Oracle

by Kyra Dune

  “Good,” Charles said, though really he was thinking the last thing he needed was to have yet another person’s future depending on him becoming king.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “I’m getting worried.” Lauren stood by the fireplace rocking Mica in her arms while Silas slept nearby in his cradle. “It’s been three days with no word. Sean has never done anything like this before.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine.” Only Cole wasn’t sure at all. For Sean to go off this way without word to him was strange. If it were something to do with the rebellion it only made good sense Sean would keep it from his wife, but why hide it from him?

  Lauren glanced over at him. “If you knew something, you would tell me. Wouldn’t you?”

  “Of course.” Another lie. It was for her own good she knew nothing of what they were about, but she was still family and it set poorly with Cole to lie to family. He joined her by the fireplace.

  “Sean is smart and capable,” he said. “He can take care of himself. Whatever is going on, I’m sure he has a good reason for being away.”

  “I know. But...” She sighed. “I have this feeling he’s gotten himself caught up in something dangerous.”

  “Something dangerous?” Cole’s heart jumped. Had she discovered the truth? “What do you mean?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. His bird comes and goes more often than ever. I know she carries massages. At first I thought maybe he was” her cheeks colored as she lowered her gaze from Cole’s “having an affair. But such thoughts didn’t last long. I know Sean would never. But if it’s not a mistress, then what? I’m so afraid. What would I do if something happened to him? How would I raise my boys alone?”

  “Nothing is going to happen to him,” Cole said. “And even if it did, which it won’t, you don’t ever have to worry about raising these boys by yourself. You always have me.”

  She smiled. “You have no idea how much I appreciate hearing you say as much. My boys are lucky to have you for an uncle.”

  “I’m the lucky one.” He held out his arms. “Let me rock Mica awhile. You look exhausted.”

  “Thank you.” When she passed the baby over he fussed a bit at first, but quickly settled into the crook of Cole’s arm. Lauren smiled. “You’re so good with the boys. It’s long past the time when you should be having children of your own.”

  “First I would need a woman,” Cole said. “I can’t seem to find one. At least, not one who’ll have me.”

  “Ah, I see.” Lauren leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. “I went to the Guild House to see Kat, but Deke said she was out on a job with Jesse. I wondered if that was why you seemed sad lately.”

  “Ethan and Manny are with them.” It was hard to take her pitying look, though he knew she meant well. “Kat asked me to go, but I said no. I have too much responsibility here.”

  Lauren shook her head. “You should have gone. Much as I appreciate all you do for me and the boys, I don’t want some sense of duty to us to affect your life.”

  “Going wouldn’t have changed anything.”

  “You could have told her how you feel,” Lauren said.

  “And ruin our friendship? Never. Telling her would do no more good than following her around like a lost puppy. She will never see me as I see her.”

  “She’d have to be blind.”

  “She is.” He carried Mica to the cradle and laid him down beside his twin. “Blind with love for another man. I only wish Jesse could be everything she needs him to be. Happiness is all I want for her. Even if she must find it without me.”

  “Well, I want you to be happy.” Lauren laid her hand on his arm. “I want you to have what Sean and I have. Someone to spend the rest of your life with. Seeing you so alone bothers me. You deserve better.”

  Cole laid his hand over hers and smiled. “I have no intention of pining my life away over Kat, if that’s what you’re worried about. Nothing will ever come of these feelings I have for her, I know that. Someday I’ll find a woman to love who will love me in return. Until then, I can be content with what love I do have. The love of my family.”

  “You are so sweet,” Lauren said. “I’m glad my boys have a man in their life who’s not afraid to show affection. You can help them understand why their father is so distant.”

  “What if they turn out exactly like him?” Cole said. “Can you imagine three Seans, stomping about all broody and repressed? It’ll make for a quiet house.”

  Lauren laughed. “Too quiet. I wouldn’t mind the boys having some of their father’s better qualities, but I surely hope they don’t grow to take after him in that respect.”

  As if they conjured him up simply by speaking of him, Sean came striding through the door. Lauren started toward him, an uncertain smile on her lips, but he brushed past as if he hadn’t even seen her. She cast an anxious look at Cole.

  He patted her arm. “Stay here. I’ll talk to him.” Cole followed his brother down the short hall to the bedroom he shared with his wife. “Where were you? You had Lauren worried sick.”

  Sean knelt on the floor and pulled a trunk out from under the bed. “I had business to attend.” He took a key from his pocket and used it to unlock the trunk, then pushed back the lid and drew a cloth bound bundle from within.

  A feeling of unease stirred Cole’s gut. He recognized the bundle and knew what it hid. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s time.” Sean unwrapped the bundle to reveal their father’s sword. The blade gleamed silver in the light of the lamp.

  “Duke Victor bid us to wait,” Cole said. “Lord Charles may yet be chosen king.”

  “His money has served us well. Now, we serve ourselves.” Sean stood, gripping the sword in one hand.

  Cole glanced down the hall and was relieved to see Lauren had not come after them. “So you mean to attack? Now? We aren’t ready.”

