Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (52 page)

“No, you were.”

“Whatever you say.”
Mathieu chuckled.

Smoke drifted past the pair of them as Erik walked up, “No, Solomon is right. The best leaders lead by example. You weren’t scared, so neither were they.”

“You think I wasn’t scared?” Mathieu snorted and snagged a cigarette, lighting it; it was a bad habit he was quickly picking up. The wind blew softly, forcing voices up the hill to them. The people below had been awoken by the sounds of fighting, but none had come to investigate. Now, though, they were grouping at the base of the hill. “Crap…what are we going to do about them?”

“Just leave them.” Erik grunted.

Mathieu shook his head, “No, that isn’t an option. Stay here.” He stomped out his cigarette and started down the hill, leaving his sword in Solomon’s hands. There were a few steps at the bottom of the small hill the compound sat
on, and he took them carefully. Stopping a ways back from them, he waited. There was a long pause between him and them, but soon the woman who had seen them this morning stepped out of the group, her son clinging to her leg. “What do you think you’re doing?” She said in a curious tone; Mathieu was surprised that she wasn’t angry, especially since his clothing was still bathed in blood.

He sat down the steps and looked at the woman, “I’m taking Unith from the King.”

“…Why did you kill those men?”

Mathieu ran his fingers through his hair, “You see
,
it’s not like those soldiers would have let us just march to Ateri and take the King out. They would attack us from behind, and our numbers aren’t strong enough to take their entire army at once.” He said, really hoping that honesty was the best policy in this situation.

The little boy peeked out from around his mother’s leg, “Thank you,
mister
. They were never very nice to us…”

“They weren’t nice to us either.” Mathieu replied.

“Because you’re from Korinth, aren’t you?” The woman asked.

He nodded and folded his arms over his chest, “I know that…you’re probably going hate us in the end, but you should know that we aren’t trying to hurt you. The King…he killed his daughter to start a fight with us…so he and his men have to go. I can’t tell you what will happen after we take Unith, or how it will all play out…all I know is that it’s stupid for us to be separate
countries anymore.” Mathieu got to his feet and dusted his pants off, “We’re going to bury the dead, and then we’ll be moving on. You won’t have to worry about us for long.”

There was some chatter among the people before someone from the back piped up. “We’ll help you. Let us get shovels.”

Surprised, Mathieu nodded and turned away, heading back up the hill.

“Well they didn’t kill you,” Said Solomon as Mathieu approached the other rebels.

He rolled his eyes. “No, they didn’t. Apparently the soldiers didn’t treat them very well. They’re going to come help us bury them.”

Jo, who had been waiting with Solomon, wrinkled his nose, “We have to bury them? This sucks.”

Mathieu swatted the top of his head. “Just do your part, kid.”

~*~

He had thought that maybe a few people would turn up to help them. He’d been wrong.
Everyone
in the town had come up, bringing shovels and good spirits. Those around him had seemed to have an air of relief around them, happy to put the soldiers in the ground. The woman and her son were in charge of passing out water, except that the young boy kept trying to pet Vincent. The wolf wasn’t being unsocial, but he did give a short growl when the kid pulled his tail.

“Son, you’re going to get bit if you don’t knock that off. And you’ll deserve it.” The woman rolled her eyes at her son’s antics.

Mathieu smiled at her, wiping sweat from his brow, “Vincent is pretty tame. I doubt he’ll hurt the boy.” He dug his shovel into the dirt again, tossing another mound onto the mass grave.

She watched him in a measured way, “I recognize you, you know. I did this morning, too.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I remember when you visited with the Princess a few years ago. Your hair was longer, though. Is…is Avian really dead?” She crossed her arms in an insecure way.

He gave a short nod, blocking out the phantom screams of Avian’s death.
“Yeah.
She’s buried in Kornith.”

“I’m sorry, Mathieu.” She looked sad.

“You know my name.”

The woman nodded, “You carried me to the hospital when I was pregnant and fell.”

Vaguely, he remembered being here with Avian and a pregnant woman getting pushed down in the crowd. “Oh yeah…I was glad you were okay.” Smiling shyly, the woman went back to distributing water.

Enak, who had finally recovered from the energy he’d
exerted, hopped up from where he was sitting on the stairs to the second floor. “This is taking forever. Everyone move.” He crossed over to where the remaining dirt was and took a deep breath, rubbing his hands together quickly.

Erik picked up the Unithian boy and carried him out the way before nodding to Enak. The boy god nodded back and put his hands on the grounds. The dirt was started to seep from the large mound, flowing smoothly over the ground and into the hole. Slowly but surely, the grave filled in until it area was completely smooth. “Ta da.” The citizens of Zurn muttered amongst each other, giving Enak strange looks.
He smiled brightly, seemingly unaware of the murmurs about him.
“That’s done, so now we can go, right? Cause we got a schedule to keep.”

Mathieu nodded and turned to everyone, “Uh…thank you guys for your help, but we do have to get going. Take care…”

And just like that, the people started to pack up and return to where they came from.

“That was easy…” Said Kiev, arms folded over her chest. “But Enak is right. We do need to get going.”

