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

by AJ Martin

  “Thadius!” Matthias gasped. “I-”

  “The king thought you might be up to no good!” He growled. “He tried to ignore his suspicions, to give you the benefit of the doubt, but there was just a nagging doubt in his mind that made him wake and ask me to keep an eye on you. It looks like he was right to do so!” The man’s chest heaved in anger. “I actually thought that you were here to help! I apologised to you, and you sat there and let me think you were a man of honour! Give me one good reason why I should not slit your throat right this instant?”

  Matthias' nostrils flared, and he sucked in air through gritted teeth. “You don't know the half of what I am doing here tonight, Thadius,” he spluttered.

  “Nor do I want to!” The man hissed. “All I know is you are outside the Princess’s chambers. What were you planning? Was the dragon all a ploy to put us off guard, to make us believe you were helping us?”

  “The threat of the dragon is real!” Matthias wheezed through Thadius’ clenched fist. “I’m not here to hurt anyone!”

  “Pah!” Thadius growled, his face growing redder by the second. “More Mahalian lies! I should slit your throat!” He pressed harder on the wizard’s neck with his sword.

  “I would rather you didn’t,” Matthias panted. “Blood is… difficult to get out of stone.”

  “How dare you joke with me!” Thadius looked ready to explode.

  “I apologise,” Matthias coughed. “But… I need you to calm down… and let me go!”

  “Let you go?” Thadius laughed. “Are you insane?”

  “I don’t want… to hurt you. You are a good man, but I am… rather struggling… to breathe now!”

  “You can suffocate for all I care! I am not going to let you go!”

  “I could get out of this in a heartbeat… if I wanted to,” Matthias retorted.

  “Really?” Thadius snorted. “You know, I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth!”

  Matthias moved a hand from clutching the sword at his neck to Thadius's chest. “This will sting.” There was a flash of green light and Thadius flew through the air and crashed against the opposite wall. He slid to the floor, sword spinning away noisily. He looked up at Matthias in fear. The wizard clutched at his throat and gulped down air. “Are you alright?” he asked Thadius.

  “What… what do you care?” he growled.

  “I could run right now, right out of this palace and this city, knock out all your guards and flee. I also could have killed you a moment ago and taken the princess. I still could.”

  “Then why don't you?” Thadius panted angrily, clutching to his chest where a wisp of smoke puffed from his singed jacket.

  Matthias looked to the far reaches of the corridor, then back at Thadius, and shook his head. “Because you need to know the truth. I'm not doing it this way! This isn’t why I have come here! I wanted to earn your trust, not destroy it!” He reached down and offered a hand to Thadius. The soldier looked up at him hesitantly, but after a moment, he took it and was hoisted to his feet. He stared at Matthias with confusion. The door to the princess’s chamber opened and Josephine appeared in a night - dress, surrounded by maids. Seeing the two men before her, she clutched the garment tightly around her, folding her arms across her chest.

  “What is going on?” She exclaimed.

  A Gift from the Gods

  113th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)

  The doors to the king's personal chambers burst open and through them came Thadius and Josephine, followed by Matthias, who was flanked by two guards. The wizard had agreed to be bound, so that his hands were held tightly behind his back by shackles and chains, and the soldiers pushed him down heavily on to the floor, where he landed with a thud. He lay at the king's feet, and the man stared down at him with a thunderous expression. He had been roused from his sleep and apprised of the situation a short while ago.

  “I welcome you into my home, wizard, give you food and shelter and you do this?” He raged. “Explain yourself!”

  Matthias looked up at him, and then back at the others. He sighed. “I'm sorry,” he whispered. “For all of this.”

  “I don't care if you're sorry or not!” King Arwell growled. “I want to know why you did this? Why did you try to hurt my daughter?”

  “I didn't try to hurt her!” Matthias snapped back. He looked back at the girl, her doe eyes regarding him with anger and curiosity, and sighed again. “I was asked to take her away from here.”

  “Kidnapping?” Thadius growled.

  Matthias opened his mouth to retort, but then he realised there was no point in denying the charge. He had been asked to kidnap her. “Yes,” he confirmed sadly, and looked to the floor. “But not for any reason you might think,” he added.

  “Is any reason expected to make what you have tried to do seem any better?” Princess Josephine asked, glaring at him.

  Matthias looked to her sadly and took a breath. “We know about your abilities, princess,” he sighed, and she took a step backward.

  “I don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about,” she replied.

  “With respect, Your Highness, you are a bad liar. I can see it in your eyes. Most wizards could. I know what to look for, and it’s there: a crackling of power deep within you.”

  Thadius looked confusedly from Matthias, knelt on the ground, to the princess and then to the king. “What abilities are you speaking of?” he asked.

  Matthias looked up at Thadius. “The princess wields a great power,” he said. “Like a wizard.”

  Thadius laughed, and then, seeing no one else was, stopped. “But… there has to be some mistake?”

  “It is no mistake my good soldier,” Josephine sighed. "It is the truth.”

  “Josephine!” the king hissed, but she held up a hand.

