The instructor walked back onto the boat along with the examiners.

“Alrighty then,” said the instructor. “That’s it. Let the exam begin!”

59

All the climbers stood frozen in a row after the instructor had shouted, “Let the exam begin!”

Max had half-expected chaos to ensue as soon as the exam started, but everyone stayed motionless.

It was the candles. They were a completely unexpected factor.

Everyone was acting extremely cautious, not wanting to accidentally let their flame go out.

Some climbers started walking away, others stood exactly where they were.

Max suddenly had an idea.

“Everyone!” he shouted. “The test isn’t as hard as they made it out to be. They wanted to fray our nerves by making it take so long to get here. They wanted to put us all on edge, so that we weren’t thinking straight. But listen: if we work together, there’s no reason why we can’t all pass this test. If all of our candles stay lit, there’s no reason to steal one from someone else.”

The other student climbers perked up at this idea. Other groups looked to each other, trying to see what their partners and allies thought of this suggestion.

“He lies!” shouted one voice.

It was Cyrus Archer on the other end of the beach.

“Don’t trust him,” declared Cyrus. “He’s not one of us, remember? He’s from the outer-rim! He’ll steal everyone’s candles in the end, you’ll see!”

Max gritted his teeth. That seriously won’t work, will it? There was a clear chance for victory for everyone here. They all just had to stay calm to achieve it. Cyrus’ words were actively working against that goal.

Max bottled his anger. Yelling at Cyrus would only help the boy’s goals to create anger in the group.

“Why don’t you hear me out?” said Max to the rest of the group. “If you don’t like my plan you can head off on your own.”

The other students nodded their heads to suggest that this option seemed reasonable enough.

Cyrus winced bitterly on the other end of the beach. He was up to something. Max just wasn’t sure what.

“There’s more than one airbringer among us,” said Max. “They should be able to manipulate the wind to protect us from the breeze taking out the candles. Next, we can search for a cave at the bottom of the jungle’s cliffs for shelter for the evening. So long as we manipulate the air flow and have some sort of covering the candles will be protected—”

Before Max could finish he felt a subtle strengthening in the ocean breeze around him.

Cyrus smirked from across the beach along with his ally Sybil Westley.

“I won’t be tricked!” shouted Sybil, not believing any of the words she was saying. “Stay away from me and my candles!”