Raia onto the training ground. By the time they reached the sands, the kehok was trembling with the effort of trying to resist her, but she didn’t even allow him to scream.
Around the circle, the other trainers were working with their students. In the far corner, Trainer Osir cracked a whip at his student’s monster. One of Trainer Zora’s students was shouting at her kehok and pressing a spear tip against his side. Black blood trickled from a fresh wound, and the kehok screamed his defiance. Tamra ignored them.
“You have one goal,” Tamra told Raia. “Get this kehok to cross the training sands in a straight line, without attacking any of the other kehoks or students, and then make him return and lie down in front of you.”
“Okay.” Raia squared her shoulders and clenched her fists, as if she were about to start a brawl but had no idea how to throw a punch. “How do I do that? Do I use a whip or a spear—”
“Do you see a whip or a spear? No—you will use your will and your voice. On the track, you are the only tool you can and should rely on.” Tamra pinned her gaze on the kehok as she unhooked the chain. He tensed, aware he was free, ready to run, but she kept her gaze pinned to his. “Walk.” Her voice held no hint of compromise, no indication that he had any other option. It was a tone full of expectation: He would obey. He must obey.
He did obey.
Haltingly, he walked across the sands, and then with a surer gait, he trotted back.
“Lie down,” she ordered.
He dropped onto the sands.
“You try,” Tamra told her student.
She saw panic flash in Raia’s eyes, but Raia stepped in front of the lion-lizard. He watched her with baleful eyes. “Walk.” She pointed across the sands.
Tamra kept the pressure of her mind on the kehok but changed her command: You will not harm her. She didn’t dictate more than that. Getting him to move would be up to Raia. But Tamra would keep him from mauling her on her first day.
“Walk!” Raia repeated.
The kehok didn’t move. Just stared at her. His tongue flicked out and in.
“What am I doing wrong?” she asked Tamra, a hint of panic in her voice.
Tamra crossed her arms and didn’t answer. This was something that every rider had to figure out for themselves—their core of confidence. Doubts were rooted in the past, fears were for the future, but kehoks existed only in the present. Raia had to believe the kehok would obey her right here and right now, and to do that, she had to believe she deserved to be obeyed.
Kehok racing, as her own teacher used to tell her, taught you to value yourself.
If it didn’t kill you first, Tamra amended.
Raia clenched her fists and glared at the kehok. “You will walk.”
The lion-lizard began to tremble. He lifted one leg and pressed his paw down, as if he were about to heft himself onto his feet . . . and then he put his leg back down and lowered his head to the ground.
Raia puffed out air, as if she’d been holding her breath. “I can’t.”
“You escaped your family,” Tamra said softly. “You got yourself here. Unharmed. Alone. Your desire to continue is greater than his need to thwart you. He is and will always be a kehok, the lowest of the low. His soul is doomed to be reborn as a monster for all eternity. He is the epitome of hopeless. You are a warrior of hope. You will triumph. Make. Him. Walk.”
Straightening her shoulders, Raia nodded. Her hands formed fists again, and she widened her stance as if she were preparing to fight. “Obey me! Walk!”
Growling, the lion-lizard began to shake. But he pushed himself up onto his feet. Slowly, jerkily, as if he were trying to resist every step, he weaved his way across the sands. His thick, scale-coated tail dragged behind him, drawing curves his wake.
Tamra wanted to cheer. Instead, she kept her voice calm and even, so as not to break Raia’s concentration. “Good. Bring him back.”
On the opposite side of the circle of sand, the kehok pivoted. He began to walk back, faster this time, and in more of a straight line. Excellent! She has potential, Tamra thought, which is a vast improvement over—
CRASH!
From the stables.
The sound of wood and metal shredding.
She heard a kehok scream, but this wasn’t one of rage. It was pain. Beside