It had terrified Avanon, but as soon as Mathieu was a safe distance from the female, Jo had relaxed back to his normal, sweet self. He had apologized profusely, unable to explain why it had happened. Darcia, who had been nearby, guessed that it had something to do with Jo and Mathieu having been one person at some point: Jo was essentially protecting himself. Whatever the reason, Mathieu felt safe with the young brunet at his back, there to watch it and occasionally cuddle up next to it. As he thought that, Jo let out a little puff of air and made a content sound of the sleeping. Niveus gave off a soft purr from her spot by Mathieu’s head.
As happy as he was, Mathieu still felt like something was wrong. It was like his family was with him, but an integral piece of it was missing. And he knew what it was: Solomon. Mathieu sighed softly, sad that the last time he’d had a chance to say something to the blond, he’d yelled at him. He was never going to fix things like this. Even if he could kiss, touch, or love the other, he wanted things to go back to how they were, as friends. But that didn’t seem likely to happen. He pulled his knees to his chest, closing his eyes.
Mathieu was finally in the lightest of dozes when he felt the shift in the bed. Jo was sleeping soundly behind him, Tesla and Nikola had already joined the bed earlier, so that only left…but no, he couldn’t be foolish enough to believe that it was Solomon. Staying still, and silent, he continued to breathe evenly, listening to the noises that the newest addition to the bed was making.
And soon, he was sure it was the blond. Mathieu would always recognize the way that the man stretched out on his stomach before falling into a deep sleep, the way he huffed slightly as he relaxed into the bed, the way he smelled. There was no doubt that it was Solomon, even though he’d been sleeping in chairs, on couches, anywhere but in their room. He was too tired to question Solomon’s change of heart now, so feeling more complete than before, Mathieu closed his eyes and fell into a much deeper sleep than earlier.
~*~
Mathieu woke up slowly, sweating profusely. Jo had shimmed down while he slept and now had his head on Mathieu’s hip. All three Shadowriders had piled onto each other and were in a tangle at the foot of the bed. Solomon’s face was inches from his, and his hand was on top of Mathieu’s. The combination of his bedmates was having a feverous effect on his body, so as carefully as possible he slipped out of the bed, trying not to disturb anyone.
Jo grasped at the empty space where his warmth had been and Tesla cracked open an eye in annoyance, but he quickly returned to sleep. Putting his feet on the floor, Mathieu got up and went to the little desk in the room, sitting in the swivel chair. He touched the holographic crystal and suddenly a miniature Avian was standing on the desk, smiling at him. Mathieu recognized the outfit she was wearing as the same one that Avian had worn when she’d been in his mind’s eye. When Narrie had shown up about a week ago, she had brought it to him as a gift. At present, the woman was staying at Elise’s home.
His fingertips hovered just short of touching Avian before he took a deep breath and touched the crystal again, sealing her away again. Looking at her brought up another memory that had him digging in the desk drawer, pulling out the book he’d stolen so long ago. Its cover, which had always been blank for him, now had soft writing scrawled across the front that read: “The Guide to Successful Ventures”, and proclaimed an included manual to powers, gifts, and skills.
Curling up in the chair, he flipped through the book to discover only the first page had writing:
Hello, Mathieu. I have heard that you must undertake the task of leading a resistance. As a helping book, I shall do my best to help you find success in your project. I shall compile a guide of strengths and weaknesses of each type of power user, basic battle tactics, and a general overview of Unith. We shall start with a strengths and weaknesses section.
Mathieu raised an eyebrow and turned the page, which quickly filled with writing as well. At the top, in thick, decorative writing was the word ‘Shaper’.
A Shaper is one of the most unique types of power users. They have the ability to meld their internal energies into a real force in the world around them. The level of power changes what energy they can utilize. There are three main categories: Life Shapers, Form Shapers, and Design Shapers.
Life Shapers - The lowest level of Shapers available. Their skills are limited to only using their internal energies as a protective barrier and creating short-range attacks. These attacks are purely physical.
Form Shapers - The middle tier of Shapers. These Shapers retain the ability to create protective barriers around themselves, however, the attacks they make are able to cause disorientation, as well as inflict wounds. Also, they are able to funnel their energies into making things, such as plant life, grow.
Design Shapers - The most powerful of the Shapers, their power is said to be a gift from the divine. They are able to create barriers around others, and make long-range attacks that disrupt the internal systems. If a Design Shaper’s energy is focused to a high enough concentration, it has the ability to dissolve the brain, heart, and lungs of those that it touches. Those who are this level of Shapers also have individual skills that are created by their personality and can only be defined by that person.
The book continued to go on about specific exercises that could be done to create better control of one’s energy, and that was about the time that Mathieu dozed off.
