CHAPTER TEN
Birds fly out over the city, carrying my messages while I look through their eyes. I send the parakeet to the tower again, with a message that asks for Alaric’s aid in circumventing any parts of Aetheria’s system that have been compromised by Selene.
But which parts have? Finding that out is part of what the other birds are doing. I send them flying out over the city, following officials from above, seeing who meets with whom, trying to understand who might be working for Selene and who is simply a normal official. I can feel my mind being pulled in a hundred different directions as I do it, so that it’s hard to focus on any one thing.
I may need to do this another way. I start to head through the palace, watching everyone I see there for signs that they might be influenced by Selene. How will I know? I have a list growing in my mind of those I’m confident are influenced by Selene’s suggestions: Octavio and Olivia, Nasos and others, but how do I add to that list?
There’s only one question that matters when it comes to finding out.
“What do you think about Selene Ravenscroft?” I ask an administrator.
I see the hesitation before he answers. “She’s an important force for order.”
I add him to my mental list, then hurry on, asking the same question of a senator named Mercal. He shrugs.
“I’m a little worried about her. I don’t know why everyone is suddenly on her side.”
I sigh. “Psychomancy. I told you all in the senate. She’s using psychomancy.”
“I remember, but you didn’t have proof,” he replies. “Have you gained it now?”
And that’s the problem. “I went there with officials to check on her. She’d tampered with her dampener.”
“I saw the report of that,” Mercal says. “It says there was no evidence of tampering.”
“That’s because she used psychomancy to influence the officials checking her,” I say.
Mercal frowns at me, looking as though he doesn’t know whether to believe me or not. “You want me to believe that she’s magically influencing almost everyone, and that the people who say she isn’t are also being influenced?”
“I know how it sounds,” I say.
“I’m not sure you do,” Mercal says, and moves away from me, looking at me as though I’m mad.
The trouble is Idoknow how it sounds. I’m asking people to believe that Selene has circumvented the dampener that should hold her powers in check. That she’s using a discipline of magic she doesn’t have a history of employing, at a level beyond any other psychomancer in the city. That she’s controlling, not just key senators, but officials throughout the city, and members of the guard.
I don't know if all of them are doing so because of that magic. Maybe she has other means of influence, whether it's wealth, secrets, or threats. Maybe some of those who support her genuinely want her to become empress. She's certainly popular enough with the ordinary people thanks to her successes in the games.
I keep going, trying to find more of Selene’s supporters. The more names I can add to my mental list, the more certain I can be about who I can trust.
The trouble is, there are all too few names on that second list. I can trust Alaric, and probably Rowan. A few others who don’tseem to have been caught by Selene’s suggestions yet, perhaps because they haven’t come into contact with her at the games and haven’t gone to Ironhold.
And maybe there’s one more name I can trust, too, at least on this.
I make my way through the city, down to the spot between the merchant quarter and the noble quarter where Marcus’ villa is located. It’s less ostentatious than Olivia’s home, with simple, white painted walls, but it’s still a large home in a wealthy part of the city. Marcus is probably as rich as almost anyone else within Aetheria, with a full fleet of merchant vessels at his command.
One of his servants shows me inside. Marcus is there, standing next to a couch in a central chamber. He’s wearing a pale tunic, trimmed with gold, while a couple of functionaries stand next to him.
“… should result in the trade lanes being opened within the next month,” one says.
“That’s good,” Marcus replies, then looks over to me and gestures to the clerks. They hurry away, leaving the two of us alone. “Lyra. I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Ihoped, but… does this mean you’ve thought about the conversation we had before?”
The conversation where he tried to explain that he was only running the death matches so he could uncover the corruption in the city?
“This isn’t about that,” I tell him.
I hear him sigh. “I’m serious about what I said,” he says. “And I want things to be better between us, Lyra. We were… we were so good together.”
He takes a step towards me, as if he might take me into his arms. I step back to avoid it. I can’t just forget myself and my principles in his arms, in his bed.
