The Oracle's Secret (The Oracle Saga Book 1) Read online

  not be able to be careful.

  Nobody says goodbye to Tarian when he arrives. I acknowledge his nod with one of my own. He’s dressed like I am, jeans, boots, shirt, jacket. We could have a long walk ahead of us. Steele arrives last, with final instructions from the Prince and a pack full of equipment that he forbids me to touch before he orders us into the same black jeep from this morning. I smile wryly to myself - when they bundled me into that jeep earlier, I thought I’d be locked in my room for the rest of my life. I hadn’t pictured leaving again so soon, let alone to go all the way to Sherwood. I slide into my seat and Tarian gets into the back with me. I don’t blame him for not wanting to sit next to Steele in the front.

  Steele starts the engine and we burst out of the driveway in a shower of gravel, then head up the road towards Sherwood.

  ‘How long’s the journey?’ I ask Steele, watching the shadowy shape of Stonehenge go past in the gloom.

  He answers reluctantly, like he can’t stand to have a normal conversation with me. ‘It should be around four hours, but the jeep is spelled. We’ll be there in two.’

  It does seem to be moving incredibly fast, and although Steele isn’t the best driver, when he weaves around the other traffic in the road we always seem to somehow not crash into anything. I wonder what kind of spells are on the jeep. I barely know anything about branches of magic other than my own.

  It’s too dark to read or anything in the jeep and I’m getting more and more nervous the closer we get to Sherwood, and that’s the only reason I decide to talk to Tarian. I’m still angry with him, but it’s better than talking to Steele.

  ‘So, you must be new at court,’ I say. ‘I haven’t seen you before.’

  I see him make an embarrassed face in the gloom. ‘I’m not really at court, as such. My family’s not... well, we’re not that important. Nobody cares about Finders, normally. I’ve only ever done small-time stuff before, finding people’s lost jewellery, runaway pets, that sort of thing. They called me in to find you... I thought they’d send me away as soon as I was done. I thought I’d be on my way back to Wales by now.’

  I’ve never been to Wales. I’ve almost never been anywhere.

  ‘I hear it’s beautiful there,’ I say.

  He nods. ‘It is. My house is on the side of a mountain. When I wake up every day, the first thing I do is open the curtain and look out at the valley spreading out below me, with the morning light spreading over it.’

  Even in the semi-darkness his face is animated as he talks about his home. He tells me about waterfalls and forest paths and mountains covered in golden gorse that almost glows in the sun. He talks about winter snows that cover everything in sight, making the wild mountain ponies come down the hillside for shelter. He has a storytelling voice, it makes me want to listen to him forever while he tells me anything, anything he likes.

  The car swerves violently, with a piercing whine from the wheels.

  ‘What the hell?’ I say.

  Steele glances over his shoulder at me. ‘We’re being chased. Didn’t foresee that, did you, Oracle?’

  ‘That’s not how it works and you know it,’ I say. ‘Who’s chasing us? How many?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ he admits. ‘At least one car... and I’m guessing they’re our friends from the North...’

  I squirm around in my seat to look behind us. There’s another car on our tail and the wheels are glowing - they’re spelled too. No way to know whose spells are better.

  ‘We have to do something,’ I say.

  ‘I’m open to suggestions!’ Steele yells, weaving around the oblivious traffic almost faster than I can see.

  ‘Don’t we have any defensive spells with us?’ I ask.

  ‘I know a few,’ says Steele, ‘but I can’t cast and drive at the same time, one of you will have to take over driving.’

  ‘I can’t drive,’ I say to Tarian. ‘Can you?’

  He grins. ‘You wouldn’t ask that question if you’d seen the state of the buses where I come from.’

  He unfastens his seatbelt and climbs into the front beside Steele.

  ‘Take the wheel,’ Steele says. ‘I’ll keep the pedals for now.’

  Tarian leans over and starts steering, while Steele leans out of the window and starts aiming spells at the car following us. He’s good - even I can tell, with my limited knowledge of these sorts of spells. He mutters an incantation and sends a burst of light towards the other car that leaves it swerving and slowing. Steele whoops and thumps the dashboard.

