Burned (34 page)

I looked at Sonder. ‘How long did it take you?’

Sonder looked uncomfortable. ‘About fifteen minutes.’

Forty minutes passed. The crowd were definitely getting impatient. I started fidgeting, then stopped as I realised how I must look. I took out my phone and tried calling Variam, hoping to distract myself. It went to voicemail. I tried again with the same result. I wondered where he was.

‘Alex,’ Sonder said. ‘Look!’

I put my phone away and turned back to the window. All of a sudden, there was activity down on the ballroom floor, with a couple of men wheeling out some sort of metal cabinet. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked quietly.

‘They’re getting ready for the next trial,’ Sonder said. ‘She must have cleared the last one.’

Which meant she’d passed. There’s no waiting to get your results in journeyman tests; either you make it or you don’t. ‘Any idea what it’s going to be?’

Down on the floor, the men wheeled the cabinet up to the maze and then started taking it off the trolley to lower it to the floor. It was a good seven or eight feet tall. ‘Well, the only absolute rule is that they can’t ask you to do anything outside your magic type,’ Sonder said. ‘So if you’re a fire mage they can’t ask you to heal, if you’re a life mage they can’t ask you to scry…’

‘So anything that’s dependent on chance.’
Doesn’t narrow the field much.

‘Yes, but usually it’s negotiated. The examiners will come up with a list of possible tests, and then the master checks them. Then he’ll veto some of them and make his own suggestions and the examiners will decide whether they’re too easy. That’s why it takes so long.’

I looked curiously at Sonder. ‘Doesn’t that mean that by the time the apprentice goes into their test, they’ll know exactly what they’re getting?’

‘Well, they don’t know all the details…’
‘Huh.’
I guess that explains how Light apprentices can be so confident of passing.

‘That’s probably why there are so many people here,’ Sonder said. ‘Pretty much no one does an unrestricted test. It’s just…’ Sonder stopped.

‘Stupid?’ I said with amusement.

‘Well, it doesn’t make much sense, does it? You need to be able to veto things you can’t handle.’

‘Planning isn’t really Luna’s thing,’ I said. ‘But she’s great at adapting on the fly.’

‘It’s still going to be— What
is
that?’

The men down on the floor had opened the cabinet. Inside was a humanoid figure made of some kind of grey-brown material, either metal or stone. It stood about half a head taller than the men on either side of it, with thick limbs and a barrel chest. The hands were disproportionately big and looked as though they were made for punching or crushing rather than any kind of manipulation. It stood still and inert as the men worked on it.

I glanced down at the thing. ‘What’s wrong?’

Sonder was staring. ‘That’s a combat golem.’

‘Doubt it’s a golem.’ I gave the construct a critical eye. ‘Looks more like a standard construct to me. As long as you had a high enough energy reserve, you wouldn’t need an elemental.’

‘You know what I mean! They’re doing a combat trial.’

‘So?’

‘But everyone vetoes those!’

I shrugged. ‘Like you said, we don’t get any vetoes.’

The people in the gallery looked interested now, and I could see several men and women stepping close to the window to get a better view. The two girls from Luna’s class were wide-eyed, and one of them had her hand to her mouth. ‘This is crazy,’ Sonder said. ‘No one does combat trials. Well, unless you’re looking to show off, or…’

I looked to one side. ‘There she is.’

Luna had appeared through one of the side doors, still wearing her white apprentice robe. A man escorted her to the far side of the maze, where the high walls hid her from view. After a moment’s pause, the man reappeared around the side of the maze and signalled to the two men by the construct. One of them nodded back, then reached up and did something to the back of the construct’s neck.

The construct straightened and began moving. It walked to the maze entrance, its movements slow and deliberate. We were too far up to feel anything, but I could imagine it sending a tremor through the floor with each step. It paused at the entrance to the maze; the man around the other side disappeared to head back to where Luna was, then the construct marched into the maze and out of view.

‘This is so nuts,’ Sonder said.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I get it. It’s not necessarily a combat trial.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Look.’ I pointed. ‘Two exits. The one on this side, and there must be one on the other. The goal must be for Luna to make her way through. She doesn’t need to destroy the construct; she just has to get around it and out the other side. Luck and chance.’

