Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,15

guy whose arm he’d broken. Michaels sneered in pain, but replied, “This damn girly boy kicked my knee out,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

Jaken folded his arms over his chest, going the rest of the way down the stairs and staring at the pair of them. “…You,” he glared at Mathieu, “come with me. Now.” Mathieu only now really saw the man. Jaken was tall and broad with a scruff-lined jaw and dull, listless eyes. His nose was crooked, as were his teeth. He looked kind of like a dark haired shark.

Mathieu wrinkled his nose but got up, nudging Michaels knee with his foot as he did. Following the burly man, he scooped his bag up as he followed. Jaken led him up the staircase and out past the clerical floor again. They followed the foot path until it met up with the main walkway and it winded towards the beautiful castle once more.

The doors slid open smoothly as they approached them. Stepping through the foyer and into the atrium, Mathieu’s jaw dropped. The atrium’s floor was made of deep green marble tiles cut into peculiar shapes that seemed to fit together like a complex puzzle. It was mesmerizing; as were the white stone walls. They were cut in thirty by eight foot spans, tall enough to cover the wall, floor to ceiling. The room was long enough that it took nearly twenty stones to complete one wall. Gold and silver was inlaid against the stone, beautiful sweeping designs sprawled along the wall and wrapped around the columns that were placed intermittently along the hall. The grandness continued into the room at the end of the hall and became even more stunning. The way that it was done, woven together, was elegant, not gaudy or overdone, but just the right amount of done. The room that they ended in was most probably a throne room.

It was a long, thin room with a peaked ceiling that soared above them. At the far end of the room were three thrones: A narrow, feminine wing-backed chair sat on the left, empty; another feminine, although slightly larger chair on the far right, also empty; and in the center was the larger rigid throne, only this one was occupied.

The man in the raised throne had a strongly chiseled jaw and a thin beard that followed the curve of his face. The brown eyes were deep-set and against the pale skin of his face were startlingly intense. A wide nose and a full mane of dark blond hair completed the image.

The man clad in black dropped to one knee, muttering the words “My Master”.

Mathieu did not. Instead, he cocked his hip to the side and put a hand on it, surveying the man before him. He wasn’t impressed.

The man looked him up and down right back. Curiously, he tilted his head at Mathieu. “You don’t kneel before your King?”

“I kneel before no one.” Resolutely, he centered his body over his feet, both hands on his hips now. He leaned forward slightly on the balls of his feet, ready to flee.

The King seemed to find this an interesting notion, shifting forward in his chair to look at Mathieu. “No one, you say?”

Mathieu grinned. “Not before a king. Not even before a god.” He couldn’t really get in any more trouble today, so he figured he should just be himself.

“Come closer, child. Let me look at you.” The King beckoned him with a crook of his heavily jeweled finger.

Jaken’s head snapped up, “But sir! He is highly dangerous. He’s already injured two of your officers! I would advise--”

Amusement danced in the King’s eyes. “You aren’t going to attack me, are you?”

Mathieu shook his head. “In all fairness, they both started it. I just finished it.” He stopped just short of the stairs, looking up at the King.

“You finish it. That’s quite funny. You look pretty harmless to me. But then again, so does my wife, and I wouldn’t put her into a rage. That’d be a fool’s mistake.” He gave Mathieu an appraising look. “Do you think me a fool?”

“I think you’re a man trying to do a job to the best of his ability but who finds himself constantly at an impasse because you know that political tensions are rising over Korinth, however, doing anything about it would start a war that this country isn’t ready to fight. Do I think you’re a fool? No. Do I think you should be sending your “officers” to do