Page 53 of The Iron Raven

“You are the oracle,” Ash put in, stepping up beside Meghan. “You must know. What have you seen that is causing you such distress?”

The oracle sobbed, spinning away, her arms gesturing uselessly at nothing. “I do not know!” she wailed. “I cannot see. There are pieces of me that are gone. Missing. The thieves who stole them left only holes behind.” The oracle whirled back, clutching at her face. “Can’t you see? I cannot remember! Those memories are gone, and I cannot remember the memories that were stolen.”

“Someone stole your memories?” I snorted, which made Meghan frown. Years ago, when Meghan had first come to the Nevernever, she had traded one of her own memories to the previous oracle to get answers. “Well, ignoring that bit of delicious irony,” I went on, smiling gleefully, “how did that happen?”

The new oracle trembled, then slumped to her chair, still covering her face. “I died,” she whispered. “Or the one who was oracle before me died. Her memories are supposed to be mine, or I am supposed to remember her visions of before, but when I came back, I was not whole. Pieces of me, of her, missing. Pieces stolen away, gone forever.”

“The Forgotten,” Meghan said, making Nyx straighten. The assassin had been standing quietly in the corner, watching the proceedings with her arms crossed, but at Meghan’s statement she immediately raised her head. The Iron Queen regarded the distraught oracle, her face grim in the firelight. “Ethan told me he was there when the previous oracle died,” she murmured. “A group of Forgotten drained her of all her glamour so that she Faded away.” She turned to find Nyx, meeting the Forgotten’s gaze. “Could they be the thieves she’s talking about?”

“Perhaps,” Nyx said softly. “The Forgotten don’t just drain glamour. They can steal emotion and memory as well. If these Forgotten were responsible for her death, it is possible that they would possess bits of the oracle’s memories.”

“Or in this case, her visions,” Ash muttered.

“Hold on a second.” I held up a hand. “Let me see if I have this right. So, are you telling me we have to go track down these Forgotten who stole your memories several years ago, not knowing where they are or if they’re even still alive, to ask them about these visions they probably don’t even understand?”

“I could...feel them,” the oracle whispered. “Like tiny embers, flickering, flickering. Most have already flickered out. The others...are terrified. That’s all I can sense from them now. Fear. There were several once. Now there is only one.”

“Where?” Ash questioned.

The oracle scrunched up her forehead, as if thinking hard or trying to remember something difficult. “I...I saw... a castle,” she finally whispered, the words dragged out of her. “Surrounded by thorns and roses, filled with broken statues. Something watches from the window of the highest keep. A fountain in the middle of the courtyard, still spewing clear water. A curse of sorrow and regret holds everything captive.”

“I know that place.”

Grimalkin. I had forgotten he was still there. We all turned to the cat, who was sitting calmly on an end table with his tail curled around his feet, watching us.

“Yes,” he announced. “Before you ask, I can take you there.” His tail gave a few agitated thumps against the end table before he went on. “However, I will warn you, it is a place of misfortune. Of nightmares come to life. There is a powerful curse worked into the very stones, and the keeper of the castle does not take kindly to visitors.”

“Nothing in the Briars takes kindly to visitors, Grim,” Meghan said, and I nodded in agreement. “If you know where this place is, we need to go and find this Forgotten. It sounds like this monster, whatever it is, has been part of the oracle’s visions. All the more reason to learn as much about it as we can.”

“The light flickers,” the oracle murmured. “A darkness is approaching, seeking to swallow it whole. To snuff it out. Closer, closer.” She paused, and then her whole body slumped as she sank to the floor, her voice a ragged whisper. “Gone.”

I shivered at the deadness in her tone, as if she had just lost something that could never be recovered. The Iron Queen took one step forward and knelt in front of the oracle, her voice and expression gentle as she placed a hand on her arm. “Will you be all right here, Oracle?”

“I am broken,” was the flat reply. “I am a shell, missing pieces scattered to the wind. My Sight gazes into the darkness, searching for fragments of the future, and sees nothing. Is it my eyes that are empty? Or is it because there is nothing to see?”

A violent spasm rocked her thin body, and she toppled forward out of the chair. Meghan caught her, holding her steady, as Ash stepped forward in concern. She gave him a quick look, shaking her head, and the Ice Prince halted, though he continued to watch them both.

“I saw him,” the oracle whispered as Meghan gazed at her, her features grim. “For just a moment, I saw his face. The bright one. He shone against the darkness, and the darkness swallowed him whole.” She blinked and looked up at Meghan, a spark of lucidity returning to her face. “Evenfall comes, Iron Queen,” she said. “The darkness sleeps now, but I can feel it stirring, deep beneath Faery. I feel the ripples as it shifts and moves, growing more conscious of the world above. I fear we are close to the end.”

“The end of what?”

“Everything.”

And with that, the oracle slumped in Meghan’s arms with a soft moan, and none of the Iron Queen’s gentle prodding drew any response.

“Okay, on that cheerful note, maybe we should go,” I offered. “Places to be, Briars to hack through, cursed castles to assault, that sort of thing. You ready to get us out of here, Furball?”

Grimalkin yawned. “As soon as the Iron Queen is finished.”

Meghan stood, drawing the oracle to her feet, and helped her back into her chair. The faery slumped against the side, mumbling, her eyes glazed once again, and the Iron Queen stepped back.

“We’re done here,” she murmured, turning around. For a moment, the stern persona of the Iron Queen shone through, steely-eyed and terrible. But she shook herself and glanced at the rest of us. “Let’s go, everyone. Grim? Take us into the Briars.”

“As you wish.”

15

A NIGHT OF CONFESSIONS

---