Chapter 28

I watch the all-consuming tide of the sun's golden light wash over the fabled forestry. Casting the leaves, Jurassic floras, everything beneath its beams under a golden chimera. My eyes snap to a small, scuttling miser searching for food under bristles of wispy moss.

Tall walls rise as a bowl beyond bough and leaf, a gargantuan stone mortar stands tall in the bosom of the celestial glade. A gaping clearing made to accommodate the expansive construction. The walls, ancient and moss-covered, their sheer height casting long shadows that dance with the dappling sunlight filtering through the canopy above. Suddenly, seven more robed beings filter from the foliage, heading straight towards us from the sides.

"The rules of the tournament are simple. Find the gilded scroll and escape."

Brennon huffs, throwing a hand to the soaring structure. "I think it is more complex than that by the look of that colossal edifice. It's almost as large as the coliseum in Sorcia."

The robed being nods with an ominous smile. "The obstacles and maneuvering are much more convoluted. But it will depend on your own intellectual capacity to discover the gilded scroll and getting out of the Vespasian. Alive."

Each of the robed beings takes each pureblood and leads us all on our own to the different entrances of what I believe to be an arena of some sorts. Promptly, I'm placed before the rangy and slender threshold with a vault of knotted vines entwined over a mesh of tangled branches.

"So when—"

I whirl around to see no one in radius.

On the ground. Nevermind to the multitudes above.

Wordlessly, I focus my gaze at the hidden target beyond me, grounding myself to the present moment, rooting myself to the very soils of the celestial forest. I feel the dank, warm air press against my skin, scented with the smell of stone and earth. The aromatic plants that flower all around us. My ears erect at the blare of the ram's horn that is a continuous, deep and reverberating sound that blasts through the forest.

A fanfare of drums and horns announce the commencement of the tournament. The gate of vine and limb creaks, unraveling the wooden knot, granting me entry. Warily, I make my approach inside and when I glance back, the lattice of bough and vinery suture back together again. I look ahead at the linear passage like an ivory valley of flattened stone walls, too high to see what lies beyond them. Each wall is meticulously segmented, marked by a horizontal boundary running through its middle, and adorned with several vertical markings that continue in an unbroken succession.

What captivates me most are the ringed emblems that punctuate some of the slabs. These intricate symbols also adorn the smoothened ground, adding an air of mystique to the pathway. The floor below reveals a distant, intricate pattern dividing the pathway into distinct lanes. Talismanic symbols crisscross from one lane to the next, with every second block on one side mirroring the symbols on the other, creating a mesmerizing, rhythmic series of ancient iconography.

I reach a dead end. In the centre of the wall is a huge ringed symbol with the markings on the outer shell that has light carvings which only darken until the centre. A round bulge protruding from the rest just begging to be pressed. And that is what I do, depressing the centre and to my right a slab of stone pushes back, retracting to the side to reveal another passageway. I enter, creeping there to reveal a multi-network of passages swirling and slithering into different inputs and outputs. Wildly confused, I embark on a random path into the maze; a complex system of passages. The only difference I can distinguish is the round emblems, the tattoos within the ring differ slightly, various curvatures of symbols and interconnected markings.

I falter in my steps. I look down at my foot, sunken a few inches into the ground. A pressure plate beside a tattooed block. I lift my foot carefully and the plate rises to camouflage flawlessly with the rest on the ground. A gust of churning sounds rips through the ivory canal, sounds like heavy and rusted mechanisms roiling. I jerk around and a slab from the wall rockets across the passage to slam into the opposite wall then it sweeps back until another strikes out like a stone fist to crumble the wall on the other side with another strike, followed by a stone barrage of solid rock punches.

I take off running and the stomping and crushing pursue me.

I leap into the air, springing over a long rectangular slab, landing on the ground with a roll, using the momentum to launch to my feet again. I jump up on one rocky limb to jump onto the next before the one beneath me sucks back into the wall—the wall ejecting body-crushing, refined chunks like a hundred stone tongues lashing out, seeking to pulverize me into dust.

I encounter another gigantic ring at the end but when I press into the centre. This time, the rest of the ring within the middle to the outer segments snap out. I fiddle with them frantically until I realise the segments can move, it turns around and around like a spinning wheel. I whip it into a spin until it slows to a stop, and a doorway opens to my left. I hurl myself through it, crashing onto the ground and the doorway behind me seals close with a booming thud.

I drag myself up to look at the identical maze.

Mindful of my steps, I wander warily into the elaborate labyrinth of death. I know that we all are being watched, but it is as soundless as the night. I know the Terra are far above in the treetops, silently spectating, but they spur not even a single cheer of encouragement or a whoop of excitement.

