The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (75 page)

Josephine smiled thinly. “I am glad to
hear
it,” she
said.

“
It would have been
so
much easier if she had simply vanished without a
trace. If she had disappeared
completely
. But as clever as Maryn was, she couldn’t hide
everything, especially from me. I caught up to her at a place
called Snowmeadow, in the north of Triska.”

“
I
take it Maryn did not simply come quietly?” Josephine
asked.

“
No.” He stopped.

Josephine leant forward in her chair. “Matthias, I know I
pleaded with you to tell me this, but if it is too
difficult-”

“
We have started now. So you may as well know the
truth of it.” He turned around from the window. “I was accompanied
by another wizard. A man named Tobias. He was a little older than
me, and a member of the Seventh Tier. Officially the council sent
him with me as backup, in case I couldn’t handle Maryn. In truth,
he was there to make sure she didn’t convince
me
to defect.” Matthias paced forward.
“The moment I laid eyes on Maryn I knew I couldn’t do what the
council had asked. How
could
I send her back to be tortured? Most likely
killed?” He shook his head. “But now there we all were, with Tobias
at my side, willing me to take Maryn and neutralise her. If I
wouldn’t, then
he
would.”

Josephine swallowed at the further silence that followed. She
knew the answer to her next question, but she had to ask. “You
killed him,” she stated.

Matthias’s jaw clenched. “Yes. I killed him.”

“
Was
there no other way?” she asked.

“
If there was, do you not think I would have
taken
it?” he snapped.
His eyes glazed as he turned his thoughts inward. “What
wouldn’t
you
do for your family? For someone you…” He shook his head and
turned away from her. “Maryn ran from me, as she should have. We
barely spoke after I did it. She turned and ran, as
fast
as she could. And I
returned to Mahalia and told the council that she had killed Toby.
That she had paralysed me and vanished without a
trace.”

“
I
am surprised they believed you, from all you have told me of
them.”

“
Well, it seems one thing my people are very good
at doing is lying. No wonder that
some
of it rubbed off on me.”

“
You
are a good person,” she whispered softly.

“
Good men don’t
do
what I did. He was a
friend
. A
good
man, who just…
got
in the way. There isn’t a
day
that passes that I don’t regret what I had
to do. In spite of my failure to apprehend Maryn, the council
eventually promoted me to the Ninth Tier. And again they sent me
out on missions to apprehend people that threatened the peace.
Many,
many
missions. Most of them
were
for the greater good, that much I am certain of.
But sometimes I was asked to stop people who I know in my heart
were good men. There are only so many times that you can be sent to
do that before you can’t do it any more. Which has brought me here,
eventually, many years later, working with wizards who hope to
change things for the better, and to you, to save the council from
itself. But that doesn’t change what I’ve done to people in the
name of Mahalia.” He threw his arms out. “So there you have it.
That is why I didn’t want to tell you more about my life. Because
for every
good
deed I have done there is
undoubtedly
a bad to balance the scales. Most likely
they are
now
leaning heavily to my damnation.”

Josephine sat in silence for a few minutes. “What
you did for Maryn, you did to save an
innocent
woman.”

“
By
killing
an
innocent
man.”

“
A
high
price indeed,” she said. “And there are no words I can say
that would bring justification to that death, or your actions. But
I do not think you are a monster, Matthias. You are just as
infallible as the rest of us. Too many good men die to preserve the
peace. The fact that you are doing all this to change those in
power means if you are successful, no other people will die because
of the bigotry of others.”

Matthias looked at Josephine in shock. Then he
smiled. “Then… you don’t find me
disgusting
, for what I’ve done?” he
asked.

“
For showing remorse? For
trying
to be a
better
man? No, I do not hate you Matthias. In
fact I-” Josephine stopped mid-sentence, her face set
suddenly.

“
Are
you alright?” he asked her, returning to his seat.

“
I
feel a little odd. Light headed,” she said absently.

“
How much of that carafe of wine did you
have?
” Matthias replied.

“
It isn’t that. I am
perfectly
sober! But…
something
is wrong,” she advised. “It’s as
if…”

The way is open
, a voice said inside her head, cutting
her short.

“
What?” Josephine asked. Matthias looked at her
puzzled.

“’
What?’” he queried.

“
There’s… I heard a
voice
. Inside my
mind
. I… I think it was the
Akari
,” she said.

Matthias sat forward. “I thought they couldn’t communicate
with you again?”

“
This is
different
…” she took a breath. “It’s disjointed. Not so
much a conversation as a
note
. This isn’t right.” She raised a hand to her
temple and closed her eyes. “My head… it
hurts!
”

The light will cast out the
dark
, the
voice whispered, almost too quietly within the confines of her mind
to be perceptible.
It must brighten the land and burn out the
shadow!

The fortress shuddered suddenly and violently, and
the princess cried out in pain. “
Josephine!
Talk
to me! What’s-” Matthias’ gaze was drawn by a
flickering like lightning at the window. He stood slowly,
carefully, and peered out through the glass. Across the back of the
dragon, light emanated from a crack, which expanded before his
eyes.

