Page 71 of The Oracle's Journey

I chuckled.

Lobikno would know how to explain it. He’d been a father many times over, though he didn’t get to enjoy it. I put a hand on Oz’s belly. It felt different this time. Maybe the circumstances of conception, the magic chaos that had been running rampant, meant this one would take? I couldn’t tell. I had no more experience than her.

“Well, I suppose I have twice the reason to speak to Lobikno.” I sighed, put an arm around her shoulders, and kissed her forehead. “I’ll apologize first and then tell him about the pregnancy.”

“Will it upset him?” she asked, brows knit together.

“Perhaps,” I shrugged, “but he has a nose too and would inevitably discover the truth.”

She sighed. “That’s true. It would be wrong to keep from him, regardless.” She got to her feet and offered a hand to me, “Let’s go find him. You don’t have to do this alone.”

And for that, I was grateful.

It was dusk, and I knew Lobikno would be in the outer garden helping the kitchen staff by gathering ripe vegetables. As we walked from our room down to the garden, I held Oz’s hand, occasionally watching her lovely, serene face in the fading sunlight. It was so different from the expression she’d worn in that first sunset, on the top of the carriage. I wanted so desperately to make this right. Wounds of the heart and mind were just so much harder to heal than the physical ones. And now it was even more complicated.

We greeted the guardsmen as we passed through the gate. It took us a few minutes to find Lobikno on the far side of the heavily laden garden. The remaining crops had exploded since Emma’s Becoming, and the chateau gardens were no exception, despite the season. It was nearly a jungle. They needed to start harvesting multiple times a day.

Lobikno was in just a shirt and pants, no leathers or weapons. Such a strange sight. He so rarely went without his gear, that he was almost unrecognizable.

“He looks so much like you,” Oz observed, still out of Lobikno’s hearing. “Especially since your hair is shorter now.”

She tucked a lock of hair away from my face, her light touch along the top line of my ear gave me chills. I was glad that I could still enjoy her casual touch. I would have lost my mind otherwise.

“Good evening,” Oz called out to Lobikno.

He looked up from where he was kneeling in the garden. “Hello.”

“Brother,” I said. “I’d like to speak with you.”

“Huh,” he said and continued to pick green beans off the bushes before him. “Maybe when I’m done with my work.”

“I can do it,” Oz offered and moved to take over the task.

Lobikno practically jumped away when she came near. She tried very hard to keep the hurt from her face, but I knew her well enough to see it and bent to give her another gentle kiss. She gave me a sad smile and tied her hair back with a kerchief, a practice she’d adopted while working alongside the local women.

Rubbing the dirt off his hands, Lobikno followed me back toward the gate. The guards that the king brought to supplement the duke’s men had quite a presence there, but it was highly unlikely that they would overhear anything. Even if they could understand our dialect. I just wanted the conversation to feel as private as possible for my brother’s sake.

“Lobikno,” I said. “I’m sorry about how I behaved in the cell that day. It wasn’t fair to be so harsh when you haven’t actually done anything wrong. We were all victims, and it was wrong for me to be so rough with you.”

Lobikno grunted. “I raped your mate repeatedly for days.” We both winced. “Hurt her pretty bad too, so there isn’t anything to apologize for.”

“But there is,” I said, resolved to make things right between us. “I’ve been dealing with my own guilt. I did all those things too, but none of us could say no. De Rais was the one that forced us to do any of it through his handling of Emma. Whether it was his intention or not, it was his fault. Not mine or yours or Oz’s. It was wrong for me to take it out on you.” The words came easily enough. Oz had just said something similar, but I knew it would be a while before my guilty heart would believe it.

Lobikno looked down at our toes and stayed silent for a dozen heart beats before taking a deep breath. “She’s okay?”

“Yes,” I laughed, perhaps a little bitterly. “She made her peace with the circumstances without any trouble. It seems she wasn’t forced to step outside her nature. Or so she claims.” I paused, but Lobikno appeared confused. “It seems she would have accepted the invitation if we had wanted it, coercion free. Her only source of grief is that you and I were forced to do something so against our natures.”

Lobikno’s face twisted in disgust. “She would? Why?”

“She’s part woodland elf, brother. They’re … well, rather adventurous in that regard,” I answered with a crooked smirk. Inside, though, I was apprehensive, waiting to see if my brother would rise to banter with me. Lechery had always been our go-to bullshitting topic.

Lobikno shook his head with the slightest of smirks, “I should have sent you to stay with the high elves.”

“I’m very glad you didn’t,” I teased. “Being the only dark elf in the woodlands made me a novelty. It was fun once I was physically mature. It made up for the fact that I was bookish. Though the females may have liked that too now that I think of it.”

Lobikno rolled his eyes. “I see coming to my aid deprived you of much.”

“Ah, but I can take you back with me and you can enjoy the company of the pretty woodland ladies and their nice round … attributes.” I used both hands to make a cupping gesture in front of my chest.

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