Oberon's Dreams - By Aaron Pogue Page 0,28
help you?”
“No.” She turned her back on him and headed to the common room. “I think you should pray that we help you.”
He watched her go and wished he had convinced her to let him go with Jeff. That one would not have been afraid to talk. That one would have told him what he needed to know, and right now, what he needed to know was how to get home. He had no wish at all to get tangled up in the affairs of this strange city, when he had pressing affairs of his own in the desert south of Jepta.
He frowned into the smoky light of the common room. Perhaps these druids were his only hope, but they made dangerous accomplices. He licked his lips, thinking.
What manner of fool would he have to be, to stand in defiance of a god? He knew what Ephitel was to become. He knew the sort of men Ephitel favored, and the lord protector would surely have such followers in this place as well—men like Ethan Blake and the vicious Ippolito Vestossi. Corin had survived this long by hiding from such men, not by standing up against them.
He nodded once and turned away, fumbling for the bolt on the outer door. He would disappear among the natives, let Ephitel forget about him, then find his way back to Jeff once things were settled. But just as his hand found the latch, an old woman’s voice stopped him. “You are not much welcome here.”
She sounded kind, but not strong. Without turning, Corin hazarded a guess. “Delaen?”
She chuckled. “And I am meant to be the wise one.”
“I’ve no wish to stretch my welcome thin,” Corin said, sliding the bolt on the door.
“Do not misunderstand me,” she said. “We’ve no ill will toward you, but you bode bad things for a world we’ve learned to love. Oberon suggested we watch out for you.”
“He knew that I would come here?”
“Not…as such. But if what I’ve heard is true, you defy the rules of this place. Yet somehow Oberon seemed to believe it would come to pass.”
“That clarifies some things Aemilia let slip.”
Delaen considered him in silence for a moment. “You do not seem much rattled by your situation. Did Aemilia truly answer all your questions? Or was it Jeff?”
“She would not speak, and she would not let him speak. As for me…I’m never much rattled by my situation.”
“You have no questions, then?”
Corin’s head buzzed with them, but he hadn’t half as much information as he would need to guess which ones were relevant. He settled for bravado instead.
“Just one. Who are all these lovely lords and ladies?”
“Ha! That is an interesting question, indeed. But I will give you answers before I ask my own. It is only fair. So know this: the people of Gesoelig are the kinfolk of its founder and the maker of this world, King Oberon. You might know them as fae or fairies or perhaps as elves—”
“Elves and fairies,” Corin said, shaking his head. “I am in a storybook.”
“Not…not in any real sense, no. Yet still you do not seem shaken.”
He gave a shrug. “I’m a pirate and a wanderer. I spend all my time in unknown waters, and I usually come out richer for it.”
“Fascinating. You may be just the man we need.”
Corin turned to her, irritated. “What purpose could you have for me?”
“We need your aid against Ephitel.”
“Of course! You are at war with him, after all. And here I am trapped in a fairy tale. So what does that make me? Am I to be another Aeraculanon, bound by prophecy to kill a god?”
“You against a god? I have no reason to believe you could win.”
“Then what am I to do? Why am I here?”
“Perhaps to warn us what will come.”
Corin shook his head. “I can tell you less than nothing. My world does not remember this place. I searched for it for years before I even learned Oberon’s name.”
“That is a warning in itself,” Delaen said. “And perhaps that is why you’re here. To take a memory away. To remember us to your people.”
“This is a favor I would gladly give,” Corin said, stepping closer to her. “Send me home.”
“I’m sorry, but there is nothing in all the druid lore that could accomplish that.”
“Then why did Aemilia bring me here?”
“To hand you off to me, I think. She is not a woman afraid of a challenge, but you are…well, outside her scope.”
“She wanted to call a council.”
“Yes. She