Keryn kicked off from the ground and rose into the air above Lake Arcendor. Around her nearly two hundred cadets filled the sky and began separating, finding their distinct starting areas before the day’s aerial joust. Through the bustle and jockeying for key starting positions, Keryn found an open spot near the lake’s northern rim, giving her a clear view of her opponents and leaving no space behind her for a surprise attack. Unlike the previous day, she hovered midway up the field, allowing her fellow cadets to position themselves above and below her.
The sun cast a warm glow that morning and she reveled in it on her skin. The day seemed brighter somehow, and her eyes keener, as she began selecting targets throughout the field of cadets. Though her sleep was interrupted by strange dreams, her mind and body were sharp and prepared. The multitude of the problems the previous night—the fight in the bar and reprimand from the dean—seemed a lifetime ago, as if they happened to someone else. Keryn was refreshed and ready for the day’s competition.
Hanging in the air, she felt a marked lack of nervousness that personified her last attempt at the joust. Keryn was calm, resolved in the fact that events would conclude significantly better than the previous day. Finishing in the bottom third had been an embarrassment but she was confident of her ability to change that.
Keryn ran the dean’s words repeatedly through her mind. Remember your friends. Staring across the battlefield, she realized how powerful those words were. The mass of cadets hovered at their start positions, each one eager for quick kills and a victory in the joust. All 200 were filled with fear or bloodlust. In a way, it was sad to see so many peers without anyone she could trust not to stab her in the back, but she hoped that wasn’t entirely true.
There was one person in the Academy who would support her bizarre plan, if Keryn could reach her in time. From the moment she lifted off, she watched Iana’s path. Her roommate flew above her and toward the western side of the field, leaving several cadets between them. Those unfortunates would be the first to fall to Keryn’s assault, a necessary evil until she reached her friend.
Once she did, the true test of friendship would begin. Could she convince Iana not to shoot long enough to explain? She hoped so. Otherwise, one of them would be eliminated far too early in the competition.
The dean told you something else, the Voice offered. He told you to find your strengths.
“I know my strengths,” she said dismissively.
Do you? Tell me how many weapons you carry right now.
Keryn frowned, not knowing what it meant. Still, she answered the question, if not in an abrasive manner. “You know damn well I’m carrying my knife and pistol.”
You’re forgetting one. You’ve trained as a warrior all your life, practicing multiple styles of hand-to-hand combat. You don’t consider your body to be a weapon?
Stifling a sharp retort, she quickly closed her mouth. Though she wanted to argue, she wondered if the Voice was right. “I can’t use strikes in the aerial joust, can I?”
If memory serves me right, and it always does, they never said you couldn’t.
Her smile darkened. The Voice was right. She assumed the restriction on strikes and kicks was an unspoken understanding, but there weren’t any explicit instructions against it. If the Voice was right, Keryn just added a deadly new tool to her arsenal. Feeling significantly more confident in her chances, she suddenly knew she’d succeed as long as she kept her wits and wasn’t eliminated before she could put her plan into motion.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed the cadet sidling along the north boundary, edging closer to her. The way he moved and eyed her meant he was looking for a quick ambush. Already, the first threat to her success presented itself. If he managed a lucky shot she’d be eliminated immediately at the start of the joust, and all her planning would be for naught.
She couldn’t let it happen. Smiling to herself, Keryn drew her pistol and shifted position, splitting her attention between the cadet and her target in the distance.
As the horn sounded to initiate combat, Keryn launched from her position, barely avoiding a laser blast from the cadet on her right. Rolling in the air, she returned fire and struck the male Lithid’s chest. He dropped to the gossamer net, the first student eliminated in the joust that day.
Evading her first adversary, Keryn knew it was time to set her plan into action. Above her in the distance was her target. Between them, cadets flew around each other like angry hornets swarming near a nest. Punctuated by laser fire and slashed with wavering energy knives, only the occasional falling student broke the illusion of an insect swarm.
Passing through that mess wouldn’t be easy but she had no time to waste. Firing her jets, she flew forward at an incredible speed, eager to break through the airborne duels and reach the far side alive and flying.
Keryn passed between pairs of cadets deep in combat, appearing as little more than a blur as she shot through the air. She broke cleanly through them, striking surprised cadets with well-placed punches and kicks that sent them pinwheeling away as she passed. She fired a few shots toward those beyond her reach who she thought might be threats, but those shots were more suppressive fire than laser blasts that connected. Dodging a pair of cadets engaged in hand-to-hand fighting, their wavering knives flashing in the morning air, Keryn drew closer to Iana.
