CHAPTER THREE
“Keep moving!” the guard behind me says, jabbing me with the head of his spear to force me forward through the catacombs. I shuffle forward with my wrists and ankles chained. A vast staircase spirals upwards, towards the former imperial palace, now the seat of power for the Republic’s government.
I head upwards. Domitian is somewhere behind me. The steps are terrifying, because there’s nothing to stop me from falling to my death if I slip, and the chains around my ankles make for a shuffling gait that makes it all too likely.
If Selene wants me dead, this would be a simple way to do it.
Maybe the whole point is that Domitian and I are going to conveniently “slip” near the top, pushed by the guards and left to die.
It’s a thought that raises a thread of fear within me, making me look down into the darkened depths below, but I quickly push that thought down.
I don’t think Selene is going to kill me like that.
The truth is, if she wanted me dead without a trace, she could have had the guards do it when I first came to the prison.
She clearly has more than enough influence with them.
And it doesn’t fit with what Domitian told me about her: that need for spectacle, to be seen to win.
If Selene wants me dead, she’ll do it publicly.
That’s not a comforting thought, though, when Domitian and I might be being led to our executions even now.
I blink in the light as we come up into the palace.
After the half-light of the dungeons, real daylight is enough to make my eyes water.
Servants stare at me as the guards lead me through the palace, looking at me as if I’m some wild beast who might be a threat to them if I get loose.
Guards watch from the sides, clearly assuming I’m going to try to fight my way free at some point.
The opulence of the palace is in stark contrast to the harshness of the dungeon.
The emperor made his palace into a place filled with frescos and mosaics, gilded statues and marble columns.
The Republic kept most of those things, preserving this place as the home of the senate and giving those senators who wish them rooms within.
The guards take us to an ante-chamber, outside the senate chambers making us wait.
My heart is beating faster as I stand within, because if I’m being brought before the senate, that could mean anything from my release to my execution.
Has Rowan found a way to free the senate from Selene’s influence?
Or will I find her sitting within, waiting to pass judgement on me.
“What’s going on?” I ask one of the guards. “Why are we here?”
He hits me almost casually, but still hard enough that my head rings with the blow.
“Be silent. Unless you’d rather be back in a punishment room in the prison?”
I fall silent, knowing I’m not going to get any information that way. I can only stand and wait.
“You first,” one of the guards says to Domitian, shoving him towards the doors to the senate chamber.
Domitian briefly turns towards me. “It has been an honor to be your cellmate, Lyra Thornwind.”
The guard shoves him again and Domitian disappears from sight through the doors to the senate.
Those doors close behind him, granting me only the briefest glimpse of the senate chamber beyond, with its stone benches on which toga wearing senators sit and its public galleries above, where the citizens of Aetheria can look down on those who rule them.
I can’t hear what’s going on in there and it worries me that we’re being dealt with separately.
What does that mean? Is it possible Selene is arranging for Domitian to go free while I suffer?
No, I don’t believe that, not after the things Domitian said about her.
She isn’t someone prepared to share power.
It seems like forever before the doors open again and I’m pushed forward by one of the guards.
“Your turn, traitor.”
I stumble forward into the senate chamber, and above me, the crowd of ordinary people boos me like I’m some hated fighter walking into the colosseum for a fight. I suspect that this moment might be every bit as deadly as one of my bouts in the arena.
I look around at the senators. Rowan is there, his auburn hair hanging down to cover the scar on his face given to him by his former mistress, in the days when he was still a slave and not the First Senator of Aetheria.
He sits on a stone chair, his muscles chiseled, his features square jawed and strong.
My eyes automatically seek out Marcus next.
He’s seated on one of the stone benches around the senate chamber, among a group of senators who side with him in most things.
His expression is unreadable as his blue eyes find me, although I think I catch the briefest of winces as he sees the injuries I’ve suffered at the hands of the guards.
There are other senators there I know, too.
Olivia, blonde haired, noble and beautiful, dripping with jewelry and usually concerned only with the next hedonistic party she’s going to throw for her fellow nobles.
Octavio, the oldest of the senators, who’s a stickler for the laws.
Yarrow, a dark haired woman in her forties, who runs several of the gangs that haunt the city’s slums beyond the main walls.
And Selene is there, sitting above in the public gallery, wearing the same rich dress of white, gold and purple. She somehow makes it look as if she’s an empress looking down on those who serve her, rather than just one more member of the watching crowd. She smiles cruelly as she catches my eye.
A second later, the guard beside me pushes me down to my knees.
“Kneel before your betters, traitor.”
No one reprimands him for doing it, even Rowan, who I count as one of my friends. I can only kneel and wait to find out what’s going on here, and why Domitian isn’t still in the chamber. Rowan stands.
