The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

I wake up in a cave. Malin is laying next to me and breathing softly. Violet is nowhere to be found. I try to stand up but am halted by the sore feeling in my stomach. I force myself up and head for the entrance.

"Violet." I call, walking out of the cave. I see her pacing around anxiously. She visibly relaxes when she sees me.

"I was beginning to think you choose to stay in your dreams."

"How long have you been awake?"

"About an hour."

"How long were we there?"

"Six hours."

I massage my neck. "Felt like thirty years." I stretch my body. "What happened after I got stabbed?"

"Malin and I were expecting you to drop to the ground a bloody mess, but you didn't. When we checked, you were still breathing, just asleep. And there was no cut on your stomach. We followed in your footsteps and got stabbed. I think those things dragged us here."

"Okay, what about Malin? How long do you think he'll be like that?"

She shrugs. "I don't know, but it's late. Let's just set up for tonight and hope he wakes up before tomorrow."

We walk back into the cave and begin setting up for the night. Violet works on the fire while I set up tents. I consider setting up his tent. "What about Malin?"

"He'll do it when he wakes up." She replies.

I abandon his stuff and go sit next to her by the fire. "What were your happiest moments, the ones that made you want to stay there."

"Can we talk about this later, I'm tired." She lays down close to the fire and looks over at Malin. "Do you think he'll wake up?"

I look over at him. "I don't know. I didn't want to."

She hums. "We should get some sleep, I'm surprisingly exhausted. Considering the six-hour slumber we just took."

I nod. "You're right." I have some trouble falling asleep, I can't stop worrying about Malin. What is going on in his head, what are his best memories, will he leave it to come back here? I eventually go to sleep praying he'll be awake by morning.

The light streaming into the cave wakes me up. I immediately remember Malin and turn his spot. I don't see him there and I'm not sure what to think. I peer out the cave, he's watching the rising sun.

I stand up and slowly walk to him. "Mal." I call. He turns to me with an unreadable expression on his face. "You're awake."

"I am." He sighs. "Been awake for a few hours. Hard to go back to sleep."

I hear Violet mumbling and soon she yawns. "Malin." Her voice sounds sleepy. "Good, we're all here. We should get going, hopefully, we'll get to Mal Lundrues by nightfall."

"Fine, but I want to hear about everyone's dreams while we ride there." I jog back to my stuff and quickly pack them up. Soon, we're on our horses and on our way to the floating mountains.

"Who wants to go first?" I announce once we're at a steady pace. "Who will like to share their deepest desires with the group?" They're both silent. "Okay fine, I'll go first."

"Do we have to talk about that?" Violet asks.

"Yes. I'm starting." I try to talk but the words get hooked in my throat. My dream started with Illyria winning the war, how do I even phrase that? "You know what Violet is right. Let's not talk about them."

They glance back and I try my best not to look so sad. "Why not?" Malin says. "I was um...I was married in my dreams."

I look away and feel my heart beating wildly. "I was married too, actually."

Malin laughs. "Marriage?" Violet says with distaste. "That's the best you two could do, marriage?"

I give her an evil eye "Of course that wasn't part of your deepest desires."

"It wasn't." She says proudly. "I was accomplishing feats in my dream."

"I accomplished feats in mine too." I pause. I ruled Illyria, still not comfortable bringing that up. "I also had children."

Malin shudders and shakes his head. "I had children too."

I bite my lip to suppress my smile. My deepest desires showed me that I wanted to be with Malin, for the rest of my life. Do I feel that way in reality too? And from the looks of things, he had the same dream. Does he feel the same way about me? Is that why he's acting so distant?

***

We reach our destination as the sky gets dark two days later. I don't know what I was expecting from the floating mountains but it wasn't this. For one, I was expecting it to be well...floating.

If anything, it's below ground. There's a large cavern and the mountains are in it. The peaks are about twenty feet past our eye level and are in the middle of the cavern.

"How wide do you think it is down there?" I ask, peering over the edge.

"I can't tell, I don't know how tall the actual mountains are either." Violet observes.

"How long do you think it will take to get to the other side?"

"I don't know, depends on how rocky the terrain is. A day or two." She keeps looking down. "Do we even have enough supplies for that, we don't know what's down there."

"I haven't seen a village, or in fact anybody since we passed Rinus Valley. No markets."

She shakes her head. "People avoid the valley, they take a different route. It's three weeks to cross. I don't think we'll see people for a while."

"So what do we do?" I ask. I walk closer and look at the mountains.

"Maybe we should focus on getting down there first, we might find someone to help. Till then, ration our food and supplies."

"It's really not much, can last us three days. And that's if we stretch it."

"Well, then we'll stretch it." She insists.

"What about the horses? And water?"

"The horses will survive on grass and we're bound to find a stream. No matter how dirty the water is, I can cleanse it with my magic."

"It's getting dark, we should make a move. Stay here or try to get down before it's completely dark. What do you think?"

"I think..." She cuts herself off. "Malin, are you listening?"

