Gathering of the Chosen (28 page)

Abacos looked up at her again. And unless
Raya's eyes were playing tricks on her, the Steed seemed to be
listening to her every word. It was like she was reminding him of
someone that he had once known, someone who he was supposed to
listen to whenever that person was yelling at him.

Could he be reminded of Hollech?
Raya thought.
Perhaps Hollech yelled at Abacos for being such a
dull horse in the past. That would certainly explain why he is
paying attention to me. He must be reminded of Hollech. Perhaps the
dullard even
thinks
I am Hollech reborn as a young,
beautiful mortal princess.

In any case, Raya was not going to give up
this opportunity just because she didn't entirely understand it.
She pointed at Abacos as sharply as ever, saying, “Oh, so
now
you're paying attention to me? I guess you think that
will make me feel better. Of course it won't. And I won't feel
better until you act like the First Steed and not like a young
foal.”

Abacos actually looked a little ashamed of
himself now. He pawed at the earth, no longer eating the grass.
Raya wasn't sure if that meant that he was becoming tamer or not.
She decided that it was, so she kept pushing the point.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”
said Raya. “No, wait, don't talk, because I know you can't. Even if
you could, I wouldn't want to hear any excuses from you. Your own
terrible behavior condemns you.”

Abacos now looked so ashamed of himself
that Raya found it hard to remain angry with him any longer. She
even felt a little bad for him. Abacos was clearly a sensitive
soul, so maybe she was not right in berating him for making a
mistake that he had obviously never intended to make.

So Raya lowered her pointing finger and
said, “Well, Abacos, I can now see that you are ashamed of what you
just did. Since you can't talk, I will accept your humble behavior
as an apology.”

Abacos looked at her with hopeful eyes,
which made Raya wonder if she had succeeded in taming him yet. She
wasn't sure exactly what would happen when she succeeded, but she
expected Alira to appear out of nowhere, declare her a winner, and
then whisk her away from the Stadium, hopefully to a nice party
where her major accomplishment would be recognized for its
greatness.

But nothing happened at all, even though
Raya was now certain that she had accomplished the task. She looked
up at the ceiling, hoping that maybe Alira would float down on her
platform again, but there was no sign of the Judge anywhere.

Raya waited as patiently as she could—only
about five minutes, though it seemed longer than that—before she
said to the ceiling, “Hello? Alira? Are you there? I won the
challenge. What do I have to do next?”

Still no response. She looked at Abacos,
who had returned to munching the grass underfoot, as if happy that
all was now forgiven. Raya walked back over to the room's entrance,
wondering if for some reason she would have to go back through it
herself to let Alira know that she beat the challenge, but when she
grabbed the knob and turned it, the door refused to budge. She put
all of her strength into forcing the door open (which really wasn't
much, though she'd never admit that to anyone), but it held firmly
under her strength, so she gave up eventually.

Why hasn't Alira contacted me?
Raya
thought, folding her arms over her chest and pouting.
I tamed
Abacos. What could possibly be taking up her time? Is she taking a
nap or something? Or is she ignoring me?

That last one seemed likely to Raya. So
likely, in fact, that she was quite content to think of it as fact.
Alira had been quite annoyed with her yesterday, after all, when
Raya had complained about getting assigned to the Hollech Bracket.
This was probably just Alira's way of 'punishing' Raya, by ignoring
her even though she won the challenge fair and square.

Of course she would,
Raya thought,
scowling at the thought of the Judge.
That's just the kind of
petty person she is. But she can't ignore me forever. At some point
she'll have to let me out. Then I can rub my victory in her
face.

That thought made Raya smile, but her
smile vanished when she noticed Abacos raise his head suddenly. His
equine eyes were looking directly at her. No, not
at
her,
but just behind her, as if he saw something terrible sneaking up on
her.

Puzzled, Raya looked over her shoulder.
She didn't see anything except the currently locked entrance to the
room. She did a quick look around the room, but saw no one else
besides herself and Abacos present.

Still, Abacos continued to stare. It took
Raya a moment to realize that Abacos wasn't actually staring at
anything. His pointed ears were point forward. While Raya was no
expert on equine behavior, even she understood that Abacos was
listening for something, though what, she didn't know.

