The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (69 page)

“
You… are telling me the stories are untrue?” Matthias asked
warily.

“
A man does not reach my position in the council
and just throw it
away
, you know! One hundred and twenty one
years
I worked my way up that ladder. But
when I reached the top, when I became a fully-fledged member of the
council I found nothing but corruption.” He spat the word. “There
is one thing that rules the council above all else:
fear
. Fear of losing all that they have become. Fear of
anything
destabilising the
order of things. You
know
this! If you have come this far against the
consensus as you have, you know how much they value their place in
the world, how it
blinds
them to all opposition.” He placed a hand on Matthias’s
shoulder. “As I said,
ask
yourself what stories the council might tell of
you and your actions, to justify their own.”

Matthias shook his head anxiously as he absorbed the
information. “What…” he began. “What did they do to you? Why did
you leave?”

Balzan indicated above him. “I suggest we keep
moving as we talk,” he said, and so Josephine and Thadius began to
ascend again. Matthias began walking again, glancing back down at
Balzan as he did. “The truth of those days is that the council were
planning an attack. A terrifying,
unprovoked
attack on Olindia. They saw what was
happening here, with the revolution, and they feared what other
rebellions it would bring. So they planned to help restore the
monarchy that performed all their bidding. The old king might have
hated Mahalia, but he didn’t have the spine to stand up to them.
Moreover, they were prepared to shed a lot of innocent blood to do
it.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t let them. So I passed on
information to Caldur and his allies. They fortified their borders,
strengthened their rag - tag insurrection. By the time Mahalia was
ready to perform their surprise attack, it was too late. They
couldn’t go into Olindia without inciting full scale war in open
view of all of Triska.” He sniffed. “Mahalia was not stupid enough
to damage their image as peacekeepers so much in outright warfare –
not least a war that could go horribly wrong. So they shelved their
plans and had to put up with the change of
government.”

“
And
then they found out it was you that was passing information on,”
Matthias nodded, realisation dawning.

Balzan nodded. “Of course. So they exiled me. It
was a dark affair. They tortured people to get the information they
needed to do so. People died through those deeds. Then they spread
rumour that
I
was responsible, that I had killed hundreds to keep my
subterfuge unknown, that I was planning to betray Mahalia to
increase my own standing, and enact a similar rebellion as had
happened in Olindia.” He shook his head and chuckled. “I see those
lies have worked
very
well.” They emerged at the top of the stairs, where a thick
wooden door stood closed. Thadius and Josephine stood on the step
as the two wizards reached them. “So there you have it, Matthias.
You pushed for the truth and I gave it to you. Do you
see
now why I am
so
bitter
towards your-
our
- people? It is because they broke my
heart
,” he whispered. “
All
those years, believing we were
so
much better than anyone else! But in
the end we were
worse
.”

Matthias rested against the wall. He nodded.

Josephine placed a hand on his shoulder. “Matthias, are you
alright?” she asked gently.

“
I
am fine Josephine,” he said quietly.

Balzan looked sombre at him. “I am sorry if that was not what
you wanted to hear,” he said.

“
No,” Matthias said with a great weight to his
words. “But it was what I
needed
to hear. I…” he shook his head. “I apologise,
protector. After
everything
I know about the council, I
still
brought their bigotry towards you with
me.” He shook his head. “I
should
have known… what a
fool
I am!”

Balzan shook his head. “You are no fool.
Passionate, yes. Passionate in believing in a
better
world.” The elderly wizard smiled.
“You are the first wizard I have told the truth to in so many
years. At first I attempted to make others see what was happening.
But no - one would listen. So I stopped trying after a while. But
after everything I have heard today, you are the closest I have
found to someone who can see events for what they really are.” He
smiled. “It is good to know there are
some
wizards remaining who are willing to take
such risks for what is right.” He turned to the princess as
Matthias absorbed the words. “I think, perhaps, we have done enough
wallowing in the past for one day. Perhaps we had best try to work
to save the future, hmm?”

Josephine nodded, still squeezing Matthias on the shoulder.
“Lead on please, protector,” she replied.

“
I’m
sorry Josephine,” Matthias whispered. “I should have listened to
you. Your instincts were much better than mine.”

“
Your apologising to me is becoming rather a
habit,” she said. “
Come
on,” she said to Matthias with a warm smile. “We have
a
dragon
to tame.”

A
black stone shimmered in the middle of a small, round table as
Ambassador Elstace paced around its circumference anxiously,
rubbing his hands.

“
Come on. Come
on!
” he hissed. The gem was carved into an irregular
shape, not dissimilar to a peanut, if an oversized one as large as
his head, standing in a bronze - banded stand, its edges shining
purple as they caught the afternoon light
outside.

Gingerly Elstace reached out and stroked the largest edge of
the gem with a finger. It luminesced as he touched it, pulsing
purple, and as he took his hand away it dimmed again.

“
I
know you are out there! There is precious little time!”

After another few minutes of waiting, the gem began to shift
in shape, growing more fat and angular, emitting a noise like two
stones being rubbed together, until it formed a crude face. Glowing
gemstone eyes regarded him.

“
Lord Rajinal,” Elstace breathed with relief.

