The Oracle's Secret (The Oracle Saga Book 1) (11 page)

I turn to Tarian, and he’s giving me the same dismayed look I’m giving him. He might have been able to use his powers to find a safe path across the room. I can’t do the same.

‘I wonder what my chances are of making it across alive?’ I say.

I mean for it to come out more light-hearted than it actually does. If one of those cubes falls on my head I’ll be dead before I even know anything’s happened. We both look again at the fallen cube.

‘Maybe we should turn back,’ says Tarian. ‘Maybe this isn’t worth it. So what if we’re trapped in Sherwood forever? I can think of worse things. At least we’d be trapped together. We could make a life here, Livya, with no one to tell us what to do!’

It sounds good. Who am I kidding, it sounds wonderful. I picture it for a moment - a little log cabin among the trees, living off the fruits of the forest, quiet and calm...

The blood oath. If I give up now, I probably won’t even live long enough to get out of these caves. Of course, Tarian doesn’t know that. And I still don’t want him to.

I shake my head. ‘I have to do this,’ I say.

‘Please,’ says Tarian. ‘Think about it?’

‘I can’t,’ I say firmly. ‘This is what I have to do. I’m sorry.’

‘All right,’ he nods, and I see pain in his eyes. ‘What can we do to make this work? Can you use your visions? Earlier, you managed to make yourself have a vision of what you needed to see. Can you do that again?’

I frown, considering. ‘That was difficult,’ I say. ‘And it’ll probably be more difficult for something as specific as this - that vision was vague. This one would need to be incredibly clear. My powers would need to be as strong as they could be for it to have even a tiny chance of working.’

‘Then we know what you need,’ he says.

He’s right. I need an orgasm strong enough to heighten my powers to the maximum.

I’m tense, knowing that this has to work, but Tarian calms me, kissing me slowly, his tongue exploring my mouth while his right hand caresses my hair and his left holds me close. I want to rush, want to get this done so that we can be one step closer to the Lightstone, and Tarian senses my hurry.

‘Shhh,’ he whispers in my ear. ‘Take your time. The important thing is to enhance your powers, not to win any speed records.’

He’s right. Haste won’t help if I can’t get safely through that room. I give myself up to him, letting him take control, guide me to where I need to be. He picks me up and pins me against the wall and I wrap my legs around his waist. He keeps kissing me, his arms supporting me. I feel myself relaxing at his touch, falling into it, being carried along by him.

We move again, this time sitting on the ground facing each other, and his hand moves under my shift to touch me. His fingers brush my hip bone and then his palm skates across my waist, my side, and then he wraps an arm around my back and shoulder to hold me closer.

The feel of his chest pressed against me, firm and smooth, makes my nipples harden to points that stand up through the thin fabric of the shift. He runs his free hand over the material, takes one of my breasts in his hand and squeezes softly. I wriggle, and lick my lips. He brushes his thumb across my nipple, through my shift, and, impossibly, it stiffens even more, and a wave of shuddering desire ripples through me.

‘Oh god, Tarian...’ I murmur, shifting with delicious discomfort as my need for him builds.

We stay that way for a while as he kisses me, so deep and so long that I’m breathless by the time we break apart, trembling in anticipation. I want him to make me come right now, but he doesn’t, he just pushes my shift up so that he can see my whole body, tense and waiting for him, and then he licks, sucks, kisses, strokes his way down me with excruciating slowness. Parts of me that never felt erotic before are taut with pleasure now - the side of my waist tingles, the inside of my wrist quivers at the touch of his mouth, the crook of my elbow, the back of my knee... I want to beg him, but I force myself not to, letting my feelings out in moans, sighs, gasps, smiles, laughter when his kisses tickle and make me writhe under his touch.

Then he puts his hands on my knees and spreads them apart and I moan, and I swear I almost come right then just from the look he gives me, his eyes sparkling, his smile sweet and just a tiny bit devilish. And then his fingers are inside me, exploring the soft wetness they find, and they move in me like they’re beckoning me closer, and it makes me curl around him, helpless and wanting. His fingers move slow at first, softly, but then faster, firmer, and, I forget what I promised myself about not begging, and I’m screaming yes, god, please, more, yes, this, harder, and then I can’t even make words any more, just sounds, hard, harsh vowels deep in my throat.

And then I feel something else, something soft and warm pressing against the swollen ache of my clit. His tongue. It moves in circles, in rhythm with his fingers inside me, and I gasp out a long, inarticulate cry. It’s too much, it’s overwhelming in its intensity, I don’t want it to ever stop but if it doesn’t I’m going to explode into a thousand tiny pieces.

