CHAPTER SEVEN
I hurry back to the palace, running through the streets of the city. I use the birds above to watch for trouble, sticking to back streets where I can, determined no one will link me to the resistance’s latest safehouse.
The things Thalia told me make a knot of fear sit in my stomach.
Beast whisperers are being killed in the city now, rather than just out in the countryside beyond, or in a neighboring kingdom.
I’m convinced Selene must be behind it, although I’m not sure how she’s doing it, when she’s confined to Ironhold, and if the great granite fortress is good at one thing, it’s keeping people inside.
Or it was. When I was a gladiator, the idea of escaping from the fortress seemed impossible.
The only way out was when a patron summoned me into the city, or when it was time for the games.
Is Selene somehow killing beast whisperers during the games?
No, that doesn’t make sense. She’s doing it another way.
Maybe she's getting someone else to kill beast whisperers for her.
I can't deny the influence she's starting to build up in the city, a combination of those who long for the return of the empire, those attracted by her personal glory, and those she's been able to influence since her return to Aetheria.
I have no doubt there will be at least some people willing to kill on her behalf, if they think it brings Selene closer to power.
Or maybe Ironhold isn’t as secure for her as it was for gladiators like me. I’ve already seen her influence within the fortress; maybe that means she’s able to slip out when she wants. That’s a thought that makes my heart beat faster in my chest, because it means she isn’t contained at all.
I don’t know what the senate’s going to be able to do about her, but I’m determined to find something we can do. Marcus has pushed for Selene’s death again and again. Has the time come when the rest of us must accept that he’s right?
Maybe I really have no choice other than to swallow my concerns and vote for her death.
I return to my rooms, dress in my toga, and try to think of a better option. I’m still thinking when a servant enters my room.
“Your presence is requested in the senate chamber,” the servant says.
I frown. “What’s happening?”
“I only know an emergency senate meeting has been called.”
An emergency meeting like this could be about any number of things. It could be something to do with the games, or about the rebuilding in the slums. It could be to announce an impending threat from beyond the city, or could be about something else I haven’t even thought of.
Somehow, though, I feel certain it’s about Selene.
I hurry through the palace to the senate chamber.
The other senators are pouring into it, all dressed in the white togas that mark their status, while simultaneously serving to disguise the differences between them.
This isn’t a place where the nobles should outshine poorer members with their rich silks, or the military can intimidate the others with their armor.
They all find ways, though, whether it’s the jewelry they wear with their toga, or the bracers on their forearms.
The stone benches of the senate chamber are quickly filling up, with Rowan already in his seat as First Senator.
Crowds of onlookers are gathering above, in wooden balconies that make me feel as though I’m back in the colosseum, with crowds waiting to see me fight, and maybe die.
The battles here are fought with words, but they’re no less important.
They can still make the difference between life and death, for the inhabitants of the city, if not for the senators.
I hurry in and take a seat, not far from Marcus.
It's one of the only ones left, and he smiles over at me as I sit.
I'm sure there will be plenty of others here who will note that smile, quietly calculating to determine what it means for them and their factions if we're on friendly terms again.
Together, Marcus and I are able to command plenty of support, but for now, at least, I must disappoint his friends.
He still hasn't done anything to prove to me that he's serious about trying to cut out the corruption of the city from within.
For now, at least, it's just a story he's told me too many times for me to believe it.
“Do you know what this is about?” I whisper to Marcus.
He nods, and now his expression tightens. “I got it from Octavio. It’s about Selene Ravenscroft.”
Sudden fear fills me. I’ve left it too late to do anything about her plans. I heard from both Octavio and Olivia what they planned. I was too distracted by Marcus and Alaric to find the proof I needed. Now… now it seems that they’re truly going to push for her to be given a seat on the senate.
Rowan stands. “Come to order, everyone,” he says. He looks worried, as if he’s heard enough about what’s being proposed to frighten him, but knows he can’t stop it. “Senator Octavio, I believe you have a proposal for us?”
The aging senator stands, flinty eyes sweeping over the room. “My fellow senators, I’ve come to speak to you today about Selene Ravenscroft.”
A murmur goes through the senate chamber. A louder one comes from the public gallery.
“Quiet,” Rowan says. “Octavio, what about Selene?”
“We cannot deny that since her return, she has demonstrated her considerable magical prowess, again and again,” Octavio said.
“In arena bouts,” Marcus shoots back. “Which she’s fighting in because she’s an enemy of the Republic.”
“Is she, though?” Octavio asks.
“Of course she is,” another senator, whose name I think is Viatus, calls out. “You know this, Octavio. You’ve told me it enough times.”
