The false summit is ringed by trees. It's easy enough to see through to the flat, gravelly area, but our chances of peeking past the far edge of trees is slim. If we're going to find anyone, it'll either be on the way down or in the middle of the battlefield.

Or right here, before the feast even starts. It has to be about noon, but there's no table or sign of anything else being set up. A few leaves and stunted grass fronds wave in the wind, but nothing else appears to be moving. I check to the right and left, but I can't see anyone beyond our alliance.

We're not the only ones here, are we? I could understand Juniper not coming, but when she's probably allied with Robin and Hugh, I'm pretty sure she'd get dragged into it. And there's no way the Careers would let a chance like this slip, especially when their numbers have gone down.

On my left, Athena freezes, and I hurry to look back at the summit. No one has stepped out onto it, but I can just make out a seam in the ground, making a wide circle in the middle of the rocky surface. The center lowers with a rattling noise until it's out of sight, a dark wall of more stone all I can see until the floor rises again. Now it holds a table, wide and oval-shaped. Plates of everything from a whole turkey surrounded by small potatoes to a pile of strawberries no one could eat in one setting dot the edges, while the center is filled with an assortment of bags and boxes. There are probably numbers on all of them, although I can only make out a few from this angle. They have to be our districts. And there are two different bags marked 2, so they must be individual.

Past Athena, Simon starts to pull himself over the edge.

Then the gravel to my far right spews into the air, a jacketless tribute springing up from the ground and sprinting for the large cardboard box marked 9. I can't even make out her face before she's under the thing and shooting past a gap in the trees that, incidentally, was straight across her path.

Is she going to run down the mountain with that box over her head and torso...? I feel like she would trip. But she has to be smarter than that if she came up with such a clever plan to hide.

Branches snap from somewhere else, and a shout follows almost immediately.

"No, wait!" It's a male voice, though I can't place it—

And then the 9 girl yelps as an out-of-sight explosion rattles the table. The cloud of smoke off to my left is faint, but I hear rocks rolling, anyway. A few shouts later, and two cannons have sounded.

Who else was there? Someone tried to stop them—whoever made or spotted that trap, I guess. If the one who shouted made it, it would have to be Ted from 1. Was he trying to stop another Career, then?

Was it Aura?

I don't pick up on the implications until Simon has already stepped up onto the gravel.

Aura was the whole reason he didn't consider the Career pack a threat...! If she's gone, he's not safe!

I pull myself up to a new handhold before a hand clenches around my arm.

"What are you doing?!" Athena whispers. "He told us to wait so we wouldn't attract more attention! Do you want him caught in the crossfire?"

"No!" I say. Trucy shoots me a look, and I try to lower my voice. "If his sister just died, he's not safe on his own!"

"No, I heard her after the cannons! Get down!" She jerks my arm down, and I stumble back until she and Trucy right me.

I narrow my eyes at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. They're not very far away from us."

Well, that's comforting. I guess we technically outnumber them now, but I'm not feeling so great about them finding us when Simon is otherwise occupied.

I peek over the edge of the false summit. Simon is at the table, piling packages onto his jacket, which is spread out over the surface. No one has approached him, so I guess he and Athena are right. With the field as it is, he's invincible.

I count five containers on the jacket—all of ours—but he proceeds to add a small case marked 9 to the pile. The indignant squawk that follows is loud enough for even my commoner ears to pinpoint.

"Oh!" Athena hops and flashes a V for victory. "Was that Hugh? So that's why Simon took an extra box."

"Huh." I press on my forehead. "I thought he wanted to give the impression the guy with the high training score was one of his allies." Or maybe he was trying to do both? Geez. How much planning can he possibly do for one simple task?

Athena grins. "Well, he's about to be one of our allies. But... how do we get across with the Careers just to our left?"

There's no going around the other way with the rest of the mountain rising up past the trees. The greenery is thin there, too, so we won't be disguised well.

"How about we just cross the fake summit?" Trucy taps her lower lip. "To be honest, some of that food smells really good. And we may not all be trained fighters, but there are plenty of us. Will the Careers really attack us if we can gang up on them right away?"

