The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (36 page)

Luccius grinned but did not answer the question. “Matthias
will be awhile arranging passage anyway. I’ll go and see about
getting us some food. Whilst I’m there I will enquire about the
bath!”

The
tavern owner bobbed her head as she set the roasting meals down in
front of the three of them a short while later and announced that a
bath was being drawn for the lady as she spoke. Josephine nodded
gratefully as she picked the chicken up delicately in her hands and
gnawed at the meat and ravenously gulped the food down.

“
Hungry?” came a voice from her side and she turned mid chew
to see Matthias returning to their table. She stopped chewing and
swallowed the chunk in her mouth, licking her lips and wiping her
mouth.

“
Hungry for a
proper
meal. Not the stale bread and water that I have
endured for almost a week,” she advised him.

He
chuckled. “I’ve booked us passage on a boat leaving in two hours.
We were lucky - apparently it’s a quiet day for passengers. We will
have to leave the horses though.”

“
That’s a shame. They are of good stock,” Thadius noted,
eating his own meal. “But it can’t be helped I suppose.”

“
A
few days of sitting in more comfortable surroundings will do us
some good,” the princess commented.

“
We
will
have to practise for some of the journey princess,”
Matthias advised. Her face fell.

“
You will not leave me alone for a
moment
, will you?” she grumbled.

“
This is not a
pleasure
ride, Josephine,” Matthias barked back.
“You
have
to meet me in the middle somewhere!”

“
Meet you in the middle?” she growled. “I believe I
have been
quite
accommodating to your people’s requests thus far! I have
been
dragged
out of my life and imposed upon to march along with you on
this nightmare mission!”

“
You
don’t know how lucky you are!” Matthias said back.

“
Lucky?
” she hissed. “In
what
respect am I lucky to be the one forced to
accomplish this task?”

Matthias opened his mouth but then stopped and shook his
head. “Forget it. I should have thought before I spoke.”

“
A
rule you forget at least three times daily!” Josephine chastised
him. She stood up from her seat.

“
Where are you going?” Matthias asked.

“
To have my bath!” she snapped and turned on her
heel. “Would you like to follow me and continue this argument, or
am I allowed to have
some
time to myself?”

Matthias waved her away. “We’ll
continue
this
discussion
and
your studies on the boat,” he said more forcefully. She
harrumphed and stomped off.

“
Well that went
very
well,” Thadius grumbled. “I should smack you in
the mouth for speaking to the princess in that
way.”

“
Then why
don’t
you?” Matthias snapped at him. Then he sighed.
“I’m sorry Thadius.” He stood up.

“
Where are you off to
now?
” Luccius asked him.

Matthias shook his head. “I’m going to get
another
drink
. For
some
reason ale has become much more
appealing
to me in the last
week.”

The
deep water that lapped around Josephine’s body steamed as she lay
in the copper tub, inhaling the vapours that rose from the water.
Her head was reclined and she wiggled her toes around happily,
listening to the slosh that they made. Living in close company with
men for a week had practically driven her mad! To be surrounded by
them all day and night was intolerable! Thadius for all his decency
and respect for her refused to let her walk further than a few
paces away from him at all times for her own safety. Matthias
jumped on her every time she sat down to rest, eager to get her to
start playing around with her power. Luccius was the only one who
had not upset her yet, but even his cheerfulness was starting to
grate in the absence of any space. She closed her eyes and slipped
further into the tub.

Taking a bar of soap from a small pewter dish on a
stool beside her she began to scrub the dirt and mud from her body.
The soap smelt less than nice. The inn was probably unable to
afford the fragranced, perfumed goods she was used to, she
supposed. Not that she bathed
very
often, but it was nice to relax in private
surroundings and given the state she was in from trawling across
Aralia, she felt grateful to get some of the mud off her skin. She
ran the small oblong across her arms and down across her stomach,
letting it cleanse her aching muscles. Suddenly, something out of
the corner of her eye made her glance at her feet. A wisp of red
liquid was swirling around with the water. It took her a moment to
realise it was blood, coming from her left foot. Shocked, she bent
to inspect it for cuts, but before she could bend all the way over,
the water all around her began to grow cloudy and thick with the
red liquid. Her breathing grew quick, her heart thumping in her
chest.

“
Hello?” she called outside, hoping a serving girl
would hear. “Is anyone there?
Hello?
” she cried again more desperately, as the water
all around her turned a deep red. It began to bubble.
“
Help!
” she screamed. “
Thadius! Matthias! Help me!
” Her legs hung limply as if
they could no longer be moved by her willpower and she twisted her
stomach and tried to force herself out of the water. Suddenly the
bottom of the bath fell away and the bloody water around her turned
to deep, ruddy clouds. “What is going on?” she wailed as she
hovered in the dark, crimson- tinged sky. She looked up and jumped.
A large, spherical rock hung just as she did in the air. It was
enormous, like the moon only much larger and its surface was
shrouded in murky cloud. Out of nowhere the sun burst from behind
it and she winced as her eyes constricted. The brightness took over
her entire vision and then she heard a voice in the distance
calling her name. It started to grow louder until it filled her
ears and she placed her hands to them to try and drown it
out.

