Chapter Sixteen
Pace
The obstacle course was tucked easily behind the raised sword arena. It was a long and ridiculous set of structures, all intertwined to make a frantic squalor for any average Legacy. It began with going up and over a twenty-foot climbing wall, then across a set of swing-bars, followed by a mud crawl, a knotted rope scramble to the top of a platform and a terrifying leap into a pool below, lined with thick bushes to spare anyone slightly too overzealous from a major injury.
Michael watched Ilo during his run and felt his breath taken away.
With every move he made the young man left nothing to spare. He leapt seemingly to his full height and threw himself up a good length of the wall, finding handholds where Michael couldn’t even see divots in the wood. Ilo flung himself over the peak whistled down to the other side in a flat drop. He hit the ground rolled up into a run. Ilo threw himself from one set of bars to the next, skipping most of the section with his elegant use of momentum. He hurtled off of the last set and bent into a forward dive, landing in the mud pit with a splash, rolling slightly awkwardly before getting his grip and beginning the crawl, cursing under his breath.
Sarah broke into a toothy grin and said, “Happens to everyone. Half of everyone’s time gets spent in the muck.”
Despite his bad landing, Ilo scraped his way beneath the wire bent above him and came to his feet at speed again, only stopping beneath the sparsely knotted climbing rope, held out by an out-reaching post. He leapt high once more and hoisted himself, careful not to slip by his muddy hands. After ten seconds, he was at the top, and without allowing himself the benefit of stopping, Ilo barrelled toward the edge of the short platform and threw himself with a graceful flip down into the great pool below.
An applause sounded around the thin crowd of spectators, and Michael couldn’t believe it wasn’t a complete uproar. “Why am I the only one losing my mind? That was incredible!”
Sarah chuckled gently and nodded, “Ilo is good but he’s done better. Here he is, you’ll see.”
Just as she’d predicted, dripping with water, Ilo shook his head ruefully and began wringing out his hair and clothing. “Fuckin’ mud-pit.”
“You keep hitting it downward, Feller. You’ve got slide if you want to beat that time.”
Ilo and Sarah began to bicker jestingly when Michael frowned. “Your time?”
The two of them gestured handily to a small, out-door shack off to the side, big enough for a small desk and a single seat, occupied by a short-haired young warrior, scribbling intently on a thick tome before her.
In front of the desk was a set of four signs, each topped with a place marker, from First to Fourth, with wooden initials pinned to them to indicate the Legacy holding the place and times of their run.
Michael didn’t recognise the initials off the cuff but Ilo swore as he glanced to the second-place board and Michael noticed I.F. stuck firmly behind first place.
Sarah shrugged and tapped the board idly, muttering, “Forty-seven seconds is still great. Also, Sidney cheats.”
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“I wish,” Ilo said, irate.
Michael’s mind was warmed with the realisation when he noticed the first-place name was marked with the letters S.S. and he pictured the tall, dark woman from his breakfast table. He had no doubts in his mind that she would move through the obstacle course like it was hardly there at all. Thirty-Three Seconds, it read, and Michael tried wanted to laugh in disbelief.
“What’s the average time across?” he asked.
Sarah’s mouth made a thin line. “About ninety seconds.”
“What. Her’s says thirty-three?” Michael nearly yelled.
“Exactly, welcome to humility. So, how ‘bout it?” Sarah asked, nodding to the course.
Michael chuckled earnestly and said, “I don’t think so. I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one day.”
Michael was at the starting line a minute later.
He stared up at the climbing wall straight ahead and his nerves jittered as he shook out his hands. The young man glanced at Sarah to find her standing eagerly. He gave her a ready thumbs-up.
“Go!”
Michael’s feet tore the soil out from behind him and he threw himself as high as he could, grappling a small handhold and hoisting his mass upward. He found grip after grip like his hands could read the walls. Before Michael knew it, he was vaulting over the other side and hitting the ground with a buzz in his heels. With little more than a glance, he launched himself toward the swing-bars and his fingers firmly clutched the iron and he flung himself across the entire set in four hard swings.
His heart was in his chest. He couldn’t believe it.
Michael cast his gaze up as his momentum brought him out from his final swing and instead of leaning into the fall to land on his feet, the boy threw his arms back. His balance was tilted and he came crashing into the mud slide back-first, hitting the slick with such speed that he came hurtling out the other end, without need of twisting or scrambling.
From the sidelines Ilo leapt into the air, shouting, “Go you legend, go!”
Michael’s head was slightly dazed as he flipped over and came to his feet, almost laughing with shock at his luck.
Sarah and Ilo were clutching one another in excitement, cheering and whooping as they watched him leap high onto the rope and begin pulling himself up by the thick, frayed knots.
Michael ignored all his instincts to flail his legs and focused on his arms, reaching and grabbing until he felt a shy wind blowing the frays of his shirt. The orientation of his mud-slide meant only his back was covered in the slick grime and his hands were clean, able to find easy grips. The boy quickly found himself high enough and swung onto the high-dive platform. Michael had scarcely let go of the rope and hardly found both feet flat on the stand before he threw himself off of the other side.
For the space of a moment, Michael realised he could see nothing but clouds from the ill-turned way in which he’d hurtled himself. The next moment he was ten-feet under water, whooping in the deep pool and sending out a vast cacophony of bubbles before he shot back to the surface.
Ilo was first to meet him, pulling him onto dry land and wrapping him in a tight bear-hug. “Sweet Khasm and All Their Godly Children. What. The. Fuck!”
Michael cackled and shook the water out of his ears. His heart was racing a million leagues a moment and he could hardly stop his mouth from stretching into a wide smile as Ilo shook him and continued to cheer until Sarah came over and shoved him off, clapping Michael’s hand with her own, pulling him into a tight hug.
The three of them pulled apart and Michael laughed. “I’ve never had much use for humility- I’m kidding, that was more luck than I’ve had in my entire life.”
“I’ll take luck any day. “Sarah gestured to the score-signs in awe and watched Michael go numb with shock as the timekeeper finished updating the board.
Ilo’s mouth fell open and he shoved Michael from the side and yelled, “You bastard! You knocked me into third?”
Michael stepped up to the wooden signs to see his initials being stuck to the second-place board and a cocktail of disbelief filled him. “I thought for a moment I’d unseated Sidney. Thank the gods, I’d crumble under the notion of her having a grudge against me.”
Sarah snorted indelicately. “You’d have better luck beating a lion at a roaring contest.” Ilo smacked her but both soldiers looked Michael up and down for a serious second and he squirmed under their gaze.
“Alright, cut it out. A Bronze Amel says neither of you can beat it!” Michael goaded.
And they did. Many times. No money changes hands, but they went again and again until the sun began to fall in the sky. Michael was humbled plenty and found himself terribly glad for it.