We raced down the length of the arena in a thunder of hooves and rattling wheels. Aysulu bent her head against the wind, squinting into the dust. I could not hear the crowds over the noise, but I could just make out the spectators closest to the ground, gripping the rails and leaning out as far as they dared.
Pace by pace, our chariot was gaining ground. Jahan and Alaric traded blows ahead of us, their staffs knocking together with a force that could break bones. We slipped between the Lion and Wolf’s chariot and the wall and caught up to Jin and Heishiro.
I awoke with the sun, and I heard the sound of someone moving quietly outside my door, stoking the fire and boiling water. Khalim still slept, a tangle of long brown limbs stretched out on the narrow bed beside me. He slept easy, his breathing deep and even. For the moment, no dreams troubled him.
I do not remember if I dreamt, but now that I was awake, guilt plagued me. Had I made a terrible mistake? Maybe it would have been wiser to keep my distance, so that whatever was to come, I could believe at least I had not made things worse. But it was already too late for that—it had been well before the previous evening.
Aysulu kicked her horse forward, nocking an arrow to her bow. I followed, keeping Khalim and Garvesh behind me. The salamander looked at us with one eye, small and shiny like a glass bead, and then turned its head to examine us with the other. Steam poured from its nostrils.
It was customary, I learned, for the entire team to face their beast, even those who had no skill for combat. Khalim’s value to us in this fight was obvious, but I was less sure about Garvesh.
He soon proved his worth. “I have read of these creatures,” he said, peering out around my shoulder. “They live in caves—it will be nearly blind in daylight. And watch for its tail! That will trip you as sure as its breath will burn you.”
The contest of oratory was a quiet reprieve from the activity of the day. When it concluded, there was a rush to find something to eat and to heal those who had been injured in the duels. A greater test of strength and skill was coming. Aysulu slipped out to fetch her horse from the Darela estate, accompanied by a few of the house guards, who wore surcoats of sapphire blue. She returned, horse in tow, as the crowd applauded the last speaker.
I waited until Khalim woke on his own to get up. When I came back with food for the team, he was pacing the length of the bench restlessly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There are others who are hurt,” he said. “I should help them.”
From where I stood, I could see the high seats where the Seven observed the games. They shone in the sunlight, their skin and their draped garments shimmering as though woven of metal, their faces serene and unmoving. At the center sat Andam the emperor and Shanzia his consort, father and mother to all of Phyreios. Watching them there in all of their finery, I felt I understood their haughty assurance that they could command all within their borders, including the worm under the mountain.
They had already once been wrong, however. I was certain that during the night they believed Khalim to be dead, but he had overcome. Now, of course, they knew the truth: he yet lived, and he was mostly unharmed, his magic having overcome the Serpents’ poison. If they still wished him ill, they would have to try harder. I had slain two Serpents, myself, and Aysulu had taken the third. I would only have to be faster and more vigilant the next time.
The arbiter called me forth to the ring. Were the Ascended watching me, studying my performance in this contest to find the means by which I could be bested? There was nothing to be done about it but to win the contest and the approval of the citizens, and make certain that the Sword of Heaven was awarded either to our team or to an ally.
I must have fallen asleep, for my next memory is of the early morning sunlight streaming through the narrow window of Khalim’s room. My neck ached from sleeping upright, and my tongue was dry in my mouth. Someone was walking quietly around the common room, careful not to disturb those who still slept.
I pulled myself to my feet and turned to Khalim. His eyes remained closed, though his breathing had grown uneven, and I could not tell whether he had awoken. Had the medicine Garvesh had mixed for him done its work? There was no way for me to tell; I had no skill for medicine.
Whoever you are, I prayed to Khalim’s god, though I knew not if he could hear me, you must not let him die.
I awoke just before sunrise, and after only a short while I abandoned my futile attempts to sleep again. It was for the best that I would not compete this day, as I had not rested well. My thoughts were churning like the icy mountain streams in the land of my birth, fed by snow-melt in the spring. I feared that the banks of my mind would be flooded if I remained by myself in the quiet. I rose and left my room to light the fire. In these dry climes, the early mornings were cold, even in the summer.
A fellow competitor, Rhea of the Golden Road team, had been attacked and nearly killed by a man in a mask. Reva had assured us that we would be safe during the Cerean Tournament; that it was forbidden to attack any of the contestants and that fairness in the games was sacred. She had been counting on that principle to keep Khalim safe, so that he and his god would not be at risk from the Ascended even after he made his presence known in the contest of magic. Now all the people of Phyreios knew his face and his name and what he could do.
Could I keep him safe? I was unable to protect Fearghus, all those months ago.
It had been a fine day, despite its inelegant start. Garvesh and Khalim had performed admirably, and the Iron Mountain team had maintained its lead. Aysulu would compete the next day, in the contests of skill, and she was confident that she would carry the day. Among the warriors assembled here, only the Tribe of the Lion and the Wolf had any reputation for horse archery. It would be a good test of her abilities before the time when she would face them on a real battlefield.
She found Jin facing a stand weighed down with dumplings, each filled with meat and spices. He pored over them, brows furrowed, as though they held some great mystery that he was required to puzzle out.
I parted from my companions for the afternoon and met Heishiro at the Flower of the Mountain to share a drink in the hours between the contest of poetry and that of magecraft, and passed the time there, trying to learn of the secrets of the eastern smiths. Heishiro was no craftsman himself, though he was an accomplished wielder of the weapons they made, and he could only give me a broad description of how steel was made. The tall stalks of grass that grew in his homeland and reached many times the height of a man were burned, and the charcoal left behind forged with iron to make a metal that was stronger and harder than any of the weapons and tools of my people. I asked him if I could replicate this process using what hardy plants and evergreen trees grew in the lands of my birth, and he told me he did not know.
I returned at sunset to find Khalim praying again, his bare feet slowly digging furrows into the sand under the first row of the stands as he paced. Darkness fell, and torches went up around the arena.
The next day was to be the day of the contests of oration and magecraft. I awoke to find the house in disarray, Garvesh having spread out his books on every available surface. With an exaggerated sigh, he sat down at the table before one of his tomes and placed his chin in one hand, the other tracing the rows of characters on the page. I was tempted to close my door again and see if the scene was any more comprehensible upon opening it a second time, but instead I strode into the common room and wished everyone a fine good morning.
Garvesh gave me a look sharper than a javelin, but I paid him no heed. I was still in a good humor from my victory the day before, having won my team a lead over even the Ascended’s own champions, and despite a narrow loss to the warrior Heishiro in an arm-wrestling match outside of the games.
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