Don't underestimate the challenge of the Gauntlet, Mira. It's designed to test your balance, strength, and agility. The times don't matter for shit, only that you make it to the top. Reach for the ropes when you have to. Coming in last is better than coming in dead.
—Page forty-six, the Book of Brennan
I looked up, and up, and up, excitement coiling in my stomach like a snake ready to strike.
"Well, that's..." Violet swallowed, her head tilted just as far back as mine as we stared at the menacing obstacle course that was carved into the front of a ridgeline so steep, it might as well have been a cliff.
The zigzagging death trap of a trail rose above us, climbing in five distinct switchbacks of 180-degree turns, each increasing in difficulty on the way to the top of the bluff that divided the citadel from the flight field and the Vale.
"Amazing." I sighed.
Rhiannon and Violet turned, both staring at me like I had hit my head, and began singing love songs about Jack. "You think that hellscape looks amazing?"
"I agree. I've been waiting years for this!" Aurelie grinned, her normally serious black eyes dancing in the morning sun as she rubbed her hands together, shifting from one toned leg to the other in glee. "My dad - he was a rider until he retired last year - used to set up obstacle courses like this all the time so we could practice, and Chase, my brother, said it's the best part of being here before Threshing. It's a real adrenaline rush."
"He's with the Southern Wing, right?" I asked, focusing on the obstacle course running up the side of a cliff.
"Yep. Pretty much desk duty for all the action they see near the Krovlan border." She shrugged and pointed about two-thirds up the course. "He said to watch out for those giant posts jutting from the side of the cliff. They spin, and you can get crushed between them if you're not fast enough."
"Oh, good, I was wondering when it might get difficult," Violet muttered. "Thanks, Aurelie."
I located the series of nearly touching, three-foot-wide logs that jut out from the rocky terrain like a set of round steps rising from the ground to the switchback above it and nodded.
Go fast. Got it. You could have included that tidbit, Brennan.
"Still not sure why they call it the Gauntlet," Ridoc said from my right, blowing into his cupped hands to ward off the morning chill. The sun hadn't touched this little crevice, but it was shining above the last quarter of the course.
"To ensure dragons keep coming to Threshing by weeding out the weaklings." Tynan sneered from Ridoc's other side, folding his arms over his chest as he casted a pointed look at Violet.
I shot him a glare and then shook it off. He had been pissy ever since Rhiannon handed his ass to him on the mat at assessment.
"Knock it the fuck off," Ridoc snapped, earning the entire squad's attention.
My eyebrows lifted. I had never seen Ridoc lose his temper or use anything but humor to defuse a situation before.
"What's your problem?" Tynan shoved a strand of thick, dark hair from his eyes and pivoted like he was going to stare some intimidation into Ridoc, but it didn't really work out, seeing as Ridoc was twice as wide and half a foot taller.
"My problem? You think because you made friends with Barlowe and Siefert that you have the right to be a dick to your own squadmate?" Ridoc challenged.
"Exactly. Squadmate." Tynan gestured toward the obstacle course. "Our times aren't just ranked individually, Ridoc. We're scored as a squad, too, which is how the order for Presentation is decided. Do you really think any dragon wants to bond a cadet who walks in after every other squad in the processional?"
Fine, he had a point. It was a shitty one, but it was there. That didn't stop me from cracking my knuckles and glaring at him. I would have done more but I could see Professor Emetterio walking up behind our squad, his shaved head glinting in the growing sunlight. I was still on my warning from the first day of sparring, although I had grown on him. Especially since beating Xaden.
"They're not timing us for Presentation today, asshole." Ridoc took a step forward.
"Stop." Sawyer shuffled between the two, shoving Tynan's chest hard enough to make him stagger back into the girl behind him. "Take it from someone who made it through Presentation last year: your time doesn't mean anything. The last cadet to walk in last year bonded just fine, and some of the cadets in the first squad onto the field were passed over."
"Little bitter about that, aren't you?" Tynan smirked. My hand itched with the urge to slap him.
Sawyer ignored the barb. "Besides, it's not called the Gauntlet because it weeds out cadets."
