The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (39 page)

“
I’m
on the run,” Luccius said suddenly.

Josephine looked surprised. “You are a criminal?” she
asked.

“
Would it change your opinion of me if I were?” Luccius
countered.

Josephine shrugged. “I suppose it depends on
the
manner
of your crime.”

Luccius laughed and shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m not a
murderer or a thief, or anything like that. I’m just... not where I
should be.”

“
That does not sound like much of a crime to me,” Josephine
exclaimed.

“
Perhaps not where
you
come from,” Luccius responded
sombrely.

“
Where should you be then?” the princess asked.

“
I
told you my people do not get out much. Well, the reason is that it
is against our laws to leave our Communities without a purpose that
is deemed necessary by the Whole.”

“
The
Whole?” Josephine queried.

“
The
decision of my people as a unit. We all have a say in
matters.”

Josephine nodded. “I see. I take it you left then without the
permission of the Whole?”

Luccius smiled. “There is so much to see of this
world! Why would
anyone
stay in one place? I packed up my bags and left one day and
didn’t look back.”

“
Are
your people searching for you?” Josephine asked.

“
I
doubt it. In their eyes I have turned my back on them. They would
not risk their lives for such a person.”

Josephine placed a hand on Luccius’s arm. “It is their loss,”
she smiled. “How long have you been away?”

Luccius shrugged. “If I’m honest, I have lost count of the
years now. I make my way around Triska, working here and there and
earning some coin. Gambling’s always good for a few marks –
especially dice! I seem to have luck when it comes to dice. People
accuse me of cheating: that somehow my ears enable me to see
predict the roll. I’ve had a few bar fights in my time because of
that. Not that I enjoy them.”

“
What did you do before? In your… Community?” asked
Josephine.

“
Nothing exciting,” he said quickly.

Josephine eyed him doubtfully. “You
know
I have been brought
up in a Court life, Luccius. Nowhere are there more liars, schemers
and deceivers gathered together in one place. And I know when
someone not telling the full truth when I see one. You do
not
make
a good liar, ansuwan -man.”

Luccius smiled. “It would
bore
you.”

“
It’s important to me if it means I find out a
little more about you and who you are. You are my escort, after
all. Does Matthias know what else you are hiding?” She asked. He
looked sheepish. “I’ll take that as a yes. Then why will you not
trust
me?
Have we not become close on our journey so far? Are we not
friends?”

“
We are friends!” Luccius smiled. “It’s not
personal Josephine. But there are some things I’d rather not tell
anyone. Matthias knows my secrets because he has known me most of
my life. And he understands
why
I hide them. Some demons should
remain
locked away.” He
sniffed. “Just like
Sikaris
.”

Josephine sighed and wrung her hands. “Well, if
that is you final word, I will not press you on it further. I
suppose we
all
have secrets we would rather no one knew. Mine was this
power. Mind you, look how
that
has turned out!”

“
How
are you feeling after your strange dream anyway?” Luccius asked as
he watched a ripple in the water - a fish most probably.

“
I
am alright, thank you. It just… well, it unnerved me.”

“
Well that’s
understandable
,” Luccius said.

“
It has been making me think,” she continued. “This
may be such a dangerous journey. The others and yourself can only
protect me so far. If it comes to it, I may have to defend myself.
I have to be prepared to shed a little blood to do it. Even if
it
is
my
own.”

“
I
suppose,” Luccius said breathily. “It was only a dream though.
Remember that. We’re all here to defend you. You’re not alone. And
Matthias will help you control your power. You can use that to
defend yourself.”

She
snorted. “As much as it suits his needs perhaps. You really think
after I have sealed up the dragon’s prison he will stay around and
help me?”

“
I
thought you and he had built up some trust?” Luccius asker her,
surprised.

“
We
have. But it has still only been a few days that we have known one
another.”

“
Matthias is a good man.
Complicated
, perhaps, but I count him as my most
trusted friend. He
will
help you.”

“
I don’t know if he even really
likes
me! You said it yourself, we argue
more than we agree on matters. Sometimes we joke now, but
perhaps
that
is all an act? Maybe he really
is
just using me?”

Luccius laughed. “That’s just his way. He doesn’t hate you,
Josephine, if that’s what you think. You saw how he helped you when
you lost control, when Thadius and I couldn’t get to you to help.
He cares about you. He’s just… well, he doesn’t express it in quite
the same way as most of your kind.”

“
If in ‘quite the same way’ you mean he expresses
himself as an ass, then yes, you are quite right!” Josephine
snorted. Then she sighed and brushed the comment away with the
flick of a hand. “I am only joking. I suppose I know he cares in
some way. Oh,
ignore
me, I am being
foolish!
”

“
How do you feel towards
him?
” Luccius asked.

“
What do you mean?” Josephine stuttered.

“
Do
you like him?” he asked. “As a friend, I mean. I did not mean to
imply otherwise.”

The princess nodded. “It’s
hard
to develop familial feelings for a
man who tried to
kidnap
me,” she said.

“
You
seem to have confidence in him though,” Luccius commented. “You
trust his guidance?”

