Page 30 of Ironhold, Trial Two

Lady Elara nods. “What happened today was about a loss of control, not about malice. Look into her mind, Selene. You will see that there is no one who means less harm than Lyra here. Darius, isn't it true that you punished her in the past for refusing to fight?”

“That's hardly a good thing,” Lord Darius says. “Martial strength is vital. Her cowardice is not a defense.”

“You say cowardice, I say a peaceful nature,” Lady Elara says. She looks to the arch magistrate again. “As I was saying, the issue is control.”

She takes out a single leather bracelet, worked with runes, designed to fit tightly around the wrist of the wearer.

“Your solution is to mute her power?” Lady Selene says.

“Mute my power?” I say.

“This cuff will place limits on your talent,” Lady Elara says. “It will… prevent any further accidents.”

It will also render me far less powerful, and my powers have been the only things keeping me alive so far. Is Lady Elara trying to kill me now?

“Such a solution is more demeaning than simply selling her,” Lady Selene says. “Magic is the greatest gift of the city. For it to be muted like that would be… almost unthinkable.”

Lady Elara shrugs. “It would give Lyra a chance to learn some control. Once she demonstrates that, maybe it can come off. And it is a better option than dismissing her from the games. Some of us have already placed quite large bets on her, Selene.”

She makes it sound as if the only reason she's doing this is the money I can make for her. The money I can make for plenty of people, given the amount of money changing hands around the arena.

Lord Darius nods. “It would be a suitable punishment.”

I realize he is thinking of the emperor’s desire to see me dead. Without my full powers I will be vulnerable.

The arch magistrate looks thoughtful. “Very well. Place it on her.”

Lady Elara fastens the cuff around my wrist. It seems to join itself, becoming a single seamless band around my forearm. In an instant the world seems… less, somehow, as if noises I had been hearing are suddenly gone. I realize that I can no longer sense the presence of every animal around the Colosseum. They are still there, but it's as if there are layers between me and them.

“You may go,” Lady Selene says to me, as casually as if she were dismissing a servant after bringing her wine.

I hurry from the room, my mind reeling. My hand is on the bracelet but it seems firm, with no obvious way to remove it. They have taken my powers from me. I still have to fight, and I no longer have the tools to do it.

Lady Elara has just sealed my doom.

Chapter Eighteen

The worst part is that I cannot just head back to Ironhold. Instead, I must remain in the networks of chambers beneath the arena,listening as the games continue. Every time I hear a scream from the arena I'm reminded of the screams of the crowd. Every time there is a sound of pain, I think of the images of the people close to me being hurt.

I try to seek out Rowan, but he is not there to be found. Fear starts to fill me. Has something happened to him? Has he fought and somehow lost? As large and strong as he is he seems almost invulnerable but I know as well as anyone that no one is completely invincible in the arena.

So where is he? I start to search the spaces beneath the Colosseum. I check the slabs of the healers, in case he has been wounded. He is not there, although Zara is, a wound on her leg being bandaged.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

“I'll be fine. What happened with your bout? They are saying you were fighting some gladiator, and then you conjured some kind of wraith to kill him and attack the crowd.”

I shake my head. “That's not what happened. The wraith was possessing him. They sent him in knowing that, trying to catch me off guard. It broke free when it couldn't wear me down. Have you seen Rowan?”

Zara shakes her head. “He's not in here so that's a good sign. I know he had one fight earlier. Does he have another later in the day?”

I can't remember, my mind is so confused with the images the wraith showed to me and everything that has happened since. I continue to look for him. Is it possible he's searching forme? After all, I didn't come back to the main area after my bout. Is he worried that something has happened to me?

I check the beast pens on the basis that it's where Rowan might check for me. It isn't easy, because now, although I can feel the presence of the creatures, I don't have anything like the same connection to them I had before, and just the presence of so many creatures reminds me of the bout that I've just had.

I find myself shaking as I move through the pens, taking in the different creatures there. There is a massive, lizard-like, winged drake, its scales patterned with frost. There are snakes and bears. I can see another chimera there too. It makes me angry and sad that these creatures are down here just to fight and die.

I think of the wraith. I could feel the hatred in it. In that case, did the organizers pick something that was inherently inimical to humans? Or did they train that hatred into it with magic and pain? I see again the moment when Lady Selene destroyed the wraith using her powers. I know there are those in the city who have more than just talents they have learned to use, who have control over multiple disciplines of magic. Why would someone turn such talents to making creatures fight against people? Why would someone create something like the chimera I fought?

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