CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“She wants you to do what?” Alaric says, as we train with Elanar in another abandoned space within the city. This one is a walled garden, cut off from the outside world by the buildings around it, accessible only over the rooftops.
Alaric swings a blade as he says it, forcing me to dodge.
“She wants me to join her and learn from her,” I reply, throwing back a barrage of strikes with my staff, spinning and leaping, trying to keep Alaric on the back foot.
“While she becomes empress?” Alaric guesses. He swings his blade low, forcing me to leap over it.
I nod. “Although she tried to persuade me that it would be a very different place to the old empire. That magical strength and not birth would be the only thing determining status within Aetheria.”
Alaric looks thoughtful. “Which would make you one of the most important people in Aetheria, if not the most important. Are you tempted?”
It’s almost as though Selene crafted that particular temptation just for me, but I suspect she’s sincere in it. She wants a society based on magical power, because that would put her at the top.
“It’s something I suspect would be tempting for a lot of magical practitioners,” I point out. Alaric and I continue to trade blows, testing each other’s defenses. “It’s something that tries to get all of us on her side.”
“Leaving the nulls to fend for themselves,” Alaric points out.
He lunges for me, and I go to parry, only to realize a fraction of a second too late that it’s an illusion of him making the attack.
My parry goes straight through the image of him, leaving me off balance and open, so that he can touch his blade to my throat.
“Enough of this,” Elanar says. He’s sitting cross legged on the base of a fallen pillar, long overgrown with plants. “You aren’t focusing enough. With your powers, you should be able to feel the difference between a real opponent, filled with emotions, and one who isn’t there.”
As if to oblige him, Alaric seems to split into three, different versions of him standing around me with their swords held ready. I focus on his emotions, on his need to win, on the adrenaline running through him. On the need to be near me, and the deeper feelings underneath that.
As the three versions of Alaric lunge towards me, I step towards the only one of them that matters, moving inside his attack and sending the two of us tumbling to the ground with me on top.
We lie there for several seconds, panting with the effort of our training, and I’m all too aware of the feel of his body beneath mine, the closeness of his lips.
“Better,” Elanar says, and that word is enough to remind me that Alaric and I aren’t alone. I stand, helping him to his feet.
“When she came to the palace, she briefly tried to influence me with her psychomancy,” I say. “I was able to keep her out.”
“That’s good,” Elanar says. “Although it means she knows now that you’ve been working on your skills.”
“She knew anyway,” I say. “Somehow, she knew that I was training with beast whisperers.”
Elanar looks shocked now, even frightened. “She knows about me?”
I can understand that fear. If Selene has been killing beast whisperers, her knowing about Elanar’s existence will put him in great danger.
“I don’t think she knows who you are specifically,” I say. “She didn’t mention your name, or show any signs that she understood who was training me.”
Elanar still doesn’t look happy. “It’s still worrying. You promised to keep me safe, Alaric. It may be time to get me out of the city.”
“Not yet,” Alaric insists. “Not if Lyra still has things to learn. She does still have things to learn?”
Elanar hesitates, and I can imagine him trying to judge whether he should lie. If he says I know everything I need, then Alaric will have no reason to insist he stays in the city. But he shakes his head instead.
“You’re getting stronger,” he says to me. “But there are still a couple more things I want to work on with you.”
“Will you stay until Lyra has learned those things?” Alaric asks.
Elanar nods. “I will. Selene is the threat here, and Lyra is the best chance to stop her. If I run, then there’s always a chance she’ll have me hunted down if she wins. If you kill her, Lyra, then I won’t have to worry.”
He makes it sound so easy to just kill her, as if it’s something I could do easily. Killing isn’t something that comes naturally to me, even if I’ve done it before when I’ve had no other choice. Perhaps Elanar finds it easier than I do.
“What skills do I still need to work on?” I ask.
“The next thing I want to focus on is on you borrowing power from animals further away,” Elanar says. “If Selene Ravenscroft has any sense, she’ll be getting rid of the creatures in the beast pits below Ironhold. She won’t want anything there you or another beast whisperer can draw from.”
Alaric cuts in. “Some of my people have seen cages with animals being brought to the colosseum. I assumed it was for some grand extravaganza there, but what you say makes sense. She’s taking away any capacity Lyra has to draw on their strength within the fortress.”
When the smaller animals are already gone, this move leaves me with no source of strength.
“So I want you to focus now,” Elanar says. “Stretch out your awareness. Focus on… let’s try the palace’s menagerie.”
I nod, grateful that he’s picked somewhere I know, at least. I stretch out my awareness, reaching past all the small animals of the city: chickens kept by the residents close by, a cat stretching out on a rooftop.
I feel for the creatures in the menagerie, the strength of my power letting me feel their presence.
I can sense the storm leopard and the gorilla, the giraffes and the peacocks.
I focus on the gorilla. I’ve borrowed some of its strength and climbing ability before, so I strive to do the same again. It’s hard in a way it never normally is, like trying to pick up a heavy weight at arm’s length rather than close to my body.
“Imagine an aqueduct between you and the creature you’re connecting with. Build that structure in your mind, and let the power flow along it like water,” Elanar says.
I imagine the things he’s saying, and now I can feel power flowing into me from the creature I’m connected to.
I go to the walls, and its easy to pull myself up them, using the barest of handholds.
I smile as I reach the top, turning to look at Alaric and Elanar, then leaping down to join them again.
“It worked,” I say, happiness filling my voice. “And I might need it soon.”
“Why?” Alaric asks.
“Selene invited me to one of her gatherings,” I say. “In three days. I get the feeling she’s planning to unveil her vision for Aetheria to more people. If I can get in there, maybe I can do something to stop her schemes, or maybe I can limit her ability to control people.”
“You want to go in there alone?” Alaric says. “Into a place where you won’t have animals to control?”
“But I can at least borrow from some at a distance, now,” I point out. “And I’ll have the ability to influence people’s emotions. Maybe I can do something to disrupt her power base.”
“But not alone,” Alaric insists. “You’ll need help from the resistance.”
Not just them. Marcus will need to be involved as well. If Selene is planning something big, then we need to know what, and how she plans to realize her vision for Aetheria. Once we know, then maybe, together, we can stop it.
Will he go along with the plan? I hope so. He can provide influence with the kind of people Selene will invite, and maybe with some of the guards.
Even with him, it will be dangerous. If I want to accept Selene’s invitation, I’ll be walking into the middle of a fortress where she might well control the guards. This could all be some trick to have me walk into a place where she can trap or kill me. Going to her gathering will be a risk.
But it’s a risk I must take, for the good of all the people of Aetheria.