CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“The votes are in and the senate is agreed,” Rowan says in a tone that makes it clear he doesn't agree with the decision at all. “Selene Ravenscroft is to be free to move through the city between her bouts in the arena.”
Several people in the public gallery of the senate cheer as Rowan announces that. He gives them a sharp look.
“This isn't the theater for you to cheer and boo. Be quiet or we'll have you removed.”
It's obvious he's taking his anger out on the watching crowd of citizens, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. It plays into Selene’s hands, making him less popular even as her own popularity soars.
The senators make their way from the chamber into the antechambers beyond.
They’re a space for senators to meet with their constituents or concerned nobles, or in some cases with merchants who will discreetly offer them bribes later.
The very access that's important to stop the city being ruled by a faceless oligarchy also contributes to the corruption of some of the senators.
Rowan is there, and he's fuming. I go to him and put a hand on his arm.
“We should have been able to stop this,” he says.
I shake my head. “You know the control she has right now.”
“I know, but it doesn’t change anything,” Rowan says. “Even if we could prove it now, I worry that the senate wouldn't accept it.”
I worry about that too. “We'll find a way to undo her control,” I promise him. “Once we do that, the senators will see the influence Selene exercised over them, and they won't forgive it. She's playing a dangerous game by doing this.”
“Because she's sure she'll win,” Rowan says. “Step by step she's increasing her freedom, moving closer to gaining power. I wondered before why she didn't just have the senate free her completely, but from what I hear she's so unbeatable in the colosseum that she doesn't need it yet.”
“She doesn't,” I agree. “And I guess doing it this way there can be no doubts that she's followed the customs of the city. No one can ever say that she's cheated her way out.”
“And in the meantime, she gets to keep manipulating the whole senate,” Rowan says.
“I think I have something that might help with that,” I say.
“What?”
I shake my head. I don't want to say more than I have, both because I'm not certain yet that I'll succeed and because of the places I must go to get help.
“If it works, I'll tell you later,” I say to him. “For now, I need to go. I have a meeting to get to that might make a difference.”
I rush through the palace, heading back to my rooms and changing into a long grey tunic, belted at the waist and sandals.
As usual I throw a cloak around my shoulders to disguise my identity as I go through the city.
I watch for any signs that I'm being followed, and take side streets to make it less obvious which direction I'm heading in.
I'm not meeting Alaric at the tower this time.
Instead, I head to an entrance to the catacombs, slipping down into the darkness, borrowing the eyesight of animals accustomed to the night so that I can pick my way along the tunnels without needing a torch.
Alaric is waiting for me in a large, circular space, lined with stone benches that must have been some kind of meeting place, back in the distant past. Light filters in from above, revealing the cracks in the stone and the plants wrapped around everything, having reclaimed what should otherwise be a dead space.
Alaric is waiting there, lounging on one of the stone benches as casually as if this were some elegant salon.
He’s wearing his real face, for once, and it always makes me smile to see him.
There's another man with him, much older and more grizzled, with a grey beard that's fading to white and a frame that was probably once powerful but is now hunched over.
When he looks at me I can see catlike eyes, and I know this is a beast whisperer, one of those who has taken in too much power for too long from some animal or other, leaving him stuck with a physical remnant of the exchange he cannot get rid of.
He sniffs the air as I approach, as if he can scent my presence as much as see me.
“Lyra, you came,” Alaric says with a smile. “I was getting worried you weren’t going to show.”
“The senate meeting ran on longer than I expected,” I say.
Alaric looks worried. “How did it go?”
I shake my head. “We couldn’t stop the others from voting to give Selene more freedoms. She can walk the city now, rather than being confined to Ironhold.”
The beast whisperer snorts. “She could do that anyway. Why do you think I’m hiding, girl?”
“Who is this, Alaric?” I ask.
Alaric seems to remember himself. “Lyra, this is Elanar. You wanted a beast whisperer who might be able to show you more about how to use your powers. Well, Elanar has been around for a long time, and seen plenty of ways to use those abilities.”
“And I need to do something with myself while I hide,” the older man says. “I might as well teach you how to actually control your magic.”
“Your eyes say that you've had some problems with that yourself,” I point out.
Elanar shrugs, then seems to concentrate, and his eyes fade back to a careful watery blue, marred by the milkiness of cataracts. “I keep these eyes because my own aren’t so good anymore. Doesn't mean I don't have control. The ones who can't get themselves back just haven't listened to me enough.”
That's an impressive feat. I hadn't thought that those who had started to twist into animal form could get their human selves back so easily.
“I heard you were training with Elara,” Elanar says. He doesn't sound happy as he speaks her name.
