Oracle

ORACLE

Prophecy Of The Cataclysm
Book Two

Kyra Dune

Oracle

Copyright
©
2015
Kyra Dune

All
rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions.
 
Published in the United States by Shadow Portal
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This
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products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Even
resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

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CHAPTER
ONE

    
Night in the
Land of Midnight was not night as it was in the realm where Anastasia was born.
No gradual waning of the light into darkness. No moon. No stars. No hope for
the coming of dawn. No passage of time as she understood it. Only a perpetual
silver luminescence visible even beneath the thick boughs of the trees.

    
To walk
in those woods was to walk in a silence so heavy the air itself seemed to have
gained substance to press against her. This was a foreign place. A truth she
could feel in her bones. And now, having entered it, she had no way of leaving
except to press forward.

    
Anastasia’s only comfort was in knowing she wasn’t alone. To have Simon
and
Lorn
, two men who would gladly lay down their
lives for her sake, at her side was a comfort. Though she prayed it would not
come to that. She had no desire for others to die so she might live.

    
Simon and
Lorn’s
motives in being there were as clear to her as
were her own. But of their other companions she was less certain. Especially
Reaper. He strode ahead of them, leading the way though the path had neither
forks nor branches down which they might become lost.

    
He was a
solid presence now, unlike when they met. Back in the Death Dealer temple
Reaper had only been a shadow vaguely formed as a man but had solidified his
shape shortly after they entered this realm.

    
He
claimed to have pledged himself to the exiled god,
Shirelyn
,
but whether that was for ill or for good he’d not bothered to say. Perhaps this
god was set on preventing the Cataclysm, perhaps not. None of them save for
Reaper really knew.

    
It seemed
to her if they could have reached the Land of Midnight without his help they
would have been better off. Near as she could tell none of the others trusted
him any further than she did, and yet there they all were, following him deeper
into uncertainty.
 

    
“How long
until we reach Oracle?” Selene asked.

    
“Hard to
say,” Reaper replied. “Time is difficult to gauge in this realm. I can tell you
this much, we must pass through these woods and cross an empty plain to reach
the mountain where her temple sits.”

    
“So in
other words,” Brandon chimed in from his spot at the rear of the group, “you
don’t have a clue. You could have simply said, ‘we’ll get there when we get
there’ since that’s what you meant anyway.”

    
Reaper
ignored him, which didn’t seem to bother the wiry little assassin any. He
walked along, whistling and grinning as if they were out to a picnic instead of
on a quest to prevent the destruction of life as they knew it.

    
A chill
wind whispered through the trees. Anastasia shivered as much from the
foreboding aura of the woods as from the cold. How strange it was to find
herself in this place, desperately seeking some means of salvation besides the
sacrifice of her own life.

    
Brandon’s
whistle died away. “Did anybody else hear that?”

    
“I did.”
Nephima
touched her hand to the blue crystal which hung
around her neck. “My talisman does not warn of danger.”

    
“Your
talisman doesn’t work here.” Reaper glanced over his shoulder at her. “No
outside eyes may gaze into this realm.”

    
Nephima
slowly lowered her hand. “So we are alone.”

    
A
skittering noise, as if many feet scuttled through the underbrush, sounded off to
their left. Anastasia instinctively moved closer to
Lorn
,
who had dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword. “What manner of beast haunts
this place?”

    
“Nothing
pleasant,” Reaper said. “Keep moving.”

    
A few
moments passed. Anastasia stared into the trees, searching for any strange
shapes. The shifting of tree limbs caused odd shadows, making it impossible for
her to tell if anything living was moving about.

    
The noise
repeated, closer this time. “Oh look,” Brandon said, his tone inappropriately
cheery, “they have yellow eyes.
Glowing
yellow eyes.”

    
Anastasia
turned and there in the bushes about a foot off the ground were several pairs
of glowing yellow eyes staring at them. “What do we do?” she whispered.

    
“Don’t
panic.” Simon laid his hand lightly on her arm. “Everyone here is more than
capable of handling themselves in a fight. You’ll be fine.”

    
Anastasia
nodded, not the least upset by the suggestion she would need protection. She
was well aware of her own limitations which was another reason she was so glad
to have Simon and
Lorn
. And yet, she wished Charles
were there as well, instead of off trying to wrest the crown away from their
cousin.

    
The group
continued on as if nothing were amiss while the eyes continued to follow
alongside them. The form of the creatures to whom they belonged were lost in
the shifting shadows.

