CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You’ve been meeting with Alaric,” Rowan says, when I get back to the palace. He intercepts me in the halls, before I can even get back to my rooms, which suggests he’s been waiting for me.
I look at him carefully, trying to work out whether he has evidence of that, and what he might do about it if he does. I decide to take a risk, since Rowan is the one who suggested that I should work with the resistance this time.
“I have,” I admit.
“Have you been able to do anything yet that might stop Selene?” Rowan asks.
I hesitate, looking around pointedly at the corridors, and the servants who pass by from time to time. Any one of them might overhear what we have to say, and we have no way of knowing which, if any, are controlled by Selene.
Rowan seems to understand, gesturing for me to join him out in the palace gardens. We walk out into the sunlight, away from anyone who might be watching or listening.
“So,” Rowan says. “Do you have a solution?”
“I’ve found something that might help,” I say. “A facet of my magic that might let me counter what Selene’s doing.”
“How?” Rowan asks. “Your magic is about animals, not people.”
“I’ve been shown that my magic can also let me feel people’s instincts and emotions. I can influence them too,” I say. Rowan looks surprised, then worried.
“So you have psychomancy as well?”
“It’s not quite psychomancy,” I explain. “I can only influence emotions, not give people instructions, or take over their minds completely.”
At least, I don’t think I can. Elanar hasn’t suggested it, and I can’t feel people’s thoughts. I can tap into their animal instincts, not control their conscious thoughts.
“Even if you could, I trust that you would never use your abilities the way Selene is,” Rowan says. “Does this mean you’re in a position to take her on directly?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so, not yet. I still need to practice and get better at this. Once I do, I may be able to undo her control over people and protect them from her.”
Rowan looks pleased by that, but he frowns afterwards.
“But in the meantime, she’s expanding her control.
She has the freedom to go where she wants, and now she’s running these so called ‘salons’ in Ironhold, drawing people to her to be seen with her or just to talk.
With her powers, you can imagine how dangerous that is. ”
I can. People will be drawn to Selene by her fame, because she’s a symbol for a return to the order of the empire, or just because she’s bringing together people who want the opportunity to connect with one another.
“She’s building a court around herself,” I say.
Rowan nods. “That’s my fear. And I’m worrying that it’s too late to do anything about her. She has guards around her the whole time, and I suspect they’re to protect her now, rather than contain her.”
“You were thinking about having her killed?” I ask.
“I can’t get the votes in the senate,” Rowan says. “But she’s such a threat that… I’ve thought about it, I’ll admit that. And I hate that she’s put me in a position where I’m thinking about that.”
I know Rowan has a much harder job than me as the First Senator. He’s the one who must make that kind of decision. But I hate that we’re talking about the possibility of killing Selene, because she’s too much of a threat to stop her another way.
“I want to see what she’s doing,” I say.
“I thought you were watching her with your animals?” Rowan asks.
I shake my head. “She’s found a way to scare them off, or kill them. There aren’t any in most of Ironhold. But I’ll find a way. I want to know exactly who she’s influencing.”
And there’s an obvious way to do it.
“If Selene is inviting people to join her in the fortress, if there are crowds of them there, maybe I can slip in with those crowds.”
“It will be dangerous,” Rowan says. “I know there’s another gathering tonight, but if she recognizes you…”
“Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”
*
I’m adding finishing touches to my disguise as the sun goes down.
I’ve dyed my hair a deep red, and dressed in the finest clothes I’ve been able to find: a silver embroidered grey dress and gilded sandals, along with whatever jewelry I’ve been able to find.
I’m trying to look like the kind of noble Selene will be interested in influencing, and who will obviously want to see what’s going on with these salons.
I take another step, going into the city and paying for a palanquin to carry me to Ironhold.
The noble I’m pretending to be wouldn’t walk when she could be carried.
I sit in the palanquin, waiting while my bearers walk from the city out to the fortress beyond.
As I get closer, I reach out for the emotions of those I can feel within, trying to get at least a sense of how many people there are in Ironhold now.
There are more than I expect. I can sense the emotions of the guards who live and train there, can sense knots of gladiators, and the dull monotony of administrators. But I can also feel plenty of others, people who are filled with excitement and anticipation.
I pull back my attention as the palanquin comes to a halt, stepping from it and sending the bearers back towards the city.
I want to be able to leave under my own terms. I head for the gates to the fortress, and the guards look at me as I approach, so that I feel tension rising in me as I hope that my disguise is sufficient.
They step aside to let me pass, and I head deeper into the fortress. I know my way around it, and I can feel where the gathering is taking place, but I wouldn't have any problems even if I didn't know because a servant comes to greet me and leads me through Ironhold.
