Whisper [Fourth Wing]

Chapter Eleven

I WAS AN ANT. A tiny, tiny creature who was insignificant compared to the beast in front of her. I was finally learning how it felt to be squashed beneath a rock. And it was shit.

The Gauntlet was shit.

"Well, that's..." Rhiannon swallows, her head tilted just as far back as mine as we stare at the menacing obstacle course that's carved into the front of a ridgeline so steep, it might as well be a cliff.

The zigzagging death trap of a trail rises above us, climbing in five distinct switchbacks of 180-degree turns, each increasing in difficulty on the way to the top of the bluff that divides the citadel from the flight field and the Vale.

"Amazing." Aurelie, the blonde first-year from our squad, sighs.

Rhiannon and I turn, both staring at her like she must have hit her head.

"You think that hellscape looks amazing?" Rhiannon asks.

"I've been waiting years for this!" Aurelie grins, her normally serious black eyes dancing in the morning sun as she rubs her hands together, shifting from one toned leg to the other in glee. "My dad—he was a rider until he retired last year—used to set up obstacle courses like this all the time so we could practice, and Chase, my brother, said it's the best part of being here before Threshing. It's a real adrenaline rush."

Sure. An adrenaline rush. More like a death trap. It was like you were actually facing death. I suppose you were given that one wrong move would send you tumbling all the way down that cliff and onto the concrete below. Your hand slipped or you tripped over your own feet (yes that was possible and had happened to a first year from First Wing, First Squad last year), and your little brains would make a beautiful art piece on the ground.

If that gave you an adrenaline rush then I think you needed your head checking out.

"He's with the Southern Wing, right?" Violet asks, focusing on the obstacle course running up the side of a fucking cliff.

"Yep. Pretty much desk duty for all the action they see near the Krovlan border." She shrugs and points about two-thirds up the course. "He said to watch out for those giant posts jutting from the side of the cliff. They spin, and you can get crushed between them if you're not fast enough."

"Oh, good, I was wondering when it might get difficult," Rhiannon mutters.

Okay I loved her. She was the most amazing person in this entire quadrant.

"Thanks, Aurelie." Violet says with a smile.

The obstacle course is the embodiment of my worst nightmare. Though, I was proud to say that last year, I was the one with the patch sewed on my jacket. Then again, so I should have been given my father and mother had been training me for this since I was five.

Five!

Who made a fucking five year old face death every other week? Walking on a balance beam to practice for the parapet was one thing but this? He had me swinging off bars he'd had specifically fitted to the palace roof. A drop that far would have broken both my legs and, chances are, my back. Then he had me climbing the side of the palace walls until my arms practically gave out on me all so that I'd be able to manage that stupid chimney on the fourth ascent. Oh, and the worst one was when he had the Royal architect build small pillars on top of the stable roofs. All of which were about three foot apart. He had me jumping from one to the other to practice for the gauntlet without a care for the fact that I'd broken my arms, ankles and nearly every bone in my ribs countless times.

Who did that to their five year old daughter?

"Still not sure why they call it the Gauntlet," Ridoc says from my right, blowing into his cupped hands to ward off the morning chill. The sun hasn't touched this little crevice, but it's shining above the last quarter of the course.