“This is your moment to get on board with Selene,” Olivia says.“It’s inevitable that she’ll win.When she does, it’s vital that we’re her friends.”
Can I let that stand?I can see the fight continuing outside, the two combatants closing on one another.The scholar has a slender blade, the sailor something curved and deadly.The two exchange blows, pass one another, and keep going.
I go to the door of the room Oliva’s in, waiting for her to come out.She starts as she does so, looking at me with surprise, then hostility.
“What areyoudoing here?”she demands.“Has your master decided to leave you for anyone who wants you?”
“Marcus isn’t my owner,” I say.“I’m not a slave, Senator.”
“In all but name,” Olivia says, with a certain note of satisfaction.“Selene tells me you’re a test case.She’ll have a few more traitors given into the ‘custody’ of nobles she wants to reward, and from there, it’s only a short jump to reopening the slave markets.”
She sounds satisfied by that in a way I can’t comprehend.Does she really just see herself sitting at the peak of the social hierarchy, with everyone else forced to come crawling to her?
“And what will you do when she puts you into those markets?”I ask.
Olivia looks offended now.“You know I could have you punished just for speaking to me this way.”
“Selene has already offered you to Marcus to replace me if she kills me,” I say.“With all the times you’ve tried to kill me or Marcus, going against her wishes, do you think she’s happy with you?”
“I’m still one of her strongest allies,” Olivia says.
I shake my head.“One of her mostobedientallies, perhaps, but strongest?Selene is crafting an empire where those with the most magic rule over those without it.How strong isyourmagic, Olivia?”
We both know that she doesn't have much.Her position in the senate stems from her noble lineage and her wealth, not from any particular magical talent.In other words, she's exactly the kind of person who Selene wants to push out of power in her new version of Aetheria.
Olivia looks a little troubled by that, but she quickly hardens her expression.
“Selene is going to win here.She’ll remember those who supported her.”
“Will she?”I say.“Weren’t she and Domitian allies, for a time?”
Domitian is the former senator and military leader who sought to usurp the power of the Republic.He was in contact with Selene the whole time, right up to the moment when his coup failed.The Republic imprisoned him in the same dark space below the city’s streets where I was held.
Selene was the one who had him executed in the colosseum.
“I’m not like Domitian,” Olivia says.“I’m not a threat to her power.”
“And you aren’t of use to her for much longer,” I point out.“Selene tends to get rid of those who aren’t useful to her.And you keep talking as if it’s inevitable that she’ll win.There’s still a chance I beat her.”
“And if you do, I have no doubt that you’ll be quick to take revenge on me,” Olivia says.
I shake my head.“I don’t care about revenge, or killing my enemies.”
“And that’s why you can’t win,” Olivia shoots back.“I should have you punished for this.I should-”
A servant comes forward, a young man in the simple white tunic of those who attend the receiving rooms.
“Forgive me, Senator,” he says.“Lyra’s presence has been requested by Senator Marcus.”
Olivia looks annoyed, but she nods.“Very well.Take her.”
The servant leads me away from the receiving rooms, which is a surprise when I know Marcus is still in discussions with Quintus in one of the side rooms.What’s going on becomes a little clearer when the form of the servant shifts between one step and the next, so that now I’m walking alongside a middle aged bookmaker.
“Alaric?”I guess.
"Of course," he says."Did you think I was going to leave you there until that viper took it into her head to whip you?What were you doing there?Did you really think you were going to change Olivia's mind?"
"I had to try," I say.If I can just persuade some of Selene's allies that she isn't truly their friend, maybe the former arch-magistrate won't have such total control over the senate anymore.Maybe it will be possible to stop her political ambitions in their tracks.
