The Caber Toss. Peeble was right; it involves picking up a log and throwing it end over end. I have the strength for it, but the technique is specific, and my first two attempts are ugly. The third lands clean. Elle's bark-armed teammate beats me by inches.
"You know what would help?" Peeble says. "If you smiled once in a while. You look like you're trying to murder the log. The log didn't do anything to you."
Archery. I'm an excellent shot. I know this. I've put arrows through targets at three hundred paces in combat conditions. What I haven't accounted for is Peeble deciding to perch on my bowstring. The first arrow goes sideways. The second goes skyward. The third I manage to fire while physically holding Peeble at arm's length, and it hits dead center.
"See?" Peeble says from my outstretched fist. "Adversity breeds excellence."
Elle watches all of this with growing irritation. Every time I place well in an event, her jaw tightens. Every time I recover from one of Peeble's interferences, her eyes narrow.
"You're persistent," she says during a break between events, passing me on her way to the water station. "I'll give you that. Stupid, but persistent."
"I've been called worse."
"Oh, I have worse. Give me time."
By the end of the second day, the field has been whittled down. And somehow, despite Peeble's best efforts at sabotage, despite an Elle who openly roots for my failure, despite competing in events I've never trained for, the final standings come down to a tiebreaker. Me against the bark-armed male from her crew. One event. Winner takes the championship.
The event is hand-to-hand grappling. No weapons. No magic. Just strength and technique in a ring of packed earth.
I can do this. This isn’t about pride. It’s about getting close enough to ask the right question.
The bark-armed male is larger than me. His skin is reinforced with actual wood, nature's armor. He hits like a falling tree. But he's slow. Predictable. He relies on power because he's never had to develop finesse.
We circle each other. The crowd is screaming. I can feel Elle's eyes on me from the terrace, and there's something in her focus now that wasn't there before. Not just anger. Something closer to grudging attention.
He charges. I sidestep, redirect his momentum, and use his own weight against him. He stumbles. Recovers. Comes again, faster this time, and catches me across the ribs with a backhand that cracks something. Pain flares white-hot down my side.
I don't stop. Can't. This isn't about a game.
I drop low, sweep his legs, and when he goes down, I'm on him. My forearm across his throat. My weight pinning his shoulders. He bucks, tries to throw me, and almost does, the bark-reinforced muscles in his back are massive, but I hold. Dig in. Ride out the thrashing until the fight goes out of him.
The caller counts it. The crowd erupts.
I've won.
I look up at the terrace where Elle was standing.
She's gone. Already walking away, her crew falling in behind her, heading for the tree line at the amphitheater's northern edge. She's not going to honor the audience. She's running.
I vault over the ring wall and take off after her.
"Kaelren!" Peeble calls from somewhere behind me. "Where are—oh, for the love of—"
Elle is fast, but I'm faster. I catch up to her at the edge of the Wyrmwood, where the amphitheater's torchlight gives way to the forest's permanent twilight. She hears me coming and spins, hand going to the knife at her hip.
I don't give her the chance. I close the distance, catch her wrist before the blade clears the sheath, and pin her back against the nearest tree. Her other hand comes up to claw at me, and I grab that too, pressing both wrists against the bark above her head.
She's breathing hard. So am I. Up close, the differences are clearer: the faint scar across her left cheek that my Elle doesn't have, the harder set of her jaw, the way her eyes are the same color but colder, guarded in a way that comes from years of relying on no one.
"Let go of me," she snarls.
"I won. That means I get an audience."
"I don't care what you won. I don't answer to games."
"Then answer this. Have you seen anyone appear out of nowhere recently? A woman who looks exactly like you?"
Her eyes narrow. "What are you talking about?"
