Chapter 31

Artemis spun around, dipping her hand down to her boot and flicking out the small knife she kept hidden in an ankle sheath. She was just in time to see tiny Iris, with a sword sticking out of her side, fall to her knees. That sword was held by a furious Lucius, not Julius as she had first suspected. As the eleven-year-old girl collapsed, he drew the blood-stained blade out of her side. He had been aiming for Petronius, whom he regarded as the greatest threat, but Iris had jumped in front of him before he could.

Cynthia raised her bow. Caius and Petronius drew their swords. Artemis held her knife in the throwing position. Julius raised his battleaxe, Cornelius gripped his hammer, and Marius clenched his boulder-sized fists. All ready to attack Lucius, who for some unexplainable reason had just stabbed the weakest and most vulnerable tribute in the arena.

"Why should we trust them," said Lucius after a long, cold silence. Despite the word placement, it was not a question. "They've done nothing for us. I say we fight, Elites, and show them who's on top."

"That still doesn't answer the question of why you just stabbed Iris," snarled Caius, his monotone suddenly taking on a cold, sharp edge.

"That's repulsive even to me," put in Julius.

"They've tried to kill us!" screamed Lucius, his eyes completely black with rage. "They're trying to kill us now! They're not trying to help us! They brought those…those things here, and they were trying to kill us!"

"Lucius, get a hold of yourself!" scolded Cynthia, pulling her bowstring back a little farther.

"Um, is there any chance that he might have eaten some –– " Petronius tried to say, but before he could finish his sentence Lucius spun around with unnatural speed and swung his sword. Cynthia loosed her arrow, but her shot was rushed and she missed. And with Petronius at risk, Artemis did not dare throw her knife. The bronze-haired swordsman, with a reputation like his, seemed capable of holding his own against his livid and quite possibly insane adversary, but he had been taken by surprise. Lucius's blade grazed his shoulder and barely missed his neck.

Caius, Artemis, and Cornelius rushed forward to help Petronius, and Marius and Julius tried to restrain Lucius. Marius grabbed his arms, and Julius wrestled the sword out of his hands, but Lucius was not about to go down. His foot shot forward and kicked Julius right in the gut, sending him stumbling back. With Lucius's sword still in his hand, Julius accidentally cut Cornelius's arm as he fell. The red-haired boy gasped in pain and looked down at the wound, then at Julius, who was still holding the sword.

"Why you –– " growled Cornelius.

"No, dude, I swear I didn't –– " Julius tried to say, but the words were wasted. Ignoring the protests of innocence, Cornelius stomped up to him and shoved him in the chest, sending him stumbling again. Furious, Julius got to his feet, and swung a roundhouse blow at Cornelius. Well, that just about did it.

In the ensuing chaos, Lucius broke free. Scooping up his sword, he charged Petronius. Caught off guard once again, Petronius had no time to lift his own sword, but before Lucius could reach him Caius, with surprising agility and speed, bounded forward with his sword in one hand and a long fighting knife –– which just so happened to be Artemis's, and which he had not gotten from her with her permission –– in the other.

"You're welcome," shouted Caius dryly as he dodged, kicked, and slashed, almost casually in the efficiency of his moves.

Marius, with one of Julius's larger battleaxes in his hand, lumbered towards Petronius, and yet another duel commenced.

Cynthia raised her bow, and aimed at the last opponent left –– Artemis, who was virtually unarmed except for a small throwing knife, which was lowered. But when faced with that silver, razor-sharp arrowhead, Artemis only smiled, leaving Cynthia to figure out the rest. Cynthia read that silent message in her eyes, lowered her bow, approached Artemis, and nodded.

"Ridiculous," she said, referring of course to the chaos before them.

"Absolutely," replied Artemis.

Then, almost as if they had planned it, which of course they hadn't, both girls tilted their heads up, opened their mouths, and let out the loudest, highest, most piercing shrieks they could. Later, Caius could swear that when they screamed, the grass surrounding them actually quivered because of the volume, though he knew that the idea was ridiculous.

All fighting immediately ceased as all six boys turned to the two girls. "WOULD Y'ALL JUST SHADDUP ALREADY?!" yelled Artemis. "Yes. So WHAT if we weren't exactly friends in the past? The only way we're going to get out of this bloody mess is if we stop trying to DECAPITATE EACH OTHER! And if that's not what you want? Stick it in your juice box and SUCK IT UP, because I DON'T CARE. Now drop those weapons –– " Here she glared at each one of the boys, none of whom seemed to want to obey. "DROP THEM!" Immediately they obeyed, none of them wanting to face the wrath of a screaming Artemis. When she saw that they had all placed their weapons down, she nodded, cleared her throat, and said in a much lower and much more civilized voice, "Now, I believe we have something to attend to?" All of the boys exchanged confused glances until Artemis rolled her eyes and prompted, "A dying girl, perhaps?"

Almost instantly everyone was crowded around the fallen Iris, who had dragged herself as far away from the fight and as close to the wall of the Cornucopia as she could. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing. But barely. Usually, in a situation like this, Iris would be the one at the side of the bleeding, dying patient. But, in this particular situation, Iris was the bleeding, dying patient.

In the stunned silence, Cynthia lifted her bow and cracked it down on Lucius's shoulder, right on the clavicle. He screamed and crumpled to the ground, but Cynthia was as fast and strong as she was beautiful and had grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. He spun to her, his eyes clear and back to normal, if not surprised and quite annoyed. "What was that for?"

She smirked. "I studied the chemistry of poisons in my elective courses for high school. Not many people know that the effects of naevlynd can be reversed by a sudden and overpowering jolt to a certain nerve cluster."

"What?!" Petronius gasped, but as usual everyone ignored him.

"I can't believe it," stuttered Lucius upon seeing the fallen girl. "What have I done?"

"Well, she's not gone yet," said Cynthia, kneeling next to Iris. "You okay?"

"No," groaned Iris in a voice so soft that even Cynthia had to strain to hear.

"Is anyone else here a healer?" the older girl inquired.

Everyone turned to Artemis, who held up her hands in a mock surrender. "Don't look at me," she said. "I can't stand bloo –– oh, crap." The last two words slipped out when she got a look at the wound in Iris's side, and right before she went a bit faint and fell over. Caius caught her before she could hit the ground, and was the first to realize that the usually calm and collected girl was lingering in a state of fuzzy subconsciousness and mumbling, "Blood…blood…" under her breath repeatedly.

"So she's out," Caius mumbled, then remembered. The control disk. What had happened to it? Panic reigned supreme until he recalled that when he had drawn his sword, he had slipped the disk into his pocket, and now he dug it out. "Artemis! Artemis, snap out of it." When she refused to come out of whatever strange state of consciousness she was in, Caius braced himself, grimaced, and slapped her. Reflexively Artemis shot up and slapped him back, now wide awake. Caius gave her a glare that would send muttattion wolves running behind couches. "Was that really necessary?"

She considered this as she regained her typical wit. "No. But it was really satisfying." She yawned lazily. "What'd I miss…oh. Iris." Her face paled at the last two words.

"The control disk," said Caius, slipping it into her hand. "You have to use it. Get her medicine, or something."

Artemis stared at the control disk like she'd never seen it before in her life. "Actually," she said as her eyes sparked with something familiarly insane, "I have a better idea."

Heh. How I love my cliffies. XD

Should I update tomorrow?