Chapter Text
Two days later
At the District Twelve train station
As Peeta and Katniss, holding hands, stepped off the train, the crowd of District Twelve people screamed.
Most of the people of District Twelve, Katniss saw, were held back behind a long barricade. Peacekeepers were interspersed on the far side of the barricade, in case Twelves caused trouble; but today the Peacekeepers were unneeded, because Twelves were in a joyous mood.
But while most Twelves were behind the long barricade, the Mellark family, and Aloe and Primrose Everdeen, stood in front of the barricade.
Actually, Prim was standing with her back to the barricade, with her hands going up and behind her; pressed against the barricade from behind, Madge and Gale were each holding Prim’s nearer hand. Madge and Gale each had their free hand on the other one’s shoulder.
Madge Undersee and Gale Hawthorne, Aloe and Primrose Everdeen, and most of the Mellark family, all were grinning hugely at Katniss and Peeta. But Medea Mellark, who was staring fixedly at the Co-Victors’ held hands, was not smiling at all.
Katniss looked around some more. Haymitch was not smirking, he was actually grinning. Effie’s smile for the holo-cameras was theatrically big, as usual, but now her eyes were smiling too. The Capitol Liaison was smiling, but his smile looked fake; he reminded Katniss of a Capitol car salesman.
When Twelves’ yelling and cheering finally died down, Mayor Undersee, the Capitol Liaison, and Haymitch all gave speeches. Then it came time for the Co-Victors to each give a speech.
Peeta bowed to Katniss and said, “Ladies first.” He winked at Effie.
Katniss’s speech was just long enough to (hopefully) not seem rude or ungrateful, and Katniss was blushing the entire time she stood at the microphone. She hated public speaking.
Not soon enough, Katniss walked away from the microphone (to applause, amazingly), and walked back to where Peeta was standing. Peeta gave Katniss a hug—the crowd cheered. Then Peeta walked up to the microphone and gave his own speech.
Peeta did not stammer, and he did not stumble over his words. He said the same things that Katniss had said; but coming from Peeta, the message made you want to cheer and then to hug him.
At the end of that speech, Peeta turned to look at Gale.
The two young men carried out some kind of silent conversation—using eyes, eyebrows, and mouth expressions—that Katniss could not follow. The only part that Katniss did understand was at the end, when Gale gave a small nod.
Peeta at the microphone turned toward Katniss and held out a hand. “Katniss, please come here.”
“Oh my,” Effie murmured.
Katniss could not guess what Peeta was about to say, or what Effie thought was happening. But Katniss walked over to Peeta and took his hand.
Peeta said, “Katniss, I have loved you for eleven years; and in the Hunger Games arena, you decided to love me. I have saved your life in the arena; you have saved mine. Despite complications”—Peeta did not glance down at Katniss’s right lower leg, which today was covered with long pants—“I think our lives together would be happy. Will you marry me?”
The train station suddenly was meadow-quiet.
For five seconds, Katniss stood stunned—she absolutely had not seen this coming. Then she said, “Yes, Peeta, I will. You know I will.”
In response, the cheers of the Twelve crowd were so loud, it was a wonder that the roof of the rickety train station did not collapse.
****
The next morning
In Katniss’s brand-new mansion
Aloe Everdeen, Prim, and Effie Trinket were happily going over a home-decorations mail-order catalog that Effie had brought with her from the Capitol. Katniss also was looking at the catalogue—it was her mansion being decorated, after all—but Katniss was eyeing the catalog with lots less enthusiasm than the other three females.
(Effie was supposed to have boarded the train back to the Capitol a half-hour ago. But instead, she was at Katniss’s dining-room table, chattering about shower curtains, kitchen curtains, and foyer throw rugs.)
The doorbell rang. It was only the second time Katniss had ever heard a doorbell, other than in Capitol holo-shows.
When Katniss answered the door, she found one of Snow’s bodyguards on her doorstep. The man was holding a vase that was crammed full of red roses, and holding a big manila envelope. “These are for you, from President Snow,” the bodyguard said.
Katniss took the vase and set it on a table in the foyer; now she noticed that wedged between two roses was a tiny envelope. In Snow’s handwriting, the envelope was addressed “to Miss Katniss Everdeen and Mister Peeta Mellark.”
When Katniss was handed the big manila envelope, she stared openmouthed.