"It's called the Gauntlet because this is the cliff that guards the Vale," Professor Emetterio said, finally reaching where we had all gathered. "Plus, actual gauntlets - armored gloves made of metal - are slippery as hell, and the name stuck about twenty years ago." He cocked a brow at Tynan and Sawyer. "Are you two done arguing? Because all ten of you have exactly an hour to get to the top before it's another squad's chance to practice, and from what I've seen of your agility on the mat, you're going to need every second."
There was a grumble of assent in our little group.
"As you know, hand-to-hand challenges are on hold for the next two and a half weeks before Presentation so you can focus here." Professor Emetterio flipped a page on the little notebook he carried. "Sawyer, you're going to show them how it's done since you already have the lay of the land. Then Pryor, Trina, Tynan, Rhiannon, Ridoc, Isla, Aurelie, Violet, and Luca."
A smile curved the harsh line of his mouth as he finished calling out every name in our squad, and we filed into order. "You're the only squad to remain intact since Parapet. That's incredible. Your squad leader must be very proud. Wait here for a second." He walked past us, waving at someone high up on the cliff. No doubt that someone had a watch.
"Aetos is especially proud of Sorrengail." Tynan gifted Violet with a mocking sneer once our instructor was out of hearing range.
"We get that you're being a dick to try to compensate for the size of yours, but for the love of the gods, can you shut up?" I snapped at him. I knew Violet could handle herself but, bloody hell, she was doing a mighty shit job at it.
"Like it doesn't bother any of you that our squad leader is fucking one of us?" Tynan threw out his hands.
"Tynan," Sawyer warned, shaking his head.
"I'm not-" Violet started and took a deep breath. "Honestly, it's none of your gods damned business who I'm sleeping with, Tynan."
"It is if it means you get preferential treatment!" Luca added in.
"For fuck's sake," I mumbled, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Luca, Tynan, shut up. They're not sleeping together. We've all been friends since we were kids, or do you not know enough about our own leadership to know his dad is her mom's aide?"
Tynan's eyes widened, like he was actually surprised. "Really?"
"Really." I shook my head and studied the course.
"Shit. I'm sorry. Barlowe said-"
"And that's your first mistake," Ridoc interjected. "Listening to that sadistic ass is going to get you killed. And you're lucky Aetos isn't here."
True. Dain would more than take offense to Tynan's assumptions and probably assign him cleanup duty for a month. Good thing he was on the flight field this time of day.
I would have just beaten the shit out of him if I wasn't already on extremely thin ice with Professor Emetterio.
"Here we go!" Said Professor walked to the head of our line. "You'll get your time at the top of the course, if you make it, but remember, you'll still have nine practice sessions before we rank you for Presentation in two and a half weeks, which will determine if the dragons find you worthy at Threshing."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to let first-years start practicing this thing right after Parapet?" Rhiannon asked. "You know, to give us a little more time so we don't die?"
"No," Professor Emetterio replied. "The timing is part of the challenge. Any words of wisdom, Sawyer?"
He blew out a slow breath, his gaze following the treacherous course. "There are ropes every six feet that run from the top of the sheer cliffside to the bottom," he said. "So if you start to fall, reach out and grab a rope. It'll cost you thirty seconds, but death costs you more."
"I mean, there's a perfectly good set of steps over there." Ridoc pointed to the steep staircase carved into the cliff beside the wide switchbacks of the Gauntlet.
"Stairs are for reaching the flight field on the top of the ridgeline after Presentation," Professor Emetterio said, then lifted his hands toward the course and flicked his wrist, pointing at various obstacles. The fifteen-foot log at the start of the uphill climb began to spin. The pillars on the third ascent shook. The giant wheel at the first switchback started its counterclockwise rotation, and those little posts Aurelie mentioned all twisted in opposite directions.
