The day of the
International
Challenge had finally come,
and Aurelia couldn’t wait for her turn in the arena. Not only would
she get to show off before thousands of people in the audience, but
her performance would be broadcast to the whole world using Eye
Stones – magical devices that could take what they “saw” and
project it onto their counterparts: enchanted Procul
Mirrors.
She shoved her way through the crowd of
contestants, coaches, and assistants until she found the door
labeled “The Triumvirate of North America.” Late, as usual. She was
supposed to have been there twenty minutes earlier, but hadn’t been
able to resist boasting to a group of reporters who’d asked her how
someone so young ended up in the competition meant for seasoned
professionals. Answer: She was the best, of course. Being young was
an advantage, since it meant she was faster and nimbler than the
other contestants. And the reporters had eaten it up.
But it had made her late, and that was
probably going to get her into trouble.
She pushed the door to the Triumvirate’s
waiting room open and saw the other four contestants inside, all
gussied up in their qualifying round outfits. Gold, blue, and white
cloaks for the three Enchanters – who included Connor – and a gold
jacket, white shirt, and blue pants for the other Norm contestant:
a veteran Defender named Vilk.
Aurelia found it kind of
funny that he – an old man – had to wear the same thing she was
wearing. Vilk was everything she wasn’t. Unlike Aurelia, who’d
found herself compared to a doll more times than she cared to
count, Vilk was the very picture of what people expected when they
thought of Defenders. Tall, muscular, and scowling, to boot. Maybe
he was a bit on the old side, but the aura of experience added to
his tough guy image. One look at him and you just
knew
he’d seen tons of
violence over the years, and could handle anything you threw at
him. When it came to predicting who would win the Challenge, Vilk
was the favorite among the Norm contestants.
But Aurelia didn’t care. She actually loved
that people underestimated her and saw her as an oddball entry. The
less they expected from her, the more wowed they’d be when she took
the prize.
She scurried toward
Connor, a string of stupid-outfit zings on the tip of her tongue.
He’d emerged unscathed from his test against the fake monsters,
which meant he was at least close to her level. Which also meant
that she didn’t have to worry about him any more than she had to
worry about herself. And to her, monsters were just nasty, stupid
things with sharp teeth. They were predictable …
so
predictable. Connor –
who was so good at magic – must have seen them the same way too,
even if he’d never actually faced one before. The worry she’d felt
evaporated at the thought, and she hurried toward him.
Before she could reach her friend, Vilk
stepped in front of her. With his dark hair and weathered face, he
looked glummer than a raincloud.
“
You’re Aurelia Sun?” he
growled.
Aurelia looked up at him. “That’s me! Ready
for the game, Grandpa?”
“
It’s not a game, girlie.
I don’t want any part of it, but I’ve got a family to think about.
The Triumvirate can be very persuasive. How’d they coerce
you?”
What’s his problem?
she wondered suddenly.
Is he trying to scare me?
That had
to be it – he saw her as a threat. “I’ve been training for this my
whole life. I
wanna
be here,” she said, eyeing him suspiciously.
Vilk sighed. “So they conditioned you.
Figures.”
She cocked her head.
Conditioned? As if! Who
wouldn’t
want the prestige of representing their nation in
an elite competition? She paused for a moment, wondering if there
was more to his statement than she was seeing, but a man’s voice
broke into her thoughts, the sound booming out from just behind
her.
“
Proselytizing already,
Vilk?”
Aurelia turned and saw Professor Williams,
one of her teachers. He was the only one she kind of liked, since
he never showed the disdain the other magic-wielding teachers did,
and she found the stuff he taught – about monster behavior and
history – very useful. She also respected his intelligence; he’d
taught at a university before coming to the Academy, and she knew
she was lucky to be in his class. Tall, thin, and gray-haired, he
made Vilk suddenly look not so old.
“
Prosel-what?” she asked,
confused.
