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Morning, and I hope I have done the right thing. My actions last night got people killed. I set three sides against one another, and now my hope is that a fourth will work with me.

Today is the day when everything either goes right or my world comes tumbling down around me. If I fail today, dying will be the least that happens to me. If I am captured by the emperor's forces, or by either of the other sides, I can expect a death out of nightmares. No one ran to the guards last night, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be waiting for us later. There are still far too many chances for something to go wrong here.

We have tried to bring as many people on our side as we can, and Bella says that her people will be ready, but there are other parts to this that need to go right. I'm guessing that I can make it work, but what if I'm wrong?

No, I can't think like that. The time for doubts is past.

Everything proceeds as it normally would on the final day of the games, but I can feel the tension in the air building as the gladiators process down to the arena. Each of us is on edge, and not just because of the bout that awaits some of us. A battle royale to the last gladiator standing is an incredibly dangerous and wasteful kind of fight, where too many gladiators will die for too brief a burst of entertainment. It is obvious the emperor has ordered this both to try to quell the unrest among his citizens and to make sure that those gladiators who have displeased him such as myself have the greatest chance of dying.

I can see signs of fighting in the capital as we make our way down into it, suggesting that the battles between the nobles, the beast whisperers and the soldiers have broken onto the streets. There are more burnt-out houses, suggesting spots where the fighting has been intense, yet it seems the games are going to go ahead as normal. I assumed that would be the case. I am betting on it.

We are brought down to the colosseum, paraded before the crowd, and taken below to wait. There is only one bout today, but the rest of the gladiators have been brought anyway, presumably to entertain the nobles in the receiving rooms. I hope when the moment comes, they will be able to do their part. I look over to where Rowan is standing with his armor and weapons in place. He looks determined. I go to him.

“I'm sorry I pushed you into this,”

I whisper.

“No, don't be sorry. You're right. It isn't enough for me to fight just for myself or even my sisters. We must fight for everyone.”

He takes my hand. “Whatever happens. I'm glad I knew you, Lyra Thornwind.”

It sounds far too much like he's saying goodbye to me.

I am given my spear and my net, along with my small curved dagger. I wait with the others, and then we are marched out into the colosseum.

“Citizens of Atheria,”

the emperor says. “Last night, a plot was discovered against our empire. It was stopped by my guards, and those responsible for it will soon be brought to justice.”

That suggests that his guards weren't able to destroy Vex’s faction completely, or Lady Elara’s beast whisperers. If he could have, he would have brought them into the colosseum to kill them publicly. At least some of them must have survived, but I saw the losses that all sides suffered. I look around the arena now. Are there as many guards as usual? I'm not sure there are. How many of those died in the fighting?

“To celebrate that triumph, I give to you a battle such as has never been witnessed in this arena before. Not one gladiator against one, not pairs of them, but a whole horde of them, fighting until only one remains standing. They do this for the glory of the empire!”

The crowd cheers that but I can see that some of them look uncomfortable at it. They know as well as I do that such a mass battle will result in the death of many gladiators. Whoever their favorite is among us, that gladiator is as likely to be struck down as anyone else in the chaos.

The emperor doesn't seem to care. He only wants the spectacle, and to him we are all replaceable.

“Begin!”

the emperor commands.

But we do not begin. We do not do what he wants. Instead, we stand together in a ring of steel, facing outwards, ready to deal with the threat we know will be coming soon. The emperor will not tolerate this long.

“I commanded you to begin,”

the emperor says. “You will do it, or my guards will come down to deal with you. You can fight one another the way I command, or you can find yourselves executed for your failures.”

Venom drips from his voice as he makes the threat. I know he will make good on it if he can, and I know that a dozen gladiators is not enough to stand up to every guard in the colosseum. But this is not just about the dozen of us standing here, or even about the others who even now will be starting to seize weapons and move from within the colosseum’s interior.

No, this is about far more than that. I step forward, raising my voice.

“Citizens of Aetheria! You know me. I am Lyra Thornwind! Some of you call me the mistress of beasts. You have been taught to fear me as you have all other beast whisperers. Maybe many of you know why: because the emperor had a vision that a beast whisperer might bring him down. He let me live because actually he doesn't know whether I'm going to kill him or save this city.”

I look around at them slowly.

“I say, why not both?”

I give that a moment to sink in before I continue.

“I say that Aetheria does need to be saved. It needs to be saved from the emperor and from all those who would be an emperor. Last night I put a stop to two plots that would have seen other people on the throne, but I did not do it for Emperor Tiberius’s benefit. I did it for all of you!”

I can hear the murmurs starting in the crowd, the people talking among themselves, trying to make sense of this.

“The spectral covenant of beast whisperers wanted revenge for the years they have been held down. They would have unleashed animal fury on the city. A plot by the former gladiator Vex would have seen him as emperor. He would have put you all beneath his heel in the name of order.”

“Be silent!”

the emperor commands, but I ignore him and keep going. If I stop now, I am going to die. We all will.

“You have seen me bleed on this sand, and you have watched me kill. You have stood there and watched, because that's what the emperor wants you to do. He wants to entertain you so that you do not think about his rule for too long. So you don't think about the way he feeds the life force of the young men and women of this empire into the stones that power its magic. How many people here have lost friends, family to such brutality?”

I gesture to the emperor with my spear. “You could stand by and watch today. Your emperor is going to send his soldiers at us. You can stand and watch as twelve gladiators are cut down by the guards, although we will make them pay a fearsome price for it. Or you can stand up and take this city back from the man who has let families starve and executed any who spoke against him.”

There are cheers from the crowd now. Among them I can hear a single word repeated. A name. My name.

“Lyra! Lyra! Lyra!”

Lady Elara had planned to use me in just this way. She knew that if I could become loved by the crowd I could stir them up, get them on our side. But she saw it as a cynical manipulation, a way to get them to put beast whisperers in charge until they could take their revenge. I do not want to manipulate the crowd into being on my side. I want them to realize that all of the gladiators here in the colosseum are on theirs.

“Enough of this!”

The emperor calls out.

I shout over him. “Yes, enough. Enough tyranny. Enough of emperors who control us and force everyone in the empire to bend to their will. Enough of standing by while evil reigns in Aetheria. Rise up, all of you! Rise up and fight back against the emperor!”

A roar comes back from the crowd, and now people are on their feet, throwing things at guards, at nobles, at the emperor’s box.

The emperor is on his feet too. He points at me. “Guards, kill them all! And bring me Lyra Thornwind!”