The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

My dreams get progressively worse. On the third night, I'm still wandering around rooms, searching for something, anything.

Younger me is useless. She runs around the garden, laughing without a care in the world. The only time she reacts is when she sees me, she stops giggling and instructs me to go back to the castle.

Just when I'm about to give up, I open a door and see a mysterious set of stairs. I look up, unsure of whether or not I should take it. On one hand, it might be what I'm looking for. On another, this is a very creepy dream that might be the work of a mage or sorcerer. But what do they want with me?

I look back and all the other doors have disappeared. In their place is a smooth, bare wall.

It seems like the decision has been made for me. I go up the brightly lit stairs, bracing myself for whatever I'll find at the top. As soon as my foot touches the last step, I wake up.

The thought of doing all this again makes me want to scream. Who is playing this cruel trick on me?

Half an hour later, I go back to sleep and for the first time in days, I don't dream. When I wake up a few hours later, I actually have energy for the day.

"Adria." Spencer stops my walk around the garden. I hadn't been looking at where I was going and wandered into the guard's training field. "You've been sick, I was worried."

My smile is tight lipped. "Spencer, I missed you at breakfast today."

"I was training." He gestures at the thirty or so men behind him. "Anyways, I'm glad to see you all better."

"Thank you. I should get going." Before I can turn, he holds my wrist, keeping me firmly in place.

"I was just about to call a break. It's a nice day, why don't we go for a walk?" He suggests. "Rest, meet back here in ten minutes," he yells at the men. They look surprised to be getting a break but are so tired, they don't question it. "Let's go."

He releases my wrist and we walk towards the pond hidden away by tall hedges. I sit on a marble bench and squirm, it's so cold. He sits beside me and stares at the pond in comfortable silence.

"The feast is in a few days. That is probably what's troubling you," he announces. I don't respond. "I know this must be a tough time for you. A season of bad memories."

I feign ignorance. "I don't know what you're talking about. It's a celebration feast, I'm ecstatic."

He shakes his head and sighs deeply. "Don't lie to me Addy, I can see right through you." I try my hardest not to scowl. "It's an understandably sad time for you and former Illyrians elsewhere."

My heart rate shoots up. "I don't feel comfortable talking about this."

"We need to talk so we can come to a solution." He lowers his voice. "One day I will be King." He gives me time to dwell on his words. Okay. "And I can't have that resistance causing trouble and embarrassing me constantly."

I'm slowly getting furious. "What do you want, Spencer?"

He notices my rising temper and takes my hand in his. "Don't worry, hopefully, everything will go according to plan and we'll all be fine." The last time someone said that, my mother married her husband's killer, our kingdom was all but handed to our enemies and I lost my father. He raises my hands to his lips and I yank it back forcefully.

"My mother is looking for me, I shouldn't keep her waiting." I stand up and storm off angrily. I expect Spencer to run after me, to scream or hit me but he doesn't. I walk back to the castle and up to my bedroom.

I walk up to my dresser and pick a perfume bottle. I raise it past my head and aim for the wall, I don't move my hand. If I start, I won't stop.

And if King Evander finds out I'm entering violent rages, the consequences will be swift and painful. I drop the bottle back on the table, my tears come hard. All the hate and anger I've kept bottled up are starting to come out. And these dreams aren't helping, they've left me mostly tired and on edge. I'm scared I'll explode at the wrong moment.

I'm tired of feeling like this. Not allowed to express my rage, expected to be quiet and obedient. I want to scream and shout and hurt someone. Instead, I release my emotions the only way I'm allowed to. Crying silently into my pillow.

I exaggerate my headache and skip dinner. I, instead force myself to sleep, whatever or whoever is manipulating my dreams must either stop or tell me what it wants. I don't bother talking to the girl, I just march straight to the room that leads to the stairs. Luckily, it's behind the only door on the ground floor. I go up the stairs and am met with more doors. I stop at the first one and am about to open it. I stop myself.

These all can't be random. There has to be some logic, some sequence to this. I go to the door that should be on the opposite end of the stairs and yank it open. I wake up in my room.

I go back to the castle and focus on the corridor I'm walking past. I rack my brain for memories of it and come up with a few. I remember getting locked in the specific door that holds the stairs. I walk around the second floor looking for doors that might hold some memories. I see one.

Behind it should be a grand piano. Mother loved to play, she hasn't since we got to Caledonia. I open the door and wake up, wrong memory.

I search the corridors again and enter a room that should be a dining room. It was where we had our meals, just us and close friends of the family. I wake up again.

I search more rooms, all with different memories and consider going back to the randomness that got me through the ground floor. I stop in front of a green door I don't recognize. This wasn't in the castle, I would have known. It's locked.

I jiggle the lock a few times, the door seems pretty intent on staying inaccessible. I search in vain for a key or anything that can open it. After a while, I give up. I decide to wake up by opening another door but whoever designed this labyrinth of misery is far clever than I gave them credit for. All the other doors have disappeared.

