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Tight, precise circles around Iskra and her bull as they pluht that Iskra’s bull did not have the space to open its wings And when it tried, Petrah’s wyvern was there, tail or jaws snapping When it tried, Petrah’s sas there, slashing ribbons into the beast

Iskra realized it then

Realized it as they fell and fell and fell, and Petrah circled them, so fast that Manon wondered if the Blueblood Heir had been practicing these eance owed to her and Keelie

The very world seemed to pause

Petrah and her wyvern circled and circled, blood fro upward, the beast more frantic with every foot closer to the earth

But Petrah had not opened her wyvern’s wings, either Had not pulled on the reins to bank her mount

"Pull out," Manon breathed "Bank now"

Petrah did not Tyverns dropped toward the earth, dark stars falling fron to respond

They couldn’t bank at that speed And soon Petrah wouldn’t be able to bank at all Would break herself on the ground, right alongside Iskra

"Stop!" Fear turned Iskra’s order into a sharp cry

No pity for her kindled in Manon None at all

The ground neared, brutal and unyielding

"You mad bitch, I said stop!"

Two hundred feet to the earth Then a hundred Manon couldn’t get down a breath

Fifty feet

And as the ground seemed to rise to meet them, Manon heard Petrah’s only words to Iskra like they had been carried on the wind

"For Keelie"

Petrah’s wyvern flung out its wings, banking sharper than any wyvern Manon had ever witnessed Rising up, wing tip grazing the icy ground before it shot back into the skies

Leaving Iskra and her bull to splatter on the earth

The booh the world

Iskra and her bull did not rise again

Abraxos gave a groan of pain, and Manon twisted in the saddle, her heart raging

Iskra was dead The Yellowlegs Heir was dead

It didn’t fill her with the joy it should have Not with that vulnerable grate on the city wall under attack

So she snapped the reins, and Abraxos soared for the city walls, and then Sorrel and Vesta were beside her, Asterin co in fast fro Ironteeth, the Ironteeth still fighting Crochans Aiht up to their sides

Already, a longboat had reached theuards frantic to keep the enemy at bay

The Morath soldiers were so preoccupied with their target ahead that they did not look behind until Abraxos was upon the with talons and teeth and tail Sorrel and Vesta took care of the others, the longboat soon in splinters

But it was not enough Not even close

"The rocks," Manon breathed, steering Abraxos toward the other side of the river

He understood Her heart strained to the point of agony at pushing him, but he soared to the other side of the river and hauled one of the smaller boulders back across The Thirteen saw her plan and followed, swift and unfaltering