    
“Might I
suggest you do something before we’re attacked.” Selene’s words were clearly
directed at Reaper. “I for one am not interested in engaging in a fight with
wild animals.”

    
“I’m not
the only higher power here,” Reaper replied.

    
“You’re
the only one familiar with this realm,” she retorted.

    
“But a
fight might be fun,” Brandon said. “This adventure is getting boring. It could
do with some spicing up.”

    
“This is
not an adventure,” Selene snapped. “And some of us do not deal in death as
easily as others.”

    
Brandon
appeared neither abashed nor angered by her words. He simply smiled that
strange little smile of his. A smile he tended to wear more often than not.
Whether this was a mark of low intelligence or insanity was unclear, but either
way he was the least welcome of Anastasia’s newly acquired companions.

    
“Reaper.”
Selene spoke his name in a tone sharp as the crack of a whip.

    
He spun
around, his black cloak billowing out behind him. “I trust you did not intend
to speak to me in such a tone. I am an elder, after all, and you are not.”

    
Selene
faced him without a hint of fear. “Elder or no, you have taken on a certain
responsibility as our leader. Now can you rid us of these... whatever they are,
or not?”

    
“I
suppose.” He marched back down the path a ways and stood regarding the woods
around them. “I would rethink your current course of action were I you.”

    
A few
seconds passed, then the eyes began to blink out. All save for one set a little
higher up than the others. These eyes stared back at Reaper for two heartbeats
after all the others had gone before they too blinked out.

    
“Satisfied?” Reaper glanced at Selene.

    
“Extremely.” Selene’s voice dripped with disdain.
     

    
Reaper
stared at her much as the yellow eyes had stared at him. Then he returned to
his position at the head of the group.

    
“Why must
you antagonize him?” Simon whispered.

    
“I don’t
trust him,” she said. “I cannot believe the patron power of assassins is doing
this for anything less than some sort of personal gain. Humans don’t think of
him as the embodiment of death for no reason.”

    
“You
can’t know that for certain,” Anastasia said. Despite her own misgivings, she
felt the need to defend the man. If for no other reason than she desperately
wanted him to be what he appeared to be. Her last chance at salvation.

    
“Perhaps
Reaper is here,” she continued, “because, like us, he doesn’t want to see the
realms destroyed. He is part of them, after all. The same as anyone else.”

    
Selene
cast a cool look at her. “Do not presume to speak of things you cannot possibly
understand. The thoughts and motives of higher powers is beyond a mere human.”

    
“There’s
no need to condescend to her,” Simon said, moving between them. “She’s right to
object to your questioning of Reaper’s motives. The man has given us no good reason
to distrust him. If not for him, we would not even be here on the road to
Oracle. I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt.”

    
“This is
a fascinating conversation,” Brandon said, “but I do believe our guide is
getting away from us.”

    
It was
true, Reaper had gone around the corner ahead and was lost to their sight.
Anastasia doubted he would pause to wait for them. “I say any question of
Reaper’s trustworthiness should have been addressed before we left the temple.
It’s a little late for such concerns now, when we have set our feet on a path
from which we cannot turn back.”
 

    
Selene
scowled. “Unfortunately, you are right. This time. Because of you we are in a
place we cannot escape without following a man we have no reason to trust. When
this all ends badly remember I was the one who said it first.”

    
Anastasia
watched Simon watching Selene walk stiffly away and her heart ached for the
pain she saw in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to upset her,” she said. “I shouldn’t
have said anything.”

    
“No, it’s
not you,” he said. “She’s angry, for more reasons than one, and you’re simply
the handiest person to take it out on. She’ll come around.” He draped his arm
across her shoulders and gave her a little hug. “Everything will work out in
the end.”

    
She had
the feeling he was talking about something other than Selene’s treatment of
her. Maybe even something other than the Cataclysm. Something more personal.
Anastasia didn’t know what might have once been between Simon and Selene, but
whatever it was it had clearly ended badly. And though she couldn’t imagine
Simon doing anything to make someone so angry, it was obvious the bad ending
was on his head.

    
Under
different circumstances she would have asked, but considering all they had to
deal with at the moment relationship troubles were certainly the least of their
concerns. Perhaps when all this was over, providing she was still alive
and
the
world hadn’t come to an end, she would try to help them if she could. Until
then they simply had to press forward. They had no other choice.