her to appreciate how lucky she was. “I mean, I’ve heard those things happen. . . .” She felt her face heat up in a blush.
“Definitely not,” Algana said. “What kind of messed-up place did you come from that you’d even think that?”
Raia felt her throat go dry. She wasn’t going to answer that. “I’m sorry.” She hadn’t meant to insult them. She wondered if she’d ruined any chance she had of becoming friends with them. It would be nice to have new friends. She’d abandoned every one she had when she climbed down that trellis and disappeared into the night. She thought she’d come to grips with the idea of losing everyone she knew, but then she felt tears prick her eyes. She blinked them back and hoped the three other students didn’t notice how weak she was.
“Never mind where you came from,” Silar said kindly. “You’re here now. And all that matters is that the qualifying races start in just a few weeks, and we have to—”
Jalimo pushed past her, deeper into the stable. “What, by the River, is that?” He pointed to the black lion, who, out of all the kehoks, was the only one not fighting the shackles that chained him to the floor and walls. Instead, he was staring at them with golden eyes, as if he could dissect them with his gaze. “It looks like it’s made of muscle and metal and nothing else. How fast can it run?”
“Never mind how it runs,” Algana said, awe in her voice. “Look at its jaws! It could tear you apart in seconds.”
“Let me see,” Silar said.
“It’s the one that Trainer Osir was talking about,” Jalimo said. “Must be.”
The others crowded next to Jalimo, and as they pressed closer, the black lion exploded, lunging to the limits of his chains, crashing against the door to his stall. All the students shrieked and stumbled backward, except Raia, who stepped in front of his door, as if to protect him from them.
“Trainer Verlas bought him yesterday,” Raia said over the roars. “He’s my racer.”
All three students then switched from staring at the black lion, who continued to rage in his stall, to staring at Raia.
“Your racer,” Algana repeated.
“And you’re with Trainer Verlas?” Silar said.
Jalimo let out a low whistle.
“Why?” Raia asked. “What’s wrong?”
Silar patted her head. “It was nice meeting you, Raia. We’ll all wear mourning gray to your funeral and play the bells to guide your soul on.” The other two nodded solemnly.
Raia opened her mouth to ask more questions, but just then the stable door slammed open. “You lot, out!” Trainer Verlas barked at Silar, Algana, and Jalimo. “Your trainers want you. Raia, stay! It’s time for your lessons.”
Each of the other students clasped her shoulder on their way out, as if saying a final goodbye. Raia gulped and reminded herself she didn’t have to banish fear. I just have to conquer it.
Briefly, Tamra wondered what nonsense the other students had told Raia, but then dismissed it. It doesn’t matter. I don’t have time to worry about gossip. She had only three weeks to prepare an absolute rookie to race on the black lion.
Luckily, she didn’t have to teach her to win. Not for her first race, at least. You were allowed two chances to compete in the qualifiers. Only your top time was used to calculate whether you’d run in the major races or the minor races in the Heart of Becar. So you could consider your first qualifying race part of your training.
By the second, though . . .
Pursing her lips, Tamra studied Raia.
She wasn’t likely to achieve much physical change in the three weeks leading up to her first race. But Raia could learn the proper techniques: how to keep her seat, how to handle turns, how to pace herself and her beast so that they’d have the stamina to accelerate in the final straightaway.
First things first, though. Before Raia could even mount a kehok without getting killed, she had to master the basics of controlling one. Tamra shifted her gaze to the black lion.
Not you, she thought. Not yet.
Yesterday’s attempt to force him into the stable had been too spectacular a failure.
Better to start small. For today, Tamra selected the lion-lizard that her former student Amira had raced. She’d never had any difficulty cowing him. “Behave,” she told him as she opened his stall. Attaching a chain rope to his net, she led him out. “Follow.”