CHAPTER SEVEN
The procession for the first day of the games is normally a joyous occasion. It is a moment when the citizens of the city see us for the first timesince the last games, all of us gladiators in our shining armor, holding our weapons. It is our first chance to be out of our fortress prison since the last games. In the case of some of the newer gladiators, it is the first chance for them and the citizenry to see one another at all. It is a moment when the great beasts are being brought down to the arenaas a part of the procession, lending the whole thing a circus feel.
It is a moment when I see the ways in which the other gladiatorsinteract with the crowds. Alaric always seeks to win them over, smiling and waving, accepting a crown of flowersfrom a small child, bowing with mock seriousness to an old woman. Golden haired Vex, with his thin network of scarswhere my shadow cat wounded him in a previous fight, always drinks in the cheering and the applause as if it is intended for him alone. Rowan strides forward, looking neither left nor right, all but ignoring this side of the games as if not wanting to have to perform for the pleasure of the crowd.
Zaraa and Cesca are marching side by side, waving to the crowd. There are more than a few catcalls towards them. Since Ravenna’s death, a certain portion of the crowd seems to be looking for new gladiators to focus its amorous attentions on. Zara seems to be making sure that Cesca isn't over awed by at all, becausethis is her first time taking part in real games. Cesca looks around as if drinking in every scrap of it.
That thought makes me look around for Callus, but he is movingwith confidence. His chest is bare, but he wears shoulder guards and vambraces. He carries a spear and a net, a combination close to my own pairing of spear and weighted chain. He looks my way, seeming to sense that I'mstaring at him. Not that he can sense such things. After all, he is a null, one of those who lacks magical power to augment whatever physical skills he has.
I briefly try to imagine what it will be like to fight him, try to work out the way our bout will go. I have fought nulls in the past, and they are still dangerous, even if they have no magic. The ones chosen for the colosseum tend to be big, skilled and aggressive. My best hope will be to use my own magic against him, finding a way to use the animals of the arena to gain an edge.
Most of my thoughts are not on him though. Nor are they on the crowds as we wind our way down into the city, through the slums on the outskirts, then through the walls into the main part of Aetheria. I wave to acknowledgesome of the cheersand those calling my name, but my heart isn't in it the way it might have been on another occasion. It isn't just that I know they would shout just as loud for anyone who cut me down in the colosseum; I'm also thinking hard about my home and what is happening to it. I'm thinking about how little I can do to change that from here, but I'm also thinking about the one thing I might be able to do.
We head through the city, and here it's possible to see both the grandeur ofAetheria and the power of its magic. Statues line the streets, often of mythical figures but sometimes of gladiators. Houses are decorated with illusions. Several places sportmoving pictures of the gladiatorsinvolved in the last games, the Champions Trials. I see an image of myself in the moment when I slew Ravenna, and wince, remembering the pain ofkilling someone deliberately, intentionally, for the first time.
The colosseum looms ahead of us, rising from the heart of the city as if it is the only place that matters within it. It is festooned with flags and banners, people pouring into it through its many entrances. We are heading down a broad promenade, again lined with statues, heading for a main entrance. It takes our procession out onto the sands directly, and a wall of noisefrom the crowd hits us as we do so. There are people everywhere, leaning out from the stands as if they wish to get closer to us, some using minor sparks of magicto produce colorful flames or streams of smoke. The magic that flows out from the stones of the city is so common thatit is rarer to find someone without a tiny talent than someone with one.
I stand there for a moment, drinking it in. The nobles are up in their boxes. I see Lady Elara is there, looking down. So is Selene Ravenscroft, white haired in spite of only being in her thirties, and with a severe expression. The bookmakers have set up their stalls and already seemed to be doing a brisk trade, taking bets on the outcomes of the bouts, the line up, and almost every other aspect of the games.
The emperor is in his box, waiting for us to arrive. He stands as we do so, spreading his hands for silence. The crowd falls quiet.
“Gladiators,” he says. “Welcome to the colosseum. Here you will help the city celebrate its most important virtues, martial strength and magical power. Those of you who succeed will win glory, while those who die will honor the gods with their blood. I salute you!”
He raises his fist in salute and we return the gesture, before we set off for iron gates that lead beneath the arena. There are guards there waiting for me, which is a surprise.
“The emperor would like to wish you luck,” one says. “Come with us. Leave your weapons.”
