Page 28 of The Oracle's Journey

Eve bit her lip and squirmed a little. “It was lovely, actually. He was very gentle. I have nothing to compare it to, but it was …”

“It was your first kiss?!” I whispered, maybe a little loudly. “Eve!”

Eve giggled. “Quiet! I can’t believe it myself. An older, dangerous man. But it serves my mother right for keeping me away from the boys so well.”

“It would be such a scandal back home!” I tittered. I wasn’t about to admit that I hadn’t known that Eve and Judith were related, another detail I’d missed while seeming mad. “Do you think you’d want another lesson from him?”

“Well, I think I would, but I don’t know if I’m ready if he asks for something else as payment,” Eve admitted. “He wasn’t so dour when he was teaching me. He’s quite handsome when he isn’t trying so hard to be a grump. But my mother has already forbidden it, so I won’t find out.” She sighed heavily.

I had never seen that side of Lobikno. Grumpy and mischievous, that’s who my Lobikno was. I wondered if everyone gets a different version of the people that they meet. “I don’t think he’d ever intentionally let you come to harm. But you know the wasps?”

“Oh, yes. That was dreadful,” Eve said, blanching all that pretty color from her face.

“I got the idea from him,” I admitted. “He has a mischievous aspect, Eve. Be careful he doesn’t use you in a scheme.”

Eve scoffed. “My mother said he would just use me. But when you say it that way, that he schemes, it makes more sense.”

A blooming warmth rose in my chest and I was overcome with love for my new friend. I reached my taloned hands to give Eve’s shoulder a little hug.

“Princess!” Eve shouted. Everyone turned to look at me, no doubt expecting that I’d vanished. “You have a finger!”

I looked down, and Eve was right! It looked to be my index finger if the scar on the second knuckle was in the correct place.

Ozanna and Lhoris had turned in their saddles to look back, hope in their eyes. I would have smiled if I still had lips. I held the finger aloft for them to see.

“Excellent news!” Lhoris grinned, watching me through his dark glasses. “You’ll be back to yourself before you know it, princess!”

I put my head back on Eve’s shoulder and sighed in contentment. Maybe I was starting to get back to myself, but I was more and more unsure of who that was. Yes, I’d burned off a lot of magic I didn’t realize I had, and it had stilled the churning in my mind. Or maybe it was the way I’d anchored myself to Ozanna and Lhoris? Now I had to wonder about my past self; about the choices I’d made while intoxicated by magic. How much life had I missed being so unaware? And Duke Nicolas, did I actually love him or was it just infatuation? Was he even what he presented himself to be? Then I had an awful thought. What if I did get in touch with him in our dream space? Would I look like a bird-squirrel or me? Anxiety settled deep in my squirrel guts. Then another, better thought occurred to me.

“Eve,” I said meekly.

“Yes, Princess?”

“I’d really like it if you, and everyone else, would stop calling me that. While we are traveling at the very least. Would you all call me Emma, for now? Especially when we’re in town. Nobody should know Princess Emmelina is around. Just in case.”

Eve’s face melted into an affectionate smile. “Of course, Emma,” she said and ran her fingers over my feathery cap. “I think that’s a lovely name.”

Ozanna

I couldn’t help but wonder why Lhoris seemed so nervous. He rode beside me, brows furrowed, apparently deep in thought. Perhaps he was worried about our arrival in Dulhal. There was no easy way to hide the dark gray of his skin. And I doubted dark elves would be well received anywhere with their reputation.

“Hey, you’re thinking very loudly over there,” I said with a smile. For a moment, he looked as though I’d caught him doing something wrong, like a naughty child. “Not literally, of course,” I clarified.

“I was thinking we needed to settle our intentions before we get too far down the road,” he said hesitantly, which was unusual.

Unsure what he meant, I shrugged. “Yes, of course. I figured you and your brother were just going to come along with us. Unless you have other plans.” Or maybe he was talking about his intentions in courting?

“Oh yes,” Lhoris said, a subtle tension releasing from his shoulders. “We both want to find out who set all this up.”

“You still believe this is some kind of scheme?”

Lhoris adjusted in his saddle. “Yes. Consider the abnormally small cohort for Emmelina’s bridal journey. The lack of dowry despite our having it on good authority there was to be a treasure. The way her father sent you off without any warning about her emerging power. He admitted he didn’t want to send her away, so why did he?”

“You think the mages that set up the marriage had some leverage?” I asked, pondering his points. “Perhaps Herment’s illness and the blight on the crops are a curse after all?” It was all circumstantial but combined it did support his theory. “Who told you about the dowry?”

He growled a little. “Rhyfon.” Whom I’d killed—a literal dead end. “He and the humans were the ones that gathered information for us. His source was someone inside the castle. And there’s something going on with Lobikno that I haven’t figured out yet.” He nodded back to where Eve and Emmelina were riding.

“Ah yes, I don’t understand how that happened, either.” I shook my head. Lobikno should have terrified Eve with her delicate sensibilities, which gave me pause. “Do you think that Emmelina did something to them, as well?”

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