The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

She gestures for me to take the seat in front of her desk, I do. "Hello." I force a smile. "Sorry, but I still don't know your name."

"Liliana." She leans back in her seat. "I was glad to hear that the liege joined your quest. I'll admit, I was most skeptical about him."

"Violet found a way to convince him. She's been very helpful so far."

"Good to hear that I chose well. Then again, I rarely make mistakes." She seems so proud of herself.

"Liliana?" She nods. "I don't know who you are, you seem like such a powerful person. I wish I knew more about your history." I make my tone as sincere as possible.

She frowns. "You've never heard of Liliana the Majestic? What did your tutors teach you?" She adjusts herself on her seat. "I was born 230 years ago."

"Oh, you look..."

"Young, I'm aware. I made a deal with another mage, but she hoaxed me. It was around the time I turned sixty, I wanted to look young permanently. I was thinking thirty, she was thinking thirteen." She pauses so I can laugh at her terrible joke. Like my smile, the laugh is forced. "Now I'm trapped in this body till I die."

"That sounds bad, sorry that happened to you."

"Oh well, you can't change the past. My body hasn't stopped me from carrying out my little projects over the years." She looks off in the distance, seemingly carried away. "And this will be my greatest project yet."

"Me?"

"Well not just you, your friends as well. They both have bright, adventurous futures waiting for them."

"Oh." I play with my hair. "Their adventures, will it happen on this quest?"

She snaps out of her trance. "No, when this is over, they'll continue with their lives and paths." She notices my countenance and says, "the world doesn't revolve around you, Adria. They won't be aiding you forever, they have their own journeys."

"And what about me, what's my destiny?"

"I can't tell you your future, I don't want to change it. Besides, Rosie only told me so much."

"Rosie, are you talking about the oracle of Rosedale?" I know she's not talking about Rosalie.

She nods. "We've been friends for almost two centuries. We catch up every now and again, when I can find her, that is."

"Yes, um..." I search my wrist for the scar she inflicted on me. "Is this a dream? Or am I really here?"

"Does it matter?"

It does to me. "No." I lean back on my chair and try to relax. "Would you mind telling me why you brought me here?"

"I wanted to warn you. When you pass Rinus Valley, you'll be attacked."

"Thank you. I will be extra alert."

She shakes her head. "No. Allow yourselves to be captured."

I sit up. "You want us to let ourselves be captured. Why? That sounds very dangerous."

"Rinus Valley is not a normal place." I huff, nothing on this quest so far has been normal. "It only grants passage to those who truly desire it. You can't leave until you pass the test, don't waste your time avoiding capture."

"How am I supposed to convince the rest?"

She shrugs. "You still have days before you get there, you'll figure something out." She opens a book and begins reading from it.

"Liliana." I call.

"You can go, I'm done with you."

"Do you have any other piece of advice for me?"

"No."

"Fine, how do I get out of here?" She flicks her wrist and the world becomes windy for a millisecond. I wake up in my tent and search my body for any abnormalities. Fortunately, there aren't any.

I take deep calming breaths and try to go back to sleep. It's hard though. I keep thinking about what Liliana said.

I open the flap and glance at the sky, it's pink. I have to be up in an hour, so I give up on falling asleep again.

***

"The village is right there, I'm going in by myself."

We're currently a few miles away from Nora's village. I plan on delivering the letter and leaving as soon as possible.

"One of us should go in with you, it'll be safer." Malin suggests.

"I'll be fine, just wait here." I race away from them.

I arrive at the town gate five minutes later and get off my horse. At the entrance is an old man in rags. I drop a silver coin in his bowl and crouch down. "I'm looking for Nora."

He looks up at me with blank eyes. Is he dead? Just when I'm about to alert a passerby for help, he begins coughing. I move away and wait for his fit to end.

"You asked for Nora." His voice is thick and croaky. "No one goes by that name in this village."

"Are you sure?" I ask. "That's not possible."

"I've lived here for the past twenty years, I know every man, woman and child. None of them are named Nora."

I leave him and walk into the town. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Nora." I ask a middle-aged woman.

She's sweating and her clothes have various stains on them. She scowls at me and balances the big wooden basket on her hips. "I don't know any Nora, now piss off."

She lumbers off and I try my luck with a few more villagers. They all don't know anybody named Nora.

Of course, the Niphin tricked me, how could I have been so stupid?

I climb Apple and ride towards the gate. As I get closer, I hear some shouts. "Are you crazy, get down." A young girl whisper-yells from the left side of the road. "You, I'm talking to you."

I turn to the side and she's looking directly at me. I point at myself and she nods. I contemplate on whether or not I should ignore her. The decision is made for me when three people dressed in black appear in front of the road. They're all on horses and I recognize them immediately, they're bandits.

They trot over to me. One of them climbs down from his horse and moves closer to me. "What do we have here?" He smiles and his brown, crooked teeth are exposed. "Fellas, are you seeing this?" The other man smiles while the woman has a blank expression on her face. "A rare Ascot horse, this beast right here is a special kind." He reaches out to stroke Apple's nose and the latter moves back. I place my hand on his head reassuringly.

I put on my most threatening face. "If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."

He raises his hands and laughs. "Accent, manners, expensive horse. Must be a noble."

His male cohort nods. "Say boss, how much ransom do you think we can get for her?"

