Page 76 of Of Flame and Fury

Only fleeting breaths left ere he perished

She vowed to save him, her rider cherished

VERSES 5–6,“THEGILDEDLULLABY”

THIRTY-TWO

“This can’t be the right way, can it?” Kel mused.

She guided Savita across a bed of flattened shrubbery. They’d known nothing about the race prior to Cristo giving them the GPS location. Kel hadn’t known what to expect after the two last races; she certainly hadn’t expected the GPS to steer them to Vohre’s northeast edge, where the forest met the city’s border.

To Kel’s left, Dira shrugged. “Other teams have pulled up, and I can hear a crowd up ahead. It must be the right way.”

With other crews guiding their phoenixes ahead and behind them, the Howlers rounded a corner among the growing greenery. They wove further from the city’s edges, into the outer layers of Vohre Forest. The trees at their sides had been hacked away to create a path wide enough for phoenixes, though a dense forest still guarded against most of the morning light. Nausea swirled in Kel’s stomach at the sight of the destruction.

“We don’t need to place in this race,” Rahn reminded Kel, her face scrunched. “Not after winning the last two. We just need toshow that Savita isn’t a threat to anyone. I’m not thrilled that we’re racing without our usual rider, but I trust Cristo.”

The certainty in Rahn’s voice made Kel’s ears ache. They hadn’t spoken much in the past week, mostly because Kel didn’t know what to say to the technician. How much had Dira told her? Kel still didn’t know how deeply Rahn’s loyalty to Cristo ran, and the unknown prickled at her skin.

As they rounded another corner, Kel’s mouth fell open. A massive oval space had been cleared of all trees as a starting line. New, gleaming silver rails illuminated the race’s path, straight into Vohre Forest’s hungry maw.

“They want us to fly through the forest?” Disbelief soaked her words. “That’s—impossible.”

Crew booths had been haphazardly propped up around the edges of the clearing. Crowd stands had been raised in tall, narrow rows, to make the most of the restricted space. Though spectators couldn’t see much of the track beyond the starting line, giant screens had popped up, encircling the clearing. Cameras must have been placed along the track to broadcast the race. Kel couldn’t imagine how quickly everything had been erected to avoid Vohre’s media leaking the details.

Savita could fly through the forest as easily as any racetrack. Perhaps even easier, as she loved to fly in the muggy heat. But Vohre Forest was the last natural habitat of Cendor’s wild phoenixes. Groups across the island were already fighting hard to preserve every last acre of the forest. Yet, somehow, CAPR had gained council permission to clear an enormous track through the edges of it.

“We can’t compete,” Coup said, shuffling ahead of them. “This isn’t right. Even if it was, CAPR can’t keep wild phoenixes off the track if they stumble upon it. Who knows how Savita would react?”

Dira folded her arms. “And we’ve never entered a race where we couldn’t see the track from our booth. Kel and Sav will be going in completely blind!”

Kel tightened her grip on Savita’s reins, palms clammy through her leather gloves. Her phoenix seemed oblivious to the danger, raking her claws along the flattened grass.

“It’s better than the alternative.” Kel gritted her teeth. Sherefusedto let the council think Sav a threat.

“She’s right,” Rahn said softly. “Canen means well, but… he has strict expectations for his CAPR teams. We represent him. If we pull out of the race, I don’t know if the Howlers will be participating in future races with his sponsorship.”

Kel’s throat tightened. No one said a word as the noise around them grew, excitement and fear mingling in the air.

Kel lifted a gloved hand to stroke Savita’s neck. “We compete, or we lose everything.”

Dira shook her head. “But you—”

“Wild phoenixes won’t venture this close to the edge of the forest,” Kel said, forcing confidence into her voice. “They won’t find the track.”

“And if they do?” Coup placed a gloved hand beside Kel’s on Savita’s neck. “Phoenixes—tamed or not—don’t take kindly to intruders in their territory.”

Kel had no reply. She knew, without even glancing down the starting line, that CAPR hoped for wild phoenixes to find them. They hoped to provoke the wild creatures with their latest track. Making them living, blazing obstacles.

Kel didn’t respond. With the sudden nerves drying her throat, she didn’t know if she could. Instead, she tugged Savita toward the burgundy tent stamped with their insignia. She tried to focus on theanger she felt at CAPR instead of the horrors ahead, already prickling her arms with goose bumps. CAPR was willing to clear out Vohre Forest, the phoenixes’ last remaining habitat, for entertainment. Provoking them for fun. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised, after the last race. But what else were they capable of?

As her teammates shuffled around her, organizing equipment, she tried to shake free an old echo in her head.

You’re no different than the rest of CAPR.

Whether or not Coup still believed those words, she now knew they were true. It didn’t matter why she was competing or what she had to lose. He had been right to call her self-righteous, to challenge her. But she didn’t know how to right her actions without losing Savita.

Kel placed both hands on the underside of Sav’s beak. Her phoenix leaned into the touch, trust keeping her feathers smooth and her tail swishing.

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