CHAPTER EIGHT LYRA
When I get back to my rooms, there’s an invitation waiting for me, left on a side table.
Join me for dinner in my villa? Marcus.
The invitation catches me by surprise. I've only met Marcus once, and now he's inviting me to dinner? Maybe I should ignore it, refuse to meet with him. He was the one to tell me that various members of the Senate would try to influence me, to get me to work with them.
But precisely because he gave me that warning, I feel as though I can trust him, at least enough to meet with him. And what’s the alternative? Sitting here, still not quite sure what I’m meant to do in the city, what I’m supposed to do to help Rowan?
I turn and leave, heading out of the palace. I stop one of the servants on the way out. She looks at me with something like awe.
“Where can I find Senator Marcus’ villa?” I ask.
“It’s down on the line between the noble district and the merchants,” the servant says. “I could have a palanquin brought around to take you there.”
I shake my head. One of my old patrons would have me brought to her in a palanquin carried by her servants. I don’t want to remember those times.
“I’ll walk, thank you. Just give me directions.”
I enjoy walking down into the city, enjoy doing it without Rowan by my side. I could wander the city to see what else I can find here, but for now, I concentrate on heading straight for Marcus’ home.
It’s an elegant villa set on the fringes of the noble district, with high walls around the outside.
I reach out with my powers and feel the presence of a peacock, then look through its eyes briefly, seeing a garden laid out to be utterly peaceful, with olive trees at its corners.
I pull my consciousness back into myself, heading for the door.
A servant meets me there, an older man who bows deeply to me.
“My lady Lyra,” he says. “Lord Marcus said that you might come. Please, let me show you through to him.”
He leads the way into the villa. I’ve seen the wealth of nobles, the gilded and highly decorated homes they favor. This isn’t quite the same. There’s still wealth on display here, in the elegant mosaics on the floor depicting voyages across the sea, in the statues and the artwork collected here.
But this isn’t a place filled with gold and jewels, the kind of ostentatious display I’ve seen elsewhere. There’s a kind of simplicity to the villa I like.
The servant leads me through to a room dominated by a large, marble table with couches on either side.
Marcus is sitting on one of them, dressed now in a tunic woven with the symbols of a merchant house, a necklace lying over it that depicts a ship.
The tunic clings to him, showing off his muscles.
It’s hard not to stare. He smiles and stands as I enter.
“Lyra, I’m so glad you could come.” He gestures to one of the couches. “Please, take a seat.”
“I almost didn’t come here,” I say.
“Afraid that I was going to try to influence you to my cause?” Marcus says.
I raise an eyebrow. “Aren’t you?”
“Perhaps,” Marcus says, sounding amused. “But you came anyway.”
“Perhaps I want to see how you plan to influence me,” I counter, finally taking a seat on the couch he’s gestured to.
“What were you hoping for?” Marcus asks, sitting opposite me, with another faint smile.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were teasing me,” I say.
He shrugs. “Tease the deadliest gladiator of the arena? I wouldn’t dare. Can I try offering you wine, instead?”
His servant is already moving to bring a jug of wine, along with goblets. Marcus pours, passing me a goblet filled with a deep red wine that tastes better than most I’ve had.
“I import this wine,” he says. “It’s one of my more profitable enterprises. I’ve asked the servants to prepare food for us.”
“So you assumed I’d come?” I say.
“I thought it was worth the risk,” he replies. “And I suspected you’d want to talk to me.”
“Is that because you thought I’d be interested in politics, or in getting to know you?” I say.
He laughs. “I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I might be that interesting to you personally.”
I’m not sure about that. Marcus is handsome, definitely, and I also get the feeling that he knows he is. He has an easygoing charm that’s hard to ignore. But he doesn’t seem to use it like a weapon, doesn’t seem to be determined to woo me to his side.
“You were pushing for the games to reopen earlier,” I say. “In the senate chamber.”
Marcus nods. “In a limited form. Unlike Domitian.”
There is a clear difference between him and the former soldier who was pushing for the full reopening of the games, going back to the old fights to the death. I have to admit that.
“What would this ‘limited form’ look like?” I ask him.
Marcus pauses, looking me over as if to try to guess what I’m thinking.
“Exhibition matches,” he says. “Fights that wouldn’t be to the death. Ones that would merely display the skills of the fighters involved.”
“And why do you want them?” I ask.
“How about if we talk more once we’ve eaten?” Marcus suggests, because his servants are bringing plates of food to us. “I would feel bad, simply jumping into politics with you. The truth is that I want to get to know you, Lyra. I hope that we can be friends.”
“Friends?” I say.
“Is the concept so unfamiliar?”
“It’s just that someone told me that anyone on the senate would want to use me for their own ends,” I point out.
He sighs. “I did say that, didn’t I? But I’m serious, Lyra. I’d like to get to know you better. It isn’t every day that I get to meet a champion of the arena and a hero of the city. I didn’t realize you would be so fascinating, or so beautiful.”