A vision prickles at the back of my mind but I don’t even spare it the attention, can’t pull myself away for a moment from this, and then I’m groaning so loud that my voice cracks, pulses of electricity searing through me, the world spinning and spinning, each jolt of pure, exquisite sensation more powerful than the last until finally I come back down to earth, still feeling like I’m floating. I’m trembling. He strokes me all over, kisses my mouth, my cheek, my forehead.

I lie there dazzled. I’ve all but forgotten why we were doing that in a haze of pleasure, but a glimpse of the fallen cube reminds me and, shakily, I get to my feet.

He sighs. ‘Does it have to be now?’

I nod. ‘I have to go while my powers are at their height. I...’

I want to tell him how he’s made me feel, how he keeps making me feel every moment I’m with him, but I don’t have the words in me right now, so I just kiss him, brush my shift back down properly, and turn to look at the challenge that awaits me.

‘Help me with the blindfold?’ I ask.

He obliges, fetching the dark strip of cloth and gently tying it around my eyes. The darkness is complete. He kisses the back of my neck when he’s done tying the knot. I shiver, still shaking from his touch. I wish I could stay here with him.

‘Good luck,’ he says.

I concentrate, trying to summon the vision power I felt a minute ago, just enough of it that I can see my next few steps. The power stirs in me and I try to filter it, letting it guide me without knocking me to the ground.

Of course, once the vision comes, I don’t see anything at all. I’m still blindfold in the vision, but I can hear and I can feel. And I feel myself walk forward five paces, and then slide sideways two steps before there’s a deafening crash on my right.

I take a deep breath and do it. Five steps forward, then two quick steps to the left. The cube smashes to the ground, just where I was standing a few seconds ago. My heart jumps. That was too close.

I summon the vision power again, letting it tell me where to go. I feel myself walking ahead, then turning right, then left again after a few steps. I hear crashes all around me, but none close enough to touch me. I pull myself out of the vision and retrace the steps I just saw. Dust and debris from the falling cubes catches me, but I’m still safe.

I repeat the pattern twice more - bring on a vision, follow my own footsteps. I can’t believe I’m doing this, I can’t believe it’s working, but I can’t stop to think about it or I’ll run back to Tarian and probably be crushed. I’m breathing fast, my heart hammering. My palms are sweaty. How much longer can I keep this up?

I bring on the next vision - sideways, forward, sideways. I follow the pattern, but I’ve lost myself with all this counting. Was it four steps or five? I hover on four, hesitating, and, I decide on five just in time to avoid being crushed. The cube lands just behind me, and little chips of stone batter the backs of my legs, stinging me. I feel blood trickle.

I’m starting to panic now but there’s no time for that, I can’t stand and wait to be crushed. I summon another vision, let it guide me the next few steps, repeating the numbers to myself to make sure I don’t get it wrong this time. I halt, waiting for the crash to my left. There it is. I reach for the vision again, but it’s not there. It refuses to come. Have I used it all up? Is that possible?

I don’t know. All I know is that I’m reaching desperately to know what to do next and nothing’s happening. I’m stuck here in the present, unable to see anything now or in the future. I’m itching to take the blindfold away but I can’t, I can’t get this wrong. I must be almost there. I breathe deeply, trying to calm myself.

A cube crashes beside me, so close that it glances off my shoulder, scraping down me and leaving a burning pain all down my arm. I can’t stop myself, I run headlong, no idea where I am or what’s around me. My visions won’t help me any more. Nothing can help me any more except getting away.

I run smack into the door and scream, startled. It takes me a second to realise that I’ve made it, that I haven’t run into another cube on its way down to crush me. I huddle close to the door and gasp, unable to do anything for a moment. I can’t believe I’m alive. I made it.

I take off the blindfold and the light’s so bright that I have to squint for a moment. Then I see Tarian running towards me, the room safe now that I’ve completed the challenge. He skids to a halt, kneels beside me and looks at me with concern.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asks. ‘That last one looked like it got you pretty hard...’

‘It’s not too bad,’ I say, but my whole arm is throbbing so much that it hurts to move it. I look down and see that the cube scraped off a few layers of skin at least, leaving the whole outside of my arm red and bloody. The backs of my legs hurt too, where the flying debris caught me.

‘I wish we still had a first aid kit,’ Tarian murmurs as he inspects my wounds. ‘Or even just some water to wash these out.’

‘I’ll be all right,’ I say weakly. It’s not even the worst thing I’ve had to put up with these last few days. ‘Let’s just keep going.’

I push open the door with my good arm and lead us through to the next chamber. The first thing I see is a table, on which there is a pile of bandages and a basin full of clean water. We stare.

