“We were able to heal the damage to his leg easily enough,” the healer who spoke before says, “and the wound to his arm was superficial, but this… it’s resisting our best efforts to heal it.Worse, it’s spreading.”
Sorrel groans in agony as the magic spreads a little more.Close to him I can feel that power, some complicated mix of vitomancy and something else, interwoven in a web that seems designed to spread and spread until it claims Sorrel’s life.
“Can you do anything?”I ask.
“We're trying,” the healer says.The three of them gather around Sorrel once more, pushing magic into him, clearly trying to undo the damage Selene has done.Sorrel looks up at me.
“Lyra.You were right, I should never have taken this bout.Now… it's going to kill me.”
“Don't say that,” I say, taking his hand and trying to comfort him.“The healers can still do something.They'll still find a way to save you.”
But even as I say it, I can see the pattern continuing to spread across Sorrel’s flesh, getting closer and closer to his heart.I realize, too late, that Selene’s magic has an insidious trick to it.
“Stop trying to heal him!”I shout at the healers.“Your magic is fueling this.She's made it so every scrap of energy you pour into him is making it worse, not better.”
The healers stop, pulling back from Sorrel so fast it's as if they're taking their hands from a burning stove.
It's too late.None of this is my field of magic, but I can still feel Selene’s efforts leeching the life from Sorrel, seeming to wither him as the pattern pulses an ugly purple.
“Lyra, I need to tell you…” Sorrel gasps.“I need to say who's behind the…”
It's obvious he's trying to tell me who his mysterious sponsor is, who the person is who's been setting up secret matches in the depths of the city.I want to tell him that it's not important and that he should save his strength, that he should tell me when he recovers, but the truth is I don't know if he's going to recover now.The pattern on Sorrel’s flesh is almost above his heart now, and somehow, I know that when the pattern reaches it, he’ll die.
I lean in close to him, determined to hear what he has to say.He takes a breath, a look of determination on his face, but all that comes out from Sorrel's mouth is a last gasp, the air flowing from his lungs as his eyes start to glaze over.I hold on to him for several seconds, feeling the pain as I watch the life leave him.
For the second time in these new games, I've had to watch a young man die who didn't believe that there was any chance of him being killed.Only this time, it isn't in the heat of a bout, isn't due to an opponent reacting to his violence with their own.This has happened after the fight, thanks to some magical poison left in Sorrel’s flesh.
Selene Ravenscroft has murdered him in cold blood after making a show of disabling him without violence.I’m certain of it, just as I’m certain that wecannotlet this stand.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Selene Ravenscroft should be executed!”Marcus bellows, his voice carrying across the senate chamber.
“This again?”Senator Yarrow asks.“You’re just upset because your scheme to kill her in the colosseum didn’t work, Marcus.”
Marcus is more than upset.The anger is etched into his face as he looks around the chamber, daring anyone not to go along with him on this.
The trouble is, I’m not sure I can back him.I hate what Selene has done, but I’m not sure if I can condone her simply being executed.
"The rules of the Colosseum are clear," Senator Octavio says."Selene Ravenscroft won her first bout, survived her first time in the games.By the laws that govern this city, she's one step closer to being free.You can be as upset as you wish about her winning, Marcus, but shedidwin, within the rules of the bout.”
“But shedidn’tstick to the rules of the games,” Marcus says.“Tell them, Lyra.”
I stand, feeling the eyes of the other senators on me.Not just them.The viewing galleries are full again, perhaps realizing that this discussion will determine Selene’s fate.
“Her magic poisoned Sorrel,” I say.“She pretended to take him down mercifully, but the magic she used spread through him after the bout, and she knew it would happen.She as good as told me that in the private rooms after the bout.”
Senator Olivia raises an eyebrow.“And just what were you doing with her in the private rooms, Lyra?Is there truth to all the rumors after all?”
I sigh at her attempts to resurrect the rumors spread about me during my time in the games.My patron, Lady Elara, used the private rooms to teach me what it meant to be a beast whisperer and to elicit my help in trying to overthrow the empire.But she covered that by starting rumors that I was her lover and that we were meeting for intimate encounters.
Olivia seems determined to throw that in my face, using it as a way to undermine me.
“The point is that she used her magic to kill Sorrel,” I say.“She pretended to spare his life, while intending to kill him all along.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” a noble senator whose name I think is Rebus says.He’s a portly man in his forties, balding and wearing more gold than even Olivia.“The gladiator’s death is unfortunate, but we have no way of knowing it was intentional.”
He seems to be ignoring the part where I just told him Selene admitted to it.
