CHAPTER NINETEEN
I stand next to Marcus in the forum of Aetheria, smiling and waving at the crowds of ordinary people, but feeling so torn inside that I can barely keep myself standing there.
“Keep smiling,” Marcus whispers to me, making it look like he’s leaned in for some gentle, private moment. “These appearances are important to build public support.”
I understand his strategy, which is to overwhelm Selene’s control of a few individuals within the city with our own wave of popular support.
I even suspect it’s working, because there are plenty of people here in the forum, and I can feel their joy and love towards us thanks to my training sessions with Elanar.
Although I feel one pinprick of anger and hate. It’s enough of a warning when a figure stands up, a young man, little more than a boy, hefting a tomato.
“No more emperors! No return to the empire!”
He flings it at Marcus, but I’m fast enough to catch it. I can see a couple of guards already moving to grab him. The crowd is closing in too, and I can feel their anger.
“One of the resistance! Get him!”
I reach for their emotions the way I did with the fight in the courtyard, trying to soothe them and drain away their anger. People start to step back from the young man, and I borrow speed and grace from a cat lounging on a nearby wall to make sure I’m the one to grab him, rather than the guards.
He twists in my grip, grubby and furious looking, but I can feel the fear underneath it all now, the animal flight or fight response that’s far too close to what I would feel in a cornered stray dog.
“Relax,” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“We should take him,” one of the guards says. “If he’s a member of the resistance, he might be able to tell us more about them.”
I shake my head. I’m not going to let this child be dragged into a cell somewhere, terrified and threatened until he gives the guards information.
“Look at him,” I say. “He’s just a child. Probably this is all a game to him, and he hasn’t done any harm.”
Marcus doesn’t look happy about any of this. Perhaps he knows that this moment is what will be remembered today, rather than him standing serenely, meeting with the people.
“This is just Alaric, trying to disrupt everything I do,” he says.
I sigh, pushing the child back into the crowd.
“Go,” I tell him, and he doesn’t need a second invitation to scamper away. Marcus still looks annoyed.
“Why did you let him go?” he asks.
“Because he’s just a child.”
“Or is it because you don’t want Alaric’s people getting hurt?” Marcus counters.
I sigh. I’ve had enough of this. Marcus and Alaric both want to protect the city in their own ways, but they’re always at one another’s throats. Each clearly hates the other, and I’m caught in the middle.
“I don’t want anyone to be hurt,” I say. “Come on. Let’s head back to the palace.”
Marcus nods reluctantly, obviously seeing that his efforts here aren’t going to work now, and we start to head back.
Guards flank us, but I don’t feel as safe with them as I should.
I have too many memories of being escorted through the streets by the emperor’s guards, and these days, I have no way of knowing whether they’ve have been influenced by Selene.
“I want you to get ready to travel incognito,” I tell Marcus once we arrive.
“Why? What do you have in mind?”
“I need you to trust me on this,” I say. “Please?”
Marcus nods without hesitation. He’s at least willing to do what I ask in situations like this without questioning what I’m going to do next.
What I do, the moment he goes to change, is write a message and attach it to the leg of a passing bird.
Get A to meet me in the catacombs in one hour. L. In the spot where the beast whisperers used to meet.
I send the bird out over the city, all the way to the tower the resistance has claimed. Thalia is there, and she stares at the message before turning to the bird.
“I’ll try,” she says.
It’s the best I can hope for. I cut the connection and change into something that will attract less attention than my senatorial toga, picking a simple long tunic with a cloak thrown over it.
When I go to Marcus, it turns out he’s dressed almost the same way.
That’s good; maybe we’ll get through the city without anyone noticing us.
“Where are we going?” Marcus asks, as we make our way out into Aetheria.
I look around to make sure no one is listening in. I use the birds above to make sure no one is following us, either.
“To the catacombs,” I say.
“And what’s in the catacombs?” Marcus asks, in a wary tone.