On the front of the envelope, in the upper-left corner, were typeset the words “Office of the President,” with a Snow’s-handwriting “CS” underneath. Also in Snow’s handwriting was “Katniss Everdeen,” written in big letters as addressee—
—but underneath Katniss’s name appeared the thing that made her stare. Snow had written, in letters almost as big as her name, “The penalty is death if opened by anyone other than addressee.”
Katniss turned the envelope over. On the back, the envelope flap was nailed down with three red-wax seals; above and below those red-wax seals were the same words as on the front: “The penalty is death if opened by anyone other than addressee.”
Katniss tapped the “The penalty is death” message, then looked at the bodyguard. “Does he normally write this when he sends something out?” Katniss assumed that the only thing in the envelope was the mine-explosion report.
The bodyguard shook his head. “I’ve never seen him write this before. I’ve never seen him send out something with those words.”
****
A minute later
Katniss brought the vase of flowers and the manila envelope to the dining-room table. Everyone else was eager for Katniss to open up the little envelope that was tucked into the roses. Katniss discovered that inside the little envelope was a card, on which Snow had written, “Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.” Everyone (including Katniss) smiled when she read those words aloud.
But the big manila envelope drew nervous looks from Katniss’s mother and sister. Effie took it further: “I am sure I do not want to see what is in that envelope.”
In any case, less than five minutes after Katniss brought the manila envelope to the dining-room table, Effie announced that she would board the train now. Katniss, Peeta, and a surprisingly agreeable Haymitch escorted the escort to the train station.
When Katniss returned to her mansion, she walked up to the big manila envelope—which laid, still undisturbed, on the dining-room table—and she carried the envelope upstairs to her bedroom.
With her bedroom door shut and locked, Katniss opened the envelope.
****
Seconds later
In the envelope were three documents, not the one document that Katniss had expected.
On top was the mine-explosion report, which was four pages long. On top of Page One was Confidential printed in big letters; that word had been scratched out and “CS” handwritten underneath. Some of what the mine-explosion report said was technical, and Katniss could follow only parts of it. (For instance, it took Katniss a while to figure out that what miners in Twelve called firedamp, the report called methane; what the miners called stinkdamp, the report called hydrogen sulfide.) On Page Four of the report was a description of remedies to prevent another coal-mine explosion in the foreseeable future. As Katniss had expected, she was unaware of any of the recommended remedies being carried out.
Evidently President Snow had drawn the same conclusion as Katniss. Behind the mine-explosion report was a letter on “Office of the President” letterhead:
July 15, HG 74
To Capitol Coal management, District Twelve:
Miss Everdeen informed me that in the four-and-a-half years since the mine explosion of January 19, HG 70, nothing has been done to remedy the causes of the explosion. Mayor Undersee reports that the miners still complain of free-floating coal dust in the mines, and of a methane odor in some tunnels. If any of the remedies that were recommended on page 4 of the enclosed report have been carried out, I find no evidence of such.
For fifteen days after the mine explosion, coal production was 0 percent of quota. When coal production resumed in February, HG 70, coal production was at only 48 percent of quota. Not until six weeks after the mine explosion was coal production at 100 percent of quota. Not only did coal production drop for eight weeks, but the Government of Panem was obliged to pay one month of condolence salary to the families of thirty-seven deceased miners. One of the deceased miners was Pick Everdeen, Miss Everdeen’s father.
Because Capitol Coal management has not made clearly-needed safety improvements to the District Twelve coal mines, I am convinced that another such accident could happen at any time. I would be unhappy if this happened.
Capitol Coal management is hereby ordered to make the coal mines safe. I shall hold Capitol Coal managers personally responsible if there is another mine explosion.
Be certain that Mayor Undersee and/or Miss Everdeen will inform me if improvements to mine safety are not made, or are made halfheartedly.
(signed) Coriolanus Snow
President of Panem
The third document in the manila envelope confused Katniss. It said “Treaty” on Page One, but it was not the Treaty of the Treason that Katniss had studied in school.
****
Minutes later
Katniss discovered that the treaty that Snow had sent to her was between the Capitol and District Thirteen, back in “the year 2639.” But why had the Capitol made a treaty with District Thirteen? Thirteen was dead!
On the last page of the “Treaty,” where the signatures went, Katniss recognized two names from history books: President Justinian Heavensbee, “for the Capitol,” and Pierre Leeg, “Mayor of District Thirteen.” In Capitol-written history books, Justinian Heavensbee had saved civilization by overpowering the rebellious and ungrateful districts; whereas Pierre Leeg had committed treason and had incited all the other districts to commit treason, then he and his district had paid the ultimate (thermonuclear) price.
