Page 12 of Ironhold, Trial Four

The way he says that makes me shudder. I know the kinds of things that the games begin with: executionsand matches that are so one sided that they might as well be executions. Those who have been deemed traitors are thrown in against trained gladiators or beasts.

The emperor gestures and trumpets sound, signaling the first bout. An announcer starts to speak, his voice carried by magic around the stadium.

“Citizens ofAetheria. For our first entertainment, we have criminals. But more than criminals. They are the greatest of horrors: beast whisperers. Traitorswho sought to hide themselves among good folk. Wild things in human flesh, who seek to devour you all!”

The announcer waves a hand andone of the iron gates opens to allow a pair of figures through. The figures wear the cloaks I recognize as those used by the members of the spectral covenant to hide themselves, although the hoods are thrown back to reveal a man and a woman. I do not recognize either one of them, but that means nothing. The members of the spectral covenant routinely hide their faces. I could have stood in the same room as them down in the depths of the city’s crypts, could have spoken to them, and I would still never recognize them now.

“It is time to meet their foe for this entertainment,” the announcer says. “We could have sent beasts against them, to rend them limb from limb, but we have all seen how that turns out.”

I feel as though every eye in the colosseum is on me for a moment, as if everyone there is remembering the bouts where I have tamed a creature sent to kill me, where I have robbed the crowd of the blood it craves.

“Instead, we have picked a foe for them who will not hesitate, and who cannot be controlled. The most noble of all gladiators in these games, the embodiment of all they stand for! I give you Vex!”

An iron gate on the far side of the arena opens, and Vex strides through, his arms raised to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. He wearsheavier armor than he would normally wear in the arena, a breastplate added to the usual scales and patches of plate. Clearly he is not intended to be wounded in this. He has belts of knives around his waist. He takes a couple of them out, demonstrating his power as they float like independent things in the air. He takes out more and more knives, tossing them in the air like a juggler, but they don't come down again. A whole shoal of them hangs there, awaiting his command.

The two beast whispererscharge forward at him, seeming to realise that they need to close the distance. The man's fingers seem to curl into claws. The woman is holding a dagger of her own.

It is anything but an even battle.

Vex doesn't let them get close. He moves away from them, blocking their route with his knives, keeping his distance. For a moment or two it seems like a game of cat and mouse where the two beast whisperers are hunting him, but I know better than that. Vex is drawing this out, making sure the crowd gets some entertainment.

Then his knives start to cut.

They sail inas if someone has thrown them, but they don't move in straight lines. They curve and sing through the air. I see one slice into the man's back and keep going. The woman is bleeding from a cut on her thigh.

I must stand thereas Vex sends his knivesas his opponents again and again.

He does not kill them quickly. Instead he cuts them with glancing blows, tearing their cloaks to tatters, then slicing into their fleshto make them scream. The crowd roars its approval. It might love me, but he doesn't seem to care about other beast whisperers.

Eventually, Vex ends it. His knives slam into his foes from every angle, transfixing them, stabbing them, thrusting into their hearts and leaving themdead upon the sand. The crowd goes wild for him.

The emperor is looking at me, gauging my reaction. I try to keep my horror off my face, but I suspect I don't do a good job of it.

“Thus die those who would stand against the empire. You won't stand against it, will you, Lyra?”

I shake my head hurriedly. “I exist to serve, my emperor.”

“Good,” the emperor says with a smile. “At some point we will test the limits of that. But for now, you should go. Your first match will begin soon, and I have more traitors to root out.”

I am grateful to be out of there, but as I go, I can’t help but glance across to Lady Elara’s box. She is not in it. Is that just because she cannot stand to see her fellow beast whisperers harmed?

Or has the emperor done something to her too?

CHAPTER EIGHT

I'm still barely able to believe what I've seen as I stand at the iron gates, ready to walk out into the arena. I'm shaken, I'm angry and I’m scared. The emperordeliberately kept me therein his box so that I would seemembers of the spectral covenant executed.

Does he know about my involvement with them? Does he know who the members of the spectral covenant are? Does he know that Lady Elara is their leader or that she is plotting a change in Aetheria’s regime? Her absence from her box is frightening because it might mean that even now, she is imprisoned somewhere.

I would be naïve to believe that he doesn't know something. After all he has access to the finest mind mages out there, able to delve deeply into people's thoughts and memories. Combine that with whatever tortures his inquisitors have been able to dream up, and I'm sure that any members of the spectral covenant they caughtwould tell them anything they wanted to know.

Does that mean I'm in more danger than before? No, I don't believe so, because if the emperor were going to do anything, he would have done so immediately. Perhaps he wasn't able to find anything out. Perhaps-

“Stop standing there and get out on the sands!” a trainer snaps, pushing my weapons into my hands. I take my spear and weighted chain, stepping out onto the sands of the arena as the crowd chants my name.

“Lyra! Lyra! Lyra!”

Even now that I have fought in the colosseum so many times it is still almost overwhelming to step from the dark into the light, from the silence and calm of the space beneath the arena to the chaos and noise within it.

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