Page 5 of Ironhold, Trial Four

Alaric shrugs. He is holding wooden versions of his usual curved sword and dagger.

“Who can know the mind of the emperor?” It isn’t the sympathy I was hoping for.

“That's just it. I'm not sure what even he knows his own mind,” I say. “I've looked into his eyes, Alaric. He seems… half mad sometimes.”

“You need to be careful saying things like that,” Alaric replies, with a sudden note of worry in his voice for me. “You don't know who might be listening.”

“And then what would he do to me?” I counter. “Torture me? Drag me to his bed.”

“I had assumed that you were already doing that for him,” Alaric says, sounding a little surprised that I’m not.

“You think I'm sleeping with him?” I can't keep the shock from my voice at the insinuation. How can he believe that?

Alaric reaches out to touch the iron collar around my neck. “That's what people are saying. I know when the emperor commands something you don't get a choice about it.”

“He hasn't commandedthat,” I insist. “Do you always have to be so quick to listen to rumors?”

He was like this when it came to me and Lady Elara. I suspect Alaric can't understand howanyonewouldn't want me. And yet he has been absent from my bed fora while now, as ifnot wanting to be near me. Is it just the thought of me being with others that is stopping him, or is it something else?

“Come on,” he says. “We need to train.”

He moves away into the room, not giving me a chance to argue. The truth is that we both do need to practice. The next round of games is close, and we need to be ready. Every moment of practice matters now.

I stalk him through the room, jabbing in between the iron bars with my spear, trying to find a way to get to him as he jumps and climbsaround the space.

“What use is a room like this?” I demand, as my wooden spearclatters off the bars.

“You've seen yourself that they occasionally throw in strange spaces for us to fight in,” Alaric insists. “The last time we were in the arena, there were mazes and-”

“But that was the Champions Trials,” I reply.

“And it doesn't make a difference,” Alaric says. “Anytime Lord Darius and Lady Selene can think of a special match up, they will go with it.”

Lady Selene Ravenscroft is the arch magistrate of Aetheria. Her magic is amongst the most powerful of the empire. She is also the one who fastened the dampener around my wrist.

I continue to stalk Alaric through the room, and the nature of this space means that I have time to talk to him as I do it.

“Have you heard about anything going on here? I need to have something I can take back to the emperor. He's been making threats if I don'tcome up with anything for him.”

Alaric shrugs, avoiding my blows. “This is a place filled with plots and schemes. Vex is talking to all his noble friendsabout how debasedthe games have become from their holy heyday, and about what he will do to restore the glory of the empire when he's free. Cesca seems to be looking around for a protector. You know all this.”

That's the problem, I do know it. I'm not sure what the emperor wantswhen the news from inside the fortress is so banal. We live, and we train, striving to gain the skills we'll need to survive in the arena.

There were more plots whenRavenna was still here but she's dead now, at my hands. The thought of thatshould bring with it a wave of guilt and grief, but I know longer feel those things when it comes to her. She was an enemy who tried to use me and eventually kill me. She set me up to be her victim. I'm just grateful that I was able to kill her first.

Alaric and I continue our training fight. He's using his powers now, which means that there are multiple versions of him flowing around me, attacking me from different angles. I try to fend them off, but the iron bars make it difficult for me to use my weapons effectively. My weighted chainis wasted in this confined space, likely only to tangle around the bars. My spear is too long to wield well at close quarters. That leaves only the hooked blade at the end of the chain, shorter than Alaric's weapons, barely suited to such combat. It is a thing for finishing an opponent tangled in the chain, not for fighting them.

Ido my best, but even so, Alaric slips past my defenses. I feel the touch of his wooden blade against my throat, the presence of him behind me as the illusory copies fade away. I have lost. In the arena, I would be dead now. But this is Alaric, so I'm not angry at losing. Instead, I turntowards him, still caught within the circle of his arms. I move to kiss him, my lips brushing his. He pulls back. I groan in frustration because that isn't what I want. I wanthim.

“What is this?” I ask him. “Don't you want me?”

“I just… we're getting too close, Lyra,” he says. Given that he has a reputation for sleeping around, I find that hard to believe.

“Too close? I feel as though you've hardly been there for me over the pastcouple of weeks.” He has barely trained with me,only spoken to me intermittently. It feels as though he has been ignoring me.

“That's the point,” Alaric says, and I wish I could just grab him and kiss him make him see how foolish he's being. “I've had to pull back because…”

“Because what?” I demand, not understanding.

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