Chapter Thrity-Three, The Feast

Silver looked through her arsenal of blow darts, rather displeased with her ammunition count; only two, to be exact. One of them was a regular dart while the second one was one of her poisonous ones. The girl frowned faintly. She would have to search through her equipment to see if there were more of them; if not, she would probably have to go back in her own tracks to try to retrieve some of the darts she had already used… Even though she had many other weapons in store, the darts were her newfound specialty. They truly were like an extension of herself…

The District 6 girl glanced at the sky, which was still clear blue with the exception of a few white clouds scattered here and there. Deep down, she briefly wondered how the Clockwork Angel was doing and of course, her thoughts then went to the girl's Ice Prince. The last time she had seen those two in the same sector had been when she had killed Elon and let's just say that the Ice Prince had not been in a good state during this particular moment… However, Silver had yet to see his face in the sky, so she assumed that he had been rescued. And she knew exactly who had saved him.

Silver grinned to herself. Just like I had predicted, thought the girl as she looked back down, she only realized it once he lay dying at her feet.

As she tidied up her equipment, the brown-haired girl shook her leg in an attempt to ward off a mosquito, which was being overly curious about the long scratch on her calf. The minor wound had already started to heal and scar. And another one, she sighed. At least, this particular scar had not been inflicted to her by her stepfather…

In front of her, a tiny squirrel jumped from one tree to another, pausing to look around every now and then. Once again, the girl's lips formed a pale smile as she fondly remembered Caskar's mental issues.

With six people spread out around in the arena – if one could actually count Caskar as a person – the thought that something major would happen soon played at the back of Silver's mind…

Silyah's heart jumped in her chest as she heard the sound of trumpets towards the end of the evening. She growled and mumbled something about her stupid cardio as the sound faded into an announcement.

"Attention to all tributes!" The amplified voice belonged to none other than Claudius Templesmith. "Tomorrow morning, just after dawn you will all be invited to a very special feast that will be held at the mouth of the Cornucopia! Since most of you seem to have mastered the art of finding food in this environment, your generous sponsors willingly offered various useful items for the occasion; some handy goods which you will all eventually need." Claudius paused to let the news sink it. "Think well before declining such an offer… Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor."

Silyah grunted once again. "Do we need anything this badly?" she asked, despite the fact that she already knew what Artemis would answer.

"Yes, you do," said the boy sternly. "I will be going, with or without you because unless 'I fell in a bush of thorns' was not code language for 'I was bitten by a poisonous snake,' you won't survive for much longer."

Silyah wondered if she could let Artemis go. It was a horrible risk he was willing to take to save her life… By now, he surely must have been aware that only one person could go back home. "Artemis, the feasts are usually just a way to bring all of the tributes in one area to prepare them for the final and fatal fight."

"Don't you think I know? It was probably her idea to call the feast now, but that doesn't change a thing. I will be going, Silyah. You will not make me change my mind."

"You might be stubborn but you are certainly not going to die in there." She shook her head, which was spinning slightly. "Let's make a deal. If by tomorrow you still think that I might die, we go. If I feel fine, we don't even get near the Cornucopia."

"You're not fooling me with your act, you know," said Artemis. "You're probably not even fooling yourself."

"I know," she whispered… If the snakebite was not the end of her, she had something else in mind. "I'll take the first guard shift for the night," she said at one point, seeing Artemis's tired expression. "I don't know what you did to me earlier, but I actually don't think I am the one who needs the most sleep right now."

Artemis nodded slowly. He had a mild headache; something that always came whenever he used his ill-gotten magic.

Silyah sat down at the mouth of their tent as Artemis lied down in it. She hoped that by tomorrow, she would either be well or dead once and for all.

Artemis got back in the tent when he saw the sky lightening up. He moved over to Silyah, who was still sleeping deeply. "Silyah?" The girl showed no sign of reaction. Laying the inside of his wrist on Silyah's forehead, Artemis checked her temperature. It looked like they would have to risk going to the feast… Artemis sighed, picking up his bow and arrows. "I am sorry, Silyah," he murmured.

The girl rolled on her side and coughed, waking herself up. "Where are you going?" she asked in a creaky, sleepy voice.

Artemis looked down towards her. "I have a feast to attend to. I will be back soon. Rest…"

Silyah sat up. Artemis was already leaving! Oh, great, she thought. Although her head was pounding, she got out of the tent and began to fold and place her bed sheets in her coat's back pocket.

