第23章
and
with a little extra help, some food, the right weapon, why
should i count myself out of the games?
someone throws me a red rose. i catch it, give it a delicate
sniff, and blow a kiss back in the general direction of the giver.
a hundred hands reach up to catch my kiss, as if it were a real
and tangible thing.
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“katniss! katniss!” i can hear my name being called from all
sides. everyone wants my kisses.
it’s not until we enter the city circle that i realize i must
have completely stopped the circulation in peeta’s hand.
that’s how tightly i’ve been holding it. i look down at our
linked fingers as i loosen my grasp, but he regains his grip on
me. “no, don’t let go of me,” he says. the firelight flickers off
his blue eyes. “please. i might fall out of this thing.”
“okay,” i say. so i keep holding on, but i can’t help feeling
strange about the way cinna has linked us together. it’s not
really fair to present us as a team and then lock us into the
arena to kill each other.
the twelve chariots fill the loop of the city circle. on the
buildings that surround the circle, every window is packed
with the most prestigious citizens of the capitol. our horses
pull our chariot right up to president snow’s mansion, and we
come to a halt. the music ends with a flourish.
the president, a small, thin man with paper-white hair,
gives the official welcome from a balcony above us. it is tradi-
tional to cut away to the faces of the tributes during the
speech. but i can see on the screen that we are getting way
more than our share of airtime. the darker it becomes, the
more difficult it is to take your eyes off our flickering. when
the national anthem plays, they do make an effort to do a
quick cut around to each pair of tributes, but the camera holds
on the district 12 chariot as it parades around the circle one
final time and disappears into the training center.
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the doors have only just shut behind us when we’re en-
gulfed by the prep teams, who are nearly unintelligible as they
babble out praise. as i glance around, i notice a lot of the other
tributes are shooting us dirty looks, which confirms what i’ve
suspected, we’ve literally outshone them all. then cinna and
portia are there, helping us down from the chariot, carefully
removing our flaming capes and headdresses. portia extin-
guishes them with some kind of spray from a canister.
i realize i’m still glued to peeta and force my stiff fingers to
open. we both massage our hands.
“thanks for keeping hold of me. i was getting a little shaky
there,” says peeta.
“it didn’t show,” i tell him. “i’m sure no one noticed.”
“i’m sure they didn’t notice anything but you. you should
wear flames more often,” he says. “they suit you.” and then he
gives me a smile that seems so genuinely sweet with just the
right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes
through me.
a warning bell goes off in my head. don’t be so stupid. peeta
is planning how to kill you, i remind myself. he is luring you in
to make you easy prey. the more likable he is, the more deadly
he is.
but because two can play at this game, i stand on tiptoe and
kiss his cheek. right on his bruise.
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the training center has a tower designed exclusively for
the tributes and their teams. this will be our home until the
actual games begin. each district has an entire floor. you
simply step onto an elevator and press the number of your
district. easy enough to remember.
i’ve ridden the elevator a couple of times in the justice
building back in district 12. once to receive the medal for my
father’s death and then yesterday to say my final goodbyes to
my friends and family. but that’s a dark and creaky thing that
moves like a snail and smells of sour milk. the walls of this
elevator are made of crystal so that you can watch the people
on the ground floor shrink to ants as you shoot up into the air.
it’s exhilarating and i’m tempted to ask effie trinket if we can
ride it again, but somehow that seems childish.
apparently, effie trinket’s duties did not conclude at the
station. she and haymitch will be overseeing us right into the
arena. in a way, that’s a plus because at least she can be
counted on to corral us around to places on time whereas we
haven’t seen haymitch since he agreed to help us on the train.
probably passed out somewhere. effie trinket, on the other
hand, seems to be flying high. we’re the first team she’s ever
chaperoned that made a splash at the opening ceremonies.
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she’s complimentary about not just our costumes but how we
conducted ourselves. and, to hear her tell it, effie knows eve-
ryone who’s anyone in the capitol and has been talking us up
all day, trying to win us sponsors.
“i’ve been very mysterious, though,” she says, her eyes
squint half shut. “because, of course, haymitch hasn’t bo-
thered to tell me your strategies. but i’ve done my best with
what i had to work with. how katniss sacrificed herself for
her sister. how you’ve both successfully struggled to over-
come the barbarism of your district.”
barbarism?