"Excuse me?" He blinks rapidly. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"We're talking about something very important here. Can you try to pay attention?"

"He said he's sorry." I defend. "Maybe he's just thinking about something important."

"Thank you Addy, but she's right. I should help." He walks to the edge of the cavern and looks down. "It's deep." Is all he says.

Violet sighs. "I say we go down, any objections?" Malin doesn't respond. I shake my head. We ride around a few meters before seeing a steep passageway that leads to the bottom. We stay in a single file and carefully ride down.

Fortunately, we make it to the ground safely and set up camp at the base of a mountain. I look up, it doesn't seem too high, then again it's dark and I can't see much. The only light is the one from the moon and we can't see it clearly from down here.

We don't have dinner that night, it's best to ration the food. We don't know when we're getting out, or when we'll be able to get supplies next. We don't even light a fire, wouldn't want to attract any strangers.

And that's how we go to sleep; hungry, scared, and cold. A stark contrast to the dreams we enjoyed two days earlier.

The next morning, we're up and wandering around. Searching for food, civilization and most importantly water. After a few unlucky hours, we give up and decide to walk to the other side of the cavern.

We ride for the whole day and stop at night to rest. "I'm so hungry." I slump to the ground. "I have never been this hungry in my life."

"Well, you're in luck. Tonight you will feast on very stale bread, and spoilt meat. But don't worry, the decaying vegetables will offset the rotting beef taste." Violet goes to work on dinner.

I groan. "We're going to get sick. This might actually kill us."

"Relax, the worst it can do is give us food poisoning. If it does, I'll make something for the nausea."

I stare up at the nearest mountain. "How much longer till we're out of here?"

"We should reach the edge tomorrow, we're not too far. I can't predict the climb up, let's hope we find a town or a market."

I turn to Malin and he's quietly watching our little fire. He notices me eyeing him. "Are you alright?"

He sighs. "I'm fine, just thinking. Do you need any help with setting up?"

I shake my head. "We're good."

"Speak for yourself, I need someone to cut the meat. I would have done it but..." She gags.

Malin walks up to help her. I finish setting up our tents and can't stop looking at him. He seems so beautiful, he's always been good-looking. I just never noticed how handsome he was till yesterday.

He has a reserved look on his face and is having trouble focusing on his task. Violet eventually gets tired and sends him away. He goes into his tent and stays there.

"I can't believe I'm asking this, but does he seem off to you?" Violet asks.

I glance at his tent. "Maybe, what do you think it is?"

"Probably the dreams. Who knows what he saw back there. We all saw... things."

I remember my dreams and a particular scene comes to mind. I smile. "In my dreams, Reagan and I were friends."

Violet hums. "And that made you happy?"

"I think it did. What does that mean?"

"That your mother was right and you should stop villianising Reagan."

I snort. "Doesn't matter. After this quest, getting along will be the least of our worries."

She abruptly pauses her task. "What do you think is waiting for us at the end?"

"The oracle." I answer even though I know what she means.

"I'm serious."

I play with my fingers. "Honestly Violet, I don't know. I have no idea what she could possibly say that can help me defeat King Evander."

She's silent for a few seconds. "Do you regret coming?"

I answer immediately. "No, I needed to do this. Get a taste of the real world."

She laughs. "You're wearing gold, have money in excess and an aristocratic horse. This still isn't the real world."

"Maybe." The camp is quiet for a while. "Violet, why don't you like me?"

I hold her gaze. She exhales. "You want to know why I don't like you." I don't move. "Okay, I'll tell you why. I think you're selfish and conceited and lazy."

I guffaw. "Okay, that's just... mean."

She shrugs. "There's a reason I call you princess, you act like a spoilt one."

"Do you still think that?"

I'm relieved when she shakes her head. "You're still selfish, and conceited, and lazy. But not as much as before. You're also trustworthy and you care about people."

I clear my throat. "Violet, do you think I can do it? On the off chance that I defeat King Evander's army, do you think I can be queen?"

She smiles. "I think women can do anything."

I laugh softly. "I mean me, do you think I can do it?"

She thinks about that. "I think it will be hard. But yes, you can do it."

She flicks her wrist and the fire dies down. We both retire to our tents. I lift the flap of mine and turn to her. "Violet, thank you."

She walks into her tent but not before saying. "You're welcome. Adria."

My smile is so wide. That was the first time she's called me by my name. I lie down in my makeshift bed and think about our conversation. She called me selfish, am I selfish?

I don't pay much attention to what's going on around me and I'm not the nicest to my mum. A sharp pain pierces my heart when I think of her, she doesn't know where I am. And if she did, she'll be in so much trouble. At least I'm away from Caledonia, she's right in the king's clutches.

Once again, I have trouble falling asleep. I can't stop worrying about her. Maybe I should have told her where I was going, she wouldn't have told the king. I also wonder if Rainey has given her the letter.

The predominant question on my mind is; If she knew, would she be proud of me? I've worked so hard, and travelled so far. We're almost halfway there.

"She'll understand." I say to comfort myself.