Eventually, I come into a passageway that expands enormously to accommodate the foot of a colossal tree whose puffy green head I saw even several passages back. The circumference is saturated with vegetation, the ground carpeted with overgrowth. The tree is a castle of wood that towers above most edifices in cities. But I'm so focused on the enormity of the north, I'm ignorant of the south.

I hone in a particular sound, crinkly and crispy as something slinks through the undergrowth. Reluctantly, I turn my face to the ground and see a creeping, green trailing plant.

A burst of panic—I lurch forward. But it's too late. The vine coils around my ankle; I try to jerk my foot out of its grip, but I barely move an inch, the tendril of nature coiling around me. My world turns upside down as I'm yanked up, foot first. A scream escapes me but I cut it off instantly as the ground shrinks from me with every second, heaved up into the air.

The panels of the skirt flop past my head. Dangling upside down like an oblivious prey that stupidly wandered into a hunter's trap, blood rushing to my head already. Hoisted up meters in the air I have a bird's-eye view of the arena and it is not an arena. It takes the shape of a coiled snake whose body is divided into rectangular spaces with different numbers of segments, with distinguishing marks and ornamentation. The form of a spiral of depressions with the central and outer depressions differentiated its larger size. These also display a variable number of depressions. It's not an arena. It's a massive game board. The game of mehen.

I curl my torso up, moving to snatch the one dagger from its scabbard. With it in my grasp, I begin to swing; swaying to and fro to generate enough momentum. Once I do, I shoot up to slice only a thread of the tendril and it lowers me back down. Once I'm close enough to the ground. I curl up again—relinquishing its siege—I plummet to the ground; I flow into a backflip and in seconds. I land on both feet. A startled Solaris darts back in fright, clutching his heaving chest. He is sopping wet with his golden hair plastered to his head.

"Did you just quite literally fall out of the sky like an angel?"

Releasing a built-up breath, I shove the dagger back into its scabbard.

He and I lock eyes and tension springs to life, taking both joy and judgment hostage.

I look him up and down distrustfully. "Is this the part where we try to kill each other?"

He nods exaggeratedly. "Possibly, or we can pretend like one did not see the other." An idea pinches his expression. "Better yet, we can form a coalition. The rules of the game said to find the gilded scroll and get across. It never said the victor cannot be victors."

My head slants to the side, considering. "Alright," I agree. "Betray me and you will regret it."

His hands flip, then he drops them back down. "Never crossed my mind."

I jerk my head, motioning him forward, and we walk onwards together.

"You should know that the arena is a game board of mehen," I inform. "The Game of the Coiled One. An ancient game that was played on a spiraling track, employed by stick dice of two types of pieces, one representing a predatory animal. The one before allotted six counters to each player rather than only one. The crew I sailed with played it a lot on our travels, it was a gift from the shipmaster."

"So to win by finding the scroll… we play the tournament as one would play the game?"

I nod, semi-confidant. "I don't know what the life-size version entails." I lift a hand to gesture at the interlocked emblems tattooed on the various panels on both the walls and the floor. "I have no idea what that means or the spinning wheel at every dead end."

Solaris brings us to a stop. "Well, they're not there for decoration. It must be a clue." He rushes to the closest emblem on the wall, his hand hovering over the convoluted patterns. "The reason I am drenched is because both ends of the passage closed off to flood it with water like a bath. I think these emblems resemble maps or symbols depicting each deadfall of each section of the maze. The problem is comprehending what peril lies in wait."

I nod at the plausibility. "That is viable."

We walk on and my eyes peruse over the following emblems.

"It all looks like a mesh of twirls to me," Solaris says.

My mind still ponders on his theory. "Though, it does not explain the—"

Solaris falters.

I refuse to look down. "Pressure plates…"

I shuffle back with mounting panic, his eyes are darting everywhere at once. Instincts yank me back and my head whips to move out of the path of a flying arrow that embeds itself into the opposite wall. Without needing to say anything, we sprint on with arrows whizzing past our heads. Solaris latches onto me and wrenches me back so hard and fast, I collapse onto him, his arms tangled around my form as he twists me towards the ground, using his body as a shield as a deluge harmlessly zips past him by a fraction of an inch.

I turn my head and we face each other, our breaths becoming one.

He releases me, pulling himself up and staggering back, pushing his slick, sunny strands from his face. "We should head on."

"You know… your odds of victory are awfully diminished, if you seek to sacrifice yourself for your rivals."

