Free The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1 by AJ Martin

suggested.
    Matthias nodded. “Yes, of course.” He placed his hands
together and rested them on the table. “Your Grace, the truth is
that I am here on matter of great importance to you. I have to tell
you about a great danger to Aralia.”
    “ I knew it,” Thadius exclaimed. “All your talk earlier of our
armies being prepared for battle.”
    Matthias nodded. “My queries were thinly veiled at best,” he
responded.
    “ You were as transparent as glass ,” Thadius quipped.
    The
king shook his head. “What kind of danger are you referring to?” he
asked.
    “ It’s Sikaris, the creature known as the Great Dragon. He’s
breaking free.” He shifted his gaze from the king to Thadius,
observing their reactions.
    King Arwell looked at him perplexed. “The Great
Dragon?” he repeated. Matthias nodded. “ The Great Dragon?”
    “ Yes, Your Grace,” Matthias said. “There is no
other.”
    The king shifted in his chair. “But that’s impossible! ”
    “ I wish that were true,” Matthias replied.
    “ But
the creature has been imprisoned for over four hundred years!” the
king exclaimed. “Your kind turned him to stone!”
    “ Yes, Your Grace,” Matthias replied. "But a stone
prison made of the earth power like any prison made of iron and
steel has its own weaknesses, and someone, somewhere has finally found
them.”
    The
king rose from his chair and towered over him. “How has this
happened?”
    Matthias took a breath. “It’s… complicated . The Council of Wizards has
good reason to believe that a group of people with the ability to
wield one of the five streams of power are working on releasing
him.”
    “ To
what end?” Thadius interjected, as the king paced to the
window.
    Matthias shook his head. “We’re not sure.”
    “ Well, who are the people doing this?” Thadius
continued.
    “ We’re… not sure of that either.”
    “ Is there anything you are sure of?” he snorted. “Where has your
‘information’, such as it is, come from?”
    “ That’s also complicated." Matthias turned to the window, where
King Arwell was staring intently out towards the horizon. "Your
Grace, have you heard of an object called a seeing stone?" he
asked.
    Arwell turned and nodded. "I have heard of them. They are
rare gems, said to contain messages from the gods," he answered.
“But I thought they were mythical?”
    “ Your description is right. Except seeing stones aren’t
imaginary. Inside they hold prophecies: images and words, voices
and noises, all held deep within.”
    “ Like the jewel in your pendant?” Thadius asked. “This
‘moment’ they hold inside?”
    Matthias tilted his head. “A little. Except that
they aren’t man - made. As far as is known they are created by the three gods and sent
down to Erithia to be read. If you know how to, you can decipher
their messages. They are so rarely found though that they’ve become
legendary. There have only been a half dozen found in the last two
thousand years.” He leaned forward in his chair as the king
returned to his own and sat down. “The images that have been
deciphered have always come true. They are always accurate.”
    “ So
you are saying they are sent down from the gods to warn us of
danger?” Thadius asked.
    Matthias nodded.
    “ And
you have found one that has warned you about the dragon?" the king
asked.
    Matthias nodded. "We have. It showed Sikaris
breaking free from his prison and devastating the world. There were
also images of people using one of the powers to release him. These
events are coming. Soon .”
    “ But... if these stones show you images of
the future , how do you know when the events depicted are due to occur? Could they
not be decades away? Centuries?” the king shook his head in
confusion.
    “ There were indicators in the prophecies that narrowed down
the time of the events.”
    “ Like what?” Thadius asked.
    “ People, places, things along those lines,” Matthias advised.
“My people have