Page 44 of Souls of Steel
“Don’t worry so much,” I said with fake cheer. “This is perfect. It works great for my skills. We just have to split up and make sure we all get enough points. Besides, I doubt they’ll dump us together in clusters. That’d just cause chaos and no one will see a thing. We’d have been separated anyway.”
They didn’t answer, but I knew what they were thinking. Even if we’d been separated, they would’ve been able to find me. We all had trackers in our suits and with our chimeras in the stadium, we could communicate indirectly, even if our com-links were shut down. Granted, I’d have trouble with that, because the Sphinx couldn’t stay in constant contact with me. My lovers could have compensated for it had we stayed together. That wouldn’t be an option now, because if we ran into one another, we’d have to fight.
Sure, if push came to shove, one of them could surrender to me. I’d never be able to win fair and square. But if that happened, it could be a problem in the long run for them. The position of the Grand Chimera Unit was unique and for that reason, tamers from our squad weren’t well liked. If my lovers threw the fight to me, someone could decide they weren’t proper pilots for their chimeras. It would be crazy, but stranger things had happened.
My lovers’ panic didn’t go unnoticed. The rest of the students from the academy stepped in. “Well, there you have it, little Terran whore,” Jared Glass said. “You might as well get ready for it now. Maybe you should just go back to the shuttle and start preparing for the unavoidable. Just so you know, I won’t bother with fingers when I fuck you, so you’d better be ready beforehand.”
“You really have a death wish, don’t you, Glass?” Knox asked. “It’s fine. I think I can fulfill it.”
This time, he sounded completely calm, his voice as icy and level as Brendan’s. For some reason, it was more alarming that his previous outbursts of temper. I tensed and stepped between the two of them. “Knox, it’s okay. It doesn’t bother me.”
Jared laughed, completely oblivious to the fact that he was seconds away from dying a horrible death. “Of course it doesn’t. In fact, I’m sure you’ll—”
Before he could finish the sentence, another Harpy tamer intervened. If I remembered well, his name was Scott Argyle, and he piloted the Ocypete. “Can you not?” he hissed, grabbing Jared’s arm in a tight hold. “Taunt them later. The king’s right there.”
Finally, someone with sense. I didn’t expect them to like me, but the least they could do was pretend while we were here, surrounded by spectators.
Jared sulked, but obeyed. He returned to his fellow students, leaving us alone. Knox watched him go, but the tension in his stance didn’t fade. “I’ll still kill him, Selene,” he said. “I’m tired of this bullshit.”
His words were low enough that August and I were the only ones who heard them. August showed no reaction and I followed his cue. Even if it was true, even if Knox ended up killing Jared Glass, it wouldn’t be today, in front of all these people. He knew better.
“Let’s focus on the qualifiers, for now,” I told him.
As I finished the sentence, the platform beneath us started to fall apart, cracking in individual pieces, like a puzzle. I returned to my spot, guessing this was the moment when they’d split us up. It was. The small metallic platforms swirled around in a dizzying whirlwind, making me lose track of my lovers. The next thing I knew, the metal beneath my feet vanished and I dropped to the ground, into a labyrinth that hadn’t been there before.
Labyrinths were a favored theme in tournaments, so that, at least, was familiar. The Minotaur was one of the dormant, lesser known chimeras, but he had been very important during the original war with the apsids, and his contribution was always honored like this.
Whenever a tournament stage involved a labyrinth, competitors were always given points for finding their way out. The king hadn’t mentioned that part until now, but he would. I was sure of it.
“Whoever finds his way out of the labyrinth first will get a bonus of one thousand points,” the king announced, confirming my guess. “Good luck to all competitors.”
Perfect. If I could reach the exit first, I’d get plenty of points. But would they be enough to rank? I wasn’t sure. There were a lot of people in the labyrinth and some of them were worth hundreds of points.
Either way, it was my best chance. I pulled out my sword and held it in my right hand. At the same time, I kept my free hand on the left wall and started to walk. If I kept going like this, I’d find my way out eventually. It might take me a long time, but it would be better than going at random. I’d run into someone eventually, and if I defeated them, I could start adding points.
It didn’t take me long to find the first person. He was young, but not a student of the academy. He was wearing the uniform of The Crius Guard Corps, and the number 42 glowed on his chest.
“Oh, hello, there, sweetheart,” he greeted me with a smirk. “Let’s—”
I didn’t wait for him to finish the sentence. Instead, I pointed my sword at him and forced my new gift through the metal.
It worked better than I expected. The tungsten channeled the tachyons I’d been unable to control in the past. A powerful blast emerged from my blade, hitting him straight in the chest.
Maybe I should’ve been worried about his injuries, but the uniforms would be enough to temper the impact. Unless I lost control, I wouldn’t kill him. I didn’t have the juice right now for something like that.
The left wall parted and a drone appeared in the labyrinth. It scanned the injured man, levitated him in the air, and reported, “Mild burns, broken ulna and concussion detected. Retrieving for treatment.”
The drone’s arrival gave me an idea, but it was a little too bold to try now. For the moment, I kept walking, sticking to my previous strategy of always going left.
The second man I ran into was a student from the academy, although not a tamer. He took one look at me and smirked. “Oh, this is my lucky day, isn’t it? I’ll—”
With a mental sigh, I did the same thing I had earlier. He was so busy insulting me that he didn’t see the blast coming. It was a little ridiculous. I’d hated being underestimated, but it might turn out to be one of my best weapons.
Time seemed to slow as I moved through the labyrinth. Sweat trickled down my temples and the back of my neck buzzed where it usually connected with my chimera.
My grip on my sword tightened. My heart hammered and my breathing accelerated. The labyrinth was so quiet, isolated from the sound the spectators were undoubtedly still making. And yet, the silence seemed so loud, grating on my tight nerves.
When I stumbled onto the next person, I narrowly managed not to scream. Taken by surprise, I couldn’t conveniently get rid of him before he could do anything about it. He directed a phaser blast at me, but I dodged and the shot went wide. Unfortunately, I was close enough that he didn’t need to resort to the ranged weapon again. He lunged at me like a savage animal and I went down under his bulk, falling to the ground with a pained grunt.
