CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Even for games like this, there's a procession down into the city. I watch it coming through the eyes of birds, winding its way down from the granite fortress of Ironhold. There are only a few gladiators in this procession, but their numbers are bolstered by guards and trainers.
I'm watching for trouble, for any sign that Selene is about to escape. For all that she seems undisturbed by the prospect of having to fight for her life, she might be planning to flee. Indeed, that might be the reason why she doesn't seem bothered by any of it. Maybe she isn’t worried about dying in the fight because she doesn’t plan to be there for it.
I'm convinced that there's some bigger scheme here, so I watch closely through the eyes of birds even as I make my way to the Colosseum from the palace, with Marcus by my side.
“You look worried,” he says, smiling and waving at the crowds who've gathered before the Colosseum, determined to find seats before there's no more space.
The ordinary people push and shove to try to get in, while the nobles and the senators proceed at a more leisurely pace, knowing that there are private boxes waiting for them.
“I'm keeping watch on Selene,” I explain.
“You're worried she might try to break free?” Marcus asks.
“If she does, that's a good thing. Even if she escapes, she looks like a coward.
And if she just tries to fight? With that dampener in place, she's no match for the guards, and the penalty for her trying to run would be immediate execution.”
“You really want her dead badly,” I observe.
“She's a danger to the city, and she's shown that she won't keep away,” Marcus says. “Honestly, Lyra, this would have been easier if you and Rowan had killed her along with the emperor.”
I can't understand how easy he finds it to talk about killing someone like that. Is it just the ultimate expression of a politician’s pragmatism? The willingness to do whatever it takes to keep Aetheria safe?
“I couldn't kill her in cold blood after she’d helped,” I say. “I thought it would be enough for her to leave and not come back.”
“And now she is back,” Marcus points out. “And we don’t know what harm might come from that.”
“Which is why I'm watching her,” I say, keeping half my attention on Selene through the birds. Even most beast whisperers couldn't do what I'm doing for so long and at such distance. It would hurt the animals or risk transforming the beast whisperer into something more animal and less human.
Marcus takes my arm to lead me and make sure that my divided attention doesn't cause me to walk into anyone. I don't tell him that I could probably manage without him doing it, because I like his presence so close to me, like the touch of his skin against mine.
It means we walk into the colosseum arm in arm, looking like nothing so much as some loving couple out for a stroll.
In a lot of ways, that's exactly what we are, but it also presents a nice image for the crowd, and I'm sure Marcus knows that.
The people already in the stadium roar their approval as they see us, and Marcus stands there for a moment with me, the two of us waving, enjoying the moment.
We're as much a part of the spectacle as the fights to follow are going to be.
We make our way to the interior of the Colosseum, and I can see Selene making her way through the city.
Crowds line the route, many of them booing and hissing at her as a threat to the Republic.
But some of them are cheering and throwing flowers, treating Selene exactly the way they would if it were some popular gladiator, rather than a prisoner on her way to her execution.
“I’m going to check the final preparations,” Marcus says. “I want everything to be perfect today.”
I nod. “I’ll look around to make sure there aren’t going to be any problems, and keep watching Selene.”
“Just make sure you’re ready in time for the contests,” Marcus says. “You need to be seen in the senate’s box. We need to put on a show of unity among the senators against this threat to Aetheria.”
In other words, I need to be a part of the spectacle again.
I need the crowds to see me as Selene is slain, if she is.
I wonder if it's just about presenting a united front or if it's more than that. There are days when I think Marcus promotes himself and me so much that we’re seen as the faces of the senate, ahead of everyone else.
I wonder if he plans to try to become the first senator at some point, or perhaps even more than that.
I make my way through the Colosseum, hearing the people arriving, the crowds taking their place in the seats around the sands, the bookmakers calling out odds, the vendors offering food and drink.
I wander down to the beast pits, but they're empty today.
There are no plans to use creatures in any of the fights.
We use fewer of them than before because it's hard to control them. I could intervene to stop them killing people, but there are risks even to that. The animals could be hurt, even if people aren’t. It's better not to use them.
