Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(28)

“She’s an excellent tutor,” I whispered back to him.

He laughed.

“You may kill your partner.” Emerald loomed over us, carrying a bow and hunting arrows—the blunt kind with a hooked end meant to capture game alive. “We will immediately suspect you though.”

“And you may escape the shackles,” Ruby said, ushering us to the gate. “If you can. How you finish this race is entirely up to you.”

“We only care that you finish it.” Amethyst looked at each of us in turn, purple mask turning to Four and me last. “Keep up.”

And she was gone.





Seventeen


The lot of us stared at her fleeing back. I slipped the lock picks out of my sleeve and tugged on the shackles. Four smacked into my back.

“We will be duly impressed if you and your partner survive.” Ruby took a spear from one of the soldiers and righted Two and Eleven, who’d fallen over as soon they’d tried to move.

Emerald leapt from the wall to the gate to the ground quickly as could be. “But it’s not a must, so long as we don’t think you killed your partner.”

“All right.” Four steadied himself, his shoulders popping. “We stay calm and you do what I say, and we can get out of this easily.”

“Speak for yourself.” The cuff around my right wrist clicked open and I untangled myself from Four. I held up my picks. “You need help, or you good?”

He jumped, swept the chain under his feet, and pulled his arms in front of him. A similar set of picks appeared in his fingers. “I’m good.”

Five and Seven, still stuck together, took off into the forest with Five shouting orders. Either he didn’t want us to see him escape or Seven was about to lose a hand.

I ran through the gate. The creak of leather armor sounded to my left, and I ducked right, tumbling off the path. I rolled over my shoulder and launched myself to my feet without stopping.

Amethyst was far ahead, a purple glint among the pine needles, and I was the only auditioner in the trees. I glanced over my shoulder and grinned, sprinting farther away from the pack of auditioners stuck at the gate. Four fought off a soldier while Two dragged Eleven toward him. The soldiers were good at slowing us down.

And I was good at outrunning soldiers. All I had to do was finish the race, and Four had enough skills to take care of himself. I didn’t need him slowing me down or finding some clever way to kill me without arousing suspicion.

But Amethyst was long gone. She had to be heading west or we’d be too close to Willowknot proper. I’d only been running for a little while, and I could already hear the far-off sounds of the town behind the grunts of the fights. I sprinted west through the trees.

“Found you!” A leg shot out from the underbrush and ripped me from my feet. The soldier who’d led me to auditions, who I’d been so willing to kill, rose up from the forest floor. He grinned. “Nothing personal.”

He loomed over me. I crawled backward, putting as much distance as I could between us. I couldn’t kill him, and he’d not drawn any weapons either. I stood.

“It wasn’t personal.” I slid my right foot back and raised my fists, balance shifting to the balls of my feet.

He laughed. “I know, but that didn’t make it hurt less.”

Fair enough.

I darted forward, slapping my palms over his ears. He hooked a foot behind my ankle and shoved me. I grabbed his collar, falling back and bracing myself, and jammed my foot into his stomach as I hit the ground. I kicked up, and he went tumbling over my shoulder.

“That’s not personal either,” I said.

He pulled himself to his knees and opened his mouth.

The blunt end of a spear rammed into the side of his head. He fell with a sickening crack. I drew my knives.

That wasn’t a disarming hit.

“Do you know how much time I wasted dealing with Eight?” Five tossed the spear aside and drew his short sword. He moved perfectly into the guard position Ruby had been trying to teach me. “Come on then.”

Five waited. I shifted back and forth, flipping one of my knives down. I could dodge a sword, block a few weak hits, but he’d planned this. He must’ve run nonstop to catch up with me.

I lunged, faking left. He slid his feet aside and drew the sword across his right. I twisted away from him and dove for the soldier, ripping his sword from his belt. Five stared at me, eyes drooping and bored, and straightened his mask. I tightened my grip on the hilt.

Five huffed. “Easy.”

He swung at my left. I blocked, the hit shaking my arm, and faster than I could follow, his blade cut across my chest and slipped into my right side. Pain, white-hot and blinding, burrowed into my chest, and the slick pull of his sword leaving my skin shivered down my spine. Blood seeped down my ribs, and he flicked his blade against mine. The sword flew out of my hand.

“Amateur,” he muttered, pulling back for a final strike.

He had the noblest, northernest accent I’d ever heard. Panic and rage washed over me, fluttering in my veins till my fingers shook against my side and sharpened my thoughts. I curled my fingers into the dirt. He leaned closer.

He wasn’t better than me.

I flung dust in his eyes. He stumbled, sword arm falling. I thrust my knife through his shoulder, twisting the blade till he screamed, and ripped it out. He smacked my side, fingers digging into the cut.