The entrance to the cave looked like a giant, hungry mouth waiting to swallow the mountain. Usually, the Cave of Honor was a place of stories, the kind Papa told by the fireplace while the winter wind howled.

  It was sacred.

  It was where the "big kids" went to prove they weren't babies anymore.

  I stood there, clutching my heavy crossbow, my legs trembling so much I thought I might just fall over right into the dirt.

  I remembered Papa saying this place used to be a long, dark tunnel connecting the Krona Duchy and the Empire, like a secret bridge through the earth.

  But because too many "bad people" tried to sneak through, the Avenir Clan took it over.

  It was our job to be the gatekeepers.

  Papa said even the high-and-mighty Royal Family and the Duke of Krona had to ask us nicely before they could walk through.

  "If they ignore the rules, they stay in the dark forever," Papa used to say with a wink.

  But he wasn't winking now.

  He was back in the fire.

  The Cave wasn't empty, though.

  It was full of creepy-crawly things, goblins with pointy ears, cave spiders as big as dinner plates, and smelly orcs.

  Papa called it a "mysterious dungeon" because no matter how many monsters the guards poked with their swords, more always crawled out of the cracks in the walls.

  That's why it was a trial.

  You had to be brave to go in.

  You had to be an Avenir.

  Five guards were camping right in front of the big stone archway.

  They were sitting by a small fire, but when they saw us stumbling out of the trees, they all jumped up like they'd seen ghosts.

  "Y-Young Master Frans!? Young Master Rick!?" one of them shouted, his voice cracking. "Why are you here? And why are you wounded!?"

  I looked down at myself.

  I was a mess.

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  My clothes were torn, my face was smeared with soot and tears, and my hands... my hands were still stained with that horrible red.

  Two of the guards didn't even wait for an answer.

  They ran to their tents and came back with a red potion bottle and stinky green herbs that smelled like crushed weeds.

  They started wrapping my arm, but the sting made me hiss and pull away, and ask me to drink that bitter potion. I hate it! But I can't be picky now.

  "We were attacked," Frans said.

  His voice was flat, like he was talking about the weather, but his eyes were still darting toward the forest we had just left.

  "The Empire is attacking us. I don't know what's happening in the village. We're escaping."

  The guards' faces went from surprised to dark and scary.

  They looked at each other, and I could see the panic starting to ripple through them too, even though they were big, strong men.

  "…Then let us escape together, Young Master," one of them said, nodding firmly.

  "There are monsters from here to the Honor Chamber. But we can reach it in about one hour if we hurry."

  One hour? My jaw almost hit the grass.

  One hour was super-duper fast!

  Usually, the older boys taking the Trial of Honor took four or five hours to reach the middle.

  Even Frans, who is basically a superhero, took two hours when he was thirteen!

  The monsters weren't strong. I could probably hit a goblin if I tried, but there were so many of them.

  It was like trying to walk through a room filled with angry bees.

  But these five guards were veterans.

  They were the "Old Lions" of our clan.

  They looked confident, and that made me feel a tiny bit better.

  Maybe the knights wouldn't come in here?

  Maybe the spiders would eat the Empire soldiers instead of us?

  We started moving like our pants were on fire.

  We grabbed everything.

  sacks of dried meat, torches that smelled like tar, and more of the stinky medicine, and a few healing potions.

  I stuffed some bread into my pocket, but my tummy was so tied in knots I didn't think I'd ever eat again.

  I just wanted to hide in a dark corner and wake up.

  But the forest wasn't done with us.

  Clip-clop. Clip-clop-clop-clop.

  It started as a low rumble, like distant thunder, but it grew louder and faster.

  My heart started that scary drumbeat again.

  Thump-thump, thump-thump.

  We all turned back toward the trees we had just escaped.

  A huge cloud of dust was rising into the sky, turning the sunset into a dirty orange haze.

  One of the guards cursed, a bad word Mama would have washed his mouth out with soap for. "…Damn it. At least a hundred horses."

  A hundred?

  My knees gave out, and I sat down hard on a rock.

  One hundred knights on big, heavy horses.

  They weren't just scouts.

  They weren't just a few patrols.

  They were a whole army, and they were coming for us.

  Frans stood very still.

  His knuckles were so white they looked like bone as he gripped his sword hilt.

  He muttered something so quietly I almost didn't hear it, his voice sounding broken and small.

  "…Damn it. I was so stupid."

  I looked at him, confused.

  Frans was never stupid!

  He was the smartest person I knew!

  "Frans?" I whispered, reaching out to tug on his cloak.

  He didn't look at me.

  He was staring at the mouth of the cave with wide, horrified eyes.

  "They were aiming for this place from the very beginning," he whispered.

  "What do you mean?" I asked, the panic finally overflowing. "Don't they just want our eyes? Don't they just want the village?"

  Frans didn't answer.

  He just looked at the dust cloud getting closer and closer.

  If the Empire took the Cave of Honor, they didn't just take our home.

  They took the bridge to the Krona Duchy.

  I don't know why they aim for this place, but the sound of a hundred knights is getting louder and nearer.