Oubliette (Cloud Prophet Trilogy) (16 page)

I felt it rising from my belly. Surprising me, the giggle popped out of my mouth before I could stop it. I slid down to my knees too. I pulled Krissin’s hands into mine and squeezed. I flinched at the pain from my palms, but the joy I felt at finally connecting with Krissin overwhelmed it.

She looked at me, tears streaming down her face. Her laughter turned to crying.

“Why do you do that?” I asked, wiping tears from her cheeks with my thumb.

“What?”

“Act tough and mean and awful. I’m tired of it. Aren’t you tired of it?”

Krissin hiccupped. Her hand flew out of mine and to her mouth. Her eyes grew wide. I laughed again.

“I am tired,” she said. “I’m tired of being a princess here. I don’t belong here. These aren’t my people. My father is from the Northern Kingdom, like you. He set me up here. He brought me up to believe I was a princess and then on my twelfth birthday he told me the truth. That I wasn’t a princess, but I could pretend to be one as long as I helped him. Oh yeah, and that he was my real father.”

“How did he prove it to you? Why did you believe him?”

“My mother, the queen.” Krissin sat up, with her back against the wall and her skirt spread around her in a perfect circle. She hugged her knees to her chest. “She confirmed it. Nemison had been her first love when she was young, like us, before she was chosen to be queen. I guess they continued their affair even after she was married to the king. I was the product of their love.”

“But your mother,” I asked, “was she Malborn or Serenian?” I asked. Johna once told me all it took to bear a gifted child was a blessing from Eloh, that being Serenian or Malborn didn’t matter. So far I’d met Reese, Jada, Gerrold, and now Krissin. All half-Malborn and half-Serenian. How many others were out there with the gift that we didn’t know about? How many were like me?

“My mother was Malborn. I feel like I have to fight,” Krissin said. “It was instilled in me for so long. It was my purpose to fight, my purpose to take over, my purpose to make things ready for you. Reychel, I’ve done all this for you. Since I learned the truth, I’ve been preparing the way for you. Are you ready to take it from here? Are you ready to play your part?”
Play my part? A part that some mad prophet gave me because of his hatred for me. It wasn’t a part I was prepared to play, nor did I know how instinctively.

“I haven’t had a vision,” I said. “I don’t know if I can give you what you need.”

“But, Reychel, we need you. Our people need you. They have to know that you’re here. You are our Prophet. Our savior. Our only hope.”

“I can’t give you what you need,” I whispered. “I can’t.”

I couldn’t lie. I couldn’t do that to my people. So many lies had led us here. It had to stop with me.

Krissin sprang up from the floor. Her eyes squinted and her cheeks turned red. I’d made her mad – again. “Everything I’ve done the last five years has been for you. All for you. I tell you my story, I hope you’d understand, but you don’t. You put your petty truthfulness ahead of the fate of your people. You were a slave and now you’re free. Don’t you want that for everyone else?” she asked.

“Free? I’m not free. I’ve never been free and I never will be,” I cried. “You don’t understand. You will never understand.”

“I am just as trapped as you are, Reychel. If you’d stop thinking about yourself for one minute you’d see that. Why do I want this war? For freedom. My freedom. Yours. Ace’s. Mark’s. I want us all to choose our own paths instead of being controlled by this prophecy Zelor made nearly six hundred years ago. He’s the one who ruined all of our lives and now we have to fight our way out. I’m willing. Aren’t you?”

“I want all the same things you do. I just don’t want to lie to get them. If I did I wouldn’t be any better than Zelor.” I looked down at my bandaged hands. Everything I’d gone through to learn the truth only led me to more lies. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t start a war based on lies.

“What are you talking about?” Krissin asked. “So he was crazy, so what? He predicted you, didn’t he?”

“He did,” I said. I looked Krissin in the eyes, her spark barely twinkling. “But he lied about me. It was all a ruse to make people talk about him for eternity. He said I’d set Serenians free. He lied.”

Krissin didn’t respond. Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. Her curls bounced around her shoulders as she shook her head. “No. It can’t be true.”

“It is. I went back to the room with the portals. I figured out which was the right one to enter. It was all a trap, Krissin. He set it up for me to discover. The truth was revealed in the final journal, the missing one everyone’s been looking for all these years. I may have the gift of prophecy, but I’m no more special than anyone else with the gift. Just like my visions have been up until now, my gift is useless.”

