Thalia sighs. “Some of it’s because, despite what happened with the raid, I think we can achieve more working with you than against you. I would have contacted you sooner but we were focusing on rebuilding and expanding.”
“Including taking over this tower,” I say.
She nods. “Among other places. We have networks throughout the city now. And we're worried. You know the former arch magistrate is building networks of her own? She's gaining support through her fights in the arena too.”
I know that part. Selene has never made a secret of the way she's using the colosseum. Each fight she wins there helps to cement her popularity with the ordinary people, turning her into a twisted hero for them. She hopes to use that popularity as part of her efforts to gained real power in the city once again.
“We've been shutting down more underground fights as well,” Thalia says. She smiles. “I'm sure your boyfriend's very upset.”
“You mean Marcus?” I say. “We aren’t together.”
“Your relationship couldn't stand up to seeing what he really was?” Thalia asks. She always seems to take a certain amount of pleasure in my discomfort, maybe because she thinks I've hurt Alaric too much to be allowed to get away with it.
“Did you just bring me here to boast about the things you've achieved?” I ask.
“I was hoping you could tell us why Selene seems to be gaining influence with people who would never normally have anything to do with her,” Thalia says. “Some of the gangs siding with the former arch magistrate? It doesn't make any sense.”
I sigh. “I've seen something similar in the senate,” I explain. “I think there's a chance she's using psychomancy.”
“She's found someone to do that for her?” Thalia asks.
I shake my head. “I think she's doing it herself. Despite the dampener the senate insisted was put on her.”
“She's powerful enough to do that?” Thalia asks, but then answers her own question. “Of course she is. She's an archon. Who knows what she's capable of?”
“I'm hoping to find a way to prove what she's doing,” I say. “If I can show the other senators that she's controlling them, they'll have to act.”
“You might have bigger problems in the meantime,” Thalia says.
“What kind of problems?” I ask her, dreading the answer. What could be bigger than Selene controlling senators?
“Beast whisperers have been turning up dead in the hidden places of the city, down in the catacombs, in some of the flophouses. All the places they’ve been hiding.”
Even today, those with my talent are cautious, staying out of the open because they remember all the ways they were mistreated under the empire. The idea that someone has been hunting them is deeply worrying. It reminds me too much of the ones Selene was hunting, back in Arboria.
She clearly has a bigger plan here, and I need to find out what it is before she has a chance to put it into action.
“Ask Alaric if he’ll meet with me,” I say. “This is going too far.”
“I’ll try to get him to see you,” Thalia promises. “What will you be doing in the meantime?”
“I’m going back to the senate,” I say. “Whatever Selene’s planning, I need to find a way to stop it there before it can go any further.”
If I can’t, this could be the start of some kind of coup attempt on her part. We could lose the city before we even realize it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I hurry back to the palace, running through the streets of the city. I use the birds above to watch for trouble, sticking to back streets where I can, determined no one will link me to the resistance’s latest safehouse.
The things Thalia told me make a knot of fear sit in my stomach. Beast whisperers are being killed in the city now, rather than just out in the countryside beyond, or in a neighboring kingdom. I’m convinced Selene must be behind it, although I’m not sure how she’s doing it, when she’s confined to Ironhold, and if the great granite fortress is good at one thing, it’s keeping people inside.
Or it was. When I was a gladiator, the idea of escaping from the fortress seemed impossible. The only way out was when a patron summoned me into the city, or when it was time for the games. Is Selene somehow killing beast whisperers during the games? No, that doesn’t make sense. She’s doing it another way.
Maybe she's getting someone else to kill beast whisperers for her. I can't deny the influence she's starting to build up in the city, a combination of those who long for the return of the empire, those attracted by her personal glory, and those she's been able to influence since her return to Aetheria. I have no doubt there will be at least some people willing to kill on her behalf, if they think it brings Selene closer to power.
Or maybe Ironhold isn’t as secure for her as it was for gladiators like me. I’ve already seen her influence within the fortress; maybe that means she’s able to slip out when she wants. That’s a thought that makes my heart beat faster in my chest, because it means she isn’t contained at all.
I don’t know what the senate’s going to be able to do about her, but I’m determined to findsomethingwe can do. Marcushas pushed for Selene’s death again and again. Has the time come when the rest of us must accept that he’s right?
