welcome to try—but not at the expense of doing things properly.
A whistle caught their attention.
They looked up to see Raider tilt his head at the open stretch of ground. “You want a reason. Look there.”
Three individuals burst out of a break in the wall as the symbol overhead finally changed over. They raced across the floor toward the safe zone.
They’d made it a quarter of the way when the sound of zuipis being charged filled the air. Energy arrows launched in their direction as the person at the rear shouted a warning.
He stopped, spinning to throw up a shield.
He never finished as the ground erupted next to his foot. The person who’d lain in wait rose, slashing at him with their sword.
Unprepared for the ambush, the man never had a chance.
He fell to the ground, his body vanishing within seconds as the arena booted him from the area.
Without his protection, the energy arrows pierced the backs of his companions.
They fell face first toward the ground, their bodies vanishing before they could hit.
“You see now why I wanted to wait?” Kira asked the two beside her.
They nodded their heads in tandem.
Kira moved past them toward Raider. “What do you see?”
“It’s going to be tough.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Kira really wished they still had Selene in their party. The other woman’s shields were better than Joule’s. With her, there would be little issue of reaching the other side of this killing field.
“My calculations say the next circle to be chosen will likely be on the opposite side of the arena,” Jin inserted.
Great.
That meant a trip back through the maze and its warren of traps and drones while hoping there was enough time to reach their destination before it changed again.
Everything in Kira rebelled at that plan. Her instincts said she and the rest needed to stay on this side of the arena.
That this was where they would find success.
“This isn’t a test. It’s a battle royale,” Kira muttered unhappily.
“You are correct,” a voice said from the side.
Kira and the rest peered to their right to find Alexander resting against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the circle.
Selene perched on top of the wall, kicking her feet.
“I count twenty along the perimeter,” Alexander said as if his and Selene’s presence wasn’t a total shock.
“Twenty? Is that all?” Raider asked sarcastically.
“I thought you went ahead,” Kira said, ignoring the human.
“As you can see, you were wrong.” Alexander unfolded his arms and straightened. “It took you long enough to reach this point. Have your skills lapsed?”
Kira’s glare grew heated.
Not that Alexander seemed to notice as he turned to help Selene down, gentle as he lowered her to the ground.
“What’s wrong? Are we keeping you?” Raider asked with a taunting note in his voice.
“It’s good that you know.”
Kira grabbed Raider before he could do anything stupid. “Later.”
Raider’s shoulder relaxed under Kira’s hand as he backed off. “Sure. Later works for me.”
Joule looked between the two men, reading the atmosphere. “Do we have a plan?”
A low tone sounded, causing them to look up.
As if the universe had decided to up the difficulty level, shadowy shapes dropped from the ceiling. They flipped midair, small wings coming out as they glided toward Kira and the circle beyond.
A whooshing sound came next, capturing their attention. Like sand sliding against sand.
“Oh shit.” Raider stepped back, fear on the face of a man who once charged a company of Tsavitee infantry all by himself.
Kira felt her heart sink as she looked beyond him to the massive creature rising from the center of the maze.
“The fierot,” Joule whispered as the pupils of his eyes narrowed to small pinpricks.
The fierot’s limbs were thin and long, reminding Kira of tree branches. They had the same texture and color too, but that was where the resemblance stopped. Shaggy strands of black hair straggled down its back. Its face was swollen and bulbous looking.
An unsettling feeling filled Kira. One that approached terror as the fierot’s tiny eyes focused on Kira and the others.
Or more accurately the circle behind them.
“Something about this circle must require a greater test,” Selene said, echoing Kira’s thoughts.
“What do we do?” Devon asked.
Kira’s expression turned grim. “You wanted a plan? Run.”
That was the plan. Pure and simple.
There was no time for anything else.
Sure, they could try another circle but there was no guarantee the fierot or the creepy bird drones would let them go.
Their only hope for safety lay in that circle.
Alexander nudged Selene in front of him as the two raced forward.
Joule and Devon remained locked in place, staring up at the fierot with terrified eyes.
Raider swore, grabbing the shoulder of Joule’s shirt and shoving him toward the circle. “Move!”
The action broke their paralysis.
Joule and Devon dashed after Selene and Alexander.
The appearance of the fierot had caused a disturbance in those waiting to ambush them. Panicked cries spilled out of the maze as the other initiate’s finally caught sight of the terror.