She would’ve loved to spend more time eliminating the rest of the cadets in her way, knowing each one she shot was one less threat for later. Unfortunately, to stand a chance she needed to keep to her timeline. Breaking past the last of the blocking students, Keryn found herself in open air.
Having moved steadily upward as she flew, Keryn found Iana below, engaged with a darting student who moved so quickly from side-to-side that Keryn had trouble identifying him. His fluid motions in the air left Iana on the defensive and dangerously close to being eliminated. Trying to flee his attacks, Iana launched herself straight back out of his reach.
As the attacker leveled out, Keryn saw the bony protrusions of Zalide’s high brow line. From her vantage point, she saw the haughty smile on his lips she was so eager to remove.
Tilting her body, she dived. The focused Uligart didn’t see her. For the first time she found herself truly appreciating the aspects of three-dimensional combat as she fell on him from above. Arching her back, she dropped directly between the fighting pair. Zalide threw himself back, stopping before he crashed into Keryn.
With only the briefest smile, she dropped into a crouch in midair and spun, extending her legs in a sweep. Her heel struck the side of Zalide’s leg as he struggled to get his bearings. Without the confines of ground combat the sweep of her leg didn’t drop him to the ground, but it made him spin rapidly in place.
Taking advantage of the opening, Keryn slashed both his shins with her blade, paralyzing both legs. As he stopped, upright once more before her, she saw his haughty smile replaced by a snarl of rage. Extending the blade of his knife, he swung at her in a wide arc.
Keryn quickly countered, bringing her pistol butt down on his wrist. Howling in pain, he dropped the knife into the lake. With a satisfying backhand, she knocked the snarl from his face. His look of disbelief continued moments later when she slashed both his arms with the knife, paralyzing his remaining limbs. Frozen and unable to do more than hover, he watched her place her gun against his stomach.
She leaned close and whispered, “Get comfortable in the water. Don’t worry. I’ll send your girlfriend to you shortly.”
She squeezed the trigger. Zalide grunted in anguish as his suit tightened around him and his jet pack failed. Within moments, the Uligart plummeted to the net, his eyes firmly locked on the Wyndgaart waving mockingly as he fell.
Sensing someone behind her Keryn spun, her gun raised. A few feet away Iana stared at her, her own pistol pointed at Keryn. For seconds they stared at each other, and then Keryn raised her gun and both hands.
“I’m not here to fight you,” she said.
“If you aren’t here to fight, what
are you doing?” Suspicion shone in Iana’s eyes. She glanced nervously right and left, expecting an ambush.
Keryn smiled disarmingly, keeping her hands wide to allay any thought of hostility. “I’m helping you.”
“I see that, but why?”
It was clear Iana struggled with the idea of someone helping her during a solo competition. It wasn’t surprising. When there could be only one winner, it seemed unlikely that a fellow cadet would help unless he expected to gain something. The truth was Keryn did have something to gain from her actions.
Knowing it was now or never, she explained her plan. “I’m offering a truce.” Before Iana could protest, she added, “I know that’s not what you’re expecting, but hear me out.”
Iana scanned back and forth watching the nearby cadets, and then nodded for Keryn to continue.
“Yesterday we fought alone and both of us were eliminated in the bottom half of the class. It took until last night for me to realize something important about why we lost. Yes, the joust is a competition only one person can win, but alone, neither of us has the skill to come out on top. I’m ready to admit it. More importantly, I’m willing to admit I need help. Specifically, your help.”
“You want us to fight together, like teammates?”
“Exactly!”
“I’m hearing you, but why me? There are plenty of cadets who are better.”
Keryn shrugged. Iana was right. “That’s true, but none I trust more than you. Also, none have nearly as much to gain from an alliance as we do.” She laughed at herself. “We suck alone, but together, we could be unstoppable. Think about it, Iana. Forget the base instinct that tells you I’m setting you up and trust me.”
Keryn saw contemplation in the Pilgrim’s eyes as Iana quickly calculated the chances of success.
“Let’s say we do this,” Iana said, “and, by some miracle, we wind up the last two. What happens then?”
“Are you asking if I’ll let you win? Absolutely not. If we’re the last two flying, I’ll shoot you in the back the first chance I get.”
Iana laughed and lowered her weapon. “At least I know where I stand with you. Let’s say I believe you, which I’m still not sure I do. What do we do first?”
