CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
I’m not sure how long it is before the guards drag me from my cell in chains, yanking on those chains so that I stumble every few steps.
Days, possibly. Long enough that the bruises of my first beating are starting to fade.
I get the feeling that they don’t want me to seem like a victim in this, but as the villainous figure who tried to break Domitian out of prison.
They fix a dampener around my wrist for the journey, clearly determined that I won’t be able to summon creatures to my aid or send messages to others with them.
I have chains around my wrists, fetters around my ankles, so that I must shuffle rather than stride.
Guards move to either side of me, watching for any sign I’m about to escape, while more ahead and behind make sure there will be no interference from others.
It’s almost a level of paranoia about security when I don’t even have my magic to use against the guards, but in that sense, it’s a testament to the level of preparation involved in Selene’s planning.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask one of the guards.
He hits me in the stomach, making me double over. “No one told you to speak. You’ll have enough time to talk at your trial.”
My trial? Is that where they're taking me?
Has Selene arranged for a full trial before the Senate?
As the guards drag me through the tunnels, I dare to feel a hint of hope.
I have no chance while I'm being kept in the dark.
In a trial, despite everything Selene has said, I can put the truth before the people.
I can appeal to Rowan for clemency. I can hope Marcus will lead his group in voting for my freedom.
In a trial, there’s a chance I can turn the tables on Selene in a way she doesn’t expect.
I follow the guards through the tunnels quickly now, heading for a spot where a heavily guarded gate leads to stairs ascending in a seemingly endless spiral. They’re high enough that, should the guards decide to push me and claim I tripped, I might easily fall to my death from them.
I emerge into the palace, the guards staying close to me now, as if expecting me to run the moment I’m in familiar territory. I can see servants I vaguely recognize, but now they look at me as though I’m something fearsome and dangerous, rather than a respected senator.
It isn't just the servants. There are ordinary people in the corridors of the palace, nobles, merchants, and senators. They stare at me as if expecting me to lash out at them. Even the senators I know look at me like I'm a stranger. There are guards, too, carefully holding people back, making sure no one gets too close. Maybe it's to make sure no one can help me escape, but it feels more like they’re keeping me away from people for their protection, making it seem as if I’m some feral beast whisperer who can’t be trusted around people.
It plays up to the old prejudices that held sway under the empire, where my kind were the one type of magic users not tolerated within Aetheria.
The guards are taking me along a very familiar route now, bringing me to the senate chamber, where the senators are starting to file in.
The public viewing galleries are packed, but there are plenty of guards too.
At first, I suspect it might be to reinforce the idea that I’m a threat, but I realize it’s probably also partly to make sure the resistance can’t break me out of the palace during my trial.
There are so many familiar faces in the Senate chamber.
Senator Olivia lounges like a cat with a few of the other noble senators, looking so perfect and pristine, while I'm a ragged mess.
Octavio sits sternly, clearly waiting for justice to be done.
Yarrow looks at me with satisfaction, clearly waiting for her chance to deal with a foe.
Marcus sits with his supporters, and I hope to see sympathy from him, but he mostly looks worried. He looks away from me, as if he can’t bear to look my way too long. Rowan does look my way, but he looks just as worried as Marcus does, as if something is coming he can’t do anything about.
Selene is there too. That catches me by surprise, because she still isn't a senator, but I guess she's leveraged her position as an advisor to the Senate to be here today. She won't want to miss her moment of triumph against me.
The guards lead me to the middle of the senate floor and leave me there, stepping back and moving to guard the doors.
Selene speaks. "Members of the Senate, Lyra Thornwind stands before you, accused of treason against the Republic of Aetheria. As per yesterday's vote of the Senate, and in accordance with my former role as arch-magistrate, I will be presenting the case against her."
Selene has positioned herself at the heart of this trial.
Is it just so she can enjoy my suffering as I’m accused?
Or is it so the crowd watching from the gallery can see her doing it, starting to associate Selene once again with being a source of law and order, rather than just a popular gladiator?
“What case?” I demand. “This is a fabrication.”
“You’ll have your chance to speak,” Selene says. “But if you disrupt these proceedings too much, you’ll be taken from here to await the outcome in your cell.”
She’s enjoying having this power over me, I’m certain of it, but if I’m to defend myself, I need to stay in the room. I’m quiet as Selene continues to speak.
“Two nights ago, Lyra Thornwind was captured as she broke into the prison in which she is now being held, a prison in which the former senator, Domitian, is being held. The guards were alerted to the threat, and so moved Domitian, but Lyra and the treacherous resistance leader Alaric Blackthorn fought their way all the way to his cell, injuring several guards and killing creatures set to defend the prison. Do you deny any of that, Lyra?”
She puts the question to me carefully, so that there’s no part of it I can truthfully deny.
