The days remained warm but lost that breathtaking blast of summer. The nights were cool enough to make a fire or extra jacket welcome. It even rained a bit, not that the irrigated Betwixt Valley needed it where the fall harvest was already under way. However, the farmers probably welcomed it in the terraced mountains, and it did help to lay the dust on the training fields south of the Host’s camp.Jame thought a lot about the senior cadets’ challenge, if one could call it that. All it had needed to become a threat had been an addition of the words “or else.” It was also double edged: if she ignored it, they had won. If she did as they demanded, not that she had any such intention, they still won. All in all, it was a game she refused to play.Meanwhile, Harn kept her close to Kothifir for a time after the Karnids’ attempted kidnapping, only allowing her to go out with her ten-command to practice. When the day was done, however, she slipped away to tend to Death’s-head.The black mares with their wicked fangs had savaged the rathorn badly, especially on his unarmored flanks, and the wounds had festered.