“Yeah…but we should pack up what food we can. We’re going to spend tonight outside of Inim in the hills.” Mathieu said, still watching the people go. When he had lived here, it had been in the palace so he didn’t really understand what it had been like for those not living the royal life. He wondered if it had really been so bad for the common man that it could spur other Unithian citizens to helping their cause.

“I saw packs upstairs that we can use.” Kiev pointed out. Mathieu nodded to Jo and the pair disappeared upstairs to retrieve the packs.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

It was a full day since they had left Zurn, and Inim was theirs now, too. It had been even easier than Zurn because as soon as the fighting had started, the citizens had joined in on the overthrow. Now, Mathieu’s unit was milling about with the citizens, eating a meal that the women had worked together to prepare.

Mathieu sat between Erik and some random man that had joined in the fight. He’d spent every free moment since the fight healing people he didn’t know, and now he was
wolfing down food to build his energy back up. He was just excited that for the most part, the fight had been uneventful for him. Mathieu had killed a few people, but didn’t really need to fight with so many civilians pitching in.

Enak leaned over Erik and patted Mathieu’s knee, “Hey, I know that you’re tired…but this is as close as we’ll be to my mother…” Enak’s voice was a mixture of hopeful and hesitant.

“Oh…Alright.”
He groaned as he got to his feet. “How do we get there?”

“Well, she’s in a cave in the mountains just south of Norv. If just you and I go, I could get us there in about than twenty minutes.”

Mathieu nodded, “Yeah, that’s fine. We can go now.” His body ached from the drain on his energy, and he was developing a migraine. However, a promise was a promise.

The boy god’s face spilt into a big grin and he took Mathieu’s hand, pulling him behind a building. “I’m going to use some magic. Try not to get nauseated, okay?” Enak took a hold of Mathieu’s hand.

“Jeez, this is going to be so fu--”

On some level he was thankful that Enak had warned him, because it took all of his focus to not hurl once they started moving. The ground was speeding under their feet in a blur of color, and the air tugged at his flesh in a truly painful way. The only benefit of moving so fast was that the change in altitude as they flew over the mountains
didn’t affect him. The boy god was almost spot-on with how long it would take for them to get there. They came to a screeching halt at the mouth of a cave. “I feel her strongest here.”

“Your mom is in there?” Mathieu said doubtfully.

“Yes.”

“Well, alright then…” He let go of Enak’s hand and peeked into the darkness. His gut tightened but he let his hand rest on the pummel of his sword. He
had
promised to free her. “Might as well go in…” His nose told him that something green was decaying from within the depths of the cave as he stepped over the threshold. The air was warm and moist, making his throat feel clogged. He stumbled over a root and caught himself on a slimy wall. Overall, his impression of the place was not pleasant. Mathieu was a bit glad that he couldn’t see clearly.

A small hand on his back made him jump, but he calmed himself quickly, remembering that Enak was with him. Since his hand was already covered in guck, he used the wall as a guide into the cave. It was odd because the deeper they went, the more he could see. He was fairly sure it wasn’t just his eyes adjusting to the darkness.

“Look. Crystals.” Enak’s voice said from behind him.

Mathieu looked around for a moment before he spotted what Enak was talking about. There were small, soft pink crystals the size of his palm inlaid along the junction of the wall and the floor of the cave. The harder he looked, the brighter they seemed to get until he could see exactly how wide the cave was, and that at the end there was an
impenetrable darkness.

“I think it’s just ahead,” Mathieu said softly. The darkness seemed to be unnatural.

Enak’s hand pressed harder still into his back, “This is nerve-racking.”

“It’ll be okay.” They had reached the darkness and were standing in front of it, side by side. “Okay. He goes.” Mathieu walked into the darkness and didn’t stop. The consistency of it was surprisingly light, and it flowed around him in a cool way, unlike the humid air of before.

He broke through the other side and after only a few moments, Enak joined him. Just before them were wrought iron bars set into the walls, spanning across the entire width of the cave. The area wasn’t very wide across, and Mathieu could see nothing beyond the bars.

“She’s here!” Enak exclaimed and ran to the bars, gripping them tightly in his small hands. He was as excited as the child he pretended to be.

Almost immediately, pale hands wrapped over the boy god’s and a pair of glowing eyes appeared just above Enak’s head. “Svenak, my child, what are you doing here?”

“Mama!
We’ve come to free you! Okay? Stand back and I’ll try to pry this open.” Enak started pulling at the bars, but they refused to budge.

Mathieu put a hand on his shoulder, “Let me…” He pulled out his sword and let his energy twine into the space between. Then he slid the blade through the bars
like they were made of butter, cutting a fair sized hole in the cell for her.

Enak reached into the opening to help his mother through. “Mom…” He looked at Mathieu, “This is my mama, Naiadia.”

Mathieu wasn’t quite sure what he had expected Enak’s mother to look like, but it wasn’t this. Naiadia was just barely taller than Enak, and managed to look willowy, even at such a short height. Her eyes were overly large for her head, and her hands were too small; her face was contorted into an ugly sneer. She was clad in something like a dirty sheet wrapped around and around her until Mathieu wasn’t sure just how much of her frame was sheet and how much was her actual body.