I’m sure it is hours later that I huddle, breathing deeply, just inside the opening of yet another tunnel, looking out at the scene before me. If I ever find my way out of these Dragon Tests, I’ll have a word to whoever put them together, whoever knowingly makes the Applicant exchange their own perfectly good cloak for a piece of cheesecloth, and then sends that Applicant out into a frigid blizzard in the middle of the night.
It’s just not nice.
I’m sure I’ve already passed Compassion and Courage. That leaves Fortitude, Resilience and Strength.
My mind comes up with the hopeful thought that maybe this Freezing-to-Death level Tests all three, and I’ll soon be drinking hot butter tea with Praseep and Danam. Well, with Praseep. Danam wouldn’t drink … I shake myself back to the present.
Because if there is one level Danam will fail on, it’s Strength. I have to hope he doesn’t get to that one before I catch up with him.
I know what I have to do. I can sense the other side of this level like a beacon. It is further along the small valley I’ve emerged into. I can’t see it, of course, because everything is a raging white-out glimmering in the silvery moonlight. Only the delirious or desperate would go out in weather like this.
I don’t have time to figure out which one I am.
I set my chin and leap out into the cold, using my powers to check the path, to make sure I don’t step onto dangerous ground. I take two steps before a wooden stake catches my attention. It is topped with red, blazing brightly in my torchlight. I whip my eyes around, and notice another gleaming not far away, leading in the general direction of the exit point.
By the Dragon, I don’t know what to do. By now, I’m ready to distrust everything I find here. I don’t know whether to follow the stakes or not.
If you find a marked path where you want to go, isn’t it smart to follow it?
But if you aren’t sure who marked it, isn’t it smarter to pick your own way?
I’m standing in a snowstorm doing honeyed nothing, so I’m failing already. I head forward to the second stake and use my mind to scout ahead down the marked path, then around generally. I imagine Uncle is behind me with his herding stick. Choose a path, Last Niece.
I remember the sting of the stick. Quickly! I go with my gut and veer away from the markers. I don’t like the way they feel like they’ll travel over the flat, I always prefer to travel just above the base of a slope. So that’s what I choose.
I’m making good progress, good enough to be happy with my choice, before I sense a problem up ahead. The snow feels fragile, hollow even. Frowning, I move left, down to the flat to avoid it. Straight away, I feel ice beneath me. And it’s too thin to keep going ahead. I dodge to the right again, keeping solid ground under the snow my boots walk on. I feel a sinkhole of sorts ahead, and I weave left to avoid it.
And I understand.
I’m negotiating a maze.
I get the feeling this whole maze must be an illusion, even the sinkholes, just a vision to heighten the pressure I’m feeling. Illusion or not, it’s working. My heartbeat is rising and each decision I make feels like it’s not fast enough. Like I need to get out of here quickly.
This is a Test.
It is only a Test.
Telling myself that doesn’t change anything.
A pit hides in front of me. Left is weak ice, to the right is unstable snow. Which way? I cannot pause to think. I form a snow ball quickly, throw it at the unstable slope. The small avalanche fills the pit and I speed through the fluffed up snow.
I hear a snarl and look up.
Oh great.
A snow leopard is directly ahead, on the edge of the circle of light my box casts. A snow leopard! It bares its white teeth at me and I gulp. To the right a sheer rock, to the left the ice again. I backtrack quickly until I can climb the rock safely, then sprint across the top.
I’m almost there when I trip over one of the markers. I’ve returned to the original marked route. Did I make a mistake leaving it? Who can tell. I can only forge on. I wonder what Danam did?
The finish is straight ahead, I can feel it, and the way is clear.
But from behind me comes the merest twinge of trouble. It feels like Danam, but it is weak and unfocused. Is it him? Or is it part of the Test?
I’m turning without thinking, suppressing the urge to get to the end of the maze, to enter the relative warmth and safety of the tunnel.
Instead I head back along the marked route, towards the twinge I can feel. It is treacherous, even more than the path I took. At least I’ve worked out I did the right thing leaving the markers at the start.
The ice is thin and I have to bolster it like Praseep showed me in order to cross safely. Then the snow becomes too deep to walk through, and I use precious energy forming a heat ball to melt a way through for me. Each step takes me closer to where I sense Danam.
Except when I get there, he’s not there.
I let the heat ball collapse. I could kick myself.
I’ve fallen for one of their tricks again.
Wasted time.
I scowl at the thick snow all around me. The feel of Danam is so real, although weak, I can’t believe he’s not here. But the spot where my mind says he is, is only white.