He steals a furtive glance. "You are not wrong. But you have better use to me alive then dead, your knowledge has proven to be of value."

We journey aimlessly in silence, both of us vigilant, eyes surveying the tattooed landscape. We come to a jarring stop, a distant scream cleaving the wind. One of the Herems in evident peril. Solaris and I look at each other and come to a mute accord to continue onwards. After, a long interval of no danger, we arrive at another spinning wheel.

He and I gawk at each other.

"Not I," we say simultaneously.

He jabs a finger at his test. "The last time I spun that horrific thing, I nearly drowned to my death."

"And the last time I did, I was nearly crushed to a thousand pieces."

He folds his arms stubbornly. "Not I," he repeats.

I release an explosive sigh. "Child." I go up to the wheel, dragging the segment into a dramatic spin. "If we perish, know now the fault is not mine."

"How bad can it—"

The floor beneath us falls away, plunging us into darkness, the air whooshing in our rapid descent. When we land, the impact is pampered by a profuse bed of scattered straw and hay. A weak pain sends a tremor through me and Solaris groans awake, struggling to sit upright, faffing through the unbridled stalks.

"At least we are not dead."

A rumbling growl announces we are not alone.

"Apparently not yet," I murmur.

Another growl—a ferocious burst sends us to our feet in a flash. The only source of light is right above us from where the block of the ground vanished, allowing a downpour of sunlight to immerse us in. Frozen on the spot like an invisible hand drove a pike through me, nailing me to the ground. Too close to me, the sound of a fear-instilling growl, cavernous and rumbling that bespeaks its massive size.

From out of the shadow, a creature of lithe and brawn skulks towards us, a body like a wolf but four times as large. And its fur is like a carpet of grass upon its hide with oak brown boughs intertwined as the creature's muscles with vines for veins, entwined over sculpted wood for limbs. Its snout aimed downwards, glaring at us down its nose. Its eyes gleam with unnatural verdure, its elongated, glinting canines hint at sharp blades that can cut through bone.

The creature is the same height as Solaris.

My arm snaps out in front of Solaris as I retreat. "Behind me."

"I–-" he pushes my arm away to shove me behind him, "must be the one to say that."

It continues to stalk towards us in a slow, daunting gait.

"There is nowhere out from this pit," Solaris says. "The breach above is too high to reach."

The creature barks a half roar, enough for shameful trembles to wrack my frame. So close to me I can hear its huge paws meandering closer, a heavy stroll. I nearly stumble to a fall, my body nearly yielding to terror. It bares its grisly, salivating maw and pounces at us and we soar in opposite directions—caught by a mattress of hay-like bundles. I spot another spinning wheel integrated into a wall.

"Solaris, I found our exodus!"

"I am about to maimed alive," he hollars, "so forgive me if I do not look!"

I look back to see him scuttling backwards on his elbows, pushing back waves of straw. I search our surroundings for anything of use to obstruct the creature, for a blade will do nothing to its impenetrable bulk. I scamper on forearms to snatch a circling uva, as long and clingy as a hanging vine but as flexible and resilient as sisal rope. I snatch at it, spurting up. Solaris dodges deftly, evading another attack, but before it can attempt another, I loop the uva and fling it, and the cord falls around its neck. I tighten it so it clamps around its throat. I yank it back, its resistance searing through my taut muscles as I reel the creature back and it begins thrashing violently.

I signal to the wheel. "Go!"

Solaris streaks across and throws himself at the wheel. He takes an assessing moment to study it, muttering his calculations whilst I strive to tame a beast. The creature writhes and it tugs me closer by a few staggers before I regain control, resisting, forcing compliance. Solaris spins each circular segment until all the patterns within align with each other from the outer until the inner ring.

My eyes find a bulging root, thick and strong enough to have infiltrated the stone ceiling, jutting out of the darkness. Summoning everything inside of me, I heave, pulling the heft of sheer sinew with every trudge towards my sole salvation. Muscles and tendons rippling and generating strength, thews gathering in my back. A grumble from the earth shakes the pit. Something lifts from the ground and clusters of hay melt from a slow-rising tiered platform.

Our only escape.

Instead of running to safety, he joins me and we successfully haul the creature back enough to bind the uva around the meandering root that shall will never hold but it will endure long enough. Once it is done, we dash to the outbound platform. I spring up, gripping onto the two steps to make it to the flat top. I scramble tot he brink to see that Solaris hadn't let go, instead he rushes to a nest-like area with a dent matching the size of the creature. And a golden glint captures my attention until a heart-pounding snap cracks from the other side.

"Solaris, run!"