"Every one of the five ascents on this course is designed to mimic the challenges you'll face in battle." Professor Emetterio turned to look at us, his face just as stern as it was during our usual combat training. "From the balance, you must keep on the back of your dragon, to the strength you'll need to hold your seat during maneuvers, to-" he gestured upward, toward the last obstacle that looked like a ninety-degree ramp from this angle "-the stamina you'll need to fight on the ground, then still be able to mount your dragon at a second's notice."
The posts knocked a chunk of granite loose, and the rock tumbled down the course, smacking every obstacle in its path until it crashed twenty feet in front of us. If there was ever a metaphor for life, well, that was it.
"Whoa," Trina whispered, her brown eyes wide as she stared at the pulverized rock. Trina was the quietest, the most reserved of our squad. I could count on one hand the number of times she had spoken to me since parapet.
"You all right?" I asked her in a whisper. She swallowed and nodded, one of her brown ringlet curls bouncing against her forehead.
"What if we can't make it up?" Luca asked from my right, securing her long hair in a loose braid, her usual haughtiness not so in-your-face today. "What's the alternative route?"
"There's no alternative. If you don't make it, you can't get to Presentation, can you? Take your position, Sawyer," Professor Emetterio ordered, and Sawyer moved to the beginning of the course. "After he makes it past the final obstacle, so everyone can learn from this cadet completing the course, the rest of you will start every sixty seconds. And... go!"
Sawyer was off like a shot. He easily ran the fifteen feet across the single log spinning parallel with the cliff face and then the raised pillars, but it took him three rotations inside the wheel before he jumped through the lone opening, but other than that, I didn't see a single misstep in the first ascent.
Not. One.
He turned and rushed toward a series of giant hanging balls that made up the second ascent, jumping and hugging one after another. His feet back on the ground, he turned again and headed up the third ascent, which was divided into two sections. The first part had giant metal rods hanging parallel to the cliff wall, and he easily swung arm over arm, using his body's weight and momentum to swing the bar forward and reach the next bar hanging half afoot higher than the previous as he climbed the side of the cliff.
From the last bar, he jumped onto a series of shaking pillars that made up the second half of this ascent before finally leaping back onto the gravel path. By the time he reached the fourth ascent - the spinning logs Aurelie's brother warned us about - Sawyer had made it all look like child's play, and I started to feel a bubble of hope that maybe the course wasn't as difficult as it looked from the ground. But then he faced a giant chimney formation rising high above him at a twenty-degree angle and paused.
"You got this!" Rhiannon yelled from my side.
As though he heard, he sprinted toward the leaning chimney and flung himself upward, grabbing onto the sides by forming an X with his body, then started hopping up the conduit until he reached the end and dropped down in front of the final obstacle, a massive ramp that reached up to the top of the cliff's edge at a nearly vertical climb.
My breath caught in my throat as Sawyer sprinted toward the ramp, using his speed and momentum to carry him two-thirds of the way up the ramp. Just before he started to fall, he reached up with one arm, grasped the lip of the ramp, and hauled himself over the edge.
Rhiannon, Violet, and I screamed and cheered for him. He made it. In an almost flawless approach.
"Perfect technique!" Professor Emetterio called out. "That's exactly what you should all be doing."
"Perfect, and yet he was still passed over at Threshing," Luca snarked. "Guess the dragons have some sense of taste."
"Give it a rest, Luca," Rhiannon said.
"I'm too short for the ramp," Violet whispered to both of us.
I glanced over at her, and then back to the obstacle. "You're wicked fast. If you get your speed up, I bet the momentum will take you to the top."
Pryor - the shy cadet from the Krovlan border region - struggled on the swinging steel rods in the third ascent due to some rather predictable hesitation on his part, but he made it just as Trina nearly fell at the shaking pillars, reaching for a rope. I could only make out the flash of blue from her hair when she started the rotating stair steps, but I heard her scream all the way to my toes as that particular rope swayed near the ground.
"You can do it!" Sawyer shouted down from the top.
"They go in opposite directions!" Aurelie called up.
"Tynan, start," Professor Emetterio ordered, watching his pocket watch and not the course.
My heart thudded in my ears when Trina made it past the steps, and the drumming didn't let up as Rhiannon was called to start.