Keryn smiled maliciously. “Ever since I arrived at the Academy people have been calling me savage. I’ve done my best to disprove them. Right now, I’m looking forward to showing them just how savage I can be.”
Iana’s smile matched Keryn’s. “Now you’re talking a language I understand. Let’s find our first prey.”
The pair fell upon their first unsuspecting victim with unmatched ferocity. No tactics were used. Instead, Keryn dropped to one side of the surprised Oterian as Iana sank to the other. He swung wildly with his blade, battering at the two dodging women with his pistol as a club instead of using it to shoot.
The pair never stopped moving, flanking and harassing him from all sides. Arriving near his feet, Keryn slashed both legs while Iana cut his knife arm. Paralyzed in three limbs, he turned and fired his jet pack, eager to escape the savage women.
Launching skyward, both of them fell on his back as he limped away, driving in their daggers. As his jetpack died, he dropped like a rock. Before he was ten feet down, the duo set out for their next target.
Keryn and Iana leaped through the air like felines, pouncing on one cadet after another. Their prey reached slowly to the new paradigm shift, suddenly facing two targets, not one. Many faced Iana as she flitted past, only to be struck down by Keryn’s brutal attack from behind.
Slowly, the pair picked apart the tradition of the aerial joust, degrading the more-honorable conventions of the Academy’s mainstay. In its stead, they created a barbaric battlefield.
For the first time since she arrived, Keryn began to feel at home. The weaving, serpentine strikes were familiar. The bloodlust of battle burned in her veins as cadet after cadet dropped to the net, then to the lake. As they fell away, Keryn reveled in the disbelieving looks that remained long after realization of defeat dawned on those souls. The idea of teamwork in the aerial joust was too foreign for them to grasp, even after witnessing it firsthand.
After eliminating another pair of cadets, something strange happened to Keryn and Iana. Someone offered them a truce. Much as Keryn did for her roommate at the start of the joust, a young male Lithid named Malyster holstered his pistol and sheathed his knife as they flew toward him. Raising his hands, he requested amnesty.
“I want in,” he said bluntly. “You’re decimating the other students, which leaves me little doubt which side I want to be on.”
“What’s stopping us from just shooting you now?” Iana growled, her pistol aimed at the Lithid.
Keryn placed a hand over Iana’s weapon and pushed it down as the trio hovered in midair. “Because, correct me if I’m wrong, we’ll need the extra help.”
“Everyone knows about your rivalry with Sasha,” Malyster admitted. “If you want to get through her lackeys and have a chance at taking her out, you’ll need my help.”
“Welcome to the team,” Keryn said with an evil smile.
Over a dozen more students were eliminated by the group before the others realized what they were doing. Suddenly, even confident competitors flew away when Keryn’s team approached. The space around them cleared of potential targets as the remaining half of the class alternated their attention between current battles and the unexpected group.
Disappointed by the lack of prey, Iana pouted. “Now that they’re on to us, what do we do?”
Keryn shrugged. There were aspects of her plan she never took into account. She hadn’t foreseen other cadets joining them, nor had she planned on others realizing her strategy and avoiding her team altogether. They were at an impasse until they could figure out their next move.
To Keryn, only one person existed who they needed to hunt, a prey who wouldn’t run if attacked by her team. In the distance, hovering at an altitude just below, Keryn spotted the cadet she wanted. Her eyes narrowed with unbridled hatred as she pointed at the distant figure.
“There’s our next target.”
Iana and Malyster saw the female Avalon and her cohorts attacking a smaller group of cadets.
“Sasha?” Iana asked. “You think you’re ready for this?”
“I've been waiting for this chance a long time,” Keryn said. “I’m not about to miss it. “
“All right. What’s the plan? How should we play this?”
Keryn turned toward their Lithid teammate. “It’s time we put Malyster to work.”
Sasha smiled as yet another cadet dropped into the net. The four friends flying around her assured her a victory, just as they had the previous day. Their strength in numbers left her with little concern about opponents, knowing no one could withstand five attackers simultaneously.
A disturbance on the far side of the field had been catching her attention for some time. Though she found it hard to believe, there was another group working together, eliminating students at nearly the same pace she was. There was marked fear and worry among the single cadets whenever that trio came closer.
Before attacking the most-recent pair of cadets, Sasha lost sight of the trio. The commotion they caused faded. Disappointment replaced her curiosity as she realized she wouldn’t have a chance to meet the other group and prove her superiority in the air. Instead, she relegated herself to searching for her next prey as her four friends hovered protectively nearby.
