Oracle (Book 5) (31 page)

“Celeste.” Kendril’s voice sounded raspy and dry in his own ears. He swallowed. “I’m…” He looked down at the floor again, his vision blurred with sudden tears. “I…didn’t mean—”

Celeste tilted her head. There was sadness in her eyes. Pity.

Kendril looked up at her form again, afraid that she would vanish into the darkness any second. “I’m…sorry,” he said, his voice choking. “It’s my fault.”

She looked at him, but said nothing.

Kendril stood, uncertainly, knowing that none of this could possibly be real. He had finally gone completely crazy.

And yet—

And yet he wanted her to speak.
Needed
her to speak.

He continued to watch her, waiting. Tears stung his eyes, clouded his vision.

“They’re coming, Kendril,” Celeste said.

He blinked, surprised.
Who
—?

Celeste was gone.

Kendril turned, startled and even a little frightened, but the entryway of the manor house was echoingly empty. Outside the broken back door a thick gray fog had begun to creep over the garden.

It had seemed so real.
So real
—

There was a movement at the back door of the mansion. A crash and then a muffled curse.

Without thinking Kendril whipped out a pistol, snapping back the lock with his thumb in one reflexive move.

“Mr. Kendril?” Marley lay sprawled on the floor by the back door. He was covered in dirt and leaves. In his hands was the old musket.

“Marley,” Kendril said, almost as if the man’s name was an oath. He felt irritated that the bumbling sailor was anywhere near this spot, as if he were defiling a holy place. “What in Zanthora are you doing here? Where—?”

“There are men, Mr. Kendril!” Marley scurried to his feet. A terrified look was on his face. “Men with guns and swords. They came to the mill. I barely got away with my skin.”

Kendril felt an icy hand grip his stomach. “How many men?”

Marley’s jaw worked for a moment. “I’m…I’m not sure. At least six. No, more than six. It was horrible, Mr. Kendril—”

“What about Tomas?” Kendril grabbed Marley by the arm and pulled him away from the door. “Did you see Tomas?”

Marley nodded, his eyes white with fear. “They…took him, Mr. Kendril. I’m so sorry. There wasn’t a thing I could do. I—”

“Keep your voice down,” Kendril snarled. He glanced back at the back door. “Were you followed?”

Marley stammered for a moment, his brain processing Kendril’s words. “I-I don’t know. I’m not sure. Maybe…”

Kendril nodded, only half-listening to the man’s ramblings. His mind felt surprisingly clear. He yanked off the sling on his bad arm, and tossed it to the floor. With a scowl of discomfort he stretched his arm out, clenching and unclenching his hand as he rolled his shoulder.

Marley looked at Kendril in surprise. “Should you be doing that, sir? Your arm isn’t—”

“It’s fine,” Kendril said shortly. He glanced down at Marley’s musket. “Is that thing loaded?”

Marley seemed taken aback by the question. “I—well, now that you mention it, Mr. Kendril, in all the confusion I didn’t really have time to—”

“Start there,” Kendril snapped. He motioned towards a doorway further down the main hall. “When you’re done get over there and cover the back door.”

Marley ran a hand through his white hair. “The back…door?”

“Do I have to draw you a picture, Marley?” Kendril pulled out his second pistol, and checked the flint. He turned a dark eye back at the sailor. “They’re
coming
.”

Chapter 18

The fire in the kitchen hearth had been reduced to a few glowing embers. Outside another bout of spring rain pattered gently against the windows. The branches of trees rattled and rustled as the wind tossed them about.

Kara sat hunched over the kitchen table. A ragged blanket was thrown around her shoulders as a makeshift shawl. She shivered almost incessantly. Her hands were wrapped around a mug of water.

Joseph poked his head into the kitchen. “Kara?”

Kara looked up, her face drawn and pale. “Joseph—” She coughed, wincing at the pain, then gave a weak smile. “Hi.”

Joseph came all the way into the kitchen. “Ashes, Kara, what are you doing up this time of night? You should be getting some sleep.”

Kara turned bleary eyes on the mug between her hands. “I tried…” She lifted a trembling hand to her face and rubbed her cheek. “My chest hurts so bad. It’s hard to breathe, especially lying down.” As if to illustrate the point, she took a wheezing breath.

Joseph came over next to her and put a hand on her back. “Here, breathe for me. Nice and gentle.”

