THE FLOWER CHILDREN

Chapter 20

THE next few weeks sped quick enough until the ball—Asmeen had managed to finish all three gowns, plus an extra for Nara, who she was bringing as her guest. She was pleased with all of them, especially her own.

Training, on the other hand, was getting harder and harder. After that one break, Dara and Osoric hadn't spared them. Every day they reached home a little later, more tired. Wylla was definitely losing energy, and even Elyn was more tired than usual.

On the bright side, there surely wasn't much time left until training ended.

Suri's ankle was finally healed, so the day before the ball, they were finally having the much-postponed strength activity.

There had been a few partner activities, and, yes, she and Aven had squabbled, but nothing too bad. They were both making an effort. So when the leaders announced that this, also, was a partner activity, Asmeen was hopeful.

Their training area was extended to the entire forest. And they'd start age-wise. Which meant the youngest pairs would get to start first, and Asmeen would be one of the last. So they waited, and waited, and waited until Dara announced that it was time for their age group.

Asmeen stood next to Aven. Apparently, this test was timed. Somehow. So they'd have to go as fast as possible.

Dara clapped. They set off, into the trees. The path was clearly marked. Asmeen didn't run too fast in the interest of conserving energy, a strategy that Aven hadn't liked—he had thought getting a head start was better—but had eventually agreed to.

So most of the other pairs were ahead of them. It was a bit of a long way to the first station. But, finally, they reached the first challenge. Only two other pairs were there with them.

They had to run and fill four pots of water from a nearby well, which, while tiring, because the well was rather deep and drawing up water was rather difficult, especially since most of the other teams had already done it—but they made it.

Asmeen was tired, but not too much, as they moved on, which she was rather proud of. In one of the previous rounds, when she was younger, she'd failed because she wasn't strong enough. Now she was.

The next round—seeing it, Asmeen stopped dead in her tracks.

Aven glanced back at her, slowing down. "What's wrong?"

Asmeen swallowed. They'd managed to fasten long branches sideways and diagonally between the trees, and it looked like they'd have to crawl through the obstacle course without hitting any of them.

That was what it seemed like, judging by the groups still stuck there. Asmeen even saw one from a younger age group trying and failing to get across.

The problem was that Asmeen was notoriously bad at this. Her body just didn't bend the right way. She'd almost failed this in the previous training round this year, just because of this one event. And it hadn't been half as hard as this one seemed to be.

"Come on!" Aven called, already standing at the entrance.

Asmeen let out a sharp breath and ran towards him. At the entrance, there stood a tall woman watching them all with sharp eyes—probably a Flower Child, or a Child of the Night. Asmeen hadn't thought anyone would even try to cheat, but perhaps the leaders had wanted to be careful.

"Let's go," Aven said, already lifting a leg to cross the first branch.

Asmeen followed him, terribly slowly. Aven was already halfway through it, and she had barely started. She could tell he was beginning to get irritated.

Then she tripped.

Aven groaned.

"Both partners have to start again," the woman said, her face completely straight.