Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (25 page)

“We ready to go?” Nathan mounted his tuvash and patted its neck as he slid the bag into a pouch on the side of his own saddle.

Solomon checked the reins,
then
looked over his shoulder at a panicking Mathieu before nodding. “Hold on tight, Mathieu.”

Sitting up properly on the horse hybrid, he looked hesitantly at the other’s back, unsure where to put his hand. They sort of hovered by the man’s side, as he tried to figure out how best to go about the task without crossing some personal boundary line.

“Jeez.” The blond reached back and caught Mathieu’s slender wrists in his callused hands, pulling mocha arms around his tones waist, securing Mathieu. “Just don’t let go, kid.”

Mathieu, to his dismay locked his hands around his own wrists, but didn’t cling too tightly. “Er, okay.”

Pinching his brow, Solomon sighed deeply. “You’re going to fall off like that.”

“I’m fine.”

Shrugging, Solomon turned to Nathan, who had been watching them the whole time, and motioned with his chin. “Let’s just go.” The tuvashes started off at a trot.

Scared to death by the sudden motion, Mathieu suctioned to Solomon; he was holding so tightly that his cheek was pressed firmly to the other man’s back. “Oh god, I’m going to die on this thing!” Mathieu shouted as the tuvash he was on picked up speed.
“Ahh!”

It took close to an hour before the panic in Mathieu’s throat loosened enough for him to realize he wasn’t about to be thrown to his death. That and Solomon kept patting his arm in a comforting way. Some of the tension relaxed from his shoulders, and Mathieu found the ride to actually be rather…fun. A slow smile crept over his face, watching the ground flow smoothly over the mount’s feet.

“Hey, Solomon…” Mathieu said after a while.

“Hm?”
The blond sounded like his mind was a million miles away.

Closing his eyes, Mathieu relaxed a little more. The blond hadn’t let him fall, yet; he would be lying if he didn’t think Solomon still might just to prove a point. “Talk to me.”

“Okay, what about?” Solomon sounded a bit more alert now.

“You.
I mean, you’re six hundred, right? You can’t have spent your whole life working with Nathan.” Mathieu remembered that his riding partner had mentioned creating Tesla and Nikola; he wouldn’t mind hearing that story. Vaguely, he wondered what the two had been up to, but he wasn’t too worried. Whenever he began to worry, he would feel one or both of them brush against his consciousness and remind him that they were there. The few flashes of thoughts he saw through their eyes showed they playing in their largest, armor covered form and tromping through the forest. They were playing and exploring, it seemed.

Solomon was quiet for a moment before turning his head slightly so that Mathieu could hear him better. “Well, Mina and I grew up in this little town just across the sea. When we were born, it was the time before any true innovation. Our country wasn’t nearly as advanced as Unith is, but we were further than Korinth. This place is magic fueled though, so I guess it isn’t that surprising.” Shaking his head, he chuckled. “But anyway, I digress.”

Adjusted in his head, Solomon continued. “Where we lived was ruled by a dictator, and we happened to hold his favor. Mainly because Mina had caught his eye; but also because of what we are. So, all in all, our lives were fairly good. Like all humans, though, the man passed away, and another took his place who wasn‘t so kind. He saw Mina and
I
as a disease to be purged. We decided that we didn’t like the new man who ran the land, you know because he was trying to kill us, so we left. It took us a full week to get here. We rowed most of the way on a boat, but it hit a rock and sunk, so we swam the last bit. Mina was
devastate
because we lost everything we owned. Then, when we washed ashore, Nathan was just standing there, waiting for us.”

“How did he know?” Mathieu said, amazed that the twins had gone to such lengths to be free.

Solomon shrugged one shoulder. “Well, Elise is a seer and she saw having tea with Nathan, touched his arm and saw us. Or so the story goes. But there he was, waiting with a change of clothes and some blankets. He gave us a place to stay. It was rather nice.”

Tightening his grip into something of a hug, Mathieu smiled against a muscled back. “That was nice of him.”

“Now it’s your turn. Tell me about your past.” Solomon laughed. “And not the half-ass answer like you gave yesterday.”

Hesitating, he huffed. Generally unwilling, he thought he could at least indulge the man a little bit.
“Where to start?
Well, I guess you know I grew up in an orphanage. It was a pretty quiet place and we kept to ourselves, but being alone in a house with the same people for a long time can
wear on you, as I’m sure you understand. Things were never really very good for me, and even the person I thought of as a friend was an enemy in the end. I never belonged there, I don’t think. Not after living with Avian and then here…”

“Being the freak isn’t something anyone wants to be. My sister and I were that way too, always the outcasts because we were different. All of our friends got old, and he looked the same as the day we finished puberty.” Solomon’s voice held a hard note to it, like the memory hurt.

Pressing his nose into the space between the man’s shoulder blades, Mathieu smiled to himself. It was nice not to be the only outcast. He would have preferred it wasn’t Solomon, but he would take what he could get.  “Yeah, but I bet you protected Mina, and that’s what mattered. Don’t worry too much on it. Now she’s the bitch who protects Elise and hates me. I think she’s doing fine now.”

“Mina doesn’t hate you. She just…doesn’t like people that are wildcards. The rest of the people she meets, she can peg who they are and predict their actions. It a trick that comes with age, watching lots of people come and go. But with you, she never knows what you’ll do. It worries her, I think.”