Kara took a breath. Her face screwed up with the pain.

Joseph gave a satisfied nod. “I think your lungs are clear. It’s the pain from the surgery that’s making it difficult to breathe.”

Kara nodded. She didn’t say anything.

Joseph moved over to the fire. “Here, I’ll make you some tea.”

Kara looked over at the pathfinder. “No, no, Joseph. You should go—” she gave another cough. “Go back to bed. It’s late.”

“Nonsense,” said Joseph firmly. He took some kindling and wood from the stack by the hearth. “I’ll have the fire back up in no time. You must be freezing.”

Kara huddled further under the blanket. “Yeah.”

Joseph placed the wood strategically on the dying embers, bringing the fire back to life. “Your body’s still recovering from the surgery. Give it time.”

Kara looked down at the table. “I just…I feel so helpless. I can barely walk five paces.”

Joseph blew softly on fire, coaxing the tender flames back to start devouring the wood. “I have some herbs that will help with the pain. With enough honey in the tea, you won’t even taste them.” He turned back around and eyed her with concern. “You’ve been through a lot, Kara.”

“So I’ve been told,” Kara said with a hint of bitterness. “I can’t remember much of anything past Vorten, and that was months ago.” She reached up, unconsciously pulling at her short hair.

Joseph tossed another stick on, and glanced back at Kara. “I like it.”

Kara looked up at him in surprise. “Like what?”

“Your hair.” Joseph poured some water into the kettle, then hung it over the fire. “It looks good short.”

“I don’t think that’s what the nurses quite had in mind when they hacked it off,” Kara said with a sarcastic smile. She forced herself to put her hand back down on the table. “But it’s sweet of you to say it.”

Joseph came back over to the table, and pulled up a chair. “Truth be told, Kara, you’re beautiful regardless of how short or long your hair is.”

“That’s what I like about you, Joseph.” Kara gave a short laugh, and put a hand to her chest to catch her breath. “You have the sight of a blind man.”

Joseph frowned. “I don’t follow you.”

“Oh, come on.” Kara took a tentative sip of her water. “I’m not exactly the picture of health. I look half-dead right now. And don’t try to say I don’t—” she corrected quickly, putting up a finger as Joseph started to speak. “I’ve seen myself in a mirror.”

Joseph shrugged. “All right, guilty as charged.” His face grew more serious. “I guess I’m just happy to see you well again.”

Kara groaned. She put a hand over the bandages that covered her chest. “I wouldn’t exactly call this
well
.”

Joseph glanced over at the kettle. “You were in a coma for months.” He looked down at the floor. “And then…even after you woke up, you were still gone. Lost in a waking dream, babbling nonsense.” He looked up, and caught Kara’s eye. “I thought I had lost you for good.” He clasped his hands together, his voice soft in the dimly-lit kitchen. “I’ve…been in a dark place.”

Kara stretched a pale white hand across the table, and put it over Joseph’s. “I’m here now,” she said. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Joseph looked up at her. “It’s just that I…I  never realized just how…” His voice faltered off.

Kara continued to look at him.

Joseph turned his head away. “I never realized how
weak
I am.”

Kara squeezed his hands. “On the contrary, Joseph. You are one of the strongest men I have ever known.”

Joseph looked away, his eyes on the kettle again. “Right. Stronger than Kendril, the Demonbane of Vorten?”

“Stronger than Kendril,” Kara said. There was no hesitation in her voice.

The water in the kettle began to bubble.

Joseph got up from the chair. “I’ll get that tea for you.”

“I told you before, you don’t have to go to the trouble.”

Joseph grabbed a towel and lifted the kettle off the fire. “It’s my pleasure. And the herbs will help with the pain, trust me.” He grabbed a new mug from the counter and began filling it with herbs from his satchel.

Kara looked down at the table top, her eyes dark with thought.

Joseph looked back at her, his face showing his concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Kara pulled the blanket around her. “I just—I don’t remember much from when I was in the coma. But some things have been coming back to me. Images, pictures, like flashes of a life I never lived.” She shuddered. “It’s terrible, Joseph.”

Joseph poured the boiling water into the mug, but said nothing.

Kara looked over at him. “Some of the memories seem like they are from another time, another place. And some—”

Joseph turned.

