The Story of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book One

Chapter Thirty

Space. That's what Valenia had promised us. Did we get it?

No!

"What's going on here?" Dom complained.

The training grounds were vast. They had soaring bleachers of white marble all around because they doubled as a venue for festivals or concerts. Although they set the grounds up to accommodate all the Elect, Marisol and Regina had occupied most of the grounds, leaving less than five percent to my group and me. Besides that, they each had collected more people for their camps. Along with eight more Sidhe men apiece, they had no less than twelve banmuinen on each side. The women and men were both dressed for war. Instead of veils, the women wore full-face helmets that resembled the crest animal of the elite. Marisol's women wore jaguar helmets, and Regina's wore dragons. Also, they wore long chain-mail tunics over padded leggings, and each woman held a wicked-looking spear.

I glanced at Luke, who stared grimly at the gathering and the unfair division of the field. 

"Luke, why do we keep looking like schmucks compared to these chicks?"

"The High Priestess decides how we play the games, and it's clear she has her favorites," Elsie murmured. Then she folded her arms as she looked on at the other teams. They had already commenced training, and the clash of steel against steel rang out through the grounds. Besides the battle practice, they climbed walls, did gymnastic movements on shiny equipment, and hit targets with arrows. 

I got it. We weren't the favorites. Now, what could we do about it?

"Luke, do we also have armor?"

"That we have. The unfair advantage the other Elect have does not extend to our supplies."

"Princess, don't worry about what is happening here. It's not might that wins these things." Ciaran said.

I had doubts about that as I looked at the other teams' precision. They moved in complete synchronization. How did I compete with that?

"Well, let's get changed and find out if we can get more space." I sighed.

Luke led us into a back room that held our equipment.

Fortunately, our supplies hadn't been tampered with. Once we were in our gear, I felt better about how we looked, at least. We had a color, just one, and it was green. After we arrived at the ceremony last night looking like the rejects of a Power Rangers movie set in the middle ages, I decided one color was best. With the redheads on my team,  green was an excellent choice. My banmuinen and I wore helmets that were shaped like unicorns with wickedly sharp horns.  We had a rack of weapons that included swords and crossbows. I didn't see any guns. "All these lethal items and no guns?"

"The trials have archaic traditions, and guns are untraditional," Luke said.

Humph. Well. Guess that's one more stupid rule to add to the rest. No guns. It would probably be a rule the others would break, so I mentioned it.

"My Lady, some rules have a great consequence if broken. That is one of them. Swords and sorcery and that's it." Elsie said.

"Hmm... yet somehow I feel like Marisol and Regina will find a loophole. Fine. Whatever. "

"We never went over our talents. Let's see what we are working with." Luke said. He set a charm down in the center of the supply room then nodded at us. "This will make our words secret."

Dom proudly displayed his new mystical sword and shield. He was grinning with delight. "I can cook and do this!"

Ciaran, Luke, and Luis eyed me like they were detectives, and I was the prime suspect of a terrible crime. "It happened when Emerlee attacked me on the balcony. Suddenly they appeared, like Bam!" I rubbed my eyebrow out of guilt. It was hard to look any of them in the eye.