Page 22 of Ironhold: Trial Five

But I have sand covering much of myskin, thanks to Zax’s efforts. It's not just that though. They look at me witha kind of new level of awe, because they have just seen me take down threepeople at once, without being wounded in return.

One of those people enters thereceiving room. Cesca hurries in, looking as though she doesn't want to bethere. She looks embarrassed by what has happened to her, what I did to her.

“You-” she begins moving towardsme.

“You were going to stab me in theback,” I say, looking at her levelly. “I stopped you without killing you. Doyou object to me doing that, Cesca? Should I have killed you instead, the wayyou were going to kill me?”

She looks even more embarrassed asshe is forced to shake her head. She hurries past me, heading for the coupleshe was with before, but they turn away from her. She's learning that thenobles here are interested in us for exactly as long as we are useful to them.

A servant is waiting to show methrough to the same side room I met Vex in before. He is standing there with acloak thrown over his arm. He tosses it to me as soon as I get in there.

“Put this on,” he says.

“What for?” I ask.

“For one thing, it will dosomething to disguise the sand on you. For another I would rather you weren'trecognized on the short trip we're about to take.”

I'm instantly suspicious. Why wouldVex want to take me anywhere? As my patron, I know he can take me out of thegames when I am not fighting, as long as he has me back at Ironhold by evening.But where would he want to take me?

There are some potentiallydisturbing possibilities. Maybe Vex has decided that trying to get me to talkabout the spectral covenant isn't going to work, so he's going to take mesomewhere quiet where he can question me more forcefully. Maybe he has decidedto make me disappear. In theory, he could put me on a slaver’s cart headingaway from the city, and it would merely look as though I'd run off.

Those possibilities don't seemlikely, but it's hard to trust that Vex is doing this for any reason that isn'tdesigned to harm me.

“Put on the cloak,” Vex insists.

I do it. It’s not as though I canrefuse the instruction. Vex is still my patron, which means he has a measure ofcontrol over me, and I will be punished if I do not obey. The way Vex is doingthis only makes me more suspicious, though.

I shroud myself in the cloak, thenfollow him as he leads me from the colosseum. He has the hood of his own cloakup as we make our way through the crowd. He leads the way through the city onfoot, when I might have expected a fine noble to have a palanquin or a chariot.There are many people inside the arena, but there are almost as many gatheredaround it, in a kind of grand market for the holy day.

The first place Vex leads me is agruesome one. He takes me to a spot where half a dozen people have been tied toposts and disemboweled, left there with signs around their necks proclaimingthem to be traitors. I am used to death, to the violence of the arena, but thisstill makes me want to retch.

“Why bring me here?” I ask him.

“Do you know what these peopledid?” Vex asks.

“The signs say that they'retraitors,” I say.

“But do you know what theydidto be called traitors?” Vex asks.

I shake my head.

“They dared to suggest that someimperial officials were hoarding grain for themselves,” Vex says. He gesturesfor me to keep moving as he leads the way further through the city.

I see a child huddled by the sideof the road, looking slender and sick. Even as I watch, a woman who must be hermother shuffles her out of sight.

We are not on the main streets now,not on the ones that are decorated for the processions of the holy days. I cansee the spots where houses have been looted.

“There are gangs in the city,” Vexsays. “The emperor does nothing to contain them unless they hurt the wrongnoble.”

I don't mention that Bella and herfriends think the gangs are on their side. Vex continues to lead the waythrough the city. He heads down to the docks with me, and I can see the linesof people there. Vex leads me to them. I can see the desperation in their eyes.

“Are they leaving the city?” I ask.

Vex laughs briefly and bitterly.“Hardly. These are the ones who need to beg for food. The ones who can't affordthe inflated prices in the markets. They wait for every shipment, and descendon it.”

As he says it a woman reaches outto me. She has a child by her side who looks half-starved. "Please. Spareany coin you can.”

The movement dislodges my hood,revealing my face in the sunlight. Around me, people blink and turn to stare atme.

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