The rumps of seven other horses are already waiting. I catch sight of Adrian on my right. His horse is a massive thing, several hands bigger than the one I’ve been gifted. Each rider is positioned in separate, silver gates. The course stretches out in front of us, winding like a red-bellied snake into a blinding dawn. As I trot to my numbered starting gate, my eyes flick over to our right. A silver barrier borders the course. They built the wall fifty feet high. It would look impossibly tall if not for the looming Gravitas beyond it. Those familiar iron-scaled mountains rule the western sky. Seeing them gives me hope.

It starts here. It starts now.

A new world is waiting for me with open arms.

Chapter 22: The Beginning

You’re expecting the girl to slow you down, to be an uncomfortable burden, but she fits to your back like a summer cloak. There’s a here-and-not quality about her that unsettles you.

“So,” you say quietly, “you’re not the only spirit.”

The other riders wait inside their silver gates. You spy two horses that are sitting more than one rider. On each one, a solid figure holds the reins and a ghostly one clings to their waist. It’s a lower number than you expected. You have to squint to figure out who else traded the Madness their blood for this favor. One is Etzli. That worries you. If Adrian is the loudest threat, Etzli is the quietest. Your eyes find Adrian next. He’s mounted in the gate on the far right, but as your mother predicted, no spirit rides with him.

“They’re from my world,” Quinn says. “The brave ones.”

You don’t know what the girl means, but you note that Revel is the other rider with a spirit. In the amateur circuit, he’s always been the one to get a lead and lose it. You can’t help wondering if the guidance of a spirit will force him to be more disciplined. It makes him more of a threat. On your right and left, towering metal barriers narrow the course to a handful of twisting canyons. Applause and shouts thunder even louder as you trot to the starting gate.

Quinn tenses. “What is that noise? Where’s it coming from?”

You nod to the barriers flanking the course. “See the faces there?”