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The Iron Trial Holly Black 21250K 2023-09-01

"There are other ways than the river You don’t know the way back to your nest, but I do"

Call regarded the elee in return "A shortcut back to isteriue You’ll agree to get e"

How much did Call trust a weird lizard that wasn’t really a lizard?

Maybe if he drank soross, full of eyeless fish and weird sulfur and ic Like the way he had with the sand Like he wasn’t supposed to Maybe he could draw the current backward and bring the boat to hiht He had no idea how to do that

Call, you must listen to me You don’t knohat you are

Apparently, he didn’t know lots of things

"Fine," said Call "If you get e"

"Let o faster"

"Nice try" Call snorted "Which way?"

The little lizard directed hiainst his skin

They passed sheets of rock that seemed to melt into one another, colu like draperies They passed a bubbling strea back and forth between Call’s feet Warren urged hie into a lantern

At one point, the corridor narrowed so much that Call had to turn sideways and squeeze himself between the sheets of stone He finally popped out the other side like a cork out of a bottle, a long tear in his shirt where it had caught on an edge of rock

"Shhh," whispered Warren, crouching ahead of hi in the dark corner of a huge cavern full of echoing voices The cavern was al up into a massive dome The walls were decorated with jewel formations that illustrated various weird, possibly alcheular stone table with a candelabra rising out of it, each of a dozen tapers dripping thick streah-backed chairs around the table were filled by Masters who looked like rock formations themselves

Call flattened hi the cage behind hi Jasper showed bravery in throwing hilance at Master Milagros, a on his face "Even if he was unsuccessful"

Anger raced through Call’s veins He and Tamara and Aaron had worked hard to do well on that test and they were talking about Jasper?

"Bravery will only get you so far," said Master Tanaka, the tall, thin Master who taught Peter and Kai "The students who returned from our most recent mission had plenty of bravery, and yet those were some of the worst injuries I’ve seen since the war They barely made it back alive Even the fifth years weren’t prepared for eleether like that --"