Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [96]
We all looked at him for a second, probably all thinking the same thing: I’m sorry; you want me to stand on a pole?
“That wasn’t a request,” he said in the prickly tone of a leader so inadequate he had to bully people to follow his orders.
We all shared a glance, but without a better option—other than losing our positions in the House—we obeyed.
I hopped up onto the post and windmilled my arms to keep from falling over again. On shaky knees and ankles, arms outstretched, I slowly stood up, then cast a glance back at Frank.
“This volley tests your endurance, your strength, your balance,” he said.
“What do we do exactly?” Juliet asked.
“You stand there,” Frank said, “until you can’t stand there anymore.”
“The sun will be rising soon,” Lindsey pointed out.
“And you will stand there until you can’t stand there anymore,” Frank repeated.
I looked at Malik. He nodded at me, an acknowledgment of our struggle, and a promise to intervene should the need arise. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the coming drama and wished for the strength to deal with it.
And so, with three hours to go until dawn, we stood on posts in the middle of Hyde Park, and we waited for the sun to rise.
For nearly three hours, we stood on our posts—vampires being used as pawns in a political game that had nothing to do with us. It was unfair, sure, but certainly not the first time people had been used and manipulated to meet some political goal. Wasn’t that the mechanism of virtually every dictator and demagogue in history? To use the people to accomplish some presumably important political end?
Three hours ago there’d been four of us. Now we were down to two. Kelley had stumbled and fallen from her pole as darkness began to give way to dawn and exhaustion had finally overtaken her. Lindsey, tired and dehydrated, had gotten a cramp and had crumpled to the ground.
The test, whatever its purpose, was down to me and Juliet.
We stood in silence, she of the elfish frame and delicate features. Me with the fortuitous balance of a former ballerina, but still stiff and aching. Juliet had thrown on tennis shoes for the racing portions of the test, but I was still barefoot, and I could hardly feel my feet, the cramps having long since given way to a buzzing numbness. Every other muscle in my body ached from the effort of balancing myself in that spot, and I knew I’d be sore when this task was done.
The eastern sky was beginning to turn a searing shade of orange. The vampires who’d stayed outdoors with us hunched into bits of shade that would protect them from the rising sun.
We had no such option.
Frank walked into the backyard, a pretentiously delicate mug in his hand. He’d popped in and out of the House to check in on us, presumably to ensure we hadn’t fallen off the posts or taken disqualifying breaks. I had no respect for a proctor who couldn’t bother to keep vigil over the exams he’d decided were crucial for the House.
Malik, on the other hand, stood in front of us, his back to the east, arms crossed over his chest. He looked obviously tired, his eyes swollen with exhaustion, but he’d stayed with us. He’d watched over us. It was like a promise from father to children that even if he couldn’t face the trials for us, he’d unwaveringly support us while we went through them.
This man was a Master of vampires.
He watched Frank suspiciously as he crossed the yard. “The sun is rising,” Malik said. “If there’s a point to this test, you should reach it now.”
“Of course there’s a point,” Frank responded. “This is an endurance test. The endurance isn’t merely standing on the pole; that’s not exactly a complicated task. The endurance is standing on the pole in the sun.”
Juliet and I exchanged a nervous glance. “But that will kill us,” she said.
We were partially protected by the trees at the back of the yard, but as the sun rose, the rays of light would shift across the lawn, moving ever closer to where we stood . . . And Juliet was closer to those rays than I was.
“This is ridiculous,” I said,