The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (3 page)

“
Alright. Hold on, it’ll
take
a minute!” The eye disappeared and the
peephole slid shut.

Sounds of various bolts and latches being undone came from
behind the heavy wooden door. Matthias’ lips twitched into a smile
as he waited – he could hear the man fumbling with the door,
breathing heavily.

“
Isn’t money a
wonderful
thing?” he whispered to himself. He
inspected his fingernails as he waited, and then finally after a
moment more, the door began to creak open. The eye, or rather, the
person the eye belonged to became visible as a hand beckoned for
Matthias to come inside. He was a man of many years, dressed in a
tattered brown coat – or, more accurately, what was
left
of a brown coat,
with its ripped sleeves and stretched button holes. It was a sharp
contrast to the soldiers at the main gate that Matthias had spied,
their breastplates gleaming in the sun, with the emblem of
Aralia--a golden Phoenix--shining proudly in golden leaf adhered to
the steel. But then he didn’t
want
to speak with them. He could
handle
someone like this.

“
Right. Come on in then,” the man said awkwardly, jerking a
thumb behind him.

Matthias passed through the gateway, his staff tapping on the
floor as he moved through. He emerged into a small
cobblestone-floored yard, with stacks of broken crates piled up in
the corners. An old cart lay rusting to one side, propped against a
wall, covered in moss and crawling with snails. The air smelled of
old, rotting vegetables. Matthias congratulated himself silently,
whilst trying to block out the stench. He had guessed right - this
was a little used gateway, and just what he had needed. Somewhere
quiet to gain entrance.

“
Welcome
to Rina!” the man said with mock enthusiasm, and
rubbed the back of his grey-haired head
nervously.

Matthias nodded his head. “
Thank
you,” he said with equal sarcasm. He
reached into his coat and pulled out a leather purse. The man’s
face lit up, as Matthias took out two gold coins – Mahalian Marks -
and placed them in the man's waiting palm. His stubby fingers
snapped around them as soon as the metal touched his greasy skin.
“Your assistance is appreciated,” Matthias said. “It wasn’t
that
hard, was
it?”

The man shook his head as he shoved the coins into
his pocket. “You’d best
not
be ‘ere in Rina to make
trouble
. I knows that a man of yer standin’ who
is so desperate to come through this way is up to
some
sort of mischief.”
He leaned forward. “Whatever it is you is up to, it ‘ad better not
be anything that’ll hurt this city.”

“
Or
get you into trouble?” Matthias suggested

“
That too.”

Matthias smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. “I
hear you
loud
and clear, my friend. Don’t worry yourself. I’m a
wizard
.”

“
That’s what I’m
worried
about,” the man said.

“
My point is if I
wanted
to cause trouble, I could burn this city
to the ground single-handedly. From the
outside
.” Matthias knelt down so he was level
with the man’s face. “I’m
not
your enemy.
Believe
me.”

“
There ain’t many people round ‘ere who would believe the
words of a wizard,” the man retorted.

“
Are
you one of them?” Matthias asked.

“
Ain’t ever ‘ad any reason to dislike your kind,” the man
said.

Matthias nodded. “Well then, that’s good.”

“
Ain’t ‘ad any reason to
like
‘em either,” the man added
quickly.

Matthias smiled. ”I give you my word. I
am
here to
help.”

The
gatekeeper looked him in the eyes, and nodded. “Well… that’s
alright then. Glad to hears it.” He shook his head. “Confident
young lad ain’t yer?” he added.

“
What’s your name?” Matthias asked, ignoring the
comment.

“
Jadin. Jadin Spickett,” he said uncertainly.

“
Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Jadin,” Matthias
said. “You know, there is one other thing you
could
do for me,” he added, lifting a
finger and looking around. “Is it possible you could show me how I
get to the main courtyard from here? I haven’t got a
clue!”

The
gatekeeper shook his head, again rubbing the back of his neck. “I
‘ave to stay here and look over the gate. It ain’t worth my life to
abandon this post! You never know what kind of person will try to
get in or out when I’m not looking. ‘Ave to keep constant vigi…
er…”- he faltered, and scratched at his head.

“
Vigilance?” Matthias proffered.

“
Exactly!
So I’m sorry, but I can take you no further! As I
said, it ain’t worth my life.”

Matthias slowly reached into his pocket again. “Perhaps it
would be worth another Mahalian Mark? In Aralian currency I think
that’s enough for…” he paused, squinting his eyes in thought.
“Fifty - three pints of your ale? If I’m not mistaken?”

The keeper’s hand shot out at an impressive speed
and snatched the money from Matthias' own. “More like
sixty
,” the man said uncertainly. He nodded in front of them.
“Follow me then. I’ll take you to the bloody
courtyard.”

Springing into a brisk walk the man beckoned for
Matthias to follow, his small legs moving ten to the dozen.
Matthias chuckled, shaking his head as they headed off into the
city together. “Such a
helpful
man,” he whispered to himself.

They
walked through a series of dark, narrow streets. Torn rags were
suspended above from precariously hanging ropes. Wooden buckets of
varying shapes and sizes sat outside lines of slapdash houses,
filled with... well, Matthias could hazard a pretty good guess at
what they held. The air was thick with the smell of urine and the
cobbles were cracked and littered with weeds.

