Owen gave him a look.
It only made Elias grin wider.
Then, past Elias’s shoulder, Owen saw something move in the undergrowth.
It was the Goblin that had hidden from Elias. It must have been waiting for another chance at him, and now that it had lost its friends, it had given up. It was slinking away through the bushes, heading for the thicker growth farther back.
"Behind you," Owen said.
Elias turned. But the Goblin was already weaving between the trees, getting farther away with every step.
The young woman raised her bow.
She drew an arrow from her quiver, set it to the shining string, and drew back in one smooth movement. Her eyes narrowed on a gap between two branches.
She released.
Faint emerald light rippled along the bow’s limbs.
Whsst!
The arrow shot away much faster than Owen had expected. And as it passed through the gap in the branches, he saw its path change. It curved, only slightly, just enough to follow the Goblin as it darted to one side.
Thunk!
The Goblin went down, a few steps short of the thicker bushes.
Her bracelet flashed.
Elias stared. "Did that arrow just turn?"
"A little," the young woman said. She lowered the bow. "My bow has a property. Windtrace. It came from a wind-type core. I can push on the air around an arrow once it’s in flight. Make it faster, or nudge it a bit."
"So you can just steer it?" Elias asked. "Wherever you want?"
"No." She said it as though she had been asked that before. "I can’t bend it around a tree, if that’s what you mean. And the more I change its path, the more it costs me. I still have to find a good place to shoot from and know where the thing’s going to be." She glanced at the fallen Goblin. "It only helps if I’ve already done most of the work."
"That’s still incredible," Elias said. Then, as though remembering his manners, "Sorry. I’m Elias Ward. This is Owen Ferrers."
"Mira Calder," she said.
Owen knew the name at once.
"Mira Calder?" Elias said. "The Mira Calder? First on the board?"
"That’s me," she said.
Owen looked at the bow again.
It made sense now. She could kill things from a distance without ever having to close in. She didn’t have to chase anything, either. With Windtrace, even something that was running away wasn’t safe. In an examination where the only thing that counted was the killing blow, that was an enormous advantage.
He still didn’t like that she had stolen his kill. But he couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t good.
All three of them checked their bracelets.
Owen had eleven points now. Elias had six.
Mira glanced at hers and didn’t say anything, but Owen caught the number as she lowered her arm. Thirty-seven.
He looked up through the canopy at the board. The names had shifted again as other candidates finished their own fights.
First: Mira Calder, 37 points.
Second: Adrian Holt, 31 points.
Third: Lucien de Clare, 28 points.
His bracelet said fifty-second. Elias’s said ninety-sixth.
Elias let out a breath. "Ninety-sixth. I’m going to need a lot more than this."
Owen looked at his own number.
Fifty-second. He had moved up a long way, but he was still outside the top fifty.
He had no doubt he could kill anything like what they had faced so far. But if he kept spending his time on rats and the weaker Goblins, people like Mira, who chose their targets better, were going to leave him behind.
Mira was looking at him.
"Ferrers," she said. "I’ve heard of you." She tilted her head slightly. "Everyone’s talking about what happened with de Clare. I thought whoever beat him would be higher up than that."
"It’s early," Owen said. "There’s a lot of time left."
Mira studied him for a moment. Something in her expression changed slightly, as though the answer had interested her more than she had expected.
"Confidence is useful," she said. "If you can turn it into points."
"You two sound like you’re both planning on finishing first," Elias said.
"I don’t plan on giving up my place," Mira said. She said it simply, as a fact.
She slung the bow over her shoulder and looked past them, deeper into the trees.
"I’m going farther in," she said. "There’ll be fewer people out that way. More left to hunt."
She didn’t ask them to come with her. She didn’t seem to have even considered it.
She turned to go, then paused and glanced back at Owen.
"If you want to catch up with me," she said, "you’ll need to finish them faster."
Then she walked off between the trees, and within a few moments, Owen could no longer see her.
He watched the place where she had gone for a little while.
He had no idea whether he would run into her again in these grounds. But he understood now why her name was at the top of that board.
* * *
"Well," Elias said. "She’s confident."
Owen checked his bracelet again.
Eleven points. Fifty-second.
He looked back the way they had come. The Giant Rats out in the grassland had been easy, but they had barely been worth anything. The Goblins had been worth three times as much. And the Stalker would have given him ten points by itself, if Mira hadn’t taken it.
He could see the pattern.
He didn’t need to prove he could kill weak monsters. He knew he could. What he needed were points. Enough to get in, and enough to be well clear of the line rather than just scraping over it.
Wandering through ground that dozens of other candidates had already picked over wasn’t going to get him there.
He turned and looked deeper into the forest. The trees grew thicker that way, and the ground began to climb. Through the trunks, far off, he could make out the grey of the rocky slopes rising beyond the edge of the woods.
If there were stronger monsters anywhere, they would probably be out there.
He started walking.
"Wait," Elias said, catching up. "We’re going farther in? Already? We’ve barely been in here at all. Whatever’s out there is only going to get worse."
"Stronger monsters are worth more," Owen said. "I need to move up faster."
Elias looked down at his own bracelet. Owen saw him look at the number, and at his position.
He didn’t say anything for a few steps.
Then he let out a breath and kept walking beside Owen.
"I never agreed to be your teammate," Owen said.
"I know," Elias said. "We just happen to be going the same way. Again."
Owen opened his mouth.
Then he closed it again. There didn’t seem much point.
They left the dead Goblins behind them and went on into the woods, following the rising ground toward a part of the forest neither of them had seen.