Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (15 page)

Each step was taken in jarring agony, making slow progress across the room once more. Mathieu ground his teeth in frustration; however, he reached the clothes without having to stop. They were not his clothes. They were cut for a male, something he wasn’t quiet used to anymore.

Setting his pride aside at wearing barrowed clothes, he pulled the loose black pants on and slid the white tee-shirt over his torso. Mathieu was pretty sure the pain was going to kill him, because he actually started to cry. Looking at himself in the reflective wall, he punched the wall, against simulating control for himself, before wiping his eyes roughly. His reflection looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. There were no secrets in his face: concern, pain, fear, and anger. He also thought he looked rather ridiculous in the oversized clothing. Avian had been right to put him in girls’ clothes for so long, he realized.

The door creaked open behind him again. Mathieu turned but was too late: the visitor was faster and had caught him with a solid hit across the back of the neck. Giving a small whimper, he crumpled to the ground.

~*~

Slowly, things began to come into focus again, and the most nauseating sense of d
é
j
à
-vu hit him.

A weird haze was clouding his mind yet he could distinguish that he was in another room, much like one he had just occupied, and just as cold. This one, however, had a chair instead of a bed and the walls were less reflective. Or maybe that was just a trick of the light.
How he could tell anything through the pain and his fogged vision, Mathieu wasn’t sure.

His body kind of felt disjointed and he tried to lift a hand, wanting to make sure that everything was still where it was meant to go. When his hand didn’t simply rise to the level of his face, he tried to blink a few times before managing to roll his gaze down to his hand. That, too, was difficult, not aided in the least by the lines that blurred along his vision. After a moment of staring, he realized that he was now looking down at a bright, glowing bound. He was bound to a chair.

He could sense a presence somewhere nearby, although he couldn‘t pinpoint it. “Hello?” Mathieu’s eyes skimmed along the floor to the wall, voice slurred.

A man with blond hair was leaning against the wall beside the door. He shook his head in response, rubbing a stubbled chin in a pondering way.

“Hey, ’m talking to you!” He half-yelled as he met the blond’s eyes, struggling to get free. It was taking some time, but slowly he was beginning to pull his head together.

It seemed that the man took his gaze as a signal, a cue to cross the room. Long, callused fingers slid into Mathieu’s hair and tilted his head back, searching his face for something. The blazing emerald eyes of the stranger pierced into the depths of his, looking into his soul and making his pulse race.

Feeling his personal space being invaded, Mathieu growled softly and swung a foot up to kick the man in the shin.
“’Ey!”

Making a noise of irritation, the man released his white hair, shaking his head in a disapproving manner. In a few long steps the stranger crossed the room and left Mathieu alone in the remaining silence. He took a shaking breath and looked around. Alone, he could try and think, although he was a bit disappointed in himself for ruining his chances of getting some answers. Staring after the man as the door closed, his brow furrowed. He was getting the strangest feeling that he’d met the man before. Yet somehow, he knew he’d never met the stranger in his life.

And then it hit him.
“Of course.
The dream…” Everything had played out as he had dreamt it would so many years ago. But that still didn’t tell him where Avian was and why he was being held captive to a chair.
“Oi!
Let me out of here! I want to see Avian!” Mathieu stomped one foot on the ground and regretted it from the pain it caused his hip.

No response came, but yelling into the silence
did
make him feel a bit better. Unfortunately, the pain behind his eyes hadn’t completely receded yet, making the use of his energy nearly impossible. So, swearing under his breath, he did the only thing that he could think of: he reached out with his mind, searching for either of his Shadowriders. Tesla was the first that he could touch, brushing against the male’s mind lightly.

Tesla’s deep voice filled his head.
Mathieu?
Mathieu where are you?

I don’t know where I am. Tell me what’s going on.
Mathieu thought calmly, trying to prevent himself from going into a panic. That wouldn’t help him now.

There’s a big commotion in the throne room. The King is claiming that you and Avian were attacked, that she was killed.

A lump rose in his throat, eyes welling with tears; the thought was too painful to bear.
We were attacked, but both of us were alive.
He tried to reassure both Tesla and himself.
I haven’t seen Avian since though, but I’m working on it. Listen, can you teleport to me?

Not if you don’t know where you are. Tell me what you remember.
Tesla instructed, somewhat placated at the thought that both of them were alive.

Mathieu closed his eyes, thinking.
They had guns.
A whole squad of them.
I killed at least three, maybe four of them, but there were more. I got shot twice and I don’t know what happened after that.
Oi, find out what you can and get back to me, okay?
He thought, needing to sever the connection before the pounding in his brain returned full force. Mathieu knew he could trust Tesla.

I will.
And with that, the Shadowrider pulled away from his end of the connection.

“Damn it. This is ridiculous. Someone let me out of here! I need to find Avian!” Mathieu said loudly to no one in particular. But this time, the door creaked open.

A man with red hair stood looking at him, his face older than the first man, maybe thirty-five or forty. The redheaded man’s arms were muscled under the shirt he wore and a sword hung at his side. “Hello, Mathieu.” The stranger had a glass of bourbon in his hand.

