The Oracle's Secret (The Oracle Saga Book 1) (5 page)

I’m fairly sure I read an article online once about how you’re not supposed to run if you see a wolf because wolves can run faster than you and they will catch you and drag you to the ground and tear you limb from limb and you’ll die in agony, but unfortunately that’s not fresh in my memory and the yipping is really loud, so I run.

Ahead of me Tarian is running too, and I hope the crashing behind me is Steele and not the wolves. It sounds too heavy to be wolves. I risk turning my head to check, almost tripping. It’s Steele making the crashing noise.

The wolves almost right behind him can apparently run really quietly. And they’re catching up fast.

‘Can wolves climb trees?’ I yell to anybody that might have an answer. Where’s Google when you need it?

‘I don’t think so!’ yells Tarian.

‘I thought they could!’ replies Steele, his voice hoarse from running.

‘Do you have any other ideas?’ I ask. I can hardly hear myself over the pounding of my feet on the ground.

‘No, but I don’t think we’ll have a chance to get up a tree, they’re gaining...’ he pants.

I think hard. Hell, the illumination spell worked before, it’s worth another try.

‘Get ready to climb!’ I yell.

I whisper the incantation as quick as I can and fire the spell at the wolves. They stop running, whining with confusion at the bright light. It hurts my eyes too but I can see well enough to scramble into the lowest branches of the nearest tree. Ahead of me I can see Tarian doing the same, a few trees over.

Steele is stumbling. I must have set the spell off too close to him, he can’t see.

‘Three feet to your right, climb!’ I yell.

He stumbles to the tree, finds the trunk with his hands, hauls himself up. Satisfied, I start to climb higher. I guess now we’ll really find out whether wolves can climb trees. The branches scratch my arms and face and bugs crawl all over me, but I don’t care. I’m not being eaten yet and it feels great.

I climb as high as I can and peer down. There are wolves milling around at the bottom of the tree, but none of them seem to be climbing. I’m tempted to yell insults at them from my perch but I’ve already tempted fate enough times today.

‘How do we make them go away?’ I yell at Tarian, parallel with me in his own tree.

‘How should I know?’ he shoots back.

‘You’re from the countryside!’ I say.

‘Yeah, I’m from North Wales, not the Yukon!’ he retorts. ‘I’ve never even seen a wolf in the zoo! If you have any questions about sheep, though, I’d be more than happy to help!’

‘Well, when a pack of vicious sheep has us trapped, I’ll be sure to give you a call!’ I say.

This whole exchange helps a bit with my feelings of frustration, but it doesn’t really do anything to fix our situation.

‘Steele, any ideas?’ I call.

He just shakes his head like he’s regretting every single one of his life choices. Which is fair enough.

‘Well... let’s wait a bit and have a think,’ I say. ‘Maybe they’ll get bored and go away on their own.’

Tarian snorts. I glare at him. I haven’t forgotten that he called me a spoiled princess. It’s not like it’s my fault that I’ve been kept in the court my whole life. All I wanted was the chance to make my own decisions. Who is he to tell me off?

Wolves. I should focus on the wolves. We could wait and see if they leave, but that could take forever and we have to beat the Northern Prince’s people to the Lightstone or die trying. Maybe we could travel through the trees somehow without having to touch the ground. I picture myself swinging on vines like Tarzan, but I’m not sure this is the kind of forest that had vines and I’m almost positive I don’t have the upper-body strength for something like that, even if Tarian and Steele probably do. Maybe we could find something up here to throw at them, but unless we could knock them out that would probably just make them angrier. The illumination spell might work again, but I doubt it would buy us enough time to actually get away.

I’m racking my brains for spells that might be useful. I only know a handful.

‘Steele, any defensive spells that would help here?’ I yell across to his tree.

He shakes his head. ‘Sealing us in here depleted my powers, I won’t be doing any spells for at least an hour.’

An hour is a long time to be stuck up a tree. Already I’m starting to ache from holding on, and the damp of the trunk is starting to soak through my jeans and make my legs cold. At least I can see the glimmer of dawn in the distance. It might help to have some light.

I go back to my list of spells, reaching back in my memory to find every single thing I ever learned - everything from charms for warts to memory-boosting spells for exams. Cherry and I were both educated in the court by my mother, with a few of the other children of courtiers, but we still had to study hard. I think back, picturing the little classroom. Cherry sat on my left, Brendan sat on my right... he was the son of a fire mage and he was always trying to scare us by messing around with fire while my mother’s back was turned. He stopped, though, the day Cherry and I got our revenge...