Nathan dropped back a few paces to their level, looking over them. “You two want to stop when we get to the river and have some lunch? Give the tuvashes a break, you know.”

“Sounds good.”
Blond hair shifted with a sudden breeze and all of them could smell the faint scent of clean water
drifting towards them.

They had been riding for a good few hours and Mathieu was ready to get off the tuvash, to stretch. His butt was numb, his legs were tired with the effort of clinging to the beast, his arms were aching from being wrapped around Solomon, and his back hurt from riding. “Ride faster, I want off this damn thing.”

The blond chuckled and spurred there steed on faster, racing with Nathan towards to water. Faster and faster they went until the tuvashes’ feet were barely touching the ground. And suddenly they were at a dead stop on the edge of a cliff. The ‘river’ was in fact a raging rapid at the bottom of a canyon.

“Holy crap!
Back up, back up!” Mathieu cried out, eyes wide. The monster did so obligingly, and soon they were tied to a nearby tree, the three men sitting in the grass, each with a sandwich in hand.

Mathieu laid back and arched his back, stretching. “Man, this is so nice. Decent change of scenery and this sandwich is
delicious
.”

“Kiev made them for us. She’s a good kid.” Nathan said with a smile.

“She needs to cook more.”

Solomon bumped Mathieu’s foot, “You’re a good cook, too.” Emerald green eyes met the purple ones of Mathieu’s before he continued. “I’m sorry about what I said. You know I didn’t mean it, didn’t you?” His brow was furrowed.

Blushing, Mathieu threw a handful of grass at the blond. “Don’t be so weird.”

“Eh.” The blond man shrugged and gulped down the rest of the sandwich. “Let’s get going, kid.”

“Nooo.
Just a few more minutes, please?” He pouted cutely at Nathan, the neutral party to their conversation, making a whining sound.

The redhead rolled his eyes. “Lord. If you knock that crap off, we’ll wait a few more minutes, okay?”

“Yay!”
  Rolling to his feet, he looked around before approaching the cliff curiously. It wasn’t so scary when he wasn’t so worried about the tuvash he was on going over the edge.

Solomon’s deep voice floated towards him. “Hey, don’t fall in. I won’t save you.”

Smiling, he looked over his shoulder at them. “So I should jump, right?”

“Go for it.”

Nathan gave the blond a hard look. “Don’t. In fact, come back here, Mathieu. I don’t feel safe with you over there.”

Huffing, Mathieu returned from his perch to sit beside them, nearly falling into Nathan’s lap. “Oh, Nathan, why
doth
thou betray me with thou words of summons?” He joked.

“Doesn’t the Duchess sound so pretty?” Solomon said,
raising an eyebrow.

“Quit saying insulting shit. It pisses me off.” He aimed a kicked at the blond’s head, annoyed.

Nathan caught his foot and dropped it back to the ground, “Alright, That’s enough sitting around, you two.” He stood and untied the tuvashes. “Let’s go.”

Catching the reins of theirs, Solomon hopped up onto the tuvash and reached down to grab Mathieu’s wrist, pulling him up in front of the blond. “Ready? Okay, hold the reins like this…” Solomon’s callused hands guided his to hold the leather strap, making sure his grip wasn’t too tight. “If you’re too rough, or try to move too fast, you’ll make them nervous.” The man said against his ear.

“It sounds pretty basic.” Mathieu swallowed hard, trying to not let how nervous he was around the beast show. He leaned back into the blond, praying that the man would take over if things started to go wrong. “Okay, I can do this…”

“And if you can’t, I’m right here. I promise.” Solomon wrapped his hands over the smaller ones comfortingly. “Let’s go.” He spurred the tuvash on with a kick of his heels, guiding them over the bridge to the other side. “You’re doing just fine. Now, you see those mountains? The inn we’re staying at is in one of the valleys. So aim for over there, okay?”

“Okay.”

Chapter

Eleven

Riding a tuvash had been painful, but being the one in charge of it was beyond nerve-racking. Mathieu hated it and he was ready to hand the reins back to Solomon the moment the man wanted them. It took more of his focus that he would have liked, especially because he had been enjoying talking to Solomon about their pasts and whatever else had caught their fancy.

“Let me off this damn thing.” He mumbled to himself, navigating a particularly gravelly road. It was not an experience that he would like to repeat after he finished their little trip.

Solomon smiled at him and patted his outer thigh comfortingly. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there. I promise.” Large hands laid over Mathieu’s again, helping keep things steady.

Mathieu sighed before setting his eyes to the crown of the hill, leaning forward and urging the beast to the top. The tuvash tossed its head as it went up, growing anxious at Mathieu’s lack of confidence. “See, even this thing wants to be done with this stupid trip already.” He said over his shoulder to Solomon.

“It’s not a thing. It’s a tuvash. They’re smarter than you are, so
be
polite.” Solomon stroked the tuvash’s neck, leaning heavily against Mathieu to do so. “That’s a good girl.”

Mathieu huffed as they trekked up, looking down at the
flowers as they passed. “Oh, what are these?” Each petal of these particular flowers was a different color and it was swirled into a tight bud. They brushed his knees as they rode past them.

“These,” the blond reached down, fishing until he caught one and picked it. He held it out to Mathieu, “are Western Pillar Flowers. They only started to bloom when the Sky Pillar grew.”

“Why is that? And why are they such a peculiar color palette?”