“Who are you and what did you do to Avian?” Mathieu said immediately. Anyone here who knew his name must have gotten it from Avian. He began to struggle again, wanting free.

The redhead came into the room and looked down at him. “I’m Nathan. We can’t let you free yet, but we will soon. Avian is fine.”

“And why can’t you let me go yet?” Mathieu
said,
eyes full of distrust.

A crooked smile spread across Nathan’s face. “Simple. The person who bound you to that chair hasn’t come back. They should return soon, so just calm down.”

That aside, he keyed in on his main worry. His voice was colored with distress. “Where’s Avian? What have you done to her?”

“One of my men realized that she was the Princess of Unith and brought her straight to me. She and I have been talking most of the day, and she’s being well cared for. Avian is napping right now, I believe. Once we let you out, we’ll make sure to bring you to her.” Nathan chuckled. “At first she didn’t know we had you with us, but her Highness overheard Solomon telling me that you were being rather difficult and she said that she would like you to be freed. Apparently you are very important to her.”

These answers didn’t satisfy him, but at least someone was talking to him. “Why was I locked up? And why can’t I see her now?”

“You sure ask a lot of questions.” Nathan nodded his
head in agreement to his own words, taking a sip of his liqour. “You were locked up because you were with
an
Unithian, yet you have a gift. We didn’t know where your loyalties lie, but we couldn’t in good conscience leave you to die in those mountains. That and Avian starting biting when they tried to leave you behind.”

Sighing through his nose and doing what he could to sort through the information given to him, he asked, “Can you at least tell me where I am?”

The red-head threw his head back in laughter. “I thought that would have been obvious. You’re in Korinth. Enjoy your stay.” Nathan patted Mathieu on the shoulder before turning to go, leaving the door open in his wake.

Mathieu could see down the bright hall to where a dimly lit staircase climbed beyond his view. By leaning forward as far as possible, he could see a few steps higher, but it was ultimately futile. Huffing, he sat back up and pondered what the man had said. Avian was fine, had been ‘talking’ all day, and was now napping. He wasn’t sure about having conversations, but napping was definitely up her alley.

Groaning, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the hard wooden chair. He wanted to at least be allowed to stretch. He’d been sitting for far too long and the places where he’d been shot were beginning to ache. It was funny how moving around didn’t mean much until you weren’t allowed to anymore. Thinking about how much pain he was in and silently cursing everyone he could think of that had ever pissed him off was certainly not helping the time go by any faster, but it was a fair bit of fun. He had just gotten to cursing a frog that had scared him once when he felt a brush against his mind,
Tesla’s consciousness just beyond.

Mathieu squeezed his eyes tighter and reached out, twining into the other mind.
Tesla?

Yeah, it’s me. Okay, so I don’t have much time. The King is acting really paranoid. No one is saying anything about what happened.
Even in his mind, Tesla was being hushed, which meant that things must really be back.

Closing his eyes again, he sighed.
Thanks Tesla. I’m in Korinth, by the way. I’ll let you know when I get a better idea where.

A soft hum of agreement filled his mind before Tesla pulled away. Mathieu sighed. “Well that was a short conversation…” Said conversation didn’t tell him much. In fact, it didn’t tell him anything. Nathan had been much more helpful. Sighing, he tilted his head forward, opening his eyes; and came face-to-face with a big-eyed blonde.

“Ah!” Jumping back, the girl clutched her chest; her crystalline blue eyes wide and full of shock. “Don’t
do
that.”

“Uh…” Mathieu raised an eyebrow at her, not nearly as frightened by her as she was by him.

Straightening up, she put her hands on her hips, blonde hair swaying gently. Blunt bangs covered part of her eyes and she had a perpetual pout dancing on her lips. “Hello. You’re Mathieu right? I‘m supposed to set you free…” She made no moves to do so.

They started at each other for a few moments. “Then do it already!” Mathieu finally blurted out.

“You’re very rude, Mr. Mathieu.” She said, tossing her straight hair over her shoulders.

Rolling his eyes, he sighed “Fine. Hello mystery female. I’m Mathieu. Would you politely untie me?” Her voice was rather high pitched and his headache didn’t appreciate it.

Grinning, she patted his head like he was
pet
. “I am Kiev DeLandy. And why yes, I will.” She reached her hand out and dragged them along the glowing bonds, which slowly unraveled themselves and fell to the floor, harmless. “There you go. Now, Princess Avian is requesting you. Come.”

Standing was an excruciatingly painful task. He was about halfway out of the chair when his wounds decided that it was time to start protesting. So he stood there, half-hunched over, in pain that was threatening to cause a black out.

Seemingly taking pity on him, Kiev leaned down and helped slowly pull him to a fully standing position. “Better? I’ll get Adele to finish healing those…” She said, gently poking at his wounds.

Nodding numbly, he took a tentative step forward and found that he was okay with her help once he was fully standing. The place that he was being held was in the cellar or basement of a large manor. It was a well-cared for building, made almost entirely out of glass except for the few shiny metal support beams. He found this to be an odd feature, but kept his decorative comments to himself. Even to his untrained eyes, the place was clearly lived in. Mathieu vaguely wondered if Kiev lived here.