The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Grandma’am sends Coriolanus to bed as soon as he gets home. He wakes up later to Tigris and some noodle soup. Tigris shares that Satyria has been calling for him, and Coriolanus asks if she’s calling about Clemensia. He shares the entire story with Tigris, who’s horrified. She suggests that Coriolanus avoid Dr. Gaul as much as possible. Once Coriolanus eats, he picks up Satyria’s next call. She just wants him to sing the anthem at Arachne’s funeral tomorrow. Once Coriolanus agrees, Satyria asks how Lucy Gray is. Coriolanus says Lucy Gray—and the other tributes—are terrible, since the Capitol isn’t feeding them. Satyria promises to try to fix this.

In the morning, Grandma’am wakes Coriolanus up at dawn so she can coach him through the anthem. When she deems him ready, she pins a rosebud to his uniform jacket and sends him to the Academy. Coriolanus ends up sitting in the front row, near President Ravinstill. Coriolanus has never sung publicly, so he’s nervous. He looks around at the funeral banners and such, thinking it’s way too much for someone as insignificant as Arachne—especially when most war heroes didn’t get much recognition.

Finally, at 9:00 a.m., Coriolanus walks to the podium. Accompanied by a tinny instrumental recording, he begins the anthem. He sails through the song, which isn’t challenging, and sits to applause. Then, President Ravinstill takes the podium and says that Arachne was a victim of the rebel war. As drums beat, the funeral procession comes around the corner. Behind Peacekeepers comes a flatbed truck with a crane on it—and the District 10 girl’s body hangs from the crane. The other tributes are shackled to the truck bed. This, Coriolanus knows, will remind the districts that they won’t win. Arachne’s coffin comes after another battalion of Peacekeepers.

Dr. Gaul speaks next and seems unusually sane and intelligent. She promises that Arachne won’t have died in vain—the Capitol will fight back, and the Hunger Games will be dedicated to her memory. Coriolanus thinks this is ridiculous, but he stays quiet. As the crowd starts to disperse, Coriolanus turns to find Dean Highbottom staring at him. They exchange condolences and Coriolanus praises the procession. To his surprise, Dean Highbottom says it was “excessive and in poor taste.” Straightening Coriolanus’s rose, he remarks that nothing has changed, even if people insist they have to remember the cost. He tells Coriolanus not to be late for lunch, since there’s pie.

Fortunately, Dean Highbottom wasn’t lying about the pie. Coriolanus fills his plate and chooses the biggest slice he can find, though he feels like his self-control is eroding. He notices Sejanus not eating and, since throwing food away is a crime now, encourages Sejanus to eat. Near the end of the meal, Satyria tells the students that the Hunger Games are still on—and the mentors are supposed to take the tributes to tour the arena later, to show the districts the Capitol isn’t weak or afraid. Nobody looks excited, but nobody is willing to speak up, either. Believing that Dr. Gaul probably wants an excuse to torture a tribute publicly, Coriolanus takes Sejanus’s uneaten food in a napkin. This isn’t allowed, but Lucy Gray needs food.

Vans drive the mentors across town to the Capitol Arena. It used to be a state-of-the-art amphitheater for events, but the rebels bombed it. The field is full of bomb craters and there’s rubble everywhere. During the Hunger Games, tributes are locked inside with weapons. Afterwards, Capitol workers remove the bodies and weapons but do no other cleanup. Professor Sickle ushers students out of vans and into a line with their tributes. Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are next to Jessup and Lysistrata. Reaper, Clemensia’s tribute, glowers at the ground. Lysistrata offers Jessup medicine for his neck.

Peacekeepers open the lobby doors and lead the mentors and tributes through the lobby. They stop at turnstiles that require Capitol tokens. Coriolanus realizes this was the entrance for poor people; the Snows had a private box at the top of the arena. Peacekeepers feed tokens in as the kids go through the turnstiles; the turnstiles say, “Enjoy the show!” in a cheerful voice as each person passes through. Coriolanus goes through and realizes he can’t get back out this entrance, which doesn’t help his anxiety.

Peacekeepers lead the mentors and tributes through a dark passageway. Coriolanus takes the opportunity to slip the fried chicken to Lucy Gray, and she takes his hand in the dark. They let go before they reach the arena. Coriolanus saw the circus a few times as a kid and he’s watched the Games on TV, but being on the field is a whole new experience. The field is huge. Coriolanus rearranges his face to look unimpressed. He didn’t expect this visit to feel so sad as he joins the other mentors on a walk around the perimeter of the field. Circus performers used to take this route. Coriolanus starts to look around for anything that might help Lucy Gray. If she can get into the stands, she’d have a chance.

Lucy Gray whispers that before the tributes’ participation in the funeral procession this morning, they got food. A few kids passed out last night, so they’ve had breakfast and dinner. They discuss Coriolanus’s performance at the funeral, and Lucy Gray compliments his voice. When she says that most people here think she’s “lower than a snake’s belly,” Coriolanus laughs at her “colorful” expressions. Coriolanus laughs again—and then everything explodes.