She passed the first ascent with the grace I'd come to expect from her before coming to a halt. Tynan hung from the second of five buoy balls on the second ascent, right where the ground dropped out. If he fell, he had a minuscule chance of hitting the single spinning log from the first ascent and overwhelming odds of dropping thirty feet to the ground below.
"You have to keep moving, Tynan!" I shouted, though it was doubtful he could hear me from here. He might have been a gullible ass, but he was still my squadmate. He shrieked, his arms wrapped around the swinging ball. It was impossible for him to reach his hands completely around - that was the point, and he was slipping.
"He's going to screw her time," Aurelie said, blowing out a bored sigh.
"Good thing this is only practice, then," Ridoc said, then bellowed up at Tynan. "What's the matter, Tynan? Scared of heights? Who's the liability now?"
"Stop." Violet elbowed him in the side. "Just because he's a dick doesn't mean you have to be."
"But he's giving me so much material to work with," Ridoc replied. A corner of my mouth lifted into a smirk as he backed away, heading toward the starting position.
"Swing to the next one!" Trina suggested from the top of the course.
"I can't!" Tynan's shriek could have broken glass as it echoed down the mountain, and it made my chest tighten.
"Ridoc, start!" Professor Emetterio commanded.
I had sixty seconds before it was my turn.
"Rhi!" I shouted up. "The rope is between the first and second!"
She nodded down at me, then jumped for the first buoy ball, clasping it up top, near where the chains held it to the iron rail above, and swinging her weight around the side.
It was an utterly inspired approach, one that might just work for Violet.
Gravel crunched beneath my boots as I moved to the starting position.
Rhiannon got the rope into Tynan's hand, but instead of using it to swing to the next ball, he climbed down. My jaw practically unhinged as he descended. Definitely didn't see that one coming.
"Isla, begin!" Emetterio ordered.
I bolted up the first part of the ascent, coming to the spinning log within seconds. My stomach felt like it was being stirred by this balance beam from hell. I took a deep breath and started across, jumping off the end to land on the first of four granite columns, each one higher than the last. There were about three feet between them, but I managed to leap from one pillar to the next without skidding off the ends.
And this was the easy part.
I jumped into the rotating wheel and ran, leaping over the only opening as it flew by once, then watching it come around a second time.
Timing. This one was all about timing. The opportunity came and I seized it, racing through the opening and turning back onto the gravel path of the second ascent. The buoy balls were just ahead, but I was going to fall on my ass if I didn't calm down and get my palms to stop sweating.
I sprung from the edge of the path onto the first ball, grasping it up top like Rhiannon did. There was an immediate strain on my shoulders.
Stay calm. Stay calm.
I began humming to calm myself down.
Throwing my weight, I forced the ball to rotate, swinging me toward the next one. I repeated motions, grasping from one ball to the next, keeping my eyes on the chains and nothing else. I reached the fifth and final ball. With one last swing, I threw myself sideways, releasing the ball and landing on the shoulder-wide gravel path without rolling an ankle. It was all momentum for the next ascent. I lined my body up with the first metal rod and got ready to sprint forward.
"Are you singing?" Aurelie called up from where she leapt onto the first ball below.
"Calms me down," I shot back in quick explanation. There were three iron rails in front of me, each lined up like a battering ram toward the next.
"All the other Quadrants are looking pretty good right now," I grumbled under my breath, then launched myself toward the first.
At least the texture gave me something to keep hold of as I worked my way hand overhand. The ache in my shoulders grew into a throbbing pain when I reached the end of the first rail, swinging my feet to work up the momentum for the next. The first clang of iron as the rails met made my fingers slip, and I gasped as terror clawed its way out of my stomach.
My humming grew louder as I threw myself to the next rail. I moved across it with the same hand-over-hand motion.
I heard a loud gasp and looked down just as Violet's right hand lost purchase and she swung into the face of the steep mountainside, her cheek slamming into the rock.
"Vi!" I shouted, my heart thudding in my chest.
"Next to you! The rope is next to you!" Aurelie called up.
