A Circus of Eagles [An HG Fanfic]

Stories - Fidelis

Fidelis

"Okay, okay. It's my turn," Danae says. "What's she really like? Your aunt?"

My instincts flare into life. This would be a dangerous question anyway, even from someone as inherently harmless as Danae. With the possibility that the eyes of the nation - and the eyes of the Capitol politicos - are firmly fixed on me, I have to be very careful. I was prepared for this question in the interviews that never happened, but for them I'd have been sat and talking to someone I didn't really know and didn't feel the need to be truthful with. Well. Wholly truthful. I avoid telling outright lies when I can. It's something of a family value. Truth is - literally! - in the name.

I take my time chewing on my morsel of bread so that I have time to think before I answer. Danae, impatient even though it's only been a second since she asked, sways from side to side. She's never still. Even when she's asleep she wriggles constantly.

I swallow the bread and wipe my mouth as delicately as I can. "Everybody is different at work to how they are at home. Your parents must be, certainly."

"Nope!" She grins, throws a handful of currents into her mouth and carries on speaking while she chews. "Dead serious at work, dead serious at home. They're always telling me to be more serious, just because it worked for them. Now stop with the distraction and answer the question."

Fair play to her. She might not seem like the brightest but you don't get through the minefield of Ferrous without a good helping of intelligence, no matter how influential your parents are. If I hadn't worked out that the rebels were likely to rig the reapings to take me out, I wouldn't have trained and I could very easily be dead by now. "She's very calm," I say. "I've never seen her flustered or confused. And she tells good stories."

Danae grins, a wicked glint coming into her eyes, and looks around for Walterin. He's still patrolling his small circle. He's been doing this for hours, ever since the sun came up, and shows no sign of being bored by it yet. Whatever they're doing in Steel, they're doing it right. If I told Walt to go and jump off a mountain he'd probably nod and start walking until he found one. His attention is entirely fixed on the surroundings and not on Danae and I at all. We're as safe as we can be with him on guard.

There's another reason I want him close by that I won't voice aloud. He thinks that nobody noticed but I saw him provoking Milo, whether he genuinely believed that he'd stolen a knife or not. Behind that obedience is the sort of mind that needs keeping an eye on. I'm sure he won't betray us - that's against his orders and I know he's in awe of me - but I'd rather have him with us than against us.

Danae watches him complete a quarter of his circle as though hypnotised by the repetitive movement, then shakes her head and smiles.

"Tell me a story," she says. "There must be at least one that you can say in front of the cameras. Unless they're completely scandelous!"

She seems pleased by the thought that some of them are, and I don't want to disappoint her by telling her that my aunt and scandal don't go together at all. She's probably imagining the usual big-politician vices: gambling, sex, drinking, the sort of stuff that appears in the blogs on a weekly basis. The Capitol love that sort of stuff, and for some reason they really love it when it's the people in charge who've messed up. Even when we hid underground you could still hear stories like that going around, sound-bites of headlines. COMMITTEE LEADER SEDUCES UNDERAGE HAEMATITE PROSTITUTE. That sort of thing. They're almost always about minor politicians or, at worst, members of the President's cabinet. They're never about the Gamemakers. It's not that they're infallible - I know stories about some of them that would make your ears burn - it's that, especially now the rebels have seized their own unusual kind of power, they're untouchable.