Mathieu by Irene Ferris Read Free Book Online Page A

sound of her footsteps that her she was in pain. Her tread was shorter, faster. She was putting as little pressure as possible on the balls of her feet.
    He finally spoke after hearing her softly gasp in pain on the last stretch of terrain. “Why did they send you up here if you had no experience in climbing? Did they not realize how badly you could hurt yourself?”
    She paused behind him. “It’s not as bad downhill. Really.”
    “Liar. It’s worse. Remember, I marched through these mountains before there were good roads.”
    “I think I hurt more than you did. Nothing personal, but this is a total bitch.”
    He snorted and stopped. “You need to rest. Stop. Sit.”
    She dropped down, gasping for breath. “We don’t have time to waste on my weakness.”
    “And you will waste even more time if you sicken or injure yourself in your haste. A few moments of rest will not change your friend’s situation.” After a few moments of silence he spoke again. “I can feel your people below us. We’re close now. Do you think you can make it?”
    “Do I have any other choice?” Her voice was tired and ragged, the mockery of his previous question subdued in her pain.
    “Not really.” He looked up at the sky through the trees to judge the daylight left. There wasn’t much, but they couldn’t stop now.
    Tonight the stars would come out. Their cold, white light would glimmer down at him, unchanged since his childhood. He’d learned long ago that the stars were each suns, but far, far away. Some of them even had worlds of their own, some like Earth with people and Demons of their own. Gadreel had told him that at one point, he remembered.
    He knew if he squinted hard enough, he would be able to see the curve of infinity, and beyond that was There.

C hapter Nine
    It was cold. Mathieu woke shivering. The heat of Acre was gone, replaced with a deep chill that made his bones feel as if they would fly apart into a million pieces at any second.
    The chains around his wrists were colder than the air, which seemed impossible. They burrowed into his flesh, down to his soul, and made him ache.
    He was naked as the day he was born. He looked around and the world was gray; gray and flat and so horribly cold. There was nothing here but the place he was and the chains around his wrists that held him in the middle of a strange circle inscribed in the dead earth.
    “You’re awake. Good.” The Angel was there and Mathieu breathed in relief. A quick glance at his middle showed that his wounds were healed, the wound from the lance nothing but a small faded red line.
    “Am I in Heaven?” Mathieu asked as he made his way to his knees, the chains around his wrists making a sweet chiming sound as he moved. “Is this a test to prove if I am worthy of seeing God?”
    “A test?” The blonde angel laughed easily. “I suppose you could call it that.” The angel gestured to the squire and Mathieu cocked his head as the old, withered man with empty eyes walked forward.
    “ Damonn,” intoned the angel, “remind me of what I’m supposed to do now. You know how I am about these things.”
    The old man looked at Mathieu then for the first time, really looked at him. His gaze was filled with pity for the briefest moment, and then blank again. “Master, you are to force this one to you with as many of the five bindings as you can. You will then take from me all that you have given me over these many years and force it into him so that he may serve you as I have served you. I have drawn the circle as you commanded. Once this is done, you must destroy me before my body fails and all that you have worked for is lost.”
    “Ah, yes. Thank you, Damonn. You’ve always been a good slave.” The angel advanced towards Mathieu, its beautiful visage changing, melting away with every step.
    By the time that the Angel reached Mathieu’s side, there was no beauty to be seen.
    With a cold but hot hand, the Angel pushed Mathieu onto his back with an evil