The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (10 page)

“
Might I ask which of those you are inclined towards?”
Matthias asked.

King
Arwell sniffed. “I have been king for nearly thirty years, mister
Greenwald. In that time I have been lied to many times by your
kind. But even so, I have always been inclined – some would say
pushed- to swing to the latter and heed your people’s warnings.
Sometimes your Council has led us on a true course, and other times
I have been burned by them. As have my forebears. It is a delicate
balance to navigate your ‘recommendations’.”

“
Your Grace, you will
certainly
get burned should the dragon be
freed,” Matthias advised. Then he sighed. “I
know
that you have no reason to believe
me. But if I
were
trying to deceive you, then
why
would I ask you to arm your men to the
teeth?
”

King Arwell looked at Matthias thoughtfully. “Your
people were the ones who sealed Sikaris
into
that prison. Can’t you simply, I don’t
know,
reinforce
the cell?”

Matthias took a sip of his wine and smiled. “Your Grace knows
that this is no normal prison. I’m afraid it’s not as simple as
that. The cage was formed by petrification, an old trick of the
earth power that turns skin and bone to stone. It’s not something a
wizard has been able to perform for quite a long time.”

“
You have forgotten
how?
” Thadius asked. “I thought your people were meant
to be
clever?
”

“
It’s not so much a case that we have
forgotten
how. It is more
that no – one has the strength to weave the necessary threads of
power anymore.”

“
You
mean your people have grown weaker?” the king asked
quickly.

“
In short, yes,” Matthias replied just as abruptly.
“We
are
less powerful that we used to be, less adept at using the
earth power of the world.”

The
king’s lip twitched into a thin smile. “It’s unlike a wizard to
admit to weakness,” he said.

“
My
people aren’t infallible,” Matthias shrugged. “Why pretend it is
otherwise?”

“
I have never known
any
wizard to reveal a chink in their armour,” the
king said, belying his surprise.

“
Perhaps I’m no
ordinary
wizard?” Matthias suggested, and gestured
with his wine glass to him.

“
That
much is certain,” the king responded. “The
question
is
whether that is for better or worse.”

Matthias smiled knowingly. “I can see that I have a good deal
further to go before I earn your trust, Your Grace. The reality is
that we do not have much more time for me to do so.”

The king took a breath and looked away from him.
He fidgeted where he sat as he pondered. “I am no stranger to the
stories of the dragon’s ability to destroy,” he said. “The
creature’s past and my kingdom’s own fate have been intertwined
since Sikaris reduced the city on which this new Rina is built to
ashes. Four hundred years may have passed since that time, but the
memory of those events has been embedded
deeply
within my forebears and thus,
myself.”

Matthias nodded, recalling the tiled depiction of
the End of Days in the palace’s entrance hall: the battle from
which the dragon began his reign of terror. “Too many people from
many civilisations died in those battles,” he said grimly. “But
there
was
one positive amongst all that death. People from all across
the Triskan continent worked
together
in a common goal, to stop the Dreadlord Tanzanal
from expanding his reach.”

The king sniffed. “And we got the dragon in return
for that,
didn’t
we? The dreadlord couldn’t
bear
to die un- avenged, seeing all his old enemies
working together to defeat him. So he used his last breaths to
seize the dragon, our
ally
, and twisted its nature until the creature
was
rabid
with hate.” He drummed his fingers atop the table. “I
cannot ignore the possibility that Sikaris could return to wreak
more destruction on my people.” Matthias nodded in response. “How
much warning do you think this foretelling has given
us?”

“
Not
long at all,” Matthias advised. “Perhaps a month or
two.”

“
Barely any time at all to recall my forces from
across Aralia,” the king murmured. “And
even
then, if the creature
does
come here, then what would my
men
do
against such a beast? It would sear the flesh from their
bones in a heartbeat!”

“
The first thing you should do is to prepare for
the worst,” Matthias advised. “Shore up any strongholds you have in
Aralia. Gather food and drink there. Prepare for a
siege
. You should start to make plans to move your people to
safer ground. But I would suggest not making the information
public
just
yet. People can be dangerous when panicked,” Matthias
instructed.

“
And that’s
it?
” the king asked. “We simply lie low and wait for something
else to happen? For the dragon to leave? To grow old and
die?
Or until your
people find some way of
stopping
him again?”

“
There must be
something
else we can do to help?” Thadius
asked.

Matthias took a breath. “Perhaps there is.”

“
What?” the king asked. “What is it?”

Matthias looked at him lingeringly, and then with
a start, shook his head. “You… you
misunderstand
me, Your Grace. Perhaps there
is
more you can do,
but I am afraid we just don’t know what that is yet. I’m sorry for
the confusion.” He smiled once again. “I haven't spoken Aralian for
many years. My grasp of the nuances of your language is…
mixed
.”

"Then the proposal is to prepare to shelter our people and be
on the lookout for the dragon?" Thadius shook his head. "That
doesn’t sound like much of a plan to me.”

