CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Selene Ravenscroft should be executed!” Marcus bellows, his voice carrying across the senate chamber.
“This again?” Senator Yarrow asks. “You’re just upset because your scheme to kill her in the colosseum didn’t work, Marcus.”
Marcus is more than upset. The anger is etched into his face as he looks around the chamber, daring anyone not to go along with him on this.
The trouble is, I’m not sure I can back him. I hate what Selene has done, but I’m not sure if I can condone her simply being executed.
"The rules of the Colosseum are clear," Senator Octavio says.
"Selene Ravenscroft won her first bout, survived her first time in the games.
By the laws that govern this city, she's one step closer to being free. You can be as upset as you wish about her winning, Marcus, but she did win, within the rules of the bout.”
“But she didn’t stick to the rules of the games,” Marcus says. “Tell them, Lyra.”
I stand, feeling the eyes of the other senators on me. Not just them. The viewing galleries are full again, perhaps realizing that this discussion will determine Selene’s fate.
“Her magic poisoned Sorrel,” I say. “She pretended to take him down mercifully, but the magic she used spread through him after the bout, and she knew it would happen. She as good as told me that in the private rooms after the bout.”
Senator Olivia raises an eyebrow. “And just what were you doing with her in the private rooms, Lyra? Is there truth to all the rumors after all?”
I sigh at her attempts to resurrect the rumors spread about me during my time in the games.
My patron, Lady Elara, used the private rooms to teach me what it meant to be a beast whisperer and to elicit my help in trying to overthrow the empire.
But she covered that by starting rumors that I was her lover and that we were meeting for intimate encounters.
Olivia seems determined to throw that in my face, using it as a way to undermine me.
“The point is that she used her magic to kill Sorrel,” I say. “She pretended to spare his life, while intending to kill him all along.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” a noble senator whose name I think is Rebus says. He’s a portly man in his forties, balding and wearing more gold than even Olivia. “The gladiator’s death is unfortunate, but we have no way of knowing it was intentional.”
He seems to be ignoring the part where I just told him Selene admitted to it.
“It’s a clear piece of magic intended to kill,” Marcus says, “and to kill slowly. What would we do if a gladiator used poison on their weapon in the games?”
“We would have seen them impaled on a spike,” a senator named Lucius says.
He’s a dark haired man in his thirties, broad shouldered and with a few scars from too many fights.
He used to be in the army of the emperor, so I find myself wondering how many disobedient gladiators he helped to impale during his time in the military.
“And that’s what should happen here,” Marcus insists.
There’s a boo from above, from the public viewing galleries.
Rowan looks up from his spot in the first senator’s seat. “Stop that,” he calls out to the gallery.
“Selene! Selene!” The chant takes off among the people there to watch the proceedings, spreading until almost half of the people up there seem to be chanting it in unison.
“Silence!” Rowan shouts, making the very stones of the palace shake with his control over stone and earth. The people up there fall silent. “These are serious proceedings of the senate. If you interrupt, I’ll have you removed!”
"Are you an emperor to try to silence the people?" someone calls out. It's an insult that I'm sure will sting Rowan, because an emperor is the last thing he wants to be.
“Guards!” Marcus calls out. “Clear these people out.”
He clearly doesn't have Rowan's compunctions about being seen to act heavy-handedly. The guards around the chambers quickly clear the public viewing galleries, but we’re still all too aware of the presence of the public outside; we know what they want.
“Executing Selene Ravenscroft now would be a very unpopular decision,” Rowan says. “It would lose the confidence of the people and make them think that we simply have our enemies murdered out of hand.”
“Do you think she'd hesitate to do it to us?” Marcus asks.
Rowan shakes his head. “That isn't the point, Marcus. The point is that we're trying to be different.”
“This is only one victory,” Olivia says. “Presumably, you have something harder in mind for her next bout?”
Unspoken in that is the assumption that Selene will be given harder and harder opponents in the hope that she dies at their hands.
It's a worrying idea because it reminds me too much of what the emperor tried to do with me.
I was protected by my position in the games from simply being slain, so he had to try to throw me into impossible situations.
The result just pushed me closer and closer to the part I played in overthrowing him.
