Between Family: The City Between: Book Nine by Gingell W.R

Author:Gingell, W.R.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

By the time dinner was ready most of the dining room wall had knitted itself back together, and the dining table was beginning to look like a table again, even if it was a bit sway-backed.

Zero threw a look at it and took his bowl of veggie-mince-and-rice down into the living room instead. The lycanthropes followed him, arranging themselves around the living room so as to leave the seats for Zero, Daniel, Morgana, Sarah and myself. No one seemed to want to sit on Athelas’ chair, and I didn’t blame them. Associations aside, it had a kind of black glimmer to it that was probably due to it being out in whatever the blackness was outside our dining room window.

When we were all more or less settled with our bowls, Daniel shot a look at Zero and asked, “Have you changed your mind?”

Sarah, her face immediately pinching, said, “You can’t! As soon as you start playing the game, you have to keep playing!”

“I haven’t changed my mind,” Zero said flatly. “I told my father I wouldn’t participate in the trials, and I won’t be doing so. I haven’t thrown my hat in the ring through my childhood, and I’m not about to do so now.”

“Hang on,” I said sharply, looking at Sarah. “What do you mean, you have to keep playing? Did you—”

She flushed. “When I was first taken Behind, they taught me how to fight. I agreed to compete in the trials, so there were already people outside the house, waiting to treat, when I got here. In order for the trials to end, I have to be either among the dead or triumphant: the trials won’t end otherwise.”

“Then it seems like a pretty bad idea for any of us to agree to compete,” I said. “I mean, it sounds like the king is the sort to be waiting outside for whoever comes out anyway, but—”

“The king hasn’t yet done anything illegal in this round,” said Zero.

Daniel said gloomily, “True.”

“Funny thing I noticed,” I said, pushing my suddenly tasteless mince around my bowl with my spoon. “You lot keep saying how nice it is that the king is doing things all proper and legal this time, but out of all the people I’ve seen in this flamin’ closed system that I didn’t want to meet, do you know who I haven’t seen?”

“The king,” said Daniel, nodding without surprise. Seems like he’d been thinking about it, too.

“He gets it,” I said, pointing at him. “If we all have to be in here to pick out the next king, how come he’s not either in here or dead?”

“I’d prefer dead,” said Daniel.

“Exactly!” I said triumphantly. “So why isn’t he? How do we even get to grips with him like this? The only person from the outside that we’ve been able to get up close and personal with is your dad, Zero; and we don’t really want to be getting up close and personal with him.”

“My father has gone all in,” Zero said.

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