The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 (33 page)

Matthias shook his head. “Not yet princess. You will have to
sleep later."

She
sighed and looked at him with a wearied expression. "Would you care
to tell me why?"

Matthias smiled. "We need to begin your lessons!”

A
short while after they had set up camp in the woodland, Josephine
sat cross - legged on the dusty ground, with Matthias sitting
behind her, his knees propped underneath him, his hands over her
eyes. Thadius and Luccius sat a way back, talking amongst
themselves about the wonders of listening to horses and daffodils,
Thadius smoking his pipe with one eye on the princess as he puffed
away.

“
Now
do you see anything?” Matthias asked.

“
Of course I do not
see
anything! You have your
hands
over my eyes!”

Matthias rolled his eyes. “That isn’t what I meant. You’re
doing what we talked about? Focussing on a fixed point in the
middle of the darkness?”

“
Yes! I am focussing and I do not see anything!
This is not
working
Matthias!”

“
Patience,” he said. “You need to relax more.”

“
It would help if I knew what exactly it was I
am
supposed
to be seeing!” she huffed.

“
You’ll know it when you see it. Now relax! We’ll sit here all
afternoon if we have to!”

"We bloody
won’t
," she grumbled. Huffing, Josephine readjusted her
legs more comfortably and then, sighing, fell silent. Her breathing
deepened, and again she focussed on a point in the blackness of her
closed eyelids. She sat this way for a minute, her breathing
rhythmically growing longer and deeper. Gently, Matthias began to
massage her temples with his thumbs, his hands still over her
eyes.

“
What are you doing?” She whispered to him through her
contentedness.

“
It
helps to relax your mind."

"How many women have you said
that
to before?"

"Just concentrate,” he said, his cheeks flushing. “When I was
learning, a friend did this for me. It helped me, so I hope it
might do the same for you.”

As
Matthias continued to massage her forehead, Josephine’s shoulders
fell and Matthias could feel her back slumping against his chest,
the warmth of her body pulsing through the thin fabric of his
shirt. His own heart began pounding faster and he found himself
fixated by her flowing hair as he carried on massaging her head,
which began to tilt to one side. After a while Matthias thought he
should check to see whether she was still awake, but thought better
of it and instead carefully withdrew his hands from her temples and
continued to wait patiently. As her head lolled further forward and
to the left, her hair fell clumsily about her face. Gingerly, he
reached out and tucked a length of her blonde locks behind her ear.
Suddenly she sat bolt upright, drawing breath sharply, eyes
snapping wide open. She pushed herself to her feet.

“
I
didn’t do anything!” Matthias blurted before he could stop himself.
“I mean… what is it?”

“
There was something…” she said, tucking more of
her hair behind her ears nervously. Matthias noticed and his cheeks
blushed. “It was a… a flickering,
swirling
pattern, and only for a moment, but it was
most definitely something!” She grabbed Matthias’s hands and pulled
him up. “What was it?” she asked. “I’ve never seen
that
before!”

Matthias smiled. “Well I can’t say for certain, but it sounds
like you were becoming attuned to the power.”

“
Attuned? What does that mean?”

“
It’s complex princess. I’m not sure I can describe it. At
least, not very well.”

“
Please
try!” Josephine pressed him.

“
Well alright.” He paused a moment and scratched at his head,
thinking. “Erm…”

“
Matthias Greenwald!” she prodded, when he didn’t say anything
more.

“
I’m
thinking how best to explain,” he responded. “Alright, here goes.
When wizards first begin training we don’t conjure up a flame from
nowhere by waving a hand about or, as is a popular misconception,
by reciting magical chants. What we do is learn to tune ourselves
into the threads of the earth power running through the fabric of
the world, and then focus them into a desired outcome. If you twist
them in different ways, combine them and weave them properly, they
can be moulded to create fire, ice…”

“
The
ball of light you produced when we were in Rina?”

“
Exactly. I focussed the earth power and
manipulated it through my body like a conductor. Out of that came
the ball of light. I was trained to shift my perception of the
world so the threads can be visibly seen in the mind. We do that
firstly by relaxing and focussing on one singular point just like
I’m teaching you, and then our natural affinity towards the earth
power shifts our gaze towards seeing the threads.” Matthias paused.
“Did
anything
I just say make any sense to you? It’s not easy to explain
and it is many years since I have had to try to."

Josephine nodded. “I believe so. You think I became
accustomed to the energies for a moment? I could quite literally
see the fifth power?”

“
I think so.” Matthias smiled. “So you
do
understand. Well
done!” He leaned forward. “What did it look like? The earth power
looks sort of like...
tendrils
of light. Different colours and thicknesses of
string coalescing around you. Was it like that?"

“
It was…
different
. A little like staring at the
sun
for too long. There were patterns
dancing across my vision. It almost...” She stopped and
squinted

“
Almost what?”
Matthias prompted her.

“
It almost felt like... like
fire
. A raging fire.”

Matthias thought for a moment, nodding. “I see.”

“
Is that bad?”
she asked.

