First Year (17 page)

I helped him off the ledge.

“C-close call,” my brother gasped.

As the two of us stood I apologized. “I don’t know what happened!” My head felt like it was on fire. My stomach was reeling.

“I’ve seen things like that before,” Alex gasped, “when someone tries to cast above their means!”

The two of us hurried down the path. I tried to continue, ignoring the pain until it finally became too much.

Ducking behind a bush, I spilled the contents of my stomach until there was nothing left. A sour odor filled my nose. I wiped my mouth against my sleeve, the headache instantly gone.

Alex was waiting for me when I returned. He didn’t ask, and I was grateful.

We didn’t encounter another first-year for a while, but eventually we did make out another group in the distance. Ella was with them, descending the steep switchbacks below. I hadn’t noticed her at first because she was so far ahead, but now I did, her black bangs and bronze skin glistening in the sun.

I didn’t see Darren’s group below, so I could only assume they had taken another approach. A second later I realized my mistake. There was a cluster of telltale green racing down the ravine much further on. I could see Darren leading his troop along a winding stream, gesturing to what was undoubtedly a large wooden chest at the edge of the river’s fork. It was almost directly beneath the rocky ledge we stood now.

Our best bet was to take the same path as everyone else, using the gradual round descent instead of a risky climb. With only two groups ahead Alex and I still had a chance.

I blinked and then swore as I noticed another company of students emerging from a hidden alcove at the bottom of the trail. They must have found a way to go around the overpass. There were about twelve or so in Darren’s group, and this new hoard easily accounted for thirty. Add Ella’s large group of sixty, and that left a shortage of tokens.

Somewhere behind us were bound to be fifteen or so stragglers, but it was not enough. Alex and I needed to get ahead of the first-years in Ella’s group. Not all of them, but at least ten to be safe. I couldn’t be too certain of the numbers ahead.

“We are in trouble.”

I pointed to a steep slope to our left. “We’ll never catch up if we take the same route as everyone else.” We were certain to catch up if we avoided the switchback and used the drop to cut straight down the mountainside instead.

“You can’t be serious.” Alex stared at the ledge. “That’s easily two hundred feet of granite!”

I shook my head, vehemently. “I used to climb rocks all the time in Demsh’aa. You know that.” I began to lower myself into the first foothold.

“I can’t follow you, Ry.” My brother had a crippling fear of heights.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “We only need one of us to reach that chest in time.” I braced myself against the cliff’s face. “We can meet back at the first river crossing on return. If either of us gets a token, we can grab an extra for the other.”

For the next thirty minutes I scaled the side of the cliff as if it were no more than a large boulder back home.

My hands were cracked and bleeding from the constant friction of rapid flesh against the sharp edges of rock, but I didn’t have time for a slow climb. I had no way of measuring my progress against the rest of the class—the stone wall blocked my view of the trail—and I could only hope I had made the right choice.

In what seemed like forever, I finally reached its base. Sprinting over the scattered brush, I raced in the direction of a babbling stream.

No more than a quarter mile out I could see a crowd of first-years rushing back. Flashes of red and orange—telltale copper coins the size of my palm—glittered from tightly clenched fists.

I shoved my way past the group, not caring to apologize as I made my way toward the chest. I ran the two minutes it took to reach its wooden coffer and snagged two medallions. There was still a large handful left.

“Well, well, the lowborn is a thief.”

My elation broke as I came face-to-face with Priscilla. She had been missing from Darren’s party earlier, I realized dimly. Judging from the gathering of others behind her, Priscilla must have been leading the large mass from the switchbacks.

I quickly closed my hand around the two coins I had taken. I started to push past but Priscilla shoved me forward.

“There’s enough for both of us!” I hissed, not wanting to draw attention. People would not take kindly to the fact that I had taken more than my share.

Priscilla grabbed my wrist, and I jerked it away.

“She grabbed two!” Priscilla shrieked.

Angry faces filled my vision.

“It’s for my brother!”

“Does anyone think it is fair that she is trying to sabotage us?” Priscilla demanded.

