The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (93 page)

“
It’s too late,” he said, and tried to push her
away. “You must
go
now. There
will
be more soldiers.”

“
I won’t
leave
you!” She sobbed. “Not
you!
” Her body trembled. “You’re like a
brother
Thadius! I
can’t
let you die!” She
clutched at his shirt. “I
won’t
let you die!”

“
I…
am
dying,” he said bluntly, through jagged breaths. “But
it’s
alright
,” he nodded. “I’m a
soldier
.” He coughed. “Don’t let it be for
nothing
. Be
strong
for me…” he shuddered and reached up to grasp her shaking
hand “
Go
,
my Josephine.” He smiled up at her. “Go and save the
world
.” Then he closed his eyes and after a final few, rattling
breaths, he was gone.

Josephine looked at him in stunned silence a moment. His face
had grown pallid, flattened somehow, the life gone from within. Her
chest ached with sadness and she wailed, still clutching to his
hand. But before she had more time to grieve, her ears pricked as
she heard more people running up ahead, their footsteps growing
closer. The wall of air behind her still held strong, and then men
stuck behind it pawed at the invisible field. There could be
hundreds more soldiers in front of her. She stood on wobbly legs
and turned to the door just as five men appeared in the narrow
gap.

“
Come with us princess,” one said. “This escape
is
over
.” They walked towards her confidently.

Josephine’s face changed as she watched them
approach. Sorrow burned her heart, but it catalysed the rest of her
emotions and began to set off a burning anger far greater than she
had
ever
felt before. Her fists balled up and her eyes flared a
bright sapphire. In the gloomy corridor they shone like a cat’s
eyes caught in the moonlight and the men stopped in their tracks,
taken aback by the sight.

“
Get
out
of my
way
,” she snarled at them and the air around the men began to
shimmer and warp. The soldiers looked to each other and then,
before they could act, the air closed around them and they dropped
their weapons, clutching to their throats, gasping for air. A few
seconds later they collapsed, unconscious on the floor and
Josephine marched over them and proceeded down the corridor. She
looked back one last time at Thadius, tears spilling from her eyes,
and then she ran.

More
soldiers came at her as she fled but she grasped them with the
energy and threw them aside like twigs in the wind. The air hummed
around her and her skin luminesced as she continued on her way,
until after a few more minutes she found herself atop a stairwell.
The entrance to the palace stood beyond the wide entrance hall with
a tall, ribbed vault ceiling, but between it and her, at the bottom
of the stairs, two - dozen soldiers stood, bristling with
weapons.

“
What will you do
now
princess? You are
surrounded
.” The voice made her spin round. Silar
approached, a smile on his face, and he gestured to himself with
his spindly hands. “
Surely
you did not think a collapsing
floor
would kill
me?
” he scoffed. “The
emperor
, on the other hand, is a
lot
more fragile.” He
shook his head. “What if he
dies
? Are you a
murderer
, princess?”

“
I
know
what I am,” she growled. “And I know what
you
are. You
don’t
frighten
me sorcerer.”

The man held his unnerving smile on a face that
had not known true joy for many years. His eyes regarded her. “Then
you are very,
very
foolish,” he whispered, and the hairs stood on the back of
Josephine’s neck as he took a step forward. “You are
surrounded
and your
only
ally is dead. You
will
never
make it out of here alive. But I
would
be willing to preserve your life, if you
would only do what I say.”

Josephine sneered. “You don’t
truly
believe I would obey
you?
” she spat.

Silar’s false smile finally fell and she felt him reach
around her with his energy. But she was ready this time. Her entire
body pulsed with the power, driven by her fury, and the wards he
tried to wrap around her fell apart like an unravelling
rope.

“
Relinquish your power and
surrender!
” he commanded angrily. “Or I will
wrap you up in
flame
and sear the
flesh
from your
bones!
”

“
Then
do
it!” She wailed manically. “I won’t
help
you!”

Silar raised a bony hand and knocked her against the railings
with a ball of air. Her back crunched and she felt pain shoot up
her spine. The iron rods were buckling under her weight and the
pressure of Silar pushing her body into them. She gripped at one,
searching for some kind of support, but it came loose in her hand.
Before she could recover, Silar enveloped her in a ball of green
smoke that filled her lungs and burned her eyes and
skin.

“
You
really
have
no
idea
who
you are dealing with!” Silar hissed from the other side of
the fog. “
Centuries
of planning, of lying low,
only
emerging when the time is right to
manipulate
events
just
so, in order to
nudge this
pathetic
world in the direction of our choosing. Did you
really
think
you
could make a
difference?” He laughed. “The gods were
fools
if they thought
you
could stop us. You are a
weak
child! A
tiny,
fragile
woman.”