  ‘There’s another one!’ I yell.

  I’m still looking out of the rear window and from a sliproad another car approaches, glowing with magic just like the first one was.

  ‘Damn,’ says Steele. ‘Finder, swap seats.’

  There’s a sickening moment of bumping confusion as Tarian slips into the driver’s seat and Steele climbs over him into the passenger seat. We sway and slow and I hold my breath, but then we’re driving again. Steele opens the sunroof and hoists himself up so that he’s standing half out of the car.

  ‘Come and get it, you bastards!’ he yells.

  ‘Steele, this isn’t an action film!’ I call up to him. ‘Just stop them!’

  He swears at me. I ignore him and keep looking out for our enemies. Behind me I hear Steele making another incantation and after a moment the second car bursts into flames, still rolling forward until it slows.

  ‘How many people were in that car...?’ I wonder aloud.

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ says Steele. ‘They’re all dead now.’

  I try not to think about it, but he’s only following his orders, the same as I am. We have to do anything and everything possible to protect the Lightstone. The flaming car recedes into the distance until it’s only an orange glow on the edge of sight.

  ‘Any more?’ he asks me.

  I scan the road in all directions. It’s late enough now that the motorway is almost empty.

  ‘I can’t see anything...’ I say. ‘No, wait!’

  How many cars has the Northern Prince sent after us? This one is hiding in a lay-by, waiting for us to pass. There’s nothing much else we can do, so we pass it, Steele shooting spells at it as we go by.

  ‘Damn!’ Steele says.

  I see his spell fizzle out on the air, feet away from the other car. That fireball must have taken it out of him. I wonder about saying he should have saved his energy and used something less impressive, but it’s too late for bickering now, so I stay silent.

  The other car is freshly charged with speed spells, and ours are beginning to slip under the pressure we’ve put on them. They’re gaining on us. Steele does his best but his powers are depleted for now.

  ‘Do you know any spells?’ I ask Tarian.

  ‘Not a single one,’ he says over his shoulder. ‘Finding’s all I’ve ever been good for. I’ll keep driving, though.’

  It seems ridiculous now that I never learned a single defensive spell - but then I never needed one. I was always under the Prince’s protection, always surrounded by guards. Apart from my innate power to see the future, I only know a handful of basic spells. I run through them in my head anyway in case there’s anything that could be useful - alarm clock spell, summoning spell, music spell, illumination spell...

  Illumination spell. It’s not much but I was always pretty good at it, although I haven’t bothered in years. I boost myself up to join Steele hanging out of the roof of the jeep.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asks.

  ‘Helping,’ I say. ‘I hope.’

  I take a second to remember the incantation and then start muttering it under my breath.

  ‘Not a bad idea, Oracle,’ says Steele, catching on.

  I feel the power build inside me as I say the last phrase, the one that seals the incantation and begins the spell. I aim it squarely at the other car and close my eyes at the last moment. I still see the flash through my eyelids. When I open my eyes, the other car is swerving, the driver temporar
ily blinded.

  ‘Yes!’ says Steele, turning to grin at me triumphantly for a fraction of a second before he remembers himself and glares at me again to compensate.

  I try not to smirk and don’t quite succeed.

  We put a bit of distance between us and the other car, but soon they’ve caught up again. Something dark red and twinkling leaves that car and hovers near ours, then sticks itself to one of the doors.

  Steele swears. ‘Tracker,’ he says. ‘I know the spell to remove it but I can’t do it right now. We need to abandon the car.’

  ‘We’ll have no chance on foot!’ I protest.

  ‘No chance with a tracker, either!’ he says. ‘Look... can you prepare another illumination spell, but keep it until I say? I have an idea...’

  I shrug. Nothing to lose by trying. I start the incantation again, leaving Steele to do whatever it is he’s doing. I hear him clattering and banging, talking under his breath to Tarian and then saying an incantation, but I don’t dare take my eyes off the other car to see what he’s doing.

  ‘Oracle, now!’ he yells.

