No one noticed the small dark-haired girl open the door.
In a second she was climbing under tables, sneaking her way across the bar. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, but she didn't slow down.
There was something she needed to take care of.
Finally, she spotted him: a tall, muscly man with a tangled beard was standing in the corner of the bar, one hand around a woman and the other clutching his drink. The girl watched with narrowed eyes as the bearded man sprang forward to pick a fight with another man, casually flexing his biceps as he did so. The woman squealed excitedly and moved away from the bar counter for a better view of the brawl, leaving the man's drink unattended.
The girl tensed, and then ran for it.
Unstopping the tiny bottle she held in her hand, she glanced over her shoulder. No one was looking her way…she tipped the bottle over the rim of the drink, spilling its contents…
"What have we here?" The bearded man snatched the girl from behind, causing the bottle she was clutching to fall to the floor and smash. The girl stared up at the man with steely eyes, her nails digging into his arm.
"Let me go."
"Tell me what you were doing to my drink, little lady. Daddy wants to know."
Silence echoed uncomfortably through the bar. The girl stared defiantly up at the man—the man who had never, not once, treated her like family.
"Let me go."
"Hate to break it to you, sweetie, but I'm not stupid. Do you really think I'm going to set you free after you tried to kill me?" The man shook his head, grinning. "I think we need to teach you a lesson."
He grabbed the cup of poison and, spilling half of it onto the floor in the process, held it up ceremoniously for the entire bar to see. The woman clapped her hands to her mouth and cried, "she's just a child, for heaven's sake—"
"Just a child? Just a child?" The man rounded on the woman, slopping more of the drink down his front. "Murder is no child's game." He turned to the girl, a wicked grin on his face. "Drink up, Clovie. It'll be painless. You won't feel a—"
"Stop!" A voice rang out, piercing the suspenseful stillness that had settled over the bar.
"Who dares to contradict me?" The man's chest swelled, and his beady eyes swept the bar. For a moment, the girl sitting stock-still behind him was forgotten.
"I do." A blond head rose out of the crowd of silent people, attached to a muscly body. The girl couldn't help but give a small gasp.
"Ah." The man narrowed his eyes and appraised the hard-faced boy in front of him, nodding slowly. "You're King's boy, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I'm King's boy. The name's Cato. My dad's told me a lot about you, says you never leave the bar. Not been a very good parent lately, have you?
The man moved forward, and for a moment the girl thought he was going to take a swing at Cato—a second later, though, he stepped back and rubbed his knuckles together menacingly. "Well, you've certainly inherited you father's insolence. Now, preferably before tomorrow, tell me what you want to say. Hurry, boy, I haven't got all night."
"Well, I couldn't help but overhear you talking to your daughter.You've got a carrying voice, you know," Cato replied. "I was just outside the bar, and...anyway, I think you ought to give her a chance to fight back—she's been learning a few things at the Academy."
"She's only nine," the man sputtered. "If you really think…you can't possibly…boy, who do you think you're kidding? My daughter…she's never…"
"Why don't you let her at a knife, then, if you're not afraid of what she can do?"
The man grunted in protest, but pulled a pocket blade out of his jeans anyway and handed it grudgingly to the girl. "Fine. Clove, stand over by Cato and see if you can hit the seam in the wall panel behind me with the knife you're holding. You make it, I let you go and you leave this bar, you unnerstand? You fail, you pay the price." He held up the cup of poison and spat in it. "Let's begin."
Clove stepped slowly over to Cato, who didn't look at her when she stopped beside him. He was two years above her at the Academy, and they'd never talked before—she wondered why he'd even bothered to stick up for her. It wasn't like his life would be affected in any way if she was killed.
"Let's begin," the man growled.
Clove fingered the pocket blade, holding it in her hand just so. Cato's eyes were on her—the entire bar was waiting with bated breath, watching. The man's eyes bored into her, searching for any sign of fright or weakness. Clove almost laughed out loud.
In a second, it was over.
The blade had lodged itself flawlessly in the seam of the wall, where two of the panels connected. The man leaned forward to peer at the wall, as if he didn't quite believe what his daughter had just done. Clove felt Cato relax beside her, and stalked forward to yank the blade out of the wall.
"Your knife," she said stonily, dropping it unceremoniously into her father's palm. Without a backward glance, she swept past Cato and out into the night, slamming the bar door behind her.
Stealing away into a dark alley opposite the bar, Clove felt hot tears prick the corners of her eyes. She couldn't process what had just happened—she was in shock, she was going to start sobbing like a little baby again…
Footsteps sounded behind her.
"Clove?"
"He was my dad, Cato. He wasn't supposed to do that to me in front of everyone."
"Why'd you try to poison him, then?" Cato knelt down beside Clove, who was curled up on the asphalt of the alley.
"I can't take him anymore, that's why. He treats me like his slave. It's worse when he's drunk. Much worse." Clove shivered and buried her face in Cato's sleeve.
"Where did you get the poison?"
"I stole it from the apothecary that comes round our house when Dad's sick. She gives him meds from her cart, and…she wasn't looking, so I…"
Cato nodded. "Do you want me to walk you home?"
"I'm not going home. I'll go to Sage's and ask if I can stay with her for the rest of the month, until we go back to the Academy. I know she won't turn me down."
"Your dad'll be mad."
"I don't care. I'm scared, Cato. It doesn't matter what he said in that bar with all those people around, he's going to kill me if he sees me again." A fresh wave of tears consumed Clove and she began rocking back and forth, clutching her knees to her chest.
"Fine. Let's get you to Sage's," Cato replied, pulling Clove's elbow up. With his support, she managed to walk all the way across District Two's main square. The night was silent, and the alleys between the buildings around them were dark and ominous. Clove couldn't help but shudder as they passed the district orphanage, a large, square building set into the side of one of the hills in the center of town. Soon, they had left the orphanage behind them.
"Look at that," Cato breathed, stopping halfway across the square to stare up at something in front of him. "The Nut."
"The what?"
"The Nut. It's a mountain the Peacekeepers dug out, and they built barracks and arsenals inside it when they didn't have anything else to use it for. It's basically a military base." Cato stood staring up at the structure looming over him, blotting out the moon.
"Military base? I've never seen any soldiers around. What do they have to fight against?"
"Nothing," Cato mumbled, shaking his head. "I only know about this because my brother works in the Nut, and sometimes he tells me what it's like in there."
"What's it like?"
"I thought we were taking you to Sage's," Cato said roughly, stalking across the square with Clove in tow. "I told you, it's nothing."