The compliment catches me off guard, making me reach for the food to disguise the slight flush of my features. I take some bread and sliced meats, eating carefully. It’s simple fare, less complex than anything I might have been served in most noble homes. I appreciate the simplicity of it.
“Tell me about yourself first,” I say.
“I’m not sure I’m as interesting as you,” he replies.
“My family… we’ve been merchants for generations, under the empire, and now under the republic.
My grandfather and my father used to deal in dubious things, things that made me uncomfortable, but then they upset the emperor, and lost almost everything.
I’ve worked to change things since I got control of what was left of our merchant fleet.
I’ve been trying to build new trading routes for the Republic, trying to find ways for us to trade that don’t rely on simply seizing people or riches. ”
“And you became a senator,” I say.
He nods. “The various merchant houses got to put forward candidates. I was one of the few people they could agree on, and maybe… maybe they decided they needed someone who wasn’t too tainted by associations to the old regime.
The whole world has changed in just a year.
Honestly, I’ve been scrambling to keep up. ”
I look around at the house. “Something tells me you’ve done well out of the changes.”
Marcus spreads his hands. “Should I pretend that I don’t have money, Lyra? That would be a lie, and I don’t want to lie to you.”
“To me in particular, or to the world in general?” I ask.
He actually pauses and considers that, treating the question with seriousness I don’t expect. “I try not to lie if I can avoid it. Politics… I’m finding day by day that it calls for compromises and speaking carefully, but I would rather be honest where I can. And certainly with you.”
“So if I ask you again about your plans to restart fights in the arena?” I say.
Marcus brings his fingers together, looking at me over them. “The city has plenty of problems. One of them is that the people lack spectacle. Overnight, we took away their biggest entertainment, the thing they would look forward to in order to distract them from the difficulty of their lives.”
“You make the ordinary people sound like children, distracted by pretty lights and the clash of blades,” I say.
Marcus shakes his head. “I don’t mean to insult them.
Or you. I’m just saying that we can’t change things so completely without consequences.
The games gave people a moment of coming together, a moment to remember that they were a part of the city.
They were also important economically. People spent money on gambling, on food, on drink and entertainment.
The games were like an engine, driving the city forward. ”
“At the price of people’s lives,” I point out.
Marcus looks serious. “I know that, and I understand why Rowan is opposed to them. Why you might be, after all you’ve been through. But what I’m saying is that we might be able to have the good aspects of the games, without the death and bloodlust that were at their core.”
He sounds passionate about that, and I can appreciate his directness, as well as his willingness to try to find a compromise between the positions of those who want to return things to the way they were and those, like Rowan, who don’t want the games back in any form.
“You make a convincing case,” I say.
“Maybe you should tell that to the senate,” Marcus replies. “Now, tell me about yourself, Lyra.”
“What should I tell you? About my fights? About the battle for the city?”
“If you wish,” Marcus says. “Although I would rather hear about you. Where are you from? What was life like for you, growing up?”
“I’m from the village of Seatide, up on the coast,” I say. “My mother is the village healer. I grew up trying to copy her.”
It’s surprisingly easy to talk to Marcus, to tell him about growing up, and about being taken by the empire. To tell him about training at Ironhold, and about the fights I had to stay alive within it. Time passes faster than I expect, and pretty soon, it’s dark outside.
“You’re a fascinating woman, Lyra,” Marcus says. “You could make a real difference in Aetheria.”
“And you’re a senator,” I point out.
“That isn’t so hard to achieve,” Marcus replies.
“You could be a senator, easily enough. I'm sure there's a vacant district coming up, and the others would vote you onto the Senate.
There, you might actually have a say in what happens in the city.
I assumed Rowan would have already offered you that much. "
"He hasn't," I admit. I don't know if it's because he doesn't want to try to force me onto the Senate, if he's trying to hold me aside from its politics so I can work in other ways, or if he simply doesn't think I would be suited to it.
“If he won’t, I will,” Marcus says. “I’ll propose you as a senate member. You’ll be able to make a difference there, Lyra.”
It’s a lot to offer on the spur of the moment. But then, maybe it isn’t just on the spur of the moment.
I hesitate. “Why do I get the feeling that you had that offer planned before I even showed up?”
Marcus spreads his hands again. “I had it at the back of my mind, if Rowan wasn’t going to propose you as a member. As I said, I don’t want to lie to you. I’m not going to force you to make a decision, but at least promise me you’ll think about it.”
I nod. I can do that much, at least.
“But I should be getting back,” I say. “It’s getting late.”
“Of course,” Marcus says. “Let me walk you back.”
“I think I’ll be safe enough,” I say.
“As you wish,” Marcus replies. He takes my hand, lowering his lips to it. “I hope we meet again soon, Lyra. And think about my offer.”
“I will,” I promise. I’ll be thinking about his offer, and I suspect, about him.