“There have been calls from some in this chamber to revisit the fates of some of the city’s prisoners,” Rowan says, in a grave voice.
He looks around at the other senators, his eyes settling on Olivia.
Often, she’s Selene’s mouthpiece in the chamber.
Partly, that’s because of the influence of Selene’s psychomancy, but also, it’s because the senator knows how to make sure she’s on the winning side.
“I merely pointed out that now we execute criminals in the colosseum,” Olivia says. “And that the First Senator didn’t wait for the will of the senate before he imprisoned the traitor, Lyra Thornwind.”
“And I’ve told you, Lyra will not be executed,” Rowan says, with a determination that carries around the chamber.
I glance up, and I see Selene’s smile widen slightly. As she threatened in the prison, she’s forcing Rowan to use up his political capital, pushing him into a position where he must go beyond the First Senator’s powers to protect me.
“With respect, First Senator,” Olivia says. “That isn’t your decision alone.”
“It’s not what we’re here to discuss, is it?” Rowan demands, looking around the room. “We’re here to discuss the proposal regarding Lyra.”
The stones of the chamber seem to rumble in response to his annoyance. Rowan has a talent for earth magic, and that makes him strong in a place completely carved from stone.
Olivia inclines her head. “Very well, First Senator. State your proposal.”
“The proposal that was put to me, you mean,” Rowan says.
“If you don’t want to put it forward, you need only say so,” Olivia replies. “I’m sure we could go back to discussing other options to deal with Lyra Thornwind. Execution, or perhaps just a return to her present imprisonment.”
Above, Selene is smiling like a cat playing with a mouse.
“My proposal is a simple one,” Rowan says. “I believe that Lyra Thornwind should be released from her imprisonment, with suitable safeguards.”
“What safeguards?” Olivia asks. She seems to be enjoying this almost as much as Selene, but then, she was never my friend.
“Lyra will be made to wear a dampener to restrict her magical powers at all times,” Rowan says, giving me an apologetic look. “And she will be released into the custody of a noble or senator willing to guarantee her behavior. That noble will have full responsibility for her.”
“That noble will need to have the power to do what’s necessary to see she isn’t a threat,” Olivia observes. “To punish her if she becomes violent, or shows further signs of treason.”
Rowan looks sick, but he nods.
“Even if it means killing her to stop her rampage as a beast whisperer,” Olivia says.
Rowan nods again, mechanically now.
“And if they’re responsible for her, she would be expected to obey them in all things,” Olivia says.
I understand now what Olivia is driving at.
This proposal would make me a slave again in all but name, given into the custody of another and expected to obey them, punished if I fight back in any way.
No wonder Rowan looks ashen faced. This is everything he fought to tear down about the empire, coming back piece by piece.
Frankly, I’m shocked he’s prepared to make this proposal at all.
Maybe he just knows the alternatives for me are far worse. If Rowan has heard the way things are in the prison, but doesn’t have the power now to stop it, he may see this as the only way to get me out.
“It will be as you say,” Rowan says. “Who will vote for this proposal?”
“I will,” Marcus says, standing.
The other senators of his block stand with him.
“I agree,” Olivia says.
“This is a most irregular thing,” Octavio says. “I must vote against.”
“She should rot where she is or be sent to her death,” Yarrow says. “I vote against.”
Slowly, the votes roll in, and I try to count them all, but for once, it isn’t close. Rowan’s proposal has support from most sides of the senate chamber. That alone should be a warning to him that this isn’t truly his idea.
Selene has manipulated him.
She’s put him in a position where he has to do something to get me to safety, and this is the only option.
I wonder how long Rowan spent building the political alliances needed to get me out of my cell.
How many different senators contributed small fragments of this idea until it became one coherent thing.
How long Rowan spent agonizing over the implications, knowing that he would be bringing back the very slavery he abolished in his first act as a leader?
“The proposal is accepted,” Rowan says. “Now, I must ask, will anyone stand as a responsible party, taking Lyra into their home under house arrest?”
Olivia stands, licking her lips with obvious relish, and I feel both disgust and fear at the prospect of being her prisoner. I have no doubt she will treat me as the least of her servants, throwing me into every one of her parties as no more than a toy to be used by others.
But even as she stands, I see her glance up at the spot where Selene sits above. The former arch-magistrate gives the faintest shake of her head and Olivia sits back down. Another figure stands instead, moving onto the floor of the senate chamber to put a hand on my shoulder.
“I will take responsibility for Lyra,” Marcus says, the strength of his hand keeping me in place as I kneel beside him. “Unless anyone else wants to contest that?”
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.