“
What do you want?” the face said, through his gemstone mouth.
“I am busy.”

“
My apologies,” Elstace said, rubbing his bald head
nervously. “But I have
terrible
news to bring you! The princess of Aralia is here,
in Crystal Ember!”

The
gem contorted where the brow should have been. “You are certain?”
Rajinal asked.

Elstace nodded. “I met her personally. She was travelling
with three others- three men, just as you said! I thought it
important to let you know, as you requested, as soon as they
arrived!”

The
face of Rajinal sighed and his eyes dimmed.

“
What should I do?” Elstace asked. “Should I try and get to
her? She is in the fortress now, with the regent. It may be
difficult now for me to get her alone.”

“
No,
Elstace. You have done all we have asked of you. There will be no
need to do anything further today.” The head shifted. “You should
leave Crystal Ember now, if you want to live to see the day of the
Asternabai. It will not be safe to be anywhere near the city
shortly.”

Elstace nodded. “As you command, my lord!
And…
thank
you!” he cried, as the stone began to hiss and smoke. It
broke apart and dissolved, leaving a pile of ash on the top of the
table.

Quickly, the ambassador packed up his things and
left.

“
Grimm failed us!
Again!
” Rajinal roared. The room they stood in
was enormous, open-spaced with large, white marble columns at
regular intervals. Silar sat on a large, comfortable-looking divan
and the other two stood, watching the fuming bear of a man in front
of them. “I thought you had given him the abilities he needed
to
end
this threat?”

“
I made him a necromancer. He told me himself that
he poisoned her, using the curse of assan! What more could I
do?
”

“
If the curse was used, how can the princess still
be alive?” Maevik grumbled. “The antidote is so complex as to be
almost
impossible
to achieve without the proper ingredients and knowledge.
The wizard might be clever, but he doesn’t know that much of
potions, I am certain!”

“
It doesn’t matter
how
it is possible,” Silar intervened. “The fact is
she is alive and well, and the one place we do not
want
her to be,
save
one
other. The important thing is to figure out how to ensure
she does not derail the next step.” He leaned over to a bejewelled
object sitting on a table next to his chair and tapped one of seven
shiny, marble - like orbs that were suspended from thin, golden
rods, attached to a mahogany base. Affixed to the centre of the
base stood a round ball of yellow-tinted glass, in which a candle
burned, its light illuminating the receptacle. A ticking noise came
from within.

“
We have run out of time to plan!” Maevik
exclaimed. “The princess is in Crystal Ember. She will find a way
to stop us from freeing Sikaris and a
massive
part of our plan will be
compromised!”

“
I have not waited four hundred years for
nothing!
” Kala spat back.

“
Calm down all of you,” Silar preened.
“There
is
still time. How many more of the seals are there on the
dragon?” he asked them.

“
Two,” Maevik advised. “They are the most complex of them all.
The threads are tightly woven.”

Silar nodded. “We have taken our time so far
because we had the luxury. The seals may be complex, but we know
how they can be broken. If we all work together, today, we
can
recover from this
setback. If we push ourselves as we never have before, we can free
Sikaris within hours!”

Rajinal stopped pacing, his chest heaving. “It
would mean coming out into the open,
risking
ourselves. We can’t do this remotely as we
have done so far, not if we are work so quickly. Each of us should
take a different thread. There can be no more doing this quietly.
No more masking what we do. We will have to be
messy
about it and our work will be
detectable. It is a risk, granted, but now, I fear we need to take
it. Agreed?”

Maevik nodded, followed in short order by Kala. Silar stood
and bowed his head.

“
Well said, Rajinal.
Agreed
. Now as time is short, shall we get
started
now?
”

“
I see no other option, if we want to stay ahead of
the princess,” Maevik said. He sighed. “I
hate
travelling in this way. It always leaves
me feeling sick to my
stomach
.” His body began to glow green, before it
dissolved into a thousand pieces and dispersed into the ground
beneath them.

“
For once I
agree
with the old miser,” Kala smiled, crossing his
arms before he too dissolved in a sickly aura.

“
Thank you Silar,” Rajinal said, patting the sinewy man on the
back. “You always bring calm to the proceedings.”

“
It is what I do
best
, isn’t it?” the man smiled. Rajinal nodded. Then,
closing his eyes, the gigantic man dissolved beneath Silar’s feet.
“Sometimes I feel like a parent trying to calm a bunch of
unruly
children
,” Silar sighed. Then he took a breath as energy funnelled
through his body, and tumbled through the earth and across the
land, through roots, streams, cracks and dirt, up and up the column
and into the dragon’s prison, where he could feel the presence of
the others in the energy field. The crumbling work of four hundred
year - old wizards stood before them and their weapon: weaves of
energy that covered the creature’s body like a million threads of
cotton, tied into loops, knotted, fused together so that the dragon
remained trapped in his prison. Together they wove themselves
around the threads, breaking the last two layers that held the
threads in place. Before this they had masked their work,
unravelled the web carefully, as if picking out a loose thread from
a pair of fine breeches, but now there was no time for caution.
They tore at the shield, ripped at it, and slowly but surely, the
tangled ball of knotted power began to sag even
further.