He moves with more speed than I could have imagined, catching the snake behind its head even as it lunges forward with fangs extended.Jor grips it, lifts it, and then bites through the snake with a savagery I hadn’t anticipated, even from him.
“Are tricks all you have?”he roars.
I stay silent, moving carefully, but still not carefully enough to avoid triggering a trap, hidden in the trees.I feel my leg catch on a tripwire, and I push my body to the limit as I twist aside, barely avoiding the crossbow bolt that fires from some hidden place.
Now, the crowd is cheering, clearly enjoying this new game filled with traps and attempts to kill one another at a distance.I’m using every animal I can find to keep track of Jor’s movements, although I don’t send another against him when he’s already shown he’s fast and dangerous enough to kill even the deadliest things here.The organizers of the games have released plenty of snakes and spiders, obviously wanting to give me something to work with, but clearly, none of it is going to be enough to beat Jor alone.
I can see he’s making his own efforts to hunt me down.More of the ghosts of his ancestors surround him, and they seem to be spreading out, as if searching for me.I don’t see the ones he’s already used, and now I find myself wondering if hecan’treuse them, or at least, not quickly.Is it possible that each of them is gone as soon as he channels their essence?Certainly, he hasn’t thrown any more fire my way, when I would assume it’s the obvious choice to flush me out.
Can I use this limitation to Jor’s powers against him?I think there might be a way, so I start to move closer, deliberately letting him spot me.
He throws a flicker of lightning this time, a ghost appearing near him and then fading.I see it disappearing into wisps even as I dodge the attack, and I’m convinced now that Jor can only hold each ghost for so long.
I change our mutual hunt now, letting him catch glimpses of me, allowing him to use up his magic as he throws attack after attack my way.He seems to be throwing them less often now, clearly trying to conserve his strength.I suspect he has no good ranged attacks left, because he’s trying to close on me through the foliage.
I head for the waterfall now, borrowing some of the climbing abilities of the spiders as I clamber up the rocks there.Jor is following me, using sheer strength to haul himself up after me.He comes to the top, and I'm waiting with my trident ready as he swings his axe.
We start to exchange blows, andnowthe crowd roars its approval in earnest.I dodge Jor’s blows, keeping him at a distance, trying to frustrate him.I sense the moment when it all gets too much for him and he simply charges at me.
I drop from the waterfall in a graceful dive, even as he throws himself at me.Jor tumbles through the air beside me, but he hits the water below far harder, sending a huge splash into the air even as I cut through the water gracefully.I come up before he does, dragging myself to the side and rolling out.
I can feel Jor biding his time, feel him calling one last ghost into himself, but I’m waiting for him as he’s finally ready to emerge.
He bursts from the water in a leap, looking as though there’s another, even larger body wrapped around his own.He swings his axe in a mighty blow that would probably cut me in half if it landed, but I’m already dodging it.I cast my net as I do so, wrapping Jor in it and quickly circling him so that the trailing rope tangles him.He flexes his muscles as if he might burst free, but I swing my trident low, knocking his legs from underneath him.
He topples like a tree, the last of his ghosts fleeing from him.Jor glares up at me, and there’s a look of something close to resignation in his eyes.
“Finish it,” he demands.“Send me to the rest of my ancestors.”
I shake my head, though, slowly letting the energy I’ve borrowed from the animals around me run out of my body.
“I don’t need to do that,” I say, “and I won’t risk the stones of the city stealing all you are.”
Jor looks genuinely frightened then.It’s obvious that possibility hadn’t occurred to him.
I raise my voice so the crowd can hear.“I don’t need to kill someone to beat them.Jor is a worthy opponent.He deserves to live!”
I expect boos from the crowd, but instead, they cheer.It seems they like the idea of mercy in the games, and aren’t just here to see as much blood as possible.
Selene stands in the senate box, as if she’s the one with ultimate power over life and death.It’s another way she’s already copying the things the old emperor used to do.
“Lyra is right in this,” she says.“We don’t need to kill our neighbors to show them our strength.Already, this bout has proved the strength of an Aetherian compared to the barbarians of the north.Let Jor carry that tale back to his people.Let him live.Lyra is the winner of this bout.”
She says it casually, as if the whole game is hers to command.Perhaps they are, by this point.I know, as Selene says, that I've fallen into another of her manipulations.She's achieved exactly the outcome she was hoping for in this bout, all while making herself look like more and more of an authority figure.
With every step I take in the games, it feels like I’m being drawn deeper into her plans.But I have no choice.The only way out of this situation is through it, all the way to the other side of the games.In the meantime, I’ll simply have to do what I can to make it harder for Selene to use me for her own ends.
I will find a way to counter the story she’s trying to tell, and tell a different story.One in which the people of Aetheria can be free.
CHAPTER SIX
I sit in the space given over to the healers for a brief time, seated on the edge of a stone slab while they work on me with magic to close cuts and scrapes I received in my fight with Jor.I don’t have any serious injuries, and I’m happy about that, because it means I’m able to stand ready to leave within a few minutes.
The quicker the better, when there are already bodies laid out on the slabs, waiting to be collected for burial or displayed publicly, in the case of the criminals.
Marcus is waiting for me at the entrance to the healers’ room, looking excited as he holds out a hand to me.I take it, of course, and not just because it fits with my cover as his prisoner and servant.He doesn’t seem to mind that there’s still dirt on me from my fight.If anything, I suspect he likes me looking like this.Marcus always did like to get lost in the excitement of the games.
“You were incredible out there,” Marcus says, as he starts to lead me up through the interior of the colosseum.“I was worried at first that you were going to lose the crowd, but you gave them the show they wanted at the end with that dive from the waterfall.”
