Torches flickered in the darkness and the moon hung large and pale above Raven Kettle. The ravens were now perched quietly in the trees, flapping their heavy wings only occasionally. The Raven Mothers stood on the ground below and there was a small crowd of spectators who had come to see how little Clara Ash would handle her trial by wildfire. Only Kahla hadn’t been allowed to watch. This time she had argued and protested so long that her dad had eventually pulled her to one side and spoken to her through clenched teeth.
I wondered why it was so important for her to be here. She who hated the cold. Was it to support me or was it simply because she didn’t want to miss seeing me fail?
Chimera was standing a short distance away, so close that her wings would touch me if she unfurled them.
“I hope you’re ready, witch child,” she whispered icily. “Too late to run away now…”
I glanced furtively at her. Did she know… did she understand how close I’d come to doing just that? I could see from her triumphant look that she didn’t expect me to succeed.
I hoped she was wrong, but I had a horrible feeling that she might be right.
“Let the trial commence,” Thuja announced.
The night sky filled with tiny, glowing dots. They whirled around us in an amazing aerial display like living fireworks.
“Oh!” I couldn’t help exclaiming. I hadn’t expected it to be beautiful.
One of the fire dots hovered briefly in front of my nose, so I could see its delicate wings and its large, blinking and golden body. Then it was gone. But one of the others had touched my hand.
“Ouch!” I just about managed to suppress the outburst and Chimera smiled scornfully. She caught one of the blinking fireflies in her hand and held it, just to show me that she could. I heard it hum and buzz inside her taloned fist. Then she let it go again.
My own hand still stung. The pain was mild, but then again there had only been one firefly. What would happen if they all settled on me? There were thousands, possibly millions of them.
All seven Raven Mothers started to hum and the fireflies instantly stopped their dance and started to fly in circles so that their fire created a kind of whirling tunnel in the air.
“Am I meant to go through this?” I asked.
“Yes,” Aunt Isa said. “Let them see you. Let them come to you. If you let them come close and you’re not lying, they won’t burn you.”
It was easier said than done. I knew now how much it hurt when just a single firefly burned me. I reminded myself that the fireflies were the easiest trial. It would get much worse after this one.
I took a step towards the firefly tunnel. I had a strong urge to race through it as fast as I could, but I knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. Mrs Pommerans’s advice had been: “Give them time to get to know you.”
I stepped in among the dancing fireflies. There were so many of them that all I could see was their light. Raven Kettle disappeared. Chimera, the Raven Mothers, Aunt Isa and everyone else… they were all gone now and only the fireflies and I were left behind. And one other being.
Stand still, the cat whispered silently in my mind.
It was with me. I couldn’t see it, it must be creeping around in the darkness outside the circle, but it was in my head and I wasn’t alone.
I stood still. It was hotter here than outside the tunnel, much hotter. I started to sweat. But although the fireflies flew past me and circled my face, my hair and my hands, they didn’t land on me. And neither did they burn me.
They didn’t burn me…
“I’m not lying,” I said in a low and cautious voice. “Chimera is the liar.”
I don’t know if they understood me. But at one stroke they were gone. The tunnel dissolved and the fireflies took one last, wild swoop across the circle before they disappeared.
I caught sight of Chimera’s face again. Expressionless. Possibly no longer quite so sure that I would fail?
“Clara Ash has passed Skyfire,” Thuja said, and I told myself that there was a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
Valla sighed.
“Oh well,” he said. “Then I suppose we’ll all have to plod down to the jellyfish pool. And in this weather…”