The 13th day of Descending Fire, 337 in the Year of Our Empress.
Trees and bushes streaked by without notice. The ground was uneven, quite rough in places, yet its obstacles were unheeded. The man named Elated Fury was far too busy running for his life to pay attention to the scenery.
Behind him, the horns of the House of Bells sounded in the late morning air. Elated Fury cursed and picked up his pace still further. There were only a handful of other condemned criminals out there, all released for the Hunt like he'd been, but he had no doubt the others would get themselves killed in the first day. Elated Fury wasn't worried about getting caught and put down before dark. He was worried about getting enough of a head start to cover his tracks. Five hours wasn't much against Exalts.
Three days to get off the School grounds. That's all he had to survive. Three days against two dozen Dragon-Blooded students looking to prove their mettle. Three days of surviving the outdoors with Exalted hunters looking to pull him down.
He'd seen the terror on the faces of the others, knew that their fear and panic had already doomed them. Sure, he'd even admit privately that he felt the same way. But he was going to survive this, one way or the other, and no fledging Exalt was going to kill him for practice, no matter how well trained. Prisoner or not, Elated Fury was not the kind of man to go meekly to his death.
The forest grew up thickly around him now, great cedars stretching up toward the morning sky, sheltering the ground and all those on it beneath its expansive canopy. Elated Fury could hear the wind rustling the ocean of leaves above him, even over the sound of his flight in his ears. That was both good and bad. It meant the Dragon-Blooded would have to work harder at listening for him. It also meant he'd have a harder time hearing them coming.
Elated Fury charged up another hill and sped through the underbrush. Although his clothes were already growing ragged on the underbrush he heedlessly burst through, his taut, toned body was unflagging. When he'd been taken by the Black-Helms and brought to Arajuf for this Hunt, Elated Fury hadn't given in to the resignation that filled the others. There had been little else to do during his captivity but exercise. Now, it was paying off since he had been sprinting for over an hour and was still only a bit past winded.
Another horn went up behind him.
Elated Fury still wasn't worried about his trail, though. The other condemned were going to be better targets to chase down. The elite students would get them before they came after him, simply a matter of targets of opportunity. All he had to do was get far enough into the preserve surrounding the House of Bells to hit some water. From there, a fast switch up or downstream would cover his tracks, even from a Dragon-Blooded.
Unless they cheated and used Charms. His survival depended on their pride.
Elated Fury ran for hours, until his breath came too short for him to keep. He slowed only reluctantly, found a hollowed out tree with a deep base that would keep him out of sight, and he ducked into it for a good half an hour. The sword on his back was a small reassurance but it was very likely that, if it came to using it, he would already be a dead man.
With his breath back and no pursuers on his trail yet, Elated Fury shot out of the tree and resumed his frantic pace. Now was the time to get distance and he was going to get every mile he could. Once he hit water, he'd have to start being a lot more careful.
The sun rose, crested the sky, waned and had touched the horizon by the time Elated Fury found a creek. The flow was a bit heavier than he would have liked but it would do. He stopped only enough to tank up on water, filling his throat and stomach with coolness until he sloshed when he stood.
Elated Fury looked at himself in the running water's surface. No gray in his hair still. That was a little surprising, given the hell he'd been through since his captivity. Not that he was that old, it just ran in the family. He'd lost a bit of his tan, unfortunately but there wasn't anything to do about that. His build was more muscled than ever and none of his scars showed. Things were looking up.
Enough wool-gathering. He unstrapped his hard-soled leather boots and laced them across the sword sheath. It would make running a little more awkward but he couldn't do that anyway. From now on, he had to take it slow to avoid leaving a trace. Elated Fury couldn't afford to get his boots wet, either. Surviving three days would take every ounce of concentration and ability he had and getting blisters from wet boots would not help with that.
The stream was cool on his sore feet. He didn't start getting cold until hours after the moon had risen, maybe around midnight. The day's pace had worked up a fine fire inside but, bit by bit, the cold water swept it away as the hours stacked up.
Still, Elated Fury pressed on. He was exhausted, sure, but what else did you expect when you ran all day? He was still doing alright and that's what was important at this stage.
He didn't know how many miles he'd made running uphill and he guessed he made a good ten miles upstream before the dark sky began to gleam with the returning sun. That should be enough for his skilled but young and impulsive pursuers. If the Goddess of Chance was with him, all the students would have gone after the other condemned prisoners and they wouldn't even start chasing him until some time today. If She wasn't, then he'd already have a couple on his tail.
Either way, he had a good lead and he needed to rest.
Elated Fury stepped off the side of the stream, took another good drink, and spent twenty minutes working his way in until he found a good-sized tree with broad enough branches. He took pains to climb carefully, balancing nimbly with his hands and his still bare feet to reach a large enough branch to sleep on.
As he drifted off to sleep, he saw three ways this could go if the hunters came after him, and they would. First, they lost his trail entirely in the creek. The Dragon-Blooded were arrogant but not stupid so he thought that was pretty unlikely. Second, they traced him up here but missed his turnoff, which would buy him a great deal of time. Third, they would find where he left the stream to sleep and go after him from there. Which was why he wasn't going to keep going in this direction when he got up.
