Query (2 page)

She stared until she heard footfalls behind her.

Ember was leaning against the wall next to her. “Oh, good. The others have come looking. Curious bastards.”

“Ember.” There was a world of chiding in that growl.

“Fine. Oracle, this is Rune, Axis, Charming and Brakes.” Ember waved casually at the array of men who were in front of them.

They were all huge. The Guardians worked out so that they could charge into danger. It seemed to be working well for them.

Rune had the stance of a leader. He was iridescent, had hip-length blue hair and distinctly pointed ears. His uniform consisted of a lightly armoured shirt and pants so tight her gaze estimated his girth, and she couldn’t be too far off.

She jerked her focus over to Axis, Charming and Brakes. They were in a variety of red shades, which made Rune and his heavily tattooed arms the only alien aside from her.

She felt that she should recognize his sharp features and nearly catlike eyes, but she didn’t. There was knowledge in her head that she couldn’t access yet.

Brakes smiled, his red hair pulled back in a ponytail. “Does she speak?”

Freddy scowled. She crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at the collection of men who were analyzing her.

“That can’t be the Terran Oracle.” Axis smirked.

Rune raised a hand to hush him. “She is Terran, all right. The Oracle portion leaves much to be seen.”

Freddy perked up in surprise. “How do you know I am Terran?”

He grinned and took a step closer to her. “Your species and mine have a long history.”

She put her hands on her hips and frowned. “Well, we don’t, so you can just back off, buster.”

He paused and tilted his head, as if he had been in the middle of what he considered a charming conversation and she had smacked him.

Ember let out a low whistle. “On that note, we need to get these dresses hung up, and then, I am taking Oracle on a tour of her new offices. The list for petitioners is already five hundred names long.”

The men parted, and Ember led her through the gauntlet with the Guardians measuring every inch of her with their eyes.

When they were inside what were apparently to be her quarters, Freddy muttered, “That wasn’t awkward at all.”

“Don’t be nervous. You don’t have to deal with all of them. Rune has already told them that if you are what he was told you are, you are his.”

“I thought I was here to be the Oracle.”

“You can be an Oracle anywhere. A matching genome for Rune is what he has been waiting for.”

“So, Rune’s species and mine have a history.”

“They do. Can’t you access the records?”

“Not yet. I feel like something is there, but I can’t touch it.”

“Don’t worry about it. The knowledge will come soon enough.”

Freddy watched as Ember hung up the dresses. She turned and then squealed. “Sneed!”

Her dragon was right in the centre of her bed in all his fuzzy splendour.

She ran over to him and cuddled him, pausing when flashes of him in Rescue’s arms came to her. He had put Sneed in a cleaner and then delivered him to her room.

“Why do you have that? Is it common among your people?”

“Not for adults, but when I began to see into people’s futures, the contact was necessary to keep me still, anchored.” She smiled. “No one has ever held Sneed for more than a few seconds until now. It gave me a clean item to touch that would not give me ripples through history.”

“Fair enough. Would you like to see your offices?”

“Sure. I have to break my legs in sooner rather than later.”

“Excellent. You can leave your creature here. No one will disturb him.”

With a quick kiss and a sigh, she put Sneed on the bed and followed Ember out into the hall.

It was time to see where she was supposed to do whatever her body did on its own.

Ember chattered along cheerfully as they crossed a covered walkway that allowed the warm winds of the city to tug at her skirt. She could feel her nipples tightening and knew that the dress hid nothing. Ah, well.

The structure attached to the walkway was covered with carved symbols. The icons of a woman—wearing the same clothing as Freddy—were everywhere.

“So, the fashion choice is making sense.”

“I thought it might. You will come here every day and meet with your petitioners, getting through as many as you are comfortable with.”

“I hope I have a few days.” Freddy crossed her fingers.

“You begin tomorrow morning. For the first few days, one of us will be with you at all times, for safety’s sake. There may be a few petitioners who don’t like your answers.”

