“So about tomorrow’s trial,” Kai said, twirling his goblet idly.
“Tomorrow’s trial?” I sat up. “They’re still letting you take yours even though I failed?”
I finally looked at him closely. How had I missed that Kai was bursting to tell me news? He radiated suppressed energy, practically vibrating with excitement.
His lip quirked. “Letting us. It seems the council was forced to have a change of heart.”
After a frozen pause, I grabbed his sleeve with my free hand and shook him. “How? Why?”
He laughed delightedly. “All I know is that the queen has never interfered in the masters’ decisions about the trials… until now. She went to the school this afternoon and, for reasons I can’t even guess at, overrode their decision. She wants us to take our third trial! In my case, it’ll be my second try.” His eyes moved over my face and he chuckled again. “Are you sure you don’t want wine? Should I fetch some brandy? You look as if you’ve had a shock.”
I put my cup on the tray and took his shoulders in my hands. “We have another chance!”
My smile was so wide it felt like it was cracking my face in half. Just when I thought all hope was lost, the queen had turned everything around. I wanted to run and shout and pick handfuls of flowers from the castle gardens and weave them into garlands. I giggled at my own foolish thoughts. Hope was a beautiful thing.
Kai grinned back at me, his eyes warming appreciatively. “So this is what Ruby looks like when she’s truly happy.” He took my chin between thumb and forefinger, turning my face side to side, making a show of scrutinizing me. “I shall have to memorize this rare and lovely expression in case I never see it again.”
I swatted his shoulder and twisted my face away, laughing. “I can’t believe it.”
“You can no longer refuse wine. I insist.” He lifted the bottle, watching me as he filled my cup.
I took a sip, using the moment to calm my thoughts and focus. Originally, I’d wanted to take the trials to gain admittance to the library so I could find the book. Now I knew the book wasn’t there. Did I still have to take the final test?
Yes. If I couldn’t steal the information, I’d have to earn legitimate access to it. Passing the trials was more important than ever. Once I took my vows, I would be trusted, and the masters would answer all my questions.
The third trial wouldn’t be easy, though. Kai had failed it the first time, and he’d had years of training to prepare him. What were my chances without even a hint or two beforehand? My conscience nagged at me that knowing anything about what was to come was against the rules, but I discarded the inconvenient scruples. After all, I was doing this to defeat the Minax, not for selfish reasons. At least, that’s what I told myself.
I flicked my eyes back up, catching Kai watching me with an inscrutable expression. “I suppose you’re going to be miserly with details, as always?”
He took a sip before answering. “As it happens, I’ve decided I don’t give a damn about the code of secrecy.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
“Your close call during the second trial has altered my perspective. I want to give you the best chance to win.”
I found myself grinning again. “Then tell me everything.”
“Yes, I’m anxious to share the details of my secret shame that I’ve guarded for two years.” He smiled unconvincingly and took a few long gulps of wine, then picked up the bottle and splashed more into his goblet.
Mirth gone, I shoved the tray back to make room and sat next to him, my hand squeezing his upper arm. “Tell me. I won’t judge.”
He grimaced. “You say that now.”
“Fireblood promise.”
He chuckled. “There’s no such thing.”
I waited.
He sighed. “First of all, what I’m about to tell you probably won’t help you. I’d assumed that each test is the same, but your second test was different than mine. So it stands to reason your third could be different as well.”
“Go on.”
“The third test is about obedience. That’s all. Obedience. Nothing more. It’s easy as long as you agree to do the thing the queen asks. Simple.” His brows drew together and a look of pain passed over his face. “Or at least, that’s what I was told by Master Dallr beforehand: ‘Do whatever she asks, and you will pass.’ So I resolved to obey her, no matter what.”
“So the queen is present for the third trial?”
“She gives the orders and makes the final judgment.”
I nodded. “So what did she tell you to do?”
He set the cup down and stood, pacing the carpet. “I was sent through underground tunnels similar to the ones in the first trial. The way is lighted with torches so there’s no danger of getting lost. It’s merely a long way, giving you plenty of time to grow nervous.”
“You were nervous?”
“Of course.” He gave me one of his How foolish are you? looks. “Do you think me inhuman?”
“No.” I thought about how often I’d seen Kai scared. Never, at least not until my second trial. Not even when our ship could have ended up at the bottom of the sea. “Well, maybe sometimes.”
“I was nervous. I knew of other students who had passed the first two trials and never returned from the third. And friends who had passed the test and weren’t the same afterward.”
“Maybe becoming a master changes people.”
“So quickly, though?” He turned to face me, the candlelight bringing out the gold in his eyes and making his hair shine like polished bronze. “The change was almost immediate. I said good-bye to a friend that morning and a stranger returned to the school the next day.”
“Oh.”
He nodded. “So I knew it was something… big. Something difficult that would transform me or kill me. I was nervous.”
I took a sip of water and he drank some more wine. He went to refill his glass, but I grabbed the bottle and tugged on it. “I need you to be sharp tomorrow, too. For me.”
He paused and nodded, then put his goblet down on my dressing table and sat next to me. “I entered a chamber with a flow of lava running through the center. I stood on one side and someone else stood on the other. Someone I knew.” He cleared his throat. “I soon realized that it was a childhood friend, Goran, who had… well, let’s just say his weakness for gambling had led him to some activities that were rather… left of the law.”
“He was a criminal.”
“A thief, among other things. Tried and convicted several months prior. My other friends and I had mourned his foolishness in getting caught, and we’d drunk a toast to the memory of past exploits and moved on. Though we’d been close as children, I hadn’t thought about him anymore at all, really. He’d left school a year prior and fallen in with a crowd of petty thieves and wastrels. It was his own fault, I figured. I no longer concerned myself over him.”
“What did you have to do?”
Kai paused, then looked me straight in the eye. “The queen ordered me to execute him. Immediately.”
My breath caught. “Just like that?”
“His life was to be sacrificed for the greater purpose of testing one of her precious masters. What more glorious way to die? She actually said that.”
Anger made my lips tighten. “She’s as bad as King Rasmus.”
“No, no,” he protested a little too quickly, “she was merely carrying out tradition. Master Dallr explained it all to me afterward. The final trial is about sacrificing something for the queen, showing that you choose loyalty to her over all others. The masters are the protection and the strength of Sudesia, et cetera. I understand it.”
I suddenly felt very foreign, as if I would never comprehend Sudesian ways of thinking any more than I’d understood Tempesian ways. “What did you do?”
“Well, if I’d had the ability to manipulate lava as the queen does, I’d probably have used it. Much faster that way.”
“She does?” I asked, blinking a little.
He spread his hands. “It’s the mark of the royal family. Since I don’t have that ability, I used my fire.”