“So, I’ve won, haven’t I?” Alex asked.
Phen’s elbows were resting on the oak table, his head propped up thoughtfully on both hands as he studied the board. His stormy grey eyes darted across the intricately carved wooden pieces, then a smug smile played on his lips. “Oh, my dear Taytora, you still have so much to learn.”
Phen plucked a piece with his slender fingers and then moved it diagonally three squares.
Right into my trap, Alex thought. Sucker.
Phen and Alex were in the deserted Great Hall playing a magical board game called The Burning Plains. It was a strategic warfare game which required the players to play commander, controlling four squadrons and leading them to victory against the opposing team's squadrons. The game’s name was based on a massive battle that had taken place between the Dagorians, Kilaydis and Queen Enrah’s race, over a hundred years ago.
Phen had beat Alex the last three games, but to her pleasure, they were becoming more and more evenly matched each time she played. She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, but she was pretty sure she had him beat this game. If she had planned her future moves correctly, that is.
No classes were being held at Baylor’s, and there wouldn’t be for a few months. It was the official day the fixture of the Golden Gauntlet would be announced. Which meant every student would see who they were versing in the first round and what their betting odds would be. Alex just prayed she and Link weren't pitted against one another—or any of her friends for that matter.
Alex moved one of her carved giants two spaces to her right, hoping she wasn't being too conspicuous in her efforts to bait Phen.
Little did he know Alex was the board games champion in her household. There wasn’t a game she could be bested at. Link’s girlfriend Nadine was constantly bringing around games every Sunday on family night in hopes of defeating her. But unfortunately for her, as Link was slam dunking at the tender age of twelve, Alex was monopolizing her fellow family members at the age nine.
If only Winstell could have been there to see this, she thought. He was always losing to Phen in The Burning Plains. But unfortunately, Link, Zudane’ and him were training down in one of the sectors. As there were no classes at Baylor’s until the final match of the Golden Gauntlet, most of the students were training amongst themselves to keep their skills sharp.
Normally, Alex would’ve been down there training with them, but after her ride with Lioden the day before, she had acquired severe chafe marks on the insides of her legs that would make the most strong-stomached doctor squirm. So, she thought it best she relaxed and recovered with Phen, playing The Burning Plains to kill time.
Alex hadn’t talked to Lioden much since the whole coming-on-too-strongly ordeal. The ride home from the waterfall was the worst. In between the awkward silences, he kept apologizing for the kiss, which meant Alex had to keep reassuring him it was OK.
Link was right after all. Lioden was just a character in a story she had written. A character that did not exist. Couldn’t exist outside of this world. That night when Alex had gone to bed, she had made a long, thought out decision. If she and Link were dead serious about killing Kilaydis, then it would have to be a long-term commitment. And she couldn’t afford to have any distractions, no matter how painfully good-looking they were. Alex knew she had to cut Lioden Thyme out of her life.
And as if her boy troubles weren’t enough, Alex and Link were still no closer to finding out the identity of Xavier’s serpent. It turned out Skemptra was just a loony after all. She had been expelled from Baylor’s for trying to gnaw off a student's arm in swordplay class. Alex joked to Link that the rat meat mustn’t have been enough to quell her appetite.
“A rather noble effort, but unfortunately for you, my squadron has you surrounded,” Phen proclaimed. But as he went to remove one of Alex’s pieces from the board, she slapped the back of his hand and clicked her teeth.
“Not so fast,” she said, wagging a finger at him as if he were a toddler trying to reach for the cookie jar. “A rather noble effort, but my Ward is still in play, protecting my whole squadron.” She couldn’t help but smile as she pointed to one of her pieces. “And now, seeing as you’ve already attacked, I can use my giant to take out these two.” She scooped up two of his pieces and placed them off the board.
“Now, have I won?” she asked with a wry grin.
The look on Phen’s face was priceless. Alex had never seen someone's face turn that shade of pink before. It was even darker than when Hilsbry was wheezing trying to climb the flights of stairs.
“No . . . ” Phenetrest said, barely audible. He cleared his throat and straightened up in his chair, trying to regain some composure. “No, because . . . .” He scratched his forehead as his eyes shot from piece to piece, alarmed.
Alex had seen this look a thousand times on family night. Usually, it was followed by her screaming “Uno!” or “Yahtzee!”
