Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (29 page)

The floors here were white, warm stone that was barely detectable under the black, swirling fog that covered the lower region of the room. The room was circular and fairly dim. This place was practically empty and their footsteps echoes around the room as they trio approached two chairs set side-by-side in the center. One was hidden by a gauzy black cloth draped over the back, and both were ringed by a small, black fire. It flickered in response
to their presence.

“Is that you, Nathan?
And Solomon?
How wonderful that you’ve come!”
The chair without
the a
covering swiveled to face them and a mousy haired boy stood, his soft, high voice fitting his childish face. An accent blanketed his words, every ‘o’ dripping heavily with it.

“This
is
the time specified by
you
.” Solomon’s eyes narrowed at the young boy, giving a frosty bite to the air. He took half a step forward, subtly moving in front of Mathieu.

The boy, Enak, as Mathieu recalled his name to be, stood and walked through the dark flames as though they were nothing. His steps had a flowing grace to them, almost like a light lope. If the small boy looked ten with those chubby cheeks and big eyes, Mathieu would be amazed. His coat tails fluttered behind him. “Solomon, you’re so bitter. Tell me, how is my Mina-love? I’d just
adore
for her to come visit. She is such a charmer. You hoard her far too much.” Enak blinked owlishly up at him.

Solomon folded his arms, taking up more space than normal. “She doesn’t visit because you make her skin crawl, child. I wouldn’t stray too far from your power source, lest someone attempt to damage it.”

Smiling brightly, Enak reached up and patted Solomon’s arm before circling around behind them to stand beside the redhead. “So tell me, Nathan, how are things at the headquarters? I hear that a battle plan is being constructed. Do make sure I get a final copy, won’t you?”

Nathan’s face held the same polite blankness that it had since entering the tower. “I’ll do that. But how do you
know what goes on in my domain?”

The mousy haired boy giggled childishly before practically skipping back to his chair, his soft footfalls creating a mesmerizing pattern that continued even after he had come to a halt, echoing deeply into the towel. “This,” he ran long, thin fingers over the veil that shrouded the other chair, “is how I know. He is a god, after all. He sees all.”

“Oh. If you’re using him to spy on us, will you deign to let us meet him?” Nathan said with a raised brow. “It’s rude to peep, you know.”

“I wonder what manners his mother taught him.” Solomon joked quietly. Mathieu swallowed hard to keep from laughing. The child, Enak, was kind of awkward in his motions, almost like his head and his body were disconnected.

The boy hopped into his chair like it was a throne, crossing his legs at the knees. “No. I don’t think I shall. You’re not nearly refined enough for him.”

Solomon scoffed. “I was doing refined before you were a thought in the knee-knocker relationship that spawned you.”

“And I would think one of your
age
would be more mature than this…” Enak checked under his fingernails for dirt.

Mathieu gently brushed his hand against Solomon’s side, trying to silently calm
him,
all the while his attention was on the boy. Solomon seemed to get the picture because he took a calming breath. “I don’t behave to please you.”

“And that is why you’re a lowly grunt and I am not.” Hopping up, Enak smoothed his hands down the front of his tailcoat. “Where are my
manners
?” He shot the blond man a nasty look, “Shall we have a spot of tea?”

Nathan bobbed his head and held a hand out in a sweeping motion.
“After you, Enak.”

Enak sighed and crossed the black fire again, acting as if these small motions were painful for him. He led them out of the room with two chairs and into a side chamber with a wall made entirely of windows. Only clouds were visible beyond and Mathieu moved to stand by it for lack of anything else to do. The other two men sat at a small, octagon shaped table, their backs to Mathieu. He looked around the room at the rest of the furnishings. There were two other tables in the room, there was a dark blue rug on the white floor, and the walls were paneled with tapestries; if he hadn’t been looking at one, he wouldn’t have seen it split down the center, opening as a doorway for a servant to enter through with a tray. The servant efficiently passed out the tea cups, poured the tea, and disappeared back from whence he came.

“Now,” Enak dropped a cube of sugar into his tea and stirred it. “Since you took the long trip to come see me, at least do me the honor to tell me how the rest of the others are fairing. I only bother watching you, Nathan, so you’ll need to fill in the blanks.”

Nathan sat back in his seat, a regal air about him as his fingertip traced the rim of his teacup. “Well,” He said, looking as though he were searching for the right words. “Zanika and Zerieve are in negotiations with the outer countries for their crops to get us more capital to work
with, Elise has been devising the initial attack blueprints, and we expect Ayame and Akira back tonight at my home. They have started the recruitment on that end. By the way, I do like the remodel on the Tower, much more beautiful than the ice.
Warmer, too.”
The redhead said, changing topics.

The boy smiled shyly. “Thank you. It was my idea. I like the look much better and now I’m not afraid of losing a few toes when I walk around bare-foot.” He smiled and looked pointedly at his feet.

“That would be a relief.”

“Solomon, where did this come from?” Enak asked curiously as he leaned forward, plucking a very white strand of hair off of the blond’s shirt.

Nathan and Solomon looked at each other discreetly. “It, uh, must have come from the inn we were staying at. Why?”

“White is such an odd color. I wonder if someone old stayed there last. I would complain about the service next time I was there. Oh well.” Enak wrapped the strand into a ringlet before setting it on his saucer. “Are you sure it isn’t from say…a spectator?”

