Chapter 53- Shore Seawind
"What the hell did they do that for?" Aggie snaps, scrambling up the hill after Dominicus and me.
"Bringing us closer together," I say, stopping to wait for her to catch up.
"Well isn't that special," Domincius says as he comes up behind me to look out over what's left of the arena.
"You must be just thrilled," Aggie says sarcastically. "Guess they figured you could use more water."
"Should have been content with what you had," Dominicus puts in, wagging his finger in front of my face. I slap it down, making him laugh.
"So where do we go from here, Ocean Boy?" Aggie asks, finally catching up. She's back to being the same Agrippina Crass that she's been ever since I met her, but it's different now. I know who she really is underneath her hostile act.
I run my hand through my hair, keeping my other hand on my trident. There's been one cannon already today, and I can tell that both my allies and the Capitol are waiting for another to fire.
"Well, this morning I would have said stick to the beaches," I say, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. I have to lead; I have to keep being the leader or the alliance will fall apart too soon. It can fall apart tomorrow, but until then we need to keep together. They need to be my school of fish, and I have to be the shark that circles it.
"If you haven't noticed, the beaches are gone," Aggie says, blowing hair out of her mouth. The wind is stronger up here on the cliffside than it was down below, where the beaches were this morning.
"So we keep going up," I tell them, ignoring Aggie's baiting commentary. "That's where everyone else is headed; nobody is going to stay down low."
"Think the water could rise higher?"
"It could. Anything can happen now, right?" I say, throwing Aggie a smile. And in spite of herself, she gives me one back.
Maybe some other place, some other time, we could have been friends, Aggie and me. But this is the arena, and she's my ally, not my friend. That ended last night by the fire.
"So let's go and find some tributes," Dominicus says impatiently.
"What do you think we're doing?" I ask, turning to look at him. He shrugs.
"Looking at a bunch of water. Nobody's down there, if that's why you're looking."
"I'm checking to see if the water's rising or not." The Gamemakers just might do that; drown the whole island, and whoever swims best wins. And that would be me, without a doubt, so maybe it would be for the best after all if the whole island floods.
"Who cares," Aggie says, stomping ahead of us. "Just move and find someone to kill."
"Aren't you bossy today, Agrippina," Dominicus says, grinning.
"Shut it Dommie, or you'll be the next cannon."
"Touchy, touchy," he mutters, but he closes his mouth and follows after Aggie, me bringing up the rear. I take one last glance over the side of the cliff, down to where the waves are crashing against the rocks. All the beaches are gone, and the only way to go is up.
The end of the Games is coming closer, I can feel it. We just need to find the others, and then we can work the alliance out between the three of us. Just so long as the island doesn't flood any further, we're not in immediate danger, or at least I'm not. Mags was right about almost everything, but she was wrong that I'd be facing my death. I'm not. I'm not going to. Not with the water on my side. Even though it's not my ocean, it's still water, and that's all I need to win.
Dominicus slips on the hill ahead of me, stabbing his knife into the ground to keep himself from falling off the side of the cliff. It's not much of a cliff right now; more of a grassy hillside where we are; but to my left the ground stops abruptly and opens up over the rocks and water below.
"Careful," I tell him, pushing his foot up so he can get a grip on the hill again.
"Oh, thank you Mother," Dominicus says in a mocking tone, before pulling himself up and after Aggie.
"I'll just roll you off the cliff next time," I say, climbing up after him and ending up on a flat bank of tangled grass, bordered by a bunch of tall trees. Aggie crow laughs, swiping her hair out of her face again.
"He's got you there, Dommie." Dominicus scowls at me, but I just look back as brightly as I can. He has to know that I'm not scared of him, and I want my family to know that I'm not scared either. I want them to know that District 4 chose the right tribute to come here, no matter what.
Aggie crow laughs again at Dominicus's face, then, as I watch her, her laughter dies in her throat and her eyes narrow. "Duck," she says quietly, and I know enough to get down when she says that. Without any more warning, Dominicus and I drop to the ground, just as Aggie sends the knife sailing over our heads.
"You should watch it; might hurt someone, you know."
Dominicus and I are on our feet in seconds, both of us turning towards the jungle and the source of the voice. Knife in his hand, trident in mine, we are face to face with the boy from District 6. The troublemaker; the one who shot nuts at Tiara, who banded with that annoying girl from 11.
The boy throws his hands up in the air and grins. "Thought we'd never run into each other; isn't this a nice reunion?"
"If that's what you want to call it," I say calmly.
"On your own now?" Aggie asks, sliding a knife from one hand to the other. "Saw your stupid little ally's face in the sky the other day."
He shrugs and grins again. "Show must go on, my friends."
"We're not your friends," Dominicus snaps. I want to tell him to shut up and not antagonize the boy, but I can't, not in front of this new tribute. The last time you went after something, we were attacked by mutts, you idiot.
"Suit yourself," the boy says, looking side to side. "I thought the beaches around here were prime, but seems to me they're all gone."
"Obviously," Aggie says, with more than a little irritation. We should have killed him in the bloodbath; we shouldn't have let him get away for this long. Smart talking tributes this late in the Games are dangerous tributes. Just look at Dominicus.
