Free Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) by Paula Flumerfelt

gardens earlier, but with whatever had occurred at dinner, he hadn’t gotten to see them yet. The moons were different here: brighter somehow. Just like the castle, it was beautiful. Everything was so visually appealing here…
     
    Ateri was spectacular; it was as vibrant as they said. Technology was more advanced here than it had been in the few towns he’d been to. Of course, those had been outer towns, not cities liked this. Technology had come a long way. Transportation that were controlled by a telepathic connection were common place. Hologram transmitting crystals were used for communication. Everything was so fancy and high tech.
     
    “They’re pretty, aren’t they?” Avian stood beside him, her eyes only half open. “The flowers I mean. They were Narrie’s idea.”
     
    “You should be sleeping.” He gave her a sideways look.
     
    She shook her head, putting her hand on the window frame. “Can’t sleep. Stay up and talk with me for a bit?”
     
    He nodded and on impulse picked her up bridal style, carrying her back to her bed. Setting her down gently, he went to retrieve a chair and sat near her. “How long have you and Narrie been together?”
     
    “Since I was…let’s see…four. Originally my dad wanted me to have someone to play with as a child. I was always sick and I don’t have any siblings. The garden was her idea.” Avian said, curled up on his side to watch him. Her golden eyes glowed in the dim light.
     
    Mathieu raised an eyebrow. “It was?”
     
    “She felt bad that I couldn’t really go outside because I’ve always been prone to severe sickness, so she asked my father if she could plant a garden outside my window. That way, even if I couldn’t go outside, I could still see them anytime I wanted. She planted a few flowers at first and then the other servants started to pitch in. It just kind of grew from there.” Now that she was talking, her eyes were starting to light back up and she was smiling softly like earlier. Avian looked at him. “My turn. Tell me about where you came from. I didn’t know that we had an orphanage outside of here and Zurn.”
     
    “Oh, yeah. It’s down past Tuckern. It’s an old wooden building with lots of room and only a few kids.” Mathieu said, clearly not wanting to talk about it.
     
    “That sounds nice.”
     
    Mathieu gave a half-smile for her. “I guess it was. But it was time for me to move on. So here I am.”
     
    “You’re brave to come here. What kind of things did you do there?” She sat up, listening attentively. She looped her arms around her legs.
     
    Mathieu relaxed back into the chair, realizing he would have to talk about it eventually. “We used to do things like clean, tell stories, take the younger kids to play down by the streams. It was pretty relaxed. I played the cello a lot as well.”
     
    “Played is past tense…”
     
    Looking at the floor, his next few words were mumbled. “My cello got broken.”
     
    Avian tilted her head. “Broken? Well then, we’ll just get you a new one.” She said simply, shrugging one shoulder. “I’m not musically inclined, so you’ll have to play for me all the time, okay?”
     
    “O-okay.” His eyes watered. “You’re very nice, you know.”
     
    “Eh. People tell me that and I never believe them. Who knows, maybe I am nice.” Yawning, she laid back down ,  pulling the blanket up to her chin and closing her eyes. He made to get up, but she cracked one eye open, “Stay until I fall asleep, ‘kay?”
     
    “Okay.” Sitting back down, he curled up in his chair, watching her. She closed her eye again and not long after, her breathing evened out and the tension from her face slid away. His eyes became heavy and soon he was asleep, too.
     
    ~*~
     
    He had a weird feeling in his head, like everything was coming to him through a fog and the room around him had changed.
     
    Instead of Avian, a tall blond man wearing jeans and a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled