Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (35 page)

“How does a metalbender manage to hurt
herself
?” Elric asked sarcastically.

Lenore smiled, blushing.
“Surprisingly easily, actually.
That sword is sharp as Mina’s temper.”

Darcia held Mathieu’s blade in his hand, examining every detail. “You truly are a master of your craft, Lenny.” He held it in front of him even in his sitting position.

Jo was standing behind Darcia and leaned over his shoulder, running a finger along the edge of the blade; his blood coated the edge. “Oh, sharp.” He popped his finger into his mouth, talking around it. “Do ya make smaller blades? Like daggers?”

“Well, sure.
Which kind?”
Lenore asked, clenching and unclenching her fist as she spoke.

Jo considered for a moment. “Curved, push, and double bladed?”

Lenore nodded absently. “Yeah, I can do that. How big is your hand?” He held it up and she nodded again, eyeing it
in a practiced way. “Good, good. It’ll take me a few days, kiddo.”

Mathieu stood and retrieved his sword from Darcia. He wiped the small bit of Jo’s blood off of it with his shirt,
then
sheathed it. “I need to go feed Niveus. Thank you for bringing this by, Lenore. And Darcia, we’ll start training soon?”

“Tomorrow, preferably.”
Darcia replied, relaxing in his seat.

“Yes, it’s a date.” Mathieu waved at them and went to his shared room, placing his sword against the wall before going to the kitchen. Niveus was curled up on a dish towel in the sun, her size having increased to about a loaf of bread. Her paws and ears were slightly too big for the rest of her, but she gave a delicate purr as he approached her.
“Hey, sweetie.
Are you hungry?”

Rolling onto her back, one of her back feet kicked slightly at the air. He gave her tummy a quick rub,
then
went to the fridge, pulling out some thinly sliced ham. Niveus had taken quite well to anything made from a pig. Bacon was her favorite, however. Humming, he shredded the ham into a small pile for his charge.

Niveus stood, and lopped along the counter to the food, only slipping once, and quickly devoured it. Her fangs clicked softly as she
ate,
her fur feathering as she stretched her neck. Mathieu smiled and folded his arms on the counter, then rested his chin on them.

“You’re such a pretty girl, love.” He wrinkled his nose as she jumped onto his head clumsily, her back paw on his nose and front paws in his hair. “Don’t hurt yourself…”
He murmured, staying still while the white Shadowrider fumbled to climb on him. Niveus purred playfully and slid down his back and leapt. She half landed, half rolled onto the table. Mathieu followed her, keeping her from falling off the edge.

Avanon came into the kitchen just as he stopped white Shadowrider from falling headfirst. “Hey, Matt, can I ask you a question?”

Sighing at the shortened version of his name, he looked up. “Sure. What is it, Avanon?” Over the pasted few months, Avanon and he had formed a friendship of sorts. She had yelled at Solomon for being a jerk and told Mathieu not to worry over the blond, claiming he was stubborn, but he’d come around in his own time. After that, they’d started to talk in passing and play regular card games at Elise’s home.

Avanon sat on the counter, messing with her multi-colored hair. “It’s Elric. He’s being oblivious again.” She frowned.

“What did he do this time?”

“Well, he’s just being stupid!” She threw her hands up with exasperation. “I kissed him, like you suggest, and he took it platonically.
Platonically.
Who does that?! He wants to hang out and starts to agree to dinnesr and stuff with me, but he doesn’t get that it’s a
date
. Elric is always like, ‘Oh, this was a fun time. I’m glad I have such a nice friend’. A
friend
, he says. Can you believe it?” She huffed and banged her head back against cabinet. “Is he daft? I mean, he can solve a medical crisis under pressure and determine that Nathan was killed by a slow acting poison produced by the flowers he had a romp in, but he
can’t see a girl practically throwing herself at him. Am I not being easy enough?”

Mathieu laughed. “I don’t think you need to be easy. I think he just doesn’t want to misread the situation and make things awkward, so he’s playing it safe.”

“That’s just stupid.”

“I’m not saying it’s not stupid,” Mathieu said, “but Elric is a pretty logical kind of guy. He doesn’t act until he’s thought of every possible outcome.”

Avanon frowned and huffed in annoyance, kicking her feet against the cabinet.

“Good, Avanon, you’re in here.” Solomon was standing in the doorway, arms folded over his chest. “Someone needs to go tell Zanika and Zerieve that we’re having a full house meeting. Take Elric with you.”

“I
will
not
.
Besides, who died and made you king of everything?”
The words were out there before she could react and the moment she realized what she’d said
,
her face went white with shock. “Oh my god, I didn’t mean that!”

Mathieu gave her a small smile and patter her thigh, “We know. It’s just an expression. I can go tell them, though. Where do they live?”

The blond man shook his head, “I don’t think so. You’re not going alone and I-” Solomon cut himself off there.

Picking up Niveus, he stalked over to the blond, face set in a scowl. “
Excuse
me
, but you
don’t
tell me what to do.
I can do whatever I damn well please. You haven’t talked to me in
weeks
because we had a
kiss
, you admitted to being attracted to me, you missed my hair on your shirt, and that little Enak kid caught you in a lie.
You
messed up and you’re taking it out on
me
. So don’t you
dare
try to play the concerned…friend, boyfriend, whatever you think that you are to me!” Mathieu pushed passed him, going outside. He was so mad that he was shaking, and not paying a bit of attention as he plowed in Darcia.

