Page 10 of Ironhold, Trial Three

"Oh, you want to team up with me, do you? Should I be flattered, the great beast whisperer Lyra, coming to speak with little me?" Malira shakes her head. "I'm not interested."

She spits out the words as if she already dislikes me.

“I don't know what this is,” I say. “Have I done something to offend you?”

"Aside from walking around here like you're the greatest of all of us?" Malira says. "You know no one gets any attention now but you, right? Everything I hear is Lyra this, and Lyra that. And as far as I can see, you don't even work as hard as the rest of us. Your precious patron keeps whisking you away. Well, all the time you've been spending in some noble's pleasure gardens, I've been working. And if you're just realizing that you might need my help, you're too late."

I can't tell her the truth of what I've been doing with Lady Elara, but this hostility seems unwarranted.

“You don't know me,” I say.

“I know enough to know that I’ll make a name for myself if I defeat you in the arena,” she says. “I learned that in the pits. You fight the toughest person there and suddenly everyone gives you respect.”

So that’s what this is. She has decided that her route to fame and glory lies through me.

“We don’t know if we’ll be matched up,” I say. “There's no benefit to us being enemies.”

“Better that than the alternative,” Malira shoots back. “I've heard how you treat your friends.”

“I don't know who you've been listening to, but-”

“Malira has been listening to the truth. I'm sorry I'm late for our training session, Malira.”

I spin around to see Vex entering the room. He has chosen heavier armor than usual, plates of it protecting him, when normal gladiator armor would leave large portions unprotected so the crowd can be entertained with blood. Belts of knives cross and recross his torso, there so that he can use his magic to levitate them and send them at his foes.

“What truth is that, Vex? That you killed Naia without a second thought?”

“That you secretly conspired with the opposition in a bout,” Vex says. “That the two of you were planning to betray me. The after the bout you broke our alliance and threatened to kill me. That you’re a beast whisperer, too wild to be trusted.”

I look over at Malira, and I see her nodding along with Vex. It's obvious he's gotten to her, whispered poison in her ear. Combine that with the way she sees me as a means to gain fame, and I know I can’t make an ally of her.

I seem to have found another enemy, for no better reason than because I have been successful in the games. It will just be one more danger to look out for in the Champions Trials.

Chapter Six

The first morning of the Champions Trial seems to come far too soon. There is a procession down from Ironhold to the Colosseum, but it is a much smaller procession than usual. Only those who have been selected for the trials are a part of it. There is not even the usual wagon train of beasts following us. I get the feeling that any that will be involved in the trials have already been taken into the city.

Instead, there's just us, a collection of gladiators, dressed in new and shining armor carrying a varied selection of weapons, marching together, while the crowds line the way and cheer their support for us.

“Lyra! Lyra!” I hear my name being chanted in parts of the crowd, but it's not the only one. People are chanting for Alaric, for Ravenna, for Vex. Even Rowan has his followers, although he seems to be determined to ignore them. Not like Alaric, who spins and dances for the attention of the crowd, or Ravenna, who seems to delight in people fighting for her favor.

Our route is the usual circuitous one into the city, passing through the slums on the outskirts, then through wealthier districts where statues line the roads and illusions decorate the houses. There are illusory versions of some of us along the way, showing moments from our greatest victories in the colosseum. There is an image of me with beasts winding around me, obeying my every whim.

There is an image of Vex in the moment he killed Naia. Someone has decided that represents a great victory for him, but just the sight of it makes me feel as though someone is tearing my heart out. Alaric is there by my side in that moment, not touching me, not able to acknowledge everything between us butjust there, as if he knows exactly how much pain this will cause me.

The colosseum looms ahead, and it is decorated in even more spectacular fashion than it would be for the usual sets of games. Illusions flow back and forth over it, so that every statue on it seems to move, gladiators coming to life on it to reenact battle after battle. The crowds are thicker here than I have seen them before, and when we go into the colosseum itself, there are more people watching from the stands than I could have believed would fit into the space. Ordinarily, it takes time for the stands to fill, but now, they are already awash with people. They cheer or boo. Some sell food, while I'm sure that thieves ply their trade with so many people packed so close together. The betting booths are already busy, the odds on each of the gladiators set out, so that people might bet on each round, or on their chances of surviving the whole contest.

Nobles are in their boxes, attended by their servants and shaded by silken awnings. I can see Lady Elara up there, watching. And, of course, there is a box for the emperor, although he has yet to enter it.

What catches my eye is not any of that, however. Instead, it is the way the floor of the colosseum has been reshaped by magic, or by the efforts of engineers, producing a maze that seems to fill the whole arena. From where I am standing, I cannot see within it, but I can hear the sounds of beasts in there, and I am sure it will be filled with deadly perils.

Even as I stand there staring at it, the emperor arrives to a fanfare from horns that brings the crowd to silence. He stands there in his purple robes of office, wearing a golden laurel crown atop his head as if he is drinking in the attention of the crowd. He waits for several seconds before he speaks.

“Citizens of Aetheria, normally I would have an announcer do this, but these are no ordinary games. These are the Champions Trials!”

Even that gets a cheer from the crowd. The emperor waits for them to settle down before he continues, obviously reveling in their attention.

“Such trials have not been held in a long time, but now we have a group of gladiators worthy of attempting them. Look at them. We have Vex, son of a line of gladiators stretching back generations!”

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