Odd.
I waved my hand again, concentrating on every single hinge and spring to open. It only pulsed stronger, but remained defiant.
“Open, damn you!”
I waved a third time. It replied with a spark and a hiss.
Long forgotten letters rimmed the outer band, each symbol stamped deep into the gold. I turned it, trying to catch the rare flecks of light that made it through the canopy. It gleamed in a small beam causing me to squint as I deciphered the runes.
I will show when you will find.
Find what?
Fury rushed through me and I had to stop myself from throwing the sphere against the nearest tree. Aldred knew this object could only be opened by solving a riddle, a riddle that apparently only appeared when the sphere was needed. And the bastard kept its answer from me. Tricked me.
Me.
I knew he thought he was protecting me from myself, but that knowledge made my head pound with rage no less. I paced thinking what to do.
Go back or push forward?
My skin tingled as if the presence I feared stood behind me. I could sense its glee. Its desire. It wanted me.
Terror replaced my anger.
I looked at the trees stretching out before me without end. Centuries could be spent searching for that damned oracle. I didn’t have centuries. I didn’t even know if I had hours.
I couldn’t go back. I could only keep going forward and hope to figure out the riddle along the way.
Taking charge, I walked to the tree immediately to my right and clasped my hand around the bark. The wood prickled my palm. Closing my eyes I pressed into the trunk, my fingers sinking into the cracks and crevices. The vibrating silence washed over and through me. First it hummed, then it pulsed. I squeezed harder, ignoring the bite of splinters.
I smiled. A hint of a spark awakened my fingertips. Magic was in the air. Her magic.
It crashed against me like waves against rocks. But which direction? I concentrated deeper, pressed deeper. The West. No. North. Yes, she was north, hidden among the great vastness.
Opening my eyes I let go of the tree, wiping the bits of dirt and bark from my hands. The mist thickened and I happily sunk into it as I headed towards my answer.
Several times I stopped and sensed the ground and trees around me. Her direction continually changed. First north, then the magic beat from the West. Then from the East, until the magic consumed the entire forest and there was no direction at all. I thought myself drowning.
I was lost.
Darkness fell. Silence pounded in my head. I could see how those ill equipped with their faculties lost their senses to the forest. There was no other choice but to camp for the night.
Snapping twigs I placed them in a pile and set it ablaze. Fire crackled and the rolls of heat prickled my chilled skin. I sat down on a mound of browned fir needles and thought.
I will show when you will find.
The riddle continually stung my mind. What must I find?
I dug out the disc and turned it over several times reading the text as if hoping a new clue might miraculously appear. But, impatience won out.
I pushed and twisted the rings, attempting to force the devils open. Still they wouldn’t budge. Irritation rippled my blood knowing all that separated me from the oracle were these silly bands.
I stopped, my fingers frozen. For the first time, this thought chilled me. They gleamed in the firelight, and as simple as they were, she was bound by them. Imprisoned.
Her magic contained such great danger she rather live in exile than harm further souls.
Danger and misfortune are all you get with him, Hal’s voice broke through my thoughts. His magic comes at too great a cost.
I leaned my head against the trunk of a tree, unnerved. I couldn’t remember how many desperate souls I consumed or misfortune I brought. My deals always came at a price.
I once believed myself a hero in killing Edward. I believed I was settling a debt. Granting the countless he harmed vengeance along with my own. I clawed my way to victory, through gore and death. Innocents suffered at my hands, but it was all for the greater good.
Yet, I still caused pain. Hurt those I cared about. Those I loved. Aldred, Tristan, Laila…
Heroes didn’t cause pain.
Only villains.
I will show when you will find
That is what I was, though I never accepted it before.
A villain.
A monster.
The sphere purred. Gears twisted within my palm, and springs sang as the rings opened like the rarest rose. A beautiful armillary sphere revealed itself, delicate runes written on every arc and curve. They began to spin, a fragile whirr filling the forest with crystal tones.
Out of the orb burst a strand of silver. It shot into the air and then rained down in points and specks of white. Beauty surrounded me. To my left spun galaxies and planets, while to my right burned stars. The heavens were brought to earth and they were mine.
I solved the riddle, though I chilled with anger from the raw truth of what I was. I never wanted to accept what I knew in my heart. Now I was exposed as naked flesh in winter wind.
The sting lessened as I looked up at my salvation in the twinkling points of light.
“Take me to the oracle,” I commanded the sphere.
It sputtered and spun in reply.
The stars swirled around me gaining speed until they became one, single point of light. The orb hovered, its pale glow casting every tree and stone in blue light. Then, it floated forward, winding through the firs and pine.
The deeper it traveled the heavier the silence pressed, until it pounded in my ears. Or was it not silence at all? A low tone hummed in my mind and shook my vision. It, whatever it was, wanted to dissuade me from continuing.
I would not be dissuaded. The fear trailing behind me was too great.
I focused everything on the ball of light as it gently floated along its path. I ignored the pain tearing at my ears and the frost penetrating through my leather boots.
