Page 105 of Ashes of Aether
What if I took this too far? What if I killed her?
I shake my head. Kaely can’t be dead. I only caught her by surprise with my fireball. The reason I can’t hear her must be because the wall surrounding her is too thick. When I stop, I’m sure I can hear her muffled shouts. She’s probably buried deep beneath the rock, furiously trying to battle her way out. And if I delay, she will burst through and strike me with all her wrath.
I hurry to Eliya, who is still chained in icy shackles. I untie the violet ribbon from her mouth and press my fingers to the center of her forehead. “Mundes.”
My spell breaks the enchantment, and the frozen chains shatter. Shards of ice heap around our feet.
Eliya stares at me with widened eyes. “Did you cast that fireball without any spell-words?”
I lift my head in a slight nod.
“Reyna!” she exclaims. “If the spell slipped out of your control, it could have killed us all! Or it could have drained all the aether from your blood!”
“I know the risks,” I snap. We all do. Never casting magic without spell-words is a rule taught to every adept on the first day of our enrollment. “What choice did I have? Kaely would have defeated us. We would have both failed this trial.”
Which we still might, if we linger here for much longer.
I don’t wait to hear Eliya’s response. I grab her wrist and pull her down the tunnel.
Thirty
Aswerun,eachstridesendspainricochetingthroughmybody.Kaelyhasinflictedmanyinjuriesuponme,andmyskinisscorchedfromherattacks.Thewoundsareworseningwitheverypassingsecond.Thetunnel’sstonewallsswayaroundme.
Only the determination of passing this trial and becoming a mage keeps me on my feet. I fear I will collapse at any moment. We need to finish this trial. And fast.
We say nothing as we hurry through the darkness, the glow of Eliya’s illumination orb lighting our path. Our labored breaths echo through the shadows.
I don’t know how much longer we have, how much farther we must run before we will reach the end of this maze. With every turn we take, I hope to see Archmage Gidston standing there. But no matter how much I will to see her indigo robes and neat platinum hair, she does not appear.
A sudden wave of fatigue crashes into me, threatening to drown me.
I clutch the nearest wall, my palms scraping over the coarse rock.
“Reyna?” Eliya says, shaking my shoulders.
I don’t answer her. Patches of void eat into my vision. I feel myself falling. Eliya’s hands steady me. I stop falling.
“Reyna? Can you hear me?” Her voice rings through my ears like a relentless drum. My temples throb in response.
I want to say something, but I can’t. Everything requires more energy than I can give. Even breathing taxes me.
“Conparios.” Through my half-closed eyelids, I see violet light bursting in Eliya’s hands. When it fades, a vial of ruby red liquid emerges. She tears out the stopper and presses the cool glass rim to my lips. “You need to drink. Please, Reyna.”
My mouth parts. She tips the vial and sends the potion pouring down my throat. It has a metallic, alcoholic taste which fizzes on my tongue. I choke on the liquid. Some of it slides down my chin. Eliya wipes it away with the back of her sleeve.
“Evanest,” she says, sending the empty bottle glittering away into a cloud of aether.
The potion slips down my gullet, burning me from the inside out. Where the warmth touches, energy sparks. Adrenaline surges through my veins. Everything still spins around me, but I no longer feel weak. I push myself from the wall. My senses are so heightened that even my own breathing sounds too loud.
The potion I drank was an Elixir of Flurry, and it makes my reflexes sharper than ever. Even my thoughts are unnaturally rapid. But the potion’s effects will not persist for long. It might grant me ten minutes, if I am lucky. I hope it will be enough time for us to navigate through the rest of the maze. When the elixir wears off, I am likely to collapse.
“How do you feel?” Eliya asks, peering at me.
“Fine for now,” I reply, the words bursting from my mouth so quickly they jumble together into one syllable. “Let’s go before it wears off.”
We continue racing down the tunnel, desperately seeking the end. Now I feel no fatigue, even though I am sprinting far faster than I normally can. I seem to see the uneven peaks and troughs in the stone before they appear and leap right over them. Eliya, whose reflexes are at a normal speed, begins to fall behind. At each corner, I wait for her to catch up.
The tunnel arrives at another cave, much like the first one I faced inside this underground maze. A stone door lies at the far side, and a golden altar sits in the center. As we draw near, it gleams in the radiance of Eliya’s illumination orbs. Two candles sit on either side of the altar’s polished bowl. Both are lit. The conjured flames flicker, burning for eternity.