Page 3 of The Oracle's Journey

Emmelina looked at me, seeming to search for something, then turned away, looking down at her feet. “Nothing.” She sighed and then mumbled something about how her feet were getting itchy.

That I could relate to. I’d little to do other than worry and read. I needed to get out and move around, especially since it was another gorgeous summer day. The scent of honeysuckle drifted in through the windows while the carriage rumbled down the road. My better-than-average hearing picked up the birds’ songs for miles around, a pleasant cacophony to my ears. I could hear the tentative flirtation of the younger maid with one of the guards over the clatter of hooves and the crunch of wheels on the road. Another guard hummed a song to himself, a pleasant baritone. A tenor joined him, not as talented, but he knew the words which drew the baritone out of his hesitancy to sing.

All sounded well outside the walls of the carriage.

“Maybe we can frolic a little when we break midday,” I offered as the princess continued to fidget in her seat. Perhaps we both had some nervous energy to burn off.

Emmelina

The itch in my feet wasn’t on the skin but inside. It burned through the bone and muscle up to my shins. I needed to get outside and wiggle my toes in the soil. Then there was that voice hovering around Ozanna—it echoed ‘You love it when I call you Oz’ in a whispering tenor. I needed to find it … somehow. I bounced off my bench and sat next to Ozanna. My companion watched me warily from the corner of her eye, pretending to look out the window. It was kind of Ozanna to pretend, but I was used to such wary looks. She needn’t have bothered.

Ozanna’s dark brown hair was pulled back from her face, secured in a massive, braided bun on the back of her neck. I poked at it, and the voice whispered again. It made my stomach feel funny now that I was closer. It felt like I’d stumbled across one of those things that would make the adults uncomfortable. Not that I wasn’t an adult, but the maids and matrons assured me that things of an intimate nature shouldn’t be presented so publicly, without care. I just didn’t understand why.

Ozanna turned to look at me after my prodding. Her brown eyes twinkled when she smiled. “What is it, Princess? I don’t think you’ll find a man in my hair.”

“Not today,” I said without thinking. “But I heard him there.” I poked at Ozanna’s bun again. “Why would he be sad about your ears?” It was one of those impressions that sometimes manifested out of nowhere—those I couldn’t stop myself from speaking. I cocked my head and waited for her to answer.

Ozanna’s mouth gaped, and her hands shot to her ears, which were a little funny looking once I thought about it. My guardian seemed to recover herself a little and put her hands back in her lap. The tops of her ears were somewhat flat and scarred, as though someone had tried to make them round like a human’s. They were supposed to be pointed. I saw the ghost of them as they slowly solidified in my vision. Was I confusing present and future again? Or past and present? It was hard to tell. But I hadn’t noticed the pointed ears over the last few days, so maybe they were past. I sighed. It didn’t matter, I’m just a mad oracle.

Ozanna turned her body to point towards me while I kicked my itchy burning legs. She put her hand on my forearm, as if trying to ground me in reality. “Are you okay, Princess? Did you hear or see something concerning out there?” Ozanna tipped her head toward the carriage window, indicating the outdoors.

Instead of answering, I blurted, “I need to pee.”

Ozanna

I banged a fist against the front wall of the carriage, the prearranged signal that we needed to stop. The little princess lunged for the door, and I was almost too slow to stop her. While I held Emmelina firmly by the shoulder, the princess settled back on the bench. “I’m sorry, lady, but we need to wait for the carriage to stop before you open the door.”

I accompanied Emmelina and the maids to some bushes for privacy. We saw to our needs and turned to go back to the carriage … but the princess was gone.

There one moment, as if to come with us to the carriage, she took a step backward out of my peripheral vision. When I turned, she was just gone. Only her shoes and hose lay on the ground. The maids squealed, which drew one of the guards to our makeshift privy.

“Judith, Eve, return to the others and let them know what happened,” I ordered. “You.” I pointed at the bewildered guard. “Follow me.”

With only the faintest breeze to disturb the air, I easily scented Emmelina’s trail. My nose wasn’t quite that of a hound, but I could follow a very fresh trail. There was a strange spicy scent that tickled my nose as well, something my partial elven instincts told me was magic.But I didn’t encounter active magic often enough to understand any more than that.

Right, maybe Emmelina had magical talent beyond visions. I scowled. “A warning would have been nice, Herment.”

We followed the trail, moving as lightly as we could. The guard was much slower than me, flora hindering his speed while I bounded like a deer over and through the underbrush. He would occasionally call out not to get too far ahead, but I didn’t want to lose the trail, so I didn’t often heed his warning. I only stopped when the clank of his equipment was too distant for comfort. Upon hearing running water, I shouted back to the guard, “She’s headed toward the water.” Where else would a road weary young woman want to be on a hot summer day?

“What?” His rich baritone boomed in the distance, apparently unable to hear me. I shook my head and kept moving.

Eventually I came upon a broad stream to find Emmelina splashing in the water wearing only her short-sleeved chemise. “Ozanna!” the girl shouted and pointed to a handful of various fish on the rocks of the creek shore. She held aloft a good-sized catfish for further admiration and made her way to the shore. It flopped and gasped as fish do when pulled from the water. I picked it up by the tail and whacked its head on the stone, putting it out of its misery.

“Princess,” I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. “You can’t go running off like that, especially not alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Emmelina said, brows furrowed. “You’re here. You said we could frolic when we stopped for lunch, and here is lunch,” she said, gesturing to the fish.

“Ah, yes,” I nodded, wondering how she managed to catch them. “You would make an excellent fisherman. But you have to tell me what you’re doing before you go do it.” I looked up past the thin forest canopy. The sun was very close to its zenith, so I supposed it was midday. “You need to get your dress back on before the poor guard behind me catches up. All your bits are showing.”

Emmelina looked down at the sheer, wet fabric of her chemise and said, “The water is a bit cold.” Then she shucked the wet garment off and tossed it over the fish. I watched her struggle back into her dress and helped settle it over her wet skin. I used the wet chemise to bundle the fish, blood wicking up the fabric from the catfish I’d walloped. Then the guard appeared. I waved at him, and he stopped in his tracks, puffing and holding his sides.

The fish wouldn’t keep well in the summer heat, so they were cleaned and cooked on the roadside. We had to eat our shares on the move. Because of the princess’s detour to the stream, we wouldn’t make it to the inn before dark, as planned.

“Nothing goes right when the princess is about,” grumbled Eve to her new beau.

I cocked an eyebrow and listened to more disgruntled chatter outside the carriage. Emmelina curled up on her bench and dozed off after getting into a dry set of clothes, tired out after her adventure.

Keeping the magically inclined safe was harder than a basic noble woman, in my experience, especially without any kind of mentor along. Though this was the first time I’d had a charge that could outright vanish. I didn’t have any personal experience with using magic, despite my mixed heritage, so I had no idea what to do to keep the princess safe.

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