The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

"A room?" Violet asks me.

"I thought we didn't have enough money." We stop in front of a tavern.

"We'll be fine."

She asks a man walking into the tavern for directions. He gives us strange looks before pointing us in the right direction.

"We'll be at Redmond tomorrow. There's a waterfall there."

Violet says once we get to our room. I nod and begin getting ready for bed.

"Sorry." She says after a minute of silence. "About Malin."

I want to say something, I don't know what to say, so I say nothing.

"We'll find a way to get him out, I promise." Violet says. "While you're fighting King Evander, I'll search. I'll do everything I can to get him back."

"What about Lockheart?" My voice is low.

"I've learned everything I can from them." She looks away.

"Don't say that for me."

She's angry. "He sacrificed himself to save the both of us. He was my friend too."

"Sorry." She says nothing. I climb the single bed.

She climbs in beside me. "Adria." She calls after I blow out the candle, leaving us in complete darkness. "I wish I killed Zane earlier this morning."

"Me too."

"Do you think he'll come for us?" She asks sincerely.

"When did the spell wear off?"

"It becomes weak enough for him to break away after 9 hours. He should have gotten out at 3 o'clock."

I laugh. "We'll be ready for him if he comes back."

She laughs as well. "Yeah?"

I sigh. "Yeah."

We fall asleep soon after.

***

We arrive at Redmond at noon. It takes us another hour to get to the waterfall at the base of a mountain.

"Do you have them?" Violet asks me.

"They're here." I hand her Malin's satchel. She ties our horses to the closest tree, secures our belongings, and gets to work.

She skips over large rocks to the base of the little waterfall. It's 20 feet high and as wide as the opening of a cave. Beside it is large rocks. Violet settles on the flattest one.

She removes roses from Malin's satchel and begins to throw them at the point where the waterfall meets the stream. She mutters her spell and the water begins emitting a green mist.

I leave all my weapons and belongings by Apple and skip over the rocks to Violet.

She drops the fourteenth rose and watches the waterfall.

"Did it work?" I collect Malin's satchel from her and leave it at our feet. We're standing very close to each other.

"Let's wait for a second."

Before our eyes, the waterfall slowly parts to reveal a luscious green valley.

"After you, princess." Violet offers.

I take a small step to the edge of the blue rock. I jump through the opening and expect to land in the water. Instead, I land on grass.

I roll to my side and Violet falls less gracefully beside me.

"Do you think we're at the right place?" She asks. The portal closes back.

"If we're not, then we're stuck." I sit up.

Violet is facing my back. "No, this is the right place."

I turn back and a breath gets caught in my throat. The building in front of me is strikingly beautiful.

It's made of silver marble that's sparkling under the sun and covered in green vines and white and red roses.

"That's a lot of roses." Violet stands up. She checks herself for injuries.

"I think this place is gorgeous." The sky is orange, birds are chirping and there's a cool breeze in the air.

We spend the next five minutes walking to her palace.

We're about to knock on the heavy brass door when it swings opens. Violet and I take weary steps into the first room. It's a massive and empty throne room.

"Where do you think she is?" Violet whispers.

A massive burst of wind slams the front door shut and I yelp.

"It's okay, it's just the wind." Violet looks rattled.

"You're right. Let's just try to find the Oracle."

A shadow passes behind us. I grip Violet's hand. "What was that?"

"Not what." An etheral voice calls from the front of the room. "Who."

A figure is lounging on the golden throne in front of us.

I'm unable to look away. She's the prettiest woman I've ever seen.

She's wearing a golden, ankle length dress with short sleeves. Her hair is a big mass of coils sporting different colored roses. Her bronze skin is glowing in the sunlight and she has a serious expression on her face.

"You're the Oracle of Rosedale." I breathe. She says nothing. "This is Violet, she's a mage. And I am Adria, princess of Illyria." I kneel. Violet does so as well.

I look up and the oracle has an unreadable expression on her face. When she finally speaks she says, "why are you here?"

Violet and I share troubling looks. "You summoned us. You summoned me." I stand up.

"I did no such thing." She insists.

"No, no. Because Lilliana gave us a map, she..."

The Oracle's sigh is weighted. "I have asked her numerous times to stop doing that. She finds the most desperate people you can imagine and sends them my way. And I'm always stuck crushing their dreams. That doesn't seem fair, does it?"

I can't talk. "Liliana gave us a quest." Violet speaks.

The Oracle arches a brow. "And what was the aim of the quest?"

"To find you. So Adria could get information on what to do about King Evander and her kingdom."

The Oracle regards me. "Illyria was meant to fall. That was in my visions. How could I possible hep you?"

There's an ache in my heart. "She said you would. Liliana said you would." The ache grows stronger with each word. I place my hands on my chest and will the pain to go away.

"Adria." Violet appears behind me and squeezes my shoulder reassuringly.

"I don't know what to tell you, princess Adria. There's nothing I can do to help." The Oracle's voice is silvery

I shake my head. "No. I left my mother. I travelled for weeks. I lost my best friend..." I stop talking.

"You lost your best friend?" She asks.

