A/N: IMPORTANT UPDATE NEWS. I'm going camping this week, which means no wifi till Thursday. Updates will have to wait till then, I'm afraid.
When brute force won't work, use stealth.
There was a herd of deer here. Puck had checked. They would spook when the fire started.
He lit the fire and then, seemingly carelessly, went to go get some water from the stream.
The sparks hit the dry grass.
The fire caught.
Leesha looked around the clearing around the Cornucopia for the fifth time that minute. Her magic was buzzing anxiously under her skin. Moth could be anywhere by now, and as strong as Seph's wards undoubtedly were, that made her antsy.
"I'm going to take a walk around the perimeter." She pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her knives.
"But supper's almost done," Emma protested.
Leesha shrugged and tried not to let her tension bleed into her movements. It wouldn't do to let the sponsors think she was anything other than confident. "I can eat cool stew." She sniffed. The smell wasn't entirely appealing. "If it's even worth eating, that is."
Seph frowned at Leesha's retreating back. He shook his head and turned back to Emma with a smile. "Don't mind her. She's been sharp with everyone since Jason died. I'm sure the stew's great."
Emma's smile was a bit shaky. Leesha's comment must have gotten to her more than he'd thought. "Thank you. I think it's ready now." She spooned some into a thin metal bowl they'd found with the supplies.
He took it gratefully. The ninth day had been a slow one, but he was still more than ready to eat. "Where's yours?"
"I could only find one bowl. I'll keep looking for another one."
"Are you sure you don't want the first one, then?" Seph offered her his portion.
Emma shook her head. "I haven't really been hungry since - " She glanced to the still charred portion of grass.
Seph winced sympathetically. "I get it." He took a bit of the stew. It was surprisingly sweet. "This is pretty good!"
Hastings' eyes were all but aflame as he frantically flipped through the catalog of goods to send in. There had to be something in there that could help.
A vial of an antidote appeared at the end.
Even when compared to their vast store of sponsor donations, the cost was astronomically high. Too high for them to possibly reach.
Behind him, the others were on the phones with sponsors. Linda caught sight of the price on the screen. Her face went pale.
An extra sheen of magic entered her voice. She talked faster.
A sharp cramp hit Seph's stomach. He resisted the urge to curl up over it. He couldn't look weak in front of the audience.
Emma had finally found a second bowl. He grabbed it before she could fill it up. "I'd wait a bit on that. I think something in the stew's a bit off."
Impure water, maybe. They hadn't been having problems so far, but something easily could have gotten into it since the Games started.
Or Leesha - He didn't want to think it, but she'd always gotten excellent marks when it came to learning about poisons, and she'd walked away rather than eat the stew. She was taking her time in coming back too.
If she'd done something to it, then he needed to throw it up and fast. "Excuse me for a minute." He tried to push himself to his feet so that he could go somewhere a little less obvious to the cameras.
The pain sharpened. He curled over his stomach and bit his tongue against a cry. Something wet was dripping down towards his mouth. Something wet and hot.
There was no way he could make it to the trees like this. He turned to his side and tried to retch.
Something hit his side and pinned him to the ground.
Emma.
Her hand clapped over his mouth. What little he could see of her face with his head pinned was pale and tinged slightly green. He could hear her other hand scrabbling for a knife.
Another cramp tightened around his stomach. His muscles were trembling. He could never fight her off like this.
He forced his hands up and clenched them around her wrists. He let them grow hot. A current ran through them.
Wizard hands, Dr. Leicester had called them. He had used them liberally on misbehaving students.
Emma screamed and tried to roll away from him. He held on grimly. He needed to - He had to -
Over the rushing in his ears, he could hear someone running.
Leesha had been almost back when she heard the scream. She took off running as soon as she heard it. She didn't know what she planned to do about it yet, but if someone was attacking their supplies, she needed to know.
No one was attacking.
Or, rather, no one new. It was just Seph and Emma, scrabbling on the ground. Emma's wrists looked red and burned. Seph moved weakly, blood streaming down his face.
The stew quietly burned behind them.
Leesha rushed forward and shouted a spell that sent Emma flying backward. She knelt beside Seph.
He tried to say something. Blood bubbled out of his mouth.
A cannon boomed.
Linda's screen went dark.
"No," she whispered. "No. Not Seph."
Hastings stood, very quietly, and turned to look at the guards posted all around the mentor center. Jack grabbed his arm, alarmed, when he saw the fire in his old mentor's eyes.
"Hastings - "
One of the president's elicitors broke off from the guards and walked over, hands ready. "Is there a problem?"
Linda should say something, should go over there, should -
But for once the words wouldn't come.
Ellen shoved herself between Hastings and the elicitor. "No problem," she said tightly. "Hastings just needs some air, don't you, Hastings?"
A magical charge seemed to fill the whole room. She could hear the birds outside gathering. Preparing to strike.
"Just some air," Hastings agreed in a dangerously soft voice.
Jack shot his aunt a worried look as he and Ellen hurried Hastings out of the room.
She sat slowly back into her seat and turned to face the blank screen once more. All she could see was the tiny baby she had wrapped in blankets and left on a doorstep to keep him safe.
Gone now. All gone.
Deep within her, the Dragon roared.
Leesha got to her feet and stalked over to where Emma was pushing herself achingly to hers. Leesha spat a spell for paralysis before she could manage it.
The wards had fallen. They were in the open now.
But they were down to seven. There weren't many people left to come.
And the paralysis spell would last for hours. More than enough time for Leesha to set up wards of her own, even if she was slower than Seph.
First, though, she crouched beside Emma. She patted her cheek. The movement would have been gentle if her hands weren't blazing the way only a wizard's could be. "You foolish little girl. Did you really think you could get away with this?"
Emma let out a strangled sound like a choked back scream.
Leesha smiled brightly at her. The expression felt cracked and sharp. "Just wait right here while I get the wards up. You and I are going to have such fun together!"
Jason and Seph wouldn't have like it.
But they weren't here.
The fire spread quickly, helped along by Gamemakers who wanted to shove the remaining tributes together. Puck returned to find it entirely out of control.
He tried to hide his grin of triumph as he took off at a run.
The deer were running too.
Puck angled himself and shifted into a deer as well. He poured on the speed.
If the plan was to work, he was going to have to catch up with them.
It took Leesha an hour to get her wards up. She saw the smoke in the distance, but she let it be for now. Someone else could track down the idiot who had started the blaze.
An hour into her fun, she looked up to see that the smoke had formed an unnatural ring all around the boundaries of the arena. Time to make ready.
She drew a knife and finished what she'd started.
The cannon boomed.
(If stealth backfires, things can get messy.)
A/N: A note on elicitors and dragons for those who haven't read the Heir Chronicles:
Elicitors have the ability to draw out others' magic. An ordinary person hit with a fireball gets crispy; an elicitor absorbs the magic and can turn it back on the wizard who sent it. Most wizards are understandably terrified of them as nothing a wizard throws at them can affect them and as just being around one can be really bad for their health.
The Weir (meaning wizards, enchanters, etc.) originally got their magic from a dragon. As a result, they've built a lot of symbolism around them. Due to the full story behind the dragon giving magic thing, the dragon has come to mean vengeance against oppressors. In the books, (major spoiler ahead), Linda took the title of Dragon to fight the tyrannical wizards. Here, she's done the same thing against the Capital.