A laser blast cut through the late morning air, catching the female Avalon above Sasha just below the chin. She jerked as her suit constricted, leaving her paralyzed. She fell with pleading eyes, lost to the net and the lake.
Spinning with hatred in her eyes, Sasha searched for the arrogant cadet who dared attack her. To her right and a little below, she saw the perpetrator moments before she fired again. Dodging quickly to the left she watched the laser blast slide harmlessly past and strike the leg of one of her friends. Growling with anger, Sasha watched
as Keryn turned and flew quickly away like a thief in the night.
Sasha dropped into a dive and her friends struggled to keep up with the determined Avalon. Though Keryn was the victim of Sasha’s ridicule, it was Sasha who felt most insulted. The thought of a Wyndgaart, a savage, living and flying side-by-side with her, nauseated the Avalon. To be able to embarrass Keryn in front of the class seemed a fitting finale to the derision since arriving at the Academy.
Quickly outpacing the three remaining members of her entourage, Sasha grew closer to the fleeing Wyndgaart. She wouldn’t require her friends’ help. She never had. Their friendship hinged on their establishment as a status symbol.
For Sasha, the more people around her, the more important she was to those upon whom she looked down. They were unnecessary, however, when it came to dealing with a savage. Sasha looked forward to reveling in the kill. Frowning softly, she realized how much she wished the knife would do more than just stun Keryn.
Keryn led her on a wild chase, weaving in and around several battling cadets. Her wings spread wide, Sasha glided easily past the obstacles as she narrowed the savage’s lead. By the time she reached a comfortable distance to try shooting her with the pistol, there was a considerable gap between Sasha and her friends.
When it was wide enough, Keryn spun and flew backward without looking where she went. To Sasha’s surprise, Keryn raised empty hands, closing them into fists before extending the middle finger on each.
As the Avalon watched, her pistol momentarily forgotten, the tanned skin and colorful tattoos on Keryn’s skin began to run. Flesh hung loosely on her skull before being slowly absorbed like water into the oily, black skin beneath. Keryn’s features disappeared, replaced by a Lithid’s blank, oval face.
Even without a face, Sasha could tell the Lithid was smiling and mocking her. She howled in rage at being tricked as she raised her pistol.
Keryn and Iana dived behind Sasha’s friends as they lagged behind. In their eagerness to catch up to the Avalon, they failed to pay attention to threats around them. Before they knew there was danger, Keryn body-slammed the back of an Uligart female, driving her knife deep into her. Over her shoulder, Iana placed two well-aimed shots at another Avalon and froze her in place. Before the third friend could react, Keryn leaped from her perch on the paralyzed Uligart, spun in midair, and fired down as the last of Sasha’s friends tried to track the Wyndgaart’s movements. The laser blasts struck the girl’s shoulders simultaneously, while Iana’s shots hit her fully in the chest. Stunned, her suit seized as her two companions plummeted to the net.
Beyond Keryn and Iana, they heard laser fire and looked away from the three they just defeated in time to see Malyster fall toward the gossamer webbing after being shot and eliminated by a vengeful Sasha.
Keryn knew she should’ve felt remorse over having him eliminated after he served as bait, yet she didn’t. Malyster was useful and put her in a position to exact her revenge against the Avalon. She would feel guilty only if she, not Sasha, fell to the net, and there was no way she’d let that happen.
Turning in the air, Sasha saw the two hovering nearby. Even from a great distance, the hatred on her face was apparent. Screaming obscenities that were barely audible over the gulf separating them, Sasha launched herself toward Keryn and Iana.
Iana dropped into a fighting stance but Keryn placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
“Watch if you want,” Keryn said, “but Sasha’s mine.”
Dejected, Iana sheathed her knife and flew a safe distance away to observe. If necessary, she would intercede before Keryn was eliminated.
Once Iana was clear, Keryn launched herself at the charging Avalon, eager to meet her halfway. Her breath was quick and rough in her throat as adrenalin coursed through her system. With their jetpacks at full throttle, the pair quickly closed the distance.
When they met in the middle, their blades flashed. In the span of one breath, each expertly sliced and parried before separating.
Behind Keryn, Sasha moaned softly as her left leg seized from a well-placed strike. Keryn’s celebration was cut short, though, when she felt tightness in her knife arm. Her suit constricted across her bicep. Rolling pain washed over her elbow and forearm before finally paralyzing her hand. Her arm disabled, the limb was squeezed tightly against her side.