My aerial view shows me that Selene and the other gladiators have arrived.
I know the routines they’ll be going through now, heading to the preparation areas, warming up, maybe getting a massage.
They’ll be nervous, and not just Selene and Sorrel, who are fighting in a death bout.
Every gladiator here knows there are risks to fighting, even with semi-sharpened blades and plenty of healers on hand.
I can imagine them pacing and can remember the build-up of adrenaline that always came to me with the sounds of the crowd.
I know I should head up to the senate box to be seen or to the receiving rooms to talk to the great and the good of the city.
My duties as a senator require it. I need to push for things that will help the slums. I need to be seen by those with influence.
I need to try to find people who’ll help me stand against the worst aspects of the city, and help me to change them.
In other words, I need to do all the things I would usually do during the games, but I don't want to today. I don't want to go into the receiving rooms and play politics while knowing that everyone is here to see a death.
Besides, I'm not even sure they're the most useful things I can do. I need to find out more about what's going on in the city and more about what Selene has planned. She came back for a reason, and I want to know what that reason is.
So I head down to the preparation rooms. In them, I can see gladiators warming up.
Sorrel is there, swinging his staff, making sure that his muscles are loose.
There's a tension in his features that suggests the reality of what he's about to do has finally hit home.
I wonder if I could go to him and talk him out of this, but I doubt that I could, and even trying to do it would distract him.
I don't want to place doubts in his mind now, when those doubts might slow him down during the fight and leave him vulnerable. I won't do that to him.
But I'm more than happy to talk to Selene. I find her at the far end of the preparation areas, in a room of her own, with guards on the doors. Those guards allow me entry, and I stand there watching her.
She's dressed in scraps of scale armor that protect only patches of her flesh.
For a weapon, she's been given a single, curving sword.
The combination is clearly intended to look as though she has been given equal equipment to Sorrel, but I know enough to see that her armor is not as protective as his, and her blade is probably not a weapon she's used to using.
It's also one that will require her to come within the range of Sorrel’s staff if she wants to kill him with it.
Normally, such a weapon would be combined with a shield or a secondary weapon so that the gladiator can protect themselves on the way in.
Selene has been given nothing like that.
She has her magic, but the dampener on her left wrist will limit her ability to use it.
“Did you simply come to stare at me?” she asks without looking around. “Why not use one of your creatures, the way you've been watching me the whole way into the city?”
Her voice betrays no hint of anger at that, no sense of emotion at all. It's as if the situation doesn't touch her.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I say.
She doesn't reply and doesn't look at me. It's clear she has no interest in saying anything to me, but I have to try.
“Why did you come back?” I ask her. “That's what I don't get about all this.
You could have lived out your life in exile, or if you were going to return, you could have done it with an army at your side.
Instead, you walked back into the city and simply surrendered yourself. What's your plan, Selene?”
She doesn't reply, and I get the feeling that there's nothing I can say or do that will make her tell me the truth. I’m not some psychomancer, who can go rooting around people's minds or force them to obey simply through the power of their will.
Finally, Selene looks my way, those violet eyes locked onto mine as she stands opposite me. In that moment, I'm all too aware that she's holding a weapon and I'm not. She could try to cut me down here and now, and it would be a difficult fight, with no weapon of my own.
But she doesn't. Instead, she keeps staring at me.
“What grows beneath the city will consume it,” she says at last. “With or without me.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask. “What's growing beneath the city?”
But she doesn't answer, and there's no time to ask her more questions. Marcus is here now, coming into Selene’s cell.
“There you are, Lyra,” he says. “What are you doing down here? We’re needed above. It's time for us to go to the senate box to oversee the games.”
“I was just talking to Selene, trying to get answers from her.”
Marcus gives Selene a cold look. “There's nothing she can say that will help now. Soon enough, she'll be dead, and none of this will matter. Come on, Lyra.”
He takes me from the cell, and we start to make our way up. Soon, the games are going to start. Soon, Selene will be fighting for her life. So why does she seem so unconcerned by that?