Yes! It’s a ridiculous idea, but it just might work.

‘I have a plan!’ I yell to the others. ‘But I’m not sure how much you’ll enjoy it. Cover your mouths and noses.’

‘What are you doing?’ Steele asks.

I ignore him. I’m concentrating on the incantation. It’s been so long since I last did this spell, in Brendan’s bedroom... Cherry and I got in so much trouble, but it was worth it. I finish the incantation, feeling the power build in the space between my fingers. I hurl the spell at the wolves below and pull my scarf up over my nose.

Even with that, the smell is overpowering. It’s like dead things mixed with drains and sprinkled with rotting vegetables. I want to throw up, and I knew it was coming. I can’t imagine how it must be for the wolves, who are right down there in the middle of it.

I peer down to see them running away, whining and pawing at their noses. Victory! Of course this means that now we have to go down into it to carry on heading towards the Lightstone, but hopefully the range of it isn’t that wide, and luckily it looks like the wolves are running in the opposite direction to where we’re headed.

I give them another minute to get far away and then start to climb down. The rough bark scrapes my palms but I don’t care, I’m just elated that I saved us from the wolves. Me! The me from six months ago would never have believed this if she’d seen it in a vision. Back then I wasn’t even sure that running away would last more than a day. I thought they’d find me straight away and I’d be dragged back before anyone had really even noticed I was gone. The only thing that kept me from heading straight back myself and turning myself in with my tail between my legs was a vision I had of myself topping up the prepaid electricity meter in my flat. Just knowing that I’d find somewhere to live and a source of income, however small, gave me the courage to stick to my plan.

This time I’d had no vision, nothing to spur me on, but I’d come up with a plan and done it anyway. I climb down the tree feeling smug, even if the smugness does recede a bit as I get into the centre of the smell. It’s so disgusting I think for a second that maybe it would have been better to take our chances with the wolves. I feel like I’m about to faint as my feet touch the ground. Every step I take stirs up the leaves and moves the air around, making the smell ten times worse. I hold my breath while Tarian and Steele finish climbing down. I wait until I’m dizzy to take another breath. Maybe this one will last me until we can get away.

It doesn’t. The spell is just as powerful as I remembered, and in this open space it follows us for a few minutes, putrid and thick. I can almost feel it in the air, like a wall of pure gross. I keep thinking maybe with the next breath I’ll be used to it a bit more and it won’t be so awful, but I’m proved wrong over and over again. I keep my nose inside my scarf, my mouth shut, and my eyes on Tarian ahead of me, leading the way out of this nightmare that I’ve created. But at least we’re on the way again.

The sun has mostly risen by the time we escape the smell. I hardly dare to believe it at first. I take a breath and it doesn’t make me want to heave, but I’m convinced it must be a fluke until I see Tarian roll down the neck of his shirt and cautiously sniff the air.

‘It’s still there, but fainter,’ he says. ‘Just a minute or two more.’

We start to run, pathetically excited by the thought of escaping the smell. It feels incredibly unheroic but I don’t care. When we come out of the trees and find ourselves on a little cliff overlooking a canyon, I breathe deep lungfuls of sweet-smelling air. I fall on my back on the grass, not even caring that it’s still wet with dew - what the heck, I’m still covered in leaf mulch and tree damp anyway - and close my eyes to feel the sun on my face.

‘That was the worst thing that has ever happened,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry guys... it was the only thing I could think of to get them away.’

‘Well, it worked,’ says Steele with a grin that sends shivers through me in spite of myself. ‘Good job, Oracle.’

‘Ugh, it’s Livya,’ I say. I know he has a tough guy image to maintain and running away from a bad smell kind of ruins that, but if he’s going to give me a compliment the least he can do is not package it with something he knows I hate. He’s had years to learn my name. You’d think after the night we’ve had, he might start to show me a bit of respect.

He just snorts, so I make a rude gesture at him. It’s one of the ones I learned in London. I learned a lot of useful stuff there.

‘So, Tarian,’ I say. ‘Are we on track? Where do we need to go next?’

He points his thumb over the canyon. It’s wide and deep, and I can’t see any way across it.

‘Oh,’ I say. ‘Hmm. Well, I had the last idea, this one’s up to you two.’

