THE FLOWER CHILDREN

Chapter 28

AFTER that, Asmeen couldn't tell when the days began and when they ended. Time was irrelevant. They spent so much time in the training field that it felt like they would never leave.

The stress was showing on everyone, not just her and Aven. More and more pairs had begun fighting when Dara and Osoric weren't there, feeling the rivalry now that training was ending for sure.

Dara and Osoric had announced that there was only a week left. The day after the final challenge would be here twentieth.

Elyn had gone into a mad studying frenzy, pulling Asmeen and Wylla along with her, despite already having no time. The rest of the trainees, it seemed, were doing the same. More and more were coming to the field early and going over their notes frantically.

There was palpable tension every day, as everyone pushed themselves harder and harder during training. Asmeen was sure that some of the trainees were only a fingertip away from really injuring themselves.

Today was the fifth-last day of training.

Asmeen tried to stay a bit away from Aven, for fear that the pressure might make them fight again. And this time, it would be so bad that they wouldn't even want to remain in contact after only of them was chosen, as would inevitably happen.

She didn't want to think about it, and yet that was what she was thinking about when she wasn't in training or studying at home. That and what would happen with her and the twins. The more she thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed that all three of them would get in.

She'd brought up the subject one night, when all of them were in bed and ready to sleep. A very uncomfortable silence had followed before Elyn had shut it down with a swift, "What happens happens. We'll deal with it then."

She knew that the twins worried about it as much as she did. It would be much a change to be separated, even though of course that would happen eventually. And Asmeen...as much as she loved her sisters, she wasn't sure she'd be able to not be jealous if they were chosen and she wasn't. It would certainly be awkward for some time after that.

Her father, and Azol...they tried to be supportive. Most of the time they just told the three of them to study and study and focus completely on training. That it was okay if they wore themselves out, because it was only for a few more days.

Asmeen really couldn't believe it. When she'd started training—no, when she'd started trying to get in, five years ago, she never thought she'd be here. When she'd tried to first few rounds of training, this year, it had seemed impossible, but she'd worked as hard as she could.

And when she'd finally started this round of training, the ending had seemed so far away. She'd been so focused on training and bickering with Aven, in the beginning, that she hadn't really thought about how it all would finish.

In five days, she'd find out.

It felt surreal. It was already ending—it felt like it was too soon. She hadn't even realized that time had passed so quickly—it still felt like the first day, when she'd found out that she'd made it into this round of training. But it had been months since then. It was so strange.

Training was, of course, excruciating—but since it was only for five more days, Asmeen found that she had enough motivation to do her best. Apparently someone, one of the trainees, who had the good fortune of knowing a current Child of the Night personally, had found out what their last challenge was going to be.

It was some sort of combination of all the work they'd done so far—runes, potions, everything—culminating in some sort of race resembling their first strength challenge, but no doubt much more difficult. Whichever partner finished first would make it in. What was worse was that Dara and Osoric could decide that neither of the partners were worthy and not let either join. So all the training they'd done really would affect the leaders' decision.