Williams smiled, his thin, crooked mouth
becoming even more angled. “Proselytize. It means he’s trying to
make you believe what he believes.”
Aurelia put her hands on her hips and faced
Vilk. “And what’s that?”
Vilk eyed her. “The
Challenge is a charade,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not to
‘bring our nations together’ or ‘celebrate the skills of our
warriors.’ It’s to remind the people why they need their
Enchanter-run governments … to protect them from the supernatural.
So much of what we do as Defenders goes unseen. You read about it
in the papers, but you don’t actually
see
the monsters. And until you see
them, you don’t understand how bad they are. So now, with the
Challenge, the Triumvirate gets to show the people how dangerous it
is out there – and why it’s worth sacrificing freedom for
security.”
“
That’s ridiculous,” she
said, but his words gnawed at her. She remembered what Connor had
said about the Triumvirate doing whatever it took to keep things
the way they were, and couldn’t help wondering if Vilk was right.
If he was, this was a lot bigger than she’d realized.
Vilk opened his mouth to reply, but Williams
held up a hand to stop him. “Careful, Vilk,” he said ominously.
“Talking like that could get you arrested.”
“
Anything
can get you arrested,” Vilk shot back. “I might
as well speak my mind. You know I’m right. Why else would they
impose a non-interference rule? They
want
the people to see us get
killed.”
Williams gave the other man a long, level
look. “Vilk, there’s no reason to frighten Aurelia,” he said
quietly.
Frighten me?
Aurelia thought indignantly. “Nothing
frightens
me
,”
she scoffed. “I ganked my first monster when I was eleven freaking
years old. Whatever they throw at me, I can take.”
She pushed past Vilk and
made her way toward Connor, no longer interested in wasting time
with the old grump. She could sense his stupid conspiracy theories
creeping into her thoughts, but refused to let them.
He’s gotta be trying to confuse me so I’ll be too
distracted to fight
. She clenched her
fists.
Well, I won’t let him!
When she got closer to her friend, she
realized she’d forgotten the clever insults she’d prepared. But she
could never just approach him and say “hi” – that was way too
boring a way to greet someone. Sighing, she settled for poking him
in the back instead.
“
Ow!” Connor spun around
and shot her an irritated look. “What was that for?”
“
Not paying attention!”
she said with a smirk. “If I’d been a daggercat, you’d be
dead!”
Instead of responding with his usual smile,
he said, “I know, I’m a goner, okay? You don’t have to keep
reminding me.” His eyebrows were tilted with worry, and his tone
betrayed fear.
She grew serious, realizing – belatedly –
that now wasn’t the time to tease him for his lack of experience.
The Triumvirate’s contestants were to go first in the qualifying
round, and he was up in less than an hour. The look in his eyes was
one of terror as he fiddled with his wand, and she noticed that his
hands were shaking with nervousness.
“
Sorry,” she mumbled. “I
didn’t mean to … you know.” She felt awful for having mocked him,
and considered trying to distract him again, but with his bout in
the arena right around the corner, she doubted that would work. So
she tried to say something reassuring – which she would never do
for anyone else. “Hey, don’t freak out. You’re awesome with magic,
remember? Besides, your dad won’t let you get hurt. You’ll probably
be facing some wispy little bunny monster.”
He shook his head. “The other nations choose
our opponents, and you can bet they’ll pit us against the most
dangerous creatures possible, to give their own contestants a
better shot. Not that my father would interfere, even if he could.
You were right – I’m as good as dead.”
She twisted her mouth in
regret. Her last words had probably been the most encouraging
things she’d ever said to anyone, and they hadn’t worked.
She started to speak again, but before she could
decide what to say, her thoughts were interrupted by a voice
blaring over the intercom.
“
Contestant Fifty-Eight,
Vilk Chandan, please report to the arena.”
Vilk scowled and grabbed a silver-bladed
sword from the rack on the wall. Aurelia watched, curious. He was
her competition, after all, and if she wanted to win, she had to
score higher than him. She noticed that he had a number of knives
strapped to his belt, as well as two pistols. And, as if that
weren’t enough, he grabbed a pair of daggers and stuffed them into
his boots.