Josephine felt herself fade in and out of
consciousness.
This is it
, she thought.
I can’t go on any more
.
I’m sorry
, she said. To whom, she did not know. To
everyone she had failed perhaps. Suddenly she felt a hand press
against her chest and she looked up into the murky cloud. Silar
continued to berate her, his sinewy features just visible beyond
the gloom, maintaining the ball of fog that suffocated her. Her
eyes flickered and tried to focus and then, momentarily, the
outline of a man appeared for just a second. It looked like
Thadius. She blinked and then it was gone.
Thadius
. His last words echoed in her
mind.
“‘Go
and save the world’.
”

The
anger reasserted itself within her and she felt strength pass into
her exhausted body once more. She focussed and the fog began to
melt away as if burnt by a heat from inside her. Silar stopped his
monologue and looked at her in confusion. She bared her teeth and
concentrated, flinging him against the wall, his arms outstretched.
He struggled against the wards.

“
How are you
doing
this?” he asked.

“
I am a child of the
Akari
,” she sneered. “I am stronger than a
mere
sorcerer! I’ll
be
going
now,” she said and wielding the iron bar still held in her
hand, she brought it heavily down on his left temple. He slumped
into unconsciousness and she released him from his invisible
bindings, his body crumpling to the floor.

Seeing what she had done, the soldiers advanced up
the stairwell towards her. One threw a knife at her, but it bounced
off a shield she extended around herself. With a nod of her head
they fell about the hallway as a wave of power unsteadied them and
she darted down the stairs. Though the power felt strong with her
fiery anger, she couldn’t hold it forever, not against them all.
More and more men appeared, encircling her and she could only hold
them back for so long. Her fear and anger boiled over and she felt
herself lashing out at the men that came at her with concentrated
bubbles of her power in random combinations she didn’t understand
or, it felt, that she could even control. One man burst in front of
her, his entire body exploding as if it had been inflated from the
inside until his skin couldn’t take any more pressure. She gasped
at what she had done, but her survival instinct kicked in and she
continued to press on through the throng. Another man dissolved
into dust and another melted like wax. She watched herself kill
people as if by instinct. She didn’t want to hurt
anyone
else! She needed to
get out of here
now!
She turned. The locked doors stood ahead. She forced her
energy towards them. Waves of concentrated power oscillated and the
wood rattled as she strained against it.

Come on!
She thought as she strained with all her might and
then the wood and brick of the door and wall buckled, and with a
noise that resounded through all of Ank’ Shara the front of the
palace erupted and funnelled outward in a cloud of dust and debris,
brick and shattered glass. The soldiers ran and dived for cover as
parts of the ceiling around them fell in great chunks. A boulder
bounced off the shield Josephine had erected around herself and she
walked forward into the dust, emerging into the sunlight. She
looked behind her momentarily and then, her legs pounding, she
hurtled out of the enormous gap, the soldiers around her shrouded
in dust from the broken stone and dashed away.

The
courtyard outside the main entrance lay before her and freedom from
the palace. Two more soldiers came at her, bearing their weapons at
her. She threw a hand out and catapulted them away. A tingling
feeling, like a sixth sense feeling danger, made her look
backwards. Fireballs shot toward her, and she plummeted to the
floor as they exploded about her. Several mages scurried towards
her, their fur flapping in the wind as they turned to each other
and babbled in their own, strange language. Then they fired at her
again, flame bursting from their paws, snarling rabidly from little
mouths with sharp teeth as they attacked her. Josephine rose to her
feet and concentrated with all her might. Her arms and legs ached
and across her face a vein began to creep from her forehead down
her nose as she held her shield of power in place. The flame struck
it and dissipated in a hiss of steam. The creatures, seeing this,
babbled again and then struck her again, this time with green bolts
of energy. They snaked around the shield and Josephine could feel
it begin to waver.

“
I’m sorry!” she cried out to them. “I don’t want
to
hurt
you! But I have no choice!” Flashes of light sparked from
her body and the creatures bounced around like rubber balls. They
chirruped and shrilled as they rolled around. Josephine turned and
ran again, as fast as she could. A further set of smaller doors
barred her path out of the courtyard, fixed in place by a large
plank of wood at their centre resting on several metal brackets. At
one side the plank was fastened to the brickwork by a large, metal
stud. She threw her hand up, directing waves of energy at it, and
it swung effortlessly out of its housings. The doors swung outwards
at her command and she darted through them, down the pathway into
the city and away, crying with pain as she ran.

The cell Augustus sat in could almost have been
considered, by an outsider to Mahalia, to be
luxurious
. To the untrained eye, the
lack of bars restricting movement, the clean, white walls and the
upholstered chair might seem more akin to a guest house. In
actuality, the walls were reinforced with wards preventing their
destruction and an energy field covering the opening of the prison
would turn flesh and bone to dust to one who would try to cross it.
The chair was just for comfort. They weren't
barbarians
, after all.

Pym
had been imprisoned for weeks and in that time his visitors had
been restricted to the chancellor and those wizards and men the man
deemed trustworthy. All Pym had to entertain himself was a book
(reviewed by the chancellor himself for any code or secrets), the
prospect of his twice daily meals - one at breakfast and one at
sunset - and a small, reinforced window which looked out on to the
plains. There were several other cells in the block - all empty.
Aside from the door to the outside world of Mahalia and a flaming
torch on the far wall, there was nothing else of note to look
at.