However, when coal miners talked among themselves, and they did not think that Capitol spies or Capitol microphones were listening, Katniss heard a different story: the supposedly true history that the Capitol’s history books suppressed—
****
The Rebellion was close to defeating the Capitol when the Capitol invaded District Thirteen. Or perhaps the Capitol tricked District Thirteen into thinking they were being invaded.
In any case, Mayor Leeg ordered all District Thirteen soldiers and weaponry to be pulled back to District Thirteen, to counter the invasion.
But once all the Thirteens were back in Thirteen, the Capitol did not push into Thirteen; instead, the Capitol nuked Thirteen. The land of District Thirteen was ruined for every use, and Pierre Leeg and all his people died instantly.
Instantly the other twelve districts went from being on the verge of victory, to being nearly helpless. One by one, the other twelve districts were conquered.
When the districts could no longer fight, they signed a nonnegotiable treaty—a treaty of horrors, in which some of the rebels gave up their children in an annual fight to the death.
The only consolation, for the rebels who actually signed the Treaty of the Treason and for the rebels who were forced to live by that treaty’s terms, was that the Hunger Games would last only twenty or thirty years. When the youngest child of any rebel turned nineteen, the Games would stop forever.
****
But now in Katniss’s bedroom in her mansion, on the last page of the Capitol-Thirteen treaty, below Justinian Heavensbee’s and Pierre Leeg’s signatures, Katniss saw that Snow had written—
“District Thirteen is not dead, they are hiding. HG 1 = year 2641. Negotiations did not begin on the Treaty of the Treason until this treaty with D13 was signed in 2639 and District Thirteen was ‘dead.’ ”
Katniss had to read the treaty two more times to understand what she was reading, then she wanted to scream.
This treaty allowed District Thirteen to withdraw from the Dark Days rebellion. District Thirteen was required to pull all its army back to District Thirteen territory, to convincingly ‘bomb’ themselves, then to disappear, all without telling the other districts what was really going on. If the other twelve districts could be convinced that Thirteen had been destroyed, the Capitol promised to not invade Thirteen, to not nuke Thirteen, to not conventionally bomb Thirteen, and to otherwise not bother Thirteen in the years afterward.
Katniss glared at Pierre Leeg’s signature. Seventy-six years ago, District Thirteen—the same District Thirteen that had convinced the other districts to join with it in fighting the Capitol—had cut and run, lying to the other districts in the process, and this had led directly to the Treaty of the Treason and to Prim being Reaped!
Katniss’s mansion came with three telephones: one in the study downstairs, one in the kitchen, and one on the other side of Katniss’s bed upstairs. Two minutes after Katniss figured out the District Thirteen treaty, she was speaking directly to President Snow.
****
One second later
Katniss said to Snow, “Thank you for the roses—they’re beautiful. Also, thank you for the mine-explosion report and the letter you wrote. As soon as I finish talking to you, I’m going to the mayor’s mansion, then he and I will ruin Capitol Coal’s day!” Katniss chortled. “And, uh...”
There was silence at both ends of the line for several seconds.
Snow said, “Besides the mine-explosions report and my letter to Capitol Coal, something else was in that envelope. Are you calling about the other thing? Answer vaguely.”
“Yes, the—the other thing is what I’m calling about. Definitely.”
Snow asked Katniss where in her mansion she was calling from (her bedroom), asked if anyone was in the room with her (no), then asked Katniss to lock her bedroom door (already done).
Now Snow sounded distracted, as Katniss heard the sounds of a keyboard being typed on. “I am sure Mr. Abernathy has already told you and Mr. Mellark that there are hidden microphones in almost every room of your house—”
“Every room except the basement. Yes, he has.”
“—as well as a tap on your telephone. I am turning off all electronic surveillance while we talk now.”
“Ookaay...”
“Just as I do not want your mother, your sister, or Mr. Mellark listening to what we are about to discuss, neither do I want Peacekeeper Captain Cray or his people listening in.”
Katniss nodded. “That’s smart. I wouldn’t trust Cray to know my locker combination at school.”
“So,” Snow said, “now that nobody can overhear us, what do you think about the old treaty I sent you?”
“What do I think about it? I think that if I knew where Pierre Leeg’s grave was, I’d go to Thirteen and spit on his grave. And since trains don’t run to Thirteen anymore, I’d be perfectly willing to walk there.”
