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

by AJ Martin

  “Out with the truth!” Thadius barked. “The whole truth this time! If you are even capable of such a thing!”

  Matthias nodded. “Alright. The truth is that I was not sent here by the Council. At least, not by the Consensus.”

  “Consensus?” Thadius asked impatiently. “What the hell’s that?”

  “The Council makes decisions by majority vote. The Consensus,” Matthias explained. “I was sent to seek Josephine by a small minority. They are a faction who disagree with the Consensus and their decision regarding what to do with you, when they uncovered the seeing stone.”

  She took a breath. “And what decision would that be?” she asked bitterly.

  Matthias swallowed, his voice shaking. “To neutralise you.”

  “Neutralise?” Luccius exclaimed. “They wanted to strip Josephine of her abilities?” Matthias nodded again. “But why? What about the dragon? What of her power?”

  Matthias shook his head. “It didn’t matter. You know how my people feel about women who can use the energies. They saw you had this ability through the prophecy and they grew scared. All they could see was the danger you represented. A danger just as concerning, if not more so, that the dragon being released. So they resolved to send a group of wizards to collect you from Rina and bring you back against your will to Mahalia, where you would be cleansed of the abilities.” Matthias took a breath. “But Master Pym who I told you of and a few others wouldn’t let that happen! How could we be so short sighted to not see what a gift you are to the world? So they sent me to take you away from Rina and to stop the dragon. Pym thought once the Council saw how much of an asset you could be to the world, that they would let you be. Or otherwise, you would be too strong for them to stop you, if they still thought otherwise.” Josephine sat down on the chair, her jaw clenched tightly. A tear slid down from her cheek. “Josephine, you must believe me, I would never-”

  “Do not call me Josephine!” she spat. “You do not deserve that right!”

  Matthias lowered his head. “We were trying to protect you,” he whispered.

  “You lied to me,” she said sadly. “I started to trust you and you lied to me again. It does not matter what your intentions were!”

  “So these people following us now,” Thadius said more calmly. “They are trying to stop you?” He asked. “They are coming to hurt the princess?”

  Matthias nodded. “They must have arrived in Rina shortly after we left and found you gone. Which is obviously why the king has sent word to look for you. He must be worried. He has no way of knowing what I am doing or how far we have come.”

  Thadius stepped forward until he was nose to nose with Matthias. “You are more foolish than I ever would have thought possible,” he whispered to him. “But… you are a fool who may have saved the princess through your actions, nonetheless.” Matthias blinked in surprise.

  Josephine looked up. “Thadius? He has betrayed us!”

  “Your highness, if he had not come, then these wizards would have arrived in Rina and taken you away. There is no way we could have stopped them from doing that.” He kneeled by her side. “I do not pretend that his lies do not hurt even me,” he said to her. “I had almost begun to like him. But what’s done is done. Now we know the truth, we must look at this with cool heads if we can and decide what to do now.”

  She blinked back more tears and swallowed, before nodding. “What would you suggest?”

  He sighed. “We have two options the way I see it. We can try and return to Rina, and avoid these men for as long as we can. Perhaps they will give up, or the threat of the dragon will keep them occupied long enough that we can find another way out of this. Perhaps your father can defend you from Mahalia. Or we could carry on and let this wizard try to teach you all he can, so that if they do catch up to us, you will be able to defend yourself.”

  She nodded. “I know which I would prefer at this point,” she said. “I want to see my father more than anything right now. But,” she said with a pause, as she rubbed her eyes with a handkerchief. “To return home would be to abandon innocent people to the dragon and put my own selfish needs first.” She looked up at Matthias defiantly. “They will not give up finding me, will they?” she asked.

  Matthias shook his head sadly. “No. Not unless the Council changes its mind.”

  She nodded again. “Then I have no choice but to continue, do I?”

  Thadius stood “We should speak to Yarin and have him send word to your father that you are alright. We must explain to him what is happening. Come with me princess. We will go to the watch house and write a message.” She shook and he put an arm around her as they walked to the door. She stopped a moment and turned to Matthias.

  “You criticise my people’s actions and my culture so openly, when in fact your own is just as jaded and hypocritical beneath a veil of calm and wisdom.” She shook her head. “My faith in you is broken, wizard,” she shuddered, her lip trembling. “Do not expect to get it back.” She turned and left the room and Thadius closed the door behind them.

  Matthias fell on to the bed and put his head in his hands.

  “You could have told me, Matthias,” Luccius said angrily. “How long have we known one another?”

  “It was my burden to bear,” Matthias said.

  “You know what your problem is, Matthias?” Luccius said and started for the door himself. “You try to bear everything on your own shoulders. You ask people to trust you? Well, sometimes, you have to trust other people too.” He stepped out the door, leaving Matthias alone.

  The Aruun Pass

  129th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)

  Josephine finished writing on the scroll of paper and set the quill back in its inkwell. It was now late into the night. Thadius picked up the note and read it in the candlelight, nodding.

  “This should put your father at some ease, at least,” he nodded, and rolled it up.

  “Apart from the fact those wizards are still out there somewhere, hunting me down,” she said. “Is it not bad enough that I am being pursued by demons and madmen?”

