Chapter 7
Anger takes over, driving away her shock. Glinda’s eyes fall on her dagger, sitting on the ground between them, but before she can even move Elphaba reaches forward and grabs it. She shifts it from hand to hand and even has the nerve to grin at the blonde.
Glinda pulls herself to her feet. Elphaba stands too, and the blonde realizes how short and unarmed she is. Her other two blades are in her bag, but even without much experience Elphaba could stab her before she gets to them.
There are cameras on them. They’re probably the highlight of the Games right now. Glinda can’t afford to look scared or weak. She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at the green girl.
“Well? Are you going to kill me, or what?” she asks. Elphaba raises an eyebrow.
“You were hunting me all that time and you didn’t kill me.”
Glinda blinks. She doesn’t have a response for that, so she just scowls even more. It doesn’t faze the green girl.
“Why were you hunting me, anyway?” she asks. Her voice is irritatingly casual, and she twirls the blade between her fingers with an ease that she shouldn’t possess. “Shouldn’t you be with that Career pack and all their friends?”
“They’re not worth my time.” The words come out before Glinda can think to stop them.
“Oh? But I am?” Elphaba seems amused, but then she tilts her head to the side, considering. “Wait…is this because I scored the same as you in training?”
Glinda clenches her fists. Elphaba laughs—actually laughs—at her.
“It is, isn’t it? Oh Oz. You poor little thing, upstaged by a Munchkin.”
“You didn’t upstage me,” Glinda hisses. “Your score came from sheer luck, if that. More likely than not they just wanted to paint a target on your back.”
Now the green girl scowls. “Yes, thanks for the reminder. But here’s just a little advice. Next time you’re hunting, you might want to avoid making it so the target has to save your sorry life.”
“You didn’t have to save me!”
“Really? Would you rather I let that rock crush you?”
“It would be better than standing here with you.”
“I’m hurt, Miss Glinda.”
The sound of Elphaba saying her name sends a shiver down Glinda’s spine, and suddenly she’s completely done.
“If you’re going to kill me,” she growls. “Save me this headache and just do it already.”
Elphaba’s scowl vanishes from her face, leaving her looking just plain weary. “I’m not going to kill you,” she says quietly.
Glinda opens her mouth to respond, but the green girl’s reaction isn’t anything like what she expected. Elphaba stares at her as if waiting for something. Or maybe she’s just studying her. Glinda is suddenly dying to know what she’s thinking, but the green girl’s face is unreadable.
“I’m leaving.” Elphaba’s voice is low. “I suggest you do the same, before that alliance comes to check out all the noise. But don’t you dare follow me again.”
Glinda’s mind is racing, but she still can’t think of anything to say. Elphaba starts to back away, but she grins at her one last time.
“And thank you, Miss Glinda. This is a lovely blade.”
Then she’s gone, fading entirely into the forest.
***
As much as she hates it, Glinda follows Elphaba’s advice and stumbles back into the woods. Her anger at the green girl has faded, and though she’s still frustrated, she’s mostly just exhausted, sore, and confused.
She focuses on the exhausted and sore parts first. She inspects herself as she moves through the trees, not daring to stop in case the alliance is nearby. Luckily her pants and jacket stopped her from getting too scraped up. Her ankle is still throbbing, but she manages to walk around without that much trouble. It’s a good thing, too, because the sky is getting dark and she wants to be somewhere safe before night falls completely.
Climbing a tree is a pain, but at least she doesn’t have to be quiet about it this time. She gets as high up as she dares and settles in. She’s just pulled out her water bottle and a strip of dried meat when the sky lights up and the anthem starts to play.
There are no pictures in the air—no deaths today—and the music fades quickly. Glinda continues to stare up at the sky, wondering if the dancing lights will appear again tonight. She wonders if there are any cameras on her now. For the first time, she really hopes the answer is no.
She knows how close she came to having her picture displayed with the anthem tonight. The only reason it didn’t happen was because of Elphaba. It doesn’t make any sense. Glinda spends the entire Games hunting Elphaba, and then the green girl goes and saves her. And for what? They’re in a fight to the death. Eventually one of them is going to die. There is no mercy in the arena. There can’t be.
Yet Elphaba spared her. She saved her life, and then she spared her.
What’s happening in the Emerald City right now? What are they saying about her and Elphaba? Glinda pictures the look of disgust on Morrible’s face. Has she lost the audience’s support? Do they think she’s weak now?
Maybe not. Maybe the people of the Emerald City are intrigued. Glinda certainly is. Maybe they’re all just waiting to see what happens next.
What does happen next? Her only plan was to kill Elphaba. Maybe that’s still an option, but the thought of it makes Glinda shudder. Can she really kill someone she owes her life to?
Yes. She can, and she should. This is the Hunger Games. Only one tribute comes out, and Glinda has spent her entire life making sure that it will be her. Elphaba is a fool if she thinks showing a little mercy is going to help her.