The rest of the tour was simple. She saw her desk, the formal chair over the crevice that would take some getting used to, and the tea set that would be her only sustenance in her office. The petitioners would not be allowed to see her eat.

“So, I come here and make tea every morning and then press the door release for the force shield to let in one petitioner at a time.”

“Correct.”

“Well, it seems easy enough.”

Ember suddenly looked shy. “Would you read my future?”

“As practice?”

“Sure.”

“Let me heat up that tea. I need practice at that as well.”

She went to the crystalline fountain burbling with water and filled a metal pot carved with images of the Oracle. She set it on the tiny heating unit—a small puck with a switch.

The bubbling sound started slowly before cascading into a rolling boil. Freddy turned the kettle off and sprinkled two pinches of the herbs into the formal pot. Some water on the grey-green herbs and the now-familiar smell curled into her nostrils.

She counted to thirty and poured the tea into the small cup. A few ounces were all that was needed.

She took the cup and sat on the freaky chair. With three short sips, she took in the tea and set the cup on a ledge that was just right for her purpose.

She intoned, “Petitioner, come forward.”

Ember stepped toward her and stopped in the groove worn by thousands of years of feet.

“I wish to know of my future, Oracle.”

“Touch my hand.”

“Yes, Oracle.”

Freddy extended her fingers, and the light touch from Ember sent a pulse through her mind.

“You will walk alone until the day that you find the woman who fights and wins your heart. Jealousy will mark the day as your brother also wants to have her, but she will be yours alone.”

“When?”

“When the cleared moon grows a heart and the sun sees its shadow.”

She sat up and blinked rubbing her eyes. “Was that what you wanted to know?”

Ember grinned. “Yes. Too bad, I thought you were the one.”

“Even with Rune eyeing me?”

Ember cocked her head. “I could take him. Maybe. You look like you would nurse me back to health.”

She smiled. “You are wrong, but I appreciate the thought.” Freddy flexed her hands. The urge to touch and explore with her jacked-up senses was hard to fight.

She pivoted and hopped off her chair, walking around the crevice to where Ember was standing. The Guardian moved away as she approached and knelt.

With a deep breath, Freddy pressed her hands to the worn grooves in the floor. Thousands of years of predictions flowed through her mind. She saw wars, weddings, deaths, children, arguments, lost treasure and souls looking for rest.

Shuddering, she pulled her hands away from the stone.

“What did you see?”

Freddy met her gaze.

Ember recoiled. “Your eyes!”

“Did they do that thing again? They do that when I look too far.” She clenched her hands and got to her feet. “Apparently, the tea is like training wheels to get me started. I will eventually be able to see without it.”

“Right, but what did you see?”

Ember was bouncing around her in curiosity, but Freddy kept walking. It was hard to describe what she had seen.

How could one describe their own future?

Her quarters were quiet, and the shawl that she found in her closet was comforting. Whether her clothing hadn’t shown up or it was considered incorrect for her station, she didn’t know. Sneed was with her and that was what mattered.

She wrapped the shawl tightly around her and went in search of some tea without funny properties.

Freddy found the kitchen and boiled the water while getting out the tea set. Weeks of training and she knew how to make tea blindfolded.

It took her a bit of groping around to find what she needed, but when the water boiled, she was ready to add it to leaves that had a peachy scent.

She poured the water and watched the colour spread.

“I am surprised Ember has let you out of her sight.” Rune’s voice was low and amused.

“She got overexcited and needed a nap.”

“I see. What are you doing?”

She looked toward the teapot. “Making tea. It is my default when I want to keep busy.”

“Is there enough for two?” His expression was hopeful.

“There is. Where should I set up?”

He inclined his head. “Please, allow me.”

He got a tray and set the teapot, cups and some biscuits on it before he lifted it and carried it out into a dining room with a wide, round table.

He set the service out with practiced movements and pulled her chair out for her.

Freddy pulled her shawl around her and sat down. He poured a cup for her and set it in front of her with one of the biscuits on a small plate.