"I did all those things," I say. "Alaric and I believed that Domitian was about to be snatched from the prison, and we wanted to stop it."
“A convenient story,” Selene says. “But one that doesn’t make sense. Don’t you claim to be friends with our First Senator? Weren’t you engaged to marry Senator Marcus Larius?”
“I was,” I say. I can feel this going wrong, as if the ground is shifting under my feet.
“So you could have approached them with this news,” Selene says. “You could have alerted the guards.”
“You know as well as I do the guards have been suborned,” I snap.
Selene looks at me for several seconds. “Do you have any evidence of that?”
I don't say anything. I can't prove it, and she must know it.
"Of course, you have no proof," Selene says. "But we do. Senator Marcus Larius, would you stand?"
Marcus looks reluctant, but he does it.
“Earlier, we went to the chambers that previously belonged to Lyra Thornwind when she was a senator, didn’t we?” Selene says.
Marcus nods. “We did.”
“And what did we find there?” Selene asks.
Marcus hesitates.
“What did we find, Senator?” Selene repeats.
Marcus sighs. “There was a hidden compartment. In it, there were copies of correspondence.”
“What kind of correspondence?” Selene demands.
“Detailing bribes to guards and communications with the resistance,” Marcus says. “There were orders to release particular prisoners with Lyra’s official seal attached.”
“None of this so called evidence is real,” I say. I can’t believe Marcus thinks it might be. I’ve spent so long railing against him being involved in the city’s corruption. Does he really think I might engage in it myself?
Selene takes out a sheaf of papers, holding it up and then passing it to the first of the senators so they can glance at it and pass it on.
“There are details here of affairs with key figures in the city to get them to do what she wants, the details presumably kept for blackmail,” Selene says.
“There are notes of bribes. There’s correspondence with some of Senator Domitian’s old associates, seeking assurances that they’ll side with the resistance if Lyra and Alaric get him out of prison. ”
I almost laugh at the preposterousness of the allegations, but I can hear the murmuring in the public gallery and see the grim faces of so many of the senators.
They'll believe what they want to believe.
Almost since I arrived in the city as a gladiator, rumors started to circulate about me, spread by one of my patrons to disguise our meetings as merely part of a love affair.
Those rumors make it easier for people to believe the most scurrilous allegations about me now.
It’s not just about me, of course. It’s about all the ways Selene can draw others into my supposed crimes, tarring the resistance with the same brush but also letting her tarnish the reputations of anyone she chooses to connect with me.
Rumor is as much a weapon for her as any blade she uses in the colosseum.
“It’s only right that Lyra has a chance to speak in her defense,” Rowan says, standing.
“Of course, First Senator,” Selene says, with a faint smile. Maybe she’s happy because if Rowan tries to defend me too hard, he’ll only be stained by what looks like my guilt. Or maybe she just wants to make this look like a fair trial, even when we both know it’s anything but that.
“Speak, Lyra,” Rowan says. “Explain what happened. Let the people hear you.”
The people, not the Senate. Does Rowan think it's already impossible to save me here?
Surely there must be some way, if only I can persuade enough of the senators.
But if not them, at least I can persuade the people.
Maybe I can turn the ordinary folk of Aetheria against Selene, even as she plots against me.
"I've been set up in this," I say. "I've never seen the papers that supposedly bear my seal, and why would I leave such things behind for people to find if they were real? I went to the prison because I didn't feel I could go to the Senate with proof. Selene Ravenscroft controls too much of it."
“Must I stand here and listen to this slander?” Selene demands, but I keep going, looking up at the people in the viewing gallery.
"Selene Ravenscroft is trying to steal this city from under you," I say.
"She's fabricating excuses to gain more and more power.
She's creating opportunities to hit back at supposed unrest, justifying the oppression to come.
When I left the Senate, I started to stand with the resistance against her.
That's why she arranged this trap, to make me look like a traitor, when in fact, I'm fighting for all of you.
I'm the one who fought against Domitian.
Does anyone here truly believe that I'd try to free him? "
Selene stands there, letting my words fade.
"So, you admit that you're a member of the resistance?
" She looks around at the Senate. "Lyra Thornwind has been a wanted fugitive ever since she set animals on the guards.
This is a woman who sent razorwings against the arena crowd, who seriously injured several guards in her attempts to free Domitian.
She is a traitor to this city, and I call upon you to punish her as such, senators. "
Silence falls as Selene concludes her arguments. Rowan nods.
“We will deliberate. Clear the public gallery, and take Lyra to a room where she can wait. A room, not a cell.”
The guards close in on me, leading me away. I know that in the minutes to come, my fate will be decided. Have I done enough to save myself? Can anything stop Selene's control over the Senate? I don't know, and not knowing sends terror running through my body.