“But we can all change our minds,” a senator named Raccus calls back. “I’ve met with her. She’s assured me that this is all a grand mistake on the senate’s part.”
“A mistake?” Marcus says, sounding shocked. “You think supporting the emperor, then being a part of the worst excesses of the empire, is a mistake?”
Raccus hesitates briefly, and I’m expecting that hesitation. It’s the same hesitation I saw in Cesca, in Octavio, in Olivia. The hesitation that seems as though he’s hearing words being whispered into his ear by another.
“A grand mistake,” Raccus repeats. “One we should work to correct.”
Selene has gotten to him as well.
“And how do you plan to ‘correct’ it?” Marcus asks, raising his voice slightly.
I can hear the anger there. He blames Selene for being part of the system that cost him his family, feels sure that she must have played some part in it.
If I’m being less generous, maybe he also sees her as a rival, when he seeks to establish himself as the most famous figure in the senate.
“I’ll tell you, Senator, if you let me finish,” Octavio says.
“As I said, Selene Ravenscroft has shown her considerable magical abilities, and her knowledge of such matters is second to none. That’s why I wish to propose that she is given a position consulting with selected portions of the senate as an advisor on magical matters. ”
For several seconds, there’s uproar in the senate chamber, with senators shouting at one another.
“Are you mad?” one senator asks. “You’re going to give her a position connected to the senate?”
“You can’t do this!” another yells.
“Of course we can, we must!” a senator calls back.
The stone benches of the senate shake like we’re in the middle of an earthquake. Rowan stands as the chamber falls silent.
“Enough,” he says. “I will not have this chamber descend into the kind of shouted argument better suited to a tavern. One at a time. Octavio, why are you suggesting this?”
Octavio hesitates briefly. “There is no indication that Selene has broken the laws of the city. We’re holding her as a prisoner, but eventually she must go free.”
“You’re arguing for her freedom?” Marcus demands in an incredulous tone, but Rowan shoots him a sharp look.
“Eventually, it must happen,” Octavio says. “She has broken no laws of the city.”
“And she’s winning her fights in the arena,” Olivia puts in, standing. “Eventually, she’ll win all her seasons and be free. It only makes sense that we start to integrate her into the senate before then.”
“You say that as if it’s inevitable she’ll be a part of the senate,” I say.
Olivia smiles that cat like smile of hers. “Isn’t it? She’s exactly the kind of person we need. Unlike some.”
Fear is building in me at the way this is going. I might not have any proof, but I know I have to state my suspicions before the senate.
“Senators, I believe you aren’t making decisions here of your own free will,” I say. “I believe Selene Ravenscroft may be using psychomancy to influence you.”
Another cacophony starts around me.
“Nonsense!”
“How dare you!”
“Is it true?”
“Could it be true?”
Rowan sends another tremor through the stone seats.
“Quiet!” He stands looking at me. “Have you found evidence of this yet, Lyra? When you came to me with it, you didn’t have anything.”
He sounds disappointed that I’ve come out with this. Maybe he was hoping to hold it back until the right moment.
I’m forced to shake my head. “I don’t have proof yet, but I want to ask that this vote is delayed until I’m able to get proof. I want the senators here to be examined by a psychomancer and-”
“I must protest!” Octavio calls out. “How do we know that this isn’t some ploy so that Senator Lyra Thornwind can influence us in that way?”
“You really think Lyra would do that, Octavio?” Marcus snaps.
“A vote!” Olivia says. “I demand a vote on the issue. Should Selene Ravenscroft be given a position assisting the senate with magical matters? I vote yes!”
“So do I,” Octavio snaps, his tone clipped.
I look at Rowan, but he shakes his head, looking helpless. He’s the First Senator, but he isn’t an emperor who can stop a vote of the senate or set it aside. Neither of us can stop what's happening.
“I vote against,” Marcus says, “and I hope those who would reckon themselves my friends will do the same.”
He looks around the room with a glare that makes it clear he expects everyone in his faction to vote his way.
But not everyone does. Senators I know to be his friends stand and vote in favor of the proposal. My own vote against is just one of a small scatter of them.
“It’s decided,” Rowan says at last, in a leaden tone. “Selene Ravenscroft will be made an advisor to the senate.”
He sounds as though he hates the decision, but there’s nothing he can do. We head out from the senate chamber, and Rowan catches my arm.
“You’re about to tell me that bringing up her psychomancy was a mistake?” I guess.
“It showed her followers what you’ve guessed,” Rowan whispers to me, “but this isn’t about that.
If Selene has gone this far, then her influence will continue to expand.
We need to find another way to counter her.
I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I need you to contact the resistance.
If this goes the way I think it will, they may be our last line of defense against Selene, and the return of the empire. ”