  I let off the illumination spell like last time, and before I know what’s happening Steele is pulling me out of the sunroof and we’re jumping away from the still-moving car. I brace myself for a crushing impact and it comes - I thud to the ground so hard that it shakes my bones. But it’s not as bad as I thought it would be - Steele must have cast some sort of protective spell. I roll to a stop by a line of bushes and his arms are still wrapped tight around me from the jump. We lie there for a second, recovering. Steele’s breath is warm on my neck. He probably saved my life just then.

  ‘Get under, hide!’ Steele orders, letting go of me.

  I scramble to obey since it seems like a good plan. The three of us huddle in the shadows of the trees that line the road. Steele is panting heavily. He’s managed to keep hold of the pack full of supplies.

  ‘Are you ok?’ I ask.

  He nods. ‘Yeah... That was just a lot of spellwork in one go... one to cushion our fall, one to keep the car going, and an illusion to make them think we’re still in it. It won’t last long, but hopefully long enough that they won’t be able to figure out exactly where they lost us.’

  I’m impressed in spite of myself. Sometimes Steele is so gross and annoying that I forget there’s a reason he’s the chief of the Prince’s guards.

  ‘So, what now?’ asks Tarian. ‘How far are we from Sherwood?’

  Steele looks smug. ‘There’s a portal about a mile from here. Almost nobody knows about it. If they’re planning on using the main portal, we could still beat them into the forest.’

  ‘Well then, what are we waiting for?’ I ask.

  I stand up, brush myself off, and start walking in the direction Steele points. Maybe if we can get into Sherwood before any of the Northern Prince’s people, we can just retrieve the Lightstone and get out and go home without any more terrifying chases. It’s probably a vain hope but it keeps me going as the three of us walk through the dark towards the portal.

  Chapter Seven

  A mile doesn’t sound that much, but turns out it’s a long way across muddy fields in the dark. I stumble a couple of times and pick myself up, blushing, but Steele faceplants right into the mud and, to be honest, that makes me feel a lot better. What can I say, I’m not a perfect person.

  I don’t feel like talking as we walk. Instead I find my mind flickering back to my visions. If I let myself dwell on it for two long I can still feel my stranger’s hands on my skin, the warmth of his breath as he kisses up my collarbone to my neck, the heady taste of his mouth on mine, the strength of his arms enclosing me. It sends pulses of electricity through me, and I know I shouldn’t be thinking about it now when there are so many more important things going on, but it’s dark here and silent, and I’ve spent so many nights in my dark, silent room lying awake thinking about him, trying to figure out who he could be.

  I’ve been preoccupied with my stranger’s identity ever since I first started having these visions, a few months ago. It’s started to turn into a bit of an obsession. I’ve been convinced that I’ve found him a few times and had to talk myself down. I even involved Abigail in an elaborate plot to spill water on the postman to make him take his shirt off so I could see if he had the tattoo. Not surprisingly, he didn’t.

  You’d think someone who’s been having visions of the future since birth would have developed the patience by now to remember that everything that’s foreseen happens in its own time. I have definitely not developed that patience, but I’m trying.

  I peer at Steele and Tarian in the gloom. For instance, both of them have a similar build to my stranger, and a similar lightly tanned skin tone. I could drive myself mad trying to work out if one of them is him - god I hope it isn’t Steele, but then Tarian isn’t much better. But the truth is there are plenty of men around who might be him, and there’s just no way to know until he shows up. I’m trying really hard not to get myself worked up with constant guessing. He’ll come when he’s ready.

  In the meantime, though, I can’t stop thinking about him. Last night’s vision ended too abruptly, cut short by the alarm, but the one a few nights ago... now that was something special. I remember how frantic we were, how desperate I was to feel him inside me, to encompass him, make him mine. Droplets of water glistened on his skin in the soft, glowing light. He was naked, and even though I didn’t see his face, in the vision I knew that he was smiling at me, naked too before him. He stood in front of me and I pulled him closer, running my hands across his broad, firm chest, skimming the knot of his tattoo just above his heart. I wanted him so much. I wrapped my arms around his waist and drew him close to kiss him. The touch of his wet skin against mine made me shiver with anticipation, and yet at the same time I was warm, so warm I almost couldn’t bear it.