It wasn’t until he felt warm arms pick him up bridal style and heard his book hit the floor that he woke back up. Cracking one eye open, he saw Solomon’s throat and scarred jaw. The blond laid him on the bed and covered him with the blanket before picking his book up and putting it on the desk. Then Solomon sighed and raked his fingers through his hair, leaving the room. As soon as the man had left, Mathieu felt Jo wiggle across the bed and curl back up around him. Letting a deep breath out, he closed his eyes and fell back asleep. It seemed that all his body wanted was to sleep; he sort of hoped that would help him figure out what he was going to do with his newfound leadership.
~*~
The smell of breakfast had his mouth watering before he was even fully awake. The air was filled with the delicious scent of cinnamon that accompanied homemade French toast. Groaning, he rolled out of bed and got to his feet, reaching down for the sweater on the floor. Pulling it on, he kicked Jo’s shoes out of the doorway and did the zombie-walk to the kitchen.
He hadn’t slept well last night after Solomon had put him into the bed, dreaming all night about a hallway full of doors that were locked, being chased by a steady pattern of footsteps. At the end of his dream, he’s found the end of the hallway only to fall into a pit of darkness. He’d spent a significant time falling before the smell of breakfast awoke him.
Erik was standing in the kitchen wearing jeans and a button-up flannel over a plain white shirt. His sleeves were rolled up and his day old stubble stood out against his pale skin. “Good morning, Mathieu.”
“Uh, hey. Erik, right?”
The dark-haired man nodded and smiled slightly, then put some French toast on a plate. “Here. Eat. There’s syrup and butter on the table, then you should go speak to Enak. He has things he wishes to discuss with you.”
Taking the plate, Mathieu prepared his French toast then, sat down at the little table in the corner of the kitchen. Turning his attention to the man in the kitchen, Mathieu took his first bite. “Do all gods know how to cook?”
“That’s an excellent question.”
Huffing, he rolled his eyes and focused on eating, not in the mood to deal with people being annoyingly obtuse with their responses.
“Can I ask you something, Mathieu?”
“Go for it.” He said in an almost sarcastic way.
Erik sat at the table with him, “You and Solomon…you are attracted to him. It’s dangerous.”
“That’s not a question.”
“You’re right. It’s not.” Erik reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and drew out his pack of cigarettes, popping one out
. Then, he took out a lighter with a tiger lily engraved on it, and lit the cigarette. The scent of apples filled the room. “The question is whether it’s serious.”
Wrinkling his nose, Mathieu raised an eyebrow. “What business is it of yours?”
Smiling a crooked smile, Erik blew a smoke ring across the room. “It’s important to understand the relationships between people. For instance, if you have a serious…thing with this man, then putting you two near each other during the siege of Unith would be a bad idea. You two would be more concerned with the welfare of each other than the success of the invasion. Make sense?”
“You don’t get to decide who I’m near during the siege, Red. I’m the new leader, apparently, therefore, I make those sorts of decisions.”
“Oh? And do you have experience with organizing large scale attacks with rebel military forces that I’m unaware of?”
Mathieu smiled sarcastically and leaned over, taking the cigarette out of Erik’s mouth, putting it out on the man’s stack of French toast. “Thanks for breakfast.” Irritated, he stood and left the kitchen, going to one of the sitting rooms.
Avanon, who was stretched out on the floor with a book, looked up as he entered. “Hey. How are you?”
“Ducky. Where do I find Solomon?” It had occurred to him while he slept that maybe if he tried to Solomon again, they could get somewhere. He truly doubted it, but he was hoping that he could at least get the trust as to why the man thought he would make such an unfit leader.
She tilted her head and made a face, thinking. “He said he was going to see that Mina and Elise got home safely, then he was going to go to the Head Quarters. Why?”
“Uh…” He said, mind trying to churn out a decent lie to cover why he really needed to talk to Solomon. “I needed to ask him something, but maybe you’ll know. Because the resistance is so spread out, how did Nathan communicate with all the members at one time? Sending messengers out seems just impractical.”
“Well, that job fell to Josette.” Avanon said.
Mathieu waited for her to continue, but she did not. “And why is that?”
“Don’t know. Go ask her. She’s meditating down by the Emotion Tree.”
“Well, if she did it before, I’ll just leave her to it now...” He said, really not wanting to talk to Josette one-on-one.
Chapter
Eighteen
The resistance headquarters lay on the coast at the borders of the Eastern, Western, and Central Districts. It sat on the top of a cliff, a four-story cylindrical building. The top floor was an office with three floor-to-ceiling windows, and the center one opened onto a balcony; the office was actually something of a war room with detailed maps of Unith and some of the bigger towns, profiles on government officials and some of the higher ups in the Unithian military; the second floor wasn’t technically a floor, more of an open area between the bottom floor and the top, with a staircase spiraling up the walls of the tower and that led to the rooms set in intervals along the stairway. The bottom floor was a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room furnished to seat as many as possible.
Mathieu was standing in the living room, staring at the oversized wild cat sitting in the corner of the room next to the fire place. He was standing between Erik and Jo, Enak just in front of him. It’d been just over a month since he’d been elected as leader of the resistance. The others had thought that he needed to at least see the HQ if he was going to be in charage.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” Kiev said, coming into the room from the foyer, wiping her hands on her pant legs. “How are you boys doing?” She asked.