A light breeze rustles through the trees, and Glinda pulls her blanket around herself. The sky is darker than last night, the clouds blocking any colorful lights that would shine through. The blonde is surprisingly disappointed by the thought.
What if her picture had been shown up there? Would Elphaba stare up at it, like she did Boq’s? Would Jeron and the other Careers celebrate? Would anyone in the Emerald City be disappointed? Only if they lost money, Glinda thinks bitterly. She scowls a little. She has always thought of the Emerald City as some magical, far-off place full of wonderful people. But the Gamemakers who probably caused that rockslide aren’t wonderful. The people betting against her—the ones who are probably mad that she survived—aren’t wonderful.
Glinda closes her eyes. Everything was perfectly clear just a few hours ago, yet now it’s all so confusing. This is Elphaba’s fault. Or Glinda’s fault for not killing her fast enough. Either way, there’s only one thing to do. She doesn’t even have a choice anymore. Who knows what will happen when she finds her, but in the morning, Glinda is going after Elphaba again.
***
She sleeps through the night but wakes early and abruptly, vivid images of Ama Clutch watching her picture flash across a television screen still fading from her mind.
The clouds stay in the sky and the fog has filled the valley again, making the morning dark and cold and all other kinds of miserable. Glinda is tempted to stay in her tree longer, to curl into the blanket and chase away the last of her dreams, but she knows better. If Avaric and the others aren’t nearby, they will be soon. She needs to move while she still can.
Her body aches from the day before, and she does her best to stretch as she goes. It occurs to her that she doesn’t really know where she is, where she’s going, who is around her, what she’s actually doing, how—
Glinda pulls out her dagger, as if that can ward off her doubts, and forces herself to keep walking. She’ll go back to the stream they found. It’s probably the only water source around here, which means Elphaba will have to show up there sooner or later.
Of course, it also means anyone wandering through here—like the alliance, for example—will also show up, but the blonde decides not to focus on that at the moment. Find the stream. She can worry about everything else later.
The morning is dreary, slow, and nerve-wracking. Glinda has the vague feeling that she’s only getting more lost, though it’s possible that’s just the fog making it impossible to see twenty feet in front of her. She’s tempted to just climb a tree and wait it out, but the sudden cannon fire not too far down the valley convinces her not to. The alliance must be close, and if they find her stuck up a tree…
She shudders at the thought and keeps moving.
Eventually she does find the stream. No one else is there, but she spots an apple core—eaten completely down to the seeds—tucked into a cluster of rocks not far from the water’s edge. It’s Elphaba’s. It has to be. Elphaba was here.
And now she’s gone. Glinda sits back on her heels and looks around. Her mind starts to wander, worrying about Elphaba’s trail and how far she’s gone and where the alliance is and whose cannon went off a couple hours ago.
When she’s sure no other tributes are nearby, she creeps toward the stream and fills up her water bottle. Surely she’ll be able to find some sign of which way Elphaba went. If she found the green girl once, she can do it again. She just needs to—
“Did you hear that? Water!”
Glinda curses under her breath and jerks her water bottle out of the stream, fumbling with the cap as she darts back into the cover of the trees. There isn’t time to run—they’re so close she can hear their feet crunching against the rocks on the other side of the water—so she ducks behind one of the larger trees and waits.
“Let’s fill our bottles and get out of here,” says Fiyero’s voice. Glinda lets out the breath she was holding. “That alliance is probably close.”
Glinda bites her lip. If she has to sneak away from both the Vinkans and the alliance, she won’t make it. She could jump up and run now, while they’re kneeling at the water, but one look at the bow slung across Sarima’s back tells her that wouldn’t be a good idea. She could fight them, but two on one would be difficult, and chances are the alliance would show up before she could kill them both.
And, if truth be told, she doesn’t want to kill them. Glinda screws her eyes shut. She should, but she doesn’t. She just wants to find Elphaba.
She needs to get out unseen, but how? Her only advantage is that no one knows she’s here. Maybe if the alliance finds the Vinkans, she can slip away unnoticed. But that would mean certain death for Fiyero and Sarima.
Who cares? Glinda thinks. She digs her nails into the palms of her hands. She can’t afford to be soft. Not here. Not when it’s her life at risk.
Still, there has to be another way. Maybe she should just run. There’s a chance that Fiyero and Sarima won’t shoot or follow her, especially if they just want to get out of here safely. That has to be the best plan. She’s fast, and there’s plenty of cover in these trees. This will work. She’ll get away.
But while she’s building the courage to jump to her feet and run, she sees movement in the branches ahead of her. First one figure, then another, and another, until seven tributes have walked into her line of sight.