“Selene!” Kira screamed.
Selene raised her arms, her hands flying through several gestures Kira couldn’t have replicated even if her life depended on it.
A narrow corridor extended from Selene to the circle. The walls ten feet high and transparent.
Joule and Devon raced into the corridor as Selene formed a third wall over their heads.
Alexander charged to the front. He plunged one hand into the ground, snagging the person hiding there and tossing them outside the corridor.
Joule and Devon reached the circle.
Kira slowed then paused as Alexander plunged his hand into the sand a second time, locating his victim unerringly.
He yanked upward; a person’s foot clutched in his hand.
“Do you remember the old rules?” Alexander asked, blocking the woman’s swing before tossing her away like trash.
“I do.”
How could Kira forget?
Those rules had kept her and the rest alive during the dark time in the camp.
“Perhaps you should follow the third one a bit more closely today,” he advised.
It wasn’t hard to figure out the one he meant.
The rule that stated they should only ever show what was absolutely necessary. The one that told them to survive—but only by the narrowest margin possible.
It was so their masters would underestimate them.
If a person didn’t know fully what you were capable of, they couldn’t defend against you.
Kira couldn’t understand why Alexander mentioned that rule to her. She strolled after the rest, trying to puzzle out the meaning behind his words.
Up ahead, Raider, Devon, and Joule had already reached the circle and had started to force their way inside.
To Kira’s surprise, Selene didn’t join them.
She reversed course toward the maze, a corridor once again extending in front of her. Alexander followed.
“Where are you two going?” Kira asked.
Alexander didn’t stop. “Our fate does not lie in this direction.”
A frown crossed Kira’s face. Then why had they come?
“Worry about them later,” Jin instructed. “The window is closing.”
Kira started forward again, only for her steps to slow a second later. There was something inside that resisted the idea of continuing in her current direction.
In front of her, Devon was the first to breach the circle’s barrier. Sweat showed on his forehead as he turned to encourage Joule and Raider.
Behind Kira, those who’d waited in ambush and those who were just reaching the area raced toward the safe zone.
Kira saw why a second later as the fierot advanced in this direction, flushing everyone in front of him.
They had no choice but to reach the safe zone or be evicted from the arena.
Joule finally made it through. Raider seconds later.
They beckoned her, screaming for her to get inside.
Kira’s pace didn’t pick up. Instead, it slowed further.
More and more, the feeling or repulsion was getting harder to ignore. Something whispering that she was heading the wrong way.
Kira stopped on the periphery of the circle, unable to take another step.
“What are you doing?” Raider asked, staring at her as if he could force her to claim that last foot of space.
Good question.
Kira looked up at the box where she knew Graydon was. From this distance she couldn’t see his expression but something about the way he stood seemed to urge her to listen to that little voice.
“Kira, you need to hurry. There’s only one slot left,” Joule urged.
One side of Kira’s mouth quirked up as she looked back at her friends.
Raider, who appeared as if he suspected what she was about to do. Joule, who was mostly concerned. Devon, whose confusion said he didn’t understand her hesitation.
“Don’t—“ Raider started.
Kira sidestepped as wind whistled past her head from an attack. The person responsible stumbled forward.
Kira planted a foot on their back and shoved.
The initiate hit the wall of the circle, sticking to it like a fly on sticky paper for a moment before slowly pressing forward.
Raider’s expression turned severe, his stare going from the stranger to Kira. “Why did you do that?”
He spoke with carefully controlled precision. As if doing otherwise might result in a tantrum of epic proportions.
“Not going to lie, I’m with the meat sack on this one. This wasn’t part of the plan,” Jin said.
Kira stepped back, giving Raider a pained smile. “I know but everything in me is saying it would be a mistake to enter this circle.”
She’d ignored her instincts once to a devastating cost. She couldn’t force herself to do so again.
“This isn’t my path.”
The words felt like a release.
She’d gotten Joule and Devon where they needed to be, but their path wasn’t hers. It never had been.
Even Raider had a different fate than her.
Though sometimes their paths might converge, each person had to determine the route they’d take.
For now, hers would diverge.
She could feel it. In her bones. And her soul.
Kira wasn’t a spiritual person. She didn’t believe in fate or any of that nonsense. Choice was what decided your future. The ones you made—the ones you didn’t.