But Raya couldn't hear anything except her
own breathing and the whipping sound Abacos's tail made as it
darted through the air, so she said in annoyance, “What did you
hear? A mouse or something?”

Abacos let out a sudden, deadly-sounding
snort that brought all of Raya's fears of horses rushing back to
her body. Her heart beat increased rapidly and she stood there
stock still, like every bone in her body had completely frozen.

That was when she heard it. Something
creeping behind her. It was a light sound, barely audible, but now
that Raya heard it, she could not ignore it. Abacos was backing up,
but there wasn't much room for the Steed to back up to, due to the
tiny quarters in which they stood. He stomped his hooves, like he
was trying to scare something away, but Raya could tell that it was
a futile gesture.

Then Raya felt something crawling up the
back of her legs. It felt like some kind of insect, maybe even a
snake, but Raya was certain that it was neither. She opened her
mouth to scream, but nothing came out of it. Her entire body
shivered and shuddered, but she was unable to move even an inch
from her current position.

And then she heard a voice whisper in her
ear:
I've got you.

***

C
armaz wasn't the only one who
noticed the ever-widening crack. Saia did, too, and he pointed at
it, saying, “Uh, what's that crack in the floor?”

Alira's gray eyes fell on the crack. “What
in the world—”

Then, without warning, the crack became a
chasm, tearing the floor apart underneath Carmaz's feet. He
immediately fell and would have fallen into the darkness below if
Saia had not grabbed his arm, jerking his fall to a stop. The
stress on Carmaz's arm was painful, especially since it felt like
the darkness below was sucking him in.

The chasm widened close to the seats where
the rest of the godlings sat, forcing them to jump off their seats
and run to the other side of the room as the chairs toppled over
into the darkness below. Tashir and Malya, on the other hand,
jumped over to join Saia. They helped him haul Carmaz back onto the
solid ground, but that didn't make Carmaz feel any safer. He turned
to look down at the swirling shadows below, uncertain what he was
looking at or what was happening.

“Um, Judge?” said Saia, looking at Alira,
who was now staring at the chasm in shock. “Is this also part of
the Tournament or did Ooka get angry about something?”

“I have no idea what this is,” said Alira.
She reached out toward the chasm with one hand. “But whatever it
is, it is not in the Rulebook, so I must eliminate it. Stand
back.”

Carmaz, Saia, Tashir, and Malya stepped
back as far as they could, which admittedly wasn't very far, as two
beams of light shot out of Alira's hand and latched onto either
side of the chasm. The two beams began to pull the sides of the
chasm back together, but then a shadow tendril rose from the
darkness and cut both beams in half. It must have somehow hurt
Alira as well, because she let out a cry of pain and staggered
backward as if punched in the face.

The shadow tendril then flew toward Carmaz
and the others, but Tashir drew his glowing sword and cut the
tendril in half before it could harm anyone. Half of the tendril
fell to the stone floor and dissipated in an instant, while the
other half slithered back into the shadows below.

“Where are the gods?” said Saia, his voice
higher than usual as he looked around. “Why aren't they here
helping us?”

“Something must be preventing the gods
from saving us,” said Tashir, never lowering his sword or taking
his eyes off the darkness below. “I only wish I knew what, though I
can guess that it must be related to this shadow.”

“If the gods can't beat it—” Malya said,
before Carmaz cut her off.

“Then they're even more useless than I
first thought,” said Carmaz. He looked at Alira. “Judge, we need to
get the godlings out of the Stadium before this thing kills us
all.”

“But the Tournament is not yet finished,”
Alira protested. “The Rulebook says—”

“Do you think that what the Rulebook
'says' matters right now?” said Carmaz. He pointed at the other
godlings, who were crowded on the other side of the room together.
“Just get them out of here. And get the ones in the field as well,
even if they haven't won or lost the challenge yet.”

Alira looked rather offended that Carmaz
was bossing her around, but thankfully she was more reasonable than
she appeared, because she gestured at the godlings and they all
vanished. “There. I have teleported them outside of the Stadium, so
they should be fine.”

