Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,12

keep the economy stimulated. Many of them were trade fronts for goods ranging from exotic foods to pets and luxury goods.

The bus stopped at the innermost square, just outside of the royal family’s castle. It was the main market square for local goods, such as fruits and hand-woven clothing. Everything was of the finest quality: silks, fruits so ripe that they were ready to eat as soon as they were bought, things like that. Mathieu stepped off the bus, looking around at the stalls.

Vienna exited just behind him. “Okay, so I work in the Hollander building, just north of here. Come by anytime.” She smiled one last time before turning on her heel and walking into the crowd. Her bag was held tightly to her side.

Hoisting his bag a bit higher after seeing how Vienna carried hers, he looked around again, taking in more this time. People were milling about, looking at the goods in the stalls and haggling over prices. This seemed like a good idea to him, so he approached the nearest stall: a jewelry cart.

The jewels sparkled in the mid-day suns, throwing beautiful arcs of color onto the ground around the cart. They ranged in size from as small as his pinky nail to the size of his fist and covered every shade and hue of the rainbow. A particular necklace caught his eye. It had a red stone and a purple one twined around each other, mixing in some places, separating in others. It was hard to tell where one stone began and the other ended. They were affixed to a platinum backing, the stones raised in a design that vaguely reminded Mathieu of a beautiful, cursive letter ‘M’. The desire to possess it was making him nearly light-headed. He extended his fingers towards the necklace, wanting to touch it.

A hand clapped down on his wrist, gripping it tightly. He stilled instantly under the touch, adrenaline flooding his system.

“…be tough.” Vienna’s voice rang in his ears. Right. Can’t let anyone

push me around…

Mathieu rotated his wrist, managing to grip the hand and spun, wrenching his assailant’s wrist behind his back. With swift force, he broke the man’s elbow, dropping him to the ground. His instincts were screaming at him to run, like they usually did when he cause trouble, but he couldn’t leave without the necklace. Plunging a hand into his bag, he pulled out a handful of Khrons and snatched up the necklace, running before the man could stop screaming in pain.

The crowd battered against him as he shoved the necklace into his bag, forcing him deeper into the throng of people. He tried to direct where he was being pushed, but the most he could do was slowly gravitate to the outside of the crowd and cut out when he reached a side street. Luckily, there weren’t many people down this way and he stopped, digging in his bag. He managed to free his sweater and get it on. Pulling the hood up to hide his white hair, he pushed his hands into the pockets, slouching his shoulders, doing what he could to make himself less recognizable.

He took a right at the end of the street down a back alley, following it. The alley connected to another main street and he slide back out into the crowd, keeping his head down. Mathieu was suddenly being rudely bumped out of the crowd again, however, this time towards two men clad in black, well cut suits. Their eyes were narrowed in anger and the stall owner was standing beside them, as was the man whose elbow he’d broken. He was clad in a black suit too.

Keeping his gaze low, he managed to catch a glimpse of who had forced him out of the crowd. More men dressed in black.

The oldest, standing the furthest to the right, crossed his arms, looking at him hard. “So you’re the one who attacked an officer. Bad move kid, bad move.” The man reached a hand out to grab Mathieu’s shoulder, but Mathieu stepped back and managed to avoid bumping into anyone else. Spinning on his heel, he almost ducked under the outstretched arms, but one of them caught him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

“Tch.” Getting to his feet and glaring, Mathieu dusted off his pants. He hated being knocked down and ‘officers’ or not, these guys seemed like bullies to him.

The oldest man stepped forward and leaned down, pushing his face into Mathieu’s, “Listen kid, you’d better come