The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

Malin must have slipped out of the tent before me. I come out of the tent and smile, the rain has stopped and it's bright and sunny out.

Violet is outside with our little black pot over a fire. "I'm making beef stew."

"Smells nice." I smile. "Where's Malin?"

"Out, wants to know exactly where we are. We might have gotten lost under the rain last night."

"Oh. Do you need any help?"

"No, just spread your clothes over there." She points at the spot where various articles of clothing are layed to dry.

I pack up my wet clothes and place them on the grass with everyone else's. "How long ago did he leave?”

She shrugs. "I don't know, half an hour."

I stare at my surroundings, all I can see is a vast green field and the single barn we spent the night in.

"Why don't I make dinner tonight?” I offer and join her by the pot.

She laughs for a long time. "I wouldn't eat it."

"I'm getting better."

"You're not, and I can't let you waste the food. The rain already destroyed a large portion of it."

I frown. "I was really looking forward to those cinnamon rolls we got at the bakery."

She wrinkles her nose. "I wasn’t, those things make my tongue swell."

"You're allergic to cinnamon?"

"When I was a toddler, I had an attack so bad, I couldn't breath. Happened again when I was eleven."

I gasp dramatically. "Violet ‘whatever your Surname is’, are you telling me things about your life?"

She can't help but smile. "I'm just saying it so you don't bring any near me."

"Alright, but remember our deal. Make it to the end of this quest, and you're telling me all about yourself."

"We still have a few more places to go to, don't celebrate yet."

She finishes cooking and serves two plates. "Malin isn't back yet, should we be worried?" I ask.

"He's fine." She sits down next to me on the slightly wet grass.

"Where did you learn to cook?"

"Lockheart. And stop asking me about myself."

"But you're an enigma." I say sadly.

"Good."

I drop it and eat my meal. Malin comes back an hour later with a basket filled with bread and cakes. "There was a village some miles from here, picked up somethings."

Violet takes it. "Um, Malin. Can we talk?" I ask.

His face is blank. "What about?"

"About…" I lower my voice so Violet won't hear. "Last night."

"I don't want to."

I follow him. "We kissed." I keep my voice low.

"You kissed me."

"You kissed me back." I retort.

"And I really wish I didn't."

My voice becomes even lower. "You don't mean that."

He stops. "I didn't want to stay in your tent last night, you begged me to. I didn't want to kiss you, yet I did, and I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize."

"Adria, I love you." He says. "Just not the way you want me to." His face looks so serious. "Let's just forget it ever happened and finish the quest." He dissappears behind the barn doors.

I don't move from the spot he left me in. He just said he doesn't like me and never will. He was trying to say all that last night but I didn't listen. I didn't and now I've made everything worse.

Why did I have to ruin a good friendship with a kiss?

***

"I'm happy we did this." Violet says during dinner, which she didn't let me cook. "We needed a day to calm down and collect ourselves."

Malin and I don't respond. We just eat our bread and jam quietly. "You two are quieter than usual." Violet remarks. "I thought you sorted out your fight."

"We did." Malin says. "We're just tired."

Violet laughs and snorts. "Why, you didn't do anything today. Adria, at least didn't."

I drop my sandwich on the plate beside me. "Where are we off to tomorrow?"

"The map wants us to bypass Harlow Valley and go throw this town, Act, Acton, Actan. I can't remember." She laughs.

"I'll get the map." Malin offers.

"What's going on with you two?" Violet asks once he's out of earshot.

"I'll tell you if we make it to the end of the quest."

"Smart." She laughs again and lies back down on the grass. "The stars are so pretty, I love them."

"Yeah." I stare at the fire. "Pretty."

Malin reappears and hands Violet the rolled up parchment. "Thank you." She unrolls it. "I know I was close, it's..." Her smile dissappears. Her face goes very pale and her eyes are empty.

"What's wrong?" I lean towards her. "What is it?"

She doesn't speak, just stares ahead. Malin takes the map from her and purses his lips. He yells, crumples and throws it away.

I save it from catching fire. I pick it up with shaky hands and look through it. My breath gets caught in my throat when I see it. "No." My voice is low and hoarse. "No."

The map has been altered. The oracle has moved her castle.

"We were so close." Violet says. "So close."

I look through the map again. I can't even see our location here, she's in someplace called Waysong, that's thousands of miles from here. It would take months.

Before another word can be uttered, the fire goes out and a cloud mysteriously covers the moon. It’s suddenly pitch black. A violent breeze passes and knocks the pot of beef stew we made this morning over. The hair on my skin rises and I shudder.

"I warned you." Comes an angry, malevolent voice. "I warned you, but you didn't listen."

A flicker of light appears beside the barn. Two figures walk up to our spot. Liliana, in her usual vibrant green dress and Rosalie holding a luminous lantern.

Liliana glances at our fire and it reignites. Rosalie drops her lamp on the floor and frowns, she looks as pretty as ever in a plain white dress. The ground directly below Liliana rises three feet, she sits down carefully on it. She takes us in one by one and scowls. "A mage, a princess and a soldier. All equally useless. You couldn't follow a simple map, could you?" She focuses on us one by one. "Making deals with Niphins, fighting pitiful fishermen, getting yourself thrown in prison. It's like you weren't trying."

"Liliana, we did..." Malin starts.

"Nonsense, is what you did." The fire temporarily flares up. "You were given such a powerful gift, one of the most powerful I've ever seen. But you locked it away, shameful." She spits out. "And you, I was led to believe you were one of the best mages Lockheart had ever seen. Esmeralda was right in kicking you out."

I turn to Violet, she doesn't meet anyone's eyes. Liliana zeroes in on me. "I won't lie, I didn't expect much from you. It's why I sent that coward." She points at Malin. She stares at me with pitying eyes. "I was right about you, you're no leader. You were never going to finish this, never going to take back your kingdom, never going to beat King Evander. You might as well go home."

