Oracle by Kyra Dune

dealing with Jesse. No
more nights sleeping out in the damp and the cold praying she didn’t end up
with dysentery.
         What she
had waiting for her was more than a fortune in starstones .
It was a chance at a life away from the drudging, bloody work of a mercenary
into which she had been born and raised. A civilized life which might even
include a real home with a family of her own.
          Freedom. This was the one thing she wanted
more than anything else. Freedom to do and live as she pleased. The kind of
freedom which cost a lot to buy. Her future was what she was really stealing
here in the Wild Lands. Not some tablet from some temple, but a chance at a
fresh start. Whatever she had to live through until then, whatever she had to
sacrifice, it was worth it. Even if it was something which wasn’t really hers
to sacrifice in the first place.

 
 
 
 
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                            

 
    CHAPTER
EIGHT

 
 
         Cole
raised the blade from the water and laid it out on the table. He wiped the
sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Forge work was hot and
tiresome, but he found a certain peace in helping to mold and shape bladed
weapons he didn’t feel at any other activities in his life.
         Apprentices moved about, doing the menial work neither he nor Sean had
the time for. A crowd had gathered to watch, as much to stare at the brothers
as anything else. The stares were something Cole had grown used to in the years
since he and Sean came to live in Marigold. Their height alone would have
marked them out in a land where anyone who stood over six feet was an oddity,
but combine that with the coal black color of their skin and they turned heads
wherever they went.
         Peaceful
as the routine was, Cole soon found his thoughts wandering, as they often did,
to Kat. He could still see the look in her eyes when he’d turned down her offer
of joining in on her latest job. A dangerous job, it sounded like, and he would
have liked to be there to have her back. But he was needed here and he couldn’t
step out on his brother, even for Kat.
         Cole
called an apprentice over to take the blade, and then stepped out behind the
forge, where a little bench sat beneath a shade tree. It was a fine place to
take a rest until his thoughts were more firmly on his current task. A man who
couldn’t concentrate on what he was doing in a forge was a man who would soon
find himself in serious trouble.
         Sitting
on the bench, he drew himself a cup of water from the nearby barrel. The last
time he’d sat there with Kat she’d been in good spirits despite a long stretch
in the Dells. Now she was off in the Wild Lands, which he doubted would suite
her any better. Off with Jesse. Cole had no doubt she was still in love with
the man and only wished, for her sake, Jesse felt the same. It seemed to him
the man didn’t even know the meaning of the concept.
         Maybe it
was foolish of him to worry over her heart when her life was at stake, but he
couldn’t help himself. Going up against a Magus was insanity and it wouldn’t
help if she was too busy worrying over Jesse to take care of herself. They had
no magic on their side and though Ethan was a dead shot, he wasn’t sure it
would be enough. He was worried and try as he might he couldn’t put the idea
that Kat might not come back this time out of his mind.
         Sometimes, as now, he would find himself regretting not going with her.
Sometimes he even thought of jumping on a horse and racing after her. But of
course to do so would be foolish. He could never hope to catch up before they
reached the temple. He wouldn’t even know the way.
         Besides,
his brother would never forgive him. Sean needed him, not only at the forge,
but in case they were called upon for the rebellion which had been brewing over
the