CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“No, no, go again!” Elanar shouts, as I work in an abandoned building that we’ve selected as our next meeting point.
Alaric is there, sparring with me using a pair of wooden short swords, while I work with a staff that’s meant to represent the kind of spear or trident I’m used to working with. I jab at him with it, and Alaric spins away, cutting at me with one sword, then the other.
It brings back memories of training with him in Ironhold, each of us trying to get better with our weapons so we could survive the worst the colosseum had to throw at us. I’m sweating, moving my staff in blurring arcs that crack against Alaric’s weapons again and again.
“Focus!” Elanar calls out. “This isn’t just some petty sparring session.”
I wonder if he knows just how difficult it is to spar with Alaric when I’m not pulling in power from every animal around me.
Alaric is fast and graceful, with a focused deadliness to his movements that means I can’t relax even for a moment.
A blade comes within an inch of my throat as I lean back, and I realize I’m enjoying this.
It’s been so long since I’ve pushed myself this hard, training in earnest rather than just trying to keep in shape.
“Use your powers!” Elanar says. “That’s the point of all this!”
I try to do as the beast whisperer asks, ignoring the conflict to feel Alaric's emotions, his animal instincts.
It takes an effort to do that as he continues to attack me, and I'm too slow.
I get the feeling of Alaric's emotions, his joy in the fight, his focus, and, behind it all, the things he feels about me…
I can feel the love there, the desire, the need.
It’s enough to distract me for a moment, and I feel Alaric’s blade pressing against my throat.
“No, this isn’t working,” Elanar says. “You should be able to do this despite the distractions. If you make that kind of mistake in a real fight, you could get yourself killed. Or someone else.”
I sigh. “It’s too difficult. I need to start with an easier approach.”
Elanar looks disgruntled. “If this was meant to be easy, every beast whisperer would be able to do it. But maybe you’re right. We need to find another way of teaching you the skills you need. Alaric, we need to go out into the city.”
“That might not be safe,” Alaric says, with a glance at the exit. “We never know who’s watching.”
I’m used to his caution, verging on paranoia, these days. Alaric is the leader of the resistance, which means that plenty of people are hunting for him.
“Please, Alaric,” I say. This is too important to leave. Mastering these abilities might be the difference between stopping Selene and not. “If I can learn to do this, I might be able to undo the control Selene has over the senate.”
Alaric hesitates for another moment or two, then nods. “All right,” he says. “But I’m coming with you to make sure you both stay safe.”
Elanar looks relieved by that, but I'm worried.
Alaric is more of a target than either of us in the city.
Selene might want beast whisperers like Elanar dead, but I have no reason to think anyone is targeting him specifically.
I'm at least partly protected by my status as a senator.
But Alaric is a wanted fugitive who was arrested before and has his freedom only because of his role in stopping Domitian's attempted coup.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I ask him. “I wouldn’t want to put you in danger.”
“I’ll be safe,” Alaric says, and even as he does so, his appearance shifts, his illusions changing everything about him. He looks rougher now, like the kind of bodyguard a moneylender or a shady merchant might employ.
I wonder what the three of us will look like in the city. Maybe it will look as though Elanar is his employer, while I’m… what? Some servant, brought along to assist Elanar in his journey around the city? So long as I keep my face hidden, maybe we’ll be safe.
We set out into the slums of Aetheria, a space where the air is filled with the scents of unwashed flesh, spices, and waste that's been thrown into the streets.
I can see gang members standing on the street corners, trying to keep the peace or simply to mark their territory.
There are shacks and hovels on most sides of me, although I can see a spot where a group of workers is toiling hard to rebuild some of the houses in white marble, while more are working to change the streets from dirt to cobbles.
The three of us move through the streets, and Alaric keeps one hand on the hilt of a sword belted to his waist. He glances into every alley, and fixes any gang members who come too close with a warning glare.
I don’t know if that’s really because he’s worried about danger, or if he’s simply playing the part of a tough bodyguard as well as he can.
Except that I do know. I realize that I can feel Alaric’s wariness, can feel that protectiveness, like a hunting hound ready to lash out at any threat.
“That’s good,” Elanar says, clearly sensing the way I’m using my powers. “Now reach out further. Immerse yourself in the emotions and the animal instincts around you. Not thoughts, but feelings.”
He walks with me, guiding me through the slums while I try to extend my awareness. I can feel the animals around me, the birds above and the dogs fighting in the gutter for scraps.
“Not the beasts,” Elanar insists. “Focus on the people, Lyra.”
I try to block the animals from my mind, for now. Maybe there will come a point where I can focus on both beasts and humans at once, but for now, it’s as though I’m trying to listen to one conversation while another is being shouted in my ear.
Except, as I start to focus on the emotions of the people around me, I realize that those are far louder than the presence of the animals could ever be. There are so many people around me, and I can feel waves of their emotions washing over me.
