“I thought you were watching her with your animals?” Rowan asks.
I shake my head. “She’s found a way to scare them off, or kill them. There aren’t any in most of Ironhold. But I’ll find a way. I want to know exactly who she’s influencing.”
And there’s an obvious way to do it.
“If Selene is inviting people to join her in the fortress, if there are crowds of them there, maybe I can slip in with those crowds.”
“It will be dangerous,” Rowan says. “I know there’s another gathering tonight, but if she recognizes you…”
“Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”
*
I’m adding finishing touches to my disguise as the sun goes down. I’ve dyed my hair a deep red, and dressed in the finest clothes I’ve been able to find: a silver embroidered grey dress and gilded sandals, along with whatever jewelry I’ve been able to find. I’m trying to look like the kind of noble Selene will be interested in influencing, and who will obviously want to see what’s going on with these salons.
I take another step, going into the city and paying for a palanquin to carry me to Ironhold. The noble I’m pretending to be wouldn’t walk when she could be carried. I sit in the palanquin, waiting while my bearers walk from the city out to the fortress beyond. As I get closer, I reach out for the emotions of those I can feel within, trying to get at least a sense of how many people there are in Ironhold now.
There are more than I expect. I can sense the emotions of the guards who live and train there, can sense knots of gladiators, and the dull monotony of administrators. But I can also feelplenty of others, people who are filled with excitement and anticipation.
I pull back my attention as the palanquin comes to a halt, stepping from it and sending the bearers back towards the city. I want to be able to leave under my own terms. I head for the gates to the fortress, and the guards look at me as I approach, so that I feel tension rising in me as I hope that my disguise is sufficient.
They step aside to let me pass, and I head deeper into the fortress. I know my way around it, and I can feel where the gathering is taking place, but I wouldn't have any problems even if I didn't know because a servant comes to greet me and leads me through Ironhold.
“It's just this way, my lady,” the servant says, as if she were showing me through some noble home rather than a grim fortress. She leads the way up to the noble quarters, where I can hear people laughing and enjoying themselves. The servant leads me to the doors to a grand set of rooms.
“She said I was to show you straight in,” the servant says, and sudden worry rises within me.
“Who told you to show me in?” I say.
“Lady Selene, of course,” the servant says. “She said I was to fetch you and show you to her.”
“Me specifically?”
The servant nods, and I realize I've made a mistake here. When the guards let me pass, I thought my disguise had fooled them. Now it seems that Selene knowsexactlywhere I am.
I step past the doors to find myself in a small receiving room, with several couches. Selene sits on one of them in an elegant white and gold dress. She stares at me levelly as I enter, while somewhere behind her in another room I can hear a party.
“Really, Lyra? This is the best you could do? I suppose your disguise might work on someone else, if they didn’t know you were coming, but honestly, you must do better.”
“I'm just trying to work out what you're doing here, who you're gaining control of.”
“Well that suggests you know exactly what I'm doing,” Selene says, with a smile. She gestures to the otherwise empty receiving room. “Although you don't get to see who's here.”
No, she's arranged this very precisely so that I won't. The whole point of this is to make it clear that she's outthought me once again.
“How did you know I was coming?” I ask.
Selene’s smile broadens. “Oh, a friend told me. I have so many of them these days. Now, I think it's time for you to leave, don't you? Go tell whoever you're working with on this that you’ve failed. Maybe that will persuade them to give up. That would be better all round. I wouldn't have to destroy you all, that way.”
I take half a step forward, one of my fists clenching, but I can't just attack her here and expect to leave alive.
“You know that won't work, Lyra. As I said, it's time for you to go.”
I turn on my heel. “We will find a way to stop you, Selene.”
“I'm sure you'll keep trying.”
I head back through Ironhold, and the guards on the gates step back to let me pass, before shutting the gates firmly behind me as I move out into the dark. I borrow the sight from an owl as I move back down the path towards the city, trying to work out who could have told Selene that I was coming. Did someone see me preparing for tonight? Did someone overhear me as I paid for the palanquin?
