her trainer for understanding she didn’t want to talk to her parents, or frankly ever see them again, Raia hurried to the stable, hoping they hadn’t seen her. Inside, she skirted the stained floor—the worst of the blood had been scrubbed away by the carriers, but nothing could erase the deepened shade of gray stone around where Celin had fallen.
As she opened the stall door, she heard a sound behind her and tensed.
“Hey,” Jalimo said.
She breathed out. It was just Algana, Jalimo, and Silar entering the stable, not her parents. “Hi. You, um . . .” Raia didn’t know how to ask if they knew what had happened, but from the way they were staring at the stain, she didn’t have to.
“Is that where . . .” Algana trailed off.
“Yes,” Raia answered.
“He was your fiancé?” Silar asked.
“My parents wanted him to be.” Raia thought of the night she’d climbed out her window to escape how badly they wanted him to be. So convinced they knew what was best for her, they hadn’t been willing to listen to what she wanted. “He walked into the kehok’s stall, and . . . It all happened so fast.”
“Are you traumatized forever?” Algana asked. “Is that why you’re leaving?” Jalimo elbowed her. “What? It’s a legitimate question. Okay, maybe I could have phrased it more sensitively. I’m working on that.”
“I’m not . . . I mean, I am, but . . .” She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say and what she wasn’t.
But she was spared from coming up with an answer by Silar, who yanked her close and enveloped her in a hug. To Raia’s surprise, the other two crowded around, wrapping their arms around her too, sandwiching her between them.
She hadn’t realized they were on hugging terms, but . . . this was nice. “Um, thanks?”
Releasing her, Silar said, “Listen, if you want to talk . . .”
“Thanks, but I just want to forget it ever happened.”
“You know, we’re here for you, even if we’ll technically be a lot of miles away and you don’t actually know us all that well when you think about it,” Algana said.
Silar rolled her eyes. “What she’s trying to say is: Riders have to stick together.”
“Except on the track,” Jalimo amended. “Then I’m just trying to win.”
Algana and Silar laughed, and Raia tentatively joined in. One of the kehoks screamed, hating the sound of their laughter.
Raia’s laugh died as she looked again at the faded bloodstain on the stable floor.
“Want us to help you with your kehok?” Jalimo offered. He unhooked a barbed stick from his belt.
But Raia stopped him with a shake of her head. That wasn’t the way Trainer Verlas liked her to handle her kehok, though she wasn’t sure how to say that without insulting Jalimo and his trainer.
“You know, it’s okay to let down your guard sometimes and trust that people just want to help,” he said.
Not today, it isn’t. Until she was safely on that ferry without her parents . . .
She had a sudden, wonderful idea. “Actually, there is something you could help me with. Could you . . . talk to my parents?”
“What? I don’t do parents,” Jalimo said, backing away as if she’d suggested he cuddle a kehok. “I mean, I’m not good with them. They hate me.”
Silar nodded. “That’s true.”
“It doesn’t actually matter what you say to them. I just need them distracted for long enough that we can leave without them.” Raia was sure that Trainer Verlas wouldn’t let them on the ferry, but she couldn’t risk the chance of Augur Yorbel overruling her. It would be better if they simply missed the departure.
Jalimo brightened. “Ah! That I can do! How about we tell them there’s an emergency and they’re needed immediately on the other side of the sands? What kind of emergency would distract them?” He rubbed his hands together as if gleefully imagining the possibilities.
“And not alarm anyone else,” Silar added. “An emergency is a terrible idea. How about we offer a free tour of the training track?”
“Or we ask for their help in finding a bag of lost gold,” Jalimo said.
Algana rolled her eyes at him. “They aren’t four-year-olds who want a treasure hunt.”
He ignored her. “We say it was winnings from the last race, belonging to some rich guy, and there’s a reward for whoever finds it. It’s plausible!”
Raia grinned. “Anything. So long as they miss my departure.” She felt like hugging all of them again. Somehow, miraculously, she’d made