“No—I wasn’t…” I paled, nervously inching backward, only to find myself surrounded by the hoard.
Where was Ella? Alex? Any of my friends from the study group?
 

Anxiously I scanned the crowd, but I could find no friendly faces. My friends had either already grabbed a token or were too far away to be of any help.

“Give us your tokens, Ryiah.”

I glowered at Priscilla, angry that she was playing the part of the people’s savior even though we both knew it was her furthest intention. Her only loyalty was to the prince. She was just using the students here in her personal vendetta against me. Our last encounter was coming back to slap me in the face.

I should never have baited her.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Ruth and Jordan at the edge of the mob, but they both sadly shook their heads. There were too many others for them to come to my aid.

The last thing anyone wanted to do was find themselves in the same position I was.

I had no way out. If it had just been Priscilla I would have tried to escape. She was more powerful than me, but I might have stood a chance were it one-on-one.

Twenty-on-one was a whole other story.

I’m sorry Alex.
I tossed my brother’s token to Priscilla.

“I said both coins.”

“But I—”

“You should have thought about that before you got greedy!” The dark-haired beauty scanned the crowd, smiling maliciously. “Does everyone agree Ryiah should pay the price for her crime?”

A unison of nods.

“This is ridiculous!” I argued. “I have earned my—”

“You steal, you suffer the consequences. Give us the other coin, Ryiah.”

Glaring, I hurled the second copper at her.

“Now, does anyone want to help me make sure she doesn’t get her hands on anymore?”

Several hands shot up, and I froze.

“Wait,” I argued, “I gave you what you wanted—”

She smirked. “Really, Ryiah. You act as if we are doing this out of spite. Please understand we are only doing what we think is fair.” She stepped forward and snapped her fingers.

Instantly, my hands were bound, and a thick cloth strip muffled my cries. Priscilla took another step forward and leaned in close so that only I could hear her next words: “
Darren told me the truth about where the two of you go each night. You might try to play coy, but I know your end game. If you ever come near my prince again, I’ll make it my personal promise you don’t last the year.”
She glanced back at her volunteers. “Now who wants to help me move her?”

I was tied up and bound to the base of a towering oak, a mere fifteen paces from the wooden chest and its now empty contents.

After Priscilla and her entourage left, there’d only been five medallions left, but in a matter of minutes another grouping of first-years had appeared, snatching the last of the tokens.

I tried to cast myself free, figuring a couple of flames were all I needed to weaken the ropes, but there was no magic left. I had drained my powers crossing Darren’s fissure.

So there I was, tied to a tree with a giant piece of parchment above my head that read “hoarder.” Thanks to the label none of the passing first-years had bothered to help, no doubt deciding it was not worth their time to try and help a girl who had enough enemies to tie her to a tree in the first place.

After ten more minutes passed I spotted Ella and my brother. Unable to draw their attention through anything but muffled shouts, I waited for them to notice me. Ella was the first, interrupting Alex to point in my direction.

They both came running to my aid.

As soon as Alex read the sign above my head, he ran a hand through his messy locks, hanging his head.

I pointed to the empty chest.

Alex swore. Ella angrily hurled her dagger at the ground.

“We’ve got to…head back,” I coughed between huge gasps of air. “Our only chance… Piers said he and Cedric… would keep everyone… that didn’t have a coin…until he had his five.” I stopped and pointed to the tunnel everyone had been using to return.

“There’s only been one person to come through here since the chest emptied,” I finished, “which means there’s still some others left. If we get back first, before the others without a token, maybe Piers will go easier on us?”

“Well, it’s better than hiking back up that mountain,” Ella said, somewhat reluctantly.

The three of us started towards the dark passageway. As we walked I explained how I had ended up bound to a tree.

“Priscilla really does hate you,” Ella observed. “That’s the second time she’s gone out of her way to torment you.”

I winced as I tripped over a small rock, grabbing onto my friend’s arm to keep from falling. “She thinks I am after Darren.”

Ella snorted, and my brother laughed loudly.

“My thoughts exactly.”