"She has a point." Athena glances toward the Careers' apparent location and looks back at us. "Even if they want to build their kill lists—" the words put her close to visibly gagging—"they can't risk that much retaliation." With an exhale, she punches her palm and smiles. "We can use this chance to show them we're strong enough to take them!"

I slouch. "Provided Klavier doesn't throw up again?"

The 7 doesn't move from his observation perch, but he cranes his neck so I can see his scowl. "If I'm such a liability, I can just stay here while you fetch the others."

"I-I wasn't being that serious." Or loud. But I guess you could hear us whispering from a short distance away. How far to the left are the Careers, exactly...?

Athena waves a hand at us. "Here, Simon's almost back. We can all cross the summit together, okay? And I'm sure Klavier will be fine. He hasn't had any trouble since day five."

Turning himself around, he smiles up at her. "Thank you."

She smiles back before finding handholds higher up. "All right. Let's do this!"

Since there's a tree trunk barring my path, I have to wait for her to get past the first set of branches before I can start after her.

"Cykes-dono. What might you be doing?"

Our progress grinds to a halt. I can't see Athena's head through the leaves, but I'm sure she's peering up.

"We have to find Junie and Robin and Hugh," she whispers back. "Could you see where they were?"

I glimpse a single tribute darting for the table—the guy from 6 who had that impressive beard—as Simon exhales. "They were well-hidden, if present at all."

Before Athena can respond, Ted and Aura storm after the 6 boy. He springs away from the table, a loaf of bread and a bag in his arms, and scrambles for the upward slope where it isn't too steep. Apparently neither has any ranged weapons on hand, because they pursue him around the bend in a flurry of clattering rock pieces.

"Okay!" Trucy's voice is back to normal volume. "Now's our chance to go find them."

Wait, isn't there still one more Career?

Simon makes a low growling sound, but his loaded-up jacket thumps onto the ground. "Be quick."

Maybe not? I guess Simon's sure he isn't there.

"Right!" Athena surges forward, and I hurry after her. I'm still pulling myself onto the summit when she starts waving her arms. "Junie! Robin! Hugh! It's just me—Athena—and my allies! We're all friends, right? Come join up with us!"

Simon scans the ring of trees. "Show yourselves immediately, and I shan't kill you on sight."

Simon, that's not how you make friends.

Our whole alliance has made it onto the summit by the time branches shift across from us. I can make out the light, wide brim of the hat before anything else.

Juniper steps out onto the gravel, her hands clasped tightly together. Friends with most of our alliance or otherwise, she looks more nervous than anything as she looks over us. "Um, hello."

"Hey!" Athena smiles. "Doing okay?"

"I suppose..." She averts her gaze to the side. "How about you?"

"Great, thanks."

"Enough." Simon's eyes flash. "We should clear the area before anyone makes it back here. Are you alone?"

Juniper pauses, fingers tightening around her wrist.

"No." Another figure comes up behind her—Hugh, with one hand in his pocket and his other resting on a long weapon case of some sort. He scans us before tilting his head back with a smirk. "It might be nice to be in the company of someone with a training score comparable to mine."

Trucy looks between them. "And Robin?"

"READY TO ROLL, MAAAAAAAN!"

Yep, that would have to be her.

Charging onto the false summit, she takes her spot opposite Hugh and smiles. "So we're all teaming up? That's G-R-E-A-T!"

Simon jerks his chin toward the table. "Take your district gifts if you wish." He puts his hand to his sword hilt. "But if you dally, our alliance will be very short-lived."

Robin draws her hands back in distress, fingers curled, but Juniper just gasps before running for the table.

Athena frowns, hands on her hips. "What's the big rush? The Careers haven't even caught up to that Aristotle guy yet, by the sound of it."

"Are you serious?!" I draw back, mouth gaping. "You can hear them that far out?"

She laughs. "No, I just mean there hasn't been a cannon."

"Oh." I push my bangs back. "I guess—"

"Silence!" Simon slams his hand onto the table. "It's time for us to leave."

He plucks up our feast gifts and leads us past the trees.