Chapter 24

Noora

The soft pink light of dawn was the first thing that greeted her eyes, blinding her focus for a moment and drowning her in dangerous confusion. The doors led down a few stone steps and onto a patch of grass that expanded into a circle, stretched so far that the distance turned blurry in her vision. The arena had no roof letting in a cold breeze of autumn air and rustling the blades of grass on the ground. In the center of the circle a tower was built out of gray stone, so high, Noora wondered if one could overlook the kingdom from above. The tower ended in an open sort of balcony, revealing four chairs occupied graciously by the jury. Noora’s eyes instantly snagged on the biggest chair, silver ornaments bustling the rim of it and forming a beautiful snowflake on the top, diamonds glittering against it like drops of dew.

Nikolai sat upon the chair, looking as mighty as any king, dressed in the ceremonial uniform of pale blue, silver medals adorning the left side of his chest for the gods knew what. His golden hair looked tossed by the wind, only tamed by the unearthly-looking crown upon his head.

The polished silver imitated glass, catching the light of the rose sky and reflecting the colour inside it.

For a moment Noora felt enchanted by the light play in the material until her gaze flew to Nikolai’s face and she met the colour of jade.

From the distance, it was impossible to tell if he was staring exactly at her or in her general direction.

“What is he doing here?” Pika whispered beside her and she followed his gaze to see the man who was sitting on the far left, the queen occupying the seat between him and Nikolai.

Her blood froze inside her veins before it melted and started to cook like she was held over a burning fire.

The man sitting on the chair had skin the colour of bronze, arms that looked as thick as steady branches, muscles and veins trailing up his naked chest and arms. Black ink was carved into his granite skin, intricate designs that were common for the Sosye but Noora knew these kinds of circles. He was a high chief.

His hair was as dark as night,braided behind his back in the same way his medium-length beard was, hiding most of his face beside his long nose and soulless eyes.

They put a high chief of Sosye on the jury, Kekoa was nothing beside this man because Noora knew if a high chief came only metres close to her he would kill her.

It was their instinct to kill, the moment they smelled a witch’s blood.

Someone pushed at her back and she stumbled down the steps only noticing now that the other participants were trailing over the patch of grass and then the noise came crashing in.

She had not noticed before but all around the sides of the arena, they built stands that were filled to the brim by cheering people, the sounds rising and rising until the voices blurred into a homogenous sound, buzzing constantly in her ear. She could see nothing but the high chief on the chair, see nothing but the way the muscles bunched under his arms. He would not even need a weapon, his rough hands were big enough to wrap around her throat entirely and it would only take one small squeeze of his fingers and her neck would be broken.

She could not tell if he was looking at her but it almost felt like he was, sensing that his prey was very near and ready to be attacked. It felt like she could hear him pull his lips back and growl at her. And for the first time in her life, Noora felt something very close to fear.

“Noora!”

Her head snapped to the left where Pika stood with wide eyes, gesturing towards the ground. And that was when she saw.

She did indeed hear a growling but it was not the high chief all those metres away but four snow-coloured wolves, crowding steps away from the four participants. Their snouts were open, muzzle back and revealing their sharp incisors.

There was one wolf for every participant and if Noora had to guess, they just stepped into their territory and the wolves did not look all too joyous about it.

Her hand went for her hip, to grab her knife but she came up empty, forgetting that she was not allowed to carry any weapons with her.

Had they lost their minds? How were they supposed to fight one of the most dangerous predators residing in Oy Frossen without any weapons?

One of the four animals howled and without a second of hesitance the pack pounced.

Noora knew from countless encounters with wolves that it always was most important to not let them corner you, a wolf pack was most efficient in cornering their prey, mostly going for the neck or flank and the instant kill.

But this was different.

Though the four wolves appeared as a pack, somehow they were trained to focus on only one participant.

The wolf closest to her broke out into a run and Noora was just standing there, frozen. She could hear its paws hitting the ground as it gained speed, advancing as quickly as lightning.

The wolf howled as Noora dug her boots into the dirt gaining ground, her hands began to prickle with something she tried to swallow down all her life. But she knew this was not the time nor the place to unleash whatever was slumbering inside her veins.

There was no point in running from the wolf and as she crouched and drew her teeth back, staring the animal straight in the eyes its feet faltered for a moment.

She could hear the others already fighting, a deep howl sounding in the cheering arena as Noora focused on the wolf circling her.

They both mirrored their advances, both taking steps to the right when the other did, coming closer, drawing back.

She needed to focus. Noora did feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins, knowing that whatever mistake she would make, it would be the last one.

The wolf growled again and the people started to sneer, trashing and throwing useless slurs at her.

“You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?” she called at the wolf and for a moment something glittered in its eyes, as if it could understand her.

The wolf snarled and its teeth caught the reflection of the sun.

There.