The sphere sputtered and cranked. The orb disappeared and the rings fell back into place returning to a flat disc. Thrown into darkness I didn’t see a branch catch my foot and I fell hard to the ground.
Dirt and dried fir needles clung to my lips and dug beneath my nails. I cursed as I pushed into the earth erecting myself. I wiped the mire off my hands and knees.
Picking up the disc I shoved it down into my satchel. A clearing of burning white met my gaze and my breath caught in my throat.
I wove between the slender tree trunks until I passed into the most peculiar meadow. Snow fell in heavy flakes. They melted against my nose and cheeks. Light flooded from above, my eyes stung by gray and white.
Magic pulsed in my veins. The oracle was here.
Stepping into the center of the clearing I flipped open my satchel and pulled out six beeswax candles. I pushed them into the snow, calculating equal distance between each one until they formed a circle. With a wave of my hand their wicks ignited in flickering reds and oranges.
Pacing in slow steps I walked along the outer edges and began to chant.
Oracle of day and night,
Hear, oh wise one, of my plight.
A portal of wax and flame lay here.
I invoke you to Appear.
My voice rumbled far in the distance. Then it ricocheted and thundered through the pine before transforming into a peculiar clarity. The words were bright, each syllable pulsating like a finger being pulled along the edge of crystal.
The candles extinguished. Soft footsteps joined the purr of the resonating forest. A smile spread across my lips.
“There is no need for such foolish incantations to summon me,” a woman said, her words dripping with ancient resonance. “I expected you, Rumpelstiltskin.”
A most startling woman appeared from behind a tree. Her steps were steady and feet bare. Her gown of faintest violet trailed behind her, the material thin and delicate. Thou
gh beauty possessed every arc and angle of her body, her eyes horrified. Utterly white. Primeval. The secrets of a thousand lifetimes resting behind their milky hue.
“One never knows which fables are true anymore,” I replied. “Especially those concerning you.”
Her eyes widened, and her pink lips parted. She approached me, her gown dragging bits of dirt and dried needles. I shivered watching her naked feet sink into the snow.
“The sphere only opens for those who have accepted what they want not to accept. I’m impressed a man like you who has run from his past was able to solve the riddle at all,” she said. “It is within our past that we find our future.”
My throat went dry, but from remorse or the cold air I didn’t know.
“Glad I could impress you,” I said. “But I didn’t come here for that.”
Her face grew stony.
“I know,” she said.
I took a step closer until we were a breath apart. I felt the cold rising from her skin.
“I can no longer see what lays before me,” I said. “Any form of divination I try shows me nothing. I’ve been cut off from my own future.”
She laughed. Her white eyes blazed with amusement.
“Crystal balls and tarot cards can only do so much. They show you the immediate, I show possibility. That’s why I am dangerous. That’s why what I see is dangerous. Men blacken their hearts for possibility.”
I did not appreciate her attempt to frighten me away.
“I know the dangers,” I said.
She cupped my cheek in her hand, like a mother does to a stubborn child.
“I’ve watched a millennia of man destroy itself over what I’ve revealed. The future is not simple. It is complex, made of endless paths that bend and change. Fate is only a leader, a guide. But man is a blind creature, unable to separate what will be, from what can be.”
She let her hand fall away. I could only chuckle.
“You forget with who you are speaking,” I said. “I’ve also seen my fair share of man’s stupidity. I’ve seen their willingness to trade souls for lace.”
She tightened her lips and shook her head.
“And knowing this you still came to find me? You are a fool.”
I clenched my jaw. I could stand being called many things, but a fool was not one of them.
“I’m not like them,” I growled.
Her cheeks flushed red and her brow furrowed. Fury blazed within her primordial eyes causing a flicker of alarm within my chest.
She rushed at me and grabbed my shirt. Her strength shook me.
“You are the same!” Her voice ruptured through the forest, its power vacuuming the breath from my lungs. “You fear. And how greatly, because of what you cannot see. This unknown is what all men fear.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
You can try and escape your destiny, but your choices will always mark you, Fate’s voice rippled through the wind.
I shoved her back and took a deep breath to calm my singed nerves.
“Just tell me my future. Tell me if this specter haunting me is what I suspect?”
She glared at me for a second or two. Perhaps it was a thousand. I didn’t know. Her shoulders relaxed.
“Kneel,” she said, her tone flat.
She pointed at the ground in front of her.
“Don’t you at least provide a cushion for your guests?” I quipped. “It’s a tad nippy, if you haven’t noticed.”
Her deadened stare told me she was not in the mood for humor.
I waved my hands in surrender and did as she commanded, sinking into the snow. The cold stung my kneecaps and down my legs to my toes.
She placed her palms against my temples and wound her icy fingers within my hair. Her nails dug into my scalp to the point of pain.
The chill of her hands intensified, coiling on either side of my head until it swept over and through me. A crystal tone filled my ears and tingled my veins. It wanted to know me. Seduce me into sharing all my secrets.
“Fate,” she said. “Fate has a wish you fulfill.”
Cold.
Bone chilling cold.
My heart sunk into the depths of my body as a horrific terror cut me in two. What I pleaded in my soul not to hear was now made fact through the oracle’s lips.