Krissin stood up and paced the length of my room. She tapped the side of her face with one long fingernail. “So you’re a prophet. We know that. But you won’t be able to give us the one thing every Serenian has wanted for six hundred years?”

I nodded, unable to meet her eyes.

“And you won’t lie for the sake of your people?” she asked.

“I can’t. A lie started all of this. I won’t perpetuate it.”

Krissin stopped pacing and stared at me. The spark in her eyes pulsed, growing larger with each beat of my heart. I wouldn’t allow her to intimidate me. Nemison told me to trust her and even though I wanted to run the other direction, I would trust his opinion of his daughter. I would trust Krissin.

“You will lie.”

Walking closer to her, I laid my hand on her arm. Her skin tingled under my touch, as if she had been struck by lightning. Power coursed through her, power I didn’t understand.

“I. Will. Not.”

I squeezed Krissin’s arm, digging my fingernails into her flesh. She didn’t flinch. I squeezed harder, afraid whatever had a hold of her might not let go before she unleashed her gift.

The door opened again, no one ever knocked, but I didn’t look. I focused only on Krissin. She could hurt me, but she could also hurt herself. I didn’t want today to end in tragedy.

“Let me take care of her.” Ace glanced at my bandaged hands before prying my fingers from Krissin’s arm. “Krissin, baby?”

Without showing any fear or hesitation, Ace took Krissin in his arms. She stood, her body stiff, in his arms while he stroked her blonde curls. Tears streamed from her eyes, but the spark continued to pulse.

“What’s going on with her?” I asked Ace. He didn’t turn to me, only continued stroking her hair.

“It’s her gift. It’s complicated. Once she activates it, it’s nearly impossible for her to stop. She told me last night. We were up half the night talking.”

Talking? I misjudged both of them. I had assumed they were doing exactly what I’d refused with Mark. As Krissin’s body collapsed into Ace’s, the spark in her eyes dimmed. Her head fell limp on his shoulder. He bent at the knees and gathered her into his arms, her gown spilling down his arms, trailing to the floor.

Her head rested in the crook of her arm. “Ace?” she whispered.

“It’s me, baby. I’ve got you.” He bent over and kissed her on the forehead, his long hair unbound, making a curtain around her face.

Mark arrived a moment later. He rushed over and pulled me into his arms. “Where have you been?” he asked. “I’ve been sick worrying about you. No one knew where you were. I’ve been out all day searching for you.”

“I’ll explain soon,” I said and kissed him on the cheek.

He looked at Ace as he placed Krissin gently on my bed.

“She’ll be okay,” I whispered.

“But the announcement is only a few hours away,” Mark said. “Without her, we can’t move forward. The people won’t listen to anyone other than the princess. My men will be in danger and I don’t want to start a war without her blessing.”

“I’ll be fine,” Krissin muttered from my bed. Ace sat next to her, her head in his lap. “I need to talk to Jada. If you refuse to help us, then we have to come up with another plan of action.”

Krissin pushed herself up to sitting. Ace tossed his arm around her waist. “Don’t get up yet,” he pleaded. The genuine concern in his voice touched my heart. Two weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed it if anyone told me Ace had a soft side.

“We don’t have enough time for me to recover. I need to talk to Jada and I’m going to her room now.” Krissin pushed herself out of Ace’s embrace and slid off my bed. She stretched out to her full height and even though she was short, her body appeared long and imposing. “Who’s coming with me?”

“I am. This mess is mostly my fault. I may not lie to the people, but I will see this through to the end.”

Krissin grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door.

Chapter Twenty-One

Ace knocked on Jada’s door. We paused, listening, and then Ace knocked again. Still nothing. Krissin rolled her eyes and opened the door. Puzzled, Krissin stepped through the doorway. I peeked over her shoulder. Blankets and sheets were crumpled on Jada’s bed. Clothes were scattered across the floor, bottles on her dressing table overturned, and books strewn everywhere.

“What happened here?” Krissin asked, as if one of us had the answer. Ace and Mark moved around the room, careful not to disturb anything. I hung out in the doorway, unsure of what to do to help.

