“Criminals stalk the streets,” another shouts.“They don’t have anything to fear when there’s no threat of throwing them into the colosseum!”
“Give us the games!”the crowd chants again.
Marcus is there on the walls then, along with a couple of the others.He looks horrified by the sight of the riots below, and his voice rings out over the walls.
“My friends, stop this.You are destroying the areas where you live.You’re hurting yourselves.”
“Give us the games!”the crowd keeps chanting.
“You know me,” Marcus calls back.“I’m working to restore a version of the games, but this isn’t the way to do it.”
“You’re just a senator!”someone calls out.“You don’t care about any of us.”
“I care,” Marcus says.“Everything I do is for the people of this city.I will do anything I must to keep you safe and happy.Including this.”
He raises his hands, and clouds start to roll in.Back in the bathhouse, I saw him send a flicker of lightning out to force people back.Now, I see that he has control over all kinds of weather, as rain starts to lash down in a sudden storm, powerful enough to make people run for cover in the shelter of the buildings around them.The rain takes away a lot of the enthusiasm of the people protesting, making them start to break up, heading back in the direction of their homes.
Marcus almost collapses when he’s done, and I catch him, helping to hold him up.
“I’m all right,” he says.“It’s just an effort to do so much at once.I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“We should get you to somewhere you can rest,” I say.
Marcus shakes his head, though."I want to go to the Senate chambers.The Senate needs to discuss this and how we can stop it from happening again."
***
I sit in the Senate chamber, while around me the senators file in.The viewing galleries are filling up too, the people of the city clearly wanting to see what the response to the riots will be.Alaric is among the watching group.Rowan is there in his seat, looking worried and whispering with a couple of guards, obviously getting reports on the riots, but it's Marcus who strides out to the middle of the floor.
“My friends, fellow senators,” he says.“Today, there have been riots in the slums of the city.”
“We know this,” Rowan replies.“The guards are moving into them to round up the most violent of the people involved, and to tally the damage.”
“And what will be done with the perpetrators?”Marcus asks.“Execution?Public punishment?Our new republic struggles to find ways to deal with those who transgress its laws.”
There’s a murmur of agreement from some of the senators.
“We no longer feel safe,” Olivia says.“Some of us have to employ guards to keep the rabble at bay.”
“We should make an example of the worst of them,” Octavio says.“Impale the leaders where the rest can see.”
Rowan looks angry.“You want to take the republic back to the worst excesses of the empire.”
“I agree with the first senator,” Marcus says.“We cannot just resort to brutality to quell this kind of riot.Doing it would only fuel more violence.We would make ourselves into a ruling class, keeping the citizens in their places by force.”
“And what do you want to do instead?”Senator Yarrow asks.“Several of my businesses were attacked today.One of my girls was killed by the gangs.”
I feel a pang of sympathy at that.I don’t like Yarrow much, because I suspect she’s little more than another gang leader in her own right, but I hate that people have died because of what’s happened today.
“The people out there were calling for the return of the games,” Marcus says.
There’s an instant response from several of the senators.
“This again?”
“Why do you bring everything back to the games?”
Rowan doesn’t look happy.“We’re discussing the riots, Marcus, not your plans to bring back the games.”