  “With no king on the throne this is the opportune moment.” Sean’s dark eyed gaze searched his. “Are you with me, my brother?”

  If only Cole had taken Kat’s offer and followed her to the desert, he would not now find himself being drawn into the darkness after his brother once again. “Of course. I’m always with you.”

  “Good.” Sean nodded once, and moved past him to the door. “Fetch Perulidita. We go to join the others.”

  Cole held back a heavy sigh as he again followed his brother into the hall. He detoured to the closet where the carrier falcon was kept. She was sleeping with her head tucked up under one wing.

  “Perulidita, wake up,” he whispered the words so as to rouse her more easily from her slumber. She lifted her head and regarded him expectantly with her yellow eyes.

  “No message today.” Cole slipped on the leather glove which hung by a hook on the wall. “We go on a journey instead.” He held out his arm and she stepped daintily onto his wrist.

  When the two of them entered the living room, Lauren was staring at the open front door. She turned at the sound of Cole’s footsteps. “What’s happening? Sean came through here with a sword. He stopped by the cradle to look at the boys and he wouldn’t answer my questions or even look at me.” Her gaze shifted from Cole’s face to the bird and back again. “Where are you going?”

  The look in her eyes tore at his heart, but nothing he could do about it. Not trusting himself to speak, he merely shook his head and moved toward the doorway.

  Lauren stepped in his path. “No. I can accept such from Sean, not from you. Tell me something. Anything. Lie to me if you must. But don’t walk out the door without saying a word to me.” Her voice thickened with unshed tears. “Don’t you dare.”

  Cole swallowed down the lump in his throat and took hold of her hand. “Things are happening. Important, dangerous things. That’s all I can tell you. Sean and I have to leave for awhile and I don’t know when we’ll be coming home.

  “You should take the boys to your mother. Stay with her. But if things begin to look... bad, if you get wind of trouble coming this
way, leave. Get out of Marigold, out of Hyacinth if you have to. Don’t stay here.”

  “Oh, God Above.” A single tear tracked down her cheek. “What has Sean gotten you into? I don’t suppose you can promise me you’ll both come back safe.”

  “I’d not make you a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. But try not to worry too much. Sean and I always look out for each other. And I will do my best to see those boys don’t grow up without a father. I can promise that much. Now it’s your turn.”

  “I promise to leave Hyacinth if I get wind of something bad,” she said. “But I pray it doesn’t come to that.”

  “So do I.” He quickly kissed Lauren’s cheek and Perulidita squawked a bit at being jostled so. Then man and bird left the warm light of home and ventured out into the night.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  A light breeze stirred Priscilla’s long, blonde hair as she strode down the street under the glow of the full moon. Candlelight shone out from the windows of taverns and brothels along the way, but the orange shaded shine held back, leaving her to be bathed in silver. A color she felt much more suitable for one such as herself.

  Many eyes noted her passing. A beautiful woman in a gauzy white dress walking alone in that particular section of Marigold could hardly hope to escape notice. Normally, Priscilla would have taken more time to enjoy the attention and even have some fun with it. But tonight she was on important personal business and not in the mood to play.

  A whisper of sound warned her of three men following her as she stepped off the lighted way and down the darker street leading to the Guild House. Priscilla smiled. Maybe she did have time for a little fun, though she doubted it was of the sort these three had in mind.

  Priscilla spun around, startling her pursuers so they stumbled into each other trying to match her quick stop. She smiled demurely and batted her lashes. “Can I do something for you gentlemen?”

  The less odious of the three managed to gather his ale soaked wits enough to reply. “You can do something all right.” He gave her a long, leering look. “You can get down on your knees and use that pretty mouth to make me feel real good.” His friends chuckled.

  Under other circumstances she might have acted the helpless maiden and let this little scenario play out, but tonight was one of those exceedingly rare occasions when her concerns for another person overrode her natural tendency to indulge herself.

  “That’s no way to speak to a lady.” Her hand shot out almost too fast for the human eye to mark the movement, and closed around the man’s throat. She easily lifted him off his feet. “Didn’t your mother teach you any better?”

  Priscilla’s long, red nails dug into the man’s flesh until his blood was running down her fingers. He gasped, clawing uselessly at her wrist while his companions watched in mute shock.

  She glanced over at them and smiled. “Who wants to go next?”

  They exchanged one horrified look, and bolted.

  Priscilla pouted. “I guess they don’t want to play after all.” She released the dead man. His body hit the ground with a meaty thump. She used the front of his shirt to clean the blood from her hand before going on her way.

  When she reached the Guild House she found it dark, but went up to knock on the door anyway. Some time passed before a man with a face like old leather answered. He gave her a cursory look over before meeting her gaze.

  “Can I help you?” His voice was a bit gruff, and yet remarkably polite for a man who, judging by his rumpled clothes, she had roused from sleep.

  “Are you Zeke, the Guild Master?”

  “I am.”

  “Then yes, you can help. I’m looking for a man named Ethan. I was told he does work for you.”

