The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1

by AJ Martin

  Matthias shuffled in his spot and leant to where his bag was lying on the grass. He fumbled inside it and pulled out the small communication orb. “I use this to speak with my people,” he said, at the looks from the others.

  “I saw that in your room the other night when I was… making sure you were comfortable,” Thadius finished abruptly. Matthias smirked.

  “Think of it like, well…” he struggled for an analogy.

  “A carrier pigeon?” Thadius tried.

  Matthias looked at him. “A carrier pigeon, in a glass ball, flying messages back and forth between Mahalia and here instantaneously.” The others looked at him blankly, and he shook his head. “Perhaps not, Thadius.” He shrugged. “In any case, it will let me speak with Mahalia straight away without having to wait days or weeks for a response. It’ll only take a minute.” He clutched the ball tightly in his palm and closed his eyes. Purple light began to swirl around the sphere and his hand.

  “Amazing,” Thadius exclaimed. “I could do with one of those. Imagine being able to speak with your father as we sit here. Or give orders to soldiers on the battlefield.”

  Josephine nodded. “The tools of wizards are impressive, I will begrudgingly admit.”

  There was a sudden, ferocious buzzing from the sphere. Matthias looked down.

  “What is it?” Thadius asked.

  “I don’t know. But something is-” In a second, the orb exploded in Matthias’s hand, shattering into fragments. They dove away as glass bit through the air, and Matthias closed his eyes with a cry and held out his palm. Blood covered his hand where glass has embedded itself into his skin. He was shaking.

  “Oh my Gods!” Josephine shrieked, and grasped at his arm. “It is alright! Stay calm! Thadius?”

  The knight slid besides Matthias. “We need to get the glass out,” he said, and delicately placed his finger and thumb across the largest piece. “I’m going to pull it out, alright?” he said. Matthias nodded, grunting. In a swift movement, Thadius jerked the glass out and Matthias cried in agony. “One piece out, five to go.” He moved to the next, and prised it out delicately. Blood dripped from the open wound.

  Josephine scrabbled in her bags and pulled out a handkerchief. She waited for what seemed like minutes as Thadius removed the last of the glass and Matthias grunted in agony, and then placed the balled up handkerchief into his palm and closed his fingers shut.

  “Grip tightly Matthias,” she instructed. “We must stem the blood flow. Do as I say!” she ordered, as his grip loosened, and she closed it again, keeping her hands tightly over his bloodied fist.

  “Are you alright Matthias?” Asked Luccius, kneeling in front of him, wide-eyed.

  Matthias nodded. “I’m… fine,” he breathed. “It was just a shock. Thank you,” he said, nodding to Thadius and then to Josephine, who took her hands away slowly. He hissed at the pain and then sat back, propping himself up against his bag.

  “What happened?” asked Luccius.

  Matthias shook his head. “I don’t know. I was starting a connection and then it just… exploded!”

  “Can’t you heal yourself Matthias?” Luccius asked. “You’ve done it before.”

  Matthias nodded. “The pain caught me off guard. I can’t wield enough of the earth power just yet. I should be able to soon, when I can focus.”

  “You can mend your wounds with energy?” Thadius asked.

  “Minor wounds,” Matthias breathed. “But it takes a lot of effort. It is easier sometimes to just let it heal naturally, for all the effort it takes.” He shook his head and cursed. “They’re behind this,” he growled. “The sorcerers! I know they are!”

  “You have no proof of that,” Luccius said. “It could be any number of people surely?”

  Matthias shook his head. “No. Why else would Taico Grimm refer to ‘the four?’ What other fours are there?”

  “The four elements?” Thadius suggested.

  “Four suits in a deck of cards!” Luccius continued.

  “Four wheels on a carriage,” Josephine added.

  “Alright. I see your point. But they’re the only ones who could be interfering with the communications stones! I don’t know of anyone else who could manage such a thing.”

  “It’s quite a large reach to suggest that the only possible perpetrators could be six hundred year old men,” the princess advised.

