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The noisy spectators, the wide blue sky, the dusty heat penetrating h rope and beam and bar and trap

More quickly than I expected I findbridge, which I have to cross next Sandstors there, upside doith his back alround and his jacket stained with sweat Froe would be the bottleneck and that he could stop all of us fro there

Except there is another way across the gap for an adversary bold enough to htly less narrow platforh away that if you miss you will hurt and maybe kill yourself I calculate how ap, and then I catch his eye, hilare wishes ers are turning white as he clings to the rope bridge

"Kiss off, Adversary," I call down The blood flows high in me "I’ll show you how a real adversary does it"

The height of ives me momentum and opportunity I throw a so as I hit a perfect landing, the kind that doesn’t even jar

The crowd roars

The rest of Traps flies past as if I truly have spun a web through it The approbation of the crowd lifts er because you’re er care I can’t fall

When I reach the resting platforli down from Rivers and therefore headed for Pillars I drop to the dirt and run for Trees, hearing the chiate bell He’s still ahead of me

My plain brown mask has slipped a little, and as I pause to adjust it I risk a quick look at the royal balcony It’s too high and far away for rand sofa under umbrellas held by servants On a lower level of the balcony, at their feet, sits the man on the victory at Maldine I would know my father anywhere by the way he holds his back and head confidently upright The honor shown him today takes my breath away If only Mother were here to celebrate it with him

On Garon Palace’s balcony they stand silent, watching

I chalk ain and enter Trees

Iuration of Trees you have to ju up into a nest of cli poles on a second level Firecat is so short she’s having trouble reaching the bar

The crowd cheers and whistles as an exciting maneuver happens in Pillars or Traps

"Salutations, Adversary," I say politely

She snarls atentrance that eats up tih It’s like they want so scandals in which one adversary threw a trial to another in exchange for a share of the winnings, King Kliatemnos the Third proclai the adversaries will be punishable by expulsion So I say nothing

The bar is so high it takes h to draw up my knees to my belly and hook theet onto the second level and its tangle of cli Before I head in, I look down

"Kiss off, Adversary," I say with a syer, she gives er to the chin

This configuration of Trees uses a great deal of technically difficult cli up perpendicular faces with handholds, or hold-less cliainst polished wood, feet braced in tension against a post set opposite, I work up several sets of blind shafts After escaping the tomb it just doesn’t see platfors from the direction of Traps Kalliarkos is still ahead of et past Sandstor the bottleneck of the tilting bridge

Will Kalliarkos dare to leap?

Rivers runs dry Stepping stones are scattered across a sandy pit instead of a watery channel The trick is that there are false stones scattered through the true ones that look stable but won’t take weight Anise taught us to look at all the clues: The way the sand is scuffed around certain stones tells me where others have slipped off The sand around the stable stones lies unround before I start, I o And because I want Father to see how good I really am, I add a flip at the very end, from the last stone to the "shore"