CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You’re really telling me Senator Olivia tried to have you both killed?” Alaric says, even as he swings a sword at my head.
I duck despite the distraction, coming up on the far side of him as I swing a wooden trident. It’s a more than adequate replacement for the staff I broke, letting me work on different tactics. I have a net, too, which I swing low at Alaric’s legs. He avoids both blows with a careless cartwheel.
Today, his disguise makes him look like some graceful acrobat. It's only a step away from his usual appearance and I wonder if he's picked this illusion because it's more suited to the real him. It's hard to tell. He seems to put on and throw off disguises almost casually these days.
“Marcus was the focus,” I insist, gesturing to Marcus with my trident before casting my net at Alaric in the hope he’s distracted. He isn’t.
“Nice try,” Alaric says.
Marcus looks exasperated at the side of our training area. “Can you two focus?”
We do, and the result is a cascading sequence of blows, a deadly ballet of violence that sees my trident touch Alaric’s throat even as one of his blades touches my flesh above my heart.
In a real fight, we would both have been killed.
It’s a thought that makes me shudder and take a step back, putting aside my weapons for now.
“What I don’t get is why Olivia wants Marcus dead,” Alaric says. “You’re still playing the part of one of Selene’s loyal followers, right, Marcus?”
Marcus nods. “And if Selene had suspicions about me, she’d deal with me another way.”
“What’s this about, then?” Alaric asks. “Because while Senator Olivia is a schemer and a blackmailer, killing people outright doesn’t seem like her style.”
That's something that's been bothering me, too.
Olivia has never shied away from trying to exert influence through bribery or threats.
Her parties exist so that she can try to get the right people on her side, as well as because she simply enjoys them.
But I haven't heard of her using violence like this.
“She might do it if she wanted to make sure she’s the only one standing at Selene’s side when she takes power,” Marcus says. “She started out as Selene’s closest partner, but I’ve moved into a position of trust as well.”
That's one possibility, especially since Olivia seems increasingly obsessed with doing everything Selene wants.
I'm still not sure if it's some lingering effect of Selene's psychomancy or if Olivia simply sees Selene as the only path to power, wealth, and pleasure now that the Republic seems to be in trouble.
Either way, Olivia seems willing to do just about anything for Selene.
“So you’re saying Olivia’s doing this just to get you out of the way so she can be closer to the new empress when she rises?” Alaric says, with a note of distaste. “The only question then is why she hasn’t done this earlier? You’ve been close to Selene for a while.”
“Pretending to be close," I correct him, because it's important Alaric maintains that distinction in his mind. He needs to remember Marcus isn't our enemy, and that we're all working together to save Aetheria.
Alaric shrugs. “Either way, why now? What’s changed?”
There’s an obvious answer to that, one Marcus gets to even before I do.
“Lyra is in my custody, now,” he says. He looks over at me. “Olivia tried to get you as her prisoner back in the senate. She invited you to her party in the hope that you’d step out of line. She’s made no secret of wanting you in her control.”
Can that really be it? Is it truly possible that Senator Olivia tried to have Marcus killed so she could gain control over me?
Olivia has invited me to some of her parties in the past and has hinted before that she'd be interested in me as a lover, but does she really think I'm worth killing Marcus over?
“No, that can’t be it,” I say. “You two really think Olivia wants me so badly she’s willing to kill to get me?”
“It’s like Lady Elara all over again,” Alaric says, and somehow the smirk is his even when the features aren’t.
“You know nothing happened there!" I snap.
Lady Elara was my patron for a time when I was in Ironhold.
She was a powerful beast whisperer who hoped to teach me so she could use me as part of an uprising that would see beast whisperers tear apart all those she thought had oppressed them.
To justify that patronage, she started rumors that the two of us were engaged in a love affair that quickly became the talk of the city.
There were even a few particularly lurid songs composed by bards who knew how to please their drunken audiences.
“Well, then,” Alaric says. “Do you think Marcus and I wouldn’t fight for you?”
As if to illustrate the point, he salutes Marcus with one of his wooden weapons. To my surprise, Marcus takes up the challenge, moving forward with a wooden blade of his own.
With me, Alaric is holding back with his magic, forcing me to concentrate on physical skills. With Marcus, his image quickly splits into three that dance around the senator, jabbing at him with wooden blades even as Marcus sends out sparks of lightning to keep Alaric at bay.
I've seen the two of them fight in earnest before, only barely been able to keep them from killing one another, but this is something much friendlier and more playful.
Alaric might be using his magic, but he's moving slowly enough that Marcus has the chance to counter; the steady clicking of their wooden swords against one another feels like the beat of the strange dance they're engaged in.
