I shrug."He was my opponent, not my enemy.I have no wish to kill anyone, I don't have to."
“So it wasn’t to demonstrate how much stronger your city is than us?”Lorik asks.
I shake my head.“That’s Selene Ravenscroft’s story about Aetheria, not mine.”
Lorik regards me evenly for several seconds.“We’re due to meet with her.She wishes peace with the mountain lands.But peace on her terms.”
I consider my next words carefully.“Then you should meet with her.But you should also meet with Senator Marcus Larius.”
“I hear he’s Selene’s lapdog,” Lorik says.
I spread my hands."Perhaps you heard what he wants people to hear for now.And perhaps he can make a better peace with you.If you're willing."
This is a dangerous game, one that could put both Marcus and me in danger, but I think it may be worth the risk.Anything, to peel potential allies away from Selene.
“We will think on it,” Lorik says.He stands, turning to leave.The other mountain folk go with him.
As he leaves, I spot a familiar figure at the other end of the receiving rooms, one I wouldn’t normally expect to see here in the colosseum.
“Rowan?”I say, hurrying forward.
Rowan is currently the First Senator of Aetheria, the holder of the highest office in the land.He wears the white toga of a senator over a muscular frame, that makes him look like he's carved from stone.That's appropriate, when his magic gives him control over stone and earth of all kinds.His auburn hair falls over his face, partly covering a scar on one cheek inflicted by the woman who once owned him, before he went into the games.His green eyes fix on me as I approach, and he smiles.
“Lyra, I was hoping I’d see you here.”
“And Ididn’tthink I’d see you in the receiving rooms,” I say.
Rowan shudders as I say it.“They’re a vile place, with too many bad memories, but I’m prepared to put up with it now if it will help me save Aetheria.”
I wish he’d had the same attitude before, when others were using the games to gain popular support and slowly wrest power from him.If Rowan had been able to bring himself to preside over the games, maybe Selene wouldn’t have had the opportunity to use them to gain more power.
“Things in the senate must be serious if you’re here,” I say.
Rowan nods.“More than you know.Selene already has enough votes in the senate to control it and push through anything she wants, but now, she’s ready to go a step further.”
“She’s going to declare herself ruler?”I guess.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Rowan says.“The proposal in the senate now is that the winner of the Grand Tournament will be rewarded with a position at the head of the senate, and above it.”
It’s a shock that Selene would try to take power in such a way.Why not just have the senate declare her empress?Because Selene truly believes that she deserves to rule based on the extent of her magical abilities.She genuinely believes what she says about those with the most magical power deserving to rule.Which means, if someone can display even greater magic,theywill deserve to rule, not her.
Even if she somehow loses in the colosseum, Selene is still trying to create the kind of society she wants.She’s forcing whoever wins to play into the idea that they deserve power because of it.She’s trapping whoever wins in her web, even if it isn’t her.
Besides, I have no doubt Selene believes she’ll win.There are plenty of powerful gladiators in the games, but Selene has magic beyond any of us.For her, that makes her unbeatable.So much so that she wanted me in the games so she would have a chance to defeat me.
Selene wants to win the tournament, and when she does, the people will acclaim her as she takes power.The senate’s proposal will give her a mechanism to make it official, and the foreign delegates who’ve gathered to see the spectacle will only lend the moment authority.Selene will gather every faction of Aetheria beneath her, and anyone who tries to stand against her will find themselves crushed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Because Marcus is busy trying to play politics, I’m left waiting in the colosseum.I can hear the roar of the crowd outside and the sound of blasts of magic echoing through the stadium.Just those sounds are enough to make adrenaline pump through my veins, my body ready to fight even as my mind knows I won’t need to do so again today.
I might be stuck in the receiving rooms, but at least I can see some of what's happening, thanks to my magic.Currently, a couple of fighters are leaping between platforms in the colosseum, exchanging magical attacks as they go.One is dressed like a sailor and throws blasts of wind that threaten to tumble his foe from the platforms.The other wears the robes of a scholar and weaves a web of magical symbols around himself.
The need for careful balancing is clear when I look down and see the spikes that have been set up below.This is a contest of one specialized form of magic against a broader and more learned approach.It’s another contest I’m sure Selene helped set up to make a point about the city around her.
I keep part of my attention on the fight, but send more fragments of my consciousness into other animals around the arena.I might be stuck in the receiving rooms for now, but I can still try to find out more of what’s going on within the corridors and back rooms of the colosseum.
I look through the eyes of a rat, seeing Senator Olivia in one of the chambers leading off from the receiving rooms.She's with a small group of nobles, and for once, I don't have to pull back sharply to avoid seeing the worst excesses of her hedonistic partying.Her golden hair is bound up with a jeweled headband, and she wears more jewels on her wrists and ankles, so that she seems to shine with them.