That’s a lotta weapons,
Grandpa
, she thought. If he needed that
many weapons, he wouldn’t get many points for being efficient.
She’d definitely be able to beat him.
As long as she survived. Which, if she
believed Vilk, was in question.
It’s not,
she insisted to herself.
C’mon, Firedragon, you can’t let that old grump get to
you.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
This was all part of his plan – making me
antsy.
She knew the decent thing to do would be to
say something encouraging to her fellow Triumvirate contestant, but
all she could manage was a slight nod of acknowledgement. And that
was more than he deserved, considering he’d messed with her
head.
She glanced at the rectangular Procul Mirror
hanging on the wall as he walked from the chamber. It still showed
a reflection of the room she stood in, which meant the enchantments
around it hadn’t activated, and the show hadn’t actually started
yet. She turned to look for Connor, but he was gone too; he must
have slipped out of the room while she’d been watching Vilk. Maybe
he thought seeing Vilk fight would freak him out even more.
He’ll be
fine
, she told herself. She wasn’t one to
praise others, but even
she
had to admit that Connor was a whiz when it came
to magic. He knew more spells than the rest of the Scholars
combined, and he’d mastered enchantments others wouldn’t dare try.
Still, she couldn’t keep the anxiety from seeping into her
heart.
She turned back to the
Procul Mirror, wondering what Vilk would be up against. Probably a
bloodwolf – those were common, and captured often, to be used for
training Cadets at the Academy. Scary, but not
deadly
. At least not if you were
enough of a monster fighter to make it into the International
Challenge. She hoped that watching Vilk fight might give her an
idea of what to prepare for. She probably wouldn’t get the exact
same monster he did, but chances were, she’d be pitted against
something similar.
A minute later the mirror glowed blue, and
then an image of the Academy’s arena appeared in the center. Wide
and circular, with stands rising along every side, it was a
familiar sight. Before the Challenge, it had been just a classroom
to her – the place where teachers like Williams held
demonstrations, and school officials evaluated her skills. It was
also where she’d always practiced. Now, it had been transformed
into an international stage, and the whole world could see it.
When she took her place in the arena, they’d
all see her as well. She’d have this one chance to change how they
thought about Norms, and she wasn’t about to waste it.
Her eyes shot down to the
bottom level in time to see Vilk emerging from one of the arena’s
doorways, sword ready at his side, as the announcer stated his name
and nation. The multitude of weapons he’d brought with him looked
ready to weigh him down, and Aurelia found it kind of funny that
he’d thought bringing so many would help him. In her experience,
all that crap just got in the way. Sure, every monster had its
different vulnerabilities, but you could kill
any
monster by slicing its head off
with a silver blade. She didn’t see why you’d take so much extra
stuff, when all you really needed was a sword.
Well, not everyone was as good with a blade
as she was. Maybe Vilk needed a little extra help.
The gate on the other side of the arena
opened slowly, creaking as it revealed the dark, wide corridor from
which the monster would enter, and Aurelia took a step toward the
Procul Mirror, eager to see what kind of creature Vilk would
face.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared in
the darkness, fierce and hungry, and she caught her breath. Then
the rest of the monster came into sight: An enormous, flaming bull
with sharp black horns. She didn’t need the announcer’s
introduction to recognize a hellhorn when she saw one.
It charged at Vilk without
any warning, snorting through its blazing nostrils, and dread
gripped her. Hellhorns weren’t your run-of-the-mill monsters – they
were among the most dangerous creatures to ever crawl out of the
Underworld. They were not only extraordinarily strong, but also
exuded flames that could burn you up in a heartbeat. She’d never
seen a real live hellhorn before, and she’d thought she never
would. They were supposed to be extinct in this part of the world.
Did Vilk even know how to
fight
one?