Page 38 of Ironhold: Trial Five

“It doesn't have to be like this,”I say. “You could still join us.”

“Do you think you're in chargehere?” Lady Elara demands. “You were never anything more than a tool to beused, too afraid of your own power to be everything you could be. I will takeyour creatures, I will set them loose, and then we will rebuild in the ashes ofwhat survives when they are done.”

I feel her mind reaching out formine, her power struggling to take over what I have claimed. I have more powerthan her, but she has precision and ruthlessness on her side. In an instant weare fighting over control of the beasts around me, and she has the advantagebecause she is fighting just to break all chains on them and fill them withfury. Containing them is a far harder task.

“You can't beat me,” Lady Elarasays. “You're too weak.”

“Let me show you how strong I am,”I say.

I take in aspects of the beastsaround me, reaching out with my powers to borrow from them, taking sight andstrength speed and violence. I take those things, and I push them into LadyElara. It wouldn't work if she wasn't already trying to steal from me, if sheweren't trying to take control of the very same beasts. I force her into theposition I was in back in the colosseum, looking through every eye at once,trying to control every animal.

I hear her scream in a bestial roaras her body starts to twist. Her fingers become claws, her eyes become slantedlike a cat's. Her skin sprouts patches of fur and scales, feathers and thickhide. I can hold all this without it destroying me, but she cannot. Her bodytries to be a hundred different shapes at once as she forgets the being shewas. She twists into a chimera, and snarling at me she lunges forward.

Rowan is there then, his shieldraised the ground around him rising to support him then absorbs the weight ofher charge. He thrusts once with his sword, straight through Lady Elara’sheart. She gasps, still trying to get to me, and then the twisted thing she hasbecome collapses to the cobbles of the street.

Around me, the beast whispererslook uncertain what to do next. I look from one to the next of them, even as Ireassert my control over the creatures under my command.

“I will not give you vengeance,” Isay. “But I will give you freedom. You could fight us, but you'll lose. Or youcould fight the emperor, and maybe we all win.”

I see them hesitating, and I do notwait for them to make up their minds. I have no time. The palace still awaitsus, so I head towards it with all the beasts of Aetheria by my side.

Chapter Twenty Three

The gates of the palace are closedagainst us, soldiers building barricades within the grounds, raising magicaldefenses, using the powers they would normally use for gardening to builddefensive walls. It looks different to its usual grandeur, but the purple andgold of the imperial symbols still fly over it. The emperor is here. This iswhere he has chosen to make his stand.

“How do we do this?” Rowan asks.

I shake my head. I have no trainingin siege warfare or the finer points of storming a palace. All I know are thethings I want to achieve here: I want to bring an end to the emperor's reign,and I want to make sure that Alaric is safe.

“If this takes too long, Alaricwill die,” I say. “I know all of you want to take the palace, and you will havethe beasts by your sides if you want them, but this place is not my priority.He is.”

I did all of this to try to find away of ending this where Alaric would survive. I want the empire to change, Iwant the emperor to fall, but not at the expense of Alaric’s life. Never that.

To my surprise, Rowan nods. “Peoplematter. I know how muchhematters to you. So I'll help you get himback. We will go in with a small group while the rest storm the gates."

There is no time for a plan morecomplicated than that. I just have to hope it will be enough. A small group ofthe gladiators gathers around me, the few who survived the colosseum floor,plus a couple more. It seems like pitifully few, but hopefully we will not haveto take on the might of the emperor's soldiers.

Everyone else charges at the gates.It is a sight to behold, and I watch some of it through the eyes of a watchingcrow. It is like a wave battering against the walls, only this wave is formedfrom people who have magic, because this is Aetheria. In just seconds the airis filled with bursts of magic, with fire and lightning mixing, with peoplemoving in strange ways that have nothing to do with gravity, the gates arecovered in frost, then flame, then lightning.

And the beasts pour over all of it.The emperor's remaining soldiers move to engage the onrushing hoard. Many willhave been slain last night, many more have been killed in the colosseum, Isuspect that many have simply fled, realizing the way things are going. Orperhaps they are trying to keep order elsewhere in the city. Yet there arestill enough here to try to protect the palace, enough that this will not be aneasy fight.

I know that we will only have abrief window to save Alaric, so I rush around the side of the palace with Rowanand the others. Of course the walls prevent entry but Rowan stands in front ofthem and I can see him straining as he seeks to use his power to the maximumeffect. Normally his control over earth and stone is limited, but I have seenhim keep stones off him, seen him raise up the earth to grab people's feet. Nowhe works on the granular level, eroding the mortar between the stones, lettingit crumble little by little so that it is not long before he can push thestones over, leaving a hole in the wall big enough for all of us to getthrough.

We are in the imperial gardens,moving quickly and quietly now. The strange beasts that the emperor keeps inhis menagerie ignore us. One of the purple and gold butterflies bigger than myhead flits past, apparently unconcerned by the violence taking place on theother side of the palace. I can hear the shouts and the screams from that side.I can see the violence from above through the eyes of one of the birdswatching. The soldiers are putting up as much resistance as they can, so thatthe space before the palace is starting to fill with bodies.

We are meeting no resistance. Itseems that the soldiers have put all their efforts into stopping the breach ofthe walls. Even so our small group moves quietly, trying to keep low and out ofsight. One of our number has a minor talent for manipulating plants, so theyhave them provide us with cover as we move, the leaves flowing ahead of us toclose gaps between rows of hedges.

The emperor’s grand receiving roomon the fringes of his garden is not far ahead. It is shielded behind the usualmagic that keeps out anyone trying to enter from the gardens. I'm not sure howwe're meant to get through it, but some of the others look confident.

We need to get through it, becausethat is where the emperor is. He is standing there with Lord Darius, SeleneRavenscroft, and a couple of guards. We approach, and now all of the gladiatorswith me spread out around the shield, using whatever magic they possess againstit. Rowan shifts the earth beneath it. Cesca runs lightning into it through hersword. Someone makes water cascade down it. The gladiators with me poureverything they have into breaking that shield.

Still, I don't think it will beenough. Then I see Selene Ravenscroft make a gesture, and it seems that cracksappear in the shield, cracks that widen and then split apart, shattering themagic into thousands of fragments which dissipate in the air. I had not thoughtthat she would go this far to help us. She helped me with my dampener, but Ithought that was simply out of her sense of justice. To do this… she isactively betraying Emperor Tiberius.

“Traitor!” the emperor roars, buthe does not have time to do more than that as we charge forward.

Lord Darius leaps to his defense,now it seems he's concentrating his power much more than he was in thecolosseum. One of our number screams, his flesh blackening as fire burns itfrom the inside. The full might of the master of the games is incredible tobehold, especially when he combines it with a series of attacks with two swordsthat move with lightning speed. I engage him, swinging my net, while Rowancomes in from the far side.

Even outnumbered as he is, eventhough he is long past his fighting prime, Lord Darius moves with a speed andpower that means he keeps up with us, at least for now. I know however thatsheer numbers will eventually bring him down.

---