I sink to the floor. Just when I thought this couldn't get worse, I find myself trapped in this nightmare. I stare at the green door intently and notice something carved at the bottom right frame. I crawl forward and peer at the inscription.

There, carved into the wood is A + M. Who's M? The only M that comes to mind is Malin but I haven't talked to him in years. Mother told me he joined the resistance, I've been too scared to ask about him again.

For all I know, King Evander has tied rocks to his legs and tossed him over Brooke Bridge. I stand up and try the lock again. It finally opens. I push thoughts of Malin to the back of my mind and climb the stairs.

I wake up again, I'm grateful that I can at least get some sleep now that I've passed this level of the puzzle. I look out the window and my heart sinks at the sight of the rising sun. Why can't I catch a break?

That day at practice, I'm tired and distracted. My aim is off and I lose every sword match with Maynard. I always lose but today's loss was embarrassing. At dinner, my eyes are half-closed. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to leave until it's over. I avoided Spencer all day and don't meet his eyes even when I feel his gaze on me.

Tonight is the fourth night of restlessness and I've had enough of whatever this is. I scream my way up the stairs, daring whoever set this up to reveal itself. I scream as loud as I can but there's no answer. There are four floors in the castle so I at least know I'm halfway to the top. I spend that night trying to find the passageway. The only difference now is that I don't wake up when I open a door. I instead find the rooms looking exactly the way they were before the war started. I don't bother looking for a way out after an hour, I just walk around taking all the memories in.

I find myself running around happily, I haven't done this since I was a child. This is the happiest I've been in years, I almost don't want to leave. After a while, all the doors disappear and only one remains at the end of the hall. Suddenly, I remember why I'm here and what is waiting for me when I wake up.

I walk slowly down the hall and pause when I'm in front of the blue door. Whoever or whatever is behind the door brought me here and has been mentally torturing me for four nights. I open the door and begin my journey up the stairs.

As expected, I wake up in my room. I watch the sunlight trickle past my thin purple curtains and sigh.

I feel empty all day. I'm tired, not just physically but also emotionally. I can't do this anymore, this can't be the rest of my life.

That night, the royal sorcerer comes to examine me. He asks about my dreams and I consider telling him the truth. Maybe he'll give me something to stop them.

"In the dreams I'm..." I freeze when I remember last night's events. It wasn't a nightmare, if anything it provided much-needed relief. Or maybe it just made me depressed and left me longing for something I could never have. Either way, whoever is going through the trouble of doing this must be doing it for a reason. I can't give up when I'm so close. "I'm drowning, that's why I wake up gasping for air. Do you know what that means?"

"Ah, that's an easy one," he exclaims, scratching his scraggly beard. "It's nothing serious, I'll make you something to drink before you sleep. You'll be as good as new, Lady Adria."

I smile and he leaves. Twenty minutes later, he returns with a vial containing a clear liquid. I thank him and he walks out of the room.

Rainey blows out the candles and leaves me staring at the bottle. I could take it and sleep soundly, or pour it out and get answers.

I place the tiny bottle beside my pillow and go to sleep.

I walk past the garden and hear little me's laughter. She stops laughing when she sees me and for the first time, says something different. She smiles and offers me her hand to shake. I take it and am surprised that I can touch her. "Congratulations, Princess Adria." Her body turns into black sand and she fades into the wind.

I clutch my heart, that was terrifying. How does this keep getting creepier? I walk into the castle and up to the highest floor. "Hello." I walk down the hall and jump when I see a figure strolling past the corner. "Hello." I shout.

The cloaked frame runs away as soon as it notices me. I run after it, frantically searching for answers. I finally corner it and am close to pinning it down when it sends a thick cloud of blue smoke my way. The vapor hits me like a brick wall and I'm knocked back. And I thought little me was annoying.

I get up and run to the nearest door. Behind it is my parent's old bedroom. I lock myself inside. I sit on the bed and catch my breath. Whoever that thing was, it was the key to all the answers I've been looking for. Or at least my way out of here. I search one of the cabinets for a weapon.

I spot a silver bow and arrow and pick it up. I string a bow, ready to kill that thing if I have to. I walk out of the room and inspect all sides. I walk down corridors, past my old bedroom, past a little library, past mother's old drawing room, and don't see the figure.

At the last second, I duck. I narrowly miss a small silver dagger. The figure stretches its hand and attempts to blast me with its magic. I point my weapon at it and fire. It lands straight on the cloak, pinning the figure to the wall. It tries to remove the arrow and I say.

"Move and the next one will go through your head." I move closer to it. "And don't bother using your powers on me. First sign of blue and you'll be walking around with one eyeball."

I reach it and remove the arrow from the right shoulder of the cloak. I drag the hood down and a female face stares back at me. She has wide almond-shaped black eyes and straight black hair. "Why did you bring me here?"

She laughs. "I didn't bring you here." At that instant, I begin to fall throught the floor. Right before my body hits the ground, I wake up in my bed.

I go back to sleep ten minutes later. I don't have any more dreams that night.