  “It would have taken a pigeon two days or so, perhaps, to get here from Rina. If we assume that your father sent word as soon as he was able to upon learning of Mahalia’s plans, then that means the wizards only left at around the same time. It has taken us a while to get this far. It will take them just as long, wizards or not. I would say we have a week or so advantage over them. And they have to find you as well. They don’t know how far we have come, or by what path.”

  “I suppose,” Josephine sighed. “Oh Thadius, what am I to do? How can I possibly look Matthias in the eye after what he has done? I am so angry!”

  Thadius patted the scroll in his hand. “The only consolation in this entire farce is that he saved your life,” he said. “I don’t condone what he has done, your highness...”

  “But?” she ventured.

  “But perhaps a lie told for the right reasons...”

  “Is still a lie,” Josephine finished. “My gods, I thought you would see my point of view more than anyone!” She stood from the desk.

  “I do, your highness! But the wizard has a way of growing on you,” he said. “In a strange way, I was starting to like him.” He shook his head. “That he saved your life in this convoluted way still proves he has some shred of decency.” He sighed. “And I think he cares for you more than he would like to admit.”

  Josephine clasped her hands together and paced the room. “How confusing this world is Thadius, the more one ventures into it.” She shook her head. “I thought it was complex before I left Rina, but now…” She sighed. “I suppose I need to see beyond such lies sometimes for the greater good. But it is overcoming the hurt that it makes me feel that is the most difficult.”

  Thadius nodded. “In his head, I think he felt he was protecting you from the truth.”

  Josephine nodded. “Then he is a fool if he thinks I need any more protecting from such matters! And he is only too keen to po
int out the flaws in my world! My father will strangle him when he gets the chance.”

  “Princess, he will have to fight me for the honour of doing so first,” Thadius smiled. He indicated to the scroll. “Shall we get your note to Yarin?”

  Josephine nodded. “Do you think we could remain here tonight though? I do not think I can face speaking with Matthias yet.”

  The knight nodded. “I’m sure there is somewhere you can sleep.”

  “Thank you. Then perhaps tomorrow we will continue with this journey. The sooner I can finish this, the better.”

  Matthias had lain awake all night, alone in the room, thinking on what had happened that evening. Just after sunrise the latch on the door at the inn clicked from the outside and Matthias stood abruptly. Luccius walked in. The wizard’s shoulders sagged.

  “You seem disappointed to see me?” Luccius suggested.

  “I thought you were Josephine,” Matthias replied.

  Luccius nodded. “I’d wager she doesn’t want to be around you right now.”

  “I think that’s a bet you would win hands down.” Matthias paced to the window. “Where have you been?”

  “Oh, you know me Matthias. I’ll sleep anywhere. I felt like I needed some space to think myself.”

  Matthias nodded. “Do you forgive me, old friend?” he asked.

  “It’s not me you should be asking that question to,” Luccius responded.

  “I owe you all an apology,” Matthias replied. “You are right in what you said Luccius. I do need to trust people more.”

  “That much is true,” came a woman’s voice from the open doorway. Matthias turned. It was Josephine.

  “Princess!” he breathed. “I-”

  Josephine held up a hand. “Matthias, be silent!” she commanded. The wizard looked chastened and shut his mouth. “You lied to me throughout this journey about such an important matter. That is something I cannot forgive you easily for.”

  Matthias nodded. “I understand. I never wanted to hurt you princess.”

  Josephine acknowledged his words with a nod and her face looked pained. “I am afraid you have,” she said sullenly. “I thought we were finally achieving a mutual respect for one another.”

  “We were,” Matthias said.

  “And yet you did not respect me enough to furnish me with the full truth of the situation I find myself in?” She sighed.

  “When we first started out on this journey I didn’t know you,” Matthias advised. “I was told to keep you safe and that is what I felt my silence on the matter was doing. But then I grew to understand and respect you. Both of you,” he indicated to Thadius as well. “I should have told you then.” He fumbled with his staff awkwardly.

  “Yes you should have.” The princess walked slowly around the room. “Thadius in an uncharacteristic degree of positivity has continued to defend your actions,” she continued, a slight smile forming on her lips at Matthias’s surprised face.

  “Don’t think I approve of your lies though wizard,” Thadius added.

  “It is perhaps only through his good graces that he has convinced me that even through I cannot forgive you as of yet, you were acting in my best interests. Perhaps in time I will understand your actions. Perhaps I only reacted the way I did because of the bond I feel had begun to grow amongst us.” Matthias nodded and remained silent. “If we are to continue this journey together, we can have no more secrets between us. Between any of us!” she said, looking to the others. “Agreed?”

  They each nodded in turn. Finally, Matthias nodded. “Agreed, princess.”

  She sighed. “You can still call me Josephine,” she proffered.

  Matthias nodded. “Thank you. I promise I will not let my people do anything that would hurt you, Josephine,” Matthias pledged. “If they catch up to us-”

  “We won’t let that happen,” Luccius added, smiling. “Not until Josephine can face them on her own terms at least.”

  “Can we get going?” Josephine asked. “I would sooner forget this place ever existed.”