Fate had returned, and he wanted me.
“How do I avoid this wish?” I choked out. “If destiny can only lead, the choice remains ours. Tell me, how do I avoid what he wants?”
“What I reveal can never be unknown.”
“Tell me!” I screamed. “I won’t be his again.”
I hated how I trembled now. She nodded her head and the world stopped.
I hissed as her grip strengthened. Her fingers pulsed deeper into my scalp.
Her lids flashed open and my own eyes transfixed on her ethereal ones. She gripped my skull and her heart pounded with my own. Her body trembled. Blood rushed within my veins, telling her secrets and untold desires.
“I’m having trouble seeing what lies before you. Your journey is hidden among shadows,” she said. “Clouded.”
“Try harder,” I demanded. “You must.”
She narrowed her gaze and pressed her thumbs harder into my forehead.
“There!” Her eyes widened and roved left to right. “I see two roads through the mist before you. I see you returning to your broken life with the boy who will leave you. Your life will forever be unfulfilled, and your only companion will be your guilt. You will escape Fate, but you will be alone.”
My heart slowed, but pain bit with every thrash. Tristan would leave me? I couldn’t hardly be surprised. Why would he choose to stay with me when I pushed him so far away? But hearing it confirmed caused my eyes to burn.
“And the other road?” I asked, my jaw tight. “What joyous destination will be waiting for me there?”
Her face looked pained as she searched my mind again. The muscles in her arms grew rigid.
“The woman you love.”
My breath caught in the back of my throat.
“What you tore apart will be mended,” she continued. “Mother and son will be reunited, and your heart will know fulfillment. But it comes at a price. You will entwine yourself with what you hate. You will become what you fear.”
Her face twisted in visible discomfort now.
My blood chilled at her words, but it was nothing to the fire blazing within my heart.
“What are you saying?”
“Laila is alive.”
Shock. Disbelief. Hope.
“That’s impossible. I saw the Furies carry her away myself. She is dead…”
“She lives,” The oracle said, her words strained. “I see a woman dressed in red. She has your heart. Your soul. But she is held prisoner.”
Emotion wanted to burst out of me. Tears rimmed my eyes hearing what I wanted so long to be true. Laila was alive and if she was alive, she could be rescued.
“Who has her imprisoned?” I asked. “Whose bones do I need to crush?”
She took a deep breath.
“Fate.”
My heart sunk and a vicious chill rippled down my spine. Saving Laila would mean risking everything. There had to be another way without going back into Fate’s embrace? This is what he wanted. I couldn’t give in to him.
“You say Fate can only lead, but that our destinies remain our own creation. If this is true, then I can save Laila and still save myself. Surely I have more than two paths to choose from?”
She grimaced.
“If you were but a normal man,” she said. “But you made a deal with Fate to become what you are. Fate has marked you. Your hand bares his scar, and so does your soul. If you choose this path, there is no escaping.”
I clenched my hand shut hiding the proof of that night.
“I don’t believe that. There is always another way. Another loophole.”
“You know as I do that everything comes at a price, and this is yours to pay. H
ere, there are no loopholes, Rumpelstiltskin.”
My eyes burned, but I found I was unable to close them. They remained locked on hers. Her face twisted and her cheeks quivered, as if her pain was growing.
But I wasn’t finished with her yet.
“Where is Laila?” I demanded. “Where is Fate keeping her?”
Her hands trembled against my scalp.
“It is too murky. I cannot see any further than what I have told you.”
“You are the greatest oracle in all the realms, and you aren’t able to tell me where one mortal is hiding?” I spat.
She pressed her lips together as if determined to prove me wrong.
“I will try, but I make no promises,” she replied.
Her entire body shook now. Her cheeks were sinking and the spark behind her eyes dimmed. But I couldn’t care. I had to know all I could.
“In a far away realm,” she said, her voice like gravel. “A land that lays between life and death.”
“How do I get there?”
“Please don’t ask me anymore,” she begged. “My powers are draining.”
Her skin withered and her white hair resembled dried straw.
“You know what I’ve done to find Laila, what I’ve given,” I ground out. I clapped my hands atop hers and pressed them harder against my skull, not wanting her to stop. My sight blackened with pain. “You know I do not relent. Now, tell me, how do I get there?”
Bolts of agony tore within my head as she gripped tighter. Her nails lacerated my skin, but I didn’t care. I would know.
Throbbing.
Cracking.
Splitting.
Still I wouldn’t stop.
“I cannot see!” She screamed. “Even my powers have limits. All I can see is within you lies the key. Allow it to guide your way.”
“What key are you talking about?” I pressed. “Tell me.”
“I cannot. I am done.”
My grip gave loose and she slipped out of my hold. The agony finished and the haze of torment cleared.
My breaths were ragged. I screamed and pounded my fist into the snow. I broke through ice and dirt. I awoke a rage I had not known for since I saw Edward stab my father’s heart. One that craved blood. I would need that rage if I were to rescue Laila. Avenge her.
Twist: A Fairy Tale Awakening (Spindlewind Trilogy Book Two) Page 3