“Some seem like they—” Kara licked her lips, as if afraid to continue. “Haven’t happened yet.”

Joseph looked at her for a long moment, then turned back to the mug of steaming tea. He stirred it. “How much honey do you want?”

Kara gave him a confused look. “Joseph? Didn’t you hear anything I just said?”

Joseph came over to the table. He put the tea down in front of Kara. He sat in the chair again, and sighed. “Yes, I heard.”

Kara lifted her eyebrows.

Joseph crossed his arms. “When you were awake, you mentioned something. It seemed like babble at the time, but—”

“Fangs in the east,” Kara said suddenly. “Shadow in the south.”

Joseph froze. A cold hand touched his heart.

“A fire rises in the west.” Kara stared straight ahead, as if she were seeing right through Joseph. “To find the key, to stop all three, seek the raven lost in the sea.”

The room was chillingly silent for a long moment.

Kara looked up at Joseph, meeting his eyes with hers. “I
remember
,” she said. “The words are burned in my brain. But I don’t know what they mean.”

Joseph allowed himself to breathe. “Neither do I.”

“I saw Kendril,” she said, looking up at the ceiling. “He was fighting all alone. There was fire, a town burning. An army of barbarians.”

Joseph gave an uneasy shrug of his shoulders. “Just a dream. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“We need to help him, Joseph,” Kara said. She reached across the table, and cupped Joseph’s hands in her own. “I don’t know how I know, but I do. He needs us. Otherwise he’ll die.”

Joseph looked quickly away.

“Joseph,” said Kara quietly. “Where is Kendril? Why isn’t he here?”

The pathfinder chewed his lip. He couldn’t bring himself to look Kara in the eyes again. “He…left.”

“Where? Why?”

Joseph finally looked at Kara, his face hard. “I told him to go. I didn’t care where, and I still don’t.”

Kara stared at him.

Joseph pushed back the chair and got up angrily from the table. “He shot you. He could have killed you.” He leaned against the kitchen counter with both hands. “For a long time I thought he had.”

Confusion clouded Kara’s face. “You…told him to go?
Oh,
Joseph
.”

“You don’t understand,” Joseph said heatedly. He turned around. “I almost lost you, Kara. I told him not to shoot.”

“What was he supposed to do, Joseph?” Kara weaved her fingers in and out of the tea mug’s handle. “Let Indigoru grow more and more powerful? Watch Vorten burn to the ground?”

Joseph leveled his gaze at her. “You’ve been in a coma. You almost
died
. And you don’t care that Kendril was the one who pulled the trigger?”

“Indigoru was in my brain,” Kara said, her voice low. “I saw what she was going to do, what she was planning. If I could have, Joseph, I would have pulled the trigger
myself
.”

Joseph gave an angry shake of his head. “I wasn’t ready to give up on you. There could have been another way, some way to get the Soulbinder off you—”

“Maybe there was.” Kara softened her voice. “But there was no way to know that at the time, was there? Kendril did what he had to do, Joseph. You have to forgive him for it.”

Joseph looked at the crackling fire. “
Forgive
him? Why?” He glanced back at Kara. “You know what Olan told me? He said that Kendril doesn’t care for anyone or anything. That he was just using us like pawns.” He looked back at the fire, his face a raging storm cloud. “Well, I think Olan was right. Kendril never cared about any of us. We were all just expendable commodities to him.”

Kara leaned back in her chair. “Joseph, listen to yourself. You can’t honestly believe that.”

Joseph whipped his head back around. “Can’t I? We’ve only ever followed him around, Kara. Since the Howling Woods, anyways. It’s always been about what Kendril wanted, what he needed to do.”

“That’s enough.” Kara looked up at Joseph with a sudden fire in her eyes. “You told me in Merewith that you thought Kendril had had a real vision, that you believed the Soulbinder was important. And it
was
, Joseph.” Kara took a breath, tugging again at her blanket. Her eyes retained their fierceness. “We’re in the middle of a Despair. The Seteru practically destroyed Vorten. Eru only knows where they will resurface again. Are you seriously telling me that you think Kendril only cares about himself? The man who had half his face burned off while closing the gate to the Void?”

Joseph opened his mouth for a moment, but shut it again without saying anything.

Kara slumped forward on the table again. For a long moment there was only the sound of the rain on the windows and the popping and crackling of the flames in the hearth.