Page 27 of Ironhold, Trial Three

I know all of that, but still I can't help thinking that Ravenna is involved somehow.

"Even if she could do it," Lady Elara says. "It would be a terrible risk for her. The only reason you're not on an impaling spike right now is that no one was able to prove who helped you. If anyone were to work out that she was influencing the organizers, her death would probably not be nearly as quick. This wouldn't just be interference in a bout, it would also be a magical attack on a pair of respected nobles, controlling the minds of Lord Darius and Lady Selene.”

I understand what she's saying but still, Ravenna sounded too confident about her capacity to influence things. I want to ask Lady Elara to look deeper, but in that moment the guards and the trainers come for me.

“Stop all this,” the trainer says. “The time for talking is done. You must come with us,now.”

Chapter Eighteen

“I give you Lyra!”

The crowd cheers as I step out into the sunlight, moving to one end of the crumbling temple complex that has been built in the arena. I clutch my weapons tightly, gazing out over the expanse of it, looking at all the possible routes through. I raise my spear in acknowledgement of the cheering, knowing that I need the crowd to respond, that I need them to like me.

There is still a chance that if Rowan and I put on a good enough show, we will not be forced to kill one another. If the crowd are cheering our names, if they want to see more of us, the pressure of their chanting and cheering might be enough to sway the emperor.

It's not much of a plan. It's a desperate last hope. But it's also the best option I have. So I stand there, trying to pretend to be the gladiator they want me to be. And as I do so, the Emperor speaks again.

“And her opponent, the master of the earth, will he be able to crush Lyra with his strength? It’s Rowan!”

The crowd cheer for him as well, and I'm surprised that the cheers for me seem to have been louder. Even as some start chanting Rowan’s name, there are more people chanting mine.

The emperor stands waiting, letting it all grow to a crescendo, then holds up his hands for silence. In that silence, he speaks.

"Gladiators, before you, is a complex filled with deadly traps and pitfalls. You must find one another within it. You must fight. You must defeat your foe if you can. I am the only one who can grant mercy here. Begin!"

A horn blares to signal the start of the bout, and I start to clamber over the ruins, making my way towards Rowan.

He does not come at me directly, but instead circles around the perimeter, as if he is determined to avoid me, or perhaps as if he wishes to make sure that he has an advantageous position before the battle commences in earnest. This is an environment that should give him an advantage. There are no beasts here for me to connect with other than the carrion birds, whereas the whole of this temple is made from stone.

Is Rowan just avoiding me because he wants to put off the moment when he must kill me?

That feels like the very opposite of what we should be doing. Our only chance of both of us surviving this is if we can put on a show to impress the watching crowds. If we can impress the emperor so much that he wants us both to live.

I move through the temple, trying to catch up to Rowan, determined to come to grips with him, so that the crowd can get the violence it wants. Even as I do so, a blade jumps up out of the stone at me, a trap triggered by a pressure plate in the floor. I’m barely quick enough to knock it aside and keep moving.

“Fight me, Rowan!” I call out to him. To the crowd it must sound as though I'm taunting him, but I hope he will understand what I intend. “Let's give these people the fight they deserve to see.”

Rowan is still moving cautiously around the temple complex built within the arena, however, as if he is trying to learn every nuance of it before he has to fight. I borrow the eyes of a raven above, looking down and using that view to navigate. It means I can sidestep a pitfall, recognizing it for what it is before I put my foot on it. I jab it with my spear so that it collapses, giving the crowd that much spectacle at least.

What must this look like to them? The raven’s perspective gives me some sense of it, because I can see myself stalking after Rowan like a huntress closing in on her prey. I think of what Lady Elara has said, that I need to embrace that side of thegoddess Deira. That I must hunt and kill as well as seek peace for the creatures around me.

Is she pleased with this? Is the emperor?

The crowd does not seem to be pleased, perhaps because Rowan is still avoiding me, still skirting around the edges of this complex, even as I close in on him. My view from above allows me to find a route across it that lets me decrease the distance between us, but Rowan is still dodging, still circling. And now the crowd is booing. They want action. They want blood.

“Fight me, Rowan!” I call out to him again.

I close the distance enough that I'm able to swing my chain at him. Rowan blocks it with his shield, still moving away and refusing to engage.

“You won't make me kill you, Lyra,” he calls back.

Is that what he thinks this is? Does he think that I'm attacking because I know only one of us can survive, and I want to provoke him into killing me quickly? Does he really believe I'm just giving up my life like that? And if so, why isn't he accepting the offer? There are plenty of others who would rush to engage me if they thought I was in a hurry to die at their hands.

Rowan is not one of them, despite what Lord Darius told us would happen if we refused to kill one another. He's still keeping his distance.

I charge at him, not knowing what else to do. I thrust my spear his way, then close with him briefly, the haft of the weapon pushing his shield while my chain tangles and deflects his sword.

“Listen to me,” I whisper sharply. “The only way we both get to live is if they like what we're doing. If we give them a heroic battle, then when you beat me, the emperor will want to see more.”

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