It’s a surprising thing to say.Alaric has no love for Rowan’s steady sense of order, and he’s always been quick to mock the fact Rowan is common born.He must be getting desperate.
“And what happens when someone deposes me?Or when I live out my life and pass on the throne to someone who turns out to be worse?”Rowan asks.“No more emperors, Alaric.Besides, as I said, I’m not sure Icoulddo it now, even if I wanted to.”
“What do you mean?”I ask.
“I mean Selene has all the power in the senate,” Rowan says.“She has all the votes she needs to get any decision she wants through.And she has enough guards in her pocket that I’m not sure I’d win the fight that followed if I tried to overrule it.”
I feel a creeping sense of dread running through me as I realize the implications of that.It means Selene rules Aetheria now in all but name.We’re fighting against the whole city, not just Selene.
Rowan sighs again."I can understand why you left the Senate, Lyra, although a part of me still wishes you were there for others to rally around.Maybe together we could have made a difference."
“We couldn’t,” I say.“The moment Marcus voted against me on the proposal for the grand tournament, I knew I wasn’t going to achieve anything by talking there.”
“So instead, you set your animals on the guards to protect the resistance, and you stalk the city, looking for trouble to get into,” Rowan says.“It could be dangerous for you if you’re caught.”
Alaric smiles.“You’ll find a way to protect her, Rowan.The way you have with the others.”
I frown slightly.“What do you mean?What have you been doing, Rowan?”
Rowan hesitates."I've been doing what I can for the resistance.I've tried to make sure members aren't targeted by the guards, and that any who are caught are quietly released again, or at least given the most lenient punishments possible.But there's only so much I can do, especially now.Even in the Senate, I need to work cautiously, opposing Selene subtly rather than railing against her openly.She has too many supporters in the Senate, and I don't want to give them an excuse to remove me."
“And Marcus?”I ask.
“Supports everything her followers propose,” Rowan says.“Half the time, he’s the one proposing it.”
That sends a stab of pain through my heart.I’d hoped Marcus might be better than that, but there’s no sign of him doing anything to resist Selene.
“I wonder sometimes if we shouldn’t just remove her,” Rowan says.
“Kill her?”Alaric replies.“Trust me, if I could find her, I would.”
He says it as if it’s something easy, when it isn’t, either morally or practically.
“We wouldn’t even have to kill her, just imprison her,” Rowan says.
“The senate would order her removed from any prison tower,” Alaric says.“And we’ve already seen Ironhold can’t contain her powers.”
“There’s a place that can,” Rowan replies.“A place where Emperor Tiberius used to put those enemies who he wanted to torment, or who it was more convenient to keep alive.”
“What place?”I say with a frown.
Rowan gestures downwards.“The resistance aren’t the only ones to make use of the catacombs.There’s a prison down there, deep below the palace, carefully hidden from the rest of the world.It’s where I ordered Domitian put, after his uprising.”
I’d assumed he would be in the normal prison tower, but hewasn’tthere when I went there to see Selene, and he wasn’t at Ironhold either.It hadn’t occurred to me there might be a secret prison somewhere beneath the city.
“Why didn’t I know about this?”I demand.
Rowan shrugs.“The fewer people know, the more secure it is.Already, I’m hearing reports of Selene’s people sniffing around it.But none of this is the reason I came to you both today.”
Alaric cocks his head to one side.
“Then what is?”
"There's going to be another set of exhibition bouts at the colosseum as part of the build-up to the grand tournament," Rowan says.
I frown, because that doesn’t seem like enough of a reason for the First Senator of Aetheria to come to a resistance safehouse.
“Isn’t that normal?”I ask.
