Prophecies

ELINA PACED BACK AND forth in the mountain pass leading down to the valley of Pythia. A sickle of a moon had just risen over the mountains. "Where are they?" she muttered to herself. They should have been here long ago. Henge must have been captured... or Finn had betrayed them. Maybe they had decided to leave her here and had taken a different route. Everyone always did. She should have stayed with Henge.

Wait; someone was coming up the pass. She hid behind a boulder at the bottom of a scree slope and she peered into the night. A hulking shadow appeared in the night. It was Henge, carrying two people. Elina jumped from behind the boulder. "What took you so long? Did you find the Oracle?"

Henge put the people on the ground. One of them was Finn; she didn't know the other. "We ran into some trouble along the way," Henge informed her.

"Good thing we decided to split up to make sure we could get away quickly, then," Elina said.

The unknown man with the beard looked at her. "She's the third. Good." He took a step forward and stumbled; Finn caught him as he fell.

"Blast, he's hurt!" Elina exclaimed. There was an arrow sticking out of the old man's shoulder. She ran to him. "Easy now, sir. Let us check."

"They must have gotten off a lucky shot," Finn muttered. "Let me introduce you to the Oracle Skormundir, Elina." Finn ran a hand over the Oracle's shoulder, and the elderly man winced. "It's in deep, I'm afraid, Your Holiness," Finn said. "It needs to come out, but I can't do much out here in the wild."

"Don't you worry about me." The Oracle took a moment to catch his breath. "I have seen my death at the coming of the Manhir. I am at peace with it." He sat down abruptly.

"Easy, Your Holiness," Elina said gently. "Conserve your strength."

Finn pointed at Elina and asked the Oracle, "What did you mean about her being the third?"

"There is much I need to tell you, and little time." The Oracle had a coughing fit before he could continue. "I have dreamt many fragmented dreams. They make little sense, but from what I gather. there must be three champions for the Manhir, otherwise the Ochloroc will triumph."

The Oracle paused for a moment to catch his breath. "You will leech the blood of the gods to heal the Manhir, and travel to the caverns of crystals." Henge perked up when he heard this. "Watch for betrayal... but your friendship will triumph in the end."

Finn knelt down next to the Oracle. "That makes no sense. Where do we find the blood of the gods?"

"I do not know, young man." The Oracle drew a rattling breath. "But allying with the Manhir will return the blessing of the gods to the world."

"I don't understand," Finn said. "I thought we already got blessed by the gods when we defeated the Ochloroc."

"I don't understand either." The Oracle had another coughing fit. When he finally continued, his voice had taken on a harsh wheeze. "But this I foretell." His breath rattled more and more. He looked at Finn, Elina, and Henge in turn. He drew a deep breath. "Farewell. Look after each other. You will need one another before the end."

He closed his eyes. His breathing slowed, and then rattled to a stop.

Henge, Finn, and Elina huddled around the old man, silent, until Henge shook himself. "We can't just leave him lying here," he rumbled under his breath. "He deserves better than to be left for the animals." He bent over and gingerly picked up the body of the Oracle.

"What can we do?" Finn asked.

Henge ignored him. He placed the body on the side of the road, then scooped up an armload of nearby rocks and pebbles from the scree slope and placed them over the body of the Oracle. He sank to his knees, placed his hands on top of the pile and hummed to himself. A tingle crawled up Elina's back, and the hair on her arms stood on end. The ground underneath her feet vibrated in answer to Henge's humming. The cairn glowed softly—and then the rocks flowed and melded together into a solid granite block. A crystal appeared in the center of the tomb, with a fiery inscription reading Here lies Skormundir, Oracle of Pythia.

Henge's head sagged to his chest as he finished, and the glow faded.

Elina stared at him, mouth open. "What did you just do?" She rubbed her eyes to make sure they weren't playing tricks on her.

Henge looked back at her. "I know it's a bit crude, but it's all I have time for at the moment." A crystal matching that on the tomb glistened on Henge's chest.

"What happened to your chest?" Elina asked.

"Creating crystals comes with a price. But it was the least I could do for him. He lost his life because of me."

"I've never seen anything like it." Elina approached the tomb and ran her hand over it. It felt as smooth as polished marble.

"What do you mean?" Henge asked. "That was just a little simple earth magic. Any Manhir could have done it."

She stared at him blankly.

"We should get moving," Finn prompted. "The Inquisition will be on our heels."

"You're right, time to get moving." Henge stood up. "Where are we going?"

"Let's head back to Avros," Elina said. "The Rebellion can take you in while we plan."

"If only the Oracle had given us more to go on," Finn said mournfully. "It made no sense to me!"

Henge cleared his throat, the sound of two rocks scraping together. "I think we have to go to Gilgin."

Elina and Finn turned to Henge. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?" Finn asked.

"It was common knowledge back in my day," Henge said. "I thought maybe you'd already considered the option and discarded it."

"What's in Gilgin?" Finn asked.

"He mentioned leeching the blood of the gods. There is a ruby geode in the palace in Gilgin that we called the Vein of the Gods. That has to be the place he means."

Finn whistled through his teeth. "There's only one palace in Gilgin."

"That closes off that option, then," Elina said. "We can't just walk into Inquisitional headquarters."

"Why not?" Finn asked. "Ragnur is behind us. No one knows we're coming."

"You can't be serious. We need help from the Rebellion." And Gudmund would throw a fit if she let Henge just march into Gilgin, Elina knew. "We need time to plan, go through our options."

"To do what?" Finn asked. "Can you storm Gilgin and take the city to give us the time we need to find this Vein of the Gods?"

Elina shook her head slowly.

"Can you protect Henge against the Inquisition if they come down on you in force?" Finn asked.

Elina's shoulders dropped. "No," she whispered.

"We now have the element of surprise," Finn pointed out. "If we keep ahead of Ragnur and his men, then we have a chance to get in before they know we're even there."

"We need Henge," Elina said. "We need you. Enter Gilgin, and you're throwing your lives away. Henge, at least, is too valuable for that."

"It's now or never," Finn pronounced cockily. "Once word about Henge gets around, they'll start hunting us, and we wouldn't be safe anywhere."

Elina turned to Henge. "Please talk some sense into him," she pleaded, hands folded together.

Henge rubbed his chin. "He's right. If we run now, we'll keep running and never stop. This is the only chance we have to learn what happened to the Manhir."

Elina hung her head. She'd lost.

Henge placed a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to come with us," he said gently. "It's probably a suicide mission. Go back to the Rebellion and help them."

She looked up, eyes wide. "No. I'm not going to be left behind again!"

"Time to get moving. then." Finn hoisted his pack to his back and turned his back on Pythia. "The Inquisition will show up soon enough." He set off down the road.

Dragging her feet, she followed after him.