  “It is pointless to deny it now, father,” she sighed, rubbing anxiously at her arms.

  “How long have you known?” Matthias asked her.

  “Since my sixteenth year. Four years ago.”

  Matthias exhaled sharply. “Four years!”

  “How did your people find out?” King Arwell asked, his face was a mixture of anger and fear.

  “The seeing stone showed us,” Matthias said.

  “The stone? But… but why?” the King asked again. “What has that got to do with anything you told me?”

  Matthias looked painfully between King Arwell and Josephine.

  “Answer him,” Thadius growled, and kicked a boot at Matthias’s back. The wizard stumbled across the floor.

  “Thadius, please!” Josephine exclaimed. “That is not necessary!”

  “You both deserve to know what is going on here!” Thadius growled.

  “Yes, they do,” Matthias interrupted. “Which is why I agreed to be brought up here. But I did not agree to being kicked or beaten.” Matthias looked up to King Arwell, who was studying him.

  The king took a breath, licked his lips and said: “Pick him up. Take off those chains.”

  “But Your Majesty!” Thadius began, but the king held up a hand.

  “He could break free of those chains easier than you or I could snap a twig! There is no point. If he were going to hurt us, he would have done so by now. Am I right?” He asked Matthias, who nodded.

  The guard behind Thadius picked Matthias up off the floor and began to unlock the chains from his hands and feet. When he was done he backed away to join the other guard, and the king dismissed them. Matthias stroked his wrists.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “You can thank me by telling me what the hell is going on here!” the king barked. “I want the truth! You are capable of telling it, aren’t you?”

  Matthias nodded. “I’ll start from the beginning. Or at least the beginning as I know it.” He leaned against a chair. “The seeing stone I have spoken of was discovered several months ago, purely by accident in a dried up riverbed in northern Mahalia. It was passed through several hands and delivered with great pains to t
he Great City and our scholars began to decipher its messages. The first prophecy that was uncovered was that the dragon was breaking free. Everything I have told you about the dragon is true. But what I didn’t tell you… what I couldn’t bring myself to tell you earlier, is that there was another message encoded into the stone. It was a message that frightened my people even more than the prophecy about the dragon.” He faced the princess. “It was about you, Your Highness.”

  “Me?” she whispered.

  Matthias nodded. “The clerics deciphered the stone further and were presented with premonitions of you using your power. It was a future echo: an image of what might be. A little like the captured moment I spoke of earlier, but one drawn from what could be, not what has happened.”

  The Princess gasped. “But there must be a mistake! I would not even know how to use this power!”

  “Your Highness, how much do you know about your power?” he asked.

  Josephine glared at him, “I have never used them,” she growled.

  “The circumstances surrounding my daughter’s condition are complicated,” King Arwell added. “We have fought to suppress the power and hide it from view.”

  Matthias nodded. “To keep my people from finding out?”

  The King smiled. “I take it you do not have children, ambassador?” He asked. Matthias shook his head. “Then you would not then know the lengths that a parent will go to protect them. I know all too well how Mahalia deals with women who can channel magic. You subjugate them, take them and lock them away. When the power first manifested itself, when Josephine began to break things when she entered a room, when windows would smash at random, the queen and I considered asking for your people’s help. I had even penned a letter to your Council requesting their assistance! But then there came news of the ‘Southern Persecutions.’ I read intelligence that your people had rounded up women who could use your earth power who had tried to rise up to throw off your oppression against them and murdered them in their hundreds. I realised that your kind could never find out what Josephine possessed. It would be too dangerous to risk bringing your people in. Not to mention that there have been public hangings here as well, you know, against possessed women who can use your magics. The masses enjoy a good witch hunt.” The king’s brow began to bead with sweat as he continued and he rubbed his hands together nervously whilst Matthias, Josephine and Thadius listened. “My daughter kept the power to herself as long as she could, repressed it as she would have done a bad memory. But the build-up…” he stopped, sighed and rubbed at his forehead, where a thick vein snaked its way across his tight skin. The hand he cast across it visibly shook. Beside him, Josephine had hung her head and a tear was rolling down her cheek.

  “I killed one of my maids first,” she said, taking up the story. “I lost control and ripped the skin from her bones!” Her lips trembled. “I have never seen such horror. A mangled carcass was all that remained when the guards came to see the cause of her cries! There was blood everywhere, and she looked up at me, flayed and helpless, before she finally died.”

  “And that was only the first,” King Arwell said morosely.

  “I should have fought harder,” Josephine shook her head.

  “But it was an accident!” Matthias said softly. “You couldn’t have helped it.”

  “It didn’t look like an accident,” the king responded. “Princess or not, the woman was dead at her feet with no explanation, no indiscretion or crime to account for it. The guards who witnessed the scene were shocked. But I couldn’t let them spread the word, so I locked them away, in the Traitors Tower. They’re still there, save for one, who died of the cold two years back.”

  Thadius shifted. “Erical, Esteban and Julius, Your Grace?” he asked.

  “Three of the finest men I have had serve me,” the king said grimly. “But I had to protect my daughter.”

