In Other Lands

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Elliot suspected he had gone wrong somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. He knew Luke could be kind of prudish about these sort of things, and wondered if he was being judged as a floozy, which seemed massively unfair. “I never liked him,” Elliot said uncertainly. “I always made that very clear.” “Oh, you always do,” Luke said. His voice was savage. “What?” Elliot asked. “I should have taken it as a compliment?” He got up and walked away, back to the house. He didn’t have to deal with Sunborns and their monstrous egos for a moment longer. Luke probably thought it had been a compliment. Just because Adam was a Sunborn, and at the last, when their loyalties were tested, Sunborns were loyal to each other. Sunborns thought they were all so much better than everybody else, and their attention must be an honor. “Yeah!” Luke said, coming after him, shouting the word at his back. “Maybe! It would’ve been better than acting the way you always do!” “Wow, sorry that everything I ever do offends you.” The Sunborns were so stupid, and Elliot was done with it. They were so stupid they thought having a champion just turned fifteen was a glorious thing, instead of a target painted on Luke’s back. Now he was the Sunborn, instead of just a Sunborn, he was going to be someone people looked for in a war: his death would now be someone else’s trophy. Luke and all the other Sunborns seemed too stupid to realise that or too stupid to care. Luke’s own mother had cheered for something that was like...