Ashlords

The metallic barriers surrounding the racecourse are not meant to be climbed, but Imelda plans to, using the circular screens and some clever alchemy. It is time to break the Races’ rules and send a message to the Empire. She addresses the cameras directly, thanking her audience for watching her videos and promising that she has saved her best trick for last.

She arranges her ashes for the Trust Fall rebirth; however, she names this rebirth the Shattering and names the reborn horse Hammer. Mimicking the video that made her famous, Imelda leaps from Hammer’s saddle. The horse vanishes. Imelda uses the circular screens to scale the wall. She lowers herself down the opposite side and lets go. The horse reappears under her, catching her. In the distance, four racing officials are already in pursuit. Imelda rides off toward the Gravitas Mountains.

Capri is alive but paralyzed from the waist down. Adrian either has to take Capri with him or risk him dying. Capri begs Adrian not to leave him, but Adrian reminds him that he tried to leave Adrian for dead the first night. He warns Capri against stealing his horse: It is a purebred, meaning that it will burn would-be thieves to death. As they ride off, Capri quietly thanks Adrian for saving him. Adrian admits that if the rules were different, he would not have hesitated in leaving Capri to die.

Etzli, Revel, and Bravos are still in the lead as Pippa and Quinn enter the caves. The Sunscape component causes Trust to glow in the dark. Quinn marvels at the fact that Pippa was able to memorize the course through the tunnels from the map. Pippa explains that it is a sun wraith mating tunnel. The male burns its way through mountains to reach the female. When their paths meet, they burrow straight down. They will ride to the burrow and sneak around it.

They reach the burrow, a perfectly circular hole leading straight down. They tread carefully, hearing the bellowing sun wraiths far below. They hear a voice calling for help—it is Etzli, floating in the muck that fills the burrow. Her horse is dead, as is Gregor, her spirit, who sacrificed himself to save her. Pippa can feel Quinn’s heartbreak at this news.

Quinn wants to save Etzli; Pippa wants to leave. Quinn refuses to let Etzli die. Frustrated, Pippa gives Quinn a rope and leaves them.

Imelda rides for her life, but the Ashlord officials pursue her. Shots ring out, and one of the officials falls. This gives Imelda hope. Earlier, she told Martial to tell the mountain rebels about her plans. Now, they have come to help her escape.

One of the Ashlords knocks Hammer off balance. The horse tumbles over on top of Imelda, not injuring her but pinning her to the ground. The rebels corner the Ashlord, who fights viciously until one of the rebels, a boy with a prosthetic arm, steps in. Imelda’s horse dies and begins to burn. The rebels hear her screams and rush to help as the boy finishes off the Ashlord.

The rebels are all young Dividian, and Imelda is relieved at their familiarity. The boy, who introduces himself as Bastian, orders the rebels to loot the Ashlords’ bodies and help Imelda. Imelda is overjoyed to see her cousin Luca, sent by her uncle as a sign that she can trust the group. Bastian explains that the components that Imelda has are hers by right. However, the components are worth more than 150,000 legions—the Empire will send more people after Imelda. Imelda begins to realize that she has sparked something larger than merely breaking the Races.

Pippa vents her frustration to Trust as they walk carefully through the sun wraith tunnel. She feels guilty and returns to the sun wraith burrow to help the spirit rescue Etzli. With the horse’s help, she and Quinn retrieve Etzli from the muck. The tunnel starts shaking, and the temperature rises—the sun wraiths are resurfacing. Pippa and Quinn help Etzli onto Trust, and they flee.

The sun is nearly up. Pippa has very little time to prepare her next resurrection. To make matters worse, the ashes are still too hot, and she will have to recalculate quantities of components to compensate for burning. Quinn helps her focus, and Etzli chimes in, helping Pippa remember the rate at which Gasping Mercies burn.

The horse is reborn healthy, and the three girls breathe a sigh of relief. Pippa and Quinn set off after ensuring that Etzli will be fine. Now comes the hard part of the Races: catching up with the front-runners and winning.

Even with Capri weighing him down, Adrian is in third place, though he trails Bravos by nearly 500 paces. He decides to leave Capri behind. Realizing this, Capri accuses Adrian of being just like the Ashlords and only caring about winning. Adrian responds, knowing that he is being watched by millions of Ashlords and Longhands. He says that he trained to be better, faster, and more merciful than the Ashlords.

Adrian goes to fill his canteen. Turning back, he sees that Capri has climbed up onto his horse. Capri tells him to remember this sight. Adrian yells that the horse is purebred, but Capri thinks he is bluffing—there is no way that someone from the Reach would be able to handle a purebred. Adrian yells to the cameras, “You heard me warn him! If he dies, it isn’t my fault” (297). He warns Capri one last time, but the Ashlord rides off. The phoenix engulfs Capri in flames, killing him. The second his body falls off the horse, the flames disappear. Horrified, Adrian mounts his horse and sets off after Bravos and Revel.

Imelda and the rebels move on foot through the Gravitas Mountains. As they march, she gets to know Bastian better. He lost his arm when he was young, and after trying many different prosthetics, he settled on this one, based on a stolen design from the Longhands.

Imelda is confident that the Ashlords will only hold her responsible for rebelling and leave her family alone. She thinks of how the money from the stolen components will change her family and Farian’s lives. Those blessings outweigh the curse of never being able to go back home.

The rebels’ destination is Gig’s Wall, a former Ashlord fortification that now serves as a rebel base. One of the Curiosity’s priests suddenly appears, knocking everyone over with a blast of energy. The soldiers scramble to catch him, but he escapes. The priest’s sudden appearance means that the Ashlords are already there.

Pippa makes up ground on the fourth day of riding. She is confident that she can pass the other riders tomorrow, the final day of the Races. That evening, Quinn nervously asks Pippa for some of her blood. Blood gives power in the underworld. When Quinn returns to the underworld after the Races, she will be a target, but Pippa’s blood will help her fend off the gods. Pippa cuts her palm with a knife, allowing Quinn to collect the blood she needs. Quinn hugs Pippa, who is shocked by the warmth of the gesture; Ashlords do not hug.