CHAPTER THREE
I race through the streets of the city, dodging past people as I go. I’m still looking through the eyes of the birds above, and that’s why I see the men moving in on me from either direction. One of them tries to tackle me and I dodge to one side, letting him fall flat on his face.
The other moves in front of me, a club in his hands.
“Give me your money,” he snarls, but I don’t believe he really cares about it.
What are the odds that a robber would just happen to target me now, as I’m trying to make my way back to the palace?
And on a busy street? No, this is clearly a tactic designed to stop me from getting back in time.
He’s only said it so people will remember it, and assume this is just a random attack.
Selene must know these men can’t stop me. This isn’t an assassination attempt, certainly not a serious one. But that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. All the two of them need to do is slow me down for a little while and I won’t be there to argue against Selene’s proposal.
I can’t allow that to happen, so I charge straight at the one with the club.
He swings it at me and I duck, avoiding the blow, even as I kick backwards to catch the first attacker in the stomach as he comes at me from behind.
I slam the heel of my palm into the jaw of the club wielder, stunning him briefly, but I don’t have time to keep going with this fight.
I could spend the next couple of minutes incapacitating these men, then more waiting for the guards, but that only plays into Selene’s hands.
I keep running instead, leaping over a cart without slowing down and continuing to head up towards the palace. There’s a crowd of people ahead of me now, shouting in support of Selene’s proposal.
“Bring back the games! Bring back the games!”
They march through the streets, blocking the way, and now I can see why the resistance weren’t in the forum.
They’re too busy trying to break up the crowd.
It isn’t working, though, and I can’t see any way through.
If I try to push my way through the middle of the crowd, I’ll only get stuck there. It’s yet another way to delay me.
I curse again and reach out for the animals I can feel nearby.
A lizard is sunning itself near the top of a wall and I steal its ability to climb, scrambling up the nearest wall and then sprinting across the flat rooves of the city.
I leap across the gaps between them, feeling the air rushing by as I run.
I make it past the chanting crowds, scramble back down to ground level, and keep running.
The palace is ahead now, but as I close in, the guards on the gates cross their spears, barring the way.
“Let me in,” I snap at them. “I’m Senator Lyra Thornwind.”
They shake their heads. “You’re not wanted in here.”
“I said-”
“You’re not wanted in here.”
The repetition is a clue, one of the signs I’ve seen too many times of people influenced by psychomancy.
I reach out with my powers, feeling the emotions of the guards.
There’s no time to carefully unpick Selene’s influence, so I make fear rise up in the guards instead, terrifying them.
It’s a dangerous tactic, because fear can easily make people lash out.
In this case, though, it makes the guards turn and run.
I run the other way, heading into the palace and making for the senate chamber.
I can hear voices within it and almost rush in to add my voice to the debate, but just in time, I remember I'm not wearing my toga.
The Senate has rules. Senators must be dressed in the formal white toga of their office to speak, which is designed as a way of leveling differences between us, erasing obvious markers of our status outside the Senate.
It means I must rush back to my rooms, casting off my dress and throwing on my toga as quickly as I can.
I curse Selene as I hurry back through the palace, hoping I’m not too late.
Her plan has been simple and cunning, knowing how I’ll react at each stage, doing just enough to slow me down without ever attacking me in ways I can prove.
It’s a reminder that the former arch-magistrate is intelligent and dangerous in ways that don’t simply rely on her magic.
When I burst into the chamber, most of the other senators are already there.
Still, I spot gaps on the stone benches here and there, suggesting I’m not the only one to be slowed down because of the way I might vote.
The viewing galleries are full, though, people staring down at the senators below with a sense of tension that feels like a dangerous animal poised on the edge of attacking.
I have no doubt Selene has packed the gallery with her supporters to apply pressure to the Senate.
Senator Olivia is speaking, and she shoots me a hostile look as I take my place beside Marcus.
“What did I miss?” I whisper to him.
“Olivia is in the middle of making a proposal to bring back what she terms the ‘true games’,” Marcus replies.
“A proposal that comes from Selene,” I whisper to him. “She said as much to the crowd in the forum. Then she tried to slow me down when I-”
“Were you planning to let me finish?” Olivia snaps in my direction. “Or did you come into the senate chamber just to chatter to your fiancé?”
“Make up your mind, Olivia,” I reply. “Before, you were accusing me of siding with Alaric because he’s my lover.”
“I’m sure you juggle both with the expertise of the commonest whores of the slums,” Olivia shoots back. There’s no love lost between us now. If there was ever a thawing in our opposition, Selene’s influence has put paid to it.
“That’s enough,” Rowan said. “Lyra, Senator Olivia is introducing a proposal. We must hear her out.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for the rest of the senators?” I ask. “Especially when several people tried to slow me down on my way here?”
Senator Octavio stands. “As I pointed out before, First Senator, the senate is quorate, and so we must proceed.”
“Even when there’s been deliberate interference to keep senators away?” I counter.
Olivia shrugs. “But you made it here, didn’t you? And even if this fiction of people trying to hinder you proves true, there’s no reason to suspect it’s the case for other senators. Lyra has plenty of enemies, but the other missing senators are well liked by the people of the city.”
