"Hold tight!" Kailey shouted as the icebird bucked under her. Wings chopped the air. Snow-sheen feathers sprayed the ring. The crowd gasped and leaned forward. "Get her off!" someone shouted from the nobles' side. "Don't!" Kailey snapped. "Heard you wrong? I said hold tight." The bird dove. Kailey's boots dug into its flanks. Frostwing's beak clicked once. Pain shot through the animal's mind and then folded into a cold, sharp pleading. Kailey felt it like a pin prick against her own skull. "Who is she?" a voice hissed behind a fan. "She can't be—" "She's a street rubbish," another voice supplied. "No cultivation. No right." Clarissa Roussel smiled at the murmurs and let her wolf-beast pace like a prize. She moved through the crowd with the ease of a carved statue. Her smile was a blade. "Is that the broken tamer?" Clarissa called. "They let anyone into the rings now?" "Shut up," Kailey said aloud. She tightened her knees. The bird answered with a rush of wind and a tilt. Frostwing's wings flashed blue-white under the sun. The arena hushed. Kailey leaned forward and touched the crest along Frostwing's neck. The touch was all she had. No Qi glow, no ritual seal. Just a connection that didn't obey the rules people quoted when they wanted to feel safe. "She can't," a tutor muttered at the judges' dais. "A broken with a wild godling? The records won't