The two of them peer into the canyon. It’s ridiculously huge, not the sort of thing that you’d ever normally find in the English countryside, but then, this isn’t a normal part of the English countryside. In spite of my pronouncement, I start looking for a way across too. The Prince told me to do everything I could to find the stone, and I’m not sure whether stopping and relaxing for a couple of minutes will count as breaking my blood oath. I wish there was a way to know. What if I disobey his orders by accident, or because what he wants is just impossible? Will I still be punished? My confidence after defeating the wolves melts away, and my stomach fills with dread again. I skim the canyon, looking for ways across.

‘There!’ I say, pointing into the distance. ‘Is that a bridge?’

Steele squints at it. ‘Looks like a pretty pathetic one, if it is.’

I put my hands on my hips and look at him. ‘Any other ideas?’

He rolls his eyes. ‘The bridge it is.’

It’s way in the distance, down to our right. The cliff curves around, a little fringe of it visible past the trees. At least it seems to be curving slightly downhill.

‘We should get back into the trees a bit,’ says Tarian. ‘We’re visible here.’

‘We’ll be visible on the bridge,’ says Steele.

Tarian shrugs. ‘Whatever. I just want to minimise the chances of us getting killed.’

Steele growls at him and stalks towards the trees. I follow, impressed but not willing to show it. I’m still angry with both of them.

After that brief moment of soft, fresh grass beneath me, it’s tough going back to the forest sludge. Every step is an effort, and I remember that I haven’t actually had any sleep since I was woken up roughly 24 hours ago and dragged out of my flat by Steele. It’s hard to believe that all the stuff that’s happened since all fitted into one day, but it did. One horrible, upsetting, exhausting day.

Why didn’t I sleep in the jeep over here? I could have had at least a quick nap before we got chased. But no, I had to listen to Tarian going on about his beautiful homeland, just because he has a really nice voice that sounds kind of like melting honey. And Steele’s no better, with his blond hair that I want to ruffle and his horrible attitude. Right now he’s taken off his shirt and he’s walking through the forest ahead of me in just a tank top, the pack of supplies slung on his back, and I can see every movement of his powerful shoulders as he walks, the sunlight glinting on his tanned skin. Ugh. What a loser.

I drift into a daydream about my stranger. He wouldn’t treat me like these idiots do, that’s for sure. He wouldn’t call me a spoiled princess or act like my powers are all I’m good for. He’d respect me.

I wonder again where I’m going to meet him. Maybe I should take this as a good sign that we’ll get out of this mess? Unless he’s someone who comes to Sherwood after I’m already trapped here... what if he’s one of the Northern Prince’s people? What if what I’m foreseeing is my treachery?

‘We’re here!’ Tarian calls, with a glance at me.

He’s right, while I’ve been complaining to myself, we’ve reached the bridge. Steele was right, bridge is really too strong a word for it. It’s no more than a few ropes strung across a terrifying chasm, holding up some planks that look about ready to rot. The handrail ropes only just come up to my waist.

‘All right, let’s go,’ says Steele.

‘Wait!’ I say.

Steele raises his eyebrows at me. ‘We’re in a hurry, Oracle. What’s the problem?’

I don’t want to look weak in front of them, but I don’t want to die either. When you put it like that, it’s not a difficult choice.

‘I’m scared I’ll fall,’ I say. ‘If I have a vision halfway across, I won’t be able to do anything to keep myself from going over the edge. It’s been a few hours since I last had one and the magic here is strong enough that I must be due another one pretty soon.’

‘Fine,’ says Steele. ‘We’ll rope ourselves together - all three of us, you in the middle. That way if you stumble there’ll be two men’s weight to keep you up there.’

I thought he’d take this chance to make some sort of sarcastic dig at me, but we are in a hurry and it does make sense.

‘Thanks,’ I say, watching as he retrieves a rope from the pack and starts tying it around himself, making a sort of chest harness. Then he beckons me over and does the same to me. Tarian is last, and finally I’m tied between them, a few metres of rope separating each of us from the others.

It makes me feel safer to know they can catch me if I slip into a vision halfway across, but I still have to take a deep breath and force myself onto the bridge. It creaks and sways as Steele leads the way onto it, and the second I follow him I feel it sag beneath me. It’s swaying so hard I’m dizzy almost right away, and I have to make myself focus on a spot on the other side. If I look down at the bridge itself my head spins. I risk a glance down every several steps to make sure the path is still clear ahead of me - I know Steele’s leading but I want to be sure I don’t miss a crack in the planks that he avoids. The last thing I need is my foot stuck in the middle of this thing.

