“The families started allowing female riders?” “Desperate times,” Julia says mildly. But her lifted shoulder doesn’t bely the fact that she moved a mountain, and the smile that plays at her lips shows she knows she did. There’s something gladdening about the realization that, after all we’ve lost, this at least Julia gained. The next question is stranger, but I can’t fight my curiosity. “Have you had a ranking tournament, or . . . ?” Julia hesitates for the first time, then nods. “I’m Firstrider.”