“A spectator?”
Nathan’s voice was skeptical.

Enak set his teacup aside. “Yes. Like say, the one that might be standing by the window, casting a shadow on the floor, and where Solomon’s eyes seem to be drifting to rather often?” Silence met his statement. “Come out, come out, mystery guest.”

Mathieu swallowed and cast a fearful look at Solomon who subtly nodded. Shaking slightly, he took a deep breath and lifted his hands to his hood, letting it fall back. His hair had faded by to its normal white and he looked at Enak’s saucer but didn’t move from standing by the window.

The boy stared at him for a long time, during which Mathieu didn’t move an inch. It was like Enak was pinning him with his gaze, keeping him rooted to the spot. “What is your name?”

Frowning, the answer seemed to come out without his permission. “My name is Mathieu.” He pushed his hair back and scurried to stand behind Solomon.

Standing and moving around the table, Enak touched Solomon’s shoulder to keep him seated and stopped in front of Mathieu. “Why wasn’t I told that you two had brought a third?” He asked, not looking at either man he was addressing. “I sensed him not long after you entered, yet you concealed him from me. Do you not trust me?”  A spark of energy stopped Enak’s hand from touching Mathieu as it reached out, causing the boy’s eyes to go wide. “What a peculiar talent. I need to consider this development. See yourselves out.”

Solomon pushed Enak back and took Mathieu’s hand, dragging him out of the room. Mathieu cast a look back at the younger male who was still as a statue before the blond practically forced him to run out of the Sky Pillar. As soon as they were out in the fresh air, the blond stopped, looking around in a paranoid way.

“Solomon, what’s wrong? What happened?” Mathieu said, clutching the man’s wrist.

“Instinct.”

“That’s a rather unhelpful answer.” Mathieu huffed, nose wrinkled. But it did him no good. Solomon didn’t say a word until Nathan exited out the front door and mounted his tuvash. The blond grabbed him and forced him onto their shared stead and followed the redhead away from the tower at a breakneck speed.

~*~

The sun was setting over the mountain when they stopped in a gully for the night. Nathan started a fire and Solomon set up their bedrolls. Standing around awkwardly, Mathieu watched the other two. “I-I’m really sorry. It’s my f-fault that things didn’t g-go right, isn’t it?” Unwanted tears welled in his eyes and he had to turn away or risk showing them. It was so stupid of him to being getting emotional over this, but he couldn’t stop it. A few silent tears rolled down his cheeks before he could stem them. The one thing that they had asked him to do, stay hidden, he had failed at.

“I’m going to go check out the perimeter.” Solomon’s voice was as icy as it had originally been with Enak, only now it wasn’t aimed at anyone and washed over Mathieu as if directed at him. The blond walked away from their encampment, leaving Nathan and Mathieu alone.

With a sigh, Nathan sat on the ground beside the fire. “Don’t blame yourself, Mathieu. You didn’t do anything wrong. Solomon has an analytical mind, so when he overlooks things like your hair on his shirt, he rakes himself over the coals. He’ll be okay in a while.”

Mathieu nodded.
somewhat
thankfully, and sat beside Nathan. “He’s mad at me though, isn’t he?” He wiped his eyes.

“Hm, a bit, I think; although, I haven’t the faintest idea why.”

Looking away from Nathan, Mathieu let his hair fall forward over his shoulders. “Something kind of happened.”

“Oh?”

“He and I kissed while we were staying at the inn.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “I already heard. He was acting like he’d committed a cardinal sin. So you two are attracted to each other, it happens. Still doesn’t give him a reason to act like a child. If you killed Mina, I could see him being upset, but not over a
kiss.
” Nathan said the word in an overly exaggerated way, clearly mocking the situation.

Mathieu lay back in the grass and yawned. “I guess you’re right…” He said, closing his eyes. The stars were beautiful, but with the sudden rudeness of Solomon, he didn’t want to look at them.

Nathan left him alone for a few minutes before clearing his throat. “Hey, are you hungry?”

“Yeah, actually.”
Now that the man mentioned food, he was starving. He hadn’t eaten since that morning. Mathieu sat up with a grunt, folding his legs under him. “We brought some stew, right? I’ll heat it up.” Going to the packs and digging through them, he got out a pan and
set to heating the leftover stew. It gave his hands something to do.

Solomon eventually wandered back to them, looking significantly less cold.

“Are you hungry, Solomon?” Nathan asked the blond.

The blond shook his head, and laid on his bed roll, his back to them.

Mathieu sighed and dished up a bowl for himself and
Nathan,
then sat down and watched the fire as he ate. The impromptu meal went by in relative silence before the redhead offered to do the dishes. Thanking him, Mathieu wiped his hands and face down, then lay down to sleep on the grass so that he didn’t have to be near Solomon.

Chapter

Thirteen

“So how did it go?” Kiev asked from her position on the bathroom counter. It had been two days since they had gotten back from the Sky Pillar, and he hadn’t seen hide
nor
tail of Solomon since.

Mathieu rolled his eyes. “Oh lord, the usual. I messed up big time, Solomon avoided talking to me,
we
came home.
The end.”
He leaned against the wall and flicked his bangs out of his eyes. “Jerk…” He murmured.