CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
I hesitate outside Marcus' room, knowing that once I do this, I won't be able to go back.
Marcus will know that I'm looking into Domitian's activities, and his.
He'll know that I'm a threat. I think about his control of weather magic, the lightning he can summon.
Am I prepared to face that if he decides to kill me?
I swallow. Do I really think Marcus will try to kill me? It’s hard to believe, given how close we’ve gotten, but I’ve also seen his meetings with Domitian. It’s clear that I never knew him as well as I thought.
But if he does try to attack me, won’t that just be proof that he’s engaged in something evil? If he lashes out when I accuse him, won’t that just tear down the illusion of the carefully calm senator, who acts only in the interests of the people?
And if he does attack me, he’ll find out what it means to take on a former gladiator.
I hammer on the door to Marcus' room, and he opens it after a few moments. He's still in his senatorial toga, and he has a scroll in one hand, looking as though he's preparing for a speech. He looks surprised, almost shocked, to see me.
“Lyra, what are you doing here?” he demands. “Is this… are you ready to talk?”
He thinks this is about the arguments in our relationship? It’s about far more than that. I push past him, forcing my way into the room.
“Oh, I want to talk,” I say. “I want you to talk. I want you to tell me about the things you’ve been plotting with Domitian.”
Marcus looks even more shocked, then begins to look outraged.
“This again?” he says. “You accused me and him before, and you didn't have any evidence then.”
“I've just been to Domitian’s rooms,” I say. “While the rest of you were arguing in the Senate chamber, I was searching for the proof I needed. Do you know he's in league with Selene Ravenscroft? Or are you just helping him to bring back the empire because you believe in it?”
“What? What are you talking about?” Marcus demands.
“Lyra, you keep making accusations towards me, but you're the one who needs to worry right now.
In the Senate, we were discussing Alaric, and what to do with him.
Rowan was blocking any move to have him executed, but that can't last. There’s another meeting soon.
And when you weren't in the senate chamber, people started to ask questions about you and how much you must have been helping him.
They're starting to accuse you, and if you can't defend yourself, then there's a chance you end up right beside him.”
That threat sends a chill through me. I can imagine Domitian arguing for exactly that, trying to see me impaled alongside Alaric when our only crimes have been to try to protect the city from those who would tear down the Republic.
Marcus puts his hand on my arm. “You need to forget about all this, Lyra. It's putting you in danger. I've done my best to keep you out of all this, to protect you, but you haven't made it easy.”
What's he talking about? Protect me? He pushed me aside the moment I started to question his motives within the games.
I shake my head. “You haven't tried to protect me.”
“I have, more than you know.”
“I know plenty,” I assure him, staring into his eyes as I do so, watching for any flicker of guilt or doubt.
“I know about your meeting in the theater with Lord Arin, Lucius, Domitian and the rest. I know about the fights at the Gilded Swan. I know there are meant to be deathmatches happening elsewhere. And like I said, I know that Selene is the hand behind all this.”
“But you still don't know all of it,” Marcus insists. “And the things you're doing are putting you in danger. Being seen with Alaric. Going out to meet Sorrel in the slums.”
“You know about that?” I say. “You were the one who sent the guards after us?”
Marcus shakes his head quickly. “That was Domitian, but he told me about it.
It took me an effort to stop him from killing Sorrel out of hand.
And he didn't know it was you with him, but he was willing to guess who it might be.
He's been getting closer to another assassination attempt, and you're not making it easy for me to talk him out of it.”
I pull back from him, not willing to let Marcus continue to hold my arms. Not when he could send the lightning rippling down through that touch to stun me. I need more space. My every instinct says this is a dangerous moment, that I should be prepared for the possibility of combat.
“You keep talking as though you're trying to minimize the damage Domitian does,” I say. “But you're as much a part of his schemes as he is. I've seen you, Marcus.”
“You've seen what I needed to show them,” Marcus shoots back, sudden hurt in his voice. “You've seen fragments at best, and because of those fragments, you think I'm some kind of traitor.”
“Aren’t you?” I demand.
“No!” He says that so firmly, pacing in front of me. “How could you think that?”
“Because of everything you've done in the last few months,” I say.
“You haven't fought back or argued when Domitian has reduced the safety of the games.
You've been happy to make backroom deals with him. You seem to know all about him sending guards and gang members to attack me. You were plotting with him and the others.”
“To discover what he was doing!” Marcus says, sudden passion and anger in his voice. He falls silent in the seconds after those words burst from him, but I’m not about to let it go.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I mean that I’ve been working to try to stop Domitian, but the only way to do that is to draw him into something he can't argue his way out of. Of course, I saw the way he was twisting the games, but I guessed from the start that it would be a part of a bigger scheme. I needed to know what that scheme was.” Marcus looks at me imploringly.
“I've been playing a double game almost from the moment the games reopened.
It was clear Domitian was planning something dangerous, but he's a senator. It takes more than vague suspicions to bring one of us down. The best way to learn more was to get close to him, and the best way to do that was to play along with his schemes.”
“So you've been spying on him all this time?” I say. I can't keep the disbelief from my voice. “And why wouldn't you tell me that?”
He laughs. “Because that would have put you in danger, and me.
If you said the wrong thing, got caught in a lie, Domitian would know what I've been doing, and he wouldn't hesitate to try to kill us both.
The only reason he hasn't tried to take your life again is because he thought I could control you, and then because I convinced him that you'd been sidelined so much that you weren't a threat.”
“But how am I meant to believe you on this?” I say. “Even if it's true, you're admitting you've been lying to me so well I haven't spotted it. How do I know you aren’t lying to me now?”
“I've been collecting evidence against Domitian,” Marcus says.
“Documents. Things that show the extent of his corruption.
Things that show he's plotting treason. The whole point of what he's doing with the games is to weaken the Republic, to make it corrupt and gain the support of the common people. Things that would make it easy to put a new emperor in place.”
“So why haven't you presented that proof to the senate?” I say.
Marcus spreads his hands. “I almost had enough to do so, but I couldn't work out who he was working with. I always had the sense that there was someone else behind the scenes. Now, you've told me who: Selene Ravenscroft.”
“I don't have proof of that,” I say. “It's something Alaric told me.”
“Given the disruption he's caused, people might not be willing to listen to him,” Marcus says. “But it seems he's been working to try to protect the city.”
I don't know where I stand with Marcus. He clearly isn't the conspirator I thought he was, but I'm still not quite sure who he is. He's manipulated me, as well as everyone else. But right now, that doesn't matter. What matters is stopping Domitian.
“Do you have enough proof to convince the senate?” I ask Marcus.
He considers the question for a moment, then nods. “I believe so. Especially if it comes from me. I can tell them about the meetings. You know Domitian will say that this is just you manipulating me and that you're a traitor? He’ll try to have you executed.”
“I know that,” I say. I know the stakes are as high as in any battle I've had in the arena. Alaric’s life hangs in the balance, and mine might be at risk as well. The whole city is under threat from Domitian’s plans.
It only makes it more important that we stop him before it's too late.
“You said there's another senate meeting soon,” I say. “So let's get in there and show them the truth.”