Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy)

by Paula Flumerfelt

  Mathieu shrugged and popped a clip into one of guns. “Hold this.” He handed the gun to Solomon, then drew out one of the few pulse guns. Sliding off the safety cap that protected the charger, he tossed it aside and spun the small dial. “There we go.”

  Solomon cleared his throat, “So you’re telling me that we’re not only going to let some Unithians into our camp, we’re going to give them weapons and expect them not to turn on us?”

  “I trust Armel. So try trusting me.” Smiling softly, he leaned over and kissed Solomon’s cheek.

  “Oh. You’re gay.” Armel’s voice cut into their kiss.

  Mathieu looked up at her and the group she had brought with her. “Yes. This is my second in command, and boyfriend, Solomon. That one is Vincent.” Vincent grinned toothily at her, rolling onto his back and wiggling like he would have in his wolf form.

  “How…” But she never added another word, instead turning to Mathieu, “So these are the people I’ve chosen.” They were a ragtag group: tall, short, strong, weak. Looking at them, they didn’t look like much.

  But Mathieu wasn’t one to judge on appearance. “Welcome. I’m Mathieu. The oddly dressed ones around here are with me. So, you guys are very politely going to fight with us, from my understanding.”

  One of the taller men snorted softly, “You’re the guy in charge? I’d have never guessed. From the rumors, you should be about eight feet tall with a huge battle axe.”

  “Appearances are deceiving. But that isn’t why I asked Armel to gather you. In order for you guys to fight, you’ll need to know how to use a gun. Show of hands, anyone ever used a gun?”

  “Oh, I have!” The smallest of the group, a girl, raised her hand. “I dated a soldier’s brother once.”

  Solomon stood, “And do you think you could kill a soldier?”

  She blinked, “I said dated. Not dating. There’s a reason I’m not still with him. They’ll get what they deserve.”

  “Interesting.” Solomon said.

  “Well at least you have some experience,” Mathieu said, not really caring about her reasoning as long as she was willing to fight. “But this is good. Alright.” He took the regular gun from the blond and ejected the magazine. With practiced ease, he broke down how the load the clip and fix any possible jams. “The rest is fairly simple. Point and pull the trigger. When it’s empty, press here to eject the clip and load another. If you run out of ammo, look around for a dead soldier.”

  Armel’s nose wrinkled slightly. “What’s the other thing?”

  Nodding to Solomon, he traded guns and help up the much smaller gun. “This is a pulse gun.”

  “Why is it so much smaller?”

  “Because this is a pistol, and that is a rifle. But this thing packs a hell of a punch. Officer issued only, however, we have a few. It’ll be up to you guys to decide who gets them. I’d recommend the best marksmen. As for using it, most of them have a safety cap. Pull it off, throw it away.” He turned the gun so they could see the back, “This dial here is to charge. It takes about five minutes, but it gets just under two hundred shots. Give it one good turn, and wait. Then you’re set when the light turns from orange to blue.” Mathieu turned and pointed to a roof some distance away. “And a demonstration.” Lifting the gun, he closed one eye and took aim at a satellite on the roof. Give the trigger a pull, he fired one precise pulse shot. The force of the blow sent the satellite spinning off its stand and into the air before clattering to a stop five or six roofs away. “Packs a hell of a punch even at long distances.” Quickly he traded with Solomon again and aimed for the next satellite, successfully riddling it with holes. “That’s about all there is to know. Take these back with you,” he nudged the crate he had retrieved earlier, “and go teach the others.”

  Two of the man Armel had brought with her nodded to each other and picked up both ends of the crate. “Thank you.” Armel said and shook Mathieu’s hand again before following the others.

  “Nice quick lesson.” Mathieu said offhandedly.

  Solomon looked down his nose at him, “And how do you know how to use a gun, Mathieu?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I lived in the royal palace for over six years. You think I can’t handle some mundane weaponry? I also know that the King has men working on genetically mutating people and animals for his personal defense, but I don’t go telling everyone I meet that, now do I?”

  “Just asking. No need to get crabby.”

  Mathieu sighed and ground the toe of his boog into the dirt. “Sorry. I just want this to be over, you know? It hasn’t even been that long, but…”

  Solomon wrapped his arms around Mathieu, kissing the top of his head. “Two days. That’s all that’s left. Are you ready to face the King?”

  “Yeah. I’m ready.” He leaned into the blond, feeling safe and warm for the moment. The pit of his stomach sank a few inches, but he knew what he had to do and he had no qualms about that.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Five

  Things hadn’t gone as planned. At all. Mathieu coughed as he ran through the smoke of District 2, looking around with watery eyes. Thanks to Anastasie, more than half of the districts in Ateri were on fire now, and his team had become split up in the explosion. Vincent was at his side, but the rest were vanished into the debris and smoke. All around him, he could hear fighting. The fighting of the citizens and the soldiers; the fighting of Korinthians and Unithians. “Damn it,” he growled to himself, ducking down as a wiz of bullets went overhead. He needed to get somewhere higher, somewhere he could see from.