Unless …
I gasp.
I dig at the snow, deep and soft, undisturbed, and still the feel of Danam remains beneath.
Without power, there is no way Danam could pass this Test. Which means there is only one place he can be.
I dig and dig and dig so deep I start to hope he’s not actually there.
When I reach the point where I should be contacting ground, still it is only soft snow. I’m bending over, digging down, and still it is soft.
What is this?
The snow is collapsing in. I have to widen my hole. My hand contacts hardness. The ground, but as a vertical wall. Digging is warming me up, but I chill as I trace this wall around. It’s like I’m digging out a pit that is filled with snow. Like so many other pits I’ve sensed as I negotiated my way through this level.
If I were Danam, greeted with this Test, but with no powers to sense ahead, would I strike out blindly? Or would I follow the path?
I would follow the marked path, and hope.
I jump into the pit and dig feverishly, and finally my frozen fingers touch on fabric.
Danam.
He is curled up on his side, barely breathing, though he has had the sense to keep the area around his mouth clear of snow. His life flickers uncertainly.
He has been here a while. Like me, he’s clad in a thin ghost-girl cloak rather than the luxurious white cloak he’d been gifted by the Princess.
And he is freezing.
I conjure a heat ball, and will into being a dome of snow over us, like Praseep did on top of the mountain. The air warms immediately, and I’m glad for it. I hope Danam feels the same relief.
I shake his shoulder. ‘Danam! Can you hear me?’
No response. His breathing is the only outward sign he’s alive. I pull off his gloves, start to rub his hands though it hurts like fire on my own freezing fingers. He doesn’t stir but the red, spreading warmth in them reassures me. Replacing the gloves, I turn to his feet, hauling off his sodden boots and friction-warming his toes. The pit we’re in is heating up, water dripping from the sides. I’m getting warmer, but is Danam?
I shake his shoulders and call his name again.
This time, he groans and curls up tighter. ‘… Cold …’
I grin. He’s alive. He might not get away with all his fingers and toes, and frankly the ear facing me looks dodgy. But he’s alive.
I don’t know how we’re going to get out. Danam weighs too much for me to carry. Would the bridge even let us go back the other way? Would it be smarter to wait for sunrise? I push the panicked thoughts away, focus on what I can change now.
Danam needs to get warmer. I pull my cloak off. Miserable though it is, it will be better than nothing.
‘Come, Danam, help me sit you up. Danam!’
He responds only groggily. In the end I need to use my powers to lift the snow beneath him in order to get him into a sitting position. I put my cloak over him as well, and then hug him to me, rubbing his arms and his back briskly.
He stirs again. ‘Hurts …’
‘Sorry, I need to warm you up.’
‘No. Leg.’
‘Are you feeling warmer?’
He nods, grimaces, face stretched tight. He’s in pain. I help him to lie back down, and wrap both cloaks around his body tightly. Now he’s not imminently dying, I can focus on the rest of him.
I feel around his body. Nothing seems to affect him until I start down his left leg. He groans in pain as I investigate, and my hands shiver back.
Even through his trousers I can feel his shin is broken. Swollen. Twisted sideways, sharp shards sticking through the skin.
He must have hurt himself falling into this pit and been lying here, injured and freezing, for hours.
He would’ve died if I hadn’t found him. He may still. How can I get him out of here with only one good leg?
I look away so Danam won’t notice the desperate tear escaping one eye.
‘That bad, huh?’ he mumbles.
I square my shoulders and look back at him. ‘Not so bad,’ I lie. If only I could Heal like Praseep. I try to remember what he did with my arm. It can’t be that hard.
Danam shakes his head slowly. ‘Don’t worry, I can Heal it. Praseep talked about us Protectors being able to Heal … I can Heal it.’
‘Great,’ I say soothingly. I want him to relax more.
My mind fumbles around the break, and the hot pain that pulses from it. I remember Praseep’s warning, about how untrained Healing can make it worse. But really? How can I possibly make this any worse than it is? Without two good legs, Danam dies here.
I press my hands gently against the break, like Praseep pressed my cut. And I weave at the pain with my mind, blindly trying to bind everything back together the way it should be.
Danam cries out.
I remove my hands. The leg is still swollen, but maybe that’s normal?
‘How does it feel?’ I ask.
‘What did you do?’ His voice is stronger, his face a healthier colour.
I take a breath. ‘I Healed your leg.’
‘No, Sunaya. I Healed my leg, but you got in the way with your hands, and now I think I’ve messed it up. No! Please! Don’t touch it again!’