  He shook his head. “Maybe. I know Master Pym would be able to help us find out though. And now I can’t contact him!” He sighed. “I really am all alone in this now.”

  “We are all in this together,” Josephine said. “Is that not what you have told me so far? I am the one who has to ward off this dragon, not you! Perhaps you can appreciate some of the loneliness I feel, to be away from my people, now you are cut off as well.”

  Matthias looked up, and after a pause, nodded silently.

  “Well this has been yet another exciting day,” Thadius said, standing up and placing his hands on his hips. “It would seem that danger gravitates around you wizard, like a fly around dung.”

  “Matthias,” Luccius said gravely, his eyes narrowing. “Something is happening.”

  Matthias leaned forward. “What do you mean?” He asked as Luccius picked up a fragment of the orb.

  “I can sense something...” his ears twitched. “An energy.”

  “Is it coming from the remains of the orb?” the princess asked.

  “No. It’s all around us, but I think it has touched the orb somehow.” He stroked the piece of glass with a finger. It feels wrong. Dangerous.” He swallowed. “I think you may have just showed them where to find us.” His ears twitched again.

  “If they know where we are then surely we should-” the princess stopped mid-sentence and exhaled heavily, clutching her stomach.

  “Princess, what is it?” Thadius asked, kneeling by her side.

  “I-I don’t know... ungh!” She hissed and doubled over in pain. The sky rumbled menacingly above them.

  Luccius gasped. “Matthias! It’s surrounding Josephine!”

  The princess groaned, her mouth dropping wide open. Her hands shook and above them, sheet lightning crackled, illuminating the skies.

  “Matthias,” she breathed. “I think it is my power! It feels like it did before.”

  Matthias leapt up and gripped her shoulders, the bloodied handkerchief still clasped between his fingers. He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed.

  “They are suppressing your control somehow,” he said. “Princess, I don’t know how they are doing this, but only you can stop the flow of energy from overcoming you. You have to concentrate!” Josephine shook heavily, her whole body convulsing. Her eyes met Matthias’s and tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “I’m scared!” she cried.

  “I know. It’s alright princess.” Matthias cradled her face in his hands. “Look at me! You can stop this!”

  As Josephine stared at him, a tingling spread through her body and her chest heaved. There was a flash of white light from her collarbone and Matthias was thrown backwards, striking the ground hard and tearing up the grass as he slid away with the force. Wind whipped around Josephine, a cyclone billowing faster and faster. Leaves and grass and flowers swirling around in the whirlwind. Luccius and Thadius watched powerlessly, forced back by the gale.

  Matthias gasped as he pulled himself up. The wind was growing stronger by the second. He pushed his way forward, but his legs fell from under him and he tumbled face down into the mud.

  “Princess!” Matthias called, but the wind was too loud for her to hear. He forced himself up again and concentrated. His eyes glowed and around his body a field of light radiated outward, a bubble shielding him from the wind. He marched on towards the princess, right at the storm’s centre, the bubble flickering as the winds battered the shell. The twister had reached the clouds and grew wider with every second. Luccius stabbed his spear deep into the ground, forcing the metallic blade into the soul with a boot where the blunt edge met the
wooden haft. He clutched to the pole tightly.

  “Thadius! Hold on!” he yelled. The knight grasped towards the spear with both hands, but then his feet slipped on the grass and he found himself being dragged backwards towards the swirling tunnel of wind. He slid past the tree where the horses were tied and whinnying madly, their hooves struggling for traction against the sucking power of the cyclone whirling around the princess. Thadius’s back struck a hard root sticking out of the earth and as he skidded further he thrust out with a hand and gripped at it.

  Josephine held her head in her hands, curled into a ball at the epicentre of the whirling tornado as Matthias approached, his eyes streaming as the wind seeped through the bubble he had created. Blood still dripped from his hand and his body was exhausted as he struggled to barely hold the shield in place, but he drove onwards. The bubble flickered again and then collapsed, as he grew weaker. His coat rippled and threatened to pull him back like a sail catching the wind, but he fought against it and fell to the princess’s side. He threw his arms around her.