  Vincent, back in the body of his wolf form, was pulling softly on his tunic, whining. “I know it‘s hard to breath, Vince,” Mathieu said, “We need to get to a roof, okay?” His eyes scanned the doors around him and he settled on the closest one.

  With one good kick from him, and all of Vincent’s weight thrown at it, it flew open to reveal the bottom floor of an empty office building. “This will have to do. The power’s been cut, so we have to take the stairs.” He knew that it didn’t do much good to talk to Vincent, seeing as to how he couldn’t respond, but it was helping him keep a clear head through the haze of gray.

  The door to the stairs was in the back left corner, and it opened with a good shove. The locks hadn’t been engaged. As they started climbing the stairs, he wondered what he has really expected for the invasion. Mathieu hadn’t really thought that they’d come storming in and the soldiers would just lay aside their weapons, but he hadn’t wanted this blood bath, either. It had to end soon, and the only way that would happen was if he finished what he’d come to do.

  “Five more floors.” The stitch in his side was killing him, and the sword at his hip wasn’t exactly a basket of kittens.

  Vincent sprinted ahead of him the rest of the way until they stood outside the door that led to the roof. Stopping to pant, Mathieu put a hand on the wall to keep himself up. Once he had most of his breath back, he unlatched the door’s floor bolt and pushed it open. Here, they were above the haze of the explosions and he could look down the entire block. Soldiers and Unithians were fighting most of way down. Not far, though, Erik and Narrie stood fighting back to back. They’d have to do for what he was planning.

  With their position in his mind, he headed back to door, but stopped at a small whine from Vincent. The wolf whined again before running for the edge of the roof and launched across the small opening to the next roof over.

  “Brilliant! Good boy, Vincent!” Mathieu closed the door and ran after his cousin. Landing smoothly, he raced with Vincent across the rooftops, having a moment of fun in the chaos. They landed on the last roof for the block. There was a ladder fire escape on the far side which he could use, but there wasn’t a way for Vincent.

  He checked the door to the stairwell, but it was locked tight. “Damn it. Alright.” He gave his cousin a pained look, then knelt down and picked Vincent up. Draping the whining wolf around his neck, he set his shoulders, then started down the ladder. “It’s not much
further, okay? Don’t start fidgeting or I’ll drop you.” Vincent was probably fifty-five or sixty pounds of solid muscle and the weight pressed heavily on Mathieu’s tired body.

  It was a long trip down from the top of the seventeen story building. His foot slipped once and they both almost fell, but Vincent had snapped out and caught a hold of the side-railing with his fangs until Mathieu was able to get his footing. About five feet from the ground, the ladder ended where it’d been broken. “Are you kidding me?” He groaned. But then a laugh came from below him.

  “Hey kid. How’s it hanging?”

  “Oh shut up, Erik.” He rolled his eyes. He could always count on his father to show up at the worse times.

  Erik touched his ankle, “Climb down as low as you can and drop. I’ll catch you two.”

  Grumbling at how humiliating the situation was, Mathieu shimmied down as far as possible, then he let go and slid down into his father’s grip. A few squished seconds later, and he was on the ground, setting Vincent down. “Thanks, Erik. But we have to go now, though. Where’s Enak?”

  “Oh, the kid is doing his best to cause mayhem and destruction. Where are we going?” Erik asked, popping a cigarette out of the pack.

  Erik lit the smoke and kept pace as Mathieu made his way to Narrie. “Narrie, you too.” Mathieu said, touching the woman’s shoulder. “We’re going to the palace. Come on.”

  Just then, a round of shots fired, but not at them.

  “Elric!” The scream that broke the air came from Avanon.

  Turning towards the scream, Mathieu watched as Avanon tore through three soldiers to get to the bleeding Elric, who was on the ground. “You idiot!” She yelled, “Start healing yourself!” Putting her hand on the worse of the wounds, she started to cauterize the injury. “Stupid, stupid…”

  Elric caught her wrist and smiled at her, his wounds already knitting closed. “It’s alright, Avanon. Are you okay?” He said as he sat up.

  “Okay?!” Her voice cracked as she screeched, “The man I love is bleeding out in the middle of a battlefield!”

  “…You love me?” Elric said with a sense of wonder, pushing his glasses higher up his nose.

  Avanon rolled her eyes. “Idiot.” Then she lean forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him.

  It was such a bad moment for a bit of romance, but Mathieu couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. He’d been standing still for too long, though, and a soft nip to his fingertips from Vincent brought him back. “Right. Erik, Vincent, Narrie. Let’s go.” Vincent gave a short yip and the others nodded.

  They took off down the main boulevard, sticking to the edges of the fighting. A few hails of bullets came their way, but they mostly avoided being attacked as they worked their way to District One. There was a small scuffle with a half-death Unithian on their side, but no one died.

  Ducking into an alley that Mathieu realized was the side street he had ran down when escaping the guards on his first visit to Ateri, they moved parallel to the castle.

  “Anastasie blew a hole in the castle wall just up ahead. She was pretty sure we’d need an entrance.” Narrie informed him.

