Page 56 of The Stone Secret
Selas bit back a smile. “Just ask him already.”
I smiled sweetly at Orix. “Orix, what are we doing today?”
He rubbed his hands together. “Today we play cat and mouse.”
“I’m assuming I’m the mouse in this scenario?”
“You assume correctly,” he said. “Now go stand back behind the red line.”
Red line? Yep, there was indeed a red line that ran around the room. The mats and workout equipment were all on the other side of that line, leaving the center of the room clear.
I crossed the line, and Selas followed, aiming for a panel on the wall. “Stay put,” she warned me. “The ground is about to shift.”
“Huh?”
She pulled the lever on the panel, and a grinding noise filled the room. The floor beyond the red line broke free and slid down so that I was looking into a whole new room which extended two levels below us. The floor then split and flipped to reveal new equipment and thick metal poles pushed out of the walls. Each pole had rope or rings fixed to it. The lower level was a gloomy network of obstacles made up of ledges, stairs that went nowhere, and beams. The only way out or in seemed to be via one of the ladders that clung to the walls.
“This is what we call the chase,” Orix said.
Selas rolled her eyes. “It’s an evasive exercise. Sometimes it isn’t wise to stand your ground and fight. Sometimes you need to run away.”
“Or lead the enemy into a trap,” Orix added.
“Which means employing evasive maneuvers,” Selas continued. “You can’t shift, and you don’t have wings, so this exercise is all the more important for you.”
“You want me to play your decoy, your…bait.” Was that how useless I was?
“You have no idea how important this role can be.” Orix was all seriousness now. “A graynite will home in on the kill it views as the easiest. Your perceived weakness will be the team’s strength.”
I could live with that. “Okay. Let’s get started.”
CHAPTER23
The sublevel was filled with deep pockets of shadow. Selas peered down from above, her face a pale smudge.
“Just do your best,” she said. “This is to gauge your abilities and identify areas we need to work on.”
“Where’s Orix?” My skin prickled in warning. “Never mind.” He was down here with me, but he hadn’t taken the ladders like me, which meant there was another exit somewhere. One they didn’t want me to use for this exercise.
Around me were pillars and hurdles, steps that led nowhere and platforms that ended in nothing. This arena was designed with wings in mind. For goyles to leap, fly, and latch on to things.
Navigating it and evading Orix wouldn’t be easy for me, but the outside world would be no different. As a guardian…as an elite, I needed to learn how to use the environment to my advantage.
I was smaller and faster than the average goyle, and those attributes would be my strength. They had to be.
The air shifted to my right, and I broke into a sprint toward the nearest platform. The flap of wings behind spurred my pulse into a gallop. I launched myself onto the platform, then scrambled onto the next. There was a rail above it that I could use to swing myself onto a higher platform. I could reach a ladder from that perch. All I needed—
Orix grabbed my ankle and hauled me down, slamming me to the ground so fast I barely had breath to yelp.
“Gotcha!” His eyes gleamed with wicked triumph, wings flaring and catching the air on either side of him. He was large and imposing in his goyle form, frightening even. At least, he would have been if not for the rush of annoyance coursing through me. I’d barely had a chance to get warmed up.
I shoved him away and scrambled to my feet. “Again.”
He melted into the shadows once more, leaving me unsure of where he was or where he’d attack from.
I opened my senses to the room around me and closed my eyes, feeling for his presence. It took a moment, but then I sensed him on the other side of the platform that was in front of me.
He thought I’d go for the same exit, and he could cut me off.