Suddenly she sat up in the bath with a sharp
intake of breath. Water droplets fell from her hair. She threw her
head down. The water lay still and perfectly clear, save for the
distilling murkiness of the soap mixing in the water. She had
fallen asleep. It was only a nightmare! Her heart still pounded in
her chest, her breathing short and quick. Both relief and terror
gripped her and she took a moment to gather her senses before she
scrambled out the bath. She wanted to be out of that room as
quickly as she could- she almost forgot that she needed to
dress
first. Fast as she
could, she dried herself off with a linen cloth hanging by her side
on a wooden prop and threw on her clothes before she dashed out and
down the stairs and into the common room. Her face was a picture of
terror.

“
Princess, what’s happened?” Thadius started,
rising.

“
We
have to go,” she said. “We must leave now!” Her breath still caught
in her throat, and she had to swallow to keep from
gasping.

“
Why? What’s happened?” Matthias asked.

“
I…
that is…” Josephine began, but stopped. “I had a bad
dream.”

Matthias looked at her askance. “A dream?”

“
I
take it that it wasn’t a good one?” Luccius asked.

“
It was not,” Josephine replied. “There was blood.
Lots
of
it and it was my own.”

“
Oh.” Matthias raised his eyebrows. “Luccius can you get the
Princess a glass of spring wine? It will steady her
nerves.”

“
My nerves will be
steady
-” she snapped, before leaning forward and
lowering her voice to a whisper again. “I will be
fine
once we leave
here!” she finished.

“
Well you don’t have too long to wait now. We should be
leaving for the boat in a half-hour,” Matthias said. He indicated
to the spare chair. “Sit down and gather yourself.” She nodded and
plonked herself down in the chair. “I’m sorry about our argument,”
he said to her. “You are right. Apologising is becoming a bit of a
habit for me. It is one I am not accustomed to.”

Josephine shook her head. “Apology accepted,” she
said, still slightly breathless. Luccius returned and gave her the
wine and she took it gratefully and sipped at the sweet drink. “I
think
all
our nerves are a little frayed. You must understand that I
am not accustomed to being ordered about either by
anyone
other than my
father.”

Matthias nodded. “I’ll try to be a little more patient. I’m
just worried, given how little time we seem to have, that you won’t
be ready when we arrive at Crystal Ember.”

The princess nodded. “Very well then, I
will
practice more on
the boat. I suppose it will be a good opportunity to learn
further.”

“
The
captain agreed to take us as far as the river flows until it runs
through the mountains at Gormal. There the way is too narrow to
safely pass through. There is a small village, though the captain
says we are probably best not staying there too long. It’s not
known for welcoming outsiders apparently. I had to agree to pay him
an extra mark to get him to travel that far upriver.”

“
Some of the villages that way are suffering from crop
shortages,” Thadius advised. “The people aren’t happy about
it.”

“
We’ll have to tread carefully then,” Matthias
acknowledged.

“
Oh!” Josephine exclaimed suddenly, and looked down at her
feet. “Thadius, would you be so kind as to go and retrieve my shoes
from beside the bath?”

The longboat
Providence
lived up to its name for being a
long
boat. It spanned
half the village harbour and its lengthy carriage suggested that in
a previous life it had been a cargo barge. But where once its
bowels had housed goods there were now quarters for people’s
passage. It was a lavishly decorated vessel; its underside painted
a deep green, and the rest of its bulk a deep red. Josephine
inspected the bizarre boat as they approached.

“
It
looks a little... cramped,” she said, her nose wrinkled in
distaste.

“
You’d rather ride by horse?” Matthias retorted.

“
No!” Thadius quickly interjected. “Please, Gods no, my behind
can’t take anymore saddle sores.”

Matthias grinned. “I’ve reserved three of the uppermost
compartments. Space enough for all of us. ”

“
I
suppose a boat is a boat,” she sighed. “And I have not had the
pleasure of trying this new contraption before.”

“
A
few years ago these boats had to be towed by rope on either side of
the river by horse,” Thadius informed them. “It wasn’t a very fast
way of travelling.”

“
How
does it work now then?” the princess asked Thadius.

“
It
is quite clever, Your Highness. The steam is made by burning logs
and materials, and it drives some kind of mechanism that moves the
thing.”

“
How
clever,” she said. “Moves it how?”

“
Now
that I don’t know,” Thadius said.

“
You
would have thought they could have made it a little bigger,” the
princess remarked.

Matthias shook his head. “If they made it much
bigger it wouldn’t fit in the
river
.”

Taico Grimm watched the group board the
Providence
from the depths of
his alleyway hidey-hole. So, they were travelling by boat, were
they? He had been stalking them a good few miles, but in his
weakened state he hadn’t dared to make any move against them. He
waited until they had all stepped below deck and then deftly
hot-footed his way on to the ship, ready to dart behind the nearest
cargo barrel should they come out again. When he reached Gormal,
and received his orders, then maybe he could finish this once and
for all and find the peace that had eluded him so long. The storm
would be breaking soon.

Four
men sat opposite each other at even intervals around a large, round
oak table in the centre of the dank, poorly lit, cramped room of
the unremarkable townhouse. The walls were bumpy and uneven; their
plaster yellow and musty from the smoke of years of pipes being
puffed in the unventilated house. A half - melted candle sat in the
centre of the thick table - top, its shape heavily disfigured by
the pulsing flame. Beads of wax spilled out over the brass housing
and onto the wood. The light it gave the room was minimal, but
accompanied by several wall - mounted candles stuck unevenly into
candelabras behind the men, it provided enough light for their
meeting.