CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
“He deserves to be executed for this,” Domitian growls.
“It may be necessary,” Marcus says, “if only for the safety of the Republic.”
I know there's no point in trying to argue with them here, in the games. I also can't stand by and do nothing. I simply can't, but I also know there's nothing I can do within the Colosseum. I need to act more directly.
I need to see Alaric.
I rush out of the Colosseum, heading for the prison tower that stands at the edge of the city, embedded into its walls. People move out of my way as I hurry through the streets, determined to get there before anything can happen to Alaric.
It isn’t just that this is wrong. So much about this situation is wrong.
He and his followers shouldn’t be imprisoned.
They shouldn’t be facing the possibility of execution simply for speaking out about what’s happening in the city.
But that hasn’t been enough to send me running for the prison tower.
No, I'm doing it now because Alaric's in danger. Because whatever's happened between us, my heart still aches at the thought of him being hurt. It's enough to push me faster through the streets, determined to get to him and do whatever I can for him.
There are guards at the gates of the prison tower. They cross their spears, looking as though they might be about to deny me entrance.
“Halt!” one says. “No one may access the prison tower.”
“I’m a senator of Aetheria,” I point out, grateful that there was no time to change out of my toga before coming here. “I have the authority to question anything going on in the city. Right now, I want to speak to one of your prisoners.”
“Senator Domitian said-”
"Domitian is just one senator," I snap back. "He has no more authority than me. I'm here to question a suspect and find answers. Now, let me in, or I'll be forced to conclude that you're trying to hide something from the Senate."
It’s a bluff. I don’t have the other senators on my side anymore.
If they refuse to let me see Alaric, there’s nothing I can do unless I’m prepared to fight them to get in.
Am I prepared to do so? A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t even have asked the question.
It would have seemed vital to stay within the laws and structures of the Republic.
Now, with Alaric’s life at stake, I’m not so sure.
Maybe the guards can sense some of my determination, because they take a step backwards. “Of course, Senator,” the one doing the talking says.
“Where have they taken Alaric?” I ask. I have no doubt that they’ll know. Even among his fellow rebels, Alaric will stand out.
“They took him up to one of the highest rooms,” the guard says. “They’re keeping him alone, for now.”
Which means they’re singling him out for special treatment.
That might mean that they’re treating him better than the others, but it might also mean that they’ve decided to torture him for every scrap of information about his group, to tear through Alaric’s mind with psychomancy and make him tell them everything.
Every moment I waste is a moment where he might be suffering.
I rush into the prison tower, and my senator's toga means the guards within step aside for me as I make my way up through it, going higher and higher.
I can hear people crying out to the guards or one another, crammed into cells set around the exterior of the tower.
On one level, there are rooms that seem designed for the interrogation of prisoners, with chairs that have straps on the arms, designed to hold them in place while they're questioned and psychomancers work to get into their minds.
The whole place smells of too many people crammed into too close a space.
I can smell fear in the air and feel the despair running through it.
It's another place within the Aetherian Republic that seems far too close to being something from the days of the empire.
I find Alaric in a cell at the very top of the tower. There are no guards around to unlock it, and I’m not sure that they would even if they were there. My status as a senator will only get me so far, especially with guards who’ve been paid by Domitian.
Alaric is lying on the floor, beaten so badly that it pains me just to look at him. He has bruises swelling on his face, and one eye is closed and blackened. There's blood in his hair, and he groans as he rises.
“Come to break me out?” he says, with a sardonic smile that seems all too aware of the impossibility of that.
"I would if I could," I say. I reach out for him, touching his injured face. He winces and pulls back. "What were you thinking, Alaric? Inciting a riot? Calling for people to overthrow the Senate?"
“I thought that people needed to hear the truth, and they needed to be pushed to take action,” Alaric says.
“But with the chaos in the arena, they’ll accuse you of being a traitor to the Republic,” I say.
Alaric laughs. “Do you think they’ll need that much of an excuse to execute me?”
“Don’t even joke about it,” I say, but the problem is he isn’t joking.
Domitian wants Alaric dead. Marcus is talking about it like it’s a foregone conclusion.
I doubt that Rowan will be able to intercede on Alaric’s behalf, not with the rest of the senate set on his death.
“Why did you think this would work, Alaric?”
“Because there are some things the people of Aetheria won’t stand for,” Alaric says. “Collusion between senators and those who want to tear down the Republic and put another empire back in place.”
“Who?” I say. “Do you have names?”
“The key name here isn’t hard to guess,” Alaric says. “Domitian Blacksteel. He’s the one who’s in communication with people outside Aetheria, deliberately weakening it, ready to take over.”
“And who’s he talking to?” I say.
Alaric smiles tightly. “Selene Ravenscroft.”
That name chills my blood after everything I saw in the Arborian village.
The pieces are starting to fit together.
Selene has been making preparations somewhere in Arboria, she’s come to Aetheria, but the question was always what she intended.
Now, it seems clearer, thanks to her connection to Domitian.
“She’s using him to weaken the city and the senate,” I say.
“She’s trying to make it so that, when she comes back, she’ll be able to simply step into a place of power.
I thought maybe she might come back with an army, but she doesn’t need to if Domitian has already bribed the guards.
Selene can corrupt Aetheria so much that it welcomes her back with open arms.”
“Exactly,” Alaric says. “We only heard hints, but I’m sure there’s proof out there.”
He looks like he might be about to say more, but in that moment I hear booted feet on the stairs.
Marcus comes up to them, accompanied by a quartet of guards.
"Lyra, what are you doing here?" he asks me in a stern tone.
I know I need to play the next few moments carefully because Marcus already knows how close my connection to Alaric is.
It's only a small step from that to believing that I might have been complicit in his actions in the games.
If he can persuade the Senate that I'm a traitor, he can sideline me, making it easier for Selene.
"I came to see Alaric to find out how he could be so foolish," I say. "And I hoped that he might talk to me when he won't talk to anyone else."
“And did he tell you anything?” Marcus asks.
I shake my head, knowing that I can’t just give him the information Alaric told me. I can’t trust him enough for that.
“Then it’s best if you aren’t here,” Marcus says. “The senate already thinks you’re far too close to Alaric as it is.”
He sounds as though he thinks I'm too close, too.
I feel as though I'm caught between the two of them, but I can't give any sign of what I feel right now.
I can't say the pained goodbye that I want to with Alaric.
I must pretend that I'm an unfeeling senator, devoted only to my duties as I leave, heading down the stairs of the prison tower and trying to think.
Marcus is still up there, presumably preparing to question Alaric, too, even though we both know he won't say anything.
I have no doubt now that Domitian needs to be stopped.
His working with Selene makes perfect sense, but it also makes him doubly dangerous.
He won't hesitate to kill me if he thinks I'm getting close to the truth.
That, or he'll find an excuse to imprison me.
My status as a senator protects me up to a point, but if he simply makes me disappear, I'm not sure what anyone could do about it.
How do I stop him? I can't just kill him, wouldn't even if I thought I could get away with doing something like that to a fellow senator. I also can't speak out against him in the Senate, not when so many people there are turned against me.
My only hope is that Alaric is right, and there is proof that he's connected to Selene. If I can find any evidence of a connection between them, one message, one scrap of parchment, that will be enough to bring him down.
And I need to find it quickly before Domitian's schemes cost Alaric his life.