The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (50 page)

“
None of you know when to let fate take its course and die, do
you?” he said.

“
We’re not the
only
ones,” Matthias rebuffed. “Why do
you
persist?”

Grimm snarled and flailed wildly with his arms. A cluster of
green bolts crackled towards Matthias, and the wizard raised both
his hands. The energy evaporated before it could touch him. Grimm
shook his head.

“
I
am foolish to have underestimated you,” he said. “That much is
true.”

“
So perhaps you have also underestimated our
chances to
save
Triska?” Matthias said.

Grimm laughed. “Your wordplay will not convince me wizard,”
he said. “You are persuasive. I will admit last time you set seeds
of doubt in my mind, but now but I know I must
continue!”

“
You believe you must continue because that is what
they have
made
you think,” he said calmly. “Who are you to them Grimm? Why
have they chosen you to do this?”

“
Enough!
” Grimm wailed, and leapt and span across the
walls of the pass, jumping back and forth, shooting energy from his
palms. It exploded into the ground, leaving sizzling craters where
Matthias has stood. Matthias picked up his sword where it lay in
his path and leapt into the air, whirling at Grimm. Blood spattered
the ground as the blade sliced from his left cheek, across his nose
and up to his brow, disfiguring the man’s already tarnished face.
As his feet found ground again, Matthias turned and with a roar, he
threw out his hand. Lightning burst from his palm, surrounding
Grimm where he landed. The energy crackled around him, and Grimm
wailed. His skin popped, burst and charred as the bolt assaulted
his body. Matthias’s face greyed and veins snaked across his
forehead as he continued the attack. The walls sparkled with the
flashes of light, until, exhausted, Matthias let the bolt go and
dropped to his knees.

Grimm was a blackened mess, his skin burnt like coal, but he
remained standing. His bloodshot eyes regarded Matthias, silently,
and he smiled. Then he opened his mouth and took a deep breath. As
he did so, his skin healed. His body shook with the effort, but in
moments, he was healed, aside from thick veins that mottled his
face like Matthias. His face had grown even more sallow and the
skin over his cheeks looked wafer-thin, as if his cheek - bones
would burst through at any moment, but he was no longer charred and
smoking.

“
They protect me because I can help them bring their plans to
fruition,” he said through deep breaths. “I will be the Vessel.
Together we will bring about the cleansing of the world and it will
be reborn.” He looked at his hands, which were grey and skeletal,
and the back to Matthias, who stood gingerly, exhausted with the
effort. “You have this fight wizard. But it doesn’t change
anything.”

With
lightning fast speed he swung towards Josephine. She yelped as he
came at her, and again tried to focus her power to repel him, but
failed. He grabbed her fiercely, twisting her arm around her back
and stood behind her, his free hand on her neck. Matthias rose and
started forward.

“
I will
destroy
you,” Matthias growled, and raised a hand.
“Don’t
hurt
her!”

“
The tides of chaos will blind everyone,” he said
breathily, as his grip tightened on the princess. His nails broke
her skin and blood poured from the wounds. “The alliance will bring
forth the Return.” He pushed Josephine toward Matthias. She fell to
the floor, and Matthias ran to her side. Grimm looked down at them,
his eyes cold. “The cycle
will
be broken.” His body burst into purple-black
light, beams radiating out from his torso. Then he was gone in a
flicker of purple lighting, and the darkness returned. Matthias
relit a ball of light with effort. He had drained himself. He
stared for a moment where the man had vanished, stunned. Then he
drew his attention to Josephine.

“
Matthias!” She gulped awkwardly. Her skin was paling as he
watched. “I... I don’t feel well. I’m...” She passed out, her eyes
rolling up into their sockets.

“
Princess!” Matthias patted her on the cheek. “Josephine, wake
up! Oh gods, no!”

“
What’s happened? Matthias, tell me!” called a voice. Thadius
stared at them from where he lay, limp and floppy, like a gutted
fish.

“
Josephine’s fallen unconscious! I don’t know why. Grimm
pierced her neck with his nails, and-” He stopped as he tilted her
head to look at the half moon shapes on her side. The blood that
sat in the wounds was thick, tarry, dark red- black, and tinged
with green. When he touched near the wounds, the pressure made more
blood ooze out like curdled milk. “Thadius, I think Grimm has
poisoned her with something!” he called back.

“
Can
you help her?” he asked.

Matthias pressed his hand to her forehead and shut
his eyes a moment, taking a deep breath. His brow creased, and his
eyes worked beneath the closed lids. “I can’t even tell
what
it is. I can’t do
anything!”

“
Then you have to get her to someone who can!” Thadius called
gruffly. “Leave us and go!”

Matthias balanced Josephine in his arms and stood up. “I’m
not leaving you behind!” He walked over to them and laid Josephine
back on the ground, and went over to Thadius first.

“
I implore you,
please
, take the princess out of here! Get her
to a village! A doctor might be able to help
her!”

“
A
doctor won’t be able to help her Thadius!” he exclaimed, as he sat
beside him.

“
You
have to try! You-”

“
Just shut
up
, you great
boulder
,” Matthias grunted. He felt at Thadius’s arm then moved
his hands to his chest. His eyes flared. “I think I can heal
you
,” he said. “I’m going to channel energy into your body
Thadius, to reanimate your bones and muscles. It may hurt a little.
“

“
Just do it!” Thadius ordered. “Quickly!”

Matthias closed his eyes, concentrating, and then Thadius
gasped, cried out, and his chest jumped off the ground in spasm.
His body shook for a few moments, face contorted in pain, and then
it was all over. Matthias sat back.

