Page 90 of Lost and Stolen Gods
I took a steadying breath, then broke into a sprint across it, leaping at just the right time to avoid slippingon the smooth spot and landing neatly on the other side.
Spikes were next. Not wooden dummy spikes, but lethal sharp points of metal that would slice and impale.
No, don’t think like that. Imagine them as dummy spikes. They can’t hurt you, not if you stick to the training.
I took a beat to wipe sweat from my brow. Focus, Leela. I watched the metal points, finding the rhythm that would allow me to cross unscathed. My pulse beat hard in my throat as I waited for the cycle to reset, then counted to five. The spikes right in front of me slipped down, and I ran, hitting the next platform to the whoosh of blades shooting up behind me.
The vine frame was next, and ten feet below me was the chasm filled with wickedly jagged rocks. A fall from the frame would either kill or seriously maim, a far cry from the woodchips in the dummy one.
Don’t let it psyche you out, Leela. That’s what it’s there for.
My gaze cut across the arena to where Pashim stood with Guru Mihir. I was too far away to make out his features now, but his presence gave me strength. Ravi, my unofficial trainer, stood slightly apart from his pack now, arms crossed, watching me put into practice all he’d taught me.
I could do this.
Blood rushed to my head, leaving me momentarilydizzy. It passed, and I turned my attention to the vines wrapped around the metal frame above. Dark green was safe; light green were venomous snakes. The area closest to me was wrapped in dark green. Perfect. I wiped my palms on my pants, leapt up, latched on to metal, and began to swing.
Movement to my right had me veering left to avoid a bite. A snake peeked its head out from between the vines in front of me, forcing me to backtrack a little and go around it. I had to move fast but stay vigilant at the same time. I kept my eyes up, on the vines, watching out for peeks of light green that would indicate threat.
Hisss
Air brushed my ears, and my heart shot into my throat, but I reacted in time to avoid a bite, swinging right to avoid the snap of fangs. My arm muscles burned, fingers tingling, but I held firm.
The snake hissed again, then bobbed its triangular head as if to say well done before retreating into the net of vines where it had been hiding.
I made it the rest of the way across without mishap and swung myself onto the platform to land in a neat crouch. A rope bridge awaited me, leading me to the rockface.
The halfway point.
My palms tingled, and I flexed my hands to get the circulation working before making my way across the bridge. It swayed beneath me, but I wasn’t concerned.The ground below was muddy and swampy. If I fell, the worst that could happen would be that I’d get dirty, not that I was going to fall. No. I was finishing this damn course.
The rockface was a vertical structure riddled with small dips and ledges. I studied its face, searching for the route I’d mapped out on the dummy course over the last three weeks. It was the same here. But Ravi had warned that the rockface was a danger spot of unpredictability. That it would test me in some way.
I was about to find out how.
I nocked my fingers and boot into the first notches and began to climb.
I was almost halfway up when the notch I’d been holding melted away. I flailed and managed to grab hold of another one to my far right in time to stop myself falling. My heart hammered my ribs, sweating prickling my body as I hugged the wall. Okay, so that’s what was going to happen, was it?
I scanned notches, not just the route I would have taken but others that I might need to adjust to if this happened again, which I was sure it now would.
This time I set off with a backup plan in each step. When my boot slipped because the stone smoothed out beneath it, I was ready to hang tight and swing to another spot. My arms ached, muscles straining when I was forced to hold my body weight. Sweat dripped off me, stinging my eyes.
But it was only when my palms began to burn andblack dots danced in my vision that it occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t all right. My pulse raced, too fast to be attributed to the climb. It was getting harder to breathe, and it wasn’t because of the altitude.
There was something wrong with me.
The crowd below was filled with blurred faces and smudged bodies. The volume of sound surrounding me rising and falling like someone was playing with the volume button.
“Leela!”
A figure broke from the crowd, running toward the gauntlet. Toward me.
Araz?
My vision went dark. Panic crushed my chest. I couldn’t see. A wave of heat rushed up my body and hit my head.
I couldn’t feel my fingers.
