CHAPTER TEN
As they take Selene away, the senate chamber starts to empty, the various senators moving through to the ante chamber, or heading quickly back to their rooms. I get the feeling that several of them don't want to be associated with this decision.
I can hear the murmurs above in the viewing galleries as I stand and head for the doors to the antechamber. There's a thrill of excitement in the air.
“The games. We're going to have real games.”
I catch that among all the rest and freeze. I know it represents the feelings of at least a portion of the population here in Aetheria. People who think that the games don’t count unless there are blood and death. Worry sinks into me like a stone.
Marcus is already at the heart of a knot of supporters when I enter the room. They look pleased with him. One shakes his hand, while another slaps him on the shoulder. They're laughing and joking as if a woman's fate wasn't just decided.
Rowan is there too, a crowd of people around him, demanding this or that from the senate. I have the same issue, people from the viewing gallery immediately crowding around me, clearly excited about the decision that's just been made.
“Does this mean you'll be executing other criminals in the arena?” a man asks me. “Will we see Domitian die there?”
He sounds as if he's looking forward to the prospect, and that sickens me, the full enormity of what I've just been a party to starting to hit me.
I might not have been part of ordering someone's execution outright, but I have just sanctioned what is effectively a death match in the arena.
A series of them, since Selene would have to survive five sets of games if we're applying the same rules that I fought under.
Five seasons doesn’t necessarily mean five fights.
I was made to fight more than once in most of the games I took part in, with bouts spread over several days.
Selene might have to fight twenty times or more in total, twenty death matches, amounting to five stripes across a branded circle representing the arena.
And the worst part is that she’ll probably win. She’s an Archon, after all. Rather than condemning her to death, we're condemning the people she fights. Surely we can’t just allow that?
I gesture to Rowan and Marcus, pointing to the doors to the chamber. They get the message and start to disentangle themselves from the people near them.
We head through the palace to Rowan's office, a room dominated by a marble table piled high with requisitions and other documents.
His role gives him authority, but also means he sees far more of the day-to-day running of the city than I ever do.
Rowan takes a seat behind the desk while Marcus and I stay standing.
“We should have voted that down,” I say, my frustration coming through in my voice as I look Marcus’ way. “We shouldn't have let Selene force us into putting her into the games.”
“This is for the best,” Marcus insists. “We couldn't be seen to go against the laws of our own city. We aren't just a bunch of petty tyrants the way the emperor was.”
“You were the one pushing for her immediate death,” Rowan points out.
“When I thought that was possible within the law,” Marcus says. “The moment she pointed out her right to fight for her freedom, it became obvious that wasn't going to work anymore.”
I know Marcus better than that. He isn't someone to just give in the moment things become difficult.
He is used to having to persuade the other members of the senate, and he spent months getting close to Domitian to try to stop him.
He's someone who thinks deeply and always tries to manipulate the situation to his own ends, or at least to what he thinks is best for the city.
“What deeper game are you playing here?” I ask him.
Marcus shakes his head. “It's simply a question of what the people will accept. Once Selene brought up the idea of her fighting, attempting to prevent it would have created uproar amongst the ordinary people. That would have led to disorder in the city. In this case, we have to give them what they want.”
Rowan nods. “Marcus has a point. We've seen how quickly things can get out of hand among the citizens. Alaric’s people continue to spread discontent, and the mob in the slums are easily stirred up. We don't want more riots.”
“That's not what they're doing,” I insist. I know he's never gotten along with Alaric, but surely Rowan sees that he isn't trying to overthrow the Republic?
“What are they doing then?” Rowan asks.
“They're trying to protect us from elements that want to corrupt the Republic the same way we're trying to.”
“Not exactly the same way,” Marcus says. “We don't go around trying to disrupt the games or deface the city.”
“They did that because no one was listening,” I point out. “They were right about Domitian.”
“But he's in prison,” Rowan says. “And the only threat is from Selene.”