He'd be fine, as long as they didn't break their own rules and use Charms.
Elated Fury closed his eyes and fell into the sleep of the utterly exhausted. His dreams were thankfully few and short for he needed to regain as much energy as he could. The worst was yet to come.
It was early afternoon when Elated Fury woke. It was quiet enough but he could still hear the sounds of the forest life. Reassuring. However good they might be at hunting, a bunch of jade-wearing soldiers didn't impress the animal life much and that would have been his first tip-off if they had caught up to him.
With a soundless grace, Elated Fury poured himself down off the tree and onto the ground without disturbing a thing. They might be good enough to follow his trail to here and see what he'd been up to but they'd have to be very slow and methodical if they weren't cheating with magic and that bought him more time. Elated Fury glanced over the tree and nodded in satisfaction. Good enough.
He crept to the creek again, took ten minutes to make certain the area was secure and then he bent for a long drink. His lips had touched the water when he realized he was not the last person to have touched this ground. If they were still here, they already had him so Elated Fury took his drink and sighed in satisfaction. It was already a hot day, after all.
A thorough search of the area turned up a surprising fact. The Dragon-Blooded must have been hot on his heels because they'd already come up this way...and kept going. Elated Fury grinned at their mistake. They weren't underestimating him, that much was certain, but they hadn't been as careful as they should have been.
Of course, he was going to exploit it.
With his boots still laced around the sword strap, Elated Fury set off down the stream, heading back the way he'd come. It was perfect, really. The Dragon-Blooded students on his tail were probably going to be looking up that stream for quite a while. Then, they'd come back down and be very, very thorough and they'd find where he left the creek. He didn't doubt they'd find the tree he slept in but then they would make the mistake he expected them to. Any way you looked at it, it was a pretty safe bet he'd have a clear shot down the stream.
A few hours later, Elated Fury hit a fork he'd passed. His original plan had been to keep heading up the creek until he found another fork, backtracking that way while heading for the School boundary. Now, he might as well do the same thing. He certainly wasn't going all the way back to the House of Bells so now was as good a time to turn off as any.
"That was very clever."
Elated Fury didn't hesitate and he wasn't dumb enough to go for his sword first. Instead, he dropped, hit the water and rolled before he started reaching for his weapon. A jade daiklave shot over him, where his head had been and then he was on his feet, sword in hand.
"Thought I might come back this way," Elated Fury grinned ferally. "Good guess."
The young slip of a girl facing off with him had scorned the armor many of the others had carried, opting for a forest-colored set of green and brown clothing. She might have passed for a mortal, if not for the blue jade sword in her hand and the way the water caressed its way across her legs where it touched. She had to be young, she was a student after all, but there was nothing soft or forgiving in those pretty little features.
"You're throwing off the fucking record," she said, sniffing at the insult. "We got all the others within two hours of after starting, you know. I have a lot of jade riding on us bringing the last person down by sunset today. Already lost the last fucking one when people thought we'd catch you all yesterday."
"There will always be another bet," Elated Fury said indifferently. "I'll make one with you right now. Loser gets the other at his mercy."
"Fine. But I'm not a him," the Water-Aspected student said with a slight growl.
"You're not going to win anyway," he chuckled. Anger clouded her eyes, twisting even the practiced features of a Realm-trained Dynast, and she lunged for him. Chance bedamned, she was fast!
Elated Fury danced backward, jerking his sword left and right to ward off each of those lightning-quick thrusts from the daiklave. He could feel the drag of the water on his legs and it was obvious she wasn't being slowed by it in the least. Perfect.
He baited her on, concentrating on nothing but keeping that monstrous magical sword from spitting him like a pig. The longer they fought, the madder she got. After all, he was just some escaped prisoner, wasn't he? Some mortal keeping her from her record. That's right, little girl, get mad.
Finally, with a howl of frustration as he neatly parried an overhand swing, she charged in and tried to ram him with her shoulder. Elated Fury grinned like a wolf as his foot snared hers and they both went down into the water. This close, he had the advantage of mass and leverage over the small little Dragon-Blooded and, with him on top and the weight of the creek on top of him, he had a lot more resistance than she did. So she could move through water like it was air. He couldn't, and right now that was giving him the advantage. He could pit his strength against hers just fine but she was fighting the resistance of the water on his body when she tried to push him away.
He would have the upper hand until he ran out of air.
Their hands roved, struggling for the right grip, for the right angle to overcome their enemy. She twisted his knee savagely, wrenching a grunt from his clenched teeth. Then, he got his hands around her neck and slammed her head into the creek bed. It wasn't enough to kill her but the fight was over like that.
Elated Fury burst from the water's surface, gasping in deep lungfuls of air. He allowed himself half a dozen and then he picked up the stunned Exalt and slung her over his shoulder. She wouldn't drown there, she was a Water-Aspect after all, but he had other plans for her.