“
That hurt a lot!” Thadius grunted.

“
Can
you move?” Matthias asked.

Thadius moved his head, then flexed his fingers, before he
pulled himself upright with a groan. “Apparently so,” he said. “Now
see to Luccius!” He leant over Josephine and stared helplessly at
her, stroking her hair back.

“
I
should have protected you,” he whispered. “I’m sorry
princess!”

Matthias inspected Luccius, who stared up at him.

“
You
look terrible,” the ansuwan whispered hoarsely.

“
You
don’t look so good yourself, old friend,” he said back, and pressed
a palm to Luccius’s forehead for a moment. Matthias’s lips thinned,
and then he exhaled, frustrated, shaking his head.

“
I
can’t heal this Luccius,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I’ve tried to
blunt the pain a little. Is it any better?”

“
Remember… when we tangled with that glashtyn demon?” the
ansuwan asked, as Matthias helped him sit up.

“
The
horse - demon?” Matthias muttered in recollection. “I remember you
were kicked in the groin so hard you couldn’t walk for a
week.”

He smiled, and nodded. “
This
is worse,” he said, as he grasped
Matthias’s arm and hoisted himself up onto his feet, where he
swayed.

Thadius stood, holding Josephine in his arms. Her head hung
limply to one side. “Should we return to Gormal?” the knight
asked.

Matthias shook his head. “There’s nothing there that will
help her,” he said, and turned to the rocks that blocked their path
ahead. “If we can get to Olindia I think she might stand a chance.”
He ran forward, and pressed the rocks. They didn’t budge. He took a
deep breath, and embraced the earth power fully once more. His head
pounded with the effort, and he could feel his body ready to give
way at any moment. It was as if he had run a marathon; he was weak,
hot, sweaty, and his lungs burnt as if they could not get enough
air, only it was his body that craved rest from wielding rather
than running. The rocks began to crunch, and with a groan they
burst into pieces, until all that remained of the blockade were a
few misshapen stones and a mass of pebbles. He let go of the power
as soon as they yielded, save for a trickle to maintain the light,
which at that moment seemed too much to cope with, and turned to
the others. “Can you carry her for long?” he asked Thadius. His
head was spinning.

“
As
long as it takes,” Thadius said.

Matthias nodded. “Then let’s go,” he said sadly.

They
set off down the path, slowly and surely, picking their way around
the stony ground. The cold and the dark seemed the least of their
troubles now.

In
the barren, malnourished Olindian territory directly beneath the
shadow of the Gormal Mountains, where it grew too cold to cultivate
crops, there were no towns, villages or farmhouses to speak of.
Save for one or two watch towers manned at sporadic intervals,
depending when the guardsmen could be bothered to get up from their
beds, barely any signs of civilisation marked the area at all.
There had been no real bad blood between Aralia and Olindia for
almost forty years so the need for larger armies guarding the area
was minimal. Given the unimportance of the mountain region, Olindia
seemed content to let it lie abandoned and focus on the arable land
where the climate grew warmer.

A
sombre band of travellers strode through this land now. Josephine’s
flagging body lay cradled in Thadius’s quaking arms, her head
lulling back and forth as she fell against his chest. Hours had
passed since she had been infected. They had walked through the
night and now dawn began to peek across the horizon. Her skin was
cracked, so dry that it flaked off at every opportunity and a
pallid grey had now begun to form around her eyes and
lips.

“
It’s a form of petrification,” Matthias had said, when he
noticed the new effect of the poison on her. “I’m certain of it. It
is as if she is being remade in stone. Every last drop of water is
being sucked from her body.”

“
Is
there nothing we can do to stop the effect?” Thadius asked, staring
down at the girl in his tired arms.

“
There are so
many
ways to petrify someone. With weaves of energy,
like the dragon, you can suspend someone in a stone shell
indefinitely. But poison, like this seems to be, will completely
turn the victim to stone forever. And each type has a specific
antidote or way of releasing the hold on the target.” He shook his
head. “We should keep her hydrated as much as we can. Pour water
over her if we have to. It might slow things down. Use the
canisters we have left.”

“
Can’t you create water with the power?” Thadius asked. “You
created a ball of water and turned it to ice in Rina.”

“
I pulled water from the air in the palace because
it was thick with moisture,” Matthias said and indicated to the
landscape around them. “But water is the
hardest
element to divine from the air. It’s
the key to life and it keeps itself guarded well. I can only manage
to retrieve small amounts here. I could pull
some
water from around us, but not much.
Not enough to make a difference.”

“
Well we had better find a stream soon then. Otherwise we’ll
soon run out, and she is already as dry as the Renegath Desert.”
Thadius replied dolefully.

Matthias stopped. “At the rate she is deteriorating, it won’t
make any difference how much water we give her if we can’t cure
her,” he said. “Giving her water won’t stop the deterioration, only
slow it down and sooner or later the poison will win.”

“
Then what do we
do?
” Thadius asked helplessly. “I
won’t
just let her die!”

“
Neither will
I!
” Matthias exclaimed. There was silence for a moment and
then Matthias continued. “There is an option I’ve considered. But
it’s a long shot,” he added.

“
I’d
say a long shot is better than nothing right about now,” Luccius
added. “What is it?” he asked.

“
Do
you remember Maryn?” Matthias asked the ansuwan. Luccius raised his
eyebrows and whistled.

“
Now that’s a name I
haven’t
heard in a while,” Luccius nodded.
“She
would
be difficult to forget,” he replied.