It feels like an oversimplification, trying to boil all the problems of the city down to one person who’s only just come back to it. And there's an obvious problem. The same problem that made me pull them aside in the first place.
“But she is a threat,” I say. “And a threat who’ll soon be free, probably at the expense of several gladiators’ lives.”
Marcus raises an eyebrow. “You think it's inevitable she'll win? For five sets of games? Across multiple fights per game?"
“She's an archon,” I remind him. “She has power over multiple disciplines of magic, and is more skilled in magic than anyone else in the empire was. Even Tiberius wasn't as powerful as her. She listened to him only because he was the emperor.”
And maybe because his control over time magic made him supremely dangerous even to Selene. For all her skill and control, she wouldn't have been able to do much if she'd been frozen in time.
“Even an archon can be beaten,” Rowan says.
“By whom?” I shoot back. “Anyone you send into the Colosseum against her would be going to their death.”
Even I'm not sure if I could take her one-on-one. I would have to be lucky, would have to avoid all her magic. And honestly, I have no wish to do something like that. I don't want to walk onto the sands to kill someone ever again if I can avoid it.
“Not necessarily,” Marcus says. “My understanding is that for a period you were judged too powerful by those who ran the arena, including Selene.”
That's true. After my powers set a dangerous beast free and it chose to go through the crowd, Selene and Darius Blookhawk, the two organizers of the games, sought to limit my powers. Are Marcus and Rowan thinking of doing the same thing to Selene?
“You want to use a dampener on her?” I say.
Marcus nods. “It's the obvious choice. There's plenty of precedent for it, especially when she was the one to put one on you.
She can't exactly complain about us doing it so long as we leave her access to at least some of her powers.
She wouldn't be so much stronger than everyone else, and my guess is that her combat skills aren't going to be as well developed.”
“I'm not aware of her ever training at Ironhold,” Rowan says. “She was always a magic user, a judge, not a member of the army.”
He looks thoughtful.
“You two really believe this will work, don't you?” I say. “You think you can slap a dampener on Selene, throw her into the colosseum and watch her die.”
“And you think it won't work?” Rowan asks.
“I think there are all kinds of problems with this scheme,” I say.
“For a start, do you think she hasn't considered this?
Selene wouldn't have suggested fighting in the colosseum if she didn't think she could win, and as you said, she was the one who applied a dampener to me. She must know the use of them is an option.”
“She might know it's coming, but that doesn't mean she can fight well enough with one on,” Rowan counters.
“Which means we're throwing her in there simply to die,” I say. “And it becomes no better than the so-called bouts where the empire would send in a gladiator to kill criminals.”
“Maybe that's not the worst idea, though,” Marcus says. I forget sometimes how in favor he is of the old ways of running the games.
“That's a matter for another day,” Rowan replies.
I shake my head. “This decision brings it closer. Selene has already achieved one thing she wants. She's brought death matches back to the games, even if it's only for her. And once she's in there, do you think she won't use every opportunity to try to build up support for herself?”
Marcus puts his hand on my shoulder in what’s probably meant to be a gesture of reassurance.
“You're overthinking this. Selene thought she could find a way out of her punishment, and now she's going to find that it's coming for her anyway. I know you have qualms about killing people, but this is an enemy to the whole Republic, someone who’ll tear us down if she can. When she's dead, we’ll all be safer.”
I can see I'm not going to change their minds, and the senate has already voted on Selene fighting. I feel as though I'm trapped in the middle of a game, caught up in rules, words, and expectations, not able to act freely.
I find myself missing the days when I wasn't a senator, when I had a simple life out in Seatide.
It was just me and Alaric. I miss those days, miss their peacefulness.
And I miss Alaric. I hate that he wasn't even prepared to come to a meeting with me.
What's he doing now? Has he heard the news that Selene will be fighting?
If so, how will he react? Rowan and Marcus might think they're containing a threat, but they might just have triggered a fresh wave of disruption in the city.