Chapter Twenty Five
“It will be a battle royale,” Zara insists, back in the dining hall of Ironhold. “They will throw all of you into the arena and insist that you fight until only one is left.”
I sincerely hope that isn't the case. It would mean fighting close to ten people at once. The chaos of it would be impossible to contain… and I would have to fight Alaric. After my bout with Rowan earlier, I know I can't dismiss the possibility. There is always a chance I will be forced to fight him, even now. In spite of what the emperor has said, I remain convinced that someone is manipulating these games, and they are doing so in a way that affects me specifically.
Not that it makes sense, the last trial was too easy for me, when the others seem to have been set up to be difficult, or to force me into situations I do not want. I'm still not sure what to make of it all.
“They wouldn't do that,” Alaric says. He is down with the rest of us for once. “It would mean they lose all their best gladiators at once. Even the emperor wouldn't sacrifice all of us.”
I'm not so sure of that. Not after the way he threw the criminals into the arena so casually. He will do anything for the entertainment of the crowd and to feed the magic that underpins Aetheria.
The new gladiator has arrived. Her name is Alicia, and she sits in a corner of the dining hall, looking around warily, her dark hair pulled in front of her eyes as if she might hide behind it. There is still something soft about her body, where all the rest of us have hardened through training. Will she make it into this place? I don't know, and for the moment I can't focus on her. My attention must be on the final challenge tomorrow.
“Perhaps the emperor is going to say that even the best of us can be sacrifice for the entertainment of the crowd,” I suggest.
Alaric shakes his head. “I won't believe that until I see it. It must be something else.”
"It will be a one-on-one fight," Ravenna says, with surprising certainty as she sweeps past to join some of the other nobles at the far end of the hall.
“How can you know that?” Alaric asks her.
She just smiles at him in response.
I want to go after her and try to force answers out of her, but I don't have any way to do so. I can't make her tell me anything, and I won't be able to trust anything she does say. It means it's useless trying to talk to her about it.
In any case someone who is worth rather more of my attention walks into the dining hall in that moment.
Rowan strides in as if he had never been injured. The healers of Ironhold are good at their work, especially in a way it comes to major injuries such as his broken leg. They don't care so much about minor cuts or scarring, those things won't stop a gladiator from fighting, but broken limbs are something they have learned to heal cleanly. It means that gladiators can fight on in their next season, providing more entertainment for the crowd.
Robin should look happy that he's back to full health, that he's safe once more, and will soon be able to fight again, but instead he looks furious.
“They aren't going to let me fight tomorrow,” he says.
I realize that no one has told him the news, that no one has spoken to him until now about the decision made about his participation in these trials.
“I know,” I say. “I'm sorry, Rowan.”
Rowan shakes his head. “But I'm fit. I'm in one piece. Why wouldn't they let me finish?”
I can hear the near desperation in his voice. I can understand why: after everything he's been through, he wants to get one step closer to his freedom. That is exactly what they're denying him by refusing to let him continue.
“It's intended as a punishment,” I say. “The emperor is angry about us both cheating death in our bout, so he has declared that you are the loser and can't continue.”
Rowan looks even more unhappy about that. "And so I'm going to be stuck here for another season, at least after the rest of you."
It isn't just time, though, because another season means another set of bouts, more chances that he might be killed in the colosseum. Even Alaric looks a little sympathetic to his plight.
“What you did was the only way that both you and Lyra could survive,” Alaric says.
Roman looks briefly surprised by this note of understanding, but then he seems annoyed by it. “I don't need your sympathy.”
Alaric shrugs. “Then don't have it. I won't give you my deep sympathy that you don't get the chance to die tomorrow in some battle on the sands.”
“I wouldn't die,” Rowan shoots back. “Who do you think could beat me? You?”
Alaric stands, and in just moments, it seems that the situation is hurtling towards a potential fight. I stand between the two of them, and as I do so, I feel something, a familiar pressure at the edges of my mind. I understand what's going on, especially since Ravenna is smiling there from across the room. No wonder she's down in the dining hall rather than enjoying fine food back in her rooms.
“Ravenna is doing this,” I say to them. “She's feeding your anger. Stop it, both of you.”
I put my arms out, putting a hand on the chest of each of them, caught between them for a moment as I try to hold them back. Ravenna still seems to be enjoying herself, at least until Alicia picks up a wooden trencher and flings it at her, forcing Ravenna to duck.
With her concentration broken, Ravenna’s manipulation ceases instantly. Alaric and Rowan both blink and stop pushing forward against my hands, no longer trying to get to one another.
Ravenna is on her feet, moving towards the newcomer. “You think you get to do that to a noble gladiator? I'll see to it that you're whipped!”
“Let's discuss what you just tried to do,” Alaric says. Rowan is there beside him then, and Ravenna seems to understand the difficulty of her situation. She backs away, leaving the dining hall.
“Thank you,” I say to Alicia.
She shrugs. “I don't like it when people try to control other people. Not the emperor, not the city, and not her.”
"I hope you make it through your testing," I say. "Remember, the only way to fail is to give up."
"And if I succeed, I get to fight and maybe die here," she says.
“And perhaps you could be free,” I point out. “If you make it through your five seasons.”
“Do you think any of the citizens are truly free?” Alicia says with a laugh. “But thank you, I’ll bear it in mind.”
Lord Darius comes in as we're standing there. He goes to the chalkboard at one end, used to set out the details of upcoming games. He starts to set out names opposite one another. It seems that Ravenna was right, this will be a series of one-on-one bouts.
My name is drawn opposite hers. In that moment I think I start to understand some of what's going on.
Why would she want to control what's going on in the trials? I had thought, just in terms of money and political influence, about her being able to point people in the right direction for their bets, but now I can see there's more to it than that. I can see that from the start of this, she has been setting this whole contest up the way she wants. All to come to this point.
I know what people have told me, about her not having the power to do it, about her not being able to influence Lord Darius, or fool Selene Ravenscroft. I understand that, because I've been able to throw off her control before, and I've certainly been able to feel what's happening.
But now I think I can understand how she has done this and what her endgame is.
“Ravenna could be a difficult opponent for you,” Alaric says, looking at the board. “One on one, with her focusing all her mental control on you… she’s dangerous.”
“You mean you're worried she will make me kneel before her while she cuts my throat,” I say.
Alaric swallows. “If you aren’t careful, yes.”
"I know exactly how dangerous she is," I assure him. She is a deadly, manipulative opponent who has been affecting things since the start of these trials, if not before. And tomorrow, I suspect she will have at least one more trick for me. But I think I might have one of my own.
I just hope it will be enough, or I will be fighting her with my powers restricted while she has full access to hers.