"No, I...." I stammer. "I need to finish this quest. I need something from you. Something that will make me win. This can't all be for nothing."

"And what is that something?" She's showing genuine interest now.

"I don't know." I yell. "You were supposed to know, you were supposed to help me."

She looks down on the two of us. "How?"

The aching in my chest intensifies. My knees buckle over.

The Oracle gets up. "Follow me." And disappears through the hall behind her throne.

Violet helps me stagger after her.

We walk up the few steps to the throne, step past it, and down the poorly lit hall. The walls are made of brown stone with tiny cracks letting sunlight steep into room.

We emerge on the other side to a kitchen with vines and flowers hanging on the hall.

Violet leads me to the only sofa in the room and lets me down gently on it. It's red and in the corner furthest from the door.

The Oracle settles on a table by the wall, it's below a branch of green leaves and peonies. She crushes leaves in a tiny mortar and sprinkles them in a cup filled with a blue liquid.

"Drink this." She offers it to me.

I cup the brown mug with shaking fingers and take a few sips. It's warm and tastes like Rainey's hot chocolate. "Thank you." I can feel my strength coming back.

Violet sits beside me and the oracle examines us.

"I wasn't expecting you, but I'm not surprised you're here." She moves to the table in the middle of the room. "Most of the people who come to me are selfish, greedy men who just want insight into the future so they can cheat fate."

"We're not like that." I insist.

She raises a brow. "You're not?" She leans on the table. Violet and I are close enough to smell her. She's a strange combination of roses, cinnamon and mint. "You want me to tell you how to overthrow a monarch. Do you know what that entails?" She pauses. "Death, destruction, fear, starvation, more refugees. And for what? Just because you can't accept that you lost three years ago. Just because you can't accept fate."

I squeeze the cup. "Are you saying I'm selfish, greedy and want to cheat fate?"

She folds her arms accross her chest. "Yes, I am."

I hang on the edge of the sofa. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know the sacrifices I've made, the things I've lost, everything I've been through to be here. I do not deserve to be insulted."

She flashes her golden eyes. "I have a question for you, Adria." She takes one step closer. "Do you want to kill King Evander?"

There's a heavy thud when I drop the cup. "Yes."

"So you want to orphan your step siblings?" I want to respond, but she holds up a hand to stop me. "Do you want to murder thousands of people when you bring Caledonia down? Do you want to drag millions of people back into war? Do you want to bring confusion and unrest?"

"Are you trying to discourage me?"

She sighs. "Knowing the future isn't a good thing. People never know the full consequences of their actions until it's too late. I'm cursed. All I can do is sit here and watch them destroy their lives."

Violet and I share a look.

"I'll tell you what I told the others. Do whatever you want." Even her sigh is magical. "Always accept the full consequences of your actions." Her final word of advice.

She turns to leave. "I'll give you your prophecies. Be out of my castle by morning."

And go where?

"Miss." Violet calls. "We don't know where we are."

I can't remember what the map said. I just know we are thousands of miles away from Redmond.

The oracle stops at the door, she doesn't turn. "The door at the front of the castle will open to wherever you truly want it to."

Apple. I feel anxious again. I can't keep losing things I care about.

The Oracle seemingly reads my mind. "Your property and horses are safe, they'll be waiting for you when you leave."

She hovers for a second, then floats out of the room.

Violet looks at me. I sense the question in her eyes. I look away from them and finish my tea.

Her looming question is disrupted by the chiming of a nearby clock. It's 6 o'clock.

I yawn. "Are we sleeping here?"

Violet shrugs. "We should go find her." She offers me her hand and pulls me up.

We go down the same corridor the Oracle took minutes ago and find a set of carpeted stairs waiting for us at the end.

We keep our eyes peeled and take cautious steps to the next floor.

There are doors mirroring each other in the long hallway at the top.

"Oracle." I call. "Miss Rosedale."

Two doors opposite each other open at the end of the long hall. Violet and I plod towards it, lighting sconces on our way.

The walls are golden and bare, and the floors are covered in a thick green and blue carpet.

We finally make it to the end and each face different doors.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" I'm staring into the dark room in front of me.

"Sorry, I don't think that's what she wants us to do." Violet reasons.

I sigh, rub my sweaty palms on my black trousers and step into the darkness.

Several sconces light the room. The door slams shut behind me and the sound of distance footsteps makes my heart beat faster.

The room comes into focus. Like everything else in his castle, it's pretty and heavily influenced by roses.

The drapes are blue with white roses, the bedspread on the brown four poster bed is red with black roses and the dresser opposite the bed has roses carved into the side.

In the big brown drawer close to the door is a single white nightgown. I change out of my day clothes, wash my face in the basin of water that magically appeared on the dresser, and pack my hair for the night.

I lay gingerly under the sheets and let the wave of weariness wash over me.

I'm about to drift off to sleep when I hear the Oracle's voice. At least I think it's her voice. This one is slightly different than what she used half an hour ago. That one was soft but strong.

This one is cold and emotionless. Her words do little to comfort me. "Only after you have gained everything, will you lose what matters most." That plays over and over in my head till I fall asleep.