Right now, instinct and the Mea’Ave’s will had tangled together, telling her one thing.
Her enemies expected her to be in this circle. They had planned around that scenario.
It’s why they focused on Joule. Why the ambushers had seemed to drive them along this path—even as they tried to obstruct them.
They wanted her distracted.
What would happen if she flipped the board? Acted out of character?
Kira didn’t know, but she really wanted to find out.
twenty-three
Before she could second guess herself, Kira spun and raced toward the one circle nearby that was guaranteed to have a slot remaining.
The circle she chose contained a solitary figure. The wanderer. A person who might very well be her enemy.
Electricity built in the air. Along with the knowledge that if she wasn’t somewhere safe when it burst, she would be in for a world of pain.
Maybe that was why those Tuann who’d been intent on attacking their fellow initiates were now scrambling for the remaining slots in the circles.
A time limit was approaching. One everyone could feel—even if they didn’t know when that limit would arrive.
“You couldn’t have made this easy on yourself, could you?” Jin snarled as Kira sprinted toward the circle she’d targeted.
“Why don’t we leave off on questioning my judgment for the moment and worry about my impulsiveness later,” Kira grumbled.
Like when she wasn’t trying to attempt the impossible.
She dodged several traps her senses told her were waiting below the sand, along with a chunk of stone the fierot hurled at her.
“Do you have a plan to get inside?” Jin asked, unable to disguise the worry in his voice.
Even for Kira, this was a bad idea.
Changing the fundamental rules of a competition like this simply because you willed it was impossible.
Despite that, she couldn’t force herself to divert to another course.
Something compelled her forward.
Kira was curious enough not to resist—for the moment.
“I’m working on it,” Kira said as she arrived at the perimeter of the safe zone.
She touched the wall of the circle, an invisible force preventing her hand from pushing through by so much as a centimeter.
“You’d better work fast. There’s thirty more seconds before this symbol changes over, and I don’t think we want to be standing on the outside when that happens.”
Kira squinted up at the tendrils of nearly invisible ki she could see feeding into each of the circles, not letting Jin’s words bother her.
There were two ways she could see this going.
The first was to use brute force to force her way inside.
While such a method was impossible for most, Kira sensed she could do it.
There were several reasons she preferred to avoid that option. One—because it would show too much of what she was capable of.
The most pressing reason, however, was that everything inside her was telling her this wasn’t the end of the adva ka.
It couldn’t be.
Everything they’d done to this point was far too easy for a rite of passage that instilled trepidation into anyone considering an attempt.
There had to be something more. Which meant she needed to conserve her strength and not waste it unnecessarily.
That left finding a way inside that didn’t require her to tap too deeply into the well of massive soul’s breath waiting at her center.
“Fifteen seconds,” Jin’s emotionless voice came as his training kicked in. “Ten.”
Under Kira’s palm, the resistance in the outer wall of the circle abated.
Just slightly.
Sensitive to the change, Kira pushed forward, her hand sinking in about a centimeter.
Thinking of something, Kira twisted to take in the tendrils of ki.
Wasn’t that interesting?
There was a slight flux in the amount being fed to each circle. Particularly the circle she stood in front of where the discrepancy was the highest.
If she was reading the pattern right, that meant this circle’s barrier would be vulnerable for the smallest of windows.
“Count it down,” Kira instructed, turning back to the circle with renewed determination.
Jin’s tinny voice sounded through their comms, noting the seconds as Kira set her other hand on the wall and braced.
“Four.”
Kira gathered herself, sending tiny amounts of her soul’s breath to reinforce her muscles.
“Three.”
She took a deep breath. She could do this.
“Two.”
Kira surged forward, her mind shouting “now” at the same time Jin reached “one”.
The barrier resisted, a flood trying to eject her from its boundary. It was like trying to step into a wall of rushing water.
Stubborn, Kira dug in, the legs of her muscles straining to allow her to maintain her footing.
That’s it. Just a little more.
As if sensing her thoughts, the resistance from the circle increased.
It was like confronting a water hose on full blast, the pressure threatening to rip the surface of her skin away.
Kira reacted instinctively, sharpening her soul’s breath into a blade before her. It cut through the influx of external ki, forcing it to pass to either side of her.
Even then, it took a monumental amount of will to take that first step forward.
