They did not dally on the stairwell back to the pavilion. The shaking from outside—the incalculably distant sound of roars and whistles all the more terrifying because they could hear them—hurried them on.

The shaking and noise stopped the moment they reentered the door that led to the pavilion, but the waiting dragons were still visibly worried.

Joy let out a happy cry when they appeared, and practically seized Cressida to pull her in close and nuzzle her. “You’re okay! I didn’t get a quest or intuition or anything to tell me what was going on. It was so scary!”

“Where have you guys been?” Soledad said. “I thought that time didn’t really pass when you were in challenges.”

Arthur guessed that more had worried them than the wait. “What happened?”

Sam gestured with his snout. “We received that message a few minutes ago.”

The three challenge doors were gone. In their place was a message:

The team that has claimed this territory has finished all applicable levels. Time remaining to exit the Dark Heart: 49 minutes, 17 seconds . . . 16 seconds . . . 15 seconds.

Failure to leave Dark Heart and relinquish your territory will result in escalating penalties.

“They only gave us an hour?” Arthur asked, then shot a look at Horatio. “Don’t tell me that doesn’t seem fair.”

“It’s not fair, but now we know why,” Horatio muttered, shuddering dramatically.

“Why?” Soledad asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Arthur said. “Let’s move.”

If they were forced to travel on foot and without any speed enhancements, the hour limit might be a problem. But flying on dragons, it wouldn’t be an issue.

Still, after learning what he had about the Dark Heart, Arthur wanted to get out of there. Especially since there was a not-insignificant chance that whatever battle they’d caught a glimpse of might spill in.

As he ascended the stairs, he heard Joy say behind him, “Wait, so we can’t do any more challenges? Boo. I was hoping for some more good cards.”

“I got us a good card,” Cressida told her.

Then a moment later, Joy exclaimed, “Those are the cutest kittens I’ve ever seen!”

* * *

Arthur fully expected to have to travel back to the spot between the hills where they had first arrived. Maybe an exit had opened there. Or maybe it would be another trap and they’d have to search for the real way out with a limited amount of time and risk those escalating penalties.

However, upon reaching the top of the staircase, he spotted a new entranceway that stood in the middle of the pavilion. It was simply a frame floating in midair with a dark space behind it. Seeing it reminded Arthur of the place with the Scourge Gods and shuddered. But he felt no terrible pressure from beyond it. That was clearly the exit.

I guess we won’t have to fly out of here, he thought. After all, they were still mounted on their dragons, with the hatchlings and their new riders seating themselves on Sams and Joy.

As they approached, the frame obediently expanded to include a dragon the size of Sams.

They went through it one by one and found themselves standing at the pit of the Dark Heart. Above them, streams of people were still descending into the pit.

Arthur touched Brixaby’s neck. “Should we try to warn them?”

“It may not do any good,” Horatio muttered. “I don’t think they’ll listen.”

But Brixaby was already inhaling. Arthur knew he was more than willing to shout and be heard.

* * *

Several days later

* * *

Arthur stared hard at the card placed on the table in front of him. It was one that had been recovered from the bandits, which meant it was likely stolen from someone else.

People often put down Common-ranked cards, and the description for this one wasn’t particularly impressive. But now he had a sense of how much energy was stored in the card.

Beautiful Bouquet

Common

Nature

Using mana, the wielder of this card will be able to generate pink flowers in the breed and variety that the wielder imagines.