"A deal is a deal," she whispered as she tucked the last sheet in her coat, got a drink of water and picked up her spear.

Silver Canemon was lurking her way through the steep path that lead to the lower level of the arena, her blow cane loaded with her last dart. Whatever was meant for her at the feast, she hoped it would be more ammunition. Finally, she reached the meadow surrounding the Cornucopia. She had thought that she would have been the first one to arrive to the feast, but as it turned out, someone else was in the meadow with her. Despite the fact that he had his back turned, Silver instantly knew that it was Caskar.

Not only had he been looking in his small District 1 backpack, but apparently, he was also in the process of foraging through the other ones on the feast table.

Silver slowly moved closer to him. She had just caught one big squirrel. "Rummaging through our stuff, uh? Wannabe."

Caskar turned towards her. He was in an extremely bad shape. His mental state had started to show on the outside; his features were twisted in a strange scowl and his right eye was twitching vigorously.

"Urgh…" Silver blinked, the boy had taken a turn for the worst. "Maybe I'll let you take that stuff… You look awful…"

"Awful?" repeated the boy, his voice breaking. "You want to see what awful looks like?" Caskar pocketed the small bottle he had found in his backpack and took out his still unused sponsored blade.

Silver frowned, when did he get that?

Tired of the game of cat and mouse, Caskar ran straight towards Silver, his dagger ready.

Silver lifted her blow cane, shooting her last dart at the boy. Apparently, an advanced stage of madness did not come with many side effects as far as coordination went, for Caskar's reflexes made him use the flat part of his blade to deviate the dart. The corners of his mouth rose, which did not look too great with his twitchy eye.

Silver cursed, quickly coming up with a new plan. She ran to the feast table, grabbed her District 6 backpack and hastily opened it. The first thing she saw in it was a small cylinder with a sharp end. There was a note too… From Edan… But she would have to read the note later; Caskar was already at her heals, scratching her back with his knife. Silver attached the sharp object at the end of her blow cane as rapidly as she could. Now, the two opponents were armed. Turning swiftly, she smashed Caskar's cheek with the cane. "Shoo… Shoo!"

Slightly destabilized, Caskar shook his head to gain back his balance, then threw a punch in Silver's shoulder. The District 6 girl snarled, bringing her cane towards the boy's face once again, though this time, she used the pointed end of it. In less time than it took for the tall District 1 boy to realize what was happening, he found himself screaming of rage and pain, backing away from Silver. All of the sudden, he was desperately trying to stop the spurt of blood streaming down the right side of his face.

Silver took a step back herself, grabbing her small backpack before disappearing; she would deal with the boy later.

"You hag!" screamed Caskar, a hand covering his eye socket, already planning on going as far from the Cornucopia as possible. The boy thus ran back towards the path he had taken to get down to the Cornucopia and began to scale the wall.

Luckily for him, Artemis arrived at the feast a few minutes after Silver and Caskar's most recent encounter. The boy halted at a reasonable distance from the Cornucopia, observing the area. There was only one package left on the table; the boy from 11 had just left the meadow after having taken his backpack and by the blood on the grass, it was easy to tell that Silver and Caskar had made it to the feast before him…Artemis frowned as he took a closer look at the numbers printed on the last bag; the numbers 3 and 9, to be precise. The raven-haired boy sighed. Exactly as I had expected, he thought.

Artemis looked behind his shoulder, just in case Silyah would have caught up with him. He had been aware of the fact that she had started to follow him earlier, but he had lost sign of the girl when he had scaled down one of the paths that lead to the Cornucopia. Deducing that the girl had remained in the upper part of the arena, Artemis made his way towards the table on which sat the last sponsor-sent package. Apparently, Kalheb needed an antidote too… Artemis took the small backpack between his hands, relieved to find an remedy in it.

"I don't think you should leave with that one," called out a voice at Artemis's left.

Artemis tensed, slowly moving his neck only to see a figure at the corner his eye. Of course, it had to be Kalheb. The tall and muscular boy was more or less in the same state Silyah had been in at the beginning of the previous day, which made sense considering his height and weight. He was shaking, his skin was drastically paler than his usual healthy tan and dark circles had appeared under his eyes. "Give me the package and I will spare your life for now," he said.

Artemis turned completely in order to face him. "No." The rest of a sentence had been about to form on his lips, but he never got to finish it. Artemis's eyes had found something metallic in Kalheb's hand and that something was now flying right towards him.