‘I wish we were out of here and safely on our way home...?’ says Tarian, just in case.

Nothing happens.

‘Worth a try,’ I tell him, with a grin.

The chamber is small but well equipped - as well as first aid supplies there’s drinking water and snacks, and blankets in a neat pile in a corner. I’m anxious, eager to press on, but Tarian convinces me to stop long enough to tend to my injuries and have something to eat.

I let him sit me down on a chair while he takes a sponge and gently washes the dust from my scraped arm and legs, so carefully that it hardly hurts at all. He spreads some sort of salve over the scrapes that numbs my arm a little and helps with the pain, and then he sets to work bandaging it. He seems to know what he’s doing, and when he’s done my arm is encased in neat bandage from shoulder to wrist. My legs aren’t so bad - the tiny scrapes are already healing, barely noticeable now.

‘Lunchtime!’ Tarian says, even though we’ve been underground so long that we’ve both completely lost track of what day it is, let alone what time.

We sit at the little table and start to eat. The food is good, the same array of delicious fruits and vegetables as before, and I realise that I’m pretty hungry. Tarian is too, and we eat silently for a while, too absorbed in the meal to worry about anything else. I must be fuller than I realised, because after a while I start to feel sluggish, in a cosy, relaxed sort of way. I can barely muster up the effort to put another slice of apple in my mouth. I lie back on the bench, feeling calmer than I have in days.

‘This is nice,’ says Tarian. ‘We’re in no rush to move on, are we?’

‘No, no hurry,’ I say.

I remember the blankets in the corner. It takes me a while to summon up the energy, but finally I manage to get off the bench and wander over there. I unfold a few of the blankets and make us a little nest on the ground.

‘Let’s just have a little lie down before we move on?’ I suggest.

‘Good idea,’ says Tarian. ‘The Lightstone will still be there later.’

The Lightstone - there’s something important about that, something I should remember, but I’m absorbed in making the nest now, curling up in the blankets. Tarian comes over and nestles beside me, cuddling me close to him, his chin on my shoulder and his arm around my waist. I snuggle closer, craving his warmth. His hand on my waist moves slowly, soothingly. I’m utterly comfortable, completely at peace.

We fall asleep. I don’t know for how long, there’s no way of telling time in these caves that are always lit by eerie glowing stones. When I wake, I feel just as relaxed as before. I don’t move, just lie there in a happy fog, and I’m almost asleep again when a vision takes over.

It’s a vision of the door, the one on the other side of the room. I’m walking towards it, determined.

That’s all I see. It jolts me awake a little, and I suddenly remember that we were in a hurry. I scramble out of Tarian’s embrace and shake him.

‘Tarian!’ I say. ‘Come on! we have to go! I can’t believe we just fell asleep!’

He blinks. ‘What’s the rush?’ he asks.

And just like that, I can’t remember.

‘Oh,’ I say. ‘Um... I’m not sure. We had to... go somewhere? To get something?’

Why can’t I remember?

‘Relax, we’ve got plenty of time for that,’ says Tarian. ‘Come here, it’s so cosy...’

I start to lie down again, but something keeps me upright.

‘No...’ I say. ‘No, there’s something important...’

I turn and look at the door. I know that I have to get through it, but it’s so nice in here, so peaceful, and I have everything I need...

No! A voice inside me shouts, and as I listen to it, it gets louder. No! This isn’t me! This isn’t what I want.

And it’s hard, because in so many ways this
is
what I want - quiet, safety, nobody bothering me or using me for their own purposes. But I can’t have this, not this way. I remember the blood oath, and shudder. I have to obey the Prince’s orders and get the Lightstone. But more than that, I didn’t choose this. It’s safe and warm and peaceful but it’s not
real
. It’s not really mine.

‘Come on, Tarian,’ I say. ‘Just get up for a minute. I want to show you something.’

He grumbles but he gets up, lets me lead him by the hand. I walk towards the door. The closer we get, the more the calm, cosy feeling presses down on me - I can barely keep myself awake and walking. It would be so easy to just lie around here, so easy to just stop, to give it all up...

No! I think of the things I love that I can’t have here - Cherry and her friendship, our dance sessions in my bedroom, the secrets we’ve shared; my mother, complicated as our relationship is; Emmeline the healer and everyone else at court who watched me grow up; the sky and the wind; the feeling of walking alone down a busy London street, watching the other people go by...

I keep it all there, at the front of my mind, as I drag Tarian closer to the door. I touch the handle and my mind clears, the pleasant fog blowing away. I lead us through.

The door closes behind us.

