Page 13 of Ironhold: Trial Five

“And that will make it obvious thatyou still have your powers,” Rowan counters.

This is a difficult, dangeroussituation. Worse, it proves that I am to be pushed to my limits now. And if Istay in the games, it will simply happen again and again until I cannot handleit and I'm killed.

What other options do I have,though? I can think of at least one.

“There are… forces building againstthe empire,” I whisper to Rowan. “Maybe I'm exactly where I need to be. Maybe Ican use this to my advantage by giving them information about the emperor andthe games. Maybe I can persuade the other gladiators to join them.”

That's what Lady Elara wants me todo, and if I succeed, maybe the uprising against the emperor will have enoughfighters to succeed.

“You're talking about treason,”Rowan points out.

“I'm talking about maybe beingfree,” I counter. “A wave of rebellion rising up to free us all.”

Rowan shakes his head, though. “Youcan't do this, Lyra. You can't be this selfish.”

“What's selfish about trying tochange everything for the better?” I demand.

“The moment there's any kind ofuprising, Lady Tyra will take my sisters away as far as she can. I will neversee them again. And that’s without the chaos such a thing will bring. How manypeople will die?”

“If the uprising succeeds-”

“Who's running it?” Rowan demands.

I shake my head. “I can't tell youthat.”

It would put Lady Elara in too muchdanger. It would endanger Rowan, too. Just having the information would leavehim vulnerable. I'm sure the emperor would kill to get that knowledge.

“But it's someone noble right?”Rowan guesses. “My guess is that it’s that noblewoman who was your patron, LadyElara.”

I don't reply, but he goes on as ifI've confirmed it.

“Which means that this isn't arevolution, Lyra, it's just a coup. Someone else is setting themselves up tobecome emperor, or maybe empress.” The way he says that suggests that he'sguessed that Lady Elara might have a part in it. “Even if they're a betterperson than Emperor Tiberius, that doesn't mean they have any incentive tochange everything about the empire. It doesn't mean that all the slaves willsuddenly be free. I can't risk that when my sisters are still in Lady Tyra’shands.”

“But-”

“No,” Rowan says, not giving me achance to say anything else. “I don't want any part in this, and if you haveany sense, you won't, either.”

Chapter Seven

I am dressed in my armor for theprocession down into the city, patches of shining scale that leave much of myskin bare and catch the sunlight, along with vambraces on my arms. My fellowgladiators walk in a motley crowd rather than in neat rows. We are notsoldiers, unlike those who guard us on the way.

The procession for the first day ofthe games is always a big occasion. For many of the new gladiators, this is thefirst time they have been out of their fortress prison since they were firstbrought to Ironhold. Even most of the more experienced ones will have been keptwithin its confines since the last games. Only those with sponsors are allowedout, and only then to visit the nobles who have paid for the privilege.

Our route winds down into Aetheria,twisting and turning away from the black granite of the fortress and towardsthe white marble buildings of the city. It is a route that takes us firstthrough the slums beyond the walls, then through into the wealthier areas.

The crowds have come out in forceto watch us as we head down towards the heart of Aetheria. Young and old, richand poor, they're all there. We remain the greatest spectacle in the city,especially on this first day when the beasts for the games are being broughtalong with us. Creatures are carried in cages on carts or dragged along whiletrainers control them with chains.

I think about how easy it would beto take control of those creatures now that I have my powers back. How easy itwould be to set them on the soldiers around us so that all of the gladiatorscould escape at once. But that is not Lady Elara’s plan, she wants to waituntil later in the games, and it would do nothing to save Alaric.

He is not here, and in some waysthat is more heartbreaking than the rest of it. He was to have been free bynow. If he had come through the last games successfully rather than beingdragged away to a cell, he would have been a free noble by now. He might evenhave been standing in this crowd to watch.

But my thoughts of him are of theway he would always drink in the adulation of the crowd, playing up to them,waving and performing for them as he walked. Not like Rowan, who continues todo his best to ignore the crowd, treating this whole occasion as something toget through rather than something to fully participate in.

I wave and smile because I havebeen told by Lady Elara that it is vital for the crowd to love me. I know herplan is to use me to be the spark for her rebellion, but now Rowan's words areswimming around in my head. What if her rebellion does succeed? Will she freeeveryone, or will she just rampage through the city then set herself on thethrone? She is a beast whisperer yes, but she is also a noble woman, and herplan seems to call just for the replacement of the emperor. Things mightimprove for my fellow beast whisperers but it seems that the rest of Aetheriansociety will stay the same, or even suffer more, if she really does wantrevenge.

Maybe I'm doing her a disservicethough, and not knowing it makes the decision I have to make that much harder.

Around us the crowds cheer, callingout our names, with different groups of fans competing to shout their favoredgladiator’s name the loudest.

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