The crowd continued to cheer and roar, as a look of feral victory glowed in the Kroravee native’s eyes.
But before either of us could reach the pillar, the ground shook again, and a new cavern opened, but instead of deadly insects, a gush of water rose and flooded the arena.
The crowd screamed in surprise as Georgyanna and I did the same.
The water rose swiftly, first to my ankles, then my knees, then my waist. Before I knew it, I was swimming through powerful currents, trying to reach the pillar as the water rose like a torrential flood.
I called upon my magic again. If I could just create a buoy of air beneath me, I could rise above the water.
But my magic didn’t respond. Once again, I was begging it to heed my command.
Beneath the swirling, dark water, something tugged on my foot. I barely had time to suck in a lungful of air before a tentacle curled around my ankle and pulled.
I went under.
Panic reared in me. I fought the currents.
It was no use.
Dark, gushing water flooded my sight as the creature tugged me into the depths.
Down.
Down.
Down, I went.
My lungs burned. I thrashed beneath the surface and tried to work myself free. Something squealed when my free leg connected with a fleshy mass.
My ankle released.
I kicked and swam upward, but then a dark shape swam past my line of vision. Panic consumed me again when I recognized one of the deadly predators of the Brashier Sea. It was the same creature that had swum in the Bay of Nim.
I surfaced and gasped for air, just as a huge fin cut through the water. Across from me, about a hundred yards away, Georgyanna sat on a boat as the crowd continued to scream and yell.
I blinked. A boat. She sat on a boat. She’d obviously created it using her constructo affinity while I’d been underwater.
Victory shown in her vicious grin as she paddled toward the pillar, just as the predator with the tall fin began to circle me, creating a whirlpool effect.
Prince Norivun pumped his fists, his wings fully extending as veins protruded in his neck. But he couldn’t interfere. If he did, I would be disqualified, and Georgyanna would automatically be declared the winner.
Closing my eyes, I tried to find the calmness within me. I needed to get out of this turbid water.
Breathing deeply, I latched onto my magic through the thin veil and siphoned it slowly through the netting. Cold winter wind continued to flow over my face, but sweat beaded on my forehead despite the frigid water.
The predator’s whirlpool began to suck me down.
Around and around.
Faster and faster I spun through the water.
Slowly, my magic responded.
A cushion of air formed beneath me and pushed me up. I called upon more of it, and I rocketed above the swirling currents just as the predator’s jaws closed over the water where I’d been swimming only seconds prior.
My air element shot me up, moving me into the sky. The crowd clapped and cheered as the water began to recede beneath me.
Just as quickly as the huge pool had been formed on the arena’s floor, it vanished, sucked away as it moved through pipes or magical siphons.
Georgyanna howled in fury as the water and predators disappeared, and her boat suddenly landed on wet sand.
I called upon my affinity more. With enough magic, I could use the wind to blow me toward the top of the pillar where I could snatch the crown and place it atop my head, but just when I tried to wrench more from my gut, a whip of magic burst through the arena, and I plummeted to the ground.
I landed on all fours, panting as the ground shifted beneath me. Georgyanna’s arms went wide to steady herself just as vines shot up from beneath the sand, coiling and growing at an unnatural rate. They wrapped around my wrists, ankles, and torso, doing the same to Georgyanna.
Fire immediately cleaved from her, burning the plants as quickly as they ensnared her, but my fire was sluggish to respond, and my air was tapped out from my weakened state.
Thick roots encircled me again and again, trapping me in their embrace as Georgyanna effectively cut through hers using a combination of her fire and constructo affinities. Blades conjured from the sand cleaved the plants at their roots, freeing her quickly.
I closed my eyes, gasping for breath as the vines tightened their hold. Panic began to consume me anew, but then I remembered what Sandus had taught me—the warrior moves used to burst free of restraints when one’s magic was doused.
Snarling with the effort, I released my hold on my trapped magic, letting it fall back into my gut. With a bend of my knees and a twist of my elbows, I reverted to the months of daily training the warrior guard had instilled in me.
The vines twisted and writhed, but I swung and tore, dipping and maneuvering out of their suffocating embrace as I used the skills and movements the guard had taught me.
Sweat poured from my brow as the winter wind blew over my wet clothing. My muscles strained, but slowly, I made my way toward the column, fighting and straining for every step that I won.
But just when the column was within my grasp, Georgyanna reached the other side. A burst of electricity shot into me as the vines disappeared back into the ground, and the sand beneath me suddenly rose higher and higher, hardening into bricks at my sides.
My breath stuttered. Pain sliced through me as the burn from the electricity set my nerves on fire. Through the haze of my sizzling essence, I glanced toward the other female. I thought for certain Georgyanna would be in a similar state, but the twisted smile on her face made my heart nearly stop.
This new challenge wasn’t the test’s magic. Georgyanna was using her affinities against me. Again. Just as she had during the second test and when she’d tried to kill me on the balance beam.
She seemed to sense the second I did that I was weaker than her. A maniacal cackle split her lips as her constructo affinity stacked the sand, solidifying it into bricks around me. The bricks rose higher, then higher. She was burying me alive.
“No!”
An oily tendril suddenly curled around my mind, and then—
I’m going to die.
She’s going to kill me.
I screamed when thousands of tiny bugs appeared everywhere upon my skin.
I’m being buried alive.
Eaten alive.
Blessed Mother, save me!
The insects crawled along my skin and burrowed into my flesh. I thrashed and swatted at them, but they remained. Eating. Digging. Skittering.
Get them off me! Oh Mother Below!
Brick after brick continued stacking. I kicked at the solid sand, but it was too solid to crumble.
Georgyanna’s wicked grin spread wider.
My vision grew hazy.
Another electric burn skated over my skin. I screamed again.
Burning alive.
Buried alive.
Eaten alive.
Someone. Anyone. Save me!
Something rumbled in my gut. Magic. For a brief second my mind cleared. I glimpsed my magic, reached for it, begged for it—
Georgyanna’s magic increased.
A fresh electric sting seized me as a thousand more insects appeared.
Oh gods! They’re eating me again!
No.
No.
NO!
I’m going to die. I’m going to die.
A small, aching part of me knew that I was losing. Georgyanna was defeating me because something in the Isalee field had caged my power.
And then the crowd was cheering. Through the echo of pain in my mind came the jeers and roars.
A commanding voice spoke over the wildness of the citizens as the brick cage around me abruptly stopped. The bugs halted their burrowing. The knives cleaving my mind pulled away.