Bloodwalk - James P. Davis [14]
He studied the ground and the footprints he found there. The clawed prints of several gnolls and the heavy, sunken tread of an ogre confirmed the presence of possible attackers or even scavengers but did not explain the total lack of traces of them within the town. The prints showed them moving east, skirting the edges of the forest. His instinct was to follow them, as he'd always done, but something kept drawing his gaze to the forest, its dark depths hiding secrets, its twisted and misshapen trees calling to that dormant chill running in his blood.
He forced his eyes and thoughts away from the forest. Reaching within himself, he disappeared into the swift embrace of the Shadow Fringe. He followed his instincts and avoided that inexplicable dread of whatever lurked among the trees.
* * * * *
Sameska had seen to the daily tasks of the temple, forcing herself to remain awake, unable to even imagine sleeping. The others had noticed. She was wearing her hair loose and had let several rites go unsupervised. Normally she insisted on being present, seeming to take joy in the lesser oracles' minor and admittedly rare mistakes. Nothing could destroy her today. She was invincible and strode confidently through the corridors of the temple.
It was late afternoon, and she could not wait to be left alone again. The other oracles had worried and fussed after finding her unconscious in the rune circle that morning. She'd wanted nothing to do with them, refusing their help and their questions, stubbornly maintaining her composure and the secret of her visions.
The attitudes of those around her that day had changed. Things were different, somehow, and rumors wound their way among the members of the church and the citizenry alike. The blush was spreading, and those who'd always been looked to for guidance were silent.
Sameska pitied their blindness and looked forward to the morrow when she would make them see, but she needed time for the magic and communion with her god. She made her way to the sanctuary after closing the temple's doors. Dreslya, the most vocal of her young rivals, awaited her in the hallway, lit only by the dim gray of a suddenly overcast sky filtering through a window in the eastern wall.
"High Oracle," she addressed Sameska and bowed, touching her forehead lightly with both hands as she did so, "I offer my assistance with the Turning of the Circle and beg my lady to grant me such an honor."
Sameska stared at the top of Dreslya's bowed head, unable to suppress the subtle smile that turned the corners of her thin lips upward.
"No, Dreslya." She savored the sound of her answer, enjoying the shock on the lesser oracle's face as she rose from her bow.
"But High Oracle, this morning we found you unconscious. I and the other oracles fear for your health in these plague-ridden times."
It wasn't often that Sameska thought of her own age, one of frailty and senility in some, but she knew the tone of Dreslya's plea and did not appreciate being reminded of it.
"Young lady, you seek to stand with me in the Hidden Circle, to hear the whole and full voice of Savras? You fear I am too old to withstand the power of his sight?"
"N-no," she stammered, shaken by the tone in Sameska's voice and the steel in her gaze, "I did not mean to imply-"
"I have stood in the rune circle alone since I was but a slip of a girl well younger than you! You stand here stuttering and unsure in my eyes, hearing my voice. What will you do when he speaks fully to you? How will you stand when Savras pours his truth into your ears, child?"
"I beg your pardon, I have seen-"
"Yes! You have seen, haven't you? Seen the day a woman will bear her child, advising midwives to be prepared. You have seen the lives of lovers perhaps, where their paths might cross and for whom they are destined? These are but fragments! Bits handed down in his mercy so your soul will not be set on fire with the visions that await you in that circle!"
Dreslya was speechless, wide-eyed she looked away, unwilling to bear