‘It’s still really dangerous,’ Sonder said. ‘No one can see her.’

Sonder was right about that; the walls of the maze were blocking our view, save the odd flash of movement. I caught a glimpse of the construct turning a corner, then the walls hid it again. A moment later, at the other end, Luna was briefly visible as she walked down one of the corridors, heading for the side of the maze where the construct was waiting.

Sonder glanced at me. ‘I thought you were worried.’

‘Not about this.’

‘This is
really
harsh for an apprentice test. You could ask them…’

‘Look at how that construct was designed,’ I said. ‘No ranged weapons, no edged weapons. I don’t think it’s meant to actually injure her.’

‘It wouldn’t need any.’

‘Luna’s used to dealing with a lot worse than this,’ I said. I smiled. The unknown’s always scariest. Now that I knew what the test was, all of a sudden I wasn’t so worried. ‘Have some faith in her.’

Sonder fell silent. I couldn’t see anything from the maze. The window was soundproofed so we couldn’t hear anything from the ballroom outside; the only noise was the murmur of conversation from the other spectators. They sounded excited. I wondered if some of them were here in the hope that something would go wrong, in the same way that people watch motor sports secretly hoping for a crash. Sure, no one’s supposed to be killed, but there’s always the odd accident …

There was a flash of movement from within the maze, there and gone, and I caught a glimpse of Luna’s white robes as she darted around a corner. One of the walls of the maze quivered. There was a pause, the wall quivered again, then one of the adjacent walls buckled and collapsed. I could see the people down on the floor looking towards the maze exit.

‘What’s going
on
in there?’ Sonder said.

‘Beats me.’

‘Do you think we should stop the test?’

‘No, I think she’ll be fine.’

‘How are you so sure?’

The side wall of the maze closest to us exploded outwards, shards scattering and sliding across the floor as the construct burst through. It stumbled out into the open, flailing at the empty air. I could see the men down on the floor shouting – one was running towards it, another backing away – but before they could do anything the construct slowed and seized up, its limbs stiffening. It toppled to the floor with a boom that was so loud I heard it through the glass.

‘Just a feeling,’ I said.

Luna came walking out of the hole in the wall, still empty-handed. She glanced down at the disabled construct and then turned to the man approaching her. I couldn’t make out her words but I got the general message.
So what’s next?

Excited chatter broke out from the people to our left. Apparently they were feeling they were getting their money’s worth. ‘Is she okay?’ Sonder asked.

‘Looks fine to me,’ I said. Luna’s curse is pretty good at messing up existing spells. She’d probably just poured it into that construct until it malfunctioned. A couple more men had approached Luna and were saying something to her. Luna responded, and I laughed.

‘What?’ Sonder said.

I pointed. ‘They’re telling her, “You were supposed to come out the exit, not smash a hole through the wall.” And she’s telling them, “You didn’t put that in the rules.”’ I grinned. ‘Watching her do this stuff is a lot more fun when someone else has to deal with it.’

‘She’s lucky that worked.’

The argument down on the floor went on for a few minutes before trailing off. A clean-up crew arrived and spent some time figuring out how to get the disabled construct back in its box: apparently Luna had managed to sabotage it quite thoroughly, because after several failed attempts they just hoisted it on to a platform and wheeled it off. Meanwhile, Luna had been led to one of the arenas I’d noticed before.

‘Wait,’ Sonder said. ‘Isn’t that Celia?’

I followed Sonder’s gaze. ‘Huh,’ I said. ‘I think you’re right.’ Crossing the floor, escorted by another mage, was a slightly built girl with short blonde hair. Celia was a water mage apprentice, quiet and shy; I’d spoken to her a few times, usually while waiting for Luna to finish a class. I didn’t really know her very well, but I knew that Luna liked her.
What’s she doing here?

‘Those are ceremonial robes,’ Sonder said. He was frowning. ‘They must want her for the ceremony? But they shouldn’t need a witness…’

Two of the men down on the floor were talking to Luna. Luna started to answer them, then she saw Celia and she looked back and forth between Celia and the men. She looked confused, and I knew she had to be wondering the same thing as me.

