Zoe shrugs as she slides into her seat. "It takes just as much skill and training to ride competitively as it does to excel in a martial art," she points out. Certainly she trained with horses for as many years as most Spades trained with knives. "You have to watch yourself, your opponent, and the two horses instead of just your opponent and the weapons you're both carrying. And it's at least as worthy as Scrabble for a challenge to Nine."

Davin Bernard's challenge to Nicholas Rhodes had been the first...non-violent one she'd seen in the Spades. It had probably been the reason she'd challenged Edison in advanced mathematics when the time came.