Page 22 of Ironhold, Trial Two

Rowan does not come near me as we march down to the Colosseum for the final day of this season of games. He walks alone instead, looking as cold and unreachable as some of the marble statues we pass along the way.

I do not go to him. It's obvious that Rowan wants that space, and I can't focus on him right now when I have a life-and-death battle ahead of me. Even now, I don't know what will be involved in my last fight. I've had no chance to prepare for it.

Around us, the crowds are forming. They are not as joyous as they were on the first day but they are still there calling out our names, cheering us if we acknowledge them in the slightest way. Vex is at the front of the procession, taking all that adulation as his own.

The others are responding in their own ways. Alaric is playing up to the crowd as usual, kissing the hands of blushing maidens, bowing before an old woman, looking fierce enough to send a group of small children screaming away from him. He seems to come to life moments like this, but it's hard not to think of the way he was yesterday, of how vulnerable he was. It's hard not to see this all for the act it is.

Ravenna, for once, is not playing up to the crowd, but instead is walking beside Naia, still whispering with her. She moves around various of the others in our procession, never stopping for long, whispering each time as if she has secrets to relay or favors to request.

I make my way over to her.

“What's going on?" I ask her as we continue to make our way into the city.

She shrugs. “I told you before that there is a lot of scope to influence things here in the games. Matches can be influenced. Bets can be placed.”

“So is this where you ask me to throw about?" I say.

Ravenna laughs then. “Oh, I know you wouldn't do that. Especially since all the rumors say that no mercy is to be given to you should you lose. Although the betting was getting stronger on you, before the news about this got out.”

She touches the leather cuff wrapped around my wrist.

“A device to control you. To rein you in. I couldn't imagine someone doing that to my powers.”

She sounds as though she's being sympathetic, but I still can't shake the feeling that there's some greater scheme there. Ravenna has shown that she's always plotting something. Her hand moves to my shoulder.

“I wonder if someone else could cut it off for you. A friend.”

Is she offering to be that friend?

“They would only put it back on me,” I say. “Or they would kill me for being something they couldn't control.”

“But it could be done,” Ravenna insists. “It's worth remembering, in case the need arises.”

She's right. If the situation is desperate enough, maybe I can get someone to cut the cuff off of me. Of course, the price for that would be some further punishment, possibly even being cast out of the arena the way Lord Darius suggested before. As much as I hate what Lady Elara has done to me, I can see that it is the only way I got to stay in the Colosseum.

The vast stone structure of it looms ahead, a reminder of what all of this is about. There are trumpets blaring and people crying out. Fragments of cloth are being thrown in the air. A young man throws one my way, but Ravenna intercepts it, plucking it from the sky and tucking it into her armor as if to claim him as her fan.

We reached the Colosseum, marching through it in front of the citizens and the emperor, before heading beneath it so that we can each prepare for our bouts. Once I'm there in the shadowy space beneath the Colosseum, I start to look around for any clue as to what my bout will be. If I still had my full powers I would reach out for the eyes of the birds around the Colosseum, using them to look at the betting boards perhaps, to find out more.

As it is, I must settle for trying to ask the trainers.

“Who am I fighting?” I ask one. “I still haven't been told.”

He shrugs. “Then maybe they don't want you to be told. Move along and start getting ready.”

My next port of call is the beast pits. They still feel so strange now that I can't reach out to control any of the creatures. I can feel them, I might be able to still communicate with them, but I can't command them the way I could before. I can see Stefano they're among them, feeding the shadow cat, looking worried.

My guess is that my final match will include some sort of beast because both of the others so far have. Possibly Stefano has heard something that will at least give me a clue.

“Lyra,” he says, as he sees me. “They've told me to feed your cat before your bout. Apparently, they don't want it too hungry.”

“I'm not fighting the shadow cat, am I?” I ask.

He looks puzzled. “You don't know what's going on? You don't know who you're fighting?”

