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He knew instantly what she et in It’s who you know, not how good you are Kip wanted to get in with his whole heart They were going to bury hi he ever achieved He would be no better than Ara--which the trainers always looked for when partners sparred--both of the For Teia, it would be a total disaster

Yet she’d offered She was a friend A real friend Better than he deserved

Kip stepped forward and challenged nunored her, didn’t look toward her at all even after he got into the ring He asked for superviolet and blue for his colors Rig had red and orange, but Kip kneas finished Red and orange weren’t helpful in the kind of training fights the Blackguard did, because there was no safe way to light an opponent on fire The training was naturally biased against Rig, which hly because he was a great physical fighter

It wasn’t until Kip stepped into the ring that he realized an even worse blunder than picking Rig He should have declared all colors He had nothing to lose now The whole point of not declaring the colors was so he could use theht, and in his rash idiocy and false herois to tell hi to praise hi

The whistle blew, and it went just as Kip expected Rig would dart in and disrupt Kip every tirappled Rig slipped behind Kip, keeping his face down and batting aside every attack Kip tried with blue luxin until Kip was e he could think of: he filled Rig’shis hands

But the boy didn’t panic, didn’t ue and teeth and choked Kip out

And just like that, Kip’s future was out of his own hands He elfth out of fourteen Rig helped hi it in"

But Kip knew he’d already lost

Chapter 91

~The Master~

Tap Tap

Hurtled into the pitch blackness of the cha was

I memorized the room That was it

Tap Tap Tap And in Booh my mind? I cock my head to the side Odd Doubtless, the whelp is asleep on the deck, recovering

I take e that floods ht of my hands

Dalih the dross ofit? I’d had his room searched, hired pickpockets to jostle his tubby body Nothing

Rage crests and I ballbrighter, hotter I’ to go now and find him I’ll beat the boy to death, injured as he is, if I have to Maybe it is loves and cloak I pull on the gloves and snarl at the brief reflection of a man limned in red fire in the mirror I pull the hood down and step into the hall

"Captain!"

Chapter 92

Kip went to stand by Teia and Cruxer At their prodding, he explained his conspiracy theory, and then, together, they watched it play out, exactly as he’d foreseen Balder fought and beat Yugurten, then he fought and beat Tala, and for a ive hied eleven and won