—
Anoor managed to get them second-row seats. Sylah could see her from the top of the arena steps, her hair pulled into two buns, adorned with yellow ribbons. As Sylah ran down the stairs, Anoor turned to wave at her as if she detected Sylah’s gaze.
“A bit closer than the servants’ row,” Sylah commented as she sat down.
“One of the few perks of the name Elsari.”
“I suppose.” A perk she should have had.
The arena was a little busier than it had been at the Aktibar for duty, though there were still empty seats. The audience buzzed with anticipation as the competitors entered.
The remaining thirty contenders filed in and took their places at the desks assigned to them. There were no pencils or pens on the plain wooden desks, no exam papers or dissecting tools. Instead, each competitor had a single bell.
“What are they for?” Sylah pointed.
“The bells? They’re to indicate they know the answer. Each one has a bloodwerk combination that links it to the leader board up there. You see it?” Anoor pointed to the large wooden screen a hundred handspans away. There were thirty names lit up by runelights. “This is the trial of elements, so it’s all about what they know about…stuff like materials and things.”
Sylah snorted.
“And the bells?”
“The thing is,”—Anoor smiled slightly—“when you get thirty of the smartest people in the empire competing, you need to make it a little bit harder. So when the competitors know the answer, they ring the bell. The corresponding rune under their name on the leader board lights up, and the first person to ring the bell gets to answer. The first fifteen to get ten answers correct go through to the next round.”
Sylah understood the excitement in the arena. It was going to be a quick-fire round. She looked at the podium and saw Wern, the Warden of Knowledge, hobble toward the sound projector.
“Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, and musawa. Today we challenge our competitors on their knowledge of the earth and its materials, an important aspect of ensuring the future prosperity of the Wardens’ Empire.” Wern’s voice croaked and crackled around the arena, amplified by the bloodwerk runes in the sound projector.
Sylah looked toward the floor of the arena. All the competitors sat patiently, waiting for the first question. It was then that she noticed the girl with the black scarf, sitting with her back straight at one of the desks. She was one of them, a competitor.
Sylah barely registered that the trial had commenced until she saw the girl reach forward and ring her bell.
“Iron,” she answered.
Sylah swung her head back to Wern, who nodded and continued with the next question.
“What is the composition of the sand in the Farsai Desert?”
Again, the girl with the black scarf rang her bell first. Her name lit up on the leader board, turning her name into a beacon.
“Silica, magnetite, saphridiam, and limestone.” She answered correctly again.
One question after the other, the girl answered first.
“Last one. Come on, Tanu,” Anoor whispered next to Sylah.
“You know her?” Sylah asked.
“Yes, that’s Tanu AlKhabbir, she…used to be a friend. We grew up together.”
“Who is she?” Sylah asked.
“She’s the daughter of Pura’s tailor.”
“How did she end up knowing you?”
“The schoolrooms were a little quiet in the Keep. They let some servants’ children attend.”
She answered one of the questions before Wern had even finished it. The audience murmured. She must have realized her mistake as she let the next question be answered by another.