“You think I won’t kill you, beast whisperer?”she says, her own knife poised and ready.
“Iknowyou won’t,” I reply, and that’s when I call out to the birds again.
They come for her in a pecking, clawing swarm that forces Lorelei back with her hands covering her face.Even as she does it, I reach down into the beast pit below the arena, borrowing what I can from the animals there.I take strength from the great elephant I saw before, and borrow from one of the caged shadow cats to lengthen my fingers into claws.I burst from the vines holding me even as Lorelei calls more plants to fight back against the birds.
She’s so preoccupied with fighting them that she never sees me coming.
I throw myself at her, smashing her from her feet in a tackle that sends us both tumbling to the ground.I grab the wrist of her knife hand, digging in with my claws hard enough to draw blood and make her drop it as we tumble over and over on the floor of the colosseum.Above us, the crowd is baying at the violence again.
I pin Lorelei down, but even now, she’s not done.The vines in her hair start to reach for me, but I slashthroughthat hair with my claws, tossing away the threat.My hand closes around her throat, the claws there poised just above the pulsing blood vessels of her neck.
Lorelei looks at me, then over at the crowd.I realize she’s looking at Cassandra.I look over to her, too, and she gives the faintest nod to Lorelei, as if giving her permission.
“I yield,” Lorelei says, loud enough for the crowd to hear.“I yield to you, beast whisperer.”
I step back from her, slowly letting go of the magic I’ve called, letting my body return to what it was and the birds fly from the arena.Above, a horn sounds, and Marcus’ voice rings out.
“Lyra Thornwind is victorious!”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
There’s a pause after Marcus speaks, and then a wave of sound hits me, with an intensity that almost makes me take a step back.There are cheers, there are boos.A couple of shouts of “traitor!”ring through the colosseum.
But there’s also my name, repeated over and over by the watching crowd.
“Lyra!Lyra!”
I help Lorelei to her feet, and she gestures in a way that dismisses the plants she’s summoned.The colosseum is still a much more verdant place than it was at the start of our bout, but now it isn’t filled with plants that actively grab for us as we make our way from the sand.
“I heard about your reputation,” Lorelei says as we keep going towards the gates leading down.“I assumed you couldn’t possibly live up to it.”She sounds awed, and that’s a strange reaction from another gladiator.I’m used to hatred, jealousy, fear, but rarely to that kind of appreciation.Maybe it helps that I just spared her life.
“What will you do now?”I ask.“Return to Arboria?”
Lorelei shakes her head.“Not straight away.Lady Cassandra has been sent to see how things turn out here.To send greetings from our queen if Selene Ravenscroft gains power, and to assess the situation if things become more… chaotic.”
“You mean, to decide if you can successfully invade?”I ask.We’re at the gates now, heading down into the cooler, darker air of the preparation areas.We’ll both need to go to the healers, but only for relatively minor injuries.I’m sure gladiators will suffer far worse in the coming days of combat.
Lorelei shrugs.“I suspect our bout might have delayed that, if it helps.It’s a reminder that there are strong people within Aetheria.But if the situation collapses sufficiently… then maybe.”
It’s a reminder that Selene isn’t the only threat here.The Arborians seem to assume that Selene will declare herself empress and take power smoothly, but even if we fight back against her, the situation could still turn out badly.If Aetheria is weakened too much by the fight against Selene, we could find ourselves fighting enemies from outside the Republic, as well as just those who want a return to the old order.
For now, though, I seem to have done enough to convince the Arborians, at least, of our continued strength.I’m glad I didn’t have to kill anyone in my first bout back in the colosseum.I won’t be forced into that by Selene, just for the entertainment of the crowd.
Marcus is there as I enter the preparation areas.He must have rushed down from the senate box.Even as Lorelei walks away, he sweeps me up in his arms, kissing me before I can even think.I pull back quickly, but only because it would be far too easy to lose myself in a kiss like that.
“I was so worried about you,” Marcus says, as he lets go of me.He frowns down at my arm, and I realize it isn’t the wound from Lorelei’s spear he’s looking at.“You aren’t wearing your dampener.”
“Rowan had it removed.Well, Selene did,” I say.I hate that she’s manipulated Rowan yet again.“She wants a real challenge from me, because it makes it better when she wins.”
“Whenshe wins?”Marcus says.
It sounds like an inevitability, but I feel as though there’s more hope than ever before.I have access to my full powers in the fight against Selene now, rather than to just a fraction of them.
“I can beat her,” I tell him.“I can do this, Marcus.”
I know this is all part of Selene’s plan, that she wants to show the things magic can do in this Grand Tournament of hers.I know she’s trying to make me into an advertisement for the empire she has in mind, where those with the most magic have power, but I hope now that I can turn it against her.She wants me to have a real chance to fight through the tournament so she can beat me, but I hope that’s just her arrogance.Selene has imagined all kinds of potential contingencies, out thought us at every turn, but she seems incapable of considering the possibility that she might lose here.
“You need to be seen,” Marcus says.