I shake my head. “They've held that back from me. It feels like they want to ambush me with something. To catch me by surprise again the way they did with the second bout.”

“That wasn't my idea,” Stefano says. “Wraiths aren’t something I deal with. From what I hear, they took the gladiator you were meant to fight and summoned that thing right next to him. He didn't stand a chance.”

So, I was originally due to fight a normal gladiator. Only someone changed it at the last minute. Someone decided to make it more difficult for me.

“Who did it?” I ask.

Stefano shrugs. “Who's to say with these things? Could be someone who thought they could make money betting against you. Could be someone who thought they could gain the favor of the emperor by doing it. It could just be that the organizers got the idea at the last minute and decided it would be a better bout.”

I'm not sure which I believe of those options. My feeling is that the emperor or someone near him was behind it, determined to show me as dangerous, or to kill me. It's the kind of manipulation that Ravenna warned me about, a reminder that the Colosseum is not about fair fights between just two foes. Who you are and who supports you can make a huge difference in terms of the fights you get in the arena. My fights have been harder than they would otherwise be this time, specifically because me using my powers has attracted the attention of those who hate beast whisperers.

“But you came through the bout,” Stefano says.

"At the cost of setting the wraith loose on the crowd," I reply. I feel bad about that. It doesn't matter that the people were out there baying for my blood. It doesn't matter that they would have been happy to see me killed in the most horrifying ways. All that matters is that they were hurt and died, and it was my fault. "And now I have my powers curbed."

I hold up my wrist to emphasize it.

“Can you still talk to them?” Stefano asks. “Can you still feel them?”

I nod.

“That’s the main thing,” he says. “Remember, even just being able to communicate with the beasts is more than most people can do. I wish I could do it.”

“You wish you were a beast whisperer?” I say. “But they’re persecuted. They’re killed. And you have healing powers, Stefano. You can do something that most people wish they could manage. Why would anyone want to be something that people hate?”

“Remember,” Stefano says. “Everyone wishes they could do something else. We live in a city full of magic, and everyone who has it takes their own powers for granted. They see everyone else as special, but think it’s obvious that they can fling lightning around, or touch minds, or, yes, heal animals.”

I’m slowly learning that lesson. I have tasted real power, and now I don’t have it any longer. I’m cut off from everything I can do.

“And remember that beast whisperers weren’t always hated,” Stefano says. “The emperor portrays them as something wild and out of control, but that’s at least as much about that prophecy of his as it is about any real threat. From what I’ve heard, most of the time, when beast whisperers lose control, they’re the ones who get hurt, the same as any mage with more power than they can handle.”

It’s a way of thinking about it that I hadn’t considered. My powers scare me a little, and I hate the thought of losing control, but would it be any different if I could summon fire from nothing, or manipulate objects? Is the issue that I’m a beast whisperer, or is it that I don’t have full control over what I can do yet?

It’s a lot to think about, but it isn’t the main reason I came down here into the beast pens. I came here looking for answers.

“Stefano, why are they having you feed the shadow cat?” I ask. “Do you know what my bout is going to be?”

He hesitates. “They haven’t told you? I guess I can, because it’s up on the betting boards. This is to be a triple header. You, the shadow-cat and Vex are one team.”

Me and Vex? That thought would make me laugh if it weren’t so serious. They’ve taken a combination from my previous bout, one that shouldn’t work, and they’re putting us up against…

“Who are we fighting?” I ask.

“I know the beast is going to be the frost drake,” Stefano says sounding apologetic. I can understand why. The frost drake is one of the larger and more dangerous animals in there. Without my powers it will be a dangerous foe.

“And the gladiators?” I ask.

“One is Koda.”

I know the name. He's a null from a tribe on the fringes of the empire. The rumor around Ironhold is that he gave himself to the Colosseum because he wanted to show that the fighters of the Aetherian Empire were weak.

“And the other?” I ask.

Stefano gives me another sympathetic look. “Naia.”