Violet spotted the rope and took hold, bracing her feet on the knot beneath her.
I sighed in relief and continued with my course.
Pushing off the edge, I swung out for the rail and made it, immediately starting the hand-over-hand method to get me to the next one and then the next, until I finally let go, landing on the first shaking iron pillar.
The thing shuddered violently, and I leaped to the next, barely gaining a foothold before jumping to the gravel path at the end of the ascent. Aurelie was right behind me, landing with a grin.
"This is the best!"
"It's such a rush!" My breaths were choppy gasps, but I couldn't help but smile.
"Just run straight across this one," she said as we reached the twisting staircase posts jutting straight from the side of the cliff face. Each three-foot-wide timber rotated from its base in one of the steepest sections of the course. I quickly calculated if you fell off one of the posts, you'd probably drop at least thirty or forty feet onto the rocky terrain below. "Trust me. If you pause, it'll roll you right off."
I nodded and bounced on my feet. Then I ran. My feet were quick, making contact with each post only long enough to push off for the next, and within a few heartbeats, I was on the other side.
"Yes!" I shouted, throwing my fist up in celebration as I got out of the way for Aurelie.
"Go, Isla!" she shouted.
"Here I come!" Her footwork was more agile than mine as she sprang from spinning post to post. A roar sounded from overhead, and I jerked my gaze up just in time to see the underbelly of a Green Daggertail as it flew directly over us, headed back to the Vale.
Aurelie cried out and my head snapped toward hers just in time to see her wobble and slip on the fifth post. The air froze in my lungs as she careened forward, her belly hitting the next-to-last spinning log as if in slow motion.
"Aurelie!" I screamed, lunging for her, swinging across a rope, trying to get to her. My fingertips skimmed hers and our eyes met, shock and terror filling her wide black eyes as the post rolled her away from me and she fell.
Halfway down the cliff.
The sun burned my eyes as we stood in morning formation.
"Calvin Atwater," Captain Fitzgibbons reads, his voice solemn like always.
First Squad, Claw Section, Fourth Wing. He sat two rows behind me in Battle Brief.
There was nothing special about this morning. Our first trial on the Gauntlethas made the roll longer, but it was just another list on just another day except it was not.
The exceptional cruelty of this ritual had never hit me this hard before. It was not like the first day anymore. I knew more than half of the names as they're called.
"Newland Jahvon," he continued. Second Squad, Flame Section, Fourth Wing. He had breakfast duty with Violet.
We had to be in the twenties by now.
How can this be all there is?
We say their names once and then go on as if they never existed?
Rhiannon shifted her weight at my side, and she abruptly sniffled, the motion jerking her shoulders once.
"Aurelie Donans." A single tear escaped and I batted it away.
"You're sure about this?" Dain asked the next night, two worried lines between his brows as he clasped my shoulders.
"If her parents aren't coming to bury her body, then I should be the one to handle her things. I'm the last person she saw," I explained, rolling my shoulders to adjust the weight of Aurelie's pack.
Every Basgiath parent had the same option when their cadet was killed. They could retrieve the body and personal effects for burial or burning or the school would put their body under a stone and burn their effects themselves. Aurelie's parents had chosen door number two.
"And you don't want me to go with you?" he asked. "The offer still stands. You and Violet can both go to the Scribe Quadrant."
I shook my head. "This is where we're meant to be, Dain. Both of us."
He nodded but I knew he was not going to stop pressing.
"I should get to the burn pit."
"All right. Let me know if you need me." He let me go.
I nodded and made every excuse to get out of the dormitory hallway. The weight of Aurelie's pack was staggering. She was strong enough to carry so much over the parapet, and yet she fell.
I couldn't shake the feeling that I was carrying her with me as I climbed the stairs of the academic tower's turret, past the Battle Brief room, and up to the stone roof, going by a few other cadets on their way down.
The burn pit was nothing more than an extra-wide iron barrel, whose only purpose was to incinerate, and the flames burned bright against the night sky as I stumbled out onto the roof, my lungs straining for oxygen.