“Oof.” Darcia said, reaching out to catch Mathieu’s arm, preventing him from falling. “Hey kid. You seem kinda pissed.” He smiled with his mouth full of pointed teeth, “What’s wrong?”

Staring at him, a thought suddenly dawned on him. It was the perfect revenge against Solomon, and the perfect plan to do something productive.
“Nothing.
Hey, you know where Zanika and Zerieve live, right?”

“Yes, I do. Why?” Darcia put his hands on his hips.

“Good. We’re going there then, together.”

Darcia shrugged, “Well, sure, why not. How are we getting there?”

“Eh…” Mathieu frowned, not having planned that far ahead.

The raven smiled at him and patted his head. “We can take the carriage. It’s a long trip by tuvash, and your baby Shadowrider isn’t strong enough to teleport, yet. She’s beautiful, by the way. May I?”

Niveus perked her head up, stretching out towards Darcia
at his words. “Here, take her.” Mathieu handed over his beloved, “The carriage is still here from when Akira used it to go into town. It should be just down the hill.”

~*~

They were driving along the coast when Darcia, who was still cradling Niveus in his lap even though he was driving, broke the companionable silence, “Have you ever been to the Eastern District?” When Mathieu shook his head, Darcia continued. “It’s nothing like here where everyone lives in communities, you know. There, people live spread out on plots of land where they grow crops. Of course there are some main markets for trading and stuff, but it’s not unusual to walk for an hour to go visit someone.”

“That’s just crazy.” Mathieu said, shaking his head. “But it sounds nice, simpler.”

“It is, except when Zanika decides it’s getting too boring. She’s like a small child; everything is about fun for her. She flooded her sister’s room when they got into a fight. It was actually pretty funny… Zerieve couldn’t figure out how to get the water out without flooding the rest of the house, so she had to bust a hole in the outside wall and let it drain out.”

Mathieu laughed as he watched the world go by, just relaxed. It was especially nice to be away from moody Solomon. “So you lived with them. What are they like?”

Darcia pet Niveus, and smiled fondly. “Believe it or not, they’re actually clones, made by their ‘father’.”

“Huh?”

“Well, the Eastern District hasn’t always been run by those two. Once upon a time, it was run by a man named Lucen. Lucen was gifted, like most of the people who live here.” Darcia shrugged in an ‘obviously’ way. “If he could envision something, and truly believe in it, it would happen. In fact, he was able to turn the area from the barren place between the mountains into the fertile land. Luca was fairly well-liked from what the elders said. At least, he was until his daughter died in an accident involving a crop cart.

“After she died, he became very withdrawn and stopped focusing on the good of the people he was in charge of protecting. Every day, instead of tending to his duties, he would visit the site where his beloved daughter died, willing her to come back.” Darcia sighed and stopped the carriage, letting some kids run across the street in front of him. “I can understand that he was hurting, but…” He shook his head and the carriage began to move again “Sometimes, he would tell people who passed him that he could see his daughter standing on the side of the road, smiling at him. Insanity took over him, and his powers slipped out of his control. Without meaning to, he recreated his dead daughter. But he was weak against the creative abilities of his gift, they required the utmost control, and he couldn’t stop himself in time to make just one.” Darcia shrugged. “It took so much out of him that he passed away soon after.”

Frowning, Mathieu looked at the ceiling of the carriage as Darcia took a right. “I guess I just don’t understand how they ended up in charge, though. I mean, everyone must have known that the girl was dead, right?”

The raven laughed. “The people of the Eastern District
were so happy to see Lucen’s daughter alive again, having loved her when she was alive, they let themselves become blinded to the magic, calling it a ‘miracle’. The people actually
elected
the two girls to be in charge. Little did they know how unlike Lucen’s daughter those two actually
are.
”

“Oh, the things we can’t foresee.” Mathieu shifted in his seat and looked at Darcia. The man was build to be lean, his body trim even though he was one of the oldest people at the Tri-District Manor. It was funny how when Darcia was relaxed, the muscled physique and pointed teeth were actually kind of…funny. Chuckling, he wrinkled his nose. “Man, how did they put up with some of a funny looking dude?”

Darcia lifted his upper lip, growling playfully. “They may be identical and always bicker, but the twins balance each other well. I just played the referee.”

Mathieu nodded slightly. “I hope they’re nice...”

“They are.”

Niveus got up and stretched out on the seat between the two men as they crossed the bridge into the Eastern District, right along the border with the Western. Darcia slowed as the road began to wind around the hills, just above the plains.

It took crossing another bridge, driving carefully around fields, and three hours to reach the central market just north of the twin’s home. There were little stands set up in a circle, selling everything from flowers to raw grain to meats of various cuts.

“Hey, can we stop for a second?” Darcia inquired, already pulling over.

“Sure, what’s up?”

Smiling, Darcia got out of the car and disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a handful of flowers. “Okay, now we can go. It’s just a bit further that way; the blue house up there.”