He pulls up his pant leg to reveal …
I gasp. By the Dragon, I think I’ve bound it without setting it right. It has a big bend halfway down the shin, and the skin stretches strangely over the bulge. Danam’s face bleaches with shock.
‘At least it doesn’t hurt anymore …’ I say.
‘But how can I walk on this? How can I finish the Tests on a leg like this?’
I lean forward. ‘We’re not finishing the Tests, we’re getting you out of here, to safety.’
‘I need to finish, I have to so I can be Princess Rishala’s Protector.’
I bite my lip. ‘Danam, there has been a mistake. It wasn’t you they were looking for, it was me. I’m the one who’ll be her Cloud Dragon.’
He laughs at me. ‘You’re still jealous. I thought more of you than that, Sunaya. Thanks for finding me, I appreciate your concern, but it’s time for me to get back to what I’m destined to do.’ He frowns down at his leg. ‘If I can.’
I stare at him. There is nothing I can think of saying to help him understand.
I’m interrupted by the sound of knocking, like someone rapping at a door. Except there aren’t any doors around here.
I look around wildly.
‘What’s that noise?’ Danam is looking around too, his face falling into confusion. ‘Where are we? Who made that heat ball?’
The knocking happens again. It’s coming from above. I look up and see a glowing halo of a light box beyond my snow dome. Praseep. If I hadn’t been so involved in Danam I would have felt him before now.
Someone else is there, too.
Aji.
I grin in disbelieving joy. We’re saved! I stand up and dissolve the snow dome.
Danam shivers. ‘What … Praseep, is that you? Thank the Mountain.’
Praseep looks down into the pit, takes in the heat ball and the warmth, and nods at me. ‘Nice. Aji, quick.’ He jumps in, and Aji follows. Before I think of doing it, a snow dome replaces the one I had released.
I hug them both. ‘What are you doing here?’
Praseep stands easily, the Stone heavy around his neck, and I look at his ankle. It’s unbound.
‘Your ankle …?’
‘Aji Healed it. I’ve never been so happy to see someone, but also so distressed.’
For the first time, I register that neither Aji nor Praseep are smiling. My face drops. ‘What has happened?’
Aji bends to check on Danam, who is struggling to rise with his misshapen leg. She curses. ‘What has gone on here?’
Danam rolls his eyes. ‘I was Healing myself, and Sunaya got in the way.’
Aji looks at him, expressionless, and then at me. I shrug. ‘I had to try something.’
‘You can help me fix it, though? Can’t you?’ Danam asks Aji and Praseep.
Aji doesn’t look away from my face. ‘Did you not think of leaving him here with the warmth, and going to get help?’
I flush. Of course, that would have been the smart thing to do. ‘Have I really messed things up?’
Danam shrugs at Praseep. ‘She’s not normally this weird, Your Highness. I’m sorry. I think she truly believes she’s the one with powers.’
Aji claps her hands. ‘The Prince and I should be able to fix things. If you would oblige, Your Highness?’
Praseep nods and I move back so he can squat by Danam as well.
‘I’ll help,’ says Danam.
Praseep meets my eyes briefly. ‘You can’t help, but I appreciate your enthusiasm.’
‘Why not?’ Danam asks. ‘Teach me how.’
‘Protectors can’t Heal themselves.’
‘I can! How else can you explain what I’ve already done!’
Praseep and Aji look at each other, hands interlinking over the leg, and they nod. I feel the swell of power, and Danam cries out as his leg twists back into shape beneath them. I sink back against the wall of the pit in relief.
Aji sighs. ‘Danam, look at me. You did not Heal your leg before. Sunaya did, or she tried anyway. No one can Heal themselves.’ She pauses. ‘Especially if they have no powers.’
Danam gapes at her.
‘I’m so sorry, Danam. We were hasty and we picked the wrong person. Sunaya is the one who needs to be taking these Tests.’
Danam’s face has gone as white as the snow around him.
Praseep grips his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry. You’re an extraordinary person, to have got this far in the Tests with no powers. But you cannot go any further.’
Danam slaps away Praseep’s arm, and Aji grabs his hand. ‘No. You do not hit the Prince. Any boy who can make it this far in the Cloud Dragon Tests does not react like a spoilt child when he learns the truth.’
I look away. ‘Shall we just head back now?’
‘Not all of us,’ Praseep says. I whip my eyes to him and he nods. ‘Aji will take Danam back, but you and I must continue on.’
‘Why?’
