Page 75 of Veiled Flames
“Don’t do this,” he whispers. “You won’t survive.”
My heart gallops, but then my mind overrules the part of me that lies between my legs. Firming my jaw, I reset my anger.
Tugging my hand away, I glare. “You underestimate me, sir. I have surprised you thus far, have I not?”
He blinks.
“I thought so.” As I stride forward, I sense his lingering gaze, hot as a steaming bath, and my neck aches with the effort not to glance back.
Treacher remains ahead of the door, his body forming a wall of threats. Arms crossed over his chest, he scans the group, a smug look on his face. He opens the door to reveal a cavernous space, its ceiling higher than the turrets of my father’s castle. The room may well be inside an actual cavern.
“New recruits,” Treacher calls out as we enter. “Head up to the viewing gallery.” He points toward a circular staircase like none I’ve seen before. Bolted to the wall, it’s forged from metal slats set around a pole, and it’s very unlike any stone or wooden stairs I’ve used in the past. I rush to stay amongst the first men to climb it, and the long winding staircase clangs beneath thefootfalls of our riding boots. We keep our hands on the pole at its center, and the floor remains visible between the slats as we climb.
Halfway up, I glance to the side, and a moment of light-headedness grabs me. If anyone loses their balance, they’ll lose their lives before this gauntlet even begins.
When we reach the top, many of the men are panting from exertion, and we spread out along a railing, also forged from iron. Once I secure a place near its center, I marvel at the railing’s construction. I can’t imagine the ironsmith’s forge that created pieces of iron this size.
“Candidates Tynan and Burchard,” Treacher calls out from below. “Let’s show the new recruits how it’s done.” He chuckles. “Any recruit who watches these two run the gauntlet without pissing his breeches, earns the right to face his own death.”
Gears grind above us, and panels open in the ceiling, exposing the room to the sky and flooding the room with light.
Fear seizes my chest.
I thought the dining hall was huge, but this space is at least four times its size in every dimension. And it’s full of strange structures like nothing I’ve ever seen. Pillars, ropes, hoops, walls and tunnels are laid out before us, many far below.
Surely some of these structures were made using magic, but it’s hard to believe the klericks would tolerate such blasphemy. But I consider the inexplicable railing in front of me, and the stairs we climbed. Not to mention all the conveniences at camp. I know nothing of magic except that it’s evil, even though Othrix used it to create the veil, but I can’t imagine how the spectacle in front of us could have been constructed without some kind of magic.
Tall pillars rise from the floor, at varying heights. Past those, I spot a channel scarred by a series of crevices, running along the center of the floor, as if this structure was built above a series of canyons. At the end of all that lies darkness—almost like a cave. There are too many features to take in, and I pull out my looking tube to better scan the space.
“Senior candidates,” Treacher bellows from below. “You each know your roles.”
Eight men run off, disappearing down narrow ledges which line the sides of the room. Another group of four crushes into a metal cage. Once they are inside, one of the bigger servants releases a chain hooked to the wall. Gears grind as the man uses the most elaborate pulley system I’ve ever seen, and he lowers the cage of men out of sight.
Leaning over the railing, I try to follow their path, but obvious sounds of awe draw my attention forward.
Tynan swings over a treacherous height, using a rope affixed to the ceiling near the corner of the viewing platform. Arching his body, he releases the rope, and I gasp. He’ll plummet to his death!
I don’t care what happens to Tynan, not to him in particular, I simply don’t want to see anyone die. Anyone else.
But he lands in a crouch atop the closest pillar. He’s perhaps ten spans down from our height, close to double that ahead of us, and the pillar’s surface provided a very small target. He throws the rope back toward the corner, and it’s grabbed by Burchard, who has to lean out precariously far to snag it.
I turn back toward Tynan just as he leaps from his perch, landing on another pillar lower down and ahead. Then he continues,leaping from pillar to pillar. Each column’s size, shape and height is different, and the distances between them seem impossibly far, yet both men are now traversing the path with relative ease and with no evident regard to the danger. If either slips or misses a pillar, they’ll certainly fall to their deaths. At best they would never walk again.
Tynan moves with the agility and grace of a mountain lion, and although he’s now far below me, I swear I can detect his muscles rippling under his leathers. But that’s likely a figment of my overactive imagination.
The pillars’ heights grow shorter and shorter as they approach the canyon floor. But both men are still too high from the ground to dismount without the risk of broken bones.
Tynan reaches the final pillar and then, without hesitation, he dives off it headfirst.
We all gasp. A flaming hoop crosses Tynan’s path, and his body passes through it, and then he rolls on the floor. I’m still shaking when Burchard follows behind him.
Using my looking tube, I study the space to better understand what I saw. A hoop is swinging like a pendulum supported by a very tall wooden structure. To pass through the hoop will require careful timing, not to mention a precise and confident dive. And the spot on the floor where Tynan landed and rolled looks as if it’s padded. Small mercy given the height of that final pillar.
The next section of the gauntlet heads back toward us and seems even more treacherous. Wide cracks in the ground slice across a narrow passage. Tynan races forward, and my body clenches. The first gap is definitely too far to leap.
But just before he reaches the gash, I spot a rope hanging ahead of him. Racing at full speed, Tynan grabs the rope and uses it to swing over the crevice, landing easily on the other side. The rope swings back, but it’s swaying, which will make it more challenging when Burchard reaches that point.
This section of the gauntlet seems possible. The trick is to build up enough speed, but also maintain enough control to grab onto each rope.