  Thadius nodded. “It never seemed quite right, some of our finest men turning traitor.”

  King Arwell nodded. “It was what I had to do to keep my daughter safe. It was not a noble thing to do by any means. But I felt it was necessary.” Thadius said nothing.

  “You said the maid was the first,” Matthias said grimly. “There were more?”

  “There were two more,” Josephine said. “A hound I bent down to pet one morning grew so docile at my touch that he began to fall asleep in my arms. It was almost a half - hour before I realised it was dead. I had stopped its heart.” She took a breath to steady herself, and the king placed a hand on her arm. He continued for her.

  “After the maid died I sought for another way to help my daughter other than contacting Mahalia. I looked for someone – anyone - who could help Josephine, but who was able to hold their tongue. I sent out men I trusted to scour the land for someone who could cure her. All the while my girl was becoming more and more dangerous to those around her.”

  “Did you find someone who could help?” Matthias asked.

  The king nodded. “Eventually. But it was too late.” He swallowed. “One afternoon I found my daughter sitting in her chambers. At her feet, her mother…” He shook his head.

  Thadius gasped. “My gods!” he exclaimed under his breath.

  Matthias took a step towards the princess. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

  “I do not need your pity, wizard,” she muttered through a shaking voice.

  “I’m not offering any,” he replied softly. “I’m only offering sympathy.”

  “My mother only wanted to hold my hand to comfort me. It was a simple gesture. Do you have any idea the torment that has placed upon me? I killed my own mother!”

  Matthias shook his head sadly. He looked to the king at his side. He had seemed such an almighty man just a minute ago, but now he looked pale and fragile. The princess herself looked like a delicate porcelain china figurine, ready to shatter into pieces if she were so much as touched. Matthias had stumbled into a deep family torment.

  “I can’t imagine what you both must have gone through,” he said. “What a terrible thing to have happened to you. But you said you no longer feel the power now?”

  The princess nodded. “As my father said, he found someone who was able to help me. A wise young witch who had experience in helping women with their powers. She wanted me to learn how to use my power at first, but with some persuasion by my father, she taught me how to suppress it. That was over two years ago. I thought it was finally all behind me.” She shook her head. “But now here you are.” She looked at him with steely eyes. “I take it you meant to take me back to your realm to suppress me?” she asked. “That was your reason for sneaking up to my chambers?”

  Matthias shook his head. “It is not as simple as that, Your Highness. You’re forgetting about the prophecy. It showed you using your power. That’s how we knew about you.”

  “Why would the gods show you a prophecy of me, of all people?” the princess asked incredulously. “What do I have to do with the release of the dragon?”

  Matthias looked awkward. “We believe…” he stopped. “I believe that you are destined to stop the dragon from being released.”

  Josephine’s eyes widened. “Me?” she whispered, stunned. “You think I could stop the dragon?” she exclaimed.

  Matthias nodded. “I do.”

  “You cannot be serious?” The king scoffed. “What deception is this now?”

  “It’s no trick Your Grace!” Matthias rebuffed. “Everything I told you about the dragon’s release is true. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell you everything last night. It was too much to ask of you to believe me about the dragon and your daughter’s role. You do not trust my kind.”

  “So you decided to kidnap me?” the princess hissed. “So you could use me as some sort of… shield against that great lump of rock in Olindia?” Her voice was scathing.

  “It wasn’t the original plan,” Matthias said, shaking his head. “I was going to raise the subject over the coming days, when I had earned your trust. But I was order
ed to retrieve you immediately as my people believe you are in danger. It was a mistake to do it the way I tried, but it was borne out of concern for your life.”

  “Rubbish!” The king growled. “Concern is not a trait I associate with your kind. Treachery, however, suits you down to the ground.” He scoffed. “You expect me to believe that your people, who despise women who can use the world’s powers, would allow my daughter to use her abilities to stop the dragon? Why would you make such an exception to centuries of repression and subjugation? You have killed empresses and queens: great women throughout history, because they dared to wield any kind of power.”

  “She has been selected by the gods,” Matthias reiterated. “Not only that…” he paused, the look on his face pained.

  “Out with it!” the king barked. “I have no further patience left for your procrastinations, ambassador. You will tell me everything! Give me the answers I want to know.”

  Matthias nodded. “You deserve to know. But will you allow me to ask a question, if it will help me to present you the full picture?”

  The king nodded begrudgingly. “If it is necessary to obtain the truth,” he sighed.

  “How much do you all know about the different powers of this world, and the Creation?” Matthias asked them all.

  “A little,” the princess replied. “I began to read into them when my power first surfaced.”

  “What did you learn?” Matthias asked.

  She gestured blankly with her hands. “I read that there are five powers that run through the world, each of them different in some way, and they can be used by people and creatures of the world. That is all I know. I do not know which one is mine. I did not try to find out any more about how to use it, only how to get rid of it before it hurt anyone else. As for the Creation,” she began, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “I recall a little, but not much about that from my reading when I was younger,” Thadius advised. “It marked the beginning of the world.”