The bridge feels longer now that we’re on it. I can’t bear to look back and see how far we’ve come. It seems like we’ve made almost no progress but I feel as though I’ve been walking this shaky, rattling path forever, the planks beneath my feet slippery with dew, the rope under my hands fraying, the whole structure swinging from side to side with every step we make, groaning like it’s about to collapse. I’m hoping and praying that I don’t have a vision while we’re in the middle of this thing. I know we’re roped up and I’m safe but it doesn’t stop me picturing myself falling sideways, the ground looming beneath me while I hang there, trapped in the future.

The future. None of that stuff in my visions has happened yet. And all of those things were definitely not happening on this bridge. Does that help? This is something I’ve never really had cause to wonder about before - if I’m having visions, does that mean I’m going to live at least until they happen? Or are they just possible futures? If I die will they be erased?

When I was little and I was still trying to convince myself that I might not be the Oracle, I used to try and make my own prophecies fail. If I had a vision of eating cereal I’d have toast for breakfast for weeks. If I saw myself tripping on a particular rug in the corridors, I’d avoid that whole part of the building for weeks, but eventually I’d always forget and they would always come true.

But this is the first time I’ve really, genuinely thought I might die. And I don’t know what to believe. But as the ground sways below me I’m genuinely starting to doubt whether we’ll ever get across this bridge.

There’s a cracking sound, a yell, and I’m being dragged rapidly forward. My face hits the planks, there’s a huge weight on the rope around me. I scream. I manage to move my head to look up - no Steele ahead of me. I brace myself and squint - the rope disappears downwards, through a hole that still has the edges of a couple of rotten boards clinging to the edges.

‘Steele!’ I yell. ‘Are you ok?’

‘Yeah,’ he yells. ‘But I can’t pull myself up and I don’t know a spell for this! Any chance of a hand?’

I can’t even stand up, the pull on the rope is too strong. But I can keep holding on.

‘Tarian,’ I call. ‘You’re going to have to pull him up.’

Tarian is still standing, since I’m taking most of Steele’s weight.

‘All right,’ he says. ‘But I can’t get past you to do it. I’m going to have to lie on top of you to get to him. OK?’

‘Sure, why not,’ I say. ‘Just hurry up, he’s heavy!’

I feel the bridge jostle as Tarian moves, and then he’s straddling me, on his knees, his calves lying against my hips so that I can feel the muscles tensing. He plants a palm just in front of my face, bracing himself. He leans forward, his chest against my back, and reaches his other hand down from the hole.

For a moment nothing happens, and then Tarian’s body presses into mine as he takes some of Steele’s weight. He’s firm and warm against me but I only have a second to register that before he’s sitting up, bracing his knees on my thighs for leverage.

Steele appears from beneath us and Tarian pulls him forward, and for one confusing moment I’m stuck in a Tarian-and-Steele sandwich, both of them sweating and panting, all of our bodies crushed together until I can’t tell where they end and I begin, much less which sturdy shoulders and strong arms belong to whom, whose hands are clutching for safety as the bridge sways and creaks.

At last we get it figured out and we’re all standing again. I wonder if their legs are shaking as much as mine are.

Steele looks at us both. ‘Uh... thanks,’ he says. ‘That was a close one.’

Then we’re on the move again - one big, careful step to avoid the hole and then onward. The danger has heightened all of my senses and everything seems bigger and brighter than before. Every bead of sweat on Steele’s shoulders, every tiny motion the bridge makes in the breeze, every grunt of effort that Tarian makes behind me. The opposite side is clearer now too, as we get closer. I can see the green of the grass, the blue and yellow of the flowers, the grey of the rocks, getting closer with every step, so close, so close, we’ve almost made it...

Steele steps onto solid ground. I follow him seconds later, then Tarian. We all collapse on the ground, still roped together, and catch our breath.

‘Look at it,’ Tarian says. ‘Can you believe we made it all the way across?’

He gestures at the bridge and we follow the movement, and that’s when we all spot the four or five people making their way to the bridge on the other side.

‘Northern Territory,’ Steele snarls.

I peer over the chasm at them. They’re carrying weapons, and they look like they mean business. I think Steele’s right. I’m glad they didn’t find us while we were on the bridge - running over there would have been terrifying.

‘We have to stop them,’ Steele continues. ‘I just need the knife, it’s in... my pack.’

He’s not wearing it.

‘Did you drop it in the chasm?’ Tarian asks.

Steele nods.

‘All of our equipment was in there!’ Tarian says. ‘What are we meant to do now?’

‘Whatever it is, we need to do it fast,’ I say.

They’re already on their way over the bridge.