  He nodded, “And all of the guards I recognize are in the fray. We shouldn’t run into any problems.” As much as Mathieu hated to admit it, he wished that he hadn’t been separated from Solomon.

  The ragtag group stopped at the other end of the alley. Not far down the way was the hole that Narrie had mentioned. It was more of a crater. There was a chunk missing out of the ground, and an entire section of the wall had crumbled. They’d have to climb over rubble. “Everyone ready?” He looked over the other three and nodded to them.

  Erik touched his shoulder, “I’m with you, Son.” There was a long moment between them, and then, “You’re mother would be proud.”

  Mathieu smiled. “She’d be proud of you, too, Erik. But we need to go now.”

  They made their way to the wall, but Vincent went over the mount of rubble first, using his sure feet to map a path over the shifting debris. Mathieu followed him over, only slipping once. The trek was rather long because of its roundabout nature, but they all made it over without injury. Narrie stood next to him, looking up at the glittering glass of the palace. “There it is…”

  “It’s like there’s a shadow hanging over it, you know?” Mathieu said, resting his hand on the pummel of his sword to reassure himself. “I think it’s Avian. She knows were coming home.”

  Vincent let out a long, low howl that was echoed off the rest of the castle’s protective walls. A few seconds later, another wolf song rose up from further away, singing back to him. With that, he put his nose to the ground and headed for the front door.

  “I guess that’s our signal to go?” Narrie questioned.

  Erik nodded. “That was Banin. Vincent wanted him to know where he was.”

  Mathieu and Narrie took point as soon they had passed through the large front door. “Where do you think he is going be hiding?”

  “Who?”

  “The flying dolphin.” Mathieu replied sarcastically, then sighed. “The King, Narrie. The reason we’re here.”

  She smacked her forehead, “My bad; should have realized that. He’ll be in his office. Three floors up from the Throne room.”

  “Servant’s stairwell?”

  “Or we could follow the one with the razor sharp nose,” Erik cut in to their conversation, pointing to Vincent who was once again in the lead. Vincent took them through the Throne room, stopping to sniff the King’s chair. He raised his nose into the air and took a deep sniff, then started down a side corridor.

  “Where the hell is he going?” Narrie asked, following the wolf down the hallway. They made their way down the hallway into an open area that Mathieu had never seen before.

  Mathieu watched as Vincent walked a few circles around the room. “No clue.” Then Vincent took the bottom of a tapestry in his mouth and pulled until it came free from the wall. Behind it was a heavy, iron door locked with two different locks.

  “Well, I’ll be damned if I’ve never seen this before.” Narrie said. If she was admitting to not knowing about something in the castle, it really must have been well hidden.

  “There they are!” A strong voice from behind them shouted.

  Mathieu rounded on the man, drawing his sword. “Jaken.” His eyes narrowed at the man.

  But Narrie stepped forward from their group. “Mathieu, go. I can handle him and his little goonies.” She held a hand out and the water started to pull from the air. “Wanna dance, Jaken?” The head guard sneered at her as two more joined him.

  But Mathieu couldn’t watch them any longer. He was fumbling to undo the locks with his energy, and then threw the door open as soon as they both click open into his hands. “Erik, let’s go. Now. Narrie, stay safe!” He was already sprinting up the stairs.

  “Will do!” She yelled after him.

  As they ran up the narrow stairway, Mathieu panted out orders to Erik, “No matter what, Erik, you have to get the queen out to safety, okay?”

  “But--”

  “No, Dad.” He put a special emphasis on that word, “Just do it. I can take care of the King by myself. I promised Avian I’d protect her mom.” They came out in a dark, small room just before another door. Vincent whined softly. “Is he in there?” The wolf bobbed his head. “Okay then. This…this is it.” Mathieu’s heart was pounding in his throat. He put his hand on the doorknob, but he was trembling so hard he couldn’t turn it. Panic was welling up in him. This was the moment he had been working towards for so long, since losing his best friend. So much had changed, and this would put it beyond changing back. An explosion rocked the castle from not far away.

  “Bets on whether that was Anastasie or Enak?” Erik said.

  His voice caught in his throat, but he would bet it was Enak.

  He turned the doorknob and gave it a push. In the split second before it swung in, a softness washed over him, accompanied by a trickle of
Avian’s scent. Something deep down told him it would be okay.

  The door opened and the trio spilled into the room. Mathieu’s sword was still drawn, his hands tight on the grip. “Where is he…?” His gaze traveled over the room.

  “Are you looking for me?” The King stepped out of the shadows at the far end of the room. The room itself was long and high, almost an exact replica of the Throne Room, except that there was a huge desk at the end instead of thrones. The King came around to lean back against his desk and folded his arms over his chest. “So you’re who has been destroying my beautiful city.”

  Anger broke through the panic that had settled into Mathieu’s chest. “I’m here for your life, you bastard.”

  “Is that so?” The King gave Mathieu a bored look before tilting his face up. “Well, I think you’ll find that a bit difficult.” As if on cue, the sound of fluttering wings descended on the room.