CHAPTER TWO
I shudder as I head into the receiving rooms, the way I so often do when I set foot here. They’re a space with too many bad memories for me to ever be truly comfortable.
The receiving rooms are as much a part of the fabric of the Colosseum as the arena floor, a space where the wealthy can feast and drink while the games continue and where they can meet with the gladiators for conversation or for more.
In doing so, they seek to gain some fragment of reflected glory by being seen with the champions of the games.
They’re also a space where nobles would command slave gladiators to accompany them to side rooms for pleasure, a place of debauchery and plotting, where nobles and gladiators would stab one another in the back with words and in a more literal sense.
It’s a space where I’ve been ignored and commanded, drugged and threatened.
A space where my former patron, Lady Elara, would meet me to discuss what she wanted me to do to advance the cause of the beast whisperers, starting rumors that we were lovers to cover the true purpose of our meetings.
Now, there are no official patrons. There aren’t any slave gladiators to command, because First Senator Rowan freed the former empire’s slaves the moment the emperor fell. Everything is different now.
Things look the same, though. It’s still a space lined with marble columns and filled with elegant couches.
There are still doors leading off to private rooms, and even as I watch, I see Cesca heading for one of those rooms in the arms of a wealthy couple.
It seems she’s still trying to find whatever wealth and position she can by making connections with the right people.
There are still servants standing around the receiving rooms with jugs of wine and platters of delicacies.
They might be paid now, rather than simply owned, but they’re still there.
"There you are!" Marcus says, heading towards me through the throng of nobles there.
He's blond-haired and broad-shouldered, with square-jawed, good-looking features and piercing blue eyes.
He's wearing the toga of a fellow senator, although he also wears a necklace in the shape of a ship.
Marcus comes from a merchant family and has several trading ships.
His work means that the new Republic of Aetheria can maintain trading links with the surrounding kingdoms, building them on a basis of mutual interest rather than just imperial power.
He puts his hands on my arms, kissing me briefly.
There’s an electric charge between us, literally, since Marcus’ magic gives him control over weather and lightning.
It’s a useful talent for anyone with a fleet of ships, but it also means that lightning dances over my skin, making it tingle.
Marcus and I have been together for the last six months, and even now, it feels exciting just to touch him.
“Stop that,” I whisper to him. “People will see.”
“Maybe I want people to see,” Marcus murmurs back.
Our relationship isn’t a secret. People know, but that’s not the same thing as displaying our affections so publicly.
Too much public attention might be difficult politically.
I can feel the eyes on us, nobles watching us with hints of jealousy or amusement, or maybe calculating what it means for them politically.
Everything in Aetheria seems to be political.
I’ve gone from taking on enemies with weapons and magic to having to deal with ones for whom words are the most dangerous weapons. Although far from the only ones. At least one hidden enemy has sent men to beat or kill me in the past few months.
“Where were you?” Marcus whispers to me.
“I was watching the fights,” I say. “Cesca came close to killing her opponent.”
“I’m sure she was just putting on a show,” Marcus says, in a soothing tone he seems to use with me far too often.
“You weren’t there,” I reply. Marcus never seems quite as concerned as I am when the games take a dangerous turn.
"No," he replies. "I was here, talking to several merchants and nobles who are sponsoring the games. You know I was. And they want to speak to you, Lyra. I'm not impressive enough for them. The champion of the Colosseum, the woman who killed the emperor, is the one they want to meet. Please, Lyra."
I sigh, letting him take my hand and lead me through the receiving rooms. Even now that I’m a senator of the Republic of Aetheria, it seems people want to be seen with me. I let Marcus lead me towards one of the side rooms, and I hesitate, just a fraction.
“What is it?” Marcus asks me, obviously sensing my reluctance. I can hear the concern for me in his voice.
“This… this is the room that used to belong to Lady Elara,” I say.
Lady Elara, my former patron. The head of an organization of beast whisperers who were determined to overthrow the empire in a tidal wave of dominated creatures running through the streets.
The woman who trained me and put me in dangerous situations.
The woman I had to kill, in the end, to stop her.
“I’m sorry,” Marcus says. “I didn’t know. There aren’t records of which patron used to use which room. I just chose one that was available.”
Of course, he wouldn't know which room Lady Elara used to choose.
“Can you still go in there?” he asks. “If you can’t, I’ll find a way to handle the nobles without you.”
I shake my head. “No, I’ll manage it. I know how important this is to you.”
“To all of us,” Marcus says. “These sponsors of the games help to make them as spectacular as they are, help to bring in money for all of us.”