Something was wrong with its right canine, it was oddly coloured, glinting almost in a lilac way. It was an amethyst shaped out to function as a tooth and now she could understand why it was so angry.

With one last breath, she broke out into a run.

The moment her arms wound around the flank of the wolf and both their ribs collided felt surreal. The wolf and Noora rolled in the grass, its sharp jaw snapping at her repeatedly as her knees scraped against dirt. Her jaw took a hit of its hind legs but she kept on holding on. She tried to produce enough strength to break some ribs but her arms failed and the wolf found a way out.

Landing on her knees, she quickly rolled to the side, barely escaping the predator’s snapping jaw.

A grunt left her lips as she got up on her knees facing the raging animal. The wolf pounced again but this time it was more efficient, fainting to go for her left leg, only for it to tackle her whole to the ground.

Panic crept out of Noora’s heart and wound around her lungs squeezing tightly—or maybe it was just the paws of the seventy-kilo animal pounding on her ribs.

She cried out when she felt one breaking and her hands flew up in a failed attempt to fight the animal off with bare hands.

All it did was make her erupt in a high-pitched scream as the sharp canines of the wolf got ahold of her hand, burying what felt like blades into her flesh.

Tears stung her eyes as she desperately tried to get her hand out of the animal’s jaw but it was no use, she knew that if it once clamped down, there was no way out.

She met the eyes of her predator through a blurry gaze, her hand already going numb, they were blue like the shade of the ocean.

Whatever it was she saw in those eyes it made her take a burning inhale, feeling her diaphragm expand and brush the broken ribs.

She whimpered at the pain but somehow swallowed her panic down, the wolf tearing at her hand and somehow forgetting that she had a second one too.

With a pained scream, her hand went for the throat of the animal, squeezing through fur and muscle but the animal did not let loose.

Grunting, her hand wandered to its neck and there . Her hand took hold of the fold pulling with all her might, her nails digging in hard until she felt the flesh give away.

The wolf howled but did not fully let go of her right hand but its jaw eased off enough that the hand inside its mouth wrapped around the glinting amethyst and pulled.

Noora swung her legs up, circling them around the middle part of the animal's body, and yanked it into the mud.

The ground shuddered as the wolf fell and she swung herself onto his body, squeezing so tight at its neck that it finally let her hand go. Noora let out another scream as she watched her blood flow over her wrist and down her arm, bite marks adorning half of her palm in the form of a crescent.

With all her might she pulled her injured hand and the wolf whimpered in pain as she yanked the fake tooth out of its jaw.

A huff left her lips not letting go of its neck, not hard enough to choke, not weak enough to let it escape.

She drew her right hand against her chest, pain pulsing but that felt beside the point as she stared down into its soulless eyes.

She knew that she could potentially break the wolf’s neck, the animal did hurt her and she knew that a bite like that would take ages to heal properly, if it did not get infected and killed her later on.

But this was not the work of an evil animal. This was the work of humans.

“We have a winner! Please everyone congratulate Noora, for she found the special item of the amethyst tooth which will further enrich her in the second task! The jury will now draw back for a moment before the final points will be given,“ a voice called over the jostling crowd.

The sounds rushed back in as her chest heaved and the wolf was suddenly eerily calm as if the tooth was bothering it all along, an unnatural abscess that needed to be removed for the animal to be at peace.

She chanced a glance upwards, to see that Soren had been heavily injured, a healer already at his side and putting his arm in a sling, the wolf got a bite in his left calf and somehow broke his arm; the wolf was now being dragged away by royal guards, its jaw snapping multiple times.

Pika somehow managed to knock his wolf flat out, it was lying on the ground, its chest moving slowly, eyes closed.

Her stomach caved in as she saw Kekoa only a few steps away from her, his hands and arms soaked in blood, splatters of it covering his face like freckles. His eyes were focused on the wolf before him, tongue lolling out of its head, eyes staring into nothingness.

Bile rose in her stomach and she gagged as she realised that its head was not a part of its body any more, more than one testicle pouring out of its stomach, wound around each other like tangled necklaces.

When she met Kekoa’s gaze she only saw joyful glee at the pain of an innocent and tortured animal.

The wolves that were alive were dragged away by the guards, the royal family was finally ready to hold up their cards and Noora could not find herself to care.

Her pulsing hand was still clutching the amethyst and she found herself driving the edge of it into her skin as she watched Queen Euphemia and the high chief hold up signs with a four painted on them. Nikolai proceeded with a seven and only then did she realise that the same woman that gathered at the announcement in town sat on the chair beside Nikolai, holding a piece of paper up, the number ten painted on it with red paint.

It was dripping slightly like the blood that now crusted beneath Kekoa’s nails.

The crowd was shouting protests at the ten points and the only thing Noora did was turn around and leave the arena, the crystal tooth embedded into her palm.