Chapter 9
They move quickly as the sky lightens above them. Despite her reluctance, Elphaba’s grip never leaves Glinda’s wrist. She leads them higher up the slope of the mountains, away from the sounds of the alliance.
The green girl skids and jerks to the side, dragging Glinda with her. The blonde wants to ask where they’re going, but she can’t find the breath, let alone the courage, to speak. It doesn’t matter. Soon enough she hears the sound of running water ahead of them. Elphaba turns again, and Glinda catches sight of a small cliff in front of them, with white water pouring off and towards them.
“The falls,” Elphaba says when they reach it.
“What?”
The green girl yanks the dagger from her hand and pushes her toward the water. “Behind the waterfall. Go.”
Glinda feels unnervingly bare without a weapon, but Elphaba’s glare and the thought of Avaric’s gang behind them don’t leave much room for argument. She moves uncertainly toward the cliff. It’s only about ten feet tall, but the stream pouring off of it is deep and wide. The water thunders by her, freezing spray covering her instantly. She feels another nudge at her back and stumbles forward, hugging the rock face.
Is there really something here, or is Elphaba just trying to trick her again? The current is fast enough and the water cold enough to make the stream dangerous. And the cliff she’s edging along right now is too slippery to get a steady grip. She can only imagine the Emerald City at this moment, watching her obey the same person she’s supposed to be killing. But what choice does she have?
Glinda carefully places a foot on a rock sticking out of the stream and leans forward. The water from the falls soaks through her almost instantly.
“Hurry!” Elphaba hisses. Glinda takes a deep breath and shifts forward. Her hand reaches through the falls, expecting to grab and hold onto the rock beneath. She clutches empty air instead, and the shock causes her to lose her balance. She tips forward, her feet sliding on the wet rock, and makes a last minute decision to jump toward the falls.
There’s a moment of pounding, freezing water, then she lands on cold stone and rolls. She opens her eyes in time to see Elphaba appear through the falls and land—far more gracefully, Glinda notes—beside her.
“Took you long enough,” the green girl mutters. She pulls Glinda to her knees and nudges her toward the back wall of the cave. It’s bigger than the one she slept in a couple nights ago, but not by much. Glinda scoots back against the rock, turning to face a crouching Elphaba.
“Give me back my dagger,” she demands.
“So you can run me through with it? No thank you,” says Elphaba. “Keep your voice down. They might be close.”
“You really think they can hear us through the water?”
“I’d rather not take the chance. Now shut up.”
Glinda huffs but stays quiet. Elphaba leans against the wall and slides down until she’s sitting across from her.
They wait. Elphaba’s eyes search Glinda’s face, and the blonde has to resist the urge to squirm under her gaze. She lifts her chin a little instead and presses her lips together. Elphaba raises an eyebrow.
Time passes slowly. The water pounds around them, and the cave is wet enough that their clothes don’t even begin to dry out. Glinda starts to shiver after a little while, but Elphaba’s stare seems to pin her in place, preventing her from pulling out her blanket.
The noise is unnerving. If anyone approaches the stream outside, they don’t hear it. Glinda doesn’t know how long they sit there in silence, but every second makes her want to scream.
Elphaba breaks the tension first. She doesn’t say anything, but she shifts a little and her shoulders relax. Glinda lets out a breath and wonders just how long she was holding it.
“Can I have it back now?” she asks softly.
The green girl twists the blade in her fingers. “No. I don’t trust you.”
“You realize I have another one in my bag, right?”
Elphaba shrugs. “I guess we’re evenly matched, then. Not that either of us feels like killing each other at the moment.”
She furrows her brow. “If you don’t think I’m going to kill you, why don’t you trust me?”
“Look around, blondie,” Elphaba says, almost grinning. “It’s the Hunger Games. You can’t trust anyone.”
“So you do think I could kill you.”
“Oh, I have no doubt that you could. But your record so far suggests that you won’t. You’re too afraid, or maybe you actually have a conscience. I don’t know.”
“I’m not afraid,” Glinda hisses.
“Relax,” Elphaba says, scowling at her. “There’s no way they managed to get cameras in here. Your image or whatever is safe.”
Glinda opens her mouth, shuts it, then tries again. “I could have killed you. Before.”
“Before what?” she asks. “When you killed the kid that was hunting me? Or when I saved you from being crushed by falling rocks?”
“Before.”
“What, when you were hunting me?” Elphaba seems amused.
“Yes.”
“Please. You followed me for nearly two days and you still didn’t do anything. You weren’t going to kill me.”
“Why not?”
Elphaba raises an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
She grits her teeth. “I wanted to. From the moment I saw you, I wanted to kill you.”
There’s a short silence while the green girl considers. “I don’t think you did,” she says slowly, as if actually thinking it out. “You wanted to kill everyone, sure, because you wanted to win. But you weren’t thinking of me in particular.”