She
nodded. “But I am not used to someone who speaks to me as if I were
not a princess. There have been very few people in my life who have
done so.”

“
I would have thought that would be a good
thing?
Anyone
can bow down to you and fawn to your every need. Anyone can
agree with your every word. But what
good
is that?”

She nodded. “I suppose it is refreshing.
Most
of the time.” She
watched the water a moment and then sighed. “I think I will go back
to my chamber now,” she said abruptly. She placed a hand on his
arm. “Thank you for confiding in me as much as you have,” she
said.

“
And
you,” Luccius bowed his head. She turned and walked off to the
underside of the boat.

“
What a
pair
,” Luccius sniffed, his ears twitching with
amusement. “
Humans
.”

Providence
ploughed on through the water, the sun setting on
her first day of travel. Her captain, Pren Rilam, was a stout
fellow, dressed in country - style Aralian clothes: a brown
waistcoat atop a loosely woven fabric shirt and baggy grey trousers
tucked into tough, black leather boots. He was a pleasant enough
man, which was more than could be said of the captain of the ship
Matthias had caught on his way to Rina. Several times at sea he had
wished he could have dunked that man in the water. But Pren seemed
to be a decent man and even had a small bowl of food sent down for
the traveller’s at supper for no additional cost to them. Matthias
poked at the pottage with his wooden spoon as he sat cross - legged
on his small bed, hunched over to stop himself from bumping his
head on the low ceiling. The darkness of night clothed the
countryside around the boat at the late hour and he lit the candle
provided, plus one more he had stashed in his bag, to illuminate
the book he now read. He was having trouble concentrating though.
There was something tugging at him - a feeling of deep foreboding,
a sense that something very bad was about to happen- or perhaps was
happening right now. He had checked in with the others though, and
they were all fine. Josephine was locked in for the night, a
measure Thadius had insisted on. The knight did not want to take
any risks. Still, something was stopping Matthias from relaxing.
Maybe the last few days had got to him more than he would allow
himself to admit.

They had two more days of travel until they were
to reach their port of call: a small harbour town with little more
there than the dock itself of interest. It was: “A town that even
the fleas had deserted,” captain Rilam had told him, when he had
originally asked to sail that far upstream. “Not many call that
town as home any more, save those that have no
other
choice. Tanavern is known by those
places around as the ‘Stew of the North’. And I don’t mean ‘stew’
as in the
food
. There are
different
kinds of appetites that are sated in
Tanavern.”

Nevertheless, being the furthest port north that it was
possible to reach, Matthias had insisted on their passage and the
captain had agreed, for a price. From there the village of Gormal
in the mountains of the same name was close. It was a village
steeped in the mountains: the furthest settlement in Aralia. Once
through those mountains they would be in Olindian Territory and one
step closer to Crystal Ember. If Matthias read his tattered map
properly, there were two ways around the mountains. They would have
to determine which would be better for them. Time was slipping
through the hourglass far too quickly. He would ask Thadius in the
morning.

More pressingly on his mind was the fact that the
princess’s time to learn about her abilities was running out. Their
journey on
Providence
may be their only real chance to make considerable
progress. Earlier in the day he had sat with her, but she had been
unable to recreate her feat of the previous week until late into
the afternoon, and even then she had only held the strange
structures in her view for a few seconds before they vanished. She
had barked at him to leave afterwards, frustrated and tired. But
things were going too slowly and he impressed upon her they
couldn’t leave it until the morning to try again. She had thrown
her pillow at him and pushed him out of the door. Little good it
would do if they made it to Crystal Ember in time and she
couldn’t
do
anything! Not to mention the other dangers that could await
her. That made his stomach turn almost as much as the dragon. He
thought earlier that evening about telling her the whole truth:
that the information alone might spur her on. But she was under
enough pressure as it was without him adding to her worries. No,
perhaps that information
could
wait a bit longer. He had to do
something
to motivate her
though, and if fear wasn’t the answer then that something had to be
hope. Tomorrow he would try and help her to restore some
confidence.

Irritably he cast the book aside and lay down upon
his bed with his hands behind his head. There was something else
troubling him though at the back of his mind, beyond the current
issues with the princess that plagued his senses. What
was
it? He closed his
eyes and inhaled slowly for several minutes, calming his mind. So
many thoughts and feelings spun in his head that it was growing
harder and harder to keep them all together. Ah yes,
that
was it. It was
something that had been bothering him for a while now since his
last conversation with Master Pym. His mind’s eye cast itself back
to the discussion.

“
We stare into a Horizon of Storms,
Matthias.
Remember
that. We must navigate them carefully or else all is
lost.”

What did that
mean?
He knew when to read between the lines,
and Master Pym never said anything to him like that without a
reason. There must be some use for the phrase. He had not heard it
before, not could he recall anything from his studies that shed
light on the matter. Perhaps he was over- reacting to a throwaway
line? Except,
nothing
Pym said to him had ever
been
throwaway. It felt as if he was trying to tell
Matthias something else without actually having to tell it. Given
all Pym had disclosed to him at that point he was surprised the man
did not just come out and tell him. But he must have had his
reasons. Wizards
always
had their reasons. That was the problem.