Page 21 of The Oracle's Journey

“Shh,” I said. “Yes. All is well.”

CHAPTER 10

Lhoris

We woke up after the sun chased away our shade. The princess hadn’t come back during our brief nap and after seeing her the night before, nobody appeared surprised. Since the girl seemed to have an attachment to her bodyguard, I decided to take Ozanna along for the search instead of Lobikno.

Lobikno didn’t mind. He was excited to loot the camp in our absence. I instructed him to also plant our armor and leathers on a pair of bodies and pile them in with the rest of the dead. We would set the bodies on fire against the stone wall before leaving. They wouldn’t burn long, but hopefully enough to advance decomposition and make identification tricky. Perhaps it would buy us extra time. We easily found replacements for our leathers among the belongings of our fallen crew. Convincing Lobikno to leave the plate armor behind was much harder. He only relented when I reminded him the ruse would be useless if he didn’t put all his armor on the body.

Clouds were starting to roll across the sky, though it didn’t smell like rain just yet.Ozanna and I gathered supplies in case we had to stay out in the forest overnight. She gathered food and water while I grabbed a bow, full quiver, hammock, and rain gear. It was tricky trying to strap all of that to my back, but I managed to bundle and belt it to be worn like a pack.

I met Ozanna at the carriage, and she smiled at me. She hadn’t done that before. My heart stuttered, and lost for words, I just stared at her, grinning like an idiot.

Her smile shifted to a smirk. “A bow?” she asked playfully. “You look like a proper elf.”

“Do you believe every stereotype you hear?” I asked in mock-offence. “I’ll never be a proper elf.”

“You can use it, right?” She raised an eyebrow and put a fist on her cocked hip.

“I’ve been shooting arrows since before you were born,” I assured her. Then I noticed she was holding something behind her back. “What do you have there?”

“Oh,” she said, her expression softening to something uncertain. It was nice to see something other than the hard face she’d been using as a shield in the days previous. No more spitting and flailing. I was finally allowed to see something authentic. It gave me hope for forgiveness.

Then she continued with a bashful half smile, “I thought you might like this.”

She handed me a bloody burlap bag. It smelled terrible, like the early stages of rot. I tried not to look hesitant as I undid the string holding it closed. The concern in her eyes told me that my reaction to this meant something to her. I opened the sack to find Rhyfon’s milky dead eyes staring up from within. She’d made a gift of his disembodied head. I stared down at it speechless for a few heartbeats.

She thinks I’d like this?

“I’m sorry, did I not do it right?” she apologized quickly. “Lobikno said it is part of your courtship custom. He didn’t give me any details.”

Oh, brother, what have you told this poor woman?

I couldn’t help but grin at the thought she was trying to court me, though.

This wasn’t the time to tell her she’d been a victim of Lobikno’s morbid sense of humor. I chuckled at the absurdity of the situation. “I just don’t have any heads to give you in return.”

“Oh,” she said with a sardonic turn of her lips, “with my luck, you may still get an opportunity.”

I laughed at that and retied the string before throwing the bloody sack into the distance. I would have to speak with my brother when we returned.

Ozanna

“We should have started out sooner,” Lhoris said after hours of tracking. The wolves’ path meandered quite a bit. “It’s a new moon tonight, and you’ll be blind in a few hours.”

I sat down on a broad boulder and produced a waterskin from my pack. The clouds we’d worried about earlier had carried away on a warm summer wind. Though it was cooler than it had been that morning. The break in the heat was welcome, especially since Lhoris had given my vest and knives back. It breathed well enough, but layers can be miserable in the heat. He also returned the things he’d confiscated from my boots, to include my ax charm. I’d assumed that those items had been left in the dirt at the first camp site. It was a relief to have the charm back, but looking at it made me question the wisdom of letting this elf have such an effect on me.

I’d had other lovers over the time I’d known Doramdir. He never asked about them and I’d never expected him to wait for me. But he was the only one I’d contemplated a future with. Humans just wouldn’t live long enough for me to make that commitment. Did I owe Doramdir the loyalty of my heart, or was he just the only prospect?

I took a deep drink of water and offered it to Lhoris. “We couldn’t have left earlier. We needed that rest too badly.” I tipped my head at the empty space beside me, inviting him to sit. Lhoris prowled toward me, graceful as a hunting cat. His movements were so utterly distracting that I could hardly pry my eyes off him while we were hiking. I was supposed to be looking for Emmelina, not imagining how his muscles looked shifting under the leathers while he walked across tough terrain as though it were a ballroom floor and climbed obstacles with such ease I wondered if he couldn’t float.

“I know.” He relented and sat so close our thighs touched. “But I suspect your princess is falling too far too fast into her magic. Oracles aren’t supposed to shape shift or whatever it is she’s doing.”

I pursed my lips and said, “You’d know more about magic than I do.” I watched his throat bob as he gulped the water down. A breeze tousled his silver strands and wafted his scent—a blend of leather, moss, and earthy pine—to my nose. Resisting the sudden urge to nuzzle the corded muscle of his neck and breathe in that scent from the source was a near thing. He was even beautiful with those silly dark glasses on. I forced myself to look away before he could catch me staring.

Focus, I scolded myself.

He reached behind his shoulder and pulled his half of our blended hair forward. “Have you tried to get it out of your hair yet?”

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