“Let’s grab Abi and Eric,” I shouted to Clem over the excited chatter of the other students. “Hagar, reach out to the elders. We have to meet with them before the Gauntlet tomorrow. Preferably somewhere away from here.”
There’d been too many attempts on my life on campus for me to ever feel truly safe there. While this year had been assassin free, so far, the night before the first Empyrean Gauntlet challenge was a perfect time for one to strike. Killing me would ruin the School of Swords and Serpents’ shot at fielding a team. They’d never find a replacement for me in time, and no students had learned to work together as a unit like my friends and me.
“I’ll meet you in the common area in twenty minutes.” Hagar gave Clem and me quick hugs, then vanished into the crowd.
I hoped she’d be able to reach one of the elders. It was short notice, and they’d been awfully busy dealing with the heretics, but winning the Gauntlet was critical, and I couldn’t do it alone.
“There he is.” Clem shouted to be heard over the crowd. “Hey, Eric, over here!”
The Resplendent Sun whipped his head toward Clem’s voice, then nodded and forged a path through the other students toward us. Though he only had an adept’s core, Eric’s martial presence encouraged people to get out of his way. The crowd rippled around him like minnows in a shark’s wake.
“Man, I am pumped,” Eric shouted. “I can’t believe the first challenge is tomorrow. Feel’s like we’ve been waiting forever to crack some dragon skulls.”
“I’ll be happy if my skull isn’t the one that gets cracked.” I was every bit as confident as Eric that my team was strong enough to win the Gauntlet. I wasn’t nearly as confident we’d get out of the challenges unscathed. The dragons would play for keeps, and they were all extraordinarily strong and vicious. Fighting one of them would be as dangerous as sticking your hand in a running garbage disposal. “Let’s find Abi and regroup in the dormitory commons. It’s time for a cram session.”
“Abi was probably on duty when they called us to the courtyard,” Eric offered.
My tall friend blazed a trail across the courtyard, past the statue of the blindfolded man leaning on his sword, to the large double doors that led into the School’s administrative wing. Most of the assembly’s crowd had dispersed into the student areas of the School, which let us make good time to the PDF station. We found Abi nervously pacing from one group of initiates to the next, peering closely at flashing red monitors and shouting at his charges over the annoying blare of alarm buzzers.
“Told you this is where he’d be,” Eric said. “Did you even see the announcement, Abi?”
“Of course.” Abi forced a strained smile. He was clearly stressed out by the chaos. “Every time Elushinithoc pops onto the School’s grounds, he sets off all of our perimeter alarms. The initiates have to scramble to verify there’s no real threat, then shut down the alarms before a whole squadron of guardians show up looking for trouble. It’s infuriating. Give me a minute.”
Abi snapped his fingers, barked a command at a team of initiates, then hurried off to look at another set of monitors. He was a flurry of efficient activity, and I was proud to see my friend doing such important work with such skill and dedication.
“When do you have time to study?” Clem asked Abi when he rejoined us after the last alarm was silenced. “It seems like the PDF has you jumping from one emergency to another instead of focusing on your classwork.”
“They keep me busy,” Abi said with a chuckle. “I have an hour of training before breakfast, an hour of portal duty after last class and before dinner, and three hours of duty after dinner. That leaves me some time to study at night. This apprenticeship hasn’t done much for my social life, but I’m in no danger of flunking out of school.”
For the first time I wondered if I’d made a mistake dragging Abi into the Gauntlet. He was an amazing friend and his defensive techniques would be a huge help in the competition. Being on the team had added hours of training to his week, though, when he could have spent that time studying or socializing.
Of course, if the Portal Defense Force didn’t extract almost a full-time job’s worth of free labor out of him, he’d have a lot more time to enjoy being a student, too. It hardly seemed fair that the apprenticeship demanded so much from the students. I was reminded far too much of the time I’d spent working for Tycho my first year.
“When can you get out of here?” I pushed my thoughts about Abi’s job situation aside. It wasn’t my business. “The challenge is tomorrow, and I’m calling a strategy meeting.”
“I’m waiting for the all clear from my commanding officer. I’ll be free to go after that.” Abi checked something on the console to his left. “Should be less than an hour. Where should we meet?”
“The dormitory commons,” I said. “Bring whatever you’ll need for an overnight stay.”
“Where are we going?” Abi asked.
“Somewhere safe,” I said. “I hope.”
Clem, Eric, and I split up to grab what we needed from our rooms. I packed my formal School champion’s robes, which I planned to wear at the competition tomorrow, my quantic computer, and my share of the jinsei vials and aspect bottles the hollow initiates had crafted during our classes. With my damaged core, I’d need any edge I could scrounge up.
Hagar was perched on the arm of a chair in the dormitory commons when I arrived. She was an island of solitude amongst the chattering clusters of other students. Her stern expression and the anxiety aspects clinging to her aura had convinced everyone to give her a wide berth.
“Hirani’s coming.” She forced a smile as she said the words.