There was no one else up here as I slipped the bag from my shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered, my fingers digging into the wide strap of the pack as I flung it up and over the metal edge of the bin.
I held a piece of paper in my hands - a sketch I made for her - and tossed it in the bin too.
The flames caught and whooshed as they became more fuel for the fire, just another tribute to Malek, the god of death.
I couldn't sleep so I went for a run instead.
I jogged through the courtyard, empty but for a couple who couldn't decide if they'd rather kiss or walk near the dais, and I averted my gaze, heading for the alcove where I stitched up my hand after Parapet.
It had almost been two months since then.
The door that led to the tunnel we took to cross the ridgeline to the Gauntlet this morning opened along the courtyard wall, just left of the academic building, and my brow furrowed.
Who would be returning this late?
Sitting back against the wall, I let the darkness conceal me as Xaden, Garrick, and Bodhi - Xaden's cousin - pass under a mage lightheaded in my direction.
Three dragons. What were they doing out here? There were no training ops that I knew of tonight, not that I was privy to everything third-years do.
"There has to be something more we can do," Bodhi argued, looking to Xaden, his voice low as they passed by me, their boots crunching on the gravel.
"We're doing everything we can," Garrick hissed.
My scalp prickled and Xaden stopped mid-step ten feet away, the set of his shoulders rigid.
Shit. He knew I was here. Of course, he did.
Instead of the usual apprehension that spiked in his presence, only anger rose in my chest. If he wanted to kill me, then fine. I was over waiting for it to happen.
"What's wrong?" Garrick asked, immediately looking over his shoulder in the opposite direction, toward the couple who definitely decided making out is more important than getting into the dorms by curfew.
"Go on. I'll meet you inside," Xaden said.
"You sure?" Bodhi's forehead puckers and his gaze swept over the courtyard.
"Go," Xaden ordered, standing completely still until the other two walked into the barracks, turning left toward the stairwell that would take them to these second and third-year floors.
When they had gone, I stood and moved toward him, stepping out of the shadows. "I know you know I'm here. And please don't prattle on about commanding the dark. I'm not in the mood tonight."
"No questions about where I've been?" He folded his arms across his chest and studied me in the moonlight.
"I honestly don't care." I shrugged, the movement making the slight throb in my shoulders intensify.
He cocked his head to the side. "You really don't, do you?"
"Nope. It's not like I'm not out after curfew myself." A heavy sigh blew through my lips.
"What are you doing out after curfew, first-year?"
"Debating running away," I retorted. "Do you think the Healer Quadrant would suit me?" I asked mockingly.
He stayed quiet, just staring at me.
"Look, are you going to kill me or not? The anticipation is starting to annoy the fuck out of me."
"Haven't decided yet," he answered, like I had just inquired about his dinner preferences, but his gaze narrowed on the faint bruise over my eye from sparring.
"Well, could you?" I muttered. "It would definitely help me make my plans for the week."
"Am I affecting your schedule, Firebird?" There was a definite smirk on those lips.
"Yes. So you can fulfill your favor by hurrying up and choosing."
"Killing you wouldn't be any trouble, Firebird. It's leaving you alive that seems to cause the majority of my trouble." My gaze swung up to clash with his, but his face was unreadable, cloaked in shadow, go figure.
"Sorry to be a hassle." Sarcasm dripped from my voice. "I'm going."
His arm reached out to catch my wrist, as though of its own volition and he stared at it.
"People die," he said slowly, his voice the softest I had ever heard. "It's going to happen over and over again. It's the nature of what happens here. What makes you a rider is what you do after people die. You want to know why you're still alive? Because you're the scale I currently judge myself against every night. Every day I let you live, I get to convince myself that there's still a part of me that's a decent person. So if you want to quit, then please, spare me the temptation and fucking quit. But if you want to do something, then do it."
And with that, he released me and walked straight into the shadows.
I bit back a frustrated scream. I wasn't even bloody thinking about quitting and that prick would know it if he'd ever sat through an entire conversation without ending it prematurely. He was so bloody infuriating and the urge to throw something at him - even if it was just my shoe - had never been greater.