“It's just this way, my lady,” the servant says, as if she were showing me through some noble home rather than a grim fortress. She leads the way up to the noble quarters, where I can hear people laughing and enjoying themselves. The servant leads me to the doors to a grand set of rooms.
“She said I was to show you straight in,” the servant says, and sudden worry rises within me.
“Who told you to show me in?” I say.
“Lady Selene, of course,” the servant says. “She said I was to fetch you and show you to her.”
“Me specifically?”
The servant nods, and I realize I've made a mistake here. When the guards let me pass, I thought my disguise had fooled them. Now it seems that Selene knows exactly where I am.
I step past the doors to find myself in a small receiving room, with several couches. Selene sits on one of them in an elegant white and gold dress. She stares at me levelly as I enter, while somewhere behind her in another room I can hear a party.
“Really, Lyra? This is the best you could do? I suppose your disguise might work on someone else, if they didn’t know you were coming, but honestly, you must do better.”
“I'm just trying to work out what you're doing here, who you're gaining control of.”
“Well that suggests you know exactly what I'm doing,” Selene says, with a smile. She gestures to the otherwise empty receiving room. “Although you don't get to see who's here.”
No, she's arranged this very precisely so that I won't. The whole point of this is to make it clear that she's outthought me once again.
“How did you know I was coming?” I ask.
Selene’s smile broadens. “Oh, a friend told me.
I have so many of them these days. Now, I think it's time for you to leave, don't you?
Go tell whoever you're working with on this that you’ve failed.
Maybe that will persuade them to give up.
That would be better all round. I wouldn't have to destroy you all, that way.”
I take half a step forward, one of my fists clenching, but I can't just attack her here and expect to leave alive.
“You know that won't work, Lyra. As I said, it's time for you to go.”
I turn on my heel. “We will find a way to stop you, Selene.”
“I'm sure you'll keep trying.”
I head back through Ironhold, and the guards on the gates step back to let me pass, before shutting the gates firmly behind me as I move out into the dark.
I borrow the sight from an owl as I move back down the path towards the city, trying to work out who could have told Selene that I was coming.
Did someone see me preparing for tonight?
Did someone overhear me as I paid for the palanquin?
I'm still contemplating that when I see a flicker of movement near the path, and feel the cold certainty of people determined to kill.
It's enough warning to make me weave out of the way as a stone flung from a sling skims past my head at a speed that would have killed me had it struck.
A figure darts forward, the shadows seeming to wrap around her as she comes, her magic obviously making it easier for her to hide. A dagger flashes in her hand.
I weave aside from that dagger, chopping my forearm down on her wrist and slamming the heel of my hand into her jaw.
It's enough to make her stagger briefly, but I must dodge another stone flung from a sling from somewhere in the dark.
I can see shadows shifting there, and I suspect my second assailant has a similar talent to the first.
I reach for the owl more fully, looking through its eyes as well as my own, tracking the movements of those below with the precision of senses used to hunting for mice.
I steal some of the grace from a fox in the darkness, borrowing what I need to keep dodging the strokes of the knife.
I'm fast enough now to catch hold of the knife wielder's wrist, wrenching her arm at the elbow until I hear the crack of bone and she cries out in pain. Another flung stone comes towards me, and I dodge it like the others. I snatch up the knife wielder’s dagger, flinging it back in the direction the stone has come from, and I hear another cry of pain.
I don't stand and keep fighting. I've done enough to hurt my two attackers and slow them down, so now I borrow more speed and grace from the fox, fleeing back in the direction of the city.
No sling flung stones target me as I run, and the knife-wielding attacker is still on the ground, clutching her elbow.
Neither attacker will be able to follow me or hurt me now.
I guess I could have stopped to question them both, but I have no doubt Selene was the one to send them.
The strange part, though, is that she let me leave the fortress at all.
She could have summoned all the guards there, had them try to kill me, and if she’d joined their efforts, they might have succeeded.
Did she send these two after me simply because she wanted me to be seen to leave? Did she want to make sure there were no proof connecting my death to her? Or was the point not to kill me? The two attackers had a trace of power but they weren't a threat on the same scale as Selene.
So maybe the point was to remind me that I'm not safe, and that she can send people after me anywhere. Maybe it’s to show me that she has killers at her disposal. Maybe this is her idea of a threat.
I don’t know, but it's obvious I'm going to need to be more cautious.
Selene knows too much about what I'm doing, and her reach is too great now to simply ignore the threat she represents.
I'm going to have to be more careful if I'm going to stop her. I need to build my own allies, and only act against her once we’re certain we’ll succeed.