“You want only to spit on his grave?” Snow said with amusement. “Not befoul his grave with some different fluid of yours?”
Katniss said primly, “Effie is trying to teach me to be a lady.”
“Do you have any other thoughts? As someone who wore into the arena a pin symbolizing the Dark Days rebellion? I shall not arrest you for however you answer, Katniss.”
“My other thought is that the rebels were sure played for chumps. They fell for Pierre Leeg’s line of ‘We have to leave you other districts here to fight by yourselves, because we’re being invaded—but don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.’ And the rebels were played for chumps big time when they trusted that the Capitol would follow the Treaty of the Treason.”
“What do you mean? The Capitol follows the treaty to the letter.”
“Coriolanus, that is stinky coal dust and you know it! I read the Treaty of the Treason and it’s clear as day that only the actual children of actual rebels were supposed to be Eligibles during a Reaping. Not loyalists’ children, not the children of people who were too young to fight in the rebellion, and not the children of people not even born until after the treaty was signed! The rebels who signed the Treaty of the Treason, this was what they agreed-to when they signed: Twenty or thirty years of awful punishment, then the punishment would be over!”
“Yours is a very naïve reading of the Treaty of the Treason, Katniss.” Snow’s voice dripped with condescension.
“No, it is the plain-language reading, with no words being twisted to say what rainbows want the words to say. It is the interpretation that says that the Hunger Games should have run out of Eligible kids fifty years ago! But hey, if you had stopped the Games before Haymitch had even been born, in HG 74 you couldn’t sell action figures and reenactment tour packages to rainbows, could you?”
“I think, Katniss, I will end this telephone call before you say something you will regret.”
“The Games must end, Coriolanus! Now, not later. And I will never regret telling you this.”
****
Minutes later
Katniss put the Capitol-District Thirteen Treaty back into its “The penalty is death” envelope, and shoved the envelope under her mattress. Then Katniss walked out of her bedroom, carrying the mine-explosion report and Snow’s letter.
Some minutes later, Katniss was in the mayor’s mansion, talking to Mayor Undersee.
Mayor Undersee had not seen the mine-explosion report. He asked Katniss how she had managed to get, less than a week after her Victor-crowning, the report that Undersee had been unsuccessfully pushing to be sent for four-and-a-half years. Katniss, bashful about revealing that she and Snow were soulmates, evaded the mayor’s question.
Mayor Undersee made four copies of the mine-explosion report and of Snow’s letter. The mayor kept one copy of each document for himself; soon afterward the Capitol Liaison, Domiducus Jones, was given the second copy of each document.
Mayor Undersee and Katniss Everdeen, each grinning cruelly, presented the third copy of the mine-explosion report and the third copy of Snow’s letter, to Capitol Coal’s top managers. Katniss enjoyed watching Capitol men who always acted so smug around coal miners, turn pale and look panicky.
Finally, Katniss borrowed a tape-dispenser from the mayor, then Katniss and the mayor walked into the Hob. With Greasy Sae’s permission, Katniss taped the four pages of the mine-explosion report, and the two pages of Snow’s letter, to the countertop of Greasy Sae’s stall.
Katniss grinned. Soon coal miners will know that Capitol Coal is supposed to be fixing the mines. And if Capitol Coal dawdles, Mayor Undersee and I will hear about it!
****
Several days later (July 19th, HG 74)
After consulting with Effie
The lives of Katniss and Peeta had changed after the 74th Reaping, and Reapings always fell on the summer solstice in June. Katniss and Peeta would leave Twelve, to begin their Victory Tour, at the winter solstice in late December. So it made perfect sense for the Co-Victors to set their wedding day halfway in between, on the first day of autumn in late September.
Written wedding invitations were mailed out to the small number of Merchant families in District Twelve (including the mayor’s family). Wedding invitations also were mailed out to fifty-seven Victors (including Haymitch).
Seam people were not sent written invitations—Katniss’s writing-hand would have fallen off—but in five different places in the Hob, Katniss put up notices that read, “We’re getting married on September 21. Y’all come!”
Not invited to the wedding—
• Peacekeepers,
• the Capitol Liaison,
• all other Capitol people in District Twelve, and
• everybody who lived in the Capitol, except for President Snow and Minerva Snow, Effie, Cinna, and Portia.
Absolutely, positively, not invited: Gamemakers—even after Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee dropped a broad hint to Enobaria that he was really hoping for an invite to the Co-Victors’ wedding.