That possibility is still with me.I’ve done all I can to prepare, but what if I’ve misjudged this?What if I’m going to my death in the morning?I could fall in the colosseum, despite all my efforts.I find myself thinking of Alaric with a pang of pain then, thinking of all the things I could have said to him or done with him that there might never be time for.I think of Marcus, too, and the life we could have had if only things had been different.Senators together, husband and wife, in a safe and prosperous Aetheria.
The trouble is, there canbeno safe and prosperous version of the city if Selene is in charge.She’ll bring order if she becomes empress, but it will be the order of the magically powerful controlling everyone else and killing those who dare to question it.I can’t allow that, even if it means my life.
When morning finally comes, I go to join the others in Ironhold’s main courtyard.The gladiators are waiting at the heart of a procession of trainers and beasts, guards and entertainers.There are acrobats and mages who are already throwing flickers of brightly colored fire into the air.There are those who can conjure music from nowhere, and illusionists who are starting to conjure images of battling gladiators.
Selene is riding at the front of the procession, on a horse of midnight black and while she still has her gladiator’s armor on, she’s also wearing a billowing cloak of purple, trimmed with gold.She waves her hand and the guards open Ironhold’s gates to allow her to ride forward.The whole procession follows in her wake.
“She looks like an empress riding into a conquered city,” Lorelei mutters, from beside me.
That’sexactlywhat Selene looks like.She’s taken the traditional pageantry of the processions down to the games and turned it into something that focuses attention on her.She’s made it into a declaration of her superiority, a way of making it look as if she’s already the empress she plans on becoming.
It’s a reminder of what’s at stake in this tournament.If Selene wins, she’ll have a wave of popular support behind her.It will be so great that, when she has the senate proclaim her the ruler of Aetheria, the people will applaud her for it, rather than fighting against her rule.
For now, though, I can only follow her, playing my part in the procession as we weave our way down from Ironhold towards the city.The procession is taking one of the traditional routes, one that will start in the slums and then make its way through as many districts of the city as possible before reaching the colosseum.It’s obvious the idea is to make sure we’re seen by as many people as possible before the games begin.
It's also obvious, as we reach the slums beyond the city walls, that Selene’s supporters have made an effort to make this as spectacular as possible.The mages with us are still working their magic, producing illusions above the procession and sending bursts of color up into the sky, but there are clearly others hidden in the crowds to produce streams of colorful smoke and shifting light displays.It feels as though everyone in Aetheria has come out onto the streets to watch the procession, the noise of their cheering almost deafening.
I notice something about the illusions, too.While they show gladiators fighting in spectacular battles, Selene is in far more of the images than any of the rest here, while I’m in hardly any at all.It’s clear she’s making herself the star of this show, making sure it’s her name people chant as we pass.
“Selene!Selene!”
The city gates are open to let us inside, and we pass into the merchant district, where porters and laborers stand idly rather than working so they can cheer us on, then into the entertainment district, where groups of jugglers and acrobats add their own brands of spectacle to ours.Barely clad men and women call out offers for the victors in the games from some of the windows, while hawkers call the odds on different gladiators.Even as we pass into the noble district, a sense of excitement fills the air.The noble houses have swapped their usual illusions celebrating their families for ones displaying different gladiators, either in the current games or of ages past.
As we approach the colosseum, the noise and spectacle are even greater.People are thronging around it, trying to get in, so that they have to be held back by guards just to let us through.Pennants and flags fly from the outside of the structure, while someone has used magic to make it look as though the many statues that decorate the colosseum are moving, waving to the crowd or reenacting their greatest battles.
We head inside and now the noise is truly like a physical blow.There are more people in the colosseum than I’ve ever seen before, more than it could ever have held before the rebuilding work Selene pushed through at the expense of the slums.Our procession heads out onto the sands and we gladiators stop, Selene still sitting atop her horse, the rest of us on foot.The rest of the procession, with its beasts and trainers, mages and guards, heads into the preparation area below the arena.
I stand there looking up at the senate box.It’s full, for once, so many senators crammed into it that I’m sure it must barely be able to bear the weight.Marcus is there, and Olivia, but the biggest surprise is that even Rowan has turned out for this moment, despite his usual refusal to watch the games.Noble boxes have so many jeweled figures within them that they seem to shine, while I spot the familiar figure of Cassandra in one of them, along with delegations who must be from other lands around Aetheria.
This would normally be the moment when Marcus or another senator welcomes us to the games, but it’s Selene who speaks from the back of her horse, her voice carrying effortlessly despite the noise, clearly amplified by magic.
“Citizens of Aetheria, welcome to the Grand Tournament.It is to be a spectacle beyond even the games of the old empire, certainly something greater than the neutered games of the Republic.This will be a contest of real blood and death, in which gladiators from Aetheria and beyond fight for glory and honor.”
A cheer answers her, but Selene isn’t done.She holds up her left arm, with its circular brand and its dampener.
“As you can see, I need only pass through one more set of games to be a champion, and I have chosen these games for a reason.I want to show you that I can beat even the finest foes, be they enemies from beyond Aetheria, representatives of the old order, or beast whisperers!”
She gestures to me as she says the last part, getting a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd.
“But this is meant to be a display of what has always mattered in Aetheria: it’s magic.Does anyone think it’s right that mine should be limited by a dampener?”She gestures to the one that was put on her arm when she was first imprisoned, the one I know she’s already tampered with.
Selene doesn’t wait for an answer, but takes it from her arm smoothly and easily, in a way that shouldn’t be possible for the one wearing it.
“I could have removed this at any time,” Selene says.“I didn’t, because I chose to play the Republic’s game, and survive despite their best efforts to kill me.Now, I will take part in onefinalset of games, and I will show what should have been obvious all along: that magical might is the most important thing in Aetheria, and is theonlytrue basis on which it can run.”
There’s another deafening cheer from the crowd and Selene rides for the entrance to the preparation areas below the arena, leaving us to follow her down into the dark, into the cold stone of the areas designed to hold the gladiators until their matches.
The brackets for the first match ups have already been placed where we can see them, on a board at the end of the hall.I see my first round match up even as Lorelei comes up to me.
“It seems we’re to fight, beast whisperer.I hope you submit quickly.Lady Cassandra would hate it if you forced me to kill you.”
She’s a potentially formidable opponent, with her mastery over plants, one who’s clearly designed to test me to the limit from the start.But I know Ican’tjust give in.If I want to beat Selene, I need to fight my way through the tournament to her.I need to survive all the challenges Selene puts in front of me.
I need to win.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Outside, I can hear the sound of one of the preliminary matches as I warm up with a net and spear.The spear is shorter than many, with a particularly large, leaf shaped head that will allow me to slice with it as well as thrust.I have a curved dagger at my side, too, for close quarter fighting.
