The Luna Choosing Game

I forced myself to my feet. The tailor, after making sure I was upright and unharmed, immediately rushed from the room to retrieve a towel and a servant to clean the mess.

My soggy notes were beginning to fall apart in my hands, to wet to even maintain their paper shape.

“Linda,” I said, going to her.

She scrunched her nose as I came close, as if the very sight of me disgusted her. I was disheveled now, true, with my gown damp in some places and my hair a mess. But even so…

“Can I have those names again?” I asked. I knew she had written them down same as me.

She quickly hid her notepad from my sight. “If you lost those names, then this is on you, Piper. You need

to learn to take responsibility.” She narrowed her eyes. “We wouldn’t want anyone to think you had unfair

advantage.”

“It’s not like that,” I said.

She continued on, like I hadn’t said anything. “At least half of our table will look good, and the royal

be able to tell who did which half.”

spirit of the event,” I said. “We’re supposed to work together. Adversaries

the Luna

don’t care. You are a hindrance, not an adversary. Surely

out the door. The other girls all

sympathetic wave.

at the place where we had been, but we’d

what we had decided upon. I

I could guess about Linda’s preferences, after having heard

Using that knowledge, maybe I could at least make a compatible half of the table, even if it didn’t

names I could guesstimate were maybe correct,

there, pouring over the pages, when one of the King’s servants

stand in audience with the king.” the servant said.

that I was maybe about to die.

me. I doubted I would get very far.

my chin in defiance, and decided to face my inevitable end. I only hoped Nicholas could hear of it and intervene before I was hanged for treason, or some other charge.

around the winding hallways until