The King's Games

7. Opposing

After they thought I was asleep, I heard my parents arguing.

I lay in my old twin bed, too restless to sleep even though my body ached fiercely, and I kept tossing and turning. Kicking my blankets off me, I stared out at my mostly empty room. Trackers were meant to live sparsely, so all I really had were books, clothes, and a small desk with a laptop and stationary.

As soon as I started tracker school, I'd gotten rid of all my toys. My dad insisted that I keep the antique rocking "horse" since his grandfather had made it. Instead of a horse, it had been made in the shape of a rabbit out of cold iron, and in the moonlight, it cast a shadow that looked a monster running towards me.

I rolled over again, unable to get comfortable, and I heard my parents growing increasingly loud.

"This isn't fair to her, Iver," my mom said to my dad, her voice carrying easily through my closed bedroom door. "She doesn't deserve to be treated this way."

"I know kids can be cruel - " my dad tried to argue.

I pictured him pacing the living room, running his hands through his thick black waves of hair. His tie would be loosened and slightly eschew, the way it always was by the end of the day. My mom would be sitting on the couch, staring up at him as she pleaded her case.

"Kids?" Mom scoffed. "If it were only the kids, I would understand. But it's the Kanin. They are all cold and harsh."

"That is not true," Dad insisted. "You know that's not true, Runa. You've made friends here, people who have been kind to you. What about Jillian Sköld?"

Jillian owned the bakery in town, and she was arguably my mom's best friend. The way my mom told it, Jillian was the first person that had been nice to her after she moved to Doldastam when she married my dad.

"Some people are nice," Mom allowed.

"And my parents," Dad went on, causing my mom to snort.

"They disinherited you!" Mom reminded him.

"They were only following rules," Dad shrugged off her accusation. "They still accepted you, which is more than I can say for your family. You were completely exiled."

"We're not arguing about whether or not the Kanin are warmer than the Skojare, because they are," Mom said, sounding weary. "What I'm asking is if this is the right place to raise our daughter."

"We decided that we would be safer and happier living here, away from the humans," Dad said. "It would be better for Bryn to grow up amongst her own people. The humans are so obsessed with their money and their gadgets. They don't know anything about the earth or where they come from or what we are truly capable of."

"I know what we thought," Mom said, and her voice had softened so much that I barely heard it. "But this isn't about a discussion we had fifteen years ago. This is about right now."

I got out of bed, creeping quietly to the door, and opened it the tiniest crack to hear them better.

"Right now, our daughter is getting beat up by these ignorant little punks," Mom continued.

"She holds her own in those fights," Dad attempted to defend me.

"Iver!" Mom shouted in disbelief. "Do you really think that's a valid argument? Bryn can fight back, so it's okay that boys and girls are punching her?"

"No, Runa, that's not what I said at all. It's not okay. I've never said it was okay," Dad argued. "What I'm saying is that... she wants to prove herself. Do you really think she'll give it up now, when she feels so close?"

"Don't you think she's sick of fighting?" Mom asked, and Dad laughed.

"I don't think she'll ever be sick of fighting," he replied. "When you've suggested that we leave, what has Bryn always said?"

Mom was silent for a moment before saying weakly, "No. She wants to stay."

"She's only a year from graduating from something she's been working for since she was in the first grade," Dad told my mom. "We can't take that away from her, Runa. This is what she wants."

"No, what she wants is respect and a place in this world," Mom countered. "But what if that's not possible? What if Doldastam will never really be her home?"

"I think you're missing the point, Runa," Dad said softly. "Doldastam is her home. She belongs here, and she's won't stop fighting until everyone else sees that too."