“
What’s happening?” Josephine asked, opening her eyes again
and struggling to her feet.

“
The
battlements!” Matthias cried and ran to the door. Josephine took
one look out the window, and seeing what Matthias already had,
turned and ran after him, her head pounding with every footstep.
She lost him as she tried to retrace her steps to the stairwell
that led them to the top of the fortress, and she cried out to him
as her head span.

“
I’m
here!” he replied, grabbing her arm. In his hand he held the
scabbard of his sword, and his staff was strapped to his back.
“Come on,” he nodded, and they ran together. As they moved, Thadius
emerged from a corridor.

“
Your Highness!” he cried. “What in the God’s names is going
on? An earthquake?”

“
This is
no
earthquake,” came the voice of Balzan, who surged through
the corridor, overtaking all of them in spite of his age. In a row
they ascended the spiral stairs to the battlements, before
Balzan threw the door open at the top and ran to the ledge. The
city rumbled again and the shockwave sent them all tumbling to the
ground. As they began to get to their feet, a flickering field of
light emerged around the dragon. It bent out of shape as the air
groaned with the movement and then, like glass, it shattered into
pieces, before disappearing on the wind. The crack on the
dragon’s back expanded until it immersed the entire body of the
creature in a bright, white light. The air grew quiet, the wind
died down, and then the light went out. Josephine stared at the
dragon and her mouth fell open.

“
Matthias! Look!
”

The
regent looked about his desk puzzled as sheets of paper buzzed on
its top. His cup of tea rattled in its saucer. He watched it
intently, until it rattled off the side of the desk and smashed to
the floor. Then realisation dawned, and he dashed to the
window.

Luccius helped up a serving maid from the floor of the
tavern where she had fallen with the first shockwaves. Cards
littered the floor, and upturned tankards spilled ale across the
dirty wooden floor. The floorboards creaked ominously around him as
he made his way to the door and stared upwards, and watched as the
dragon’s head moved slowly from its ancient pose for the first time
in an age. Then he ran, as fast as he could, towards the
fortress.

Josephine limply clung to the crenulations in front of her,
her eyes wide. Matthias stood beside her, staring as the stone on
the dragon began to peel and chip away, flake off bit-by-bit and
fall towards the ground like snowflakes. His eyes crackled a deep
blue as he seized the power.

“
Josephine!” He yelled in the growing din that was
rising and grabbed her shoulders. “Can you do anything? Put up
another barrier?
Some
kind of shield?
Anything!
”

She
gasped as shimmering scales replaced the dry brown stone on the
dragon’s skin. She concentrated, her arms shaking, body quivering…
and found nothing.

“
I can’t
find
it Matthias!” she cried, terrified. There was a
horrible ripping sound, a cracking, and from ahead and a snake -
like tail threw itself about, uncurled from the pillar and thrashed
violently. The ground continued to shake. “I can’t focus! The
power’s gone! I’m too
tired!
”

Matthias let go of her and threw himself to the
edge of the battlements. “Oh gods
no
,” he breathed.

There was an almighty explosion, as the final shackles
imposed on the Great Dragon Sikaris were torn free. The pillar
Sikaris had stood on for centuries crumbled and great chunks of
rock hurtled down to the ground, shattering the cobbled streets
below and flattening buildings as people ran screaming for their
lives. Sikaris extended his neck, opened his mouth and roared.
Flame burst from his gaping jaws.

Josephine shook her head. “The barrier was
up!
”
she whispered. “
How
can this be happening?”

Matthias watched as the wings of the beast
unfurled and Sikaris took to the sky, his silhouette covering the
moon. Despair filled his soul. “It doesn’t matter
how
it’s happened,” he
said. “He’s
free
.”

“
But… it’s going to destroy the city!
Destroy
everything!
” she cried. “I was meant to
stop
him!”

Matthias turned to her. “This
isn’t
your fault.” He nodded to Thadius.
“Keep her safe.”

“
Matthias?
What
are you doing?” Josephine asked as he whipped his
staff from behind his back.

He
embraced her, squeezed her tightly, then let go and looked deeply
into her eyes. “I have to try.” Then he turned and ran to the
battlements, vaulting over the edge.

“
Matthias!
” Josephine screamed and ran to the crenulations,
reaching out a hand.

Matthias’s body fell towards the ground. He gripped his staff
tightly, embraced the earth power, and stopped in mid air. A shell
of air flickered around him, and began to lift him, until he was
darting from building to building, using the power to vault up
across the rooftops of the city and up the broken
pillar.

The
dragon began to level the city, a mixture of fire and energy
surging out of its jaws in pulses, devastating everything in its
path. The dockyards by the river that curled through the city
crumbled. People struggling to get out of the city on barges were
burned alive in the inferno, their skin popping and blistering
under the white hot flame. Houses dissolved with entire families
inside. From the Fortress of Olindia the princess, accompanied by
Protector Balzan and Thadius watched the destruction.