Aji stands, leaving Danam huddled on the ground. ‘I was woken early on the morning after we last spoke. I’d intended to go straight to the Princess on waking, but the Queen was deathly ill, and the urgency for a certain herb to ease her suffering meant I was ordered to leave immediately to harvest some from the far plateau. But I didn’t leave before I’d got a promise from the one who woke me, that Danam’s Tests would not be for several days.
‘I returned to SkyCity late in the day, only to discover the Healers had never asked for the herb I’d been ordered to find. The Dragon Tests had begun, and the Queen … the Queen was failing. The main Healer was very distressed. She recognised some of Her Highness’ symptoms, because she’d seen them just recently. In Danam.’
I blink. ‘What?’
‘But I was poisoned …’ says Danam.
‘Exactly,’ says Aji, her hawk-eyes bright with anger.
By the Dragon … ‘Someone poisoned the Queen?’ I gasp. ‘Why?’
‘To kill Her Highness before Princess Rishala gained a Cloud Dragon.’
‘Is she … is the Queen …?’
Aji smiles grimly. ‘The Queen was stabilising when I left to come here, but she has been weakened. She may last the week with the support of her Cloud Dragon, no longer.’
I look at Praseep and then back to Aji. I don’t want to ask. ‘Who woke you? Who ordered you to go?’
‘Vilpur.’
‘No!’ How could he be involved in this? How could he poison the Queen he was supposed to be devoted to?
Praseep had been right, after all. Vilpur was not what he seemed.
I can’t stop looking towards Praseep. His eyes are almost white, his jaw jutting out, and a part of me puts the last piece of the puzzle together.
‘Vilpur is waiting on the other side of the Tests with the Princess!’
Praseep nods and my head reels. If Vilpur is so desperate as to poison the Queen to try and gain the throne himself, then Princess Rishala is not safe.
I look from Praseep to Aji. ‘I’ll take Danam back. You two should go ahead.’
Aji shakes her head. ‘You’re far stronger than I, and you are the one who must become the Princess’ Cloud Dragon.’
Praseep grips my arm. ‘It is our only chance. We must have a Cloud Dragon pass the Tests before my mother dies, or the country will suffer. And once you are a Cloud, you will be able to deal with Vilpur.’
I shiver.
Aji hugs me. ‘I will get Danam back safely, I promise. Here.’ She takes her cloak off, and I notice both she and Praseep are wearing glorious thick cloaks.
‘How did you two get past the girl?’
Praseep gives a brief smile. ‘Aji came prepared.’
‘Good luck,’ Aji says to Praseep and me.
‘And you,’ Praseep says.
‘Thank you,’ I whisper.
Aji looks at Danam. ‘Going to say anything? Perhaps thank Sunaya for saving your life?’
Danam looks away, and I put my hand on Aji’s arm. ‘Don’t.’
Aji shakes her head at Danam, and then the snow dome dissolves and the extreme chill and dark night floods into our pit.
Praseep links his hands together. ‘Allow me.’
I step into his hands and he boosts me out of the pit. I turn to help Danam, who comes next, but he refuses to look at me. Then Aji comes, and Aji and I pull Praseep up together.
‘Fare well Your Highness, Sunaya,’ Aji says. ‘Until the other side.’
Praseep and Aji bow to each other.
I look to Danam, already walking away, and ice spikes my blood. ‘Danam! Not that way!’
Aji jumps forward to drag him back. ‘You were about to walk into another trap. You’re entitled to be disappointed, boy, but don’t be a fool. You do what I say, you hear? Because I’ve promised your aunt I will get you back alive. And I mean to keep that promise.’ Aji looks at me and nods. ‘Go!’
I seize Praseep’s hand. ‘Come, I’ve already walked this section, I know the way.’
Praseep squeezes my hand.
‘What?’ I look at him and see he is smiling.
‘Well done, that is all. You’ve passed three levels already.’
I smile, and concentrate on retracing my steps. It doesn’t feel long at all until we’re back at the exit tunnel. Having Aji’s cloak helps immensely, to not be freezing. And to not be alone.
Praseep pulls me to a stop just inside the tunnel entrance. ‘Here,’ he says, taking off the Stone and handing it to me. I shake my head but he is insistent. ‘It may help you pass Strength.’
I gape. ‘You mean this Test wasn’t Strength?’
‘Fortitude.’
My heart feels as heavy as a wheel of yakan cheese. I still have Strength ahead of me.
As soon as we pass into the tunnel, the intense chill of the blizzard vanishes with the icy moonlight. We break into a jog. I can feel Praseep’s fear. Somewhere ahead is his sister and a man who has fooled us all. I increase my pace, and he matches it.