actually chase geese instead. Perhaps the late emperor had simply been missed in one of the initial sweeps. Yorbel was more powerful than most of the augurs tasked with the search. Perhaps if he were to become involved in the main search . . .
But then no one would be checking the kehoks, and that lack of thoroughness could spell disaster.
Wrestling with his thoughts, Yorbel strolled with Gissa, his old friend and the woman known in whispers as the holy assassin, back to the temple.
Chapter 8
Standard practice if you had both a new rider and a new racer: train them separately. Drill the basics into each of them first before you expose them to each other. Build up the rider’s strength. Accustom the kehok to the feel of obeying commands before you combine the two.
There’s no time for standard, Tamra thought.
She was lucky that Raia wouldn’t know the difference.
Unlucky that the other trainers would, however. Especially Osir. He wouldn’t hesitate to share his opinions loudly and frequently, which could undermine Raia’s confidence. Which meant it would be best if they trained elsewhere.
Arriving at the training grounds before dawn light had spread across the sands, Tamra barked at Raia to help her. Together, they hauled one of the racing carts out of its shed. Essentially a cage on wheels, it was used to transport kehoks to the races.
“Back it up to the stables,” Tamra grunted. “By the River, it’s heavy.” Ugh, her back hurt worse than it usually did, but she couldn’t let Raia pull the cart by herself.
Sweating, they dumped it by the stable door. Tamra opened the cage door, then the stable door. Inside, she was pleased to see that her killer hadn’t slaughtered any other kehoks in the night. His shackles had held. A small miracle, she thought.
“Why couldn’t we have used this to get the lion off the ferry?” Raia asked.
“It’s reserved for races,” Tamra said.
Raia’s mouth dropped open. “B-b-but I thought the races didn’t start until—”
“No races yet. We need it for practice, so we’re borrowing it. Or if you’d like to be technical about it, we’re temporarily stealing it while there’s no one here to tell us we can’t. Happy?”
“Not really.” Raia glanced around them as if she expected a city guard to pop out from behind a pile of manure and arrest them. “Are the others going to be angry?”
Tamra considered it. She didn’t care if they were, but Raia obviously did. “Honestly, they’ll be relieved we aren’t training here with them.”
“We’re not?”
Examining the lion, Tamra held up her hand to Raia. “Love questions. Inquisitive minds are excellent. But I need you to shut up so I can focus.”
Raia shut up.
Taking a deep breath, Tamra narrowed her attention on the black lion. “Got another cage for you,” she told him. She wasn’t taking any chances with partial focus when dealing with him. He could just be biding his time until she loosened his chains.
His eyes flickered toward her. Pinned down tightly, he couldn’t move his head. Oh, sweet Lady. He hadn’t been able to reach food or water all night—a common technique used on kehoks that needed to be broken.
Not common for me, Tamra thought.
If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in worrying about Lady Evara’s ultimatum last night, she would have noticed he’d been chained too far from the water bucket and fixed it.
She hauled a bucket of water inside the transport cage and then filled the food bin with meat from the shared supplies. She also strapped a barrel of water to the side of the cart for later. The other kehoks began to batter at their stall doors, eager to be fed as well, but she knew the other trainers’ students would be tasked with that job. “You’ll get yours later,” Tamra told them.
She then opened the black lion’s cage and loosened his restraints. “Drink. Eat.”
The black lion didn’t move, or even raise his head. Instead, he began to growl, a low rumble that sounded like distant thunder and grew until she felt it vibrate through the soles of her feet.
“You’re hungry and thirsty,” she told him. “Stubbornness won’t cure that. Move.”
She thought he was going to continue to resist, and she’d have her first battle of wills here before the day’s training even began. But, dragging his chains, he limped into the cage and began to drink. She closed and locked the door behind him.