Page 19 of Ironhold, Trial Two

“Concentrate,” Lady Elara says. “But do not forget about your surroundings. My colleague here will give you something to dodge and duck, but you must still be able to use your powers. You must find a way to reach out and connect with a single mind out there. There is a crocodile down here in the depths. Find it. Connect with it. Summon it. And try not to get hit too many times while you do so.”

She turns to leave.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“I have other business in this temple,” Lady Elara says. “I will return once you have succeeded.”

The rope is already swinging towards me so that I must duck it. It means I can't go after her, even if I want to. She has sent me a task, and I am determined now to succeed in it. I keep dodging the swinging rope, trying to find the part of me that can control beasts even as I do so.

It is anything but easy. As much of a natural part of me as my powers are, they still require concentration and effort, especially for something as subtle as this. I'm not just reaching out randomly the way I have in the Colosseum before, not just grabbing for the minds of all the closest animals. Instead, I must search the catacombs below the city with my mind, seeking out the one presence I have been tasked with bringing to me.

Every time I start to sink into a near trance, searching for the presence of the crocodile, the knotted rope stings my skin, dragging my attention back and making it clear to me that I would have been cut by a weapon in the arena.

“I don't see what Elara sees in you,” a woman’s voice says from beneath the cowl. “You draw too much attention, and you are nowhere near as powerful as she seems to think.”

I ignore the criticism, knowing that it is just one more method designed to distract me. I must keep my focus, keep trying to find the creature I'm looking for, even as the attacks continue. In the arena, I will need to be able to do this while a foe is trying to kill me. I have done it before but that is instinctive.

Maybe I can use those instincts now. I stop trying to systematically find the crocodile and simply reach out for an image of it in my mind. I gasp as my mind snaps into another, and I realize that I'm not in the crocodile because I'm looking down from the ceiling at people below. Lady Elara is one of them, while the other is shrouded in their robes, like all the others here, even like the one striking me.

“…to kill the emperor. I could do it easily,” the robed figure says. “It would stop the persecution!”

“It isn't just about death,” Lady Elara says. “It's about what happens then. If we are to bring about real change, Aetheria must be in a position to begin to accept it. Kill the emperor without doing everything else that's needed, and we simply give them another reason to hate us. We would be hunted down in spite of our precautions. We need them to love us. Then the emperor can die.”

Shock fills me at those words. They’re planning to kill the emperor?

“And you think that the gladiator is a necessary part of all of this?” the robed figure says. “She is too open, and-”

I don't get to hear more than that because another stinging blow across my flesh snaps me back to myself.

“Useless!” the robed figure in front of me says, even as she swings the rope around again.

This time, I catch it as it comes, and I reach out almost without thinking with my mind. I find the crocodile this time. I can feel its reptilian brain slinking along some of the old tunnels, keeping up sight until it can snatch prey. For the briefest of instants I am one with it, then I'm separate again, but riding its mind, coaxing it to me.

It comes scuttling quickly, short legs propelling it along the tunnels towards the temple. It has memories of this place, of being fed sacrifices in it. The crocodile is ancient, and it remembers the days when people would come here and offer livestock, even criminals, to the beasts of the goddess. It wonders if it is being called to feast once again.

I am simultaneously looking through my own eyes and those of the crocodile. I can hold the two viewpoints now, as it comes to me. It slithers out of the darkness into the patch of sunlight let in by the crack above. It waits there for me.

“Well done,” Lady Elara says, entering the temple space. I try not to think about the things I've just seen. The conversation I'vejust heard her having. I know she will not like me eavesdropping on her like that, even if it was accidental. “There, I told you she could do it.”

She says the last part to the robed figure.

“She has not finished yet,” the woman in the robes says. “There is still one part to go.”

Lady Elara raises an eyebrow. “We have not insisted on that for a long time.”

“And yet it is part of this,” the woman says, not giving any ground.

Lady Elara looks troubled, but finally nods. “You are correct. Lyra, there is another step once you have summoned the crocodile. You must demonstrate your control over it. You must be willing to put your arm in its mouth and hold back its hunger so that it will not bite.”

I swallow back my fear. “That’s… why would I do that?”

“If you wish to be a beast whisperer,” the robed woman says, “that is what it takes. It's easy to do half of the thing, but if you're ever going to be one of us you need to show us you can do everything.”

Do I want to be one of them? Do I want to be part of whatever secretive cult or society this is? Do I want to be the one hiding my face and plotting against the emperor?

“You can do this,” Lady Elara says. “It is no more difficult than when you controlled the Ironhide. Remember, we do not just communicate with creatures, we have mastery over them.”

“And if I don't want to put my arm in a crocodile's mouth right before the games?” I ask.

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