The object, which Artemis identified as a knife, sliced the back of his hand, making him drop the small silver bag to the ground. A scarlet line formed on the teen's pale skin and blood began to slowly trickle down his hand.

"Sorry, pal," said Kalheb, picking up the package, as well as his knife. Small droplets of ran were now falling from the sky, making their way down the District 9 boy's bare torso.

Artemis clenched his teeth together as the water washed away the blood from his slim fingers. Taking a deep breath, he raised his bow, readying an arrow in the process. There was no way he was going to let this happen; Silyah was not going to die.

Kalheb was running as fast as his state could allow it towards one of the paths that lead to the upper part of the arena. With a sigh, Artemis lowered his bow and followed Kalheb, only able to keep up with him because of District 9 boy's pitiful condition.

At one point, the massive boy turned around. Artemis was way too close to him for his taste. Kalheb threw his knife at him once again, this time hitting the District 3 boy's thigh.

Artemis gritted his teeth. He had gotten a knife into his body before, but he had never wished for it to happen a second time. The raven-haired boy pulled out the sharp piece of metal from his flesh. He did not scream this time, however, that did not mean that it hadn't hurt. Artemis spared a few seconds to check his cut. It was not that bad; he could take care of it at a more appropriate time.

Kalheb took the opportunity to sprint forward, finally reaching the path between the two smallest waterfalls of the arena's meadow. The District 9 tribute worked his way up the path, putting his exhaustion aside. He knew that his sponsors wanted him to kill Artemis, but he would have to cure his poisoned snakebites first. Kalheb thus clenched the bag containing the antidote with a desperate strength, turning every now and then to check on Artemis's progression.

The frail boy had had more difficult climbs before; his hike on the first day of the Games being the first example that came to his mind. Nevertheless, the rain and wind added a new level of complexity to the task of ascending the arena's path. "Kalheb!" Artemis's voice was hard. "I have a proposal for you."

"Yeah, right!" Kalheb yelled back. "Six of us are left; five have to go." He continued his race up the trail.

"True… However, you know Caskar and I am sure that he could defeat you given some time. Why don't you act logically? Help us take him." Artemis was not sure of how successful his technique would be, after all, the District 9 boy seemed to have quite the ego.

Did Artemis Fowl, the one who would stand absolutely no chance against a guy like Caskar just called me too weak to fight and kill the District 1 boy? wondered Kalheb with a mocking smile. He felt like replying to Artemis's comment and that, despite the fact that he had always hated how some of the previous years' tributes would fight and chitchat at the same time. Now, he had the need to defend himself. The boy spun around, not noticing when his foot landed on a patch of newly formed mud. His leg flew backwards as he slipped and he fell down in the dirt. Kalheb grunted as he rolled down the hill, managing to stop his fall a few meters down from where he had last stood. As he got up, the muscular boy was more than happy to see that the package was still locked between his fingers, but still going downwards was one of his knives… It was a small price to pay to keep the antidote, not to mention that he was still in possession of two blades and that now, Artemis was higher up on the path. Securing the strap of the bag around his wrist, Kalheb dug out a new knife from his pocket for safety. As Artemis was still climbing up the trail, the District 9 boy wiped the mud from his muscular arms and chest, intending to go back down to the meadow and take the antidote to cure himself. However, just as he was about to head back down, something unexpected forced him to keep on going upwards…

The muttations were now after him…

The creatures were not very big, maybe fifty centimeters in height, but there were six of them and they seemed enraged. One look towards the monkeys – or at least, Kalheb thought they were monkeys since he had never seen any before – and the District 9 boy hurried up his pace. He already had poison in his blood; he did not particularly want to become rabid on top of that.

Three of the mutts then reached him, circling Kalheb as their small dark yellow eyes looked straight into his. The biggest one of the bunch wrapped his tiny hand, which was covered in white fur, around Kalheb's arm. For a second, the boy wondered what the creature would do. The thought that it might slash his throat with his own knife actually struck him once or twice… But instead of slaughtering him, the monkey around Kalheb's arm got hold of the knife he carried and jumped in the nearest tree, followed by its peers. The group bounced from branches to branches, trying to reach Artemis.

Kalheb took a moment to stop and catch his breath. Now, nothing was forcing him to go up, nor down; he could finally use whatever was in the District 3/9 bag.