“How would you know?” Glinda hisses. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know some things about you.”
“Like what?”
“You’re a spoiled little girl from a Career district. You’ve been learning how to kill things your entire life, and you enjoy it. You want to be here. You think it will bring you fame, or fortune, or whatever. You don’t realize how sick this whole thing is, and why should you? Where you come from, no one goes into the Games unless they want to. You were raised to think the Wizard is some merciful, caring leader, when in fact he’s nothing but a cruel, twisted tyrant who forces innocent children into a fight to the death for entertainment.”
Glinda leans back. For a moment she’s hurt, but she’s distracted by the blaze in Elphaba’s eyes and the sparks dancing around her fists. Elphaba follows her gaze down and shakes her hands to get rid of the magic.
“That’s another reason,” Glinda says, mostly to herself. Elphaba looks up at her and tilts her head. “Your magic,” the blonde explains. “I’ve always wanted to learn sorcery, but I’ve never…” She trails off, watching Elphaba’s eyes roll.
“What a great reason, Miss Glinda. I have something you don’t, so you want to kill me. Real mature.”
“No,” she says. “I didn’t want to kill you.”
“You spent nearly two days hunting me.”
“I didn’t want to kill you until after the training scores,” she amends.
“Ha! I knew that was why!” Elphaba actually grins, and Glinda finds herself returning it. They catch themselves at the same time and quickly look away. Elphaba shifts and clears her throat.
“So…a reason for what?”
“What?”
“You said my magic was another reason. A reason for what?”
Glinda blinks and takes a slow breath. “I…I’m not sure. A reason to find you again? To not kill you in the first place?” Both sound true, but not quite right. She tries again. “A reason why…why I was so interested in you.”
“Glinda.” There’s something in Elphaba’s voice, something that changes her name into something not quite familiar, but not entirely unfamiliar, either. Glinda wants nothing but to hear it again.
Instead, Elphaba sighs. “You shouldn’t have followed me again.”
“I was worried about you,” Glinda breathes. She feels her cheeks heat up, even as she shivers in the freezing cave.
“Yeah, see, that right there doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“At least one of us is going to die in this arena.”
“I know.”
“A couple days ago you were bent on stabbing me in the back, or maybe the front, I don’t know what you were planning. Maybe even slitting my neck, or—”
“Stop.” Glinda’s hiss slides into a whimper. “Please.”
Elphaba stares at her. After a moment she shakes her head.
“I don’t understand you.”
“Really?” Glinda challenges, her defense rising again. “Because a minute ago you apparently knew everything about me.”
Elphaba presses her lips together. “Well, was I wrong? How much of that is true?”
“A week ago, all of it. Now…” Glinda lowers her gaze. “I don’t know.”
She expects Elphaba to roll her eyes, or laugh, or mock her. She doesn’t expect her to nod slowly and look at her with a soft kind of understanding.
“The other Careers,” Elphaba says slowly. “You never hung out with them.”
“I told you, they’re not worth my time.”
“But you didn’t even pretend. You snubbed them from the start.”
“I was set on winning. There’s no point in pretending to be friends with someone if you’re just going to end up killing each other.”
“Yet you’re here,” Elphaba points out. She pauses. “No, wait. Was. You said was. As in, past tense.”
“So?”
“You were set on winning. Not anymore?”
Glinda’s shoulders slump. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Elphaba sighs again. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“You…” She bites her lip and shakes her head a little. “It would have been better if you didn’t meet me, or if you killed me right away.”
“You wish I had killed you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have a chance here. But if you didn’t think twice about me, then you wouldn’t be so confused now, and you could probably win this thing and make it out alive.”
Glinda’s brow furrows. “Why do you care if I make it out alive?”
“You saved my life,” Elphaba says with a shrug.
“You saved me from that rockslide.”
“You could have killed me, and you didn’t.”
“You could have, too.”
Elphaba meets her eyes, and Glinda isn’t sure if her gaze is unnerving or steadying. Either way, they seem to come to an understanding. Or maybe just an impasse. Elphaba brings her knees to her chest and rests her chin on them, watching Glinda.
“So what happens now?” the blonde asks.
“We shouldn’t even be near each other,” Elphaba says.
“If you tell me to leave again, I’m just going to follow you.”
The green girl takes a breath. “I figured.”
“There are still plenty of tributes out there,” Glinda offers.
“True,” Elphaba says slowly. “If you’re with me instead of stalking me, it’ll be easier to keep an eye on you.”
“True.”
“I don’t trust you.” This time when Elphaba says it, she sounds a little less sure.
“You’d be stupid to,” says Glinda. “Besides, for all I know you could kill me.”
“Me? I’m harmless.” Elphaba grins again, with only a little hesitation, and Glinda smiles just at the sight of it. “So…what now?”
Glinda looks around their cave. “We’re going to freeze in here. Besides, not being able to see or hear outside is terrifying me.”
