“Well then,” Alaric says. “I guess your next stage is to find proof that she’s doing what you say she is, while I get my people ready to resist whatever she tries.”
“How am I meant to prove it?” I ask. “Even with Ravenna, it was Selene who spotted the influence she used.”
“Selene’s wearing a dampener, right?” Alaric says.
I nod.
“Well, if she's influencing this many people in the city, she must have tampered with it somehow. If you can prove that, it will be your evidence.”
He's right and I turn to leave. Alaric stops me with a touch of his hand. For a moment I think he's going to turn me back and kiss me. He stands there hesitating.
“Be careful, Lyra,” he says. “I know you still believe in the way the city works, but Selene has the capacity to turn it all against you. I don't want to see you hurt.”
“I don't want to be hurt,” I reply, smiling. It's one of the reasons I'm glad he hasn't kissed me. I had thought things were finished between Alaric and myself. It turns out they’re as tangled and complicated as ever.
CHAPTER NINE
I march up to Ironhold with a group of guards at my side and an official order clutched in my hand. The fact that I'm the one who signed it makes no difference to the officials with me. I'm a senator, and one of those who oversee the games, so I have that right.
For the past few weeks, it’s felt as if my position on the various committees relating to the colosseum and the games has been increasingly meaningless. I'm on them to try to enforce safety standards within the games but almost from the moment I began, others have sought to undermine those standards.
Now, though, there's a chance I might be able to do something useful with my position. As one of those overseeing the safety of the games, it also falls to me to make sure that the restrictions limiting what Selene can do in the arena remain strong.
In other words, I have the authority to check her dampener as I might check any other piece of her equipment.
How many times have I marched to the fortress overlooking the city, surrounded by guards? Too many to count, usually when I was being brought back from the games, or from a visit to one of my patrons. The emperor would often have his guards bring me to him in the palace, and those audiences with him always terrifying. In those days the guards were to make sure I didn't run away.
Now, they're with me just in case Selene Ravenscroft decides to murder me.
I have no doubt she has control within Ironhold. We placed her in a prison and, in doing so, we gave her a fortress. Nominally it's controlled by the guards who train there, by the city officials who work within it, and by the trainers for thegladiators who still perfect their skills within its walls, even if they aren’t forced to do so the way they were under the empire.
Selene is meant to be the only prisoner within Ironhold, these days, the only gladiator who isn't free until she completes her five seasons on the sands. More common prisoners are kept in the prison tower or other places. Even Domitian isn’t in Ironhold, because he isn’t fighting as a gladiator.
Is that why she didn't just have the senate vote to free her? Is she determined to get those five seasons, so there can be no doubt that she earned her place and freedom within the strictures of Aetherian laws?
I don't know what her plans are, and not knowing is frightening when Selene is an opponent who thinks well ahead, and who has access to magical powers on a scale most people can only dream of. I feel as though I'm a piece caught up in her game, even though I'm a senator and a powerful magical practitioner in my own right. I feel as though she's manipulating me at every step, so I can't be certain that even what I'm doing now isn't exactly what she wants.
I approach Ironhold, hearing the clash of steel as the gladiators and the guards there train, working hard to perfect their skills. I try to look inside using my powers, but I still can’t feel any animals within other than those inside the beast pens, carefully contained so they won’t be a danger to anyone else there.
It means I’m effectively blind. If it comes to a fight,maybeI’ll be able to summon creatures from the beast pits, or at least steal power from them to help me fight back. But I can’t see Selene, can’t judge what she’s up to here when her magic has killed or scared off every creature within the fortress.
Guards meet us at the front gate, standing with their spears crossed, as if they might deny us entry. I hold out my written orders.
“I’m Senator Lyra Thornwind,” I say. “As part of my role on the safety committee of the games, I have the right to inspect Selene Ravenscroft’s dampener. Stand aside and let me do so.”
For a moment, I think they might not, but that would be proof of just how far Selene’s influence has gone, even if it doesn’t show psychomancy behind it. It will be enough to get a response from Rowan and a majority of the senators, I hope.
The guards step back, though, waving me in. “We’ll bring her to you,” one says, as we stand in the sandy courtyard beyond the wall. “Please, wait here.”
The guard seems to be warning us not to go looking around the fortress, not to inspect more. I wonder what I’ll find if I do. I can see guards working in unison, training with the white and gold uniforms of the Republic shining in the sun. I hope that they’re all loyal to the city, but the terrifying thing is that we have no way of knowing. Before, when Domitian rose up, he was able to persuade plenty of soldiers to side with him.
He did that even without psychomancy to help him. What might Selene achieve?
I stand there in the sun for what feels like forever, sweating in the heat while the guards and officials with me look equally uncomfortable. I have no doubt we’re being kept waiting deliberately. It’s just a small way for Selene to demonstrate her power here.
Soon, though, she comes out to meet us, walking without guards as if to demonstrate that she’s coming to me voluntarily. Perhaps she’s also saying that she doesn’t feel she needs guards with her, doesn’t need their protection when she has her own considerable power. She’s wearing the training gear of a gladiator, a faint sheen of sweat on her skin, as if she’s been training hard. Her violet eyes sweep over my small group, and she smiles, standing before us as if she’s some powerful figure we’ve come to as supplicants.
“Lyra, I’m surprised to see you back here,” Selene says, as if we’re old friends, rather than enemies.