  “Depending on what you need done, I can suggest a few others,” Zeke said. “Ethan’s on a job.”

  “I only want to see Ethan. Where is he?”

  Zeke frowned. “Are you one of his lady friends?”

  Priscilla giggled. “In a way. I must find him. Not to put him in any trouble, if it worries you. His father has died and he hasn’t answered the summons to come home.” Which wouldn’t have bothered her except something truly terrible was going on. An elder power had been murdered and such things simply did not happen. Ethan could be in some kind of trouble. Something worse than the kind of trouble he was usually in.

  “I don’t know exactly where he went.”

  “Please,” she tilted her head and looked up at him through her lashes, “if you can tell me anything to help me find him I would be so grateful. This is a dire family matter and I’ve come such a long way.”

  “Well, now.” Zeke cleared his throat. “I suppose if it’s a family sort of thing. Far as I know he’s gone off to the Dells with my daughter and two others. But it’s a big place, the Dells. You won’t likely find him. May as well wait for him to come back if you can.”

  “Maybe you could tell me where he lives so I can wait for him there.” If he had left his home using a rift, she could easily follow after him. If not, as was likely the case since he was traveling with others, she could simply peer into the aether and summon herself a nightmare to track him down.

  Zeke rattled of an address in the city. Men. They were all the same. A pretty face would undo them every time.

  “Thank you so much.” She turned from the door.

  “Miss,” Zeke called after her. “You might want to consider spending the night here. We always have an empty bed or two and these aren’t the kind of streets a woman should be wandering down alone this time of night.”

  “I appreciate your concern but you needn’t worry,” she smiled at him over her shoulder, “I can look after myself.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Scant moonlight fell through the canopy as Sean, Cole, and their particular cell of the rebellion moved toward the castle. Though they were surrounded by others, still Cole felt as if it were only he and his brother as it had been on another night much like this one. A night of violence and blood. The night they fled their homeland never to return. Cole could well remember the panic in his chest as they raced toward the coast, praying the ship meant to carry them to safety would still be waiting.

  Cole was barely thirteen when his older brother changed the course of their lives with the stroke of a sword. Tonight, Sean seemed bent on doing the same thing all over again. Though tonight, it might be their own blood flowing across the stones.

  As they drew near the edge of the woods, Sean raised his fist to halt the group. Cole crouched down beside a tree and peered out at the castle. The sky was starting to lighten with the coming of dawn.

  Sean tied a missive to Perulidita’s claw and sent her winging into the sky. Cole watched her fly away and wished he could join her. But he was only a man bound to the earth. And to his brother.

  If this should be his last day of life, his deepest regret would be having parted with Kat on bad terms. He wished now he could go back and change something about that last encounter. So many things he might have done differently.

  “Speak a prayer to Moaba for our success this night,” Sean whispered.

  Cole closed his eyes and pressed two fingers to his lips. But it was not for the rebellion he prayed, nor even for himself and his brother. Instead he prayed for Kat, that she would be safe in her journey to the desert and someday find all the things her heart longed for. She deserved each and every one of them.

  Red-orange light bloomed over the horizon. Cole rose to his feet and stood beside his brother with his sword firmly gripped in his hand. The castle watch would be changing shift and Sean had felt this was the best time for attack.

  Silent as ghosts, they slipped out of the woods toward the castle. And to Cole the red dawn seemed a heavy portent for what lay ahead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  Mark stood in a little clearing in the woods with the night fading. A gentle breeze swayed the trees until they seemed to be whispering to one another. He shivered, though the night was not cold. It was beyond him
to understand why Daniella had left a note saying she wanted to meet him here of all places.

  He wasn’t the sort to be easily spooked, but something in the air had him feeling uneasy. It was nothing he could put a name to, but rather something he could feel deep in his guts. “Get a hold of your wits man,” he muttered.

  “Talking to yourself?”

  Mark spun around as Daniella entered the clearing. In her hands she carried an unlit candle. He smiled. “I was feeling a little lonely, but now you’re here....” He slid his arms around her slender waist.

  Daniella tipped her head back for a kiss he was more than happy to give. The touch of her lips filled him with pleasant heat. But after too brief a moment, she pulled away and stepped past him to set the candle down in the center of the clearing.

  Mark watched her, wondering what she was up to. An early morning tryst in the woods was fine with him, but it was so unlike Daniella. It was unlikely anyone would be about to catch them and yet the risk remained. Too much risk with the High Priest staying at the castle and the throne on the line. He couldn’t believe she would risk so much for a little fun.

  Kneeling in the grass, Daniella took a tinderbox from the satchel tied around her waist and lit the candle. She sat back on her heels to stare at the resultant blue flame. “Do you love me?”

  The question, and the serious tone in which she asked it, took him completely by surprise. “You are my princess. I worship the ground on which you walk. As would any man.”

  “I’m serious, Mark.” She stood and turned to face him. “Do you feel love for me? Not infatuation or lust or worship, but love. Real love. I need to know. Are you in love with me?”