CHAPTER 88 - Dreaded Play

Lyra I stared in disbelief as for the last session the proctors brought out five boxes of Lycaneer. My stomach twisted. Unlike many of the other girls who only had to play one game, I had already played through two grueling rounds of Ondek and one of Buntae, each victory harder won than the last. I didn't have much left in me. "Lycaneer?" I muttered under my breath. "You've got to be kidding me." A friend of Janet's who'd sat next to me during our one and only fifteen-minute break, leaned over. "Gosh, I hope I don't have to play that." I nodded. 'Why was my mouth so suddenly dry?' Fear. Unadulterated. That was it. I managed to rasp out, "We can only hope right." The girl went on, oblivious to my distress. "My father's a professor of strategy, and once a year, he plays in a Lycaneer tournament…He has yet to win." The cramp in my stomach had gotten times worse. Before I could moan in agony, Shelia came on stage to make an announcement. "Ten of you are left. Those who wi