“Don’t drag your feet,” I call out to Marcus. “Alaric, keep your guard up.”
I try to call out advice to both of them equally, knowing that favoring one over the other is likely to turn this contest into something more serious.
Alaric and Marcus are only too ready to fight for my favor, which is why I can’t be seen to bestow it on either of them right now.
Doing so might drive a wedge into our growing partnership.
They’re willing to fight for me, but I have a hard time believing that Olivia is.
"Would I really become Olivia's if Marcus were to die?" I ask. Marcus half turns to answer, and Alaric's blade taps against his throat.
Marcus sighs in exasperation at the loss, but in some ways, it's better that it happened because I distracted him rather than because Alaric managed to prove himself the superior fighter. At least this won't bruise Marcus' ego to the same extent.
"It could happen," Marcus says. "If I were to die, there would be no one keeping you in custody, so you'd go back before the senate to see if anyone else would take responsibility for you, or if you're to be sent back to the prison we got you out of."
I shudder at that prospect, and I can see how Olivia might take advantage of the situation. All she would have to do is offer to take responsibility for me at the right moment. And she would have the backing to overcome objections even from Rowan, now. It could work like that.
I just have a hard time believing Olivia is doing it because she’s suddenly infatuated with me.
She’s never had any problem finding lovers.
She could presumably find women far more beautiful than me, and far more willing.
Maybe it’s about the prospect of power over me for her, but I still feel as though I’m missing something.
“You spar with Marcus again,” Alaric says. “We’re going to keep working until, powers or not, you become something Selene Ravenscroft is terrified of facing on the sands.”
Something clicks into place in my mind as he says it. I know that Alaric has somehow hit on the answer to all of this.
“Not Selene,” I say. “Olivia.”
“Sure,” Alaric replies. “We can make her terrified of you, too.”
I wave the comment away. “No, I think she already is. Or at least, I think she’s terrified of what I might be able to do to Selene if I face her in the colosseum.”
Marcus frowns. “Why would she think that will happen? Especially when you don’t have your powers, Lyra?”
I'm certain now that this is the right track.
It makes perfect sense to me. "Because I've done it before, fought dangerous opponents there again and again.
Olivia sees me more as a gladiator than a senator anyway.
And I've succeeded in the colosseum before, even when I've been made to wear a dampener. "
“I don’t know,” Alaric begins.
“Think about it,” I say. “Olivia has been helping Selene to bring about her Grand Tournament. She’s also been helping to arrange Selene’s path through it, if what I overheard her talking about is true.”
Marcus nods. “Olivia doesn’t want to risk Selene losing. Not when Olivia sees herself rising alongside Selene.”
"And almost from the moment I was released from prison, she's been trying to either hurt me or gain control over me," I say. "Why? Because she thinks it's the best way to make sure I don't enter the Grand Tournament."
Alaric frowns. “But you’re not entering the tournament.”
I take a breath. “Maybe I should.”
Both of them look at me as if I’ve gone mad.
“Lyra, no,” Marcus says.
“Why?” Alaric demands.
“Because Selene’s whole plan relies on her winning the tournament,” I say. “She wants to hold herself up as a shining example of magical might before she has the senate vote her into power. If I can beat her, I can stop her from doing that.”
“But you don’t have your powers,” Alaric points out.
“You were saying you could find someone to tamper with the dampener,” I reply.
“A little,” Alaric says. “You’d have a trickle of power, not your full strength. More than that and it would be obvious.”
I look from one of them to the other. “If I face her in the one place we both rose to fame, I can show the people that she isn’t someone special who deserves to rule over them all.”
“And don’t you think Selene would want to kill you there?” Marcus says.
“You’ve seen the determination with which Oliva’s been trying to keep me out,” I reply. I look from one of them to the other. “This won’t be decided just by politics, or by underground resistance. We won’t win this with the things we’ve been doing so far. This is our best chance.”
“A slender chance,” Marcus says. “One that risks your life.”
I nod. I know that. “It’s all we have.”
Marcus sighs, but then nods. “Very well.”
“If that’s really what you want,” Alaric says. “I know better than to try to change your mind.”
It is what I want, what I need to do. And surprisingly, I think Alaric and Marcus were right before: it’s what Selene wants too. Olivia wants to keep me out of the games, but I suspect Selene wants me there, because she’s convinced she’ll beat me.
But I’m not afraid of her. I’ll face her. I’ll fight her, with or without my full powers. Selene has arranged the Grand Tournament, and that is where this will end.