  “It’s alright!” he wailed in her ear against the din. “I’m here princess! You’re fuelling it with your emotions! Try to calm down!” Josephine stared up at him intensely, her cheeks sodden with tears. Her hair billowed around her face in a dervish. Her panicked eyes sparkled, as he had never seen them before. They were silvery orbs, devoid of pupils, like liquid mercury. “Trust me princess,” he said, and smiled in spite of the fear he felt at his core. “You are stronger than them! You can regain control! You are the princess of Aralia!”

  Josephine gazed up into his defiant eyes and as she recognised his lack of fear she began to regain a control in herself. The winds died down, slowly at first, but then all of a sudden, as if they never existed, they were gone. The horses tugged at their tethers, eyes wild, and nostrils flaring. Luccius’s feet touched the ground again and he slipped to his knees, exhausted, still clutching tightly to his spear. Thadius let go of the root and lay on his front a moment, gathering his strength before he staggered to his feet and ran towards Josephine.

  “Princess! Are you alright?” he said, falling to his knees by her side. Matthias held her tightly in his arms.

  “I couldn’t stop it! I’m sorry!” she sobbed. Matthias could feel her heart thumping hard against his chest. He stroked her head with his undamaged hand.

  “It’s over now princess!” Thadius whispered. “You’re alright!”

  Watching from afar, Luccius went to the horses and tried to calm them down. As he stroked their manes and patted their necks, he looked up as a slight rumble of thunder shuddered overhead. Then he looked back to the princess and called to her.

  “It’s gone now Josephine. The energy that I felt around you has left.”

  “There, you see? They’ve given up. You won,” Matthias whispered.

  “For now, perhaps,” she sobbed. “For now.”

  A Thawing of Relations

  116th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)

  Josephine sat huddled with her knees tucked up to her chin by the remade fire, watching the smouldering embers through tired eyes, red-veined and glassy with unshed tears. Her hands still shook and she nibbled restlessly on her bottom lip. Thadius sat by her side, a hand resting on her back comfortingly. Luccius stood propped against the tree, still stroking one of the horse’s manes. Matthias stood by his side and studied Josephine from afar, his hand caked in dried blood but otherwise repaired.

  “Look at her,” Matthias whispered sadly. “She’s broken.”

  “I have never sensed that kind of power before in my life,” Luccius replied. “If you hadn’t got to her when you did…” Above them the rumbles of thunder caused by Josephine still threatened menacingly. “You saved her from herself.”

  “For now,” Matthias said sadly. “But that trick won’t work forever. If the barriers she has put up in her body are so weak that people can open them from afar, then she will struggle to keep them under control for much longer, especially now they have been reawakened. I have to help her control them Luccius, but I’m afraid I don’t know how.” He shook his head. “I thought I could use my training as a template for her own. But I don’t think that’s possible. Her power is too different.”

  “She’s no wizard, Matthias,” Luccius replied. “There is no precedent for this. You have control over the power you wield. You spent years of your life learning how to conduct it. Josephine’s powers have not seen the light of day for age upon age. There is no living being who can tell her how it works.”

  Matthias looked from him over to where the young woman sat, shivering in spite of the heat of the fire, her fragile figure bent over into a ball.

  “No,” he exclaimed defiantly. “I told Josephine and her father I would help her to control her powers. I made a promise. I won’t just leave her to tackle this on her own. There has to be some way.” He ran a hand through his thick hair. “I have to do what I can Luccius.”

  The ansuwan looked at him suspiciously. “Why have your people really sent you to do this Matthias?” Luccius asked suddenly. “And don’t tell me it is because you are the best man for this job, because as talented as you are, my old friend, there are wizards with decades more experience and knowledge than you have. Would they entrust you alone with something so important? And a woman who can wield, to boot?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. That doesn’t sound like the Mahalia I know.”

  Matthias stared at Luccius a moment, and then shook his head. “It’s complicated.”