“It’s hotter than the gates of hell outside, but otherwise I think we’re fairly good. How are you?”
She looked at Erik and Enak before nodding, not all that comfortable with them it seemed. “Just busy.” She tapped her heel on the floor for a moment before she looked up at Mathieu. “I asked you to come here to see something I…found. But where we are going is for you and I alone. The others need to stay here.”
Jo stepped between the two of them. Even though he was shorter than both of them, he looked down his nose at Kiev. “I go where he goes. The other two will stay. Understand me?”
Raising her eyebrow, she shrugged one shoulder. “Fine, Jo. Do as you wish. You are not my responsibility, kiddo.”
Jo grinned brightly at her, “Okay!” He hugged the blonde woman around the waist happily.
“Awe.” She hugged him back, then patted his head. “Let’s get going then. I don’t think Mathieu will want to miss this.” She went to the large cat and pet it behind the ear; it purred loudly, and got up from where it sat. Going to a chair, it hopped up into it. Leaning down, Kiev pulled the rug aside and opened a hidden panel in the floor, revealing a hole barely large enough for Mathieu, and a ladder. “We go down. There is a passage at the bottom.”
Jo laughed in good spirits and volunteered to go down the hole first. Kiev stepped aside to make room for Jo’s childish enthusiasm, following him down. Mathieu went last.
Mathieu wasn’t the biggest fan of small spaces, but he concentrated on taking the ladder one rung at a time, letting the earthy smell fill his nose as he went down. He realized about halfway down the very long descent that the walls of the hole around him were made of dirt with metal fencing keeping it from falling in on them; this did nothing to make him like the small space any better. He couldn’t help but think that the small hole could collapse in on him at any moment, crushing him to death. That’s or he could be permanently crippled. It took a while, but eventually his feet found solid ground with a supporting hand on his back. He had made it without dying.
Turning to face Kiev and Jo, he put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath in, looking around. The actual passage was rather crude and made of the same metal caging in an arched hallway while wooden planks were deeply embedded into the ground to create a floor. “Now that we are away from prying ears, telling me why I’m here, Kiev.”
“I did not know how you wanted to do things. When Nathan was in charge, it wasn’t uncommon that when we…detained someone, he wanted to meet with them in person. We have a ‘someone’ in custody now. However, as far as I can tell, he has no information that is prudent to us.” Her brow furrowed.
“Then why did you ‘detain’ this ‘someone’ to begin with?” He inquired.
“He broke into the headquarters, and was in the kitchen. We weren’t sure if he was a spy.” She rubbed the back of her head with a blush. “It was right after you were elected and I didn’t know how to bring it up.”
Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair. “Alright, show me. I’ll try talking to him myself.”
Kiev nodded and started down the hallway, Mathieu behind her and Jo at the rear. There were crude wooden doors all the way down the passage, but she bypassed them all, going to a single metal door. “This is it. I feel bad that we kept him down her for so long. Solomon tried to get him to talk but…he really has no relevant information. The problem is going to be that he can identify Solomon, and myself, so we can’t let him go...”
“We’ll figure it out.” He pulled open the door and went into the room. It was just like the hallway with dirt walls, metal netting, and a crude metal floor. In the middle of the room there was a chair bolted to the floor with a man strapped to it by thick leather straps, slumped as far forward as his bindings would let him. The man was barely over a boy, maybe eighteen, with black hair and green eyes. The left side of his face was bruised and swollen, his arms and bare chest covered with cuts made by a thin, precise blade, and his right wrist was clearly broken.
Mathieu summoned a ball of energy to provide more light than the Energy Jewel powered lamp. He knelt before the man and pushed his hair back from his face. “Does he have a name?”
“Wouldn’t say.”
“Hey. Hey.” Snapping his fingers, he waited until the other’s eyes seemed to focus on him. “What’s your name?” He waiting, but no answer came. “Do you even
speak?”
The man’s face turned away from him, pulling his upper lip back.
Sighing, Mathieu sat on the wooden floor. “Could you at least tell us why you’re here, even if you don’t want to tell me your name?”
“Don’t bother,” Kiev said. “He won’t answer. At all.”
“Fine. I don’t have the time for this. If he’s not going to cooperate, I don’t have time to deal with him. There are more important things to do.” A weird feeling began to tingle at the base of his skull, making his eyes water.
The blond female nodded in understanding and reached down, pulling a knife from her boot. “You can go. I’ll deal with this and clean it up.” Kiev advanced towards the prisoner, putting her hand on top of his head and bringing the blade to his throat.
But her knife met the back of Jo’s hand. While Mathieu had been attempting to talk to the man, Jo had circled around behind and now his hand was placed protectively over the male raven’s throat. He looked over the stranger’s head at Kiev. “Mine.”
Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) Page 31
