“I know,” Marcus replies. “Already, some of those who support her are calling for those who attacked her to be punished.”
That catches me a little by surprise. “There are still people who support her? I undid her psychomancy. I felt it coming apart.”
“Which explains why so many of the senators look confused this morning and can’t remember much about last night,” Marcus says. “Olivia came staggering in, looking as though she has a hangover that will take her days to get over. But she still wanted the people responsible for last night to be punished.”
“She doesn’t know you played a part?” I say, raising an eyebrow.
“She never saw me, and I think the memories of those who did are muddied,” Marcus says. “I persuaded her it was all an attack by the resistance, and sent some of the guards to the tower where we met Alaric.”
“Marcus!” I say, shocked that he could do such a thing.
Marcus smiles tightly. “Oh, don’t worry, it was empty. Alaric told me it would be on the way up to Ironhold.”
“Because he knew you’d betray your pact with him?”
“Because he knows our alliance is about stopping Selene Ravenscroft,” Marcus says. “And because he understands that pinning the blame on the resistance stops it from landing on you.”
So the two of them arranged this behind my back to protect me? It still doesn’t sit right with me that the man who is meant to be so much to me, my closest political ally, my fiance, can be so manipulative.
“We could have told people about Selene’s plan,” I say. “We could still bring all this before the senate and have them vote to punish her.”
“And do you think they would?” Marcus says. He shakes his head. “We stopped Selene from rising up to take the city last night, and you broke some of her direct control over key figures, but she hasn’t been beaten. There are still those who support her for who she is and what she represents. The ordinary people still love her for her victories in the games and some of those with magical power still like the image of Aetheria she presents.”
“Meaning we’re no better off than we were a couple of weeks ago,” I say, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
Marcus puts his hand on my shoulder. “You still achieved a lot, Lyra. This will have set her pans back. She’ll have to rebuild and start to gain influence again. We know the nature of her plans, too, so we can work to counter them now. As the senators recover more of their wits, I may be able to build more of a coalition against her.”
But in the meantime, Aetheria is still in danger from Selene. I have no doubt she’ll keep pushing for her version of the empire, with power given over wholly to those with the most powerful magic. She’ll keep inciting discontent, and persuading the common people to side with her.
It’s a race now to build support behind different visions of Aetheria, to persuade the merchants, the people of the slums, the nobles, the gladiators, the senate. I fought her almost to a standstill physically, I disrupted her plans, and I took away her control, but it isn’t enough. Our next fight will be political, and I’m not sure whether I have the skills to win that fight.
I have so many magical abilities. There has probably never been another beast whisperer as strong as me. Elanar has shown me how to expand those powers to influence people as well as creatures, but the fight I’m involved in is a different one to the one I knew when I was a gladiator. It isn’t just about surviving and fighting for my own freedom. I must fight for the freedom ofeveryone in Aetheria, in every arena where Selene and others try to take that freedom away.
We’ve battled with blades and magic, but the most important battle is for the hearts and souls of Aetheria’s citizens. I just hope that now, it’s a battle I can win.
