I knew I would lose if I kept the contest going, but I was out of ideas. We were thirty minutes into our match, and Ray still looked as composed as when we had started. Meanwhile sweat was stinging my eyes, my limbs were aching all over, and my shoulder smarted terribly whenever I shifted weight.
My spectral blade faltered. Just as it deflected Ray’s oncoming blow, I felt the casting shudder. I slammed the broadsword I was holding as hard as I could into Ray’s left side. He blocked easily, as I had known he would, but the impact gave me just enough time to jump back before my second casting vanished completely.
I began to run toward the armory.
All I had left was the sword in my hand. My magic hadn’t been able to hold onto both. It had exhausted most of its limits trying to float the spectral blade and wield it on its own. I was beginning to feel lightheaded, and the searing pain in my forehead had begun. It was only a matter of minutes before my magic expired completely, and then I’d be defenseless.
I had to get my hands on a real weapon.
Mid-sprint I released the broadsword casting and used the last bit of magic I had to summon a shield at my back. I was too open to attack, racing across the grassy field.
Not even a second later there was the sharp whistle of arrows and then the repetitive thuds as they lodged themselves harmlessly into my shield.
The ground beneath my feet began to tremble. I dove to my right. Glancing back, I saw a fissure where I had been headed just moments before.
I was close to the armory door now. Just another minute and I would be safely inside. It was off limits, I knew, but I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t just let Ray win. I had to put up a fight any way that I could.
We were supposed to rely on our own magic, our own prowess. Well, I had, but now there was a resource I couldn’t ignore, one that might somehow give me a chance in this after all. It was either forfeit now or bend the rules and hope the judges overlooked my decision. I chose the latter.
I grabbed the wrought iron handle, ready to throw open the door…
Ray’s hand shot out behind me, snatching my injured shoulder and yanking me backward so that I was sent sprawling into the grass behind. This time when I fell I didn’t land the way I was supposed to.
I fell on my outstretched arm. There was a sickening snap.
Turning my head, I saw the odd angle of my left wrist. I didn’t need a knowledge of Restoration to understand that it was broken.
“You know you’re not supposed to enter the armory,” Ray panted. He was shaking. The last couple of castings had cost him dearly. I wasn’t the only one running out of stamina.
“Surrender, Ryiah. You’ve got nothing left.” His eyes held pity. “Don’t make this any worse than it already is.”
He was giving me a chance, I realized. Ray didn’t want to hurt me more than he had to, but he would should I continue to stand between him and an apprenticeship.
Using my right arm to push myself off the ground, I gritted my teeth and stood. The shoulder pain was excruciating, and my surroundings were becoming blurred.
Ray let me stand, but after a couple seconds of silence he became impatient. Drawing his sword, he regarded me grimly. “Surrender now, Ryiah, or I’ll have no choice but to make you.” He took a step forward, pressing the blade of his sword just above my collarbone, into the deep wound on my right shoulder.
The pressure of metal against swollen flesh and bone was so overpowering that tears streamed down my face involuntarily. My stomach roared in anguish.
I tried furiously to conjure a sword, a shield, any sort of defense to put between myself and the blade at my shoulder, but I came up empty-handed.
Ray pushed down with his blade.
The agony in my head was so terrible that I could no longer discern anything except the pain and the heavy breathing of my opponent.
This was it. This was how I would be remembered: just another first-year that had tried. I’d done well, but not well enough.
No!
The thought came raging through me as Ray increased the weight of his cut. There was nothing I could do about the pain. He had me there. He had me trapped, defenseless… the perfect ending to a perfect victory.
But there was one thing Ray could not plan for, one glimpse at hope he might not have suspected in his careful approach. It was dangerous, and until today I had never bothered to consider it… but now. I had nothing left to lose.
I threw myself onto Ray’s sword, letting its metal pierce my wound as the blade severed and cut, tearing down, down, deep into flesh. My vision went black, and I fell forward, shrieking and dragging Ray down with me as I threw out my magic in earnest.
Somewhere in the midst of my shouting and Ray’s own startled cry, the harsh booming of what sounded like thunder entered my awareness. I was barely able to register the bone-shattering blast before something heavy collided with my skull, and I lost all semblance of consciousness.
“Do you think she ‘ll wake?”
“I don’t know, she’s been through a lot…”
“I can’t believe Ryiah! She almost killed the both of them!”
“Master Barclae and the judges are furious… “