Page 13 of Claiming Sarah

I wriggled my nose at the unfamiliar scents filling my nostrils. “What is all this?”

“This white paste is rannat, the bowl is aliubock, and the roasted meat is cina,” she said, explaining each one in turn. “And you can wash it all down with banwine or water with herbs, if you prefer.”

Staring at the tiny roasted chunks, I asked cautiously, “Cina…that’s like mice, right?” I asked, remembering how Deacon had once described cina.

“Mice are an Earth thing?” she asked in confusion.

I sighed and set the tray on Deacon’s desk.Can’t wait until Jac is back. He knows how to translate these things for me.“Yes. Um, thank you for breakfast, Omen. That was thoughtful of you.” I tried a nibble of cina. While it did not taste like chicken, the texture was pretty close. It was kind of nutty and surprisingly, not bad at all.

“I am happy you are pleased. How else may I be of assistance?”

“First things first, you are not my servant, so please don’t act like one, okay?”

Omen bowed her head slightly. “I am sorry. I am used to Portend’s ways. We were all her servants, and since I am bound to follow you, I—”

“Wait, what?” I asked, aghast at what she was insinuating. “You’re not bound to me in any way at all.”

Her smile was almost serene. “There is so much for you to learn about conduits…when we find someone worth following, there is little that will stop us from doing so.”

“I don’t understand.” Confusion trickled through me. “Why do you think of me that way?”

“You’reyou.”

Her reply explained nothing and only added to my bewilderment. “What’s that mean?”

“When Jac came to my home and started asking questions about the contra, the woman who would end the power of the conduits, I told him that if I believed someone had the power to do that, I would be the first in line to follow them.”

My eyes widened as I quickly connected the dots. “Which is why you said that to me right before the battle with Mother Portend, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “You meet all the criteria of the prophecy, you subverted everything Mother Portend wanted, and you sent the conduits scattering to the corners of Halla.”

“There were a whole lot of people helping with that,” I reminded her. “It wasn’t all me.”

“If you were not willing to sacrifice yourself for Jac, none of that would have happened. And then, you killed Portend,” she said with a gleeful grin. “Something I had tried twice and failed to do myself.”

I felt lightheaded trying to understand everything. Chugging some banwine, I tried to speak, but the alcohol burned my throat and I choked. She handed me the water with herbs, so I downed that instead.

“Banwine is strong!” I rasped.

Omen shrugged. “No stronger than neneed.”

I coughed again. “Yeah, I haven’t tried that, either. The whole thing with Portend…” I couldn’t stop feeling the sensation of the blade going across my throat and sinking into the crone behind me. It was as though my hand was still on her bony fingers, redirecting the blade.Shake it off, girl. “I don’t want to talk about that. I hope you understand.”

“Of course. You are studying the land of Halla?” She gestured to the map on the monitor.

I nodded, grateful for the change of topic. “Such a small planet. I need to learn all I can about it and the people here. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

“Well,” she indicated the chart in front of us, “this should be updated. The lands north of the Craggy Mountains have been reformed by the volcanoes again.”

“They blow up or something?”

“No, the land has extended several kilometers into the Diamond Sea that surrounds the continent,” Omen explained. “The continent is now around two million square kilometers, by my estimation.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “Strange that Deacon doesn’t have an updated map.”

Omen nodded. “Yes, but I know about it only because I had taken my ship out on the water. I don’t believe it is widely known. The land there won’t be viable for a few years, not until plants lay claim to it. Am I truly here for a geography lesson or do you wish to discuss the Mother Test?”

I smiled at her. “I like that you get right to the point, but I do have another question for you. Why are the conduits so much stronger than Valor?”

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