  Matthias looked out the window. “It will take us a long time to traverse the Aruun mountain pass,” he said. “It’s a long way and it might be dark again before we reach its end, even if we leave this early.”

  “There is a better way around,” Thadius replied. “We would be forced along the mountain edge, but it is the safer route. The Aruun pass is shorter but it has not been maintained well. No merchants or horses could make it through there now.”

  “How long would it take to go round that way?” Josephine asked him.

  “I would guess three days,” Thadius advised. “It is a much longer way. The path stretches almost to the coastline. There are a couple of inns, around half and three quarters of the way along the road and a small watch house, if I remember.”

  Josephine shook her head. “Then that is too far out of our way,” she advised. “We must go through the mountain.

  “The pass really is not a nice place to roam, princess,” Thadius said. “We post guards at our end of the border, but once you are in, you are effectively on your own. There are paths, if you can call them such, that stretch further into the mountains as well. They used to lead to small colonies of people who enjoyed the heights of the higher peaks. But any civilised people have long since abandoned them. Neither Aralia nor Olindia lay claim to the pass themselves and there have been known to be bandits operating within their confines.”

  Josephine shook her head. “I have not come this far to be afraid of some corridor!” she said. “We have faced demons and assassins and desperate men all wanting to hurt us. A few bandits should be no problem for a wizard and a knight. We will leave today and we will be in Olindia before the night is out.”

  “She has a point,” Luccius said. “What bandits would pick a fight with a wizard?”

  Matthias looked to Thadius and then back to Josephine. “I’ve already endangered your life several times in the name of haste. Perhaps the longer path would be better.”

  “Do not start to get sheepish now that you have been chastened by me wizard!” Josephine commented. “Your honesty and bluntness might be grating sometimes, but I welcome it more than if you would wrap me in blankets and treat me as if I were a fragile figurine. We can do this, Matthias,” she said.

  Matthias looked at her a moment and then nodded. “Alright,” he agreed. “We travel the Aruun pass.”

  The mountain pass gouged itself deep into the mountain range. It was a series of cavernous hollows and narrow pathways which snaked through the mountains. Josephine and her party set off briskly from Gormal, climbing the rocky pathway of shoddily - carved steps up to the opening in the mountainside. The pass went by another name to the locals: shadow’s gap. The sunlight barely touched the interior, but peeked its way though cracks and crevices where it could. It was a perfect place to be ambushed by anyone looking for trouble.

  Matthias grimaced at the path ahead. The weathered, sharp rocks of the entrance resembled teeth in a rocky mouth, swallowing them whole as they passed into the sun - starved interior of the great, grisly maw.

  “We have to be alert in there,” Matthias said warily.

  “I’m always alert wizard,” Thadius stated back.

  “Then be even more alert,” Matthias retorted. The knight grunted.

  “Perhaps I should have taken up Yarin’s offer of a couple of watchmen to accompany us,” the knight mused. “He was more than willing.”

  “It would have taken too much time to explain everything,” Josephine replied. “Unless you wanted to run through with them the reason we are here? Because I did not. We needn’t drag anyone else along on this journey. It hardly seems necessary. What could two more men do that Matthias could not do with his wizardly powers?”

  “Obey my orders?” Thadius proffered.

  “I hate mountains,” Luccius muttered, changing the subject as they entered the pass. “Have you ever heard of the Beneglet Mountains, Josephine?” he asked.

  �
��Vaguely,” she replied. “Only by name.”

  “They’re in the very north - west of Triska. Miles and miles of ice-capped peaks, three times the height of these mountains. Once I had to go to an ansuwan retreat hidden deep within them. Of all the places to construct a Community...” he scoffed, shaking his head.

  “Your people would burrow to the centre of the world to escape outsiders,” Matthias said. “And Beneglet is a religious sanctuary, remember? The ansuwan monks probably like it that way. It gives them more time to reflect with even less people bothering them. Of course, that never stopped you from paying them a visit.”

  “Well anyway,” Luccius continued, ignoring Matthias. “They are covered from top to bottom in snow. After even a half - day of climbing and trekking, I could barely feel my feet! And I was garbed in seal pelts and furs from head to toe! By the fifth day of climbing I’d reached a passage through the mountains not unlike this one. And what should emerge from out of the snow, than a wolf pack. They had totally surrounded me, most likely stalking me for hours and I hadn’t even noticed.”

  “How did you escape?” Josephine asked.

  “Well, wolves might be mighty clever hunters, but they’re no match for a group of ansuwan! A team had been sent out to look for me when I didn’t arrive on time, and they sent the wolves packing.”

  “The luck of Luccius strikes again,” Matthias smirked. “You are the most blessed man I’ve ever met! You wear luck around you like a shawl.”

  “Let us hope that luck is with us now,” Thadius muttered.

  “After that moment I swore I would never go anywhere near a mountain again!” Luccius continued.

  “Yet here you are,” Matthias mused.

  “I did come this way into Olindia before when I was stationed here briefly. I am pleased to say I never had any problem,” Thadius said.

  “You and how many hundred other heavily armed soldiers?” Matthias joked.