The Oracles of Tomesh [ON HOLD]

6 | But I Want to Go Out and Play

sateh (sah-teh) verb

Cause something to stop happening; cease to happen

Archaic; from the ancient song Ushas From the North

***

Laku was frowning at a scroll, not reading it, but thinking about Tia Turvass. She was an odd girl. Did not even utter a word while they dined together three days ago. Was she embarrassed to be in his presence? That she assumed a different identity, met a man, and then allowed him to kiss her? But why should she? Technically, he did the same. On the contrary, it should please her he was the same man she met that night because he knew he was. It doesn't matter. It would not be long before she would show him her sweet and charming side again.

"You're not paying attention," his mother reprimanded beside him.

"I am," he murmured, blinking at the scroll before him. "And it's in Tomera." He turned to his mother, then to Kalesch, who stood before them with his hand at his sides. "I can't read Tomera."

His mother sighed and gracefully reached for the scroll, rolled it, and handed it back to Kalesch. "Just tell us what it says."

Kalesch nodded and started speaking. "The last Oracle foresaw that the next one would be born three-hundred-and-six years after his death. That was eighteen years ago. We have been in constant search for the next Oracle, and we—my father—believe we have found her."

"Your wife?"

"Rayeshka," Kalesch corrected with a nod, face impassive as he said the word. "She predicted King Amatif's death among others."

"How certain are we that she's the one?"

"We're not. We can only wait and see if her other predictions will come true." A small silence followed. Laku did not know what to say, or if he had anything good to add at all. His mother seemed to be waiting for something else, so he did the same. "But we may not want to wait, Your Majesties. She has predicted the death of the Kgosi empire."

Laku's eyes widened. "What do you mean the death of the empire?"

Kalesch looked him in the eyes, the way he always did whenever he wanted Laku to absorb whatever he was about to say. "She foresaw that the empire will fall following your death."

To hear he was about to die was incredulous more than it was mortifying. Who said Oracles were real? In this day and age, they should stop believing about myths. He had always found it ridiculous that they had a temple of the last Oracle in Kgosi, which to this day, people still prayed on like he was a god. And looking at Kalesch now, he could tell that the man also did not believe everything he just said. But his mother did, and she had stood in alarm at Kalesch's revelation.

***

Karei was sent out to the desert and it was all her fault. Her mother wondered why she would not go out of her room, her father asked if it had something to do with their secret. It had nothing to do with possibly being the Oracle. It had to do with her own secret. And the fact that her own rayeshka would not believe her, and that he did nothing to stop Karei's banishment, was very disappointing. Even Prince Laku was more interested in a pretty usha girl from Achnus. She was being failed time and time again because she asked the wrong people for help.

Rolling on her bed, she wondered what she could do. Getting into the tomb to review the things she carved into the arnucc was the main goal. But she could not do that now. She would have to wait for when they opened the tomb again to deliver the treasures inside. For now, the only possible thing was rescuing Karei. Should she go to the desert and search for her? But it was forbidden and dangerous. Should she risk it anyway? She should, but where would she start? How was she going to do it?