Manon and Abraxos plunge down the cliff, spinning toward rocks, trees, and a river below. Manon clings to the saddle straps and faces the likelihood of death, uncertain whether Abraxos’s body, the rocks, or the fall will kill her first.

As an updraft rights Abraxos slightly, Manon screams for him to open his wings. At the last possible moment, Abraxos answers with a shriek, spreads his damaged wings, catches the air, and pulls them away from the ground.

Abraxos climbs into the sky, first over a neighboring mountain and then into a vast field of clouds. Manon realizes, through Abraxos’s joyous cry, what freedom means to a creature who has spent his life underground, chained, beaten, and crippled. With no one watching, Manon shares in that joy and lets herself savor the flight.

At dawn, Manon gathers the Thirteen and their wyverns at the mouth of a canyon run. Because Abraxos’s damaged wings are not ready for the usual Crossing, Manon has brought the unit to a place where he can enter an easier glide without explaining his weakness to the others.

Manon orders the Thirteen to meet there every morning until the War Games for secret training before their regular afternoon drills. She rejects the handlers’ rules about keeping wyverns apart and demands that the coven and their mounts learn to fly in tight formation, trusting one another and leaving no gaps. Then Abraxos plunges into the canyon, beginning the first run.