“She taught me a lot about what it means to be a beast whisperer,” I reply.
Elanar laughs. “Probably telling you that we were superior to all the humans, and that we deserve to rule over them.”
I nod. That was the approach Lady Elara always took.
“And probably never teaching you the finer details of what you can do. She always had power, but if she knew all the tricks of our kind she never shared them with others. She always wanted to make sure she was the strongest.”
That fits with my memory of her as well, although I'm surprised to hear this beast whisperer talking about her with anything less than total respect.
“You weren't one of her followers, then?” I say.
Elanar shrugs. “I knew some of them. I never joined their little faction. In the end that kept me safe, but now it means I've got no one to turn to while Selene is trying to kill us all.”
“The resistance will protect you,” Alaric promises. “We'll do everything in our power to make sure she can never get to you.”
“And in return I teach Lyra here all the things she ought to know?” Elanar says. “All the things I've learned in a long life?”
Alaric nods.
“Well then,” he says. “We’d better get started.”
He rises from his position on the benches slowly and carefully, as if his body won't let him do much more these days. I imagine he could take more strength from some of the creatures nearby, but he doesn't seem inclined to.
“Let's start with your connection to the beasts around here,” Elanar says. “Reach out for them, as wide as you can and in all the detail you can. Don't miss any of them.”
He says it like a teacher instructing a pupil in some problem in mathematics or philosophy, setting them a task and then seeing how they do it. I decide this is my opportunity to impress him, because I have no doubt he will be following along, feeling the connections I make.
So I reach out with my powers, feeling every insect that scuttles in the dark, every snake that slithers through the cracks.
I take in a nest of bats roosting, waiting for the night.
I reach out beyond our underground space, feeling the animals of the city and the birds above.
I can feel a presence with me that I know must be Elanar’s, along for the ride, monitoring what I do.
I stretch out and out, my powers taking in the beasts of the menagerie, the creatures waiting in the depths of the colosseum.
Eventually I pull back to myself, looking over at the older beast whisperer expectantly. Will he be impressed by what I've done? Lady Elara always told me I had more power than anyone she'd ever met.
Elanar nods. “It's a start.”
“A start?” Alaric says, sounding surprised. “Lyra’s the most powerful beast whisperer for a generation or more.”
“Like I said, a start,” Elanar says. He looks me in the eye with those strange cat eyes of his. “You have power, but from what I hear from Alaric, you wanted to learn from another beast whisperer because you've been experiencing new things. The start of a connection to people?”
I nod. “I felt people's emotions. I was wondering… does it give me a way to counter psychomancy?”
Elanar smiles. “It may. Our kind have always been more resistant.
Remember, though, you're not tapping into people's minds the same way a psychomancer would. You're tapping into their primal instincts. Now, reach out again. This time, focus on the presence of people. Their emotions. Their needs. Remember that humans are still animals even if we have language and magic and more. One of the reasons people hate beast whisperers so much is that we remind them that the gap between us and other creatures isn’t so great.”
I reach out with my powers again, this time not focusing on distance but on feeling for the presence of other people.
I try to remember what it was like, in the palace gardens, and that memory lets me start to feel the presence of Alaric and Elanar near me.
Alaric is like a sharp edged arrow, filled with purpose, deadly in his commitment and his arrogance.
I grasp the sense of confusion, but also the need that comes whenever he looks at me.
Elanar is different, filled with the pulsing power of animals, stronger than he looks, his emotions…
“I can't feel your emotions,” I say.
“It's possible to shield against such things if you know what you're doing,” Elanar says. “You can forge protections from the animal power within you. Here, let me show you.”
He lets his protections fall then carefully weaves them back into place again, so that I can see how he's doing it. I start to try to copy him, but I can feel my efforts are clumsy, too slow, and fragile.
“We’ll need to keep working,” Elanar says. “There are a lot of things still to teach you, and you’ll want to perfect this before you try to actually take on a psychomancer.”
That's frustrating, even as I know it's true. I'll need far more work before I'm able to stop Selene and her plans.
“We'll find spots for you to train,” Alaric says. “We'll need to shift it around so no one follows you, but there will be somewhere every day until you're ready.”
It's obvious he sees the importance of this. Or maybe he just wants the opportunity to spend more time with me. I can still feel the echoes of his need when he looks at me.
“Thank you,” I say. “Both of you.”
“I'm just doing this to stay safe,” Elanar says. “And maybe to see what you're actually capable of.”
“Selene needs to be stopped,” Alaric says. “This gives us a chance.”
I hope it does, and I hope I'm ready to use these powers quickly. Because every day I delay, Selene is gaining more power in the city.