“
You’re free to make you own plans of course,” Matthias
responded. “I was only sent here to warn you, after
all.”

“
Ambassador, if the dragon is as close to freedom
as you
say
he is, then it is Olindia that your people should be
warning first,” the king said. “After all, the dragon sits atop a
pillar in their capital city of Crystal Ember, like a hideous great
gargoyle! They
will
be the first place to be struck if he breaks
free.”

Matthias shook his head. “Olindia won’t listen to The Council
anymore. We haven’t been welcome for a good few years.”

“
Ah yes, the other
wizard
. I had forgotten about that,” the king
responded, nodding knowingly. Matthias showed little response. The
monarch tapped his lip. “Then you really
did
come here for the sole purpose of
warning
me
of this danger?” He asked. “There is no catch? No
subterfuge?
Your people
want
nothing
in return?”

Matthias looked the king straight in the eye. He
looked dejected a moment, and he took a breath. “All I would ask is
you keep an open mind when it comes to my people, Your Grace. We
are not all as alike as you might think. My reason for being
here
is
to help, however it might come across.”

After a pause, King Arwell nodded. He moved around
the table and placed a hand on Matthias’s shoulder. “Then… you have
my
thanks
,” he said. “Perhaps it
is
time for a change in relations between us. I would
welcome any suggestions you might have to fortify our city against
this threat.”

Matthias nodded. “Well I’m not a soldier, but I will help
where I can, Your Grace. Perhaps…” he paused a moment, and then
continued. “Perhaps we could talk further later?”

The
king nodded. “You will stay in the palace whilst you remain here. I
will have some rooms prepared.”

Matthias spent the rest of the day assisting the
king with preparations to make the city safe. Given how Rina was
built (
designed
would be too good a word for the hotchpotch of layers that
stacked on top of each other), defending such a structure from a
creature like the dragon would be no easy task, even with the thick
wall that surrounded its innards. Most of the king’s higher ranking
men were away from the city, undertaking campaigns which the
monarch was not likely to reveal to him, and so Matthias worked
mostly with Thadius and the king to avoid spreading the word of the
threat facing them too far for the moment.

It turned out that Rina had a maze of catacombs
carved out beneath its foundations, which the king had kept secret
from most people aside from his most trusted men. There was space
in their confines for most of the inhabitants of the city, if not
all, and if they were cleared then there would be room for another
hundred or so. The first task they decided upon was to empty them
to make that room. That did mean removing the bodies of the ancient
nobles that were deposited down there, but the king advised that
since the tunnels had not been used for burials for well over a
century, the likelihood of anyone
missing
the corpses was slim, and when it came to
a decision between storing the bodies of the dead and saving the
living, there was no contest. It would be difficult to remove the
bodies without causing panic, and so it was decided that they
should be taken via a secluded tunnel during the night, by the most
trusted members of the King’s Army, and moved by wagon to a remote
location for reburial.

“
It
seems I may owe you an apology,” Thadius said to Matthias that
evening after they had feasted on roast pheasant and the king left
them to take care of other matters.

“
I
don’t see why?” Matthias asked him.

“
I didn’t trust your intentions,” he said. “And I
have been
quite
rude to you. But I can see from your efforts with us that
you really
are
here for a good cause.”

Matthias regarded him a moment. “It’s as you said:
trust
has
to be earned. You had no reason to take a stranger at his
word, not least from one of
my
people.”

“
You speak as if you do not
like
the way your country is run?” Thadius
suggested.

Matthias smiled. “There are aspects of my country’s nature
which I don’t agree with, that much is certain. But isn’t that so
of any land?”

Thadius snorted. “You expect me to answer that as we sit in
the dining room of the king?”

Matthias chuckled back. “Perhaps not. But your country has
had its share of rebellions. People don’t always see eye to eye
with each other.”

“
I’m
not sure I see your point?” Thadius responded, squinting at
him.

Matthias shook his head. “No point,” he sighed. “In any case,
I had best be off to bed. I am sure there is more I need to speak
to King Arwell about tomorrow.” He stood and bowed his head.
“Thanks for your company,” he said, before he left the
room.

Thadius stared after him. “Stranger than a barrel
full of
earwigs
, that one,” he muttered, before lighting his pipe and
kicking back in his chair.

“
Are you
mad
girl?” King Arwell barked as he paced the floor of
his daughter’s chambers. “You
must
be,” he spluttered with a manic laugh. “Why else
would you venture into his company like that?”

“
I wanted to see what he was
like
father,” Princess Josephine replied.
“You have kept me at arms length of Mahalia for
so
long, that I have
never
had the chance to meet a
real
wizard
before.”

“
There is a very good reason for that!” he
exclaimed

“
He
did not have the look of one that would do harm to me. He was
unlike those other men you have told me about.”

“
He is…
different
, I will grant you that. And he
has
been helpful today.
But he is still a wizard of Mahalia! Do you have
any
idea what their
Council could do to you if they found out about
you?”