Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,9

of the town and down the road when he realized something. Despite how short his interaction with Geoff had been, he had been mostly relaxed. It was nice to be himself, to not be afraid of what someone else thought. Yawning, he stepped off the road so a carriage could go by.

As he continued walking, he found the road oddly empty. A stray carriage here or there was nothing worth nothing. For such a thriving country, the area outside of the capital was pretty empty and boring. It made Mathieu itch; he wanted energy to surround him, to distract him from the tedium. A rabbit crossing his way was the most interesting thing to happen all morning.

After a few more hours, the suns were at their peak. They beat down, making Mathieu break out in a sweat across his lower back and shoulders. Sighing, he pulled out his map again and wrinkled his nose in distaste. He was still at least another hour’s walk to the next town and he was beginning to regret not stopping in Steeta a while back.

“This sucks!” Mathieu announced to no one in particular.

Out of nowhere, a strange, creeping feeling slide up his spine. He felt…he felt like he’d been here before. But he knew for a fact that he’d never come this close to the capital in his life. He’d always lived at the orphanage. Well, he supposed at one time he had lived with his parents, but he hadn’t known where that had been. Besides, he would have been too young to remember that.

The feeling was starting to intensify, making his skin crawl and forcing bile to creep up his throat. Something horrible had happened here, the horrors lingering in the air. Mathieu vaguely wondered to himself how this area wasn’t quarantined as he leaned against a nearby tree, trying to keep his stomach under control. Phantom screams echoed in his head, a woman’s voice. It made his stomach twist painfully, his guilt telling him he needed to save the woman being tortured. He collapsed to his knees, curling down on himself; then, he clutched his stomach, face pressed into the cold grass. Mathieu barely had time to lift his head up enough to avoid vomiting on himself.

After a few more minutes of the invisible screams fading in and out and emptying of his stomach’s contents twice more, he pulled himself together enough to get to his feet. His hands shook slightly, but he took steadying breaths to get his body under control. The voice in his head was screaming at him to get going, to leave this place behind. So he did, taking off running until he could no longer look over his shoulder and see the tainted area.

~*~

The next town, quite luckily, had a bus depot that would take him into the city. Apparently, this town had become quite the haven for people who worked in the city, but didn’t want to live there; he had no clue why. Mathieu paid the small fee of twenty Khrons and was rewarded with a bus ticket labeled “From Thorn - To Ateri” in thick, blocky black print.

Sitting on a worn wooden bench, waiting for the bus, he watched as people went by his seat. It was relatively quiet in the town and everyone walked with determined strides, the same serious look on their faces, clearly having somewhere to go. It made him feel like he was being lazy, not walking along with the same determined look on his face. He looked down at his ticket and ran his fingers across it. Anticipation was building in his gut; his little escape plan was quickly becoming a reality. Things had sounded good in his head, go to Ateri and start a new life, but how exactly he was supposed to do that, he wasn’t sure. No matter. He thought as the bus pulled up. In just a short while, he’d be in the capital and he could figure it out from there.

The bus was pretty packed, but he managed to find an empty seat. He slide into it and smiled politely at the girl beside him. She was young, but still older than him.

“Hello.” Her voice was soft and she smiled shyly at him.

Her shy nature made him grin. “Hi. How are you?”

Reddish hair hid her eyes as she tilted her head forward. “Oh, I’m good.”

She was a little thing, only taking up half of the seat and practically no space on the bus. Her