There’s no doubt that the games are bringing in money. I see rebuilding efforts wherever I look in the city and more guards on the street to keep order, at least in the wealthier areas. I know the benefits the games bring to Aetheria. I'm just not sure whether they're worth the dangers.
I go into the side room with Marcus, and he’s smiling that big, open smile he uses when meeting people. He’s good with people, charismatic and intelligent, interested in them and interesting in his own right.
There are probably a dozen nobles and wealthy merchants in the room, seated around a grand table laden with food.
There are servants waiting around the edge of the room, ready to rush forward to serve them.
They’re talking and drinking, but they fall silent when I walk in, staring at me, at Marcus, at the two of us together.
Marcus’ arm is around me in what is probably a protective gesture, but one that also makes it clear the two of us are together.
“Lyra Thornwind,” a fat, balding man dripping with jewelry says. “We must congratulate you on another wonderful set of games.”
"As if you saw any of them, Acteon," another slender man in his fifties retorts. "You spent the whole game in here."
“As I’m sure you spent them trying to build allies for your next deal, Justinian,” Acteon retorts.
"But isn't that at least part of the point of the games, my friends?
" Marcus says, leading me to the table. "Isn't it just one more thing their return has brought about?
It's given us a space in which to conduct our business and meet people we would never meet in other places.
I'm sure everyone here has profited greatly in the last six months. "
"Of course we have," a woman in her forties says. She wears an elaborately embroidered dress and plenty of golden jewelry. She extends her hand towards me. "I'm Gallea. It's a pleasure to meet the great Lyra Thornwind."
“I’m not sure I’m that great,” I say.
“Fishing for compliments?” Gallea says, arching an eyebrow.
Marcus just smiles again. "Lyra often doesn't remember just how much she's achieved. The strongest beast whisperer in Aetheria. The champion of the Colosseum. The killer of the emperor. And now a senator of the Republic."
He lists my achievements the way an announcer might say them at the start of a bout. I know that to everyone else, they must seem impressive, but for me, they were simply what I needed to do at the time.
I settle in beside Marcus, taking a few delicacies from the table and starting to eat.
“Will we see you back in the arena, Lyra?” Acteon says, in a hopeful tone. “Another fight from you would be a most popular event.”
I shake my head sharply. “That’s not something I’m going to do.”
“That’s a pity,” Acteon says. “You were one of my favorite fighters. You and Alaric. I understand he’s somewhere in the city?”
I smile tightly. “I think so. I don’t know exactly where he is.”
Alaric and I aren’t together anymore. He comes and goes as he pleases.
I’ll see him occasionally, but days, even weeks, can pass between visits from him.
He told me he was planning to help the people of the city, but he hasn’t told me how.
I hope he isn’t planning anything drastic, but with Alaric, it’s hard to tell.
He’s always been a man of extreme emotions, and once he’s decided to do something, he doesn’t hold back.
Around me, the nobles are laughing at some joke I've only caught half of.
I know I need to be here, but it's hard to force myself to do it.
I might be a senator, but I don't believe I fit here.
I prefer the ordinary people of the city.
I prefer the fighters who train and risk themselves in the Colosseum.
I can't help feeling that these nobles and merchants hardly give them a thought at all.
I stand, getting ready to leave. Marcus puts a hand on my arm.
“Is everything all right, Lyra?”
“I just… it’s difficult being here.”
Marcus stands, helping me from the room. “I’m sorry, if I’d known about that room and Lady Elara, I’d have picked somewhere else.”
It isn’t just the room, though. It’s the people in it.
“Are we doing the right thing, Marcus?” I ask him as we reach the door.
“Bringing back the games like this, getting wealthy sponsors, letting people get hurt? It feels as though we’re slipping backwards, little by little, towards the old empire. ”
“Trust me,” Marcus says. “There’s a bigger scheme at play here. It will help all the people of Aetheria, given enough time, I promise you.”
It’s easy to believe Marcus. He always sounds so sincere when he talks about helping Aetheria.
One day, though, I’d like to hear exactly how he plans to do it.
As with Alaric, I seem to need to take it on trust that he has the city’s best interests in mind.
For now though, I’m just glad to get away from the receiving room, leaving the arena.
I’ve seen enough of the games for one day.
When the games are done and I get back to the senate, I’m determined that I’ll do something to stop them sliding back towards their former “glory”. I will not allow them to become a place of blood and death once again. I’ll do anything it takes to stop that from happening.