My knife spins and spins. And suddenly Titus is laughing. He looks away. My heart slows. I've won. I hate politics. Especially in a room full of alphas. "Of course I hear you, Cassius. You're standing ten feet away," Titus chuckles. Titus doesn't think he's strong enough to chal- lenge Cassius and me openly, even with his pack. He saw what we did to the Ceres boys. But just like that the lines are drawn. I stand suddenly, confirming that I am with Cassius. It strips Titus of any momentum. "Is there anyone who wouldn't want either of us to lead?" I ask. "Iwouldn't want Antonia to lead. She's a bitch," Sevro says. Antonia shrugs her agreement but cocks her head. "Cassi, why are you in such a rush to find us a leader?" she asks. "If we do not have one leader, then we will fracture and do as we each think is best," Cassius says. "That's how we lose." 'Instead of what you think is best," she says with a soft smile and a nod. "I see." "Don't give me that condescension, Antonia Priam even agreed we needed one leader." "Who is Priam?" Titus laughs. He's trying to get attention back on himself once more. Every Gold kid on the planet knew Priam. Now Titus tries to make it clear who killed him, and the others take note. Momentum regained. Except I know Titus didn't kill Priam. They wouldn't put some- one like him in with Priam. They would have put a weakling in there. So Titus is a liar as well as a bully "Ah, I see. Because you plotted with Priam, you know what needs to be done, Cassius? You know better than all of us?" Antonia waves at the table. "You're telling us we're helpless without your guidance?" She's trapped him, and me too. "Listen, boys, I know you're eager to lead," she continues, "I get that. We are all leaders by na- ture. Each person in this room is a born genius, a born captain. But that is why the Primus merit system exists. When someone has earned five fingers of merit and is ready to be Primus, then we will have a leader. "Until then, I say we hold out. If Cassius or Dar- rowearns it, then so be it. I'1l do whatever they command, obedient as a Pink, simple as a Red.' She gestures to the others. "Until then, I think one of you should also have a chance to earn it. After all, it may decide your career!" She's clever. And she's sunk us. Every brat in the room was no doubt wishing they'd been more assertive from the get-go, wishing they could have another chance to make people notice them. Now Antonia gives it to them. This will be chaos. And she may end up as Primus. Definitely a spider. "Look!" Lea says from Roque's side. A horn bellows beyond the castle. The standard chooses that moment to shim- mer. Snake and wolf shed iron for gleaming gold. Not only that, but the stone map on the wall comes alive. Our wolf banner ripples over a miniature of our castle. Ceres's banner does the same. No other castles mark the map, but the banners of the undiscovered Houses flap off in the map's key. No doubt they'll find a home as soon as we scout the surrounding territory The game has begun. And now everyone wants to be the Primus. I see why Demokracy is illegal. First comes yelling. Frustration. Indecision. Disagreements Ideas. Scout. Fortify. Gather food. Lay traps. Blitz. Raid. Defense. Offense. Pollux spits. Titus knocks him out cold. Antonia leaves. Sevro says some- thing snide to Titus and drags his wolf off to God knows where, never having lit a fire. It's like my Lambda drillteam whenever a headTalk would take an hour sick. That's how I learned I could drill. Barlow snuck off to take a smoke and I hopped on the rig and did as I thought was best. I do the same now as the children bicker. Cassius, Roque, and Lea-who follows Roque everywhere come with me, though Cassius likely thinks we follow him. We agree that the others will not know what to do and so will in- evitably do nothing today. They will guard the castle or seek out wood for a fire or cluster around the standard for fear of it walking off. I don't know what to do. I don't know if our en- emies are slinking through the hills toward us I don't know if they are making alliance against Mars. I don't know how the damn game is even played. But for some reason, I assume that not all of the other Houses will fall to discord like this. We of Mars seem more prone to disagreement. I ask Cassius what he thinks we should do. "Once, I challenged this prancing oaf to a duel for disrespecting my family- an Augustus fop He was very methodical- tightened his gloves, tied back his pretty hair, swished his razor as he did before every gory practice bout he's ever had at the Agea Martial Club." "And?" "And I hooked him and stabbed him through the kneecap while he was still swishing his razor in preparation." He catches Lea's disapproval. "What? The duel had begun. I'm foxy, but I'm not a beast. I just win." "I feel like you all think that," I say. "We all, I mean." They don't notice my slipup. His point stands. Our House can't attack an enemy in our state, but an enemy could attack us as we run about preparing, and ruin all my hopes of rising within the Society. So, information. We need to know if our enemies are in a glen half a kilometer to the north or if they are fifteen kilo- meters south. Are we at a corner of the playing field or in the center? Are there enemies in the highlands? North of the highlands? Cassius and I agree. We must scout We split up. Cassius and I head to Phobos and then move counterclockwise. Lea and Roque strike to Deimos and scout clockwise. We're to meet at dusk. We don't see a soul from the top of Phobos. The lowlands are empty of horses and Ceres's fight- ers, and the highland range to the south is full of lochs and goats. Southeast, atop a high dwarf mountain, we glimpse part of the Greatwoods to the south and southeast. An army of giants could be hiding there for all we know, and we can't investigate; it would take half day to cover the distance to even make it close to the tree line.
