“It’s all up to your skill,” Phi breathed in the back. “Let’s do it.”
Danica shifted gears and gunned it. The road was straight here, leading into the desert. “How long do we have before the course curves again?”
“Three hundred yards. There’s more traps out here—”
“Let’s skip the traps for now.” Clutch, fifth gear. The speedometer rose higher and higher, one hundred miles per hour, one hundred twenty, one hundred forty. “Does it show what the course turns into after the curve?”
“It’s labeled Deathhead Swamp, but there are no other details.”
Clutch, sixth gear. The speed rose passed one hundred eighty, two hundred, two twenty, and Danica let the exhilaration fill her. She was racing again, something she never thought would happen. There was far more on the line now than any race she’d ever been in, but that only made the adrenaline higher.
Two hundred twenty miles per hour. Two hundred forty miles per hour.
“If something comes up on the course, you won’t be able to stop,” Arden grunted, his hands curled around his harness.
“That’s the point,” Danica answered, and Arden whipped his head toward her. “Neither will they.”
Realization dawned in his eyes, and he nodded. “Your harness is fastened, right, Phi?”
“Affirmative.” Phi tapped his screen despite the force pushing him back in his seat. “Fifty yards until the swamp.”
Ahead of her, the road curved just slightly to the left and what appeared like an oasis shimmered into appearance. It was as if someone literally dropped a swamp into the middle of the desert, like a wall met with another wall. Danica wasted a few seconds checking behind her to make sure the goblins had sped up to match her. When she saw them there, still hanging out the window and prepared to throw another weight, she grinned.
The road went from being covered in sand to shadows caused by overhanging trees just before the turn curved in. Danica down shifted and turned the wheel to the left and then right, her hand jerking up the e-brake until the car began to drift at a dangerous speed. Her hand tight on the wheel, they followed the curve. Arden kept his eyes on the mirror. The squeal of tires rent the air, both from their Porsche and the goblin car behind them.
The curve ended and Danica released the e-brake and straightened the car. She looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see the goblin team attempt the same move, but they lacked the skill Danica had. Their tires squealed as they tried to slow and move around the curve, but they were going too fast. Instead of drifting elegantly around the curve, they flew straight and slammed into the tree line. The car folded in half, wrapping around the large swamp tree like a ribbon. The trumpet sounded a second later.
“How are you human?” Phi asked from the backseat, and when Danica glanced at him in the mirror, his eyes were wide with wonder.
“My dad used to take me to the drift track to practice,” she offered as explanation. “I tried to learn every style of racing so when I chose my path, I knew I was choosing correctly.”
“And instead, you mastered each style.” There’s was admiration in Phi’s voice that Danica chose not to acknowledge. After all, she didn’t want to admit what it did to her, to hear that respect there.
“How much longer until the weapon’s system comes online?” Arden asked, staring out the window at the dark trees.
“Eight miles. They won’t come online until we pass through the swamp and move into the city.”
“Great.” Arden rubbed his face. “I should have left something unconnected from the system.”
In front of them, the elves came into view again, the bright green of their car drawing her eyes even in the gloom. It was difficult to ignore the way poisonous looking plants grew along the sides of it. They almost blended into the swamp.
“Watch out!” Phi shouted but Danica had already seen it before his words came out.
In front of the elf team, a large stone wheel rolled out in the road. The elf team tried to avoid it, but either their reaction time was too slow, or their car wasn’t prepared for such handling. The nose of their car slammed into the base of the rolling stone and lifted the rear into the air at the sudden stop. The front folded in on itself. They’d been far enough ahead that Danica had plenty of time to slow while the stone finished rolling, but as they came closer, one of the elves stumbled out of the car, blood running down her face. The other had probably died on impact judging by the damage to the car. Still, because the whole team hadn’t died, the trumpet didn’t sound, not yet.
“Should we stop to help?” Danica asked, her eyes on the disoriented elf.
“And risk her stabbing us for whatever the King might have offered? Not a chance.” Arden’s voice was a growl, but despite the cold words, there was pity on his face.
The creature that came suddenly out of the water from the side of the road wasn’t like anything Danica had ever seen before as they rolled forward. Danica stomped on the brakes to avoid running into it. Something so large would total the car. Whatever it was, it looked like a massive prehistoric crocodile, large saber teeth curling up and around its snout. The elf screamed and tried to run but there wasn’t anywhere to go on a road surrounded by water. Danica’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes wide, but before she could watch the poor elf get eaten by the creature, she stomped on the clutch and took off again, speeding passed the crocodile just as the tail swished up. It narrowly missed the roof of the car, and when it slammed down again, the ground shook.
The trumpet rent the air and Danica tried not to think about how she’d just left the elf to die. No one deserved that fate.
“It’s the nature of the race,” Phi offered, his hand on her shoulder.
“I’m fine,” Danica replied, rolling her shoulders until Phi released her.
But the look on the elf’s face as she screamed, despite not being able to hear it inside their car, would haunt her, just as her father’s death would.
What was one more stain on her soul anyways?