One of the men walked out into the arena. The arena was a circular model, rather than a piste, with no markings apart from the starting lines. Circular arenas are used in some of the more free-for-all types of duels, where the idea is to drive your opponent out of the ring; they’re generally less popular among Light mages, who prefer the more structured azimuth contests. The man set an item down at the centre of the arena, then backed off. The object was shaped like a hemisphere and was dark grey in colour. Once he was outside the arena ring, he turned and cast a spell.

The item at the centre of the ring lit up. Strands of light grew out of the hemisphere, each only a few inches thick, glowing blue-white-green. They floated through the air as though it were water, curving and twisting. Where they reached the arena boundary they flattened, trailing along the edge as though it were an invisible wall. When I was much younger, I used to go to the aquarium at the zoo; one of the exhibits was sea anemones, and that was what this reminded me of now.

I heard chatter from the other people in the gallery; this was obviously what they had come to see. ‘You have any idea what this is?’ I asked Sonder quietly.

Sonder nodded. ‘Anemone focus. You have to touch the focus to shut it down.’

I looked at the twisting tendrils. There were only half a dozen of them, and they weren’t moving fast, but the closer you got to the focus, the denser they became. I could probably make it in there without being grazed by a tendril, but it wouldn’t be easy. ‘What do those tendrils do?’

‘I think it depends on the model. You don’t want to get touched by one, though.’

I could feel the magic radiating from the tendrils: life, mixed with something else. The amount of power in each was low, but life magic doesn’t need a lot of power to be dangerous. One of the men was talking to Luna, presumably giving her instructions. Luna was alternating between listening to him and glancing at the anemone. The basics of the test seemed simple enough: get in through the tendrils and disable the focus. What I couldn’t figure out was what Celia was doing there. There had to be some reason …

‘Huh,’ Sonder said. ‘That’s weird.’

Down on the floor, one of the other men was placing a blindfold around Celia’s eyes. Celia looked nervous but submitted without complaint. The other guy was continuing to instruct Luna. Luna nodded – then stopped. She looked sharply at Celia, then back at the man.

‘They can’t be making Celia do this too,’ Sonder said. ‘She’s not due to make journeyman for…’

I felt a nasty sinking feeling in my gut. ‘Oh shit,’ I said quietly.

‘What?’

‘They
are
making Celia do it,’ I said. ‘They’re going to make Luna lead her in.’

‘Why? That doesn’t make any—’

‘Luna could make it in to that focus on her own. They know that. So they must have made it so that the only way to pass the test is for Celia to touch it. Luna has to protect both of them.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because that’s what I would have done if I wanted to make it as hard as I possibly could.’

‘But how is she going to—?’ Sonder said, then stopped as he figured it out. With Celia blindfolded, the only way Luna could get her in through those tendrils would be to lead Celia by the hand.

The man talking to Luna gave her what looked like a final instruction, then backed off. The other men withdrew a few steps as well, leaving Luna and Celia the only people near the arena. Luna stared at the anemone, then at Celia, then shot a glance up at the gallery. All of a sudden she didn’t look so confident.

Luna’s curse is powerful – much more powerful than usual for a chance effect, enough to surprise even mages who really should know better. It’s also highly focused. It’s why Luna’s so good at duels – she’s working with her curse, rather than against it. All she needs to do is direct her curse into helping her and hurting her opponent, something her curse is more than happy to do. This was why I hadn’t been worried when she’d been dealing with that construct. In sending it to fight her in that maze, the mages in charge of the test had made things easy for her. Luna’s curse
loves
being sent out to destroy things, especially if it’s protecting her in the process.

But protecting someone else … that’s another story. With enough concentration, Luna can prevent her curse from soaking into whoever she touches. She can even reverse it, taking the same protection and good fortune that her curse brings to her and sharing it with someone else, at least for a little while. But it’s swimming upstream, going against what her curse wants to do, and it’s very, very hard. She’s done it in the past, and with Chalice’s training she’s slowly grown better at it, but she’s never been able to do it reliably. I didn’t know if she could do it with Celia and I didn’t know if she could do it on command. I looked into the future, trying to find out.