Page 36 of Ironhold: Trial Five

The emperor said that he would keephim in the palace. That is where he will be heading now and I have no doubtthat once he reaches it he will kill Alaric simply because he can, and to makesure that I never get to him in time. I must not just win this fight, but do itquickly enough that I can get to the palace to stop the emperor from killingthe man I love.

Chapter Twenty One

A couple of the guards are movingtowards me, and I swing my net to keep them back, but I know this won't be wonby simple physical fighting. Thankfully that isn't all that the colosseum isabout. We might celebrate martial virtue but there is another side to thecolosseum as well. I reach down within myself, for the magic that waits within,And I use that power to reach out to every creature I can feel.

I reach out with tendrils of power,connecting to the beasts that are kept beneath the colosseum, waiting there tokill gladiators and the prisoners for the amusement of the crowd. I can feelthe giant snake there, the iron hide, the thunder hooves. Above all, I can feelthe shadow cats.

I call to the creatures of thecolosseum, and they answer that call. I feel them charging against the barsthat hold them back, smashing their way free from their pens, or simplystepping into the shadows in the case of my shadow cat. I called to them andthey come to me, roaring up from the depths of the colosseum, hitting the irongates in a charge that smashes them from their hinges.

I don't just summon the beasts bredfor battle either. I call the birds from the sky and the rats that scuttlearound the hidden places. I call all of the creatures nearby, my power rollingout in waves. They are the army that Lady Elara thought she would unleash onthe city, but now they are mine.

And I am not her, which means Imust keep tighter control over these creatures than she would have done. Herplan was simply to unleash them and cause chaos, seizing power as theyterrorized the city. I cannot allow that,willnot allow that. I hold tothem and direct them, focusing them on the soldiers, on our enemies, whileforcing them to leave the ordinary people alone.

I feel as though my mind is beingdragged in a thousand different directions, and that is the greatest challengeof this not the power required. I have power, I have always had power. Thechallenge is to control it. I force myself to focus, determined not to let goof any of the animals I am connected with.

I watch the battle through the eyesof birds, using their sight to direct the movements of the beasts. The Ironhidethunders into the colosseum, slamming into a knot of soldiers near Rowan, itsgreat iron horn plunging through one of them who seeks to stab him. Thunderhooves charge in and I stop them near the gladiators, allowing them to climbonto their backs, to give them the advantage of mounts in the fight. I seeCesca balanced on one, swinging down with her sword, lightning crackling alongthe edge.

The birds give me enough warning toknow that a guard is coming up behind me, yet I'm not sure I can react in time.I can't remember which muscles are mine and which belong to the creatures,can't remember how to use my hands to swing my net around to tangle the blade.

The seconds seem to stretch out. Myheartbeat slows. I can see the guard’s blade advancing at a glacial pacetowards my throat.

Am I about to die? Will I be killedbecause I have given so much of myself to controlling the creatures that Icannot control my own body? The guard steps up next to me, sword raised tofinish me.

That is when the shadow cat leapsout of my shadow to pounce on him. Its claws rend his flesh, while its teethcome down on his throat, tearing it away in a spray of blood that I can tasteas if it were my mouth doing the killing.

I can sense the attacks ofdifferent creatures. I can feel soldiers caught within the coils of my body,feel the play of the muscles as I slowly crush them. I can feel my clawsripping through my foes. I can taste blood a dozen different ways, hear the screamsof the dying.

In it all I see a fresh wave ofsoldiers heading into the colosseum. Looking at them from above with the birds,I see them as simple shapes, a dart followed by a bigger square. It takes me amoment to pick out the people there. Some are injured, perhaps from fightingelsewhere in the city, perhaps from the violence last night. The ones in frontare riding horses, while those behind have heavy armor and are glowing withmagic.

The horses are a mistake.

“Rear,” I whisper to them, and theydo it all at once, bucking and kicking, throwing their riders from their backs.Some of the soldiers seem to realize that their mounts are under the control ofanother, and they kick free of them, struggling to get away. Some of them willlash out with their swords, killing their horses rather than letting them gofree as I set them running away.

That is the nature of Aetheria:they destroy what they cannot control.

That is the purpose of the games,too, the reason we were all brought here. We fight because we are given nochoice. Many of us die, and I can feel the pulsing power of the stones beneathAetheria, to which those victims’ powers are sacrificed. They feed the stonesin their death.

The few who survive become a partof the broader system of the empire, turned into nobles for it, given a reasonnot to rise up or fight against it.

The remaining soldiers move forwardinto the colosseum, and I meet them with a countercharge of creatures, anentire menagerie descending on them with all the speed and violence they hold.The soldiers struggle to maintain its height formation in the face of such anassault, and that means that gladiators can slip in behind the beasts, magicalpowers and attacks with weapons blending together in a furious whirlwind ofviolence.

I see that violence from everyviewpoint, every possible angle. I feel it when a blade slides into one of thebeasts’ bodies, when a spear is driven into the coils of the snake. I feel alltheir pain, their anger, their fear. I feel that they understand that this istheir chance to be free, but I hold on to them tightly to keep them fromharming any of the citizens of the city. I will not allow this to be a tidalwave of destruction.

I will not allow it but I'm nolonger sure quite who I am. “I” seems like such a nebulous concept when I amspread out among so many different creatures, able to experience the world inso many different ways. I feel as though I am one giant being composed of manydifferent creatures. I suspect this is what it must feel like to be a god.

Dimly, I'm aware that it isn't agood thing not to be able to find myself. That I should be able to locate asingle body to call my own. But how would I even begin to do that? I have toomuch to do controlling all of the beasts the way I once might have controlledweapons.

“Lyra, you need to focus. You needto come back to yourself.”

The words seemed to come to me froma long way away and right next to me all at once. As if someone is shouting inmy ear, but those ears are impossible to locate.

I know that voice. A voice that'sso familiar, so solid, so safe. A voice that seems to ground me. I follow thatvoice, focusing on it.

“Lyra, come back!” Rowan calls, andnow I know that it is Rowan. I can feel his hands on my arms, and thatsensation reminds me that I have arms. I am not lost, I am standing right inthe middle of the battle.

I throw one command out into therest of the beasts:Only the guards. I hope it will be enough.

Now I pull back to myself, feelingthe sensations of my body as I return to having just a single body. I have ameasure of control over the creatures but no longer the full immersion that Ionce had. That is too much to maintain for long. The shadow cat is curled nextto me, guarding me. Rowan is standing nearby too, keeping away the last guardsnearby.

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