“Hey, what about us?” asked Saia, looking
at the shadows in the chasm. “Shouldn't we be teleported as
well?”

“I was just about to do that,” said
Alira.

She raised her arm to point it at them,
but without warning another shadow tendril launched out of the
shadows and slapped Alira in the face. The blow must have been
powerful, because it knocked Alira flat off her feet and sent her
glasses flying off her face. Her giant Rulebook fell with a loud
thump
by her side and Alira herself did not move or rise
again.

“Oh gods,” said Saia. “It knocked her
out.”

The shadow tendril then turned in the air,
focusing on Carmaz and the others. Both Tashir and Malya held up
their glowing swords defensively, while Carmaz and Saia stood there
defenseless. It made Carmaz wish that he had some kind of magical
weapon of his own, or even just a regular weapon, but unfortunately
he had nothing he could use to defend himself or Saia. He would
just have to use his wit and brains. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure
how useful either of those things would be against a shadow tendril
that could knock out a pseudo-god like Alira in one hit.

Saia, meanwhile, slammed his fists against
the exit and kicked it with his feet, but the door unfortunately
still didn't budge. Yet Carmaz wondered if maybe it would
eventually give now that Alira was out, seeing as she was probably
unable to maintain the spell she cast on it while she was
unconscious. It just might need some team effort, however.

“Tashir, Malya, you keep that thing busy,”
said Carmaz. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the door. “Saia
and I will try to open the exit so we can all get out of here
alive.”

“Sounds good,” said Tashir. “But you must
hurry. Without Alira to protect us, I doubt we will be able to hold
this thing off for long.”

“Agreed,” said Malya. “But that doesn't
mean that we can't try our best anyway.”

“Just do what you can to hold if off until
Saia and I knock the door down,” said Carmaz.

The two makhimancers nodded and turned to
face the shadows again, while Carmaz ran up to the door with Saia.
Saia looked rather defeated now, leaning against the door rather
than trying to knock it down.

“It's no use, Carmaz,” said Saia, shaking
his head. “The door won't budge.”

“We need to work together to do it,” said
Carmaz. He patted the door. “On the count of three, we'll slam into
the door as hard as we can with our shoulders. All right?”

“Okay,” said Saia, though he didn't sound
terribly enthusiastic about the plan. “But what if it doesn't
work?”

“We worry about that when or if that
happens,” said Carmaz. “Now come on. We don't have time to waste
doubting.”

Carmaz and Saia stepped back a few feet
from the door, while Tashir and Malya slashed at some shadow
tendrils that had gotten too close. Carmaz ignored the shadows,
however, in order to focus on the task at hand.

“One … two … three!”

Carmaz and Saia slammed their shoulders
into the door with all of their strength. The door was solid under
their combined blows. It did, however, groan, an encouraging sign
that promoted Carmaz to shout, “Again!”

The two kept ramming the door with their
shoulders again and again, each blow weakening the door further
until it finally gave out and swung open. Carmaz and Saia staggered
through the doorway, almost tripping down the staircase, but Carmaz
caught himself and Saia as well before they could go stumbling head
first into the dark staircase.

He looked over his shoulder at Tashir and
Malya. “Guys, we opened the door! Come on!”

Tashir nodded, but said, “Just one
moment.”

The makhimancer, showing more athleticism
that Carmaz thought someone of his age should have had, leaped over
to where the unconscious Alira lay and hauled her over his
shoulder. Another shadow tendril came at Tashir, but he slashed it
away with his sword. Malya jumped over to join him as well and
hauled the heavy Rulebook under one arm, which again surprised
Carmaz, as Malya did not look strong enough to carry something that
looked so heavy.

The two of them quickly rejoined Carmaz
and Saia, the latter of whom led the way down into the staircase.
Carmaz made sure to shut the door behind them as they left to
ensure that the shadow tendrils would not be able to follow them,
although he wasn't sure how effective that was going to be. He
could already hear the tendrils beating against the door, which
prompted him to walk down the staircase after the others as fast as
he was able.