Page 80 of A War of Crowns

But they deserved her apologies all the same.

They were all on the same side. They all wanted the same thing.

Duke Percival pressed a kiss to her brow and whispered, “It’s all right, dear girl. We understand.”

With a weak smile, Seraphina withdrew from their embrace and hurried the rest of the way toward her pavilion. She needed to see Sir Tristan. She needed to ensure he was well.

And she needed to speak to Oracle Tsukiko. Tsukiko was bound to know what she should do next.

When she arrived to her makeshift palace, she found Sir Tristan still lying on a cot in the center of the room with Tsukiko and a physician kneeling beside him. Shield Ichiro lingered nearby, as ever. The rest of the Oracle’s Redguard haunted the corners of the room.

“How is he?” Seraphina asked, rushing over. Her heart caught in her throat, though, when Tsukiko looked up to reveal tears shimmering in the depths of her silver eyes. “Is he…?”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

“He sleeps still,” the physician informed her, a tired edge to his voice. “As should we all. There is nothing more I can do for him tonight.”

Tsukiko stroked the unconscious knight’s hand and whispered, “But he dreams the most beautiful dreams.”

Seraphina frowned over that. Could an Oracle truly see a person’s dreams?

But more importantly, would Tristan ever wake again? What was she to do if she had to return to Goldreach and tell Olivia that Sir Tristan would never again bother her for a game of cards?

Those were the questions she wanted to ask.

What departed her lips instead was a question for the Oracle. “Did you know this would happen?”

In the wake of those words, a great silence fell upon the room.

Tsukiko ceased her stroking of Sir Tristan’s hand. Her godparents shared a look. Shield Ichiro glanced her way and narrowed his eyes.

But Seraphina kept her attention fixed on the Oracle when she asked again, “Did you know?”

She hated the way her lips trembled around the words. She hated how that sliver of betrayal pricked her heart and filled her thoughts with the whispers of doubt. But she had to know.

She simply had to know.

When Tsukiko looked up at her at last and met her gaze, the Oracle uttered in that soft, airy way of hers, “The future is never set in stone, Your Majesty. Nor does the Lord on High provide me with a manuscript I am to read and follow. He gives me visions and I read the signs.”

Within her thoughts, she heard Tsukiko’s voice again unfurl. The Oracle whispered,I am not the Navigator, Seraphina. I am the Compass.

Seraphina pursed her lips. Those words brought her little comfort. “Then read the signs of my vision,” she implored. “Tell me what I am supposed to do and I will do it.”

Shield Ichiro suddenly snarled, “You have mistaken my lady for a street fortune teller who claims to read runes.”

“Ichiro,” Tsukiko exhaled, and the man quieted at once.

But his eyes burned with all his words left unspoken.

The Oracle’s attention shifted back to her when next the other woman uttered, “That vision was for you and you alone, Your Majesty. Only you can read it.”

“Me?”

That revelation was like a punch to the stomach. It sucked all the air from her lungs. Who was she to read signs from the Lord?

Who am I?Tsukiko asked in return.

Seraphina looked toward where the Oracle still knelt at Sir Tristan’s bedside. The Kunishi woman rose to her feet—slowly, as if she were moving through water. The bells about her wrists chimed with each of her movements.

---