I hand my weapons to a trainerbefore following the guardsup through the arena to the emperor's private box. Although it is not so private, since as I enter it the crowd roars its approval at seeing one of their favorite gladiators. I kneel as I know I am required to, the emperorgesturing for me to rise in what seems like a benevolent move, but which also ensures that I'm seen by the crowd.
“Hear how they love you, following your victoryin the Champions Trials?” he says softly. “I trust that you will not embarrass me by losing too soon?”
“I will try not to, my emperor,” I say.
“Good, you may go. No, wait.” A thoughtful, cruel look appears on his features. “It occurs to me that you should stay for the first entertainment. Perhaps you will find it instructive.”
The way he says that makes me shudder. I know the kinds of things that the games begin with: executionsand matches that are so one sided that they might as well be executions. Those who have been deemed traitors are thrown in against trained gladiators or beasts.
The emperor gestures and trumpets sound, signaling the first bout. An announcer starts to speak, his voice carried by magic around the stadium.
“Citizens ofAetheria. For our first entertainment, we have criminals. But more than criminals. They are the greatest of horrors: beast whisperers. Traitorswho sought to hide themselves among good folk. Wild things in human flesh, who seek to devour you all!”
The announcer waves a hand andone of the iron gates opens to allow a pair of figures through. The figures wear the cloaks I recognize as those used by the members of the spectral covenant to hide themselves, although the hoods are thrown back to reveal a man and a woman. I do not recognize either one of them, but that means nothing. The members of the spectral covenant routinely hide their faces. I could have stood in the same room as them down in the depths of the city’s crypts, could have spoken to them, and I would still never recognize them now.
“It is time to meet their foe for this entertainment,” the announcer says. “We could have sent beasts against them, to rend them limb from limb, but we have all seen how that turns out.”
I feel as though every eye in the colosseum is on me for a moment, as if everyone there is remembering the bouts where I have tamed a creature sent to kill me, where I have robbed the crowd of the blood it craves.
“Instead, we have picked a foe for them who will not hesitate, and who cannot be controlled. The most noble of all gladiators in these games, the embodiment of all they stand for! I give you Vex!”
An iron gate on the far side of the arena opens, and Vex strides through, his arms raised to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. He wearsheavier armor than he would normally wear in the arena, a breastplate added to the usual scales and patches of plate. Clearly he is not intended to be wounded in this. He has belts of knives around his waist. He takes a couple of them out, demonstrating his power as they float like independent things in the air. He takes out more and more knives, tossing them in the air like a juggler, but they don't come down again. A whole shoal of them hangs there, awaiting his command.
The two beast whispererscharge forward at him, seeming to realise that they need to close the distance. The man's fingers seem to curl into claws. The woman is holding a dagger of her own.
It is anything but an even battle.
Vex doesn't let them get close. He moves away from them, blocking their route with his knives, keeping his distance. For a moment or two it seems like a game of cat and mouse where the two beast whisperers are hunting him, but I know better than that. Vex is drawing this out, making sure the crowd gets some entertainment.
Then his knives start to cut.
They sail inas if someone has thrown them, but they don't move in straight lines. They curve and sing through the air. I see one slice into the man's back and keep going. The woman is bleeding from a cut on her thigh.
I must stand thereas Vex sends his knivesas his opponents again and again.
He does not kill them quickly. Instead he cuts them with glancing blows, tearing their cloaks to tatters, then slicing into their fleshto make them scream. The crowd roars its approval. It might love me, but he doesn't seem to care about other beast whisperers.
Eventually, Vex ends it. His knives slam into his foes from every angle, transfixing them, stabbing them, thrusting into their hearts and leaving themdead upon the sand. The crowd goes wild for him.
The emperor is looking at me, gauging my reaction. I try to keep my horror off my face, but I suspect I don't do a good job of it.
“Thus die those who would stand against the empire. You won't stand against it, will you, Lyra?”
I shake my head hurriedly. “I exist to serve, my emperor.”
“Good,” the emperor says with a smile. “At some point we will test the limits of that. But for now, you should go. Your first match will begin soon, and I have more traitors to root out.”
I am grateful to be out of there, but as I go, I can’t help but glance across to Lady Elara’s box. She is not in it. Is that just because she cannot stand to see her fellow beast whisperers harmed?
Or has the emperor done something to her too?