“Just come with me,” I insist.
I can feel his reluctance now, thanks to the skills I’ve been learning, but he still goes along with me, heading through Aetheria and then down into the spaces beneath it.
I know this route, having trodden it many times to train with Lady Elara.
After what seems like an eternity, Marcus and I come out into a deep, circular space that’s open to the sky far above, and which was once a temple to Deira, the goddess of beasts.
It’s empty now, the beast whispers having fled elsewhere after the conflicts of the rebellion.
“What are we doing here?” Marcus asks, looking around at the interior.
“I was about to ask the same thing,” a voice says from the shadows. “But I have a better question, Lyra. Why did you bring him?”
Alaric steps into the light and Marcus’ hands start to crackle with power, ready to fight. Alaric produces a couple of blades, seemingly from nowhere.
“Enough, you two!” I shout at them, my words echoing through the space. “You’re here because I brought you both here. And I did that because this has to stop.”
I gesture to the weapons and to the crackling lightning, then go on before they can argue.
“You both spend your time fighting against one another, when you should be working together to stop Selene Ravenscroft,” I say.
“Work with him?” Marcus says. “A rabble rouser who wants chaos for the city?”
“Better than wanting to be a new emperor,” Alaric snaps back. “Do you know how corrupt he is, Lyra?”
“Do you know how many guards have been hurt by his people?” Marcus counters.
I grab their wrists, forcing them to stay close to one another.
“This needs to stop,” I say again. “This constant arguing. This fighting. You both want to help the city, you both want…”
In an instant, I see what they both want. I may not be able to read their minds, but I can feel their needs and desires, the emotions underpinning it all.
Marcus wants order. He wants a city where everything runs smoothly, for the benefit of all.
I catch a glimpse of him standing in front of the crowds in the arena, waving to them as their First Senator with me beside him.
That’s his deepest need, the instinct that drives him forward.
He doesn’t want to be emperor, but he does want to be important.
From Alaric, I get an image of the most corrupt figures in Aetheria being torn down, and food being given to the poor. He’s the one doing it, helping the people, and I’m by his side.
“Both of you want to help the city,” I say, looking from one to the other.
“Marcus doesn’t want to be an emperor, Alaric, although he does want to be someone important in the city.
He feels that’s the best way to help people.
Alaric doesn’t want to tear everything down, Marcus, just to cut out the corruption he sees as hurting the people.
You want the same things. You just have very different ways of going about it, and you can’t achieve anything unless you work together. ”
“Work with him?” Alaric and Marcus say, almost simultaneously.
The problem is that there’s one more thing driving them apart, setting them at odds with one another: their jealousy over me. I can feel that now, as surely as I can feel the love and desire behind it, the need for me. But maybe that can also allow me to build a bridge between them.
“If you don’t like the thought of working with one another for the city’s sake, do it for mine,” I insist. “The way you’re both acting is tearing me apart.
I need you to work with me, and with one another.
Alaric, I know you’re afraid the declaration of my engagement to Marcus means you’ve lost your chance.
Marcus, I know you’re worried every time I look at Alaric that I’ll go running to him and forget you.
I can feel that, now, and I can’t promise you what will happen in the future, which of you I’ll choose, or if I’ll choose.
But can you accept that it is my choice?
And that this constant fighting is not helping your chances? ”
They both hesitate. Alaric is the first to nod. “I can accept that.”
Marcus nods a second later. “Me too. But when you say you want us to work together…”
“I mean no more trying to disrupt one another’s efforts,” I say. “I mean no more random arrests, or attacks from the shadows. No more fruit thrown at us.”
Alaric smirks at that, but nods.
“You both have plenty of followers. Between the two of you, you probably control more of the city than anyone else. So use that, together, to stop Selene.”
They both nod, and if they still look wary, well, that’s better than open conflict at least. For now, I’m the glue holding them together. I just hope it will be enough to save the city.