With lightning-fast reflexes, I retrieve my bow and arrow. While I'm cocking the first arrow, the man draws his sword and holds it to my neck.

He tuts. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, drop the weapon." I hesitate. "I said drop it." He screams. I put the weapon in my front. "Now get off the horse."

I slowly get off my horse. "Nora, take her." I'm so worried, I almost miss that. I look ahead at the girl and she drops from her horse. She walks up to me with a sharp sword in her left hand. She's a criminal, at least now I know how she could be romantically involved with a Niphin.

"Turn." She directs. I do so. She replaces her sword with a simple dagger and holds the cold blade against my throat. "Move." She uses her knee to nudge me forward and we walk to the edge of the town. She leads me to a little brown hut towards the gate. We walk in and she orders me to sit down.

She ties my hands and legs at my back and leaves. I hope more than anything that Malin and Violet come quickly. The leader walks back in with my satchel. He rifles through it with a big smile on his face. He produces my dagger and stares at it like it's the best thing he's ever seen.

"Wonder where you acquired this piece from." He dumps the contents of the bag on the floor and kicks them around. He won't find anything special there, most of my possessions are back with Malin and Violet. The only thing there are a few first aid objects, some bread, and the letter.

He walks up to me and takes my chin in his hand. "Okay pretty girl, tell me. What's your name?" I don't talk. "That's how you want to do this." His hand slides down to my neck and he strangles it. I struggle to breathe, he just squeezes harder. He finally lets go and I can't stop coughing. "What's your name?"

I catch my breathe and look up defiantly. He nods. "You're stubborn, fine. Let's try this differently." He produces a dagger and stabs the middle of my palm. I bite my lip to stifle my scream and shake my head. "Still stubborn, let's see how resilient you'll be with only nine fingers." He places the edge of his knife on one of my fingers and presses his blade against it.

Before he can draw blood, the girl walks in. "Gregor, we have a problem with the villagers. The tavern owner doesn't want to pay us our money."

He sighs. "You're lucky. Use this time to think. Hopefully, when I come back you'll be more cooperative." Without another word, he strolls out of the hut, leaving me with Nora. I stare at her, she has brown hair, black eyes and caramel skin. She's almost pretty.

I stare at the deep cut on my palm and wince when I see all the blood I've lost. I look up at the girl, she can't hold my gaze. At that moment, I get very angry. I came all this way and put myself in trouble for her, and now she won't even look at me.

"Nora." I call and she doesn't answer. "Hazel says hello." I spit out.

She finally looks at me, she has a scared look on her face. "What did you just say?"

"I said, Hazel says hello."

Her face contorts and she looks angry. "Don't you dare say that name." She draws her weapon and comes closer to me. "If you say it again, I'll cut your tongue out."

I think about that. "Hazel." She hits the side of my head with the hilt of the dagger. My migraine returns, I surprise her by laughing. "Ironic, when I met him, he gave me a headache. Now you're bringing it back. You two really are made for each other."

"I said stop talking about him." She orders.

"Oh, then I guess you don't want his message." She's quiet. "I came all this way to deliver it and this is the thanks I get." She's still quiet. I close my eyes and rest my head on the wall. "This is just great." I open my eyes, she has a defeated look on her face.

Nora exhales loudly and sinks to the ground beside me. She doesn't say anything for a long time. "How did he look?"

I shrug. "Tall, green eyed, trapped me and my friends. I'm guessing the same."

That makes her smile. "I helped him set those, we were up all night."

I'm unimpressed. "Why are you telling me this?"

She clears her throat and sits up. "What's the message?"

I scoff. "Do you really think I'll tell you that?"

"You will, or I'll cut your throat."

"You won't, your friend needs me alive. Besides, I'm sure your partners in crime will love to know that you were with a Niphin."

Her reaction tells me I struck a nerve. "They won't believe you, you'll just put yourself in more trouble."

"You're lying." I accuse. "Would you like to hear why I know you're lying?" She doesn't respond. "Because they're the only two people in this village who know your name is Nora, if they do, they must know your past. They'll believe me."

"You're lying." She throws my words back at me.

"I am." I smile. "But it's a gamble I'm willing to take." I then raise my voice. "Gregor." I shout. She blocks my mouth with her hand. I bite it and she releases. I spit the taste of her dirty, grimy fingers out of my mouth.

"Fine, you're right. They know about him, but that's my past. I told them we're no longer together and I mean it. They can't know he's still contacting me."

I sigh. "So, how is this going to work?"

"I don't know, even if I wanted to release you, I couldn't. I'm not betraying them, they're my family."

"It's like you're trying to surround yourself with dangerous people. You need better friends."

She sneers. "Easy for you to say, I'm sure you grew up in a big house with lots of servants and nice, loving parents. Not a lot of people get that. You see these people as thieves and criminals, I see them as people who've looked after me for years."

"After hearing your story, I see them as...both."

She scowls. We hear footsteps coming and she scrambles to get up. Gregor walks in and I feel my heart rate go up, I don't want to lose a finger.

"What are you women chatting about?" He asks.

"The usual idle female gossip." She replies sarcastically. "Did you get it?"

"Of course I did, it's with Jay. He's still collecting the rest." He walks up to me, I refuse to let my emotions give me away. "Are you ready to talk, or should the mutilation begin?"

Thankfully, Nora speaks up.