“
Where are we?” Matthias asked his guide as he stared sombrely
around him.

“
We call this ‘the skids’” Jadin replied. “I don’t
think I need to
tell
you why.”

They
passed a woman in threadbare clothes who gave Matthias a deathly
stare as they passed. He was hardly dressed appropriately for
walking through the slums.

“
Every big city has a place where people slip
between the cracks,” Matthias mused. “People clutching to life by a
thread. How many people
live
in this area?” he asked.

“
Hard to say. Maybe a few hundred,” the man
replied. “I live on the outskirts. It’s a small house, but it’s
better than some around ‘ere ‘ave got. I expect you live in
a
mansion
or something similar?” he asked bitterly.

“
Not
quite Jadin,” he replied, but didn’t elaborate further.

They
emerged out into a merchant area, with market stalls lining one
side of a long, narrow street. Chickens stacked atop each other in
small, wooden boxes clucked at him as he passed them, their beady
eyes flicking hastily around themselves, and tied up by their legs,
several dead rabbits hung from the wood frame of the stall, their
ears flapping in the breeze.

Matthias browsed over some of the goods being sold as they
made their way through the area. One stall that caught his eye was
filled with pendants and medallions. Matthias paused a moment to
look them over.

“
See anything you like, My Lord?” the owner asked,
leaning forward expectantly. He smiled with yellowing teeth through
his thick, spiky black beard. “Here, how about this?” His chunky
hand dove into a tangled collection of pendants in a wicker basket
and pulled out a crude looking pewter knot with a piece of coloured
glass in the middle. He showed it to Matthias. “This here, see, is
made of
urunahenium
, the rarest metal in the
world!
It acts as a barrier against black
magic.”

Matthias eyed the trinket cautiously and tried to
keep a straight face. “
Black
magic, you say?” he repeated. “Like the sort
a
wizard
would perform?”

“
Meslip
-” Jadin began, shaking his head at the owner, but
the man cut him off.

“
Oh yes!” the man continued, as Jadin tugged at
Matthias’ arm. “It would ward off any spells from
those
creatures,” he
said, grinning.

“
Really?
” Matthias exclaimed. “Perhaps I had better take a
closer look at that...” He leaned forward, and the Mahalian pendant
around his own neck dangled into full view. The owner caught sight
of it and his eyes boggled.

“
You know, I think...
yes
, I seem to remember, I had
sold
this already,
to
another
lord! He is coming by later to collect it! I
am
sorry!” He started
to sweat quite profusely, and dabbed at his brow with a
handkerchief.

Matthias put on a face of mock disappointment, and clutched
to his chest. “Alas, I will have to do without it.” He bowed his
head to the owner with a wry smile and left with Jadin, who tried
to pull him away as quickly as he could.

“
Are
all Aralians as crafty Jadin?” Matthias asked with a smile as they
walked on.

“
Forgive Meslip,” he said anxiously. “He has been
hard done by of late. His wife ran off with the local Blacksmith.
Took all his possessions of any value, what little money he had.
Yer... won’t
do
anything to him, will you?” he asked
anxiously.

Matthias stopped. “Why
would
I?” he asked.

“
It’s just there are stories of
wizards
who take revenge on their
enemies.” Jadin shrugged. “Meslip
was
lying and saying things about yer people,” he said
awkwardly.

Matthias shook his head. “I would
never
do that Jadin.”
Then he smiled. “I was just playing with him. There was no harm
done! I say good
luck
to him. There must be
hundreds
of nobles in this city gullible enough to fall for
such a trick, and if they do, then they
deserve
to be tricked. It’s amazing he
isn’t
rolling
in coin!” He glared up at the sky. The sun was growing
higher, rising above the wall of the city and peeking around the
scaffolds as it made its slow ascent. “Are we much further from the
courtyard? I’m afraid time is against me, and I can’t afford to
waste any more of it.”

“
Not
much further,” Jadin replied, his tone lighter. “Come. It’s this
way.”

“
Your people are wary of wizards, aren’t they?” Matthias
asked.

“
We’ve heard stories of what wizards can do. You
ain’t too popular amongst
most
people in these parts.”

“
We
try to keep the peace,” Matthias said. “For the most part, we have
succeeded.”

Jadin nodded as they walked. “So yer say. But from what I’ve
heard it’s sometimes peace created with fear, and that ain’t no
peace at all, not in my book.”

Matthias paused a moment and stared at the man.
“You are
very
perceptive.”

“
Not
what you was expectin’?”

He
nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose I should know better than to judge
someone by first impressions,” he said distantly.

“
I’m
not sure how to take that,” Jadin said.

They
carried on through a narrow alleyway, and then under a bridge from
which scaffolding poles stuck out at odd angles.

“
Do
you have a large family Jadin?” Matthias asked as they
continued.

“
I
‘ave a wife and three children,” he said. “Two boys and a girl.
Why?” he asked.

“
It’s rude not to get to know your hosts, I always think,”
Matthias replied with a smile. “How long do you sit at that gate
for?”

“
Ten
hours a day,” Jadin replied. “Ten hours I sit on my old crate and
keep an eye out for trouble!”

“
I
can’t imagine many people come round your way very often?” Matthias
asked.