Page 43 of Bull Moon Rising

I jerk forward as Kipp rights himself and races toward the first tunnel. I stagger after him, getting on hands and knees to crawl through the damp tunnel made of rotting wood and more mud. It narrows down until I have to turn my head to the side and crawl forward using my elbows, but I manage to wriggle through and stand up, only to drip with mud, my boots and pant legs holding an obscene amount of the filth.

“Keep moving,” Crow screams at us. “No one told you to stop, Magpie fledglings!”

Gwenna sticks a hand out of the tunnel and I grab it, hauling her forward. She collapses on me and pants, waiting for Lark to push through. As we wait, she looks over at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head. If I start to vent about how wrong things are, I won’t stop. Kipp is pulling at the rope, desperate to get to the nearby boulders and continue on the obstacle course. Lark pulls herself through, and then we wait for Mereden.

“Something’s wrong,” Gwenna hisses at me.

Mereden stumbles toward us, hauled up by Lark’s hand, and then we turn toward the boulders. Kipp makes an excited sound and races toward them, tugging us along. He skitters up the side of one boulder, taller than a staircase, and then holds his small hand out to me. I take it—

—and immediately pull him down. “Whoops, sorry about that.” I set him on his feet. “Apologies for the touching.”

He pats my hand as if to sayApology acceptedand then turns back to the boulders. He climbs halfway up the first one and then watches us, pointing at a ripple in the otherwise sheer surface that might act as a handhold. I put a hand there and try to haul myself up.

And fail.

And try again.

Lark gives my backside a shove. “Everyone, help out.”

My face burns with humiliation as the others pitch in and more or less push me up the rock’s surface, until I’m at the top of the boulder next to Kipp and gasping for air. It takes far too long and I’m sure I’m going to have bruises in unmentionable places, but I’m up there.

“Put a hand down for me,” Gwenna says, reaching up and pressing herself against the boulder’s surface. “We can do this together.”

I reach down for her, and Gwenna latches on. Holding on to her threatens to pull me back down and I yelp in distress as her sweaty hand slips out of mine.

“Time!” Master Crow roars.

“Time? Already?” Lark puts her hands on her hips, glaring off at the distant fledgling team that is already at the far end of the obstacle course. “What the mucking fuck? We barely got started!”

Master Crow claps his hands. “Let’s do it again, Magpie fledglings. Try to do better this time.”

“Again?” Mereden echoes, her lower lip quivering. “He’s joking, right?”

I haul myself up to a seated position atop the boulder and look up at Crow. From the sour expression on his face and the smug ones of his fledglings, no, I don’t think he’s joking at all.

As I watch, one of Crow’s fledglings rubs his hands under his eyes, pretending to cry.

Another grabs his chest and pretends like he’s jiggling his breasts, and makes kissy faces as he does.

I exhale heavily. Cretins, all of them. “Come on. Let’s get back to the start and put Lark next to Kipp. Maybe that will make a difference.”

No matter howwe rearrange our team, we’re terrible. By the time the day is over, we’re all covered in mud, scratched up, scuffed, bruised, and thoroughly defeated. Even Kipp isn’t his normal perky self. The moment we return to Magpie’s lodgings he dumps his shell in the corner and crawls inside, not wanting to socialize with us.

I don’t blame him. I’m disappointed in us, too.

“That wasn’t training,” Gwenna protests as we sit down in the kitchen. “That was abuse.”

“At least they helped us wash off before we came home,” Mereden says in a timid voice. She sits delicately at one of the seats at the table, manners elegant despite her fatigue. “It could be worse.”

Gwenna makes a face at her. “They weren’t helping us. They werethrowing buckets of water on us because we lost. That was their reward for ‘winning’ each round of the obstacle course.”

“Yeah, but at least our clothes are cleaner.” Lark shakes out her rumpled sash and then thumps down upon a chair at the table. She grabs a couple of slices of bread and a wedge of cheese, shoves the wedge between the bread, and takes an enormous bite. “Why were we training with Master Crow anyhow? He’s an asshole.”

Everyone looks at me.

I say nothing at first, because I’m too tired. I’m relieved to see that the nestmaid assigned to Magpie’s house stopped by earlier today and left fresh bread and snacks out for us, because I don’t think I have the energy to get out of this chair and make myself something to eat. I pick one of the nuts out of a bowl decorated with guild designs and nibble on it thoughtfully. “Hawk left this morning to go on a retrieval mission.” He woke me up before dawn to let me know, dressing quickly in his leathers as another Taurian waited near the front doors to the dorm. “He was the one who arranged our training with Master Crow.”

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