“She left with a struggle,” Ace said. “That’s clear at least.” He pointed to one slipper on the floor near the middle of the room. A torn shard of her gown lie underneath the slipper, ripped on one edge. Mark stood next to it, making sure not to nudge it with his toes. “Did anyone have a grudge against her?”

“Not that I know of,” Krissin answered. “She laid low. Not many of the nearby nobles had anything to do with her. She kept to herself most of the time. Helped us plan the revolution.”

Krissin turned slowly and looked at me. I shrank back from her gaze. I didn’t have anything to do with Jada’s disappearance. “You.” She pointed at me.

“I didn’t do it!” I raised my hands in the air. “Why are you pointing at me?”

“Do you think this has something to do with Alia and Reese’s plot? It would make sense. They want to stop us from starting the war. What better way than to kidnap Jada before my speech?” Krissin’s face stretched into a smile. Not the genuine one I’d seen earlier after she found me bloodied on the floor, but the smile that drove fear through the hearts of war-seasoned men. She spun on one foot, her back to me.

“We know where they were meeting,” Ace said. “We have one up on them and can surprise them. We can rescue Jada before the speech.”

“My thoughts too,” Krissin said.

“Hold on.” Mark held up his hand. “If they have her held in that old abandoned hallway, it’s possible they have a guard. They might not suspect us, but they can’t be so stupid as to leave her unguarded. It’s too dangerous. Reychel and Krissin are staying behind, locked up safely in Reychel’s room.”

Krissin stomped her foot on the floor. “No! This is my palace. It’s my war I’m about to start. I will not hide away like a cowardly little woman. Reychel can stay behind.”

“Hey!” I shouted. I walked into the center of the room and stood next to Mark and Jada’s errant slipper. “Don’t count me out. After what I went through today, you can bet I’m going to do anything I can to fix this mess. It’s all my fault anyway.”

Mark looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “How is any of this your fault?”

I opened my mouth, but before I could explain Krissin interrupted. “Zelor lied. Reychel’s not going to have a prophecy to save our people. Sure, she’s a prophet, but the gift isn’t controllable and is of no use to anyone.”

“What?” Mark asked. “She’s lying, right?”

“No.” I placed a hand on his arm. “She’s not. It’s all true. I am a prophet, Zelor knew I’d exist, but he made up the prophecy that all Serenians have depended on for hundreds of years. I can’t force a prophecy to save our people. I can’t do anything useful,” I said, throwing my arms up in the air. As they fell back down, I felt something tickle my fingertip.

Raising my hands back in the air, fingers spread, I closed my eyes and felt the air.

“What are you doing?” Krissin demanded. Mark shushed her. I heard him step away from me. Instead of worrying about what the other three thought, I focused inward. My fingers danced through the air, looking for the portal string I’d felt only a moment ago.

If someone had taken Jada through a portal, it stood to reason she would leave a string behind, something for us to trace her. Even if I couldn’t open a portal, I could pull on a leftover string. My arms shook as the excitement coursed through my body. Maybe I couldn’t make a speech to lead our people into a war, but I could do this.

Trying to remember exactly where my fingers had been when I’d dropped my arms, I moved a little higher and to the left. A tiny wisp brushed my index finger and I knew I’d found it. I pinched my fingers together and tugged. A portal blossomed in front of me, shimmering in the moonlight.

“Jada’s through here,” I said, confident I’d finally done something useful since arriving two weeks ago. It could be an older portal, but what were the chances? I’d helped for once; I knew it.

Mark grabbed me around the waist and lifted me. “You did it!” He swung me in a circle and my feet flew through the air. Happiness surrounded me like a warm towel after a cold bath. Blood pumped through my veins and I finally felt like maybe we’d have a chance to make all of this work.

Krissin pushed my legs out of the way as she stepped in front of the portal. Mark dropped me to the floor, but left his arm around my waist. “You two make me sick. And congratulations for doing something right. Finally.”

Ace joined her and winked at me. Ace and Mark bumped fists. Their smiles couldn’t have been any bigger without jumping off their faces. For once we were all on the same page. Even Krissin gave me a half smile before her face fell back into its normal scowl.

Zelor hadn’t seen this. He hadn’t seen me helping my friends. Despite his predictions of failure, I wondered if I could do something to help them today. Maybe if I stopped telling everyone what I couldn’t do, I could focus instead on ways to help them.