Page 35 of Ironhold: Trial Five

I shout over him. “Yes, enough.Enough tyranny. Enough of emperors who control us and force everyone in theempire to bend to their will. Enough of standing by while evil reigns inAetheria. Rise up, all of you! Rise up and fight back against the emperor!”

A roar comes back from the crowd,and now people are on their feet, throwing things at guards, at nobles, at theemperor’s box.

The emperor is on his feet too. Hepoints at me. “Guards, kill them all! And bring me Lyra Thornwind!”

Chapter Twenty

My heart hammers in my chest asguards rush into the colosseum, far more than just our dozen gladiators.

They don't just have numbers ontheir side. They are heavily armored, in a way that we are not, since our armoris designed to protect our more vital areas, while leaving enough flesh ondisplay to allow more blood in the fights. They are armed in a more uniformway, with short swords and large square shields, allowing them to move forwardin tight formation.

And they have magic of their own.One makes flames flicker along the edge of his blade. Another tries to throwshadows at us, forcing us to duck or be blinded by them.

But we are gladiators and we havedone nothing but train to fight for season after season in the colosseum. Thisis where we are used to fighting. We know this ground, know the sand beneath orfeat. If the crowd is screaming in terror and roaring its defiance now, ratherthan calling out our names, that makes no difference.

We charge into the fray. I swing mynet, pulling down the shield of one of the guards, giving Rowan an opening inwhich he can attack. I see Cesca touch her blade to the metal armor of a foe,sending him back with a jolt of lightning through it. I see Bella leap atanother of the guards, using the air itself like a shield to deflect his blowswhile she attacks.

We cut into the first wave of themlike a storm, but there are more following behind. We cannot just burst throughthem and out into the colosseum’s building. A guard swings at my head and Isway back from the blow just in time, but another slams his shield into mesending me sprawling. I thrust blindly with my spear, stabbing into the leg ofone of them as they try to follow up, then scramble back to my feet.

An arrow flashes past me, and oneof the gladiators clutches his shoulder as it slams into him. He throws a rockback in return, the projectile moving as quickly as if he had thrown it using asling. The guard who fired the arrow goes down, and I keep pressing forwards.

I reach for the sight of the birdsaround the stadium, determined to see what's going on. In the chaos of thegeneral melee on the sands, I need to be able to see behind myself as well asin front. Because I can see from every angle, I spot a blade coming from myback. I reversed my spear and thrust it beneath the breastplate of the guardadvancing on me, bringing him down.

I see more than that, though. I seechaos starting to break out in the stands, as the poorest throw whatever theycan find at the guards, and a wave of people tries to get up towards the boxesof the nobles. More gladiators are coming up from the spaces within thecolosseum. They have grabbed weapons and are fighting for their freedom now.Guards and the trainers fight back against them.

Pain blossoms in my shoulder, anagony of fire as I see Lord Darius standing there in the emperor's box,concentrating. Around me all the gladiators are crying out in pain or clutchingtheir shoulders as the master of the games uses the same power that he has usedto brand us previously to burn our flesh now. I see one gladiator run throughby a guard as he grabs his shoulder in pain, and I barely avoid the thrust ofanother blade.

The gladiator who threw the rockbefore flings another now, forcing Lord Darius to dodge back. Those of us whocan attack at a distance do so, bombarding the box in which the master of thegames stands with every power we have. His concentration broken the burningfades from our shoulders, and now I'm able to resume the fight, sweeping my netaround to trip a soldier from his feet leaving him vulnerable to the thrust ofanother blade.

Through the eyes of the birds I cansee the emperor retreating from his box, ushered out of it by Lord Darius, bySelene Ravenscroft, and by the closest of his guards. They are escaping,getting out from the middle of the violence. I move to follow, but anotherfigure intercepts me, leaping down lightly from the edge of the colosseum ontothe sands.

Vex stands there, his floatingdaggers already buzzing around him like angry bees.

“You betrayed me!” he snarls. “Youcould have had everything.”

“You would have given the ordinarypeople of Aetheria nothing,” I say.

Vex sends his daggers wingingtowards me, cutting through the air, not caring who they hit. I can see some ofhis nobles and mercenaries up in the stands, joining in the fight.

I use my net to catch his daggersas they close in on me, but he is not trying to toy with me, not trying to playup to the crowd for once. His daggers are simply coming to try to kill me, andit takes every scrap of reflexes I can borrow from the birds to avoid them.

Even as I do so, I see Bella'sclosing in on him, using the chaos of the fight on the arena floor to try toget to him without being spotted. Vex represents everything she hates, so it'shardly a surprise that she's trying to kill him now. She lunges forward with ashield of air held up above her to fend off any incoming blows.

Some instinct saves Vex. He twistsaside at the last moment, taking a wound to the side but not falling. Theknives that were coming for me now circle back. I try to catch one from the airbut compared to the swarm of the rest of them it's nothing.

Bella fends off the knives with hershield of air for a few moments as she attacks with relentless fury. She forcesVex onto the back foot, making him give ground step by step as she strikes athim with the kind of anger and aggression that it's hard to stop. For thoseseconds it looks as though she might cut Vex down, then leap up into the standsto join in the general fight alongside the common people, urging them toslaughter any nobles who get in their way.

Then one of Vex's knives getsthrough, slashing across her side. It's enough to break her concentration, ifonly for a moment. That’s enough. More of the knives come for her, plunginginto her from every angle as if Bella is a pincushion.

I hear her cry out in pain,collapsing to the sand as the life drains from her. I react on instinct,lifting my spear and throwing it, even as Vex turns back towards me, trying tobring his knives to bear once more. I throw it with all the force my arm canmuster, and it slams into his chest, transfixing him, leaving him standingthere staring at it. He topples forward and the spear stops him from falling,embedding itself in the ground so that Vex is held up by it like a scarecrow.

I draw my curved knife, all tooaware, as I use my net to tangle an incoming below that I've just thrown awaymy best weapon. Around me, I see other gladiators dying. Rowan is hemmed in byguards, defending himself as best he can. People are falling from the stands.Violence is everywhere.

We are exacting a heavy toll forour lives but the guards keep coming. Even with their numbers thinned by theviolence of the night before, there are still far more of them than of us. Thetruth is that we are losing, and we cannot afford to lose. Given what awaits usif we're captured, it is better to die fighting.

I push that thought aside. Thisisn't about some heroic last stand. This isn't about my friends dying. I'm hereto save the people of Aetheria, and that includes the gladiators out here onthe sands. I must find a way to save all of them.

Including Alaric.

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