Page 2 of Ironhold: Trial Five

“And do you think that is enough tomake people rise up?” the merchant said.

“I think that there is alreadyunrest in the city,” Elara countered. “Everyone here is discontented. Those ofyou who represent the common folk have been fighting in the streets because ofthe lack of grain. The nobles have seen the emperor's madness and his cruelty.You are already thinking of which of you might be a good replacement. My peoplehave been pushed to the brink because of his visions of a beast whispererbringing him down.”

“Well, he isn't wrong, is he?” thenobleman said. “After all, you're here plotting against him.”

“And that would not have happenedif it weren't for his actions,” Elara said. She wondered briefly if the emperorunderstood the role his paranoia around his visions had played in bringingabout the current situation. The anger he had built in the hearts of the beastwhisperers. “What I'm saying is that each of us has a reason to rise up in ourown ways, but we are stronger if we do it together.”

“That hardly sounds like a reasonto go along withyourplans,” the gang leader said.

“Working with you means workingforyou,” the nobleman said. “I assume that you will make yourself empressafter this? No, we will have no part of it. We will do things our own way.”

“As will we,” the gang leader said.

“You are being foolish,” Lady Elarasaid. “Lyra Thornwind is a powerful symbol, and this is a crucial moment. Theempire will change at the conclusion of the next games. The question is whetheryou want to be a part of it or whether you stand against it.”

“That sounds like a threat,” thenobleman said, and a couple of bodyguards near him put their hands on theirswords. A couple of beast whisperers took steps forwards.

“Enough,” Lady Elara said. “We didnot come here to fight, but to try to forge an alliance that might change theworld. I suggest you all go away and think about that possibility.”

They drifted off. Lady Elara hadsuspected that this might happen. The factions within the city did not trustone another. She could not unite them, because in truth a part of her didn'twant to. She had thought to use them, but it was hard to do that when shesuspected that they needed to pay as much as all the others.

“What now?” one of the beastwhisperers remaining asked. “We need them.”

Lady Elara shook her head. “Theywould have been useful in one way of doing this, but there is another. We havewhat we need. Each of you will go to your appointed positions, and we willunleash the animals of Aetheria when the moment is right.”

“Can we hope to control so manybeasts?” another of her followers asked.

Lady Elara nodded. “Lyra Thornwindis a powerful weapon. At the end of the games, Aetheria will see just howpowerful. We will unleash the crowd and the beasts. There will be fury, andviolence and death. Come the conclusion of the games, all those who have hurtus will pay the price.”

Chapter One

My opponent circles me, pacingcarefully, never taking its eyes off me. Its tail swishes in the moment beforeit strikes, giving me just enough time to get to the haft of my spear upbetween us.

The shadow cat leaps, but it's atrick. Rather than leaping directly at me, it leaps at my shadow, pouncing onit and disappearing into it with the magic of its kind. It seems to melt intothe ground, and I spin, knowing it will already be reappearing somewhere else.

It does, jumping out of a spot awayto my left where a couple of bales of hay have left their shadow across theground. This is what makes the creatures so dangerous. In the wild, the greatcats with their ink dark coats would hunt through the forest, slinking from oneshadow to the next, pouncing on unsuspecting prey. In the colosseum ofAetheria, they are deadly additions to any games, adding an element of surpriseand unpredictability to the bouts that is in contrast to the brute power ofother beasts.

The shadow cat leaps at me again,and I twist my lean frame away from it. I'm clad in the brief skirt, sandalsand halter top that Ironhold gives to its female gladiators for training. Myskin started pale but has been bronzed by the time I have spent fighting andtraining in the hot sun of Aetheria. My golden hair whips around as I dodge theshadow cat’s attack. I'm close enough to see the deep gold of the creature’seyes, utterly alien compared to my own blue.

We move around, circling oneanother again. I am starting to sweat, but the creature is breathing hard aswell, it focuses on me, ready to leap once more. It is still small for one ofits kind, but it is almost fully grown now.

My foot catches and I stumble justfor a moment but that is enough for the shadow cat. It pounces on me, my spearbarely holding its claws off me, its mouth open to display teeth like daggers.It is heavier than I expect it to be, its weight pinning me down, and for amoment I know fear.

Then I reach out with the powerthat is my birthright, the magic that lives within me. There is a golden threadof connection between myself and the shadow cat. I whisper along it from mindto mind.

“That’s enough playing for now.”

The shadow cat makes a sound ofdisappointment, licks my face once with a sandpaper tongue, as if to prove itcan, and then lets me up.

“I still don't understand theconnection you have with that creature,” Stefano, the master of beasts atIronhold, says. He is a solidly built man in his fifties, with thinning, darkhair and a bushy mustache. His talent is for healing, although he mostlyreserves it for the animals. He seems to genuinely love the creatures in hiscare. “Is it harder with that dampener in place?”

He nods towards the leather strapon my left wrist, worked with magical runes. It is a device designed to containthe powers of the wearer, and which cannot be removed by them. Mine was put inplace to limit me after I was deemed a danger to the crowd. It should restrictme to just a trickle of magic but the arch magistrate, Selene Ravenscroft, hassurreptitiously altered it so that it now onlyappearsto be a dampener.I have access to my full powers; I just can't show it. No one can see that I amnot contained the way I should be.

“I think it helps that I alreadyhave a connection to the cat,” I say, with a smile towards the shadow cat. Itslinks back into place in its pen. Most of the other shadow cats in the beastpens are kept within magically engraved cages designed to stop them from usingtheir powers. The Aetherian Empire has come up with many ways to contain thosepeople and things who possess magic.

“Thank you for letting me traindown here, Stefano,” I say. Ordinarily, the master of beasts would not allowgladiators to simply come down here to practice with the creatures. He would beafraid for the safety of both the gladiators and the beasts.

“Well, I know you're not going tohurt them,” Stefano says, “and I guess you have the skills to keep from beinghurt in return.”

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