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SEAN

I look for Puck or Dove, but I can’t see anything in this crush of bodies Corr’s strong in ht of him My calves burn with the friction of the stirrup leathers I’ I should hold Corr back behind the pack to look for her The back is the worst place to be; the capaill back here lag not because they’re slow but because they’re fighting with each other or fighting with the sea The hooves in front of , but I can’t spare a hand to swipe at the at each other They try to incorporate Corr into the skirmish I hold him true and press him forward: not too far, because if Puck is behind me, I don’t want to leave her behind My hands are buried in the sweatyat the touch of the November sea I whisper at hiht for Puck; there’s nothing but the gray halfway into the surf He’s already thening head The gray twists and scrabbles, more anxious for the rider on his back than the race before him Seawater sprays from somewhere, the cold of it like claws on my cheek

Another capall pushes onbefore her rider jerks her away I can’t stay back here I’ll get out in the open and find Puck If she’s not out of this rabble by now, she ht already be dead

I lean over Corr’s neck to whisper to him, but for once, I can’t think of what to whisper

But it doesn’tto speak, and he surges out of the bunched capaill in the rear

There is a narrow corridor open right to the very front where the three front-runners are fighting it out Last year I would’ve been through that hole with Corr and they would have been counting the lengths between the rest of the pack and Corr for the remainder of the race

But I don’t take that move

I wait

PUCK

It only takes a minute for Dove to be bitten and another few seconds for e that I don’t think can be horse teeth I don’t have tiuess what has cut me We’re trapped in a crush of bodies Even over the rush of the wind in rowls as they fight

Fro heat of blood running down h that the wound was clean

Dove is beginning to panic Moveh that the rein rips open one of the searing blisters on my palet out of here Sand stings my cheeks and the corners of my eyes, but I can’t spare a hand to swipe my skin I don’t see hoe can es into the ocean, tripping over the waves, twisting in the air before throwing its rider

It’s Finney I see his eyes h the water, and then his bay capall’s dull teeth snap shut on his cheekbone

Then I’ water that sprays a dark pattern on Dove’s shoulder And I’m sick, sick, sick

Suddenly, there is a narrow path where before there was a capall uisce If I pull through the right, using soet clear

It won’t do any good to save her speed if we die in this fight I press my calves into her hot sides and suddenly, it clicks Dove finds her stride and we pull free of the little te behind the leaders, I see a red stallion under blue colors, and Sean Kendrick folded neatly on top of him

I sweep blood off the bite on Dove’s shoulder It’s not deep, but guilt pricksear back I let out a barest length of rein She’s still terrified, but for aon the cliffs, holding her steady, keeping her even I ree of the cliff The secret is to re but the ocean I can be steady

SEAN

There’s a newcoht, and Corr, mad at the touch of the sea, snakes his head to bite at them I check him and the horse beside us jerks but holds steady Black-tipped ears Smaller than Corr Smaller than any of the horses on this beach Ordinarybeneath her skin

It’s Dove,on her saddle pad I glance, once and then again, at Puck and then Dove Dove’s been bitten, but not deep Puck’s bleeding, too But unlike Dove’s untidy bite wound, Puck’s is clean and long, the material of her breeches sliced It was a knife that did that, not a horse Sory that she was on the beach with us To think too long on that is to be furious and to be furious is to lose focus, which I can’t afford

Because in front of us is chaos The worst of it is the noise -- the panting of winded capaill, the groaning as they fight, the continuous thunder of the hooves, the hissing of the sea The squeals and the shouts and behind it all, the screams of the crowd The noise would drive a horse mad even if the November ocean didn’t

A capall in front of us twists and wheels inward, its rider avoiding the ocean at all costs Another two shove and squabble, slowing enough that we move past the bone, teeth against teeth Theyus into it, but Corr blocks the wall between them and Dove, who is a wall between him and the sea

We are over halfway there Halfway means we’ve made it a little over a mile The first half weeds out those eren’t ready, those eren’t tae I look at Puck and she looks back me, expression fierce

The sand blurs below us and the ocean beco for breath We are the only two on the sand

Blackwell’s and Privett’s mounts quarrel up at the front They worry back and forth, teeth flashing, necks and shoulders rubbing Just behind them, Mutt Malvern relentlessly beats Skata, the piebald And still Puck moves up behind them, steady and even I match Corr to Dove, stride for stride, and with each stride, we gain ground

Corr has nothing but power left There’s a path ahead; I could cut ahead of Blackwell and then Privett Mutt is nothing at all as he drops back fro this win as easily as I snatched it last year In threeI’ve ever wanted A roof over my head and reins in oddess’s breath in my face

I told Puck I would stay until she made her move Maybe she doesn’t have the speed to overtake the leaders Maybe I give everything away by waiting I tell myself I have tiins to make her move

I realize then that Mutt Malvern has pulled Skata back intentionally