But then Phen did something she hadn’t foreseen. With his last two remaining pieces, he set his squadron in formation and pressed the attack from both sides, his Mhorokai taking the rear, his gold cloak the front. After he had finished his moves, he interlaced his fingers and smiled at her smugly.
“I’m afraid the battle is over,” Phen said. “Don’t look so shocked. It’s a standard military tactic called the hammer and anvil.”
Now Alex was the one who was at a loss for words. Phen had baited her. Lulled her into a false sense of security. And she had walked willingly into his trap. She couldn’t even respond; instead, she was scanning the board hurriedly, trying to look for a way he had cheated. But his moves seemed legit.
Maybe he had swapped some pieces when I wasn’t looking? she thought.
“Winstell doesn’t call me ‘Phenetrest the Puppeteer’ for any old reason,” Phen bragged as he stood up and hovered a hand above her head. “Now dance, puppet; dance!”
Just as Alex was about to elbow him in the ribs, Winstell had practically come skidding into the room, his pasty skin glistening with sweat.
“There you two are,” he panted. “The fixture for the Gauntlet is being unveiled. Hurry.” And then he was gone as fast as he had appeared.
Alex and Phen exchanged confused glances.
“Wasn’t there supposed to be a bell to signify the—”
She was cut short by the loud chiming of the academy’s bell.
Phen’s eyes sprung open in excitement. Sensing her opportunity, Alex messed up the board game, toppling over all the pieces with her hands.
“There. Now nobody wins,” she exclaimed as she sprinted for the door.
Phen was right on her heels.
****
All the students and master mages of the academy had gathered in the main courtyard directly in between Baylor’s two feet. Alex wriggled her way through the throng of her smelly peers, attempting to stand on her tippy toes every now and then to catch a glimpse of the giant slab of granite everyone was gawking at. But she was too far away and several feet too short. Her best bet was to sit on the shoulders of someone tall.
Where is Link when I need him?
“Tough luck,” a boy she knew named Berador said as he patted her on the shoulder.
“Tough luck?” Alex questioned. “What do you mean tough luck?”
But he had disappeared with his group of friends before she could get an answer out of him. Minutes later, the crowd of students eventually thinned out until there were only around fifty of them. Alex managed to shoulder her way to the front of the horde, squinting as she tried to find her name etched into the stone. There were approximately 300 students at Baylor's, which meant round one would consist of around 150 matches. Her eyes scoured the stone frantically, stopping when she read the name “Deonis.”
A wave of relief flooded over Alex. Her brother was facing off against a petite little boy named Geradine who was in her Swordplay class and who had two left feet. Link should be able to exploit his bad footwork in a matter of seconds.
But she knew it wouldn’t be wise to underestimate Geradine. Some students liked to hide their abilities in the presence of their peers, only letting them loose when the tournament began. Alex thought it was a smart tactic, seeing as every student was constantly analysing one another.
Her eyes continued to work their way down the wall of granite. She felt like she was about to throw up. Please tell me I’m not facing Daedrox. Please, please, please. She had almost peed her pants that day he was bullying Winstell in the corridors.
When Alex eventually found her name, her jaw not only dropped, it felt as if it had unhinged itself, hit the ground, and burrowed into the ground until it reached the planet's core.
Link, Zudane’ and Winstell emerged through the crowd then. The pain on their faces said it all. Even her closest friends knew she was a goner. Link approached his sister as the other two stayed back, their eyes watching on apprehensively.
“You all right?” Link asked.
All Alex could do was nod.
You’d think my bad luck would’ve run out after being cleaned up by a truck and being rendered comatose, she thought. Apparently not.
Her round one opponent was Lioden Thyme.
She glanced painfully at the wall again. Lioden was paying two gold pieces to win. The lowest out of all the student's names engraved into the stone. She was paying thirty-six.
Link seemed to be able to read her mind because he said- “It’s not that bad. Phenetrest is paying two hundred and four pieces, and Winstell is paying two hundred and forty-six.”
“I’m going to get beaten to a pulp,” she whimpered.
“No, you’re not,” he said, not sounding the least bit convincing. “I tell you what. We’re going to go to the library right now and find all the books we can on Teleporting. We’ll find his weakness; don’t you worry.”
“We’ll never make it into Talox’s squad now,” Alex sulked. “Deonis and Taytora made it all the way to the finals; I’m going to get kicked out within the first round. If that happens, then we might get separated into different squadrons and—”
“Library,” Link ordered. “Leave the thinking to me.”