  He laid me down - on a hard, cold surface but I didn’t care - and we held each other close. His hands roamed over my body, leaving sparks in their wake, making me gasp softly and lean into his touch. He kissed me deeply, blocking out everything else until all I knew or remembered was that kiss, like a warm, sensual eternity. I didn’t need to breathe, I didn’t need my heart to beat, all I needed was for his tongue and mine to entwine, our lips to collide. I felt as though my heart and his were beating together and I never wanted it to end.

  When he pulled away I sighed in disappointment, but his mouth, hot and moist and soft, only moved downward, dropping kisses like tiny explosions down my throat and across my collarbone, while his hands clutched my hips, holding me close. A sweet ache spread like wildfire through me, gathering into a pinpoint of delicious need between my legs. Oh god, I wanted him. I licked my lips.

  His kisses moved lower, until he took my nipple in his mouth and licked, and I lost control, yelping wordlessly. I felt him laugh against my breast, and he kept licking, his tongue moving in slow, firm circles until I thought I would die from want.

  ‘Please...’ I gasped, and he moved to kiss my lips again, cupping my head in his hand while I wrapped my arms around him, feeling the taut muscles of his back beneath my arms. His other hand moved between my legs, found the slick wetness of my arousal. His fingers danced and I almost came right then, but he took them away again, leaving me moaning and arching towards him. He shifted and I felt his erection pressing against my thigh.

  ‘I want you,’ I said. ‘Oh god, I want you...’

  I stumble as my foot catches on a rabbit hole, and groan in annoyance. How could I have let myself get so distracted? Didn’t I just decide that I was going to be patient about this? I struggle to bring myself back to the present - this wasn’t even a vision, just a memory of one, but it’s hard to shake. There’s still an ache at the centre of me as I pull my foot out of the rabbit hole and follow the dim shapes of Steele and Tarian onward.

  It seems like we’ve been walking in the dark for hours. I’m tired and cold and I’ve had a really intense day and all I want to do is go to bed. I’m beginning to
doubt that Steele really knows where he’s going when he raises a hand to halt us, and points the way down into a little hollow, where there’s an oak tree.

  ‘This is it,’ he says. ‘The portal.’

  ‘It’s a tree,’ I say.

  Yeah, I know that’s pretty inane but I’ve had a really long day.

  ‘This tree grew from a branch cut from the Major Oak,’ he says. ‘If I can perform this spell right, it should transport us to the actual Major Oak, in Sherwood itself.’

  ‘Let’s hope you can perform the spell right, then,’ I say.

  The Major Oak, legend has it, is the tree where Robin Hood and his Merry Men camped. That’s pretty common knowledge. What’s not common knowledge is the fact that it’s also the dividing line between the mundane Sherwood Forest - the one with the visitor centre and the cafe and the guided walks - and the magical Sherwood Forest. It’s not accessible to anyone without magical powers, and they have no way of knowing it’s there, but if a person with magic knows how, they can use the Major Oak to get through to a Sherwood that’s a lot more like the one you hear about in Robin Hood stories - huge, mysterious, filled with wonder and danger. That’s the one we’re headed for. If Steele can perform the spell.

  ‘You both have to be touching me,’ he says.

  Reluctantly, I put a hand on his muscular shoulder. Tarian does the same on the other side. Steele puts his hands flat against the trunk of the tree and takes a deep breath. Then he starts to whisper the incantation that will transport us to Sherwood.

  It’s taking a while and I’m beginning to worry that Steele’s magic is still depleted from the chase earlier, but at last the dim field around us starts to warp and blur, and I feel a strange pulling sensation. There’s a few seconds of darkness, and then a rushing light, a wailing noise, and a feeling like I’m about to throw up, and then we’re standing in the same positions we were before, except that Steele’s palms are against the huge trunk of the real Major Oak, and we’re standing in Sherwood.