Glinda freezes. They haven’t seen her yet, huddled on the ground near her tree, but they will. They’re walking toward her, toward the stream, with Avaric and Shenshen in the front. The other Careers follow close behind, and Pfannee and the slender Vinkan girl trail the group a little. They all look excited—even Pfannee, though she seems a bit more beat up than the rest. Any second now, they’ll be absolutely thrilled. They won’t stop to taunt her. Jeron will throw a knife to prevent her from escaping, and if by some chance that doesn’t kill her, then Avaric and his sword will.
She can hear Fiyero and Sarima behind her, still moving around at the stream. If she stays, she’ll be seen. If she moves, she’ll be seen. For a moment she can’t decide. Her blood seems to still in her veins as she watches Avaric’s head turn toward her.
Her body snaps back to life just as he shouts something. Glinda think she hears the whistling of a knife, but she’s already rolling away and to her feet.
Fiyero and Sarima jump up as she crashes out of the woods. She tries to shout a warning, but her heart has jumped to her throat and she’s not sure whether or not the words ever actually make it out. She leaps over the stream and disappears back into the trees. She doesn’t dare look behind her, even when she hears the clanging of blades hitting blades. Fiyero and Sarima didn’t have time to run, and now they’re going to be slaughtered by Avaric and the others. The thought makes Glinda sick, but she pushes it away and keeps running. A cannon goes off.
Her mind and body numbs until she can’t feel the scrape of cool air in her throat or the burning of her muscles as she sprints through the forest. Her senses spread out, straining for any signs of the alliance behind her. A second cannon fires, which must mean they’re after her now.
But Glinda is fast, and she has at least a little bit of a head start. She can’t last forever, but neither can they. The shouting behind her gets more and more distant, then finally fades altogether. Glinda slows just enough to move more quietly through the woods and keeps going, putting as much distance between her and the alliance as possible.
***
Glinda is still moving when night falls. She realizes she’s heading south, and while she’s no longer running, she’s still moving quickly through the trees. The ground here is rockier, even though she’s moved away from the base of the mountains, and she finds a little cluster of boulders—on level ground this time—that give her enough shadow to hide in while the anthem plays.
There are three pictures tonight. Glinda feels her stomach twist as Sarima’s face lights up the sky. To her surprise, though, Fiyero isn’t next. Instead it’s Pfannee, followed by the last Munchkin boy—he must have been the one they killed that morning.
So Fiyero got away, and he or Sarima took down that obnoxious Munchkin girl in the process. Glinda isn’t sure if that makes her feel better or worse. Either way, she still feels sick.
She gets up once the anthem is over and the glow fades. She passed exhaustion a few hours ago, and now everything is just numb. Even if she feels safe, she won’t be able to sleep. And she definitely doesn’t feel safe. So she keeps moving instead.
She wonders where Elphaba is. Did the alliance drive her this way, too, or did she manage to slip past them? Glinda lets out a quiet sigh. Elphaba could be anywhere by now, in any direction. The arena seems huge all of a sudden, full of traps and tributes all set on killing her, and Glinda doesn’t even know where she’s going.
This must be what Ama Clutch meant. All her life Glinda has been training to survive, to win, but nothing could have prepared her for this. Nothing could have taught her how to deal with Boq’s peaceful face haunting her, or the guilt that surrounds her every time she thinks of Sarima’s image floating in the sky, or the unwelcome, ceaseless thought that she needs to get to Elphaba before something else does.
There’s no escape, even as she continues moving south. Nothing makes sense anymore. This isn’t what she has been looking forward to all her life. She doesn’t know what this is, but it’s not the Games she knows. For the first time, it doesn’t feel like a game at all.
But it is, and even now she’s being filmed. The people of Oz are watching her stumble through the trees. She wonders what she must look like, scraped up and exhausted and questioning everything she has ever known.
She’s starting to trip over her own feet. Her vision keeps blurring in and out. She needs to find somewhere to sleep, but at this point she doesn’t think she even has the strength to climb a tree. With the Emerald City watching, she doesn’t really want to try and fail. There has to be somewhere else she can rest in relative safety.
She keeps searching, trying to be as quiet as possible as she moves across the rocky ground. In the end, the only reason she finds a place is because she trips into it. It’s a little cave, set into the ground and concealed by a cluster of thick, thorny bushes. Glinda ignores the sting of the thorns and pushes her way into the cave. It smells like wet dirt and is barely wide or tall enough for the blonde to curl up in, but it’s deep enough into the ground that she can’t see out, meaning no one will be able to see in. She pulls the blanket out of her bag and pulls it around herself, then leans back against the cave wall and sets the pack in front of her, blocking herself from the entrance even more.
The memory of cannon fire echoes in her mind. She never imagined death could be this haunting, and she hasn’t even killed anyone. Tomorrow night, it could be her photo in the sky. It could be Elphaba’s.
Somehow, it’s the second option that seems worse.
“I have to find her,” Glinda mumbles, her eyes sliding shut as the last grasps of consciousness leave her. “Tomorrow, I have to…”