“You think the others will be gone by now?”
She thinks for a moment. “Probably. If they knew this cave was here, they would have found us by now. Since they haven’t, my guess is they’ve moved on. Maybe they’ve even gone back to the Cornucopia.”
“If we die, I blame you.”
Glinda sticks her tongue out before she can stop herself. She turns her head away, blushing again, but Elphaba just lets out a small cackle.
Glinda crawls toward the edge of the cave, hesitating as the spray from the falls hits her. Elphaba nudges her forward, more gently this time, and she gathers her courage and jumps out toward the water’s edge. She lands mostly on solid ground, but Elphaba is a little less lucky and falls halfway into the stream. Glinda grabs her arm automatically.
Elphaba’s fingers lock around her elbow, and her other arm reaches up to lock behind Glinda’s shoulders. The blonde grabs a handful of her jacket near the small of her back. They’re so close she can feel Elphaba’s body heat, even through the freezing water that soaks them both. For a moment all Glinda can see is smooth emerald skin and a small, intricate charm hanging on a chain around her neck.
Their gazes meet and linger as she pulls the green girl onto dry land. The arena is quiet around them, filled with nothing but trees and the water and the occasional squirrel or songbird rustling in the branches. It could be any forest, in any part of Oz, except for the fact that it isn’t.
Elphaba clears her throat and steps back. Glinda reaches down to pick up the dagger Elphaba dropped. She twirls it in her fingers for a moment, then, her eyes fixed on her feet, she holds it out.
Elphaba takes it, her fingers brushing over Glinda’s. The blonde waves her arm, indicating for her to lead the way, and tries to remember all the reasons why the arena is anything but just a forest.
***
They travel quietly, hardly speaking, but Glinda’s thoughts never seem to end. She finds herself trailing behind at times, lost in her own mind, and has to jerk back to reality to catch up with the green girl.
Not that Elphaba ever tries to leave her behind. She moves quickly, but every so often she glances sideways or back at her. Glinda doesn’t know if it’s out of worry or suspicion, but at the moment she doesn’t particularly care. Despite their silence, travelling with Elphaba is comfortable. The air doesn’t seem as cold, the arena doesn’t seem as big. It’s as if the green girl takes a slight edge off the Games, just by being near her.
They don’t see anyone the rest of the afternoon. Once in a while they’ll hear shouting, but it’s distant and echoing, bouncing off the sides of the mountains that surround them. At least, Glinda hopes that’s the case. Sound moves so strangely here in the valley, it makes it hard to tell.
They settle down early, just as the sun starts falling. Without a word, Glinda helps Elphaba make her little shelter on the ground. Elphaba glances curiously at her when they finish, but she doesn’t say anything. Instead, she ducks inside and starts shifting leaves and branches out of the way. Glinda slides her bag off her shoulders and sticks it inside the shelter, but then settles down on the ground outside. She brings her knees to her chest and stares up at the darkening sky, waiting.
Elphaba comes out and sits next to her just as the anthem starts to play. They watch the sky glow softly. The only tribute that comes up is the Vinkan boy Glinda killed that morning. She trembles at the sight, and the twists in her stomach make her suddenly glad she hasn’t eaten much all day.
Elphaba looks sideways at her. “I guess I never actually thanked you,” she says.
“For killing him?”
“No. For saving me.” Elphaba sits so still, so steady next to her. Glinda wonders how she does it.
“You’re welcome.” She mostly mouths the words, but Elphaba seems to understand.
“Did you know his name?” she asks.
“No,” Glinda says quietly. “Did you?”
“I made a point to learn as few names as possible.”
“You knew my name.”
Elphaba pauses. “You said you were interested in me, remember?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe…you weren’t the only one.”
With that, Elphaba gets up and crawls back into their shelter. The forest sighs around Glinda, the chill in the breeze telling her to follow her, but she still can’t bring herself to move until long after the shock of Elphaba’s words fades away.
She finds Elphaba curled up tightly on the ground with her eyes open. Neither girl speaks as Glinda pulls her blanket out of her bag. She glances down at the green girl, shivering slightly in her bed of pine needles.
“Here,” Glinda breathes, unfolding the blanket. “It’s plenty big enough.”
For a long moment, Elphaba just studies her. Her eyes are dark and hard, and Glinda starts to feel a little foolish, holding out a corner of the blanket toward her.
But then Elphaba scoots closer and even holds the blanket up so Glinda can lie down beside her. They lay facing each other, about a foot of space between them, not quite meeting each other’s eyes.
“I can keep watch first,” Elphaba says cautiously.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Go ahead and sleep.”
Glinda bites her lip and ducks her head. It feels weird to say good night, so she settles for not saying anything. But just before she falls asleep, she hears, barely, Elphaba’s whisper.
“I don’t trust you.”
This time, she only sounds like she’s trying to convince herself.