“
Bad? No. No I don't think so. Just different. But then I
would expect nothing less from the fifth power.” He smiled at her.
“Well done Josephine. You’ve done well for your first proper
lesson!”

Josephine nodded. “Thank you. I do not feel any different.
I expected to feel something new.”

“
Such as?”

“
I am not sure exactly. Something
momentous
. Trumpets going off or the like.”

“
Well, trumpets or not, you’re one step closer to fulfilling
your destiny.”

The princess scoffed. “I never
wanted
a destiny.”

“
We
don’t always have the freedom of choosing our own path
princess."

She shook her head. “
That is easy for
you
to say! You became a wizard of your
own choosing!”

“
That’s not exactly true,” Matthias said, and Josephine
looked taken aback.

“
You didn’t?” she asked. Matthias shook his head.
Then Josephine nodded. “Your mother... of
course.
I am sorry Matthias, I had
forgotten.”

He
shrugged. “It's alright.”

“
What
did
you want to be, if not a wizard?” Josephine
asked.

Matthias smiled. “I was going to become a farmer
like my father. My family rented land from the local nobleman in
the southlands of Mahalia.” Josephine grinned. “
What?
” Matthias asked.

“
I apologise, but I just cannot picture
you
as a farmer.
Covered head to toe in mud and pulling up cabbages! You seem
far
too
proper!”

“
This from a
princess?
You’re still speaking like you have a silver spoon
in your mouth you know.”

“
There is no one here!” she rebuffed.

Matthias shrugged. "A fair point I suppose. In any case, I'll
have you know I grew up learning the ways of a farmhand. I could
milk a cow at the age of five!”

“
I
am sure that must have been very rewarding for you,” Josephine
retorted with a wry smile. “So what changed for you? Especially
after…well...”

Matthias smiled. “It’s alright, you
can
say it. After my
mother was killed by wizards.” Josephine nodded. “Men and boys who
are found to have the ability to wield the earth power aren’t given
much in the way of a luxury of choice. I discovered I was able to
wield shortly after my mother was taken away. I was... quite upset
about the matter.”

“
Understandably!”
Josephine exclaimed.

Matthias smiled. “It would seem my mother passed on her
talents to me. I found, much like you, that when I let myself get
emotional, the ability would leak out. But unlike you, I seemed
able to control some things with the power from the start. I could
pick objects up, throw them around. For a young man, angry at the
loss of his mother, such abilities were a gift.”

“
What did you do?”
Josephine asked.

“
I was
foolish
enough to think that I could fight all of Mahalia
alone. I was wrong.
Obviously
. I picked a fight with a wizard the first chance I got.
The very first one I challenged I got slapped down like a
misbehaving pup. From that day on,
everything
changed for me. I was not allowed to
remain a loose cannon, using the power to pick fights or disturb
the peace. I was made to leave behind my old life, my family – what
remained – my father, brothers and my uncle, and was taken to the
capital, where I was trained to become a wizard. That was a long
time ago now,” he said distantly.

“
Did
you ever see your family again?” Josephine asked.

Matthias shook his head. “It wasn’t permitted. Past
associations can be dangerous, especially where family is
concerned.”

“
That sounds horrible,” Josephine said.
“Like
kidnap!
” She caught Matthias’s eye.

“
Well
that
was a subtle dig in the ribs,” he
smiled.

“
Subtle
wasn’t
my intention,” she smiled back.

Mathias sighed. “You’re right, in a way. It’s complicated.
Mahalian culture is confusing to explain. I didn’t like it, not at
first, and I fought them with every fibre of my being. But after a
time I began to see the benefits of a life as wizard.”

“
But your mother!” Josephine said.
“
How
could you look them
in the eye every day and respect the very people who had killed her
for no good reason?”

Matthias smiled. “When your great, great
grandfather had your great, great grandmother put to death for
treason, did his son and daughter,
your
ancestors, not find a way to speak with their
father, even when he had killed their own mother? Nothing is
ever
as black and white
as it would seem, Josephine. It’s never easy, of course, but as a
wizard I have the opportunity to influence this world more than I
ever would have as a farmer, and hopefully make it a better place,
so that things like what happened to my mother won’t happen
again.”

Josephine nodded after a moment’s pause. “I suppose I can
understand. Do you miss them?” she pressed. “The rest of your
family?”

Matthias nodded. “All the time. Anyone who says
otherwise is a liar. But I comfort myself in the knowledge that
what I am doing is for the good of all people, my family included.”
He laughed under his breath. “But back to the point of this
conversation. If anyone had told me beforehand that this would be
my life-” he gestured with his hands to their surroundings, “I’d
have laughed in their face. A farmhand from the lowlands, a
peasant
by most
definitions, charged with looking after a princess whose actions
could decide the fate of the world?” He shook his head. “Whatever
you think your life will be, it usually never works out quite the
way you intend. The gods deal you a different hand than you expect.
They like to be unpredictable.”

Josephine shook her head. “What do you do if you
don’t want to
play
their hand? The gods have no right to be playing a game of
chance with people’s lives. I am not a pawn to be used! No one
should be.”