  “How?” Luccius asked.

  Matthias shook his head. “The Council is not what it once was. Fear is a powerful catalyst for action. Whether that action is measured and appropriate is another matter.”

  “What action?” Luccius asked. “What are you hiding? This is me, Matthias!”

  Matthias shook his head. “You know I can’t say.”

  “You don’t trust me?” The ansuwan asked, his ears drooping slightly.

  “I don’t trust myself,” Matthias said. “I don’t want to drag you into this more than I need to. Because of that I must keep my own counsel.”

  Luccius frowned. “I don’t like being in the dark,” he said glumly. “And I would imagine neither would Thadius or Josephine.”

  “Trust me, ignorance is better sometimes,” Matthias said. “Now let that be an end to it. Please.”

  Luccius took a breath and nodded. “Very well. For now.” He folded his arms.

  Matthias turned back to look at the princess. “I will help you,” he whispered. He heard Luccius snigger and looked at him. “What?”

  “I can see something in your eyes Matthias, when you look at her.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” Matthias exclaimed. This only made Luccius’s grin widen even further. He raised his eyebrows and gave Matthias a telling look.

  “She is beautiful, Matthias. A little fiery, but then you do love a good argument!”

  Matthias shook his head disapprovingly. “Don’t be so wool - headed.” He looked back over towards the fire. “I only want to help her. That’s all. You‘re reading too much into things. Just because you’ll jump on any woman who will have you doesn’t mean everyone else does.”

  Luccius snorted. “Thank you very much!” he shook his head. “I’ll have you know I’m a lot more mature than that now. And I stand by my assertions. You like her. Remember, I have a sense for these things.”

  “Just because your people sense changes in the wind and the powers does not mean you can read minds or emotions!” Matthias retorted. “It’s all in your head,” he said sternly.

  “Of course it is,” Luccius rebuffed, crossing his arms.

  “Oh shut up Luccius and stop being such an idiot!”

  Luccius shook his head. “Wizard, you can pretend all you like, but you are just as much a slave to your emotions as the rest of us.”

  Matthias looked at him a moment, and then he sighed. “Oh what point is there in feigning ignorance to
you,” he smiled. “You know me too well ansuwan.”

  Luccius smiled. “I could say the same to you of me.” He unfolded his arms. “The question is, what are you going to do about your feelings?”

  Matthias shook his head. “There is nothing I can or will do,” he said sternly.

  “Why?” Luccius said. “Because she is a princess?”

  Matthias shook his head. "It’s not just that,” he sighed. “When I look into her eyes I see how young she is. With a soul full of optimism and promise.” He swallowed. “It’s… beautiful. And here I am, taking her on a path that will dampen that spirit. I have seen too much of the true nature of this world that I can no longer look upon it with the same youthful, innocent eyes that Josephine still does.” Matthias smiled thinly. “Sometimes, however much you might want to pursue something, or someone, it just isn't meant to be. Your lives are too different. And you have to accept that.”

  Luccius nodded. “I understand. But sometimes is it not worth the risk, because of how dangerous the world can be?”

  “Not when the fate of the world already hangs in the balance.”

  The sun began to rise over the horizon, a beautiful, blazing crescent of warmth radiating across the plains, signalling a brand new day. It spread across the princess’s face and Josephine opened her eyes delicately. She was not aware that she had even fallen asleep, but after the previous day’s events she had felt as if her entire body had been leeched of its life. She sat up slowly and rubbed her blackened eyes. Luccius slept opposite and to her side, Thadius nodded his head in slumber, resting on the knuckles of his hands as he gripped the pommel of his sword.

  “He fell asleep about an hour ago,” said a voice behind her. She turned to see the silhouette of Matthias against the dawn. He turned and made his way to her left, where he proceeded to sit, crossing his legs. “He kept watch over you all night, even when I told him I would do so myself. He is a stubborn mule.” He smiled. “It almost seems a shame to wake him, but we should be going soon, if you are feeling up to it?”