Page 60 of The Oracle's Journey

Ozanna didn’t stay cross with me, thankfully. She took a few minutes to teach the steps to us both. I felt clumsy next to her elven grace, but it made her perhaps a better dance teacher than Nicolas, though not nearly as thrilling a dance partner. Not for me, at least.

“Lobikno is going to be here soon to relieve me,” Ozanna said after we stopped practicing. “If you still want to talk to me about something without any boys in earshot, you’ll need to do it soon.”

“That’s true, Emma,” Eve said, her smile fading at the mention of the older elf’s name. “He’d give you unsolicited advice that we couldn’t trust.”

“We?” Ozanna asked. “What kind of advice do you both need from me?”

I gestured for my friends to sit down at the small dining table with me.

“Ozanna, you’re so worldly, and you’re clearly intimate with Lhoris,” I said, feeling confident after my dinner with Nicolas. “I just want to know how to make Nicolas happy in the marital bed.”

“Oh,” Ozanna said, eyes wide. “This is why you didn’t want any boys around.”

I felt a little flush work its way up my throat and face. “Uh, yes. I understand the technical aspect, and that I understand it will be painful in the beginning. But that’s all I’ve been allowed to know.”

At that she balked and cocked her head. “Surely, somebody explained something before you left Cudcona?”

“No,” Eve confirmed, “nobody was comfortable telling her as she was then. And nobody would tell me anything for fear of my mother.”

Ozanna’s face reddened while a deep scowl twisted her face. “I can’t believe they sent you out to face this cold! Bastards!”

I was a little taken aback by just how upset she was. “Please, Ozanna? What should I know?”

She stared at me and tapped a finger on her knee. After a few long moments of apparent consideration, she finally spoke. “Well, Duke Nicolas seems like a good man and he clearly wants to make you happy. If he has experience, I’d say you should trust him to guide you some. If not, then you’ll be on even footing. And there’s so much you just have to learn as you go because everyone is different.” She sighed and shook her head thoughtfully. “I think the best thing I could tell you is to pay attention to how your body feels. Pay attention to how he reacts when you touch him. Go slow and don’t be afraid to tell him if he’s going too fast, or if there’s something you like or dislike.”

“What if I’m just bad at it?” I asked, unsure what to do with her advice.

“Emma,” Ozanna said and huffed a laugh, “as long as you’re taking part and having fun, he will be pleased. If you enjoy yourself in the process, it will make him feel like the manliest man ever. It’s really not hard to please men, it just seems scary because you’ve never done it before. And because they’ve told you it would be painful.” She frowned over the last statement. “That was partly a ploy to keep you chaste, you know. My first time wasn’t painful. It doesn’t have to be painful.”

I thought back to the brief dance in the dining room. Perhaps it would be like that. He’d been kind. He’d been happy to just be there with me.

“And then there’s the giant library that probably has at least one bawdy romance,” Ozanna said with a sigh, rising to her feet. I hadn’t thought about the library. “I hear Lobikno.”

“I do hope he took a bath today,” I said, remembering how pungent he’d been earlier in the morning.

Ozanna tipped her head to the side and took a couple of quick sniffs of the air. “I don’t smell dirty old elf, so he must have.”

“Does Lhoris know you’re in the habit of sniffing his brother?” Eve teased.

“Females love the way I smell,” called Lobikno from the other side of the door.

Ozanna snorted, rolled her eyes, and opened the door. “Goodnight Emma, Goodnight Eve.

CHAPTER 23

Lhoris

Nicolas found me in the library after his dinner with Emma. His face was hard and unsmiling.

With a dense medical tome on the table before me, I leaned back in my chair and greeted my host. “Good evening, your Grace.”

“Good evening, Lhoris,” Nicolas replied, glancing around the room, his brow furrowed. “Do you have enough light to read by?”

To his human eyes, I was sitting in near darkness with one small candle burning a few feet down the table.

“I can see just fine, thank you.” I smiled and nodded. “Remember my people thrive in the dark.”

“Yes, your people,” he said, pursing his lips. “That’s why I’ve come to see you.”

---