“You aren’t good enough to beat me, Savage!” Sasha masked the pain in her stiff leg.
Keryn turned toward her, her sore arm quickly going numb from lack of blood. Already, Sasha came at her. Snarling, Keryn turned and fled with Sasha in pursuit. Barrel rolling to one side, Keryn narrowly dodged red laser fire. Unrelenting, Sasha fired volley after volley, each barely missing Keryn as she used fellow cadets as shields and obstacles. Keryn felt frustration building in her chest as she fled.
Not yet, the Voice whispered. Give it a second longer.
For once, she was glad for at least one reassuring voice amid the sea of cynics. Behind her, she heard a break in the laser attacks as Sasha adjusted for a better shot.
She didn't need the Voice to tell her it was time. Tucking her good arm to her side, she tipped her body and dropped into a steep dive. As she cut fluidly through the air, Keryn opened a sizeable lead on Sasha before the Avalon realized what happened.
Tucking her wings to her sides, she dropped from the sky, following Keryn toward the quickly rising net. More adept at flight, the Avalon sliced easily through the air and gained on Keryn.
At the last moment, Keryn arched her back and pulled her body upward, barely avoiding the grasping web. Still above her, Sasha had more reaction time as Keryn shot past her in a steady climb. Extending her wings, Sasha halted her momentum and launched herself skyward to chase the Wyndgaart.
“Did you honestly think it would be that easy, Savage?” Sasha shouted, her words stolen by the wind rushing past her face. “Did you think an Avalon would be stupid enough to be caught in the web? Give it up, Savage! You’ll never beat me!”
Keryn’s ears popped from the rapid climb. Though seemingly far away, she heard Sasha’s mocking calls. Desire for revenge burned strongly in her chest, threatening to consume.
Confident she was high enough, Keryn smiled softly and whispered, “You haven’t seen me be savage yet.”
Cutting off her pack in midflight, momentum carried her upward a few more feet before gravity took hold. Arching in the air, she flipped at the pinnacle of her climb before plummeting right toward the unsuspecting Avalon.
Still rising, Sasha had no time to react as Keryn dropped toward her like a stone. They slammed into each other in midair. Keryn drove a knee into Sasha’s shoulder, twisting her wing and dislocating it from her shoulder blade. Screaming in pain, Sasha tried to twist free but Keryn used her paralyzed arm to lock herself around the Avalon.
With Sasha’s wing collapsed, her frail body couldn't support both their weight, even with her jetpack. Together, they tumbled toward the quickly rising lake.
Snaking her good arm free from Sasha’s squirming limbs and wings, Keryn planted her pistol barrel firmly against Sasha’s back. Pulling her close, she braced her feet against Sasha’s hip and whispered in her ear, “I’ll take savagery over thinly veiled civility any day.” She squeezed the trigger.
Sasha shook violently as her suit tightened around her. Unhooking her paralyzed arm from Sasha’s chest, Keryn kicked off with both legs, activated her jetpack, and broke free of their embrace. Hovering in midair, she watched with deep satisfaction as she sent the Avalon spinning end over end into the net.
Elated, Keryn flew back to rejoin Iana and revel in her personal victory.
Keryn floated on her back in the water, letting the buoyant suit keep her afloat as she stared up at the bright, early afternoon sky. Clouds danced overhead, caught in the cool breeze blowing down from the mountains. Even the cold water was comforting as she lay in the lake, each lapping wave carrying a sense of contentment.
She and Iana hadn’t finished first. It hadn’t taken much time
after Keryn eliminated Sasha for others to realize what the pair did and form their own teams. Keryn and Iana were eliminated from the last twenty cadets, but even elimination couldn’t steal her happiness.
In the air, she found two things she thought she lost—purpose and confidence. She knew without any doubt that coming to the Academy was the right decision. Her fears and concerns were gone. She had convinced even her naysayers and heard words of encouragement from the Voice for the first time since refusing Initiation. In the end, she realized the Voice truly wanted her to succeed at whatever she did.
More important to her was the confidence she felt. It took nearly twelve cadets working together to eliminate her and Iana. Once, she would’ve felt pity, as if the larger group picked on them for being different. She knew now that so many cadets attacked because they respected her and her abilities.
Keryn changed her fate. Tomorrow she would improve upon her performance until she eventually took her rightful place at the top of her class.
Rolling over to swim toward shore, she was unable to shake her broad smile.