That physically hurt. I find myself settling into a strange and quiet anger. "You know what?” I start.

"What?" She bellows with flames dancing in her eyes. I shrink back. She shakes her head at me. "If you know what's good for you, you'll fix this before I come back. You don't want to see me angry." She bunches up her skirts, stands up and returns the ground to it's usual flat state.

Rosalie, who's been standing somberly behind her picks up her lantern and follows after her mistress. Lilian stalks off into the night with Rosalie following closely behind her. She turns back and offers us an apologetic smile. I catch Malin smiling sadly back at her.

The lantern goes off and they dissappear into the shadows. Everywhere goes back to normal and I concentrate on our flickering camp fire, I don't dare look anywhere else. Nobody moves, we just sit there dwelling on her words.

Violet is the first to stand up. She doesn't say anything, just goes back into the barn. Malin has his face in his hands, he looks so defeated. "Mal,” I call softly.

He removes his face from his hands and squints at me. "Did we fail as badly as she said?"

"Of course not." I cross over, so I'm seated beside him. "We tried out best, we really did."

"You're talking about it in past tense." He notices. "Is it the end?"

"No." I say forcefully. I search for the discarded map and survey it. There are so many more places, so many more challenges, so much distance between us and her.

"This will take months, your window of opportunity is almost over." He gives me a small smile so I know he's only joking.

"This is important."

"No, you were right to be worried. King Evander can't know you're missing. If he does, it will be bad for everybody. Including Illyrians."

"We can't do this in a week." I say.

He looks over the map. "Maybe we won't have to." His eyes are alight. "Liliana said this map will lead to the Oracle, she didn't say it was the only way to get to her."

"We don't have another way to locate her, hence the map."

"Then we'll have to find one." He shoots up. "We need to start searching as soon as possible, we'll leave early tomorrow. Ask around, read whatever book we can find on her. She's met a lot of people, they couldn't have all come through Liliana."

A spark of hope lights up in my heart, each word from Malin fans it. "Let's go get Violet." We run up to the barn and see Violet tearing down her tent. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want to talk, Adria." It collapses on the ground.

"You're leaving? You can't leave. We're not done."

"Get it through your thick skull. It's over, we failed." She yells. "We failed. Just like Laila said I would." Her eyes are red.

I don't bother asking who that is. "Forget Laila. She doesn't matter, what does is this quest. "

"Let it go, we hit too many hindrances these past few weeks. It was never going to work."

"You're right, it wasn't." I admit. "Because we were following this map. This stupid map" I surprise even myself but ripping it in half.

"Are you crazy?" Violet yells.

"Who cares? It’s useless."

"How will we find the Oracle now?"

"I thought you were done with that."

She lowers her voice. "I am, now get out of my way."

"No." Malin digs his foot in the ground. "Why did you come here?"

"Excuse me?” Violet asks.

"Why did you leave your base where you were doing 'good work'?"

"I don't get it." I say.

Violet rolls her eyes. Malin takes this as a cue to continue. "You came here because you knew it was the right place to be. You didn't know what you were supposed to do but you came anyway." Violet doesn't respond. "This is where you're meant to be, where you're supposed to fight. You can go back, but there's nothing waiting for you there. This is where you're going to prove yourself. To show anyone who ever doubted you that they were wrong. So, what will it be?"

Violet looks deep in thought. After a few seconds of silence, she says. "I knew that speech was going to come back and bite me."

Malin smiles. "You're staying?"

She folds her arms across her chest. "I haven't decided yet, do any of you have a plan?”

"We do actually, we're going to reach the Oracle without the map." He says.

"So I gathered. How?"

"Asking around, reading, consulting people who've seen her." Malin offers.

"That is very vague, nobody believes in her. Both of you didn't till a few weeks ago." Violet says.

"Well yes, but there has to be myths, stories, legends." I add. "We'll go to the nearest towns, villages, cities, libraries. We'll find something."

Violet nods. "What about your necklace?" I finger the cool glass. "This is a serious emergency, more so than the others we've had. It has to be time."

I caress the glass. "Suzerain said I'll know when it's time, it doesn't feel like it yet."

"What could be more drastic than this?" She exclaims.

"I don't know, it just isn't time yet. And I can't use it too early, a worse emergency might come up later."

She shudders. "I hate to see what could be worse than this." She stares back at her tent. "I was too quick to dismember this."

"You were." I smile. "I'll clean up, you two should get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow."

I go to our spot outside and pick up the fallen over pot. "Need any help?" Violet is behind me.

"What about your tent?"

"Malin." We say at the same time.

"Thank you." I say.

Violet bites her lip. "I'm sorry." She shakes her head. "I wasn't in a good place when you met me, I'd just been..." She clears her throat. "Just been..."

"You don't have to say it."

"Thank you.” She sniffs. “This quest was my last chance to prove myself. Last chance to be taken seriously."

I shake my head. "I don't get it, you're really good at magic. Why would you be..."

"It's complicated, I wasn't joking when I said other mages didn't like me. I was mean, condescending and outright cruel. I did something in my final year, tried to sabotage one of my dorm mates. When Mistress Esmeralda found out, I was kicked out."

"You said it."

"Time to start accepting it, I guess." She sighs. "Liliana gave me a chance, it didn't really help my reputation. Liliana isn't well liked either, that’s probably why she's alone."

"Are you scared, of being alone I mean?"

"There are worst fates than that." Her eyes are far away. She snaps back to me. "I didn't want you or Malin to know. It's embarrassing."

"All that matters is you're better now then you were then."

She rubs her right elbow. "Maybe."