Page 5 of The Crimson Princess
A young male with a bald head and sharp features steps forward, and tension crackles in the air. This is Nathan Centor, who we all know well, as he’s come to the Challenge two times before and never made it to battle. Each time the shadows were chosen before his number was called to center arena. There has been buzz that at twenty-five he intends to be the first male guardian, and he petitioned Killian to go first today and was granted that right.
The instant he’s in the circle drawn beneath the portal, a man twice his size appears in front of him—a Third World exiled criminal with long, dark hair and bulging muscles. The crowd gasps. We know who this is. It’s Kai Von, a well-known war criminal and druid who can turn man to stone, a skill no other of our kind has ever possessed. He turned hundreds of gales to stone during thecivil war until King Killian himself was proven to be immune to his skills.
Several of our guards step to the edge of the ring, ready to intervene, to save the contestant if needed, though I imagine they will hesitate to approach Kai Von. And hesitation kills.
Satima leans closer. “Is that—”
Before she finishes the sentence, Nathan shoots a blast of energy at Kai. Kai stumbles, and the crowd cheers, but then Kai barks out laughter, and all sound in the arena evaporates. That laugh is legendary. Nathan lifts his hand to act yet again, palm up, and suddenly Kai is in front of him, pressing his palm to him, and Nathan is frozen; he’s stone. Kai begins to punch Nathan over and over until Nathan cracks and then crumbles into pieces.
Satima gasps and covers her mouth.
“Remember the legend of Medusa we read?” I ask.
She drops her hand and looks at me. “The snake lady you look at and turn to stone?”
“Exactly. You attack her from behind. You attackhimfrom behind.”
It’s right then that a young female recruit I don’t know by name steps into the arena, but she doesn’t waste any time getting to work. She runs at Kai, and it’s a smart move. Kai’s power requires that he touch you, and she’s a moving target. She does an acrobatic move, and she’s behind him, wrapping her body around his as she drives the magical blade they are each given for competition into his neck.
Kai is sucked into the portal, and the young recruit lifts the blade toward the portal, sealing Kai inside. The audience erupts in applause, and we have our first chosen one of the competition.
A collective sigh of relief echoes through the crowd. Only one death so far. It could have been much worse.
The big screen lights up and the competitor’s name is etched on the guardian side of the stone. The crowd goes wild, and King Killian congratulates the young competitor who then claims her place on a stage where she will be honored at the end of the challenge andawarded a magical guardian blade. Killian reopens the portal and another young woman steps forward. A hairy monster explodes from the portal and dives at her—a gorge, we call them—with sharp fangs that land well beneath his chin. They, like most of our creatures, are magicborn, unnatural, and therefore faster and more dangerous than the animals humans fear. The young woman rolls out of his reach, but as she faces off with the monster, it swipes its giant clawed hand at her, and she is dead, bleeding out in front of everyone.
Satima catches my arm in a vise grip. “What did she do wrong?”
“Again, get behind the hands and teeth, and go for the eyes and throat.”
She nods in earnest and sinks back into her seat, watching another recruit approach the beast from the front, screaming for her to get behind the beast. Three more die, and Satima says to me, “They can’t get behind him.”
“They keep giving him a target. Move fast right, left, under, and behind.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“I’ve trained with your father,” I say, but I don’t tell her that I was a target of death threats when I first claimed the throne. There were many who didn’t want me with their king.
“I need to train harder,” she says. “What if one day I have to fight?”
She’s right. I don’t want her to be right, but she might be, and that’s a reality both her father and I must face.
Finally, the beast is defeated, and we move on to the next battle.
And now, it’s time for contestant number nine. That’s when tiny, timid Raven steps forward. “No,” Satima hisses, as if she’s blocked out the idea that this moment was coming. “No.” She turns to me. “No!”
I grab hold of her hand and watch as Killian opens the portal. That’s when I spy at least a dozen microraptors—nasty creatures created during the civil war—pour from the opening and head straight for Raven. The worst monster anyone has facedtoday—half snake, half bird—they’re disgusting little poisonous creatures. Raven doesn’t stand a chance. Me and Satima are on our feet, and I grab her hand, holding on, as Raven launches bursts of energy to blow the microraptors to pieces, but there are just too many for such a young little girl. Raven kills six, maybe seven of the nasty creatures, but dozens more pour from the core of the portal. Satima is bawling at this point, screaming for Raven to fight harder. But I can feel Raven’s panic, and she must too. She grabs my arm. “Why aren’t they helping her? Why aren’t they saving her? Do something. Please, mama, I beg of you.”
It’s that moment when I know, in some deep, instinctual way, almost a magical hum, that tells me the dreaded truth. If Raven dies, Satima will never claim her throne. She will live in hatred for the crown, hatred for her father, and maybe even me. I know what I have to do. I lift my hand and blast the microraptors about to reach Raven from behind, and by the time the crowd and Raven have recovered, I’m in front of her. “Go!” I yell and squat down, dragging my hand from left to right with a wave of energy, and then shooting flames into the sky. The microraptors explode and fall in pieces to the ground. The crowd is loud with a mix of joy and disapproval.
All eyes lock on the scoreboard as we all watch my name appear in place of the active guardian of our most broken and vulnerable portal; the one located in the human city of San Francisco. There are gasps, and several people cry out with the knowledge that our guardian must be dead, and for reasons no one understands, the Book of Life wants me to skip the line and claim her place.
Killian appears in front of me, his hands gripping my arms the way they had Satima’s earlier. “What did you do?”
He blinks, and we’re in a private room outside of the arena, but his hands are still on my arms. “Why, Sophia?” he demands.
“Satima would never have forgiven us had Raven died. She never would have forgiven you. I’ll serve. There are many who will be pleased.”
“You are the queen. You will not protect a portal.”