‘What the hell was that?’ Tarian asks, rubbing his face like he’s been sleeping for days.

But I’m too preoccupied with our new surroundings. Remember the three doors side by side, from my vision? They’re here. They’re just not the only three doors.

We’re in a circular room, and doors line the walls, each one of them identical. There must be dozens of them. I spin around - there’s nothing else, just doors. It makes me a bit dizzy.

Tarian whistles.

I touch the door behind us, the one we just came through. From this side it looks exactly the same as all the others. I don’t want to lose track of it. I unwind a strip off the bandage around my arm and tie it to the ornately carved door handle. It makes me feel better, somehow, even though I know I can’t go back through it until I have the Lightstone.

Tarian’s walking slowly around, looking at the doors. He stops at one and leans close to it, listening for sounds from behind it.

‘Anything?’ I ask.

He shakes his head.

‘Can you use your powers to find the right door?’ I ask him.

He frowns. ‘I should be able to, but I can’t. There are powerful spells here. It’s protected against me somehow.’

I sigh. ‘And there’s no point me even trying - a vision wouldn’t help us to know which door it was when they’re all the same.’

The doors are starting to creep me out now. This close to the stone, I’m scared there might be consequences if we pick the wrong one - any one of them could lead to a pit full of sharks or something. I mean, sharks are unlikely in Sherwood Forest, but I’d probably have said the same about a lot of other things that have happened today. So I’m not about to go flinging doors open at random until I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

‘OK,’ I say, ‘there’s got to be some way of figuring this out. Let’s just think about it logically.’

I start walking slowly around the edge of the room, looking at each door as I go past it. I count them. I touch each one as I go past to see if it feels hot or cold, like there’s something behind it. All of them feel the same - warmish but not hot, smooth wood. When we listen through each one, straining to hear, there’s nothing. None of them smell any different than the others. We walk around over and over, together and apart, clockwise and anti-clockwise, examining the doors from every angle, using every method we can think of.

‘I’m about ready to start
licking
these doors,’ I say to Tarian, at the end of yet another pass.

He laughs. ‘Hey, whatever you’re into is fine with me...’

I roll my eyes. ‘So helpful,’ I say.

He grins at me and I melt.

‘Come on,’ he says. ‘We’re ok. At least we’re safe in here. We’re doing fine.’

He strokes my good arm and squeezes my hand. I kiss him, revelling in the few moments of escape in his arms. I wish we could just do this. But I can’t, so I pull away after a minute and focus again on the doors.

‘Um...’ I say. ‘Were the lights like that before?’

Tarian looks up and sees what I’ve spotted - the glowing stones that light the room are going out. The ones nearest the ceiling are already dark, and the next layer down begin to wink out as we watch.

‘Huh,’ says Tarian. ‘I’m guessing we don’t want to still be here when all of the lights have gone out?’

‘Probably not,’ I say.

We get back to work, quicker now. I’m tense, watching the lights disappear one by one. I try to think, but it’s so frustrating. The doors are identical. There’s literally nothing that sets one apart from the next, apart from the strip of bandage on the handle of the one that least back the way we came, and I know if we go back there now we’ll be trapped again in the sleepy stupor of whatever spell is on that room.

It’s not
fair
! There should be something, some clue, a hint. I look up at the ceiling and down at the floor in case I’ve missed anything obvious, but I haven’t. There’s no way to know what door leads us closer to the Lightstone and which ones could send us back to where we started or to a horrible death or any one of a million other places.

‘Livya,’ says Tarian, ‘the lights. We have to hurry.’

I look up. He’s right. The lights are out almost down to the ground now. There might be time to go around all the doors once more, if only we knew what we were looking for. But there’s nothing
to
look for! There’s only sameness everywhere, nothing to base a decision on, nothing to guide me.

I’m starting to think that this is an impossible choice, that the only way to find out what’s behind one of the doors is to open it and deal with the consequences. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe this is meant to be where we die, and if we get the right door it will be a miracle.

But no. Anyone who wants the Lightstone has to come this way. The Nineteenth Prince wouldn’t have designed things so that we could struggle through all the trials we’ve been through so far, only to be eaten by lions or whatever now.

So what does that mean?

And suddenly I know, and it’s so obvious that I feel stupid for not knowing it before. It doesn’t matter
what
we choose, as long as we choose it.

I look up, and the first door that catches my eye is one across the room, a dozen doors down the row from where we are. That’s the one.

‘Come on!’ I say. ‘It’s this way.’

Tarian follows me to the door in the gloom. It’s almost dark now but I don’t care. I look at the door with total confidence - as long as I think this should be the right door, then it will be. I grab the handle and push it open.