32 
With the beginning of spring came the order trials. The new second tiers would be tested on foot, horseback and wingerslink, and placed permanently in the order most suited to them.
On the morning of her flight trial, Ottilie found Leo waiting for her in Maestro’s pen. Bill was getting better at hiding; there was no sign of him.
Ottilie’s nerves were making her irritable. She was desperate to be made a flyer. If she was going to be facing witches and bloodbeasts and who knew what else, she would do it on a wingerslink. ‘Why are you down here?’ she asked Leo.
‘Wishing you luck,’ he said, helping her with Maestro’s saddle.
They fastened the buckles in silence. She found herself feeling very sad. This might be the last time she rode Maestro. Even if she managed to be named a flyer, she would be assigned a different wingerslink. Maestro and Leo belonged to each other.
Once they were done, Leo leaned in and whispered to Maestro, ‘Be good.’ He gave Ottilie a nod and left her alone to fret. When he was halfway down the passage he called out, ‘Don’t blow it.’
Ottilie had worried that Maestro would play up, as he often did when Leo was absent. But, despite having to adapt to the confines of the arena, she and Maestro dispatched the assigned dredretch – a flare – with ease.
There was only a small crowd there to watch. The order trials didn’t merit the same excitement as the fledgling trials, which only came to Fiory once every three years, and pitted an essentially untrained fledgling against monsters they were facing for the very first time.
Ottilie buried her hand in Maestro’s fur and whispered, ‘Thank you.’
Leo clapped her on the back and flew Maestro back down to the lower grounds. Maestro was considered a difficult steed, so no other fledglings would be trialling on him.
Ottilie took Leo’s place in the stands, next to Ned, to watch the rest of the trials. Gully had gone just before her, and she hadn’t been able to watch.
‘How did you go?’ she asked.
‘They gave me a flare too. I got it with a knife, but it wasn’t deep enough so the wingerslink finished it off for me. I think it still counts, though,’ he said sheepishly.
Ned laughed, his shoulder brushing against hers. ‘It counts.’
Ottilie fixed her stare on the back of Jobe Yord’s head, just a few rows down, her heart beating a little harder.
The next day, she rode Billow for her mounted trial. She struggled a great deal with the swarm of stingers. She was really only a beginner at riding, and Billow moved very differently to Maestro. After a minor fall, a slight sting and some helpful stamping and kicking from Billow, Ottilie finally felled the entire swarm, cutting all six down with her cutlass.
The following day, she dealt with a grieve on foot. It was tricky, and it took a while, but she rolled and tripped it up with her boot, successfully pinning it with a knife.
At the fall of that final day, they gathered in the centre of the arena. A few spectators were scattered throughout the stands to hear the results. Most were guardians, interested to see if their former fledges would be joining their order.
‘We’ll be starting with mounts,’ said Wrangler Morse. ‘If I call your name, you can come and get your pin’ – he shook a little red bucket, the bronze pins clinking inside – ‘and then head over to Wrangler Ritgrivvian and she’ll introduce you to your assigned horse.’
Ottilie’s nerves were terrible. She liked riding, and she adored Ramona, but she didn’t want to give up flying.
Preddy’s name was called, and nine others, but that was it.
‘Flyers next,’ said Wrangler Morse. ‘Once you’ve got your pin, go over and see Wrangler Kinney for your instructions.’
Ottilie’s breaths grew shorter with every name he called. She glanced over at the mean, balding little man with the gold tooth and nasty smile. How much sway did Wrangler Kinney have? Could he keep her from being a flyer? Who made these decisions? Her thoughts spiralled out of control. She had forgotten to listen. What did Wrangler Morse say? Was he still calling flyers? She looked up at him, heat flooding her face.
His eyes crinkled kindly. ‘Ottilie Colter,’ he said, his braided beard twitching.
She breathed a huge sigh of relief, and hurried forwards to take her bronze raptor pin. She remembered her first day in the Narroway – remembered noticing the pins on Leo, Ned and the other huntsmen who had come to collect them from the guard tower.
She could never have known, back then, just how it would feel to have a pin of her own, a badge that named her a Fiory flyer. She could never have foreseen the pride, or the strange feeling of belonging, that the little bird-shaped pin instilled. Attaching it to her uniform, she grinned up at Leo and found him beaming back. Giddy with relief, she wandered over to stand by Wrangler Kinney.
‘Stuck with you, am I?’ he said with a sneer.
Ottilie ignored him. Her elation was like a shield.
The new flyers didn’t wait around, but Gully and Scoot hadn’t been called yet, so there was no doubt they would be footmen. Gully would be happy. She knew that, like Ned, he preferred to be on the ground, in the thick of it.
Wrangler Kinney led the new flyers down to the lower grounds, where six wingerslinks were waiting in the paddock. He assigned one wingerslink to each flyer, leaving Ottilie for last.
The only remaining wingerslink was small, far smaller than Maestro. She looked like she might once have had black fur, but it had dulled to a grizzled charcoal, and where it might have been thick and shiny, it was now coarse and clumped in odd tufts.
‘Colter, this is Nox,’ said Kinney, with a smirk. ‘She’s been retired for years, but we keep her around for training. We were going to send her away this year, but I decided she’s the one for you.’ His tone was gleeful. ‘Careful around her mouth, she’s lost a few teeth, but she’s a mean-tempered old harpy, and she loves to bite.’
Ottilie could imagine his scathing smile, gold tooth glinting, but she didn’t look. Instead, she approached Nox and held out her hand for the old wingerslink to sniff. Nox looked into Ottilie’s face. There was strength in her pale green eyes. Ottilie took a step closer, and Nox bared her teeth in a snarl.