“You have done that more than once.”

“A time or two. I confess that when the computer sent me here, I thought I was to bring a bride home, not set up residence. My time here has been entertaining. Pouring tea is part of that.”

“That was convoluted. What computer?”

“When I woke after my long hibernation, I expected that a Terran had passed by or landed and woken me. I was unprepared for the order to install myself in the Guardians and wait. Aissa calculated the odds and knew that any woman who was a match for me would contain the Delphic genes.”

“Aissa?”

“The computer that monitored the sleepers on Admar.”

It all suddenly clicked. “Admar! That is where I know your physique from.”

He raised his brows and drank from the delicate cup. “Do you now? I think I would have remembered that.”

She blushed and looked at the fierce marks that were now on his cheeks and neck. “That isn’t what I meant. I am still absorbing the information they gave me. Language stuck but the details of species are blurry.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and ran the details of the Admaryn through her thoughts. Elves, fey, humans, half-breeds and genocide, all rushed to her.

“So, you were in favour of the Terrans surviving?”

“I was willing to take the chance that we hadn’t killed them all and that one day they would return. They did. You did. We are not so far from Admar, but it would have been a universe away if I had not woken early.”

“So, you expect me just to take you as you are? What if I am not into men?”

“Then, I would not have smelled the heat between your thighs when you looked at me.” He quirked his lips.

Her blush fired up again. “You are very pretty. Based on the histories, few of the women of my kind were able to avoid the lure of yours.”

He sipped at his tea. “We had gotten to the point where sex was for pleasure; survival was no longer under our control. The women of Terra were eager for a little play in the day-to-day fight for survival. They were offered an easier life with pleasure, and they took it.”

“Until they began to bear children and the Admar came after them and their families.”

He sighed and set his cup down. “Correct. When the council of planets saw what had been wrought, they raised the resistance and the tide turned. It was too late for your species. They had to start fresh, but your beginning was our ending.”

“Does that bother you?”

He shook his head. “Survival was assured by breaking the purity of our kind. We are now part of races that we hadn’t even heard of. Whispers of the Admaryn are held in the archives and genealogy of dozens of species. They made it into the future after all, just not in the forms they would have chosen.”

She smiled slightly. As long as the conversation moved away from sex, she was fine.

“So, while I am not expecting you to fling your thighs wide this moment, I am going to attempt to woo you with my charms.”

Damn it.

“I don’t even know you.”

He was going to reply when an alarm sounded.

He set his cup down, inclined his head, stood and ran out with the rest of the team. Even Ember waved at her as she sprinted past. It seemed they had something to do.

“Well, I guess I am alone, and exploring is on the agenda.” She finished her tea, nibbled the biscuit and washed up.

When she went to grab Rune’s teacup, she nearly dropped it. While he had been professing mild interest toward her, their future seemed twined.

Images of her sitting in his lap, laughing and sipping from that teacup flooded through her. She was reading the cup’s fortune.

With a snort, Freddy washed the cup and put it in the cupboard. It was just like being at home, but the view out the windows was a reminder that she was definitely somewhere else.

The gym explained the fitness of the Guardians, and the general scent of sweat told her it was used often.

The pool was a surprise. Olympic sized, it beckoned to her with tiny, rippling waves catching the light. It was tempting, but she kept snooping.

There was another flying vehicle. A few small ones for single riders.

The property was encased in a huge fence, which didn’t seem to have a door. She was locked in unless she went through the Oracle’s cave.

Freddy saw the line of doors and couldn’t resist finding out who slept where.

She pressed her hand to the door across from hers and saw Rune.

The others were set left and right with Ember across from her brother, Rescue. The realization made her laugh. Fire and rescue. Too funny.

Freddy wondered how long the ability to read without a swig of tea would last. On Earth, it had only continued for an hour. It had already done more than that here. Out of curiosity, she walked back to her quarters and pressed her palm to the door.
Aw... Axis had given up his room.