She smiles like a cat as she says it, and I hear Rowan sigh.
“They’re right, Lyra. We can’t just put off a proposal like this. We must abide by our rules, or we become no different than the empire.”
That’s one of Rowan’s biggest fears. As First Senator, he has more power than anyone else within the Republic, but he won’t use that power in ways that are too close to the ways Emperor Tiberius would have. He won’t risk becoming a tyrant.
It means I’m forced to sit in silence beside Marcus as Olivia resumes speaking.
“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, I wish to propose that the games in the colosseum return to their true form. It is what the people are demanding, and as representatives of those people, we cannot deny them. I propose that the games return to having fights without the blunted weapons and magical safeguards we’ve put in place previously. ”
“People will die!” Rowan says. Above him, the crowd in the gallery boos, as if he’s a gladiator they’ve come to hate in the colosseum. Selene must have paid them well to be here.
Or maybe the people of Aetheria really do want this. That’s the most terrifying thought of all.
Olivia nods. “Some. But the rest will know far greater glory. And it won’t be as many as before. We have far more healers in the colosseum, after all, and the bouts will still be to incapacitation, with fighters able to beg the mercy of those in the council box.”
It will still make for a much bloodier and more dangerous spectacle than anything seen in the colosseum since the birth of the Republic. It will be closer to the death bouts Marcus holds beneath the city.
“I also propose that criminals should start to be brought out into the arena for execution,” Olivia says. “Some are due to die anyway, so why not do it out on the sands, where the citizens can have the full satisfaction of their death?”
Rowan starts to rise. “Such a thing would be-”
“No more than we’re already doing with Selene,” Olivia points out.
That's another part of Selene's plans: she volunteered to go into the colosseum rather than face execution, precisely so that people would get used to the idea of it as a tool of punishment once again.
That is because she knew that being the only fighter to fight in bouts to death would make her a hero among those sections of the population that crave the blood and violence of the games.
“I will not allow this,” Rowan says.
The crowd in the viewing gallery boos again.
“You won’t allow it, First Senator?” Olivia asks, in a poisonously sweet tone. “Does that mean you’re declaring yourself emperor? Will you have those of us who disagree with you executed, perhaps out on the sands?”
Rowan looks angry, but he doesn't reply. He won't override the Senate. The only hope is to persuade it that this is a terrible idea.
“You’ve made your proposal,” Rowan says after several seconds. “But I, for one, vote against it. This is a terrible, evil idea. It risks us going back to the full cruelty of the empire.”
“It gives us back the glory we’ve been lacking,” a senator who wears the arm bracers of a former soldier says. “I vote for.”
“Against,” Senator Yarrow says. Probably, she’s worried about the ways this will disrupt her own illicit dealings in the slums but right now, I don’t care. We need every vote we can get.
“It fits with our ancient laws,” Senator Octavio says. “And the stones of the city must be fed with blood and power if they are to continue to pour magic into the world. The priests are clear on this. I vote for the proposal.”
I stand up and Olivia laughs. “I think we can take your vote against as read, Lyra.”
She clearly doesn’t want me to speak. In fact, I can hear a note of fear in her voice. Is she worried that I might be able to influence enough senators to change the result of this vote?
“I still have the right to address the chamber,” I say, spreading my hands, even as the gallery boos me. “My fellow senators, my friends, I won’t tell you that some here are still being unduly influenced. I know I won’t be believed.”
“Because you’re a liar!” a voice calls from the gallery.
“So, let’s talk about all the ways this proposal betrays everything the Republic stands for, instead.
Those of us who were slave gladiators fought harder than anyone to overthrow the empire.
We did it because we were sick of seeing our friends slain for the entertainment of the crowd.
We did it because we hated seeing people condemned to die at the hands of our fellow gladiators or wild beasts, just because they spoke out.
The Republic stands at a crossroads. It’s an idea that feels more delicate than ever before.
Together, we’ve nurtured it, helped it to grow stronger so that it can help the people of this city.
Have no doubt, a vote for this proposal today will damage our Republic, perhaps beyond repair.
That is why I’m voting against, and I urge you to do the same. ”
The air seems still after I speak. I was expecting more in the gallery to boo me as I sit down. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance to turn this around.
Marcus stands next.
“As you know, in most things, I stand with Lyra. I care for her and respect her. And she’s right that our Republic stands on a knife edge.
The people are restless. There are pockets of corruption.
And why? Because they don’t have the games they want.
They’re the heart and soul of Aetheria and, as senators, I think we must consider all options for national stability, even ones we may initially find distasteful.
That’s why, with a heavy heart, I must vote for this proposal. ”
I sit there in shock, simply staring at Marcus.
I know he feels differently about the games than I do.
He’s shown as much in running the underground fights.
But if he was serious about just doing that to uncover corruption, I would have thought he’d at least vote against this.
Especially when I know he has every reason to hate Selene.
It’s a betrayal that makes my heart ache almost to bursting as more votes come in. If Marcus had come to my side, his whole faction would have. Now, I’m left wondering if there’s any way I can get enough votes to oppose this proposal, or if Selene’s corruption has simply gone too deep to stop.