The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer #1)(34)

“Very well,” Prince Deverick said, elemental magic projecting his voice for all to hear. Kiva had never witnessed such power in effect before. Had this been any other time, she would have marveled at it—and also at what the princess had done in relocating both Kiva and the captain onto the guard tower. Instead of being amazed, however, she was trying not to soil her pants as she waited to hear what was ahead. She would be all right, she reminded herself. She would survive. She would.

“Captain Veris,” Prince Deverick continued, “would you be so kind as to explain the first Ordeal to the Champion?”

Kiva swiveled back to the captain and willed him to assume she was this pale all the time.

“The Trial by Air is straightforward,” Veris said. “You’re to jump from here”—he pointed at the slatted floor upon which they stood—“to there.”

Kiva followed his finger with her eyes, her head spinning as she marked her destination.

The top of the eastern wall—thirty feet away.

“That’s impossible,” Kiva choked out around her constricted throat, her confidence vanishing in an instant.

“It’s not meant to be easy,” Veris said, without pity.

Even if the tower were closer to the wall, it still would be a challenging jump. But with so much distance between them, including a bottleneck of onlookers below . . .

An incredulous laugh left Kiva. So much for the first Trial being survivable. Regret crept along her spine—mixed liberally with panic—leaving chills in its wake.

“As far as records go,” Captain Veris said conversationally, “the furthest anyone has been reported to have jumped in a single leap was just over twenty-nine feet. This is barely more than that.”

“On the ground,” Kiva rasped out. “And I’m guessing that was with a running start.”

Veris remained unmoved. “You can jump, or I can push you. The choice is yours.”

Kiva wanted to tell him exactly what he could do with his choice. Instead, she took a deep breath and stepped closer to the edge of the balcony, placing her hands on the rickety wooden railing to look over the side and gauge the distance to the earth. She pulled back again immediately as vertigo took hold.

“I can’t— You can’t— It’s not—” Kiva couldn’t even get a sentence out. She inhaled again, attempting to calm her rising hysteria.

“We don’t have all day,” came the prince’s amplified voice, impatience threading his tone. “You have thirty seconds, Champion, or we’ll consider you to have surrendered.”

Lights flashed in Kiva’s vision. Surrender meant failing, and failing meant both she and Tilda would lose their lives. Tipp, at least, should be safe, since he’d no longer provide any leverage, but who would protect him once Kiva was gone?

Instead of adding to her terror, the thought steadied her. Sudden clarity made her realize that it was better to lose her life by trying to save it, than to doom them all with her cowardly inaction.

Time. All she needed was time. If she could somehow pull off a miracle, somehow survive this task . . .

Her freedom could be only a leap away.

Sucking in one last calming breath, Kiva summoned her courage and pointed at the railing. “Open this.”

Captain Veris didn’t reprimand her for the command, perhaps thinking it was the last she would ever give. He snapped his fingers, and two guards from within the tower hurried out and undid a latch at the corner of the barrier, swinging it out into open air.

“Twenty seconds, Champion,” came the prince’s bored voice.

Kiva toed the edge of the balcony, making herself look down this time. She could see the royals and Rooke still on the gallows platform beneath her, the crowd of prisoners looking up with anticipation gleaming on their faces.

Entertained. There were all entertained, her life—or death—being nothing but a spectacle to them.

“Ten seconds, and you’ll have failed,” the prince declared.

Kiva closed her eyes, blocking out the view of all those watching, waiting.

“Nine!” the crowd below cried.

She started backing up.

“Eight!”

Step, after step, after step.

“Seven!”

She was aware of Captain Veris shuffling out of her way, the other guards remaining on the balcony to watch.

“Six!”

She continued backwards, step—?“Five!”—after step—“Four!”—after step—“Three!”—until she was at the furthest point from the opened edge.

“Two seconds, Champion!” warned the prince.

Don’t let her die.

Stay alive.

Kiva’s mind went blank as she shot forward, her entire focus on the task before her. She willed strength into her legs, lightness into her body, air into every atom of her being as she sprinted along the tower and gave a mighty leap off the side.

Stay alive.

We are coming.

Icy wind bit at her skin and tugged at her clothes as she speared through the air. She was doing it—she was actually doing it. The wall was nearing with every racing heartbeat, her pulse thumping so loudly that it nearly drowned out the raging whoosh of air past her ears.

Closer and closer she soared, defying gravity itself, the top of the eastern wall approaching with every microsecond that passed.