She shook her head. “The library can wait. I need to see him first.”
“See who?”
“Lioden.”
Her brother pinched the bridge of his nose. “May I ask why?”
“No, you may not,” Alex said harshly. “Just meet me in the library.”
“Is there something going on between the—”
“Just meet me in the library for goodness sakes!”
It took her a while to find the singer. Alex scoured the rest of the courtyard, Baylor’s Belly, the lake and forest sectors. But the place she eventually found him in was the area surrounded by straw dummies. Lioden didn’t so much as glance her way as she approached.
Alex’s heart was racing, watching as his deft hands performed a Spell with ease. As Lioden finished the final link of the Chain, an arrow of air shot from his hand, leaving a gaping hole in the chest of a dummy thirty feet away. Her throat constricted.
This kid is a jack-of-all-trades.
“Seen the fixture by any chance?” Alex asked. She tried to coolly lean against a straw dummy, but it toppled over. She quickly moved away from it before it hit the ground with a thud.
Lioden performed the same Windwielding Spell, this time aiming for a different dummy. Its head flew off and bounced airlessly across the ground like a tumbleweed in an old Western movie. As Alex watched it roll, she couldn’t help but to picture it as her own head.
“I did,” is all Lioden could say. He still hadn’t glanced at her.
“And?” she asked, drawing out the word expectantly.
“And, I think it’s best we don’t talk to each other until after our match,” Lioden said.
His words were like a cold icicle to the heart.
“Lioden I—”
“I need to stay focused, Taytora,” he said, turning to Alex and finally meeting her gaze. His eyes were dripping with sorrow. “And I can’t do that if I . . . Despite how I feel about you, I . . . .” He stopped and then seemed to get angry at himself. “Look, I won’t be going easy on you. I-I can’t afford to. I’ve disappointed Father enough already.”
A steady wind rolled through the sector, blowing a lock of Lioden’s hair in his eyes. He wiped it away with an impatient hand. “Did you come here for a reason?”
“I just wanted you to know that I won’t be holding back either,” Alex said as confidently as she could. “That I’m going to give you everything I’ve got.”
Lioden cleared his throat awkwardly, then wiped away the beads of sweat that were tracing a path through the grime down his face. And then he smiled. That glorious, radiant smile. “Thank you. That makes this a whole lot easier.”
And then his body crumbled into black ash again. Before Alex knew it, he was behind a straw dummy, ripping its head off. And then he had disappeared before the body had fallen. She watched in shock as he vanished and reappeared across the entire sector, punching holes and kicking dummies through the air. In five seconds, he had wiped out more than ten of them. Alex tried to look as if she was unimpressed by his performance. But her bulging eyes and nervous sweats might have given it away.
“Can you promise me something?” Lioden asked when he reappeared before her, huffing and puffing. He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Promise me after this, things will go back to the way they were before. N-Not after the incident in the cave either.” He paused to catch his breath. “Although that was rather stupid of me—anyway, I’m getting off topic. Before the tournament, I meant to say. Can you promise me that everything will be fine between us afterward? No matter what happens?”
“Only if you can promise me one thing as well?” Alex asked.
“Anything.”
“That you won’t cry to your father after I beat you up.”
And then Lioden laughed for the first time. Not a chuckle either, not a giggle—a hearty, genuine laugh. That day he walked Alex to class he had warned her his laugh was worse than hers. But she had to hear it to believe it. And Alex wished she hadn’t heard it, because she still couldn’t believe it.
Lioden’s laugh sounded like an evil villain's deep, manic laughter. As if he had just masterminded a plot to enslave the whole human race and was now celebrating.
“Wow,” is all Alex could say when he had finished. “You, uh, you weren’t joking, were you?”
“Told you it was bad,” Lioden said, fighting off an embarrassed smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Taytora, I need to train. And then his body crumbled into the black ash and disappeared.
“I’d advise you to do so as well.” His voice spoke from behind her. He was close. So close Alex could feel his breath on the back of her neck.
“I don’t need training to defeat you, Lioden Thyme,” she said confidently, without turning to face him. “Unlike that family of straw dummies you just massacred, I fight back.”
But after a few seconds when Lioden hadn’t given her a witty reply, she turned to face him, only to find she was the only one in the sector. Her mind wandered.
How can I defeat someone who makes lightning look like a baby taking their first steps? Link better have scrounged up something good in that library.