CHAPTER SEVEN
As Rowan has predicted, the senate chamber is full almost to the bursting point by the time we get changed into our togas and step inside.Almost every senator is there, most looking around with fear and worry, but the crowds swarming into the viewing gallery are even more impressive.It's clear people want to know what's going on.I've heard the rumors, and I guess most of them have, too.Now, it's a question of giving them the truth.
I take my place on the benches not far from Marcus.There's a tension in him that's hard to ignore.Clearly, Selene’s return has bothered him.
Rowan stands in the middle of the chamber and speaks.
“I guess most of you will have heard some of what's going on by now,” he says.“Selene Ravenscroft has returned to Aetheria.She approached one of the gates earlier on foot and alone.She surrendered herself to the guards there and is currently being held in the prison tower until we can decide what to do with her.Senator Marcus and I just went to speak with her, and Senator Lyra also heard the conversation.”
He doesn't sayhowI heard because the strangeness of the things I can do still bothers people.Even in Aetheria, a place used to magical talents, people are worried by beast whisperers, thinking that we might turn feral at any moment.I hope my role in helping the Republic has done something to undo that image, but I'm not foolish enough to believe that I’ve achieved perfect tolerance for my kind.There will always be people who hate me just for what I can do.
Is Selene one of them?The news we had from Arboria was that she was hunting beast whisperers.That suggests a deep level of hatred I didn't know she possessed before.Of those involved with the games, she was always one of the fairest towards me, keeping to the law but not going out of her way to be cruel to me the way the emperor did.
Perhaps exile from the city has changed her mind about me.
“And what were the details of the conversation?”Senator Octavio asks.
“She assured us that she came in peace,” Rowan says.“She says she’s returned for the good of the city.”
Marcus scoffs.“And does anyone here believe that?She was exiled on pain of death.Her return is automatically grounds to execute her.”
“That's what we're here to discuss,” Rowan says, looking over at him.He returns his attention to the other senators.“She has demanded the right to speak in front of the senate and plead her case.”
“What case?”Marcus demands.“She needs to die.There isn’t anything to discuss.”
“Perhaps that's hasty,” Octavio says.“I assume Selene is invoking her rights as a citizen of Aetheria?”
“She is,” Rowan says.“She pointed out to us that we haven't changed the laws, so she has the right to make her case before a judge or, in this case, before the senate.”
Senator Octavio nods solemnly, always one to focus on the legalities.“Thoseareour laws.”
“Are you sure we want to do that?”Senator Olivia asks.She looks nervous.“Selene Ravenscroft was the emperor’s confidante and lieutenant.She has reasons to hate everyone here.Let her into the senate, and she might take the opportunity to try to slaughter us.”
“Not confident in your magic?”Senator Yarrow asks.
“Couldyoutake on an archon and win?”
I can feel the fear among some of the senators, and I share some of their concerns.I don’t know why Selene has returned, but I don’t believe it’s just because she wants to peacefully reenter Aetherian society and throw herself on our mercy.Her talk about saving the city doesn’t ring true either.Is there a chance she would try to kill the whole senate at once?
“I don’t believe she could take us all,” Rowan says.“Most of us have magic, and Selene Ravenscroft is just one woman.No, I think she genuinely means to stand before us and ask the senate for clemency.I think the laws leave us with no choice.”
“And I still say she’s too great a danger to risk that,” Marcus says.“We were lucky she chose to stand back during the rebellion.If she hadn’t… the Republic might not be here.”
Rowan knows that, probably better than Marcus.So do I.I was just paces away from Selene when she chose not to act to save Tiberius when she chose to walk away afterward.I know how easily events could have gone another way.She could have chosen to kill as many people as she could before she died.
"We should kill her," Marcus says again.I'm surprised he's so determined about this.The public in the viewing galleries seems surprised and disappointed, too.Some of them boo as he says it.
“It seems the people don’t agree with you,” Senator Yarrow says, with a faint smile.“And I, for one, don’t want to stand against their will.”
"You spend your life pandering to the mob," Marcus accuses her."Of course, you'll do whatever's most popular, rather than what's right."
Rowan looks to me.“What do you think, Lyra?You’ve met her before, and you saw her in the prison tower.Do you think she’s genuine about anything she says?Do you think we should go through with the sentence of execution without giving her a hearing before the senate?”
I take a deep breath as I stand, trying to get my thoughts in order.“It’s a complicated question,” I say.“It’s not just about the sentence hanging over Selene, it’s about the danger she might still represent to the city.We know she was contacting Domitian during his uprising-”
“You suspect it,” Yarrow says.She doesn’t like me at the best of times, and I suspect she was only one step away from siding with Domitian.
“We found letters between them,” I point out.
