In Other Lands

by Sarah Rees Brennan

He’d thought he might enjoy spending more time with Peter and Myra, but he was in a slightly ruffled condition and during one lunch made Peter go off somewhere, he suspected to cry, and reduced Myra to staring at him with stunned eyes. “Sorry,” he told her, banishing himself from the lunch room for being an unacceptable human being. “I’m in a filthy mood. Sorry.” He hadn’t even said anything so very bad. Luke would not have been reduced to tears. Everybody needed to work on not being so thin-skinned all the time, he told himself, and went off to deliberately pick a fight with the remains of the Trigon team. He didn’t even realise that was what he was doing until he spat out another mouthful of malice at Richard Plantgrown. “Look,” snapped Richard, “you can be as much of a little snot as you want. Luke Sunborn told us if we laid a finger on you while he was gone, he’d have our heads.” “Luke Sunborn needs to learn to mind his own business,” snapped Elliot, and at least the others looked like they agreed with him there. “Besides, who’s going to tell him? Or are you all just such cowards the mere idea of Luke has you quaking in your—” Richard did hit Elliot in the face then. Very hard. Elliot hit the wall, and hot pain and blood bloomed, his own flesh breaking open against his teeth. He spat, and this time it was not malice aimed at someone else, but blood hitting the stone. It was still awful. “Wow, it’s been a while, hello old friend being hit in the face,” Elliot said, putt...