She smirked. “Really, Ryiah. You act as if we are doing this out of spite. Please understand we are only doing what we think is fair.” She stepped forward and snapped her fingers.
Instantly, my hands were bound, and a thick cloth strip muffled my cries. Priscilla took another step forward and leaned in close so that only I could hear her next words: “Darren told me the truth about where the two of you go each night. You might try to play coy, but I know your end game. If you ever come near my prince again, I’ll make it my personal promise you don’t last the year.” She glanced back at her volunteers. “Now who wants to help me move her?”
I was tied up and bound to the base of a towering oak, a mere fifteen paces from the wooden chest and its now empty contents.
After Priscilla and her entourage left, there’d only been five medallions left, but in a matter of minutes another grouping of first-years had appeared, snatching the last of the tokens.
I tried to cast myself free, figuring a couple of flames were all I needed to weaken the ropes, but there was no magic left. I had drained my powers crossing Darren’s fissure.
So there I was, tied to a tree with a giant piece of parchment above my head that read “hoarder.” Thanks to the label none of the passing first-years had bothered to help, no doubt deciding it was not worth their time to try and help a girl who had enough enemies to tie her to a tree in the first place.
After ten more minutes passed I spotted Ella and my brother. Unable to draw their attention through anything but muffled shouts, I waited for them to notice me. Ella was the first, interrupting Alex to point in my direction.
They both came running to my aid.
As soon as Alex read the sign above my head, he ran a hand through his messy locks, hanging his head.
I pointed to the empty chest.
Alex swore. Ella angrily hurled her dagger at the ground.
“We’ve got to…head back,” I coughed between huge gasps of air. “Our only chance… Piers said he and Cedric… would keep everyone… that didn’t have a coin…until he had his five.” I stopped and pointed to the tunnel everyone had been using to return.
“There’s only been one person to come through here since the chest emptied,” I finished, “which means there’s still some others left. If we get back first, before the others without a token, maybe Piers will go easier on us?”
“Well, it’s better than hiking back up that mountain,” Ella said, somewhat reluctantly.
The three of us started towards the dark passageway. As we walked I explained how I had ended up bound to a tree.
“Priscilla really does hate you,” Ella observed. “That’s the second time she’s gone out of her way to torment you.”
I winced as I tripped over a small rock, grabbing onto my friend’s arm to keep from falling. “She thinks I am after Darren.”
Ella snorted, and my brother laughed loudly.
“My thoughts exactly.”
After an hour of darkness we finally reached the tunnel’s end.
“Now that’s more like it.” Alex raised his hands to the sky, bathing in the warm glow.
Ella pointed to a sloping hill in the distance. “We’ve still got to get up that thing and whatever else is out there.”
She was right.
Ten minutes later a barrage of arrows came flying from our right.
“You just had to say it,” Alex complained.
The three of us ducked and dodged, racing up the grassy slope.
Eventually, we made it past the missiles’ range and continued, cautiously, down the other side of the hill. I could see a large crowd at its base. Instinctively, the three of us picked up speed.
Sir Piers and Master Cedric stood waiting with the rest of the class. There was an ominous expression on their faces. A heavy burlap sack sat between them, glimmering with the copper tokens we had tried so hard to obtain.
Piers twirled a coin in his hand, watching it spin and then falter, falling flat in his palm. He did this two more times and then glanced up at the class.
“The rest of you are dismissed.” Almost immediately, a flurry of students began to retreat.
“Not you, boy.” Piers snatched the shoulder of a first-year that had tried to escape unnoticed. He eyed Alex, Ella, and I. “Don’t even try,” he warned.
Master Cedric cleared his throat. “Shall I?”
Piers smiled, white teeth flashing. “I insist.”
Cedric reached out to touch Piers’s throat, leaning on tiptoe to reach the height of our brawny commander. “Go ahead,” he told Piers.
Piers cleared his throat, “Attention all remaining first-years!” His words screeched across the landscape.
Several departing first-years turned around to see what was happening.
“Anyone who has not handed me a token shall report to the starting point now. You have five minutes. Then your final test will begin. I’ve got four more spots to fill, so you had better pray to your gods that one of them is not you.”