Silence falls over the senate chamber, several of the senators looking Selene’s way.She isn’t even being subtle about her influence now.
“Very well,” Rowan says.“Lyra will be in the custody of Senator Marcus Larius.”
I know what Selene meant now about having a gift for Marcus to reward his loyalty.Once, I was to be his wife.Now… now, she has arranged for me to be little better than his slave.
CHAPTER FOUR
“This is all I could do for you,” Rowan says, as the guards adjust the dampener around my wrist in one of the rooms of the palace.“The only thing that could keep you safe.”
“This doesn’t keep any of us safe,” I say.“This is exactly what Selene Ravenscroft wanted.”
Almost everything seems to be going the way she wants.Selene always seems to be one step ahead, her plans designed so that, even when we go with what seems to be the best option, we’re still playing into her hands.
“I know that,” Rowan says, looking uncomfortable.“I thought long and hard before doing any of this, but I didn’t have a choice.Not unless I wanted to see you dead.”
“Thank you,” I say.I glance around at the guards, not knowing how much more I can say in front of them.I don’t know which guards are truly loyal to the Republic and which secretly report to Selene.“I know how much doing this must have cost you.”
“I’m more and more isolated politically,” Rowan replies, “and now I must allow things I hate in order to protect the people I care about.”
There was a time when Rowan and I were together.We helped each other to survive the colosseum and fought for the same things in overthrowing the empire.
“How much has changed in the time since I was imprisoned?”I ask.
“It’s more of the same as before,” Rowan says.“Selene hasn’t held her grand tournament, yet, but there are still fights to the death involving criminals and those who volunteer.She’s expanding her control through the city.People go to her as much as the senate when they want anything done.She’s receiving more and more delegations from Aetheria’s neighbors.”
Those were all things that were happening back when Selene tricked me and the resistance into breaking into the prison, but with Selene, it’s always been a matter of degree, the slow build up of power until she’s almost unstoppable.
“What about the resistance?”I ask Rowan.I know Rowan was in contact with Alaric before I was imprisoned, working to keep members of the resistance out of the city’s dungeons.Rowan shakes his head and looks at the guards pointedly.It’s clear he doesn’t trust them either.“I don’t know anything new.There have been some attacks within the city, but we’re no closer to catching them.”
That’s information in itself, Rowan’s way of telling me that Alaric and the resistance are still at large in the city, still fighting against Selene.But I can’t go to them, because I’m not free.
Rowan nods to the guards.“Remove her chains.”
“You’re sure, First Senator?”
“Do it,” Rowan instructs, and thankfully, they listen to him.The guards remove my chains, leaving me rubbing my wrists.Rowan inclines his head to me.“It’s time for you to go, Lyra.Marcus will be waiting for you.”
There’s emotion in his voice that suggests he wants to say more, but he doesn’t.Maybe Rowan doesn’t want to risk the guards carrying back anything he might say to Selene.Instead, he gestures to the door.
“Take her to Marcus.”
The guards march me through the palace to its front gates.I stand for a moment in the gardens beyond, taking a breath of truly fresh air for the first time in what feels like weeks.The gardens are among the most beautiful places in the city, shaped by magic as much as by the physical efforts of the gardeners.There are animals here too, kept as part of the emperor’s old menagerie or just wandering around freely.Peacocks that employ illusion as part of their tail displays strut around the grounds.Butterflies larger than my head flit between blooms.Cages hold everything from a claw handed ape to gazelles that seem to flicker from spot to spot as they move, illusions disguising their exact location.
Marcus is waiting for me beyond the doors to the palace, waiting beside an elegant palanquin attended by a quartet of bearers.That’s a surprise, when normally, Marcus prefers to walk through the streets openly in his senatorial toga, letting the people see him.
“I’ll take her from here,” Marcus says to the guards, before turning to me.“Get in, Lyra.”
I hesitate at the tone of command, but that only makes one of the guards shove me forward.
“You heard the senator.Do it.”
Marcus holds up a hand, lightning crackling in his palm.“I am more than capable of disciplining her myself, should I wish.”
I can’t tell if the lightning is a threat to the guards, or to me.Marcus’ expression is, as usual, hard to read, his feelings hidden behind the usual mask of a politician.The guards nod.
“Of course, senator.”
“Get in the palanquin, Lyra,” Marcus repeats.