After an hour of darkness we finally reached the tunnel’s end.

“Now that’s more like it.” Alex raised his hands to the sky, bathing in the warm glow.

Ella pointed to a sloping hill in the distance. “We’ve still got to get up that thing and whatever else is out there.”

She was right.

Ten minutes later a barrage of arrows came flying from our right.

“You just had to say it,” Alex complained.

The three of us ducked and dodged, racing up the grassy slope.

Eventually, we made it past the missiles’ range and continued, cautiously, down the other side of the hill. I could see a large crowd at its base. Instinctively, the three of us picked up speed.

Sir Piers and Master Cedric stood waiting with the rest of the class. There was an ominous expression on their faces. A heavy burlap sack sat between them, glimmering with the copper tokens we had tried so hard to obtain.

Piers twirled a coin in his hand, watching it spin and then falter, falling flat in his palm. He did this two more times and then glanced up at the class.

“The rest of you are dismissed.” Almost immediately, a flurry of students began to retreat.

“Not you, boy.” Piers snatched the shoulder of a first-year that had tried to escape unnoticed. He eyed Alex, Ella, and I. “Don’t even try,” he warned.

Master Cedric cleared his throat. “Shall I?”

Piers smiled, white teeth flashing. “I insist.”

Cedric reached out to touch Piers’s throat, leaning on tiptoe to reach the height of our brawny commander. “Go ahead,” he told Piers.

Piers cleared his throat, “Attention all remaining first-years!” His words screeched across the landscape.

Several departing first-years turned around to see what was happening.

“Anyone who has not handed me a token shall report to the starting point now. You have five minutes. Then your final test will begin. I’ve got four more spots to fill, so you had better pray to your gods that one of them is not you.”

Cedric released his grip on Piers, and the commander turned to face the four of us that were already present. “Rest up children,” he said. “You might be here all night.”

In the shortest five minutes known to man, the remaining first-years made their appearance. Each one looked worse for wear than the last, and I was sorry to note Winifred among them.

Once the final student arrived, Piers turned to Master Cedric. “Is Ascillia ready?”

One of the assisting mages stepped forward, a short blonde woman with twinkling violet eyes. “I am.” In her hands she held a flask the size of her palm.

Ella gripped my arm. “Whatever happens, don’t let me be one of the four.”

“Alright, children, gather round,” Piers barked.

We came forward, and Master Cedric motioned for us to take a seat in the same circle we had assumed so many times before.

“Is anyone familiar with the basics of hallucinogens?”

Several of us looked around but no one dared to speak.

Ascillia laughed and held her bottle high: “Well, the ones that aren’t will certainly understand after they’ve had a taste of this.” She crossed the grass to the nearest first-year and produced a small tasting cup from her pocket. She poured a little of the solution into the glass and indicated for the girl to swallow. She continued to do the same until each one of us had ingested the vial-tasting draught.

“This potion is a powerful brew from some of our realm’s most vision-inducing plants—mandrake root and nightshade, to be exact. Distortive blends are what I was known for in my apprenticeship.” The woman beamed. “People say
my
castings enhance them in a way no other Alchemy mage can. You’ll begin to feel its effects after the first couple of minutes.”

Master Cedric took Ascillia’s place in the center of the circle as she stepped to the side. “We administer draughts like these to prisoners of war. They are more effective than traditional methods in questioning. Soldiers are trained to withstand many things, but not a mental assault…” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We usually don’t use this type of thing on students as it can induce madness if left untreated for too lo—”

Sir Piers jumped in beside Master Cedric with a grin. “We
usually
don’t, but good old Barclae has given us the go-ahead since this year’s first-years are more resilient than our usual batch of half-wits.”

Master Cedric cleared his throat. “The dose we gave you should be enough to induce a nightmare state constructed entirely from your own projections. The hallucinations you experience will seem very,
very
real, and nothing, not even the knowledge that you are dreaming, will stop you from believing their effects. Ascillia has worked her castings so that each of you will have a part of your subconscious reminding you of this fact and asking you to surrender—”