Page 4 of Ironhold: Trial Five

He waits for judgment after hekilled a gladiator to save me. He is noble born, with a family probably higherborn than anyone else who has given themselves into the games, but I am notsure if that will help him in this. Not when the emperor seems to be pushingfor his punishment. The penalty for killing another gladiator outside of asanctioned match is death. Alaric’s family and connections have delayed that,but I am not sure that they can avoid it forever. If he had been a slavegladiator such as myself, his body would already be on one of the impalingspikes set around the perimeter of Ironhold.

I must find a way to help him, butthe truth is I have very few options from within the fortress. Maybe if I getout of Ironhold, if I find a position within Aetheria’s nobility, I will beable to gain enough influence to save him, to protect him. That is the reason Iam so desperate to succeed.

I'm not just fighting for myfreedom but for his, as well.

Chapter Two

It is hard to keep track ofthe days at Ironhold.Everymorning we train, out in the practice spaces, drilling with our weapons in longlines, running and lifting heavy rocks to develop our bodies.

“Now wrestling practice! Partnerup!”

We work under the watchful eye ofLord Darius, the former gladiator who is master of Ironhold. He is in his lateforties now, but there is still a hardness to him even though his dark hair ispeppered with grey. I know from experience that he truly believes in the holynature of the games, seeing them as an essential rite to please the gods andgive magical power to the stones beneath the city from which all our powersflow.

When it comes to the line drills, Itrain with a spear and a weighted chain which features a hooked blade on theend. The combination makes me a long-range fighter who must seek to dodge andmove in my bouts, avoiding close-range fighting as much as possible.

But I must wrestle along with theothers, partly just because I've been commanded to and partly because, if anopponentdoesclose with me, I need to be able to break away and returnto the distance where I am used to fighting.

I find myself partnered with Cesca,who doesn't look happy about it. We practice trips and throws together, but themajority of the wrestling practice is just going against one another, trying tothrow one another again and again. Soon we are both covered in dust from ourbattles.

Around us the others are practicingin the same way. Rowan is throwing his partners with ease, his size andstrength coupled now with the experience of having fought in multiple gameswithin the Colosseum. He is as experienced a gladiator as I am, even if he hasone mark fewer crossing the circle of his brand.

“Switch partners!” Lord Dariuscommands. He oversees so much of our training personally, as if wanting to makesure that each of us is trained to the highest pitch of perfection before weare cast into the games to live or die. It is one of the paradoxes of thecolosseum that we are trained with care and attention, given the best food,healers, experts in massage and physical preparation, only to be set againstone another in fights to the death.

I head for Rowan, but Cesca gets tohim first. I can see her eyes roving over him as she approaches, and she puts asway into her step that I suspect is designed to catch his eye. Again, it seemsto me that she's looking for someone stronger to latch onto in order to makesure that she survives her time. I can’t even blame her for it. She has somemagic, but she is smaller and weaker than most others here.

I end up with a muscular femalegladiator who seems to be a part of the latest intake, because the brand on hershoulder has no marks across it yet. She wears the iron collar of a slavegladiator. There are always new arrivals at Ironhold, taken from around theempire because they have displayed magical talents, and Aetheria is determinedto claim them all for itself. The city says that magic flows outwards from it,so any who display magical talents beyond its walls belong to it.

Now, I know that it is a way ofensuring that Aetheria maintains control over magic, not giving the frontiersenough magical practitioners to mount an uprising. Aetheria keeps itselfpowerful with those it takes and weakens the fringes of its empire.

“I’m Lyra,” I say to thegladiator,because Idon't know her. She has cut her dark hair short so that no one can get a gripon it, while her deep brown eyes lock onto mine without warmth.

“Aya,” she replies, in anunfriendly tone.

We circle one another and come togrips. It's obvious from the start that she isn't holding back. She's biggerand stronger than me, and I must move around cautiously, trying to find angleswhere she can't bring her whole strength to bear. She grabs me, throwing me tothe ground hard and then landing on top of me with her full weight to pin me inplace. The move knocks the breath from my lungs.

“You're not so tough,” she says, asshe does it.

I manage to squirm out fromunderneath her, but she grabs me again, lifting me and throwing me withbruising force.

“How areyouthe favoritegladiator of the Colosseum?” Aya demands.

She continues to out-wrestle me,using her greater size and strength to pick me up and fling me around. I try totrip her, to catch her out, but it's obvious she's used to fighting at closequarters. And it seems she wants to prove a point by hurting me. As one of thegladiators with the most experience here, I'm a target now. She must know shecan make her name by beating me convincingly in practice. So she does. Shethrows me this way and that, not giving me a chance to get my breath back.

“Change partners!” Lord Dariuscalls.

I see Cesca pull back from Rowanwith a lingering touch as he releases her from the pin he's been holding herin. He looks briefly confused and embarrassed. I go to work with him, but Idon't make it there.

“Not you, Lyra Thornwind. A patronhas come for you.”

Shock runs through me at thosewords, along with fear at what might be about to happen.

I shouldn’t be surprised that Ihave acquired a new patron. I have been without a patron for weeks now, and asone of the most successful gladiators in the games, it was inevitable that anoble would decide they wanted to forge a connection with me. I suspect that ifI weren't a beast whisperer, I would already have attracted a new patron. As itis the nobles are being cautious, not least because of the rumors that Isomehow had my previous patron killed. In any case, they don't want to riskupsetting the emperor by being closely linked to me when he continues to thinkthat I might be a threat to him, and has all beast whisperers persecuted.

But now, someone has decided it isworth the risk. Perhaps the price of my patronage is cheap enough now that aminor noble thinks they can gain something by being seen with me. Perhapssomeone has simply decided that they gain more than they lose by being aroundme.

Whatever has happened I don't havea choice about it. None of the gladiators here do, even the nominally freeones. The only advantage they have is that there are limits to the commandsthat their patrons can give them. But they cannot deny a patron access. Thewhole system of the Colosseum seems to be based on connecting the most powerfulgladiators with the nobility, drawing them in and making them a part of it ifthey succeed in the games.

But that is exactly what makes mefear what might happen next. As a slave gladiator, a noble patron can do almostanything they wish with me. They can hurt me, use me, as they wish. Theprospect of that makes me shake with the terror of what might be done to me.

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