CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You want to do what? ” Rowan asks as we sit together at breakfast.
“I want to talk to Callus,” I say, explaining myself again. “It's the only way I will find out why he's doing this, and if there's anything else behind it.”
“If Alaric were here, he would say you’re being foolish,” Rowan says.
“But he isn't here,” I point out. Alaric must have taken breakfast in his rooms, because he is not in the communal dining hall. “And this is not as dangerous as it sounds. You’ll be nearby. If he tries anything, you can intervene.”
“Unarmed against someone who can kill with a touch?” Rowan says. He sounds doubtful and afraid. Although I suspect the majority of that fear is for me rather than for himself.
“You just have to disrupt things long enough for the guards to get involved,” I say. I look over to Zara, who has her usual vials of water nearby, and who could presumably do something with the water and wine served at the tables as well. “I'm sure between all of you, you can do something if it comes to it, but it won't.”
“You can't know that,” Rowan says. “What does it matter why he's doing this, or what his reasoning is? All that matters is that he's trying to kill you.”
I see Rowan glare across to the spot where Callus is sitting. The new gladiator sits alone, with space all around him. That is a rarity for any of us when they are crammed into the space, but for someone so new to Ironhold, it is unheard of. Everyone seems to be keeping their distance from him because they don't want to get within touching distance. They've seen what he can do, and they're afraid, even though many of them have terrifying powers of their own.
Well, some of their powers are terrifying. I must remind myself thateven among the gladiators, the majority have only minor talents. Rowan’s control over earth and Zara’s over water give them an edge but only in very specific ways. No one here has the general control over multiple disciplines of magic thatsomeone like Selene Ravenscroft possesses. Even Lady Elara’s control over both beasts and illusions would mark her out as a rarity if she were here rather than in the city.
Even if there is nobody that powerful here, though, I believe that Callus won't dare try to attack mein the middle of the dining hall where everyone can see him. If he were prepared to do that he would already have done it.
So I get up and go over to him. He sees me coming because he's looking my way. He always seems to be looking my way, as if he fears that if he takes his eyes off me for a moment I will do something deadly towards him.
“Is this seat taken?” I ask, sitting opposite him.
He lookssurprised that I'm doing it, uncertainty then hatred flickering over his face. For a moment or two I think I might have miscalculated, and that he might actually reach out to kill me. If he does, I can only hope that the others will be able to intervene in time.
“You've decided to come talk to me, beast whisperer?” he asks. The hostility in his voice is palpable.
“I have a name,” I say. “You might as well call me Lyra.”
“Why? So we can both become friends? Or is it something more than friends you're after? From what I hear, you're sleeping with anyone who wants you, like the animal you are.”
Hatred continues to dripfrom his tone.
“Friends seems better than trying to kill each other,” I say. “As far as I'm aware, I've not done anything to hurt you outside of fighting in a bout. But you act as if I'm your enemy.”
“All your kind are,” Callus says. His eyes are locked on to mine, and there is something predatory in that gaze. It's impossible not to remember that I'm within arm's reach. He could grab me anytime he chose. I know that, and he knows I know that. I get the feeling he likes my fear.
“Is that because you're a member of the Order of Hunters?” I ask. “Or is there more to it than that? Did someone send you after me specifically?”
“So, you know about the order?” Callus says. “Which means you'renot just a filthy animal; you're connected to the rest of them.”
“What do you actually know about beast whisperers?” I demand.
He shrugs. I watch every movement he makes in case he's about to attack. “I know your kindare different from the rest of us. You bring back so much of the beasts you connect with that you are practically one of them. You're something evil that has crept into this world and spreads like a virus.”
“You actually believe that, don't you?” I say. “When everyone else has told me that beast whisperers are just one more type of magic, only banned because of the emperor’s vision.”
“You're nothing like everyone else, nothing like civilized decent people. Your kind are barely people at all,” Callus snarls at me. There's too much hatred here for it to be just the impersonal focus of an assassin, even the focused hatred of a fanatic.
“Why do you hate me and my kind so much?” I ask. “Why have you risked your life coming into the colosseum, just so you can attack me? Am I really worth it to you? Think this through, Callus. If we spend our time trying to kill one another, maybe one of us succeeds, but both of us get distracted. We still have to fight in the arena, and you have five seasons ahead of you, trying to survive against the best gladiators of Aetheria. What is so important that the risk isworth it to you?”
Callus glares at me and for several seconds I don't think he's going to say anything. I've taken my best shot here to try to get information from him, because I know the only chance I have is if I rile him to the point where he blurts it out, but maybe he will just sit there in silenceuntil I leave him alone. Maybe he knows better than to tell me anything. After all, he's been trained by an order of assassins. Secrecy is presumably a big part of what they do. Or did.
I take a risk. “What happened to the Order of Hunters, Callus?”
I know I've hit a nerve now, because he starts to reach towards me, and I think I may have gone too far. But he looks around and pulls back.
“Your kind murdered us,” he snaps. “I'm the last one left. I was there the day the beast whisperers slaughtered us. I was just a boy, not that it would have mattered if they'd realized that I was alive. They came for us, sending beast after beast against us. Do you know what razor wings are?”
I shake my head.
“Great birds, bigger than any eagle, with feathers whose edges are sharp as knives. They can fling thosefeathers as they hunt. A whole flock of them came for our camp, killing indiscriminately, while the beast whisperers who controlled them stood on a hill nearby and watched. They didn't care that they were cutting down women and children, didn't care that these were ordinary people going about their lives, and that half the people in the camp weren't evenreal members of the order, just their families.”
I feel a moment of pity for Callus then, for all of the people who were killed like that. Do I believe that the spectral covenant or those like them could have been a part of something like that? Sadly, I do. Lady Elara has urged me to embrace cruelty, to fight back with all that I am.
“How did you survive?” I ask him.
“My father threw himself atop me,” Callus says, and his eyes have a haunted look, as if he is reliving the moment. “Even then I was wounded. I had to play dead, because other beasts came to finish off anyone who still lived. I saw children torn apart by wolves. There was a woman begging, and they killed her anyway. Your kind killed her.”
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve lost, Callus,” I say. “But I wasn't a part of any of that. A decade ago, I would have been just a girl.”
“Do you think that matters?” Callus says. “Do you think I care about your pity? From that day to this, I haven't allowed a single beast whisperer to survive. I had to learn to hunt by myself, with only the lessons I learned as a child to go by.”
“And you've been killing ever since?” I ask.
“Of course,” he says. “Some of them I ambush in the wild like the beasts they are. Some of them pretend they can live among real people, so I pretend too until I can get close to them. Then it looks as though they’ve just… died. With you it was more difficult because you're in here but when they gave me a chance to get to you I knew I couldn't pass it up.”
“Why do this?” I insist. “We don’t have to be enemies.”
Callus smiles. “You think you're going to makepeacewith me. All you're getting is a promise. I'm going to kill you, the same as I killed all the others. You're going to feel the life draining out of you, and then there will be nothing for you. And if you somehow avoid me… I'm going to hunt everyone you care about until you come to me and kneel, waiting to be drained.”
There's an edge of madness to his words, and that rage makes me take a step back from him. I know that there can't be any peace between us now. There is no way for me to talk him down, to persuade him to give up on his mission. This will last until one of us is dead. My only choice is to make sure that it's him.