Alura’s obstacle course was a nightmare. She must have been working on it all month. The entire thing was set up inside the arena with various apparatuses along the course. They each had to run it together, working as one timed unit to make it to the end. Slowest time counted for everyone. So, there was no incentive to leave anyone behind. This wasn’t a competition, but a building block of the Society. In battle, they’d need to work together. Ingraining it in them now would help when it was necessary later. Waiting at the end of the brutal course was Lorian’s final. So, they’d have to walk into the sword fight, exhausted, just as they would in battle. Wonderful.

And worse, they had spectators. Kerrigan could see Lorian standing taut at the end of the line, but there were a dozen other people with him. Kerrigan recognized Bastian and Helly as well as a few other high-profile council members—Kress, Lockney, and Alsia. She gulped.

“Prepare yourselves,” Alura said.

The five of them lined up on the white chalk line. Kerrigan looked to Fordham on her right and Audria on her left. They both nodded. They were in this together.

Alura blew a whistle, and they all sprinted forward. Over the last month, they’d all gotten faster. The daily runs had sure helped with that, but now, they were running together as if their lives depended on it.

The flat-out sprint was the first quarter of the race, leading directly to some kind of pond, complete with plant life. Going around would take too long. All five of them dived into the craggy water. It was deeper than Kerrigan had expected, quickly coming up to her waist and then her neck. She swam forward, glad she’d had lessons in the House of Dragons. No one stumbled at this part despite the training program not having a swimming component. But as they all finally cleared the water, they came up to a deep well of mud and no way across but through.

“Gross,” Audria grumbled next to Kerrigan.

Kerrigan had to agree. She tramped through the mud, getting the goop up to her waist. When suddenly, she stepped down, and there was no ground. She screamed as she dropped under the mud.

“Kerrigan!”

She fought to reach the surface. Just as her oxygen was depleting, a hand clamped around her wrist. Fordham’s face came into view as he and Audria hauled her out of the mud pit. Noda was helping Roake out of similar circumstances. Fordham rushed to help her, towing the lot of them back to the land.

Kerrigan choked and spat up mud, trying to blink it out of her eyes. Fordham gave her a part of his shirt to wipe her eyes. Roake looked worse for wear as well but just as determined.