Cirque Du Freak Trials of Death Book 5

     This is the fifth book in the Cirque Du Freak saga. Written by Darren Shan about Darren Shan. In this book Darren has been presented to the counsel and they have decided that Darren must prove himself as a true vampire through their ways. The Trials of Death. The Trials of Death are very dangerous tasks that vampires must do five of. They have taken about sixty trials out that Darren can't do at his age. Also the punishment for failing is death if you are not dead already. Will Darren survive the Trials of Death?

     Darren is trained for the trials by the mountains games master Vanez Blaze. For the first trial He has to make it through a maze. Not so hard right? Try having a rock tied to you that weighs half your weight, while the maze is filling up with water. When Darren is just about to admit defeat and let himself drown he finds the exit.

     For Darren's second trial Darren has to walk barefoot or crawl through a cavern known as the Path of Needles. It is a cavern that is filled with Stalactites and Stalagmites that can be big enough to be impaled on or as small as a cat's claw. Normally you get twenty-four hours of rest until the next trial but the Festival of the Undead begins after Darren's second trial and no official business is to go on during the the festival. Because of the festival, which lasts three days and Darren's twenty-four hours of rest Darren has four days of rest.

     For his next trial he has to survive fifteen minutes in a steel room. Except this steel room has jets in the floor that spout fire like geysers. This trial is called the Hall of Flames. This trial is voted by many vampires to be the hardest one. Just before the fire spurts the jets make a hissing sound for about two to three seconds. Darren barely survives this trial but does suffer from horrendous burns.

     The next trial Darren must pass is called the Blooded Boars. The object of this task is to kill two boars that are extremely violent because they have been injected with vampire blood. Darren is given a sword and a spear. As the battle rages on Darren kills one boar with the sword but is distracted by that. The other boar circled around Darren and was about to ram and kill him when someone shouted "NOOOO!" and jumped in the arena.