This being the slums, there’s plenty of desperation, and greed. I can feel lust coming from a house where a smiling woman beckons us inside, and the need for victory coming from a gambling den. I can feel anger and fear, hunger and… strangely, hope.
I can also feel a spot where there’s fury and the potential for violence, thick enough that it’s as though I can taste it, like the iron tang of blood in the air. I can see them, hanging in a red haze over the roofs of one part of the slums.
“There’s something happening… there,” I say, gesturing to the houses, and it takes me a moment to find out what, pulling back from the wash of emotions enough to look at what’s going on there through the eyes of a bird flying above.
Houses enclose a kind of courtyard or square within, with a well at the center, and a small tree.
Two gangs stand on opposite sides of the square, while a small group of people stand near the well, looking terrified, unable to get out.
The gangs are hurling insults at one another, clearly about to fight in some deadly brawl over territory, or simply because they hate one another so much.
I pull my awareness back to myself, looking over at Alaric and Elanar.
“There’s about to be a fight,” I say. “Two gangs.”
“Then we should leave,” Alaric says. “I can’t put the two of you in danger.”
I shake my head. “There are innocent people caught in the middle.”
“There are still only three of us,” Alaric says. He gives Elanar a pointed look. “And one of us isn’t a former gladiator, and isn’t as young as he used to be, either.”
He seems to be expecting Elanar to back him up, but the elderly beast whisperer looks thoughtful.
“This could be a valuable opportunity to learn more,” he says. He starts to move closer. “And don’t underestimate what I can do, Alaric.”
I follow him, wondering what he means by this being an opportunity for me to learn. “What do you have planned?”
“It’s not so hard to guess,” Elanar says. “There are too many of them to fight easily, I assume?”
I look through the eyes of the bird again, and the old beast whisperer is correct.
There are at least a dozen men on each side, all well armed.
I have only the staff I’ve been using to train, and if Alaric has a sharp sword rather than the wooden ones he was using to train, that doesn’t feel like enough to take on so many people at once.
Maybe I could break this up by sending in a wave of creatures, but there’s a chance that will only add to the chaos in the square, and get more people hurt.
“I’m not sure how to stop this,” I say. “Maybe if I call in enough birds?”
Elanar shakes his head. “You aren’t thinking the right way. Forget about beasts for now. Focus on what you can feel. Grasp the emotions you would the way you would the thoughts and feelings of an animal. Shift them the same way.”
It sounds like a lot to do at once, but it’s my best chance to help people here, so I must try.
I stand in the middle of the street, reaching out for the anger and the rage building just a little way away.
I can feel the currents of it feeding into one another, as if each person there is stoking the aggression of the others nearby, getting ready for the moment when it will burst into violence.
I try to soothe the violence I can taste in the air, soothing it the way I might soothe the aggression of a wolf about to attack.
I smooth away the red haze of the anger, replacing it with calm, taking away the urge to fight.
I can feel confusion there now, as if the people within the small square can’t quite remember why they were about to kill one another.
I see gang members hurrying from it, backing away to regroup and perhaps remember their hatred. Alaric looks at me with amazement.
“That’s astonishing,” he says. “You did that?”
I nod, and he takes me by the arms, looking at me with eyes that aren’t his own, thanks to his illusions.
I can feel everything Alaric does in this moment. I can feel the desire he feels for me, and beneath that, the deeper waves of love. They hit me hard enough that I can’t quite recall which feelings are his and which are my own.
“I hate that we have to be apart,” Alaric says. He sighs. “I did it deliberately after the revolution. I thought I could protect you, but it hurts so much sometimes. All of this… I’m trying to be a better man, the kind of man who might deserve you.”
He leans closer to me, and I feel my own desire rising with his, something deeper and more primal growing within me.
Elanar pulls us apart, and my first instinct is to strike at him, but he just stands there, while I feel my emotions start to recede to a more manageable level.
“As with all abilities of our kind, the trick is letting go of them. You were impressive here today, Lyra, but we still have to work on your control.”
I nod, not able to form words. Alaric looks at me, then Elanar, as if he isn’t sure what to do next.
I can still feel his love, but his face is a mask again, as if he’s afraid of the sudden burst of emotion.
He hurries away as if afraid that he’s gone too far, and Elanar gives me a nod before hurrying after him.
“We’ll meet to train tomorrow, Lyra.”
And every day until I master the skills he’s teaching.
I hope it will be enough. The skills I’m building may help me to save the city.
As for Alaric… I’m not sure what to do there.
Confusion reigns in me, and I flee the space where we’ve been training just so I won’t have to think too hard about it.
I need to get back to the palace, before I’m missed, feeling my heart pounding in my chest as I go.
I don’t know if it’s down to what almost happened with Alaric, to the training, or to the growing threats in the city.
Somehow, they all feel bound up together, and until I find answers to all of them, it feels as though every threat will hang over me forever.