Page 8 of Ironhold: Trial Five

“I wanted to see you,” I say. “Ineededto see you.”

“This is the last place you shouldwant to see me,” Alaric replies. “I can hardly be my brilliant best here.”

He flashes a smile, but there'ssomething false about it. The whole thing is an act, presumably for my benefit,so that he doesn't show me just how hurt he is by all of this.

“It's so wrong that they're doingthis to you,” I say. “You shouldn't be executed for something like this.”

I hear him sigh. “Ultimately, thoseare the rules of Ironhold. They kept them brutally simple. No questions aboutwho was defending themselves from whom, who provoked whom, no excuses. I guessotherwise they would spend half their time trying to sort through exactly whyone gladiator killed another, and this place would be chaos.”

How can he make excuses for thepeople who have condemned him to die? For the system that allows no room formercy or nuance? I am not the one in the cell and even so I cannot tolerate it.

“It shouldn’t be like this,” Iinsist.

“Well, no,” he says. “I should beout in the middle of the arena, performing for the crowds, while beautifulnoble women swoon at my feet.”

“Onlynoblewomen?” I say.

He raises an eyebrow. “Why, can youthink of anyone else who might be interested in me?”

I reach through the bars for him,wanting to pull him to me to kiss him, to show him that I have not forgottenhim, and that I will do everything I can to get him out of here.

But he pulls back before I can doit.

“You shouldn't be here, Lyra. It'sdangerous for you.”

“If you mean the guard, I'vedistracted him,” I say.

“I don't just mean that. You'reright, ordinarily someone in a situation like this would be shown leniency.Especially a noble. During my trial, I got the feeling that the arch magistratewanted to acquit me, or at least let me off with nothing more than some tokenpunishment.”

I briefly shudder at the thought ofthat because I know there is nothing token about the punishments handed out atIronhold. I have suffered some of them, and they have been brutal. But it'swhat I thought would happen, that, at most, Alaric would suffer a harshwhipping and then be allowed to continue as a gladiator.

“But the emperor interfered,” Isay.

Alaric nods. “And he's doing it fora reason. It could just be to make an example of me or because he's in a cruelmood. The gods know that he’s unpredictable enough, but I don't think that'sit. I don't even think this is about me. I heard him mention you, Lyra. Heknows we're close. How could he not when I killed someone to save you?”

The emperor knows that Alaric and Iare together, which means he believes that Alaric is a way to get to me. All ofa sudden I find myself agreeing with Alaric: coming down here was not a goodidea. If anything, it's exactly what the emperor wanted me to do.

“So you see, you need to go,”Alaric says, his voice filled with urgency. “You need to go and just forgetabout me. Your attachment to me is what makes this situation valuable to them.They will try to use it against you. Go, Lyra.”

“I'll go but there's no way I'mgoing to forget about you,” I say. “And there's no way I'm just going to leaveyou to die.”

“There's nothing you can do,”Alaric says. He sounds far too resigned to his fate.

I don't believe that. Iwon’tbelieve that.

Even so, I must go. I hurry awayfrom Alaric’s cell, fear propelling me. I head back along the route leadinginto the rest of the fortress. I've barely come to the first turning when Ihear booted feet coming the other way. I try to look for somewhere to hide, butthere is nowhere.

Lord Darius comes around thecorner, accompanied by at least half a dozen guards, all the ones who shouldhave been guarding Alaric. But now I realize that the point wasn't to guard himbut to trap me. Lord Darius tried to warn me away, but at the same time he knewexactly what I would do. He knew I would come and try to help Alaric, that Iwould disobey his command in this, theemperor’scommand.

“You were told not to come here,Lyra,” he says. “Now, you will pay the price of that. The emperor requires yourpresence.”

Chapter Five

They march me down into thecity in chains the way they might have a prisoner, and the worst part is that Iam almost used to such treatment by now.Ithas been done to me before, the chains used to make a spectacle of me, to showthat I am weak compared to the power of the emperor, and that even thestrongest gladiators of the arena can be controlled at his whim.

There are no crowds lining thestreets as there would be on the days of the games, which means that I get tosee people about their normal lives as I pass through the city, flanked byguards. Most of their lives are just ordinary. There are store holders callingout their wares, children running in the street, wives and servants at themarkets.

And there are signs of unrest hereand there. I see a couple of burnt-out houses with graffiti daubed on themcondemning the empire. I see the spot where a man has been impaled, a signaround his neck proclaiming that he is a traitor. Even as I pass with theguards, I see a couple of men pausing as they beat someone in an alleyway,turning and running at the sight of the imperial soldiers.

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