“Lyra, you must support me on this,” Marcus says. “You saw what she did, and you know better than anyone how dangerous she is.”
I look around at the other senators. “She did poison Sorrel magically, and she is a danger to the city. It's obvious she's trying to build support.”
Marcus looks pleased, at least until my next words.
“But that doesn't mean I want her killed. I'm not comfortable simply having anyone executed. We should remove her from the games and throw her back into exile.”
“Can none of you see what's going on here?” Marcus asks, his frustration palpable.
I find myself wondering why he's so set on making sure Selene dies.
Is it just because he thinks she's that much of a threat to the city, or is there more to it than that? Is this really because he believes Selene to be responsible for his family’s downfall?
“We can all see you're unhappy with the way this turned out,” Senator Yarrow says.
“But I'm not sure the answer to that is to make things worse for ourselves by executing Selene now.
Or exiling her. We risk being seen as sore losers.
As for this nonsense of her magic being like poison on a blade, I see this more like a gladiator dying of their wounds following the conclusion of a contest. It's tragic, of course, but it happens. If you want to put this to a vote, I, for one, will be voting in favor of keeping Selene in the games and against executing her.”
Marcus looks around the room, obviously trying to gauge how much support he has for such a vote. I can see the moment when he realizes that he won't be able to get enough senators on his side to see Selene executed. He sighs, looking hurt.
“If you're all set on keeping her alive, I can't stop you,” he says. “But we'll all suffer the consequences for it.”
When the senate meeting starts to break up, we all head into the ante-chambers beyond the senate room. Marcus is there with some of the nobles, clearly trying to drum up more support. Rowan goes to him, then comes to me, leading the two of us back to his office.
“That didn't go well,” Rowan says, once we're all safely ensconced there. “Calling for Selene’s execution was a mistake, Marcus.”
“I'm just trying to protect the city,” Marcus says. “And I can understand that many of the senators don't want the humiliation of a public execution that goes back on the decision to put her into the games, but maybe something could still be done.”
“And what do you mean by that?” Rowan asks.
“Selene’s in Ironhold,” Marcus says. “I'm told it's a place where training accidents used to happen all the time.”
“Are you seriously suggesting assassinating Selene?” I ask, barely able to believe what I'm hearing.
“I'm talking about quietly removing an enemy of the city before she can become more of a problem,” Marcus says. “And yes, I know how bad it sounds.”
“Do you?” I ask. “You're suggesting things that no senator should ever be putting forward, Marcus.”
I still don't understand why he's pushing so hard for this. It's too much, and Marcus must see that.
“Lyra’s right, Marcus,” Rowan says. “We're not the emperor, or even Domitian. We do things the right way. If I hear that you've been trying to arrange some accident for Selene… I'll have you brought before the senate to answer charges.”
Marcus looks angry but nods. "Then what's your plan, Rowan? Keep ignoring this? Pay no attention to whatever support she's building?”
“The law is the law,” Rowan says. “We accepted her plea to fight for her freedom in the games. Now we have to go with that, wherever it leads.”
“It leads to disaster,” Marcus says. “For all of us and for the city. Can't you see that?”
Rowan turns to me. “Lyra, would you take Marcus home, please? It's obvious he's just going to keep arguing for this, and I don't want to hear it. Marcus, you need to remember that you're a senator, and there are limits to what you can do.”
“And you need to remember that we represent the most powerful city in the world,” Marcus retorts. “There are fewer limits on any of us than you imagine, Rowan.”
I take Marcus's arm. I can feel the tension in him. Is it just because he's lost this argument?
“Come on,” I say. “Rowan’s right. There's nothing useful that we can do here. We should head back.”
Reluctantly, Marcus nods, finally accepting that he's not going to change anyone's mind here.
Maybe when I get him back to his villa, I can learn more about why he's so determined to see Selene dead.
At the very least, I hope I can draw some of the anger out of him.
The city needs him, needs all of us. Selene is indeed a threat, but that just means we need to work harder and show the people a better way.
We can't do that if we're consumed with the desire to kill our opponents.
I hope I can show Marcus that because his obsession with Selene could prove almost as dangerous as she is.