‘I’m not nervous,’ I lie. ‘But I appreciate your concern.’
‘Glad to hear it.’ She leans closer. ‘Though just between you and me, you should be.’
I drop Ember’s gaze, my hand moving instinctively to rub my scar.
‘Ladies.’ Flint smiles as the door melts away behind him. He strolls over to us, coming to a stop by my side. ‘Playing nice, I hope, Ember?’
She smiles sweetly at him. ‘Always.’
Soon enough, all fifteen Heirs are assembled inside the Keep. We climb the seemingly endless staircase until Alator signals for us to stop.
‘Here we have the Keep’s training facilities,’ he says.
Elaith raises an eyebrow. ‘Is he seriously expecting all of us to train together inoneroom?’ she whispers. ‘He must be mad. We’ll practically be on top of each other.’
Cole grins. ‘Well, I for one won’t be complaining.’
She shoves past him with her sharp little elbows, pulling Flint and me with her just in time for Alator to open the door.
Elaithshouldbe right. Judging from the proportions of the Keep, which is built tall rather than wide, this door should lead to a fairly small, narrow room. But this room is quite the opposite. In fact, it can hardly be described as aroomat all. The space is impossibly vast, the ceiling so high that I wonder if there’s even one there at all.
Flint lets out a low whistle. ‘Holy –’
‘Gods,’ Elaith breathes.
I catch sight of four figures making their way across the stone floor towards us – three men, one woman, each wearing a different court colour.
‘Allow me to introduce you to your trainers,’ says Alator.
The only female trainer, a severe-looking woman in robes of steel grey, steps forward. ‘Welcome.’ She nods briskly at Alator. ‘We’ll take it from here.’
Alator smiles graciously, and the golden door shuts behind him with a clang that seems to reverberate through my entire body.
‘One of their number is missing,’ muses the trainer dressed in evergreen. ‘I was promised four Children of the Earth, and yet I count no more than three.’
It’s true. The fourth Terrathian Heir is still missing.
‘Let me look at them,’ murmurs the trainer in robes of deep crimson. He’s ancient, with a beard so long he’s tucked it into his belt. ‘I see generations in their faces,’ he says, more to himself than to anyone. ‘In the hue of an eye, in the curl of a lip, I see fragments of those who came before.’ He inhales sharply, tilting his head to the side. ‘I smell ambition on their skin.’
Beside me, Elaith wrinkles her nose, as though she can smell it too.
The Ignitia trainer beckons. ‘Come to me, my little flames.’
A wedge of something jagged and anxious lodges itself inside my chest as Flint, Elaith, Cole and Ember break away from the group and make their way over to him. They are followed by the Ventalla and Terrathian Heirs, who set off after their respective trainer.
This leaves the Aquatori trainer. His hair is a piercing white, brighter than snow, his skin fair and slightly wrinkled, his eyes a dark, depthless blue. He’s dressed in a simple tunic and belt, attached to which is a leather sheath that holds a small silver trident. There’s something familiar about him.
‘We meet at last,’ he says softly. ‘My name is River.’
River leads us past the Ignitia Heirs, who stand in a large stone pit a few metres below floor level, while far above, the Ventalla Heirs are climbing a flight of rough-hewn steps cut into the walls of the chamber, which seem to stretch on endlessly up into the air.
Quite suddenly, the ground beneath my feet is replaced by soil and roots as we begin to make our way through a thicket of trees. I stare around at the large boulders and bushes with rows of sharp thorn-teeth gleaming in the dappled light from an absent sun, branches hanging low enough to stroke the tops of our heads like fingertips.
A forest inside a tower.
I take it all in, eyes wide.
We pass the three Terrathian Heirs and their trainer standing in a clearing, and soon emerge out of the other side of the trees. Over the heads of my companions I can make out something shimmering lying just up ahead. As we get closer I see that it’s a pool of water. River asks us to spread out around it. Kai moves to stand on my left, the other boy, Fjord, on my right, and Marina, or ‘Fish Bitch’, as Cole had called her, directly opposite.
