Rune Knight: Book Two of The Empress Saga

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"Ridiculous," Lord Lammlyth protested. "Utter nonsense. The oracles are the sacred power of the Altieri elder bloodline. Lord Niklaus would never profane them."

Lammlyth and the other six hydromancers were keeping close together in the main chamber. It looked as if they were trying to keep as much distance as possible between themselves and nearly every other individual in the chamber. Enfri could understand why they would be wary of Dashar and Josy, and Deebee must not have made a positive impression on them either. However, Enfri would have preferred if they would stop looking at her as if she were about to sprout horns and fangs before devouring them all.

Ascania met me before, Enfri thought. Even then, it was as if I frightened her for some reason.

Only Reyn wasn't putting them on edge. She attended to Lady Ascania, holding her hand and assuring her that all was well.

"This is the day," one of the augurs was whispering. Lady Sofia Karst, if Enfri remembered what Pacifica had said correctly. She held her head in her hands and stared at nothing. "The wolf prince and the silver woman have come. The day of fire and blood has arrived."

She was better off than most of the other hydromancers. Young Lord Traysul was completely unresponsive. Three others, two men and a woman, were in various stages of hysterical sobbing and mad ravings. Even Ascania was staring up at the orrery as if it were a portal into some demonic abyss. Only Lammlyth had a semblance of control over himself, though he appeared to be set on using that lucidity to be a stubborn, old coot.

"Now see here," Enfri scolded him. "You've as much as admitted that the Lord Regent and Lord Rodrik have been asking for oracles on the kingdom's behalf almost daily. Is it really so difficult to believe that they'd be making records of them to keep them all straight?"

Lammlyth shook his shriveled head. "No. Absolutely not. There'd be no need for such a sacrilege. When an oracle is given, it is always the same for that person. What we see is certain and cannot change. Don't you see, young lady? There's no floundering need to write them down."

Enfri scowled. She wanted to like Lammlyth, but he was making it difficult.

"That isn't entirely true, Brother," Ascania whispered. Her eyes never left the orrery as she spoke. "You know as well as I. The oracles have been changing."

"Ascania, please," Lammlyth sighed. "We've all been under a great deal of stress these past few weeks. Our visions can be misinterpreted. We all know that."

"And the darkness?" Ascania asked. "Where before we saw the futures of ourselves and our kingdom, now there is nothing beyond this day and this very hour. Each altered vision has been more terrible than the last until we looked into the sea and found a void. Fate has betrayed us, Brother."

"Pessimistic nonsense," Lammlyth retorted. "Whatever the reason for these... irregularities... Niklaus still wouldn't do something like this."

Ascania closed her eyes. "You do not know my lord husband as I do. He bears our name and leads our house, but he is no Karst. When this girl tells me she believes Niklaus to have taken advantage of our elder bloodline as one would use a tool, it is not disbelief I feel. Her words ring true."

Enfri stepped towards the hydromancers, and Lammlyth took one back as if recoiling. "Please, help me prove it to you one way or the other. When they come to ask for an oracle, are they doing anything with the orrery? A spell of some kind or fiddling with the clockworks?"

Young Traysul looked up from his ramblings. "The sun shines brightest," he said.

"Helpful as a glass hammer," Josy muttered. "We're wasting time, Sky Woman. Sooner or later, someone's going to get an arcanist to break through this door."