Higher up on the trail, Artemis had also stopped, only to feel something hit his back. Thank goodness, whatever it was, it did not cause him any agonizing pain. The raven-haired boy turned. The first thing that caught his eye was an animal that looked like a lemur and then the teenager looked down to see one of Kalheb's knives rolling back down the path. At this moment, Artemis was glad that lemurs did not have the required strength to throw such a heavy object.

The boy's attention was then drawn to Kalheb. In an instant of terror, Artemis realized that the District 9 boy was going to take the antidote. No! Artemis would not let Silyah die after all she had done for him. "Kalheb!"

The lemurs that had remained near Kalheb pushed him towards the tumbling knife, which had ricocheted against Artemis's back, forcing the strong boy to catch it, as though they wanted him to go kill Artemis. "What do you want?" asked Kalheb.

"Share the antidote and team up with Silyah and me, if only to help us take down Caskar. I know you want him gone just as much as we do."

"I am not teaming up with anyone," he replied, clutching his knife. "The time of the alliances is long past."

"You might want to reconsider my offer… As it turns out, I gave Caskar a little temporary handicap," said Artemis. "I shot him in the leg, you see," continued the boy as he placed an arrow on his bowstring. "And if I must, I will give you a handicap too," The raven-haired boy took aim and breathed out, pulling back his arm to then let go of the string. Miraculously, Artemis's arrow landed on Kalheb's hand; the one that clenched the sponsored antidote.

The hand in question flew backwards upon impact, knocking a lemur unconscious in the process. The other creatures quickly backed away, now aware of how dangerous this situation could become.

Trying to forget the pain in his hand, Kalheb shook his head and began to climb the rocky ledge separating him from Artemis. When he finally emerged up, there was only one thing on his mind.

Hit Artemis and do not miss.

Avoiding the sight of the arrow in his left hand, Kalheb swung his other arm, letting go of his knife.

Artemis was forced to take half a step back as the knife faintly brushed the side of his face, right on the almost healed cut on his temple. Needless to say, even the slightest touch from the blade had been enough to open the wound once again. Artemis's mismatching eyes narrowed for a short second. Kalheb was so close to him and another arrow had already notched itself on the boy's bow… "A simple 'no' would have been quite enough."

Artemis's second arrow pierced Kalheb's chest. The District 9 tribute's wide eyes were staring at Artemis in disbelief as his foot slipped from the rocky ledge. The boy's ankle made an awful cracking sound and so did the rest of his body when it fell down the cliff. There was no doubt about it; if the arrow had not been fatal for Kalheb, his fall would be. It was not exactly the fall itself that made it so painful – the strong boy had fallen on this very path mere minutes ago – it was the two arrows digging deeper in his chest and hand every time they would lie flat on the ground that did the job.

"D'arvit!" swore Artemis. That was not good. Not at all!

The District 3/9 bag was still secured around Kalheb's wrist and it was rolling down the arena along with him at an incredible speed.

Bang! That was it; Kalheb's life had officially been announced as over.

Artemis swore again, definitely more loudly this time. He needed the bag and soon enough, a hovercraft would appear in the sky to collect the remains of the District 9 boy, as well as everything he currently carried.

It was at this moment that the lemur muttations decided to get out of the woods, hurrying to gather around Kalheb's falling body to apparently try to stop its descent. Although the lemurs did not succeed, a massive tree on Kalheb's way took care of putting an end to his fall.

Being extremely careful not to send himself rolling down the cliff, Artemis ran to Kalheb's body. He needed that bag more than anything.

Once he reached him, Artemis kneeled down beside what was left of Kalheb. With slightly shaky hands, he tried to force the older boy's fingers open to set the bag free of his grip. Artemis bit his tongue; he was sure that he had heard the fingers crack.

The arrow he had sent into Kalheb's hand had fallen off during the fall, leaving behind one gaping and blood-soaked hole from which a few bones were protruding.

Trying not to look at the broken-boned corpse that used to belong – according to the Panem audience – to the most attractive tribute of the year, Artemis took the bag and placed it in his backpack as two lemurs jumped on his shoulders, furiously scratching and pulling on his coat. One of the lemurs dragged his tiny nails across Artemis's cheek, while the other was trying to open his backpack. The boy shook them off of his back using his bow. Sorry, he thought, hitting the muttated lemurs' hands. No time for dealing with two Silky sifakas… Even though I did thought you to be extinct…

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