"I'll tell you this, Trestle Deadwood never gets upset about setbacks," he continues, casually scuffing his shoe against a rock. "Lose an ally, the show goes on. Half the arena goes under? Show goes on. And you know what? The show just stops when everyone but me's dead."
Aggie and I exchange looks, and for a second, we're friends again, not just allies. Trestle's an idiot; he's not even armed.
"Sure, you think that," Aggie says condescendingly. With one swift movement, a knife's left her hand; it misses Trestle by a half inch and sticks into the tree he's standing next to.
Trestle doesn't even flinch; he just turns and grabs the knife, throwing it back so quickly that none of us react until it's too late and the blade is buried in Aggie's arm. Aggie screams, sounding more angry than hurt, and wraps her fingers around the knife, leaving it in her arm.
"The Weasel always wins," Trestle says smugly.
I don't have to tell anyone to do anything; Dominicus and I run at Trestle at the same time. The boy from 6 grabs the first knife that Aggie threw and scales one of the tall trees bordering the clearing and jungle, sitting down on a branch about seven feet up. I dodge to the side as Trestle throws the knife, missing me by a hair; the knife hits the ground behind us, back where Aggie is breathing heavily.
Trestle's unarmed now, but he doesn't look very worried about it. "Honestly, it's baffling you're all still around," he says, looking down on us with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. "'Cept for a few of you, obviously. Weeded out the dumb ones, did you?"
"Nobody's an idiot here except you, genius," Aggie says between shaky gasps behind us. Trestle laughs, an off key, unhinged sort of laugh. I haven't heard a genuine laugh since I left the Capitol, and it just makes me want to hear Thalassa's laugh more.
I have to get home to her, and leave everything in this arena behind me.
"Well, if I'm an idiot, who's got a knife in her arm?" Trestle asks, holding onto the trunk of the tree he's sitting in.
"Both of us."
I grab Dominicus's arm and pull him down again, as the knife whistles over our heads from behind, embedding itself in Trestle's shoulder. He shouts, toppling backwards, then catches himself at the last moment. I can hear him cursing under his breath, fumbling for the knife with shaking fingers.
As he grabs the knife's hilt, I rush the tree and throw my trident, sinking the prongs into Trestle's stomach. This time, he falls backwards completely, hitting the ground on the other side of the tree with a crashing thud.
He's down, his cannon is going to fire soon, and I don't have a second of remorse for him.
"Let's finish him off," Dominicus says, rubbing his hands together.
"You do that," I tell him. I don't care if the boy dies, but I'm not going to be the one to do it. I killed the boy from 9; I don't need to kill this boy as well. Nobody needs to see me do that.
"Get back!" Aggie shouts at Dominicus. "He's mine, so get the hell out of the way."
Aggie storms past Dominicus and me, over to where Trestle fell behind the tree. Dominicus starts to go after her, but I catch his arm. "Just leave it," I say. "Just leave her." He scowls at me, but stands still; really, having Dominicus listen to me is a miracle in itself.
"Stay," I mutter, walking forward one small step at a time. Even though I told Dominicus to stay, I need to know what Aggie is going to do. I need to know what she's really capable of. Carefully, I peer around the trunk of the tree, to where I know I'll see a whimpering boy and a bloodthirsty girl. Aggie yanks the knife out of her arm and holds it in front of Trestle's eyes, ignoring the blood staining her sleeve.
"You don't have a lot of time left, so what do you say we make the most of what you've got?" she says in a low voice.
I don't want to see this. I don't want to have any part in this. Not with this Agrippina Crass.
"Dominicus," I say, stepping back from the tree just as the first scream comes from behind it. "Let's check to see if the water's any higher."
"Does it even matter?" he asks, but I shoot him a look that makes him shut up, and shut up fast.
"That wave came out of nowhere this morning; I'd like a head start if another one starts up." Both Dominicus and I pretend we can't hear the agonized screams rising from behind the tree, focusing on the water beyond the island instead.
I can never trust Aggie, I know that; I knew that last night at the fire. Not if I'm going to leave this arena alive. Maybe it would be better to end the alliance now; kill Dominicus first, then Aggie after him. With Trestle dead, there's not going to be anyone I can't kill by myself, just the two from 3, and the girl from 7.
I have to go home to Thalassa, to my family, to everyone who's waiting for me. There's no other choice. But Trestle still has my trident, and I have nothing else.
Damn it.
The cannon fires abruptly, sending a flock of birds screaming into the sky. Both Dominicus and I turn to see Aggie stepping out from behind the tree with her jacket bloodstained and her hands red.
"He's dead."
"We figured," I say, looking at her up and down. She's unarmed too; we're all unarmed except for Dominicus. And as we look at each other, I can feel our alliance breaking until we're just three tributes standing together on a cliffside by the jungle.
"So what now, Ocean Boy?" Aggie asks, pressing her hand to her arm, where Trestle's knife stabbed her. She doesn't smile, she doesn't laugh; she just tilts her head and looks at me with solemn eyes.
I'm the leader, or I was the leader, but for the first time since I was dropped in here, I don't know what to do. Da would expect me to know; everyone expects me to know. I'm Shore Seawind, I was chosen to come in here and know what to do to get out. But I don't.
"I don't know."