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Mara took a step back Slon, slon

Eliot ran forwards and jumped into a kick Mara side-stepped into a tree, powder filling the air The punching boy was on his feet,on the powder He could see more black shapes ahead Are they Shadows or more boys?

The black shapes grew in nu out from the boys around the burner he’d had to hold nearly every day since he got here

Eliot tackled him from behind, and Mara’s face hit the floor He choked on yet ue stinging fro it

“Quick, get off hi”

Mara looked ahead to see three shadowsquickly toward them

“Knees,” one of them shouted

Mara got to his knees and looked to see Eliot and the other boy knelt behind him When he turned back to face the Shadows, one punched him in the forehead Dizzy, he fell back The Shadow pinned him by the neck and held the sour stuff over his nose and et the same, then his vision blurred

The first thing Mara noticed when he woke up was that it wasn’tabove as normal He could smell horses He turned to look at them His neck hurt, so did his head Back in the castle

He watched the horses as they snorted, scraped their feet in the sand, and flicked their tails He thought about Vala She was a nice horse I want a horse like her Those horses don’t look very nice All big and angry looking He slowly turned his head to look the other way Eliot lay next to hier boy lay on the other side of Eliot

Mara went to move his hand to his face They were tied, so had to led his feet, tied too Eliot was tied the same This is his fault

Mara looked down past his feet as a gate squealed open Four Shadoalked in, three of the cold water took Mara’s breath away, and the other two boys gasped awake

“Stand them up,” the Shadow said

Hiain Mara was pulled to his feet It was difficult to balance to start with His head hurt even h, a big wooden log across the middle of them

The Shadow stood close to Eliot “Your rule-breaking has reached its cli man Tomorrow you will display to the rest of us how ” The Shadow stepped to Mara “As for you, your consistency in finding trouble has me doubt your position here” It stepped backwards “You will face each other in open combat”