Valkyrie Rising ✓

Chapter Sixteen

The morning of our first Performance Review, I'm sick to my stomach with nerves. I think everyone at my table feels the same; even Wick barely touches his breakfast.

We're all thinking the same thing: the next ten hours or so will define our future, even if just for the following week. Worst-case scenario, we're banished to the Infirmid. Or we die during the Tap-Out Session.

Of course, the stakes are much higher for me.

We leave D-Hall just before eight and arrive in U-Gym way too early.

Briar tries to pep us up while we put our floor selections into the box by the door of his gym, encouraging us not to be nervous. I can't take my eyes off Ritter and the five people he has with him. We were told the leaders of each overarching division would be here assessing us, but to see them in person is much more intimidating.

Eveia explains each of them in turn. She really does have a knack for remembering facts. "Lit is the Force Master." She points to the man with close-cropped hair and bulging muscles. His face is clean-shaven, so we can see a long scar follows his jawline.

"And then Wyren is the Weapons Master." A woman with long, braided blonde hair yawns. Next to her, a short man with black hair and beady eyes scratches at his beard. "Icarit is the Master of Special Tasks."

The last pair stands off a few feet from the others. A small woman with short brown hair, a pert nose, and large blue eyes tilts her head down, listening, as the other, a broad-shouldered man with graying hair and matching goatee murmurs something in her ear. "Nazareai and Massrat," Eveia says. "She is Head Healer, and he's the Rescue Master."

Each of the division leaders will have a say in our final placement, recommending some, rejecting others. We'll interview with the leader of the division in which our chosen position falls before the final Initiation.

"Breathe, Nadia." Briar hands me my five knives. "They're just people, like you or me. Don't lose focus."

He moves to the next person. I weigh the knife in my hand, remembering the height and force I'll need to put behind it to get it to the target. I can do this, at least; I may still be a bit shaky with archery, especially in a real-time simulation, but I own knife throwing.

I'll need to be perfect, though, to get high marks here, because I'll surely fail at the Tap Out.

"Prepare yourselves." Wyren stands behind us. "You will have ten minutes to throw five knives. There will be a short intermission where targets and weapons will be switched out, at which point you will be given twenty minutes to loose ten arrows. The final forty-five minutes will be spent in a solo simulation event."

My heart drops. Solo means I'm on my own for each kill.

Wyren calls, "On my count...."

                                                                                              *

My lunch tray trembles in my hands as I move slowly to our table. This morning passed in a blur of adrenaline and nerves, and only now am I able to process everything.

I killed the knife-throwing task, hitting the bulls-eye with my first throw. I tried to space the other four knives as evenly as possible around the center knife. I could tell by Briar's twitching lips he was proud, so I know I did well there.

The arrows weren't as bad as I'd worried they would be. All ten of mine hit within the second ring, four of them landing in the center one. Even the simulation was better than expected. I had to shoot at least three birds out of the sky in the forty-five minutes allotted us. I managed to get five; after the first two, it wasn't difficult to shut down my moral squeamishness at taking a life.