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But I’m already off, thundering up the path.

“You turn your corners too sharply and it startles your horse,” Calix says calmly.

I pat my mare and take the lead, guiding her along the misty path. On one side, a sheer cliff face looms, its rocky shelf vanishing into clouds. On the other—nothing but a steep drop, lost to the mist below.

“She’s used to pulling carts, not racing. You had the advantage—”

The earth moves.

A sudden, sharp jolt.

The tremors deepen, fast and violent.

“Cael, move!” Calix throws out a hand like he expects a shield to spring into place.

But nothing comes. He’s still blocked from the tournament spells.

Hooves clatter and echo off the mist-shrouded stone. Rocks break loose above us, tumbling down like a volley of arrows. One hits the cliff path with a crack, another explodes into shards near Calix’s mount, which stumbles and rears.

My mare’s eyes roll and she shies back; I grip the reins, trying to soothe her.

Something whistles past me.

A blur.

Pain explodes at my temple.

Everything jerks sideways.

And then—

Nothing.

* * *

I stir.

My head throbs.

A groan slips from me as I blink up at blurry painted images. They don’t make sense. Swirls and light, out of focus, shifting. “Where...” My voice scrapes up my throat.

More blinking. Gradually, my vision sharpens. A domed ceiling above me. Soft wall murals, glowing in the firelight.

We’re in a luminarium.

I wince and turn my head toward the fire blazing in a shallow pit in the centre—where a tithiscar would be, or a violet oak. A figure crouches beside it. “Maskios?” I murmur, rubbing my temple.

“You were knocked out,” Calix says without turning. “The path was blocked. We had to ride into the mountains.”

“We’re in the mountains?”

“I thought we could take the trail down the other side. But now that we have to camp, we may as well leave the way we came. Once my meridians reopen tomorrow, I’ll clear the road.”

I push myself upright with a wince and glance at Calix, his profile lit by the flickering fire. “We’re stuck here for the night?”

“Will that be a problem? Will Akilah be searching for you?”

“I told her to go home. She might only start panicking in the morning.”