Iron Oracle (IronMoon #2, PUBLISHED/SAMPLE)

This Won't Go Well

 Well, crap.

Gabel had given the MarchMoon Beta two days to re-affirm loyalty or deliver a writ of war.

"I will have to tell Hix to get ready." Gabel said matter-of-factly. "If they think silence will confuse the issue, they're wrong."

"It's probably just cowardice," I muttered. The MarchMoon weren't going to declare loyalty, and they weren't going to declare war. "Did they surrender outright before?"

"No, had to bloody them up. More than a little. It was a good fight."

Gabel didn't elaborate, but we shared the same thought: the MarchMoon had some resolve to take on the IronMoon again. Unless they were expecting help from somewhere.

"Aaron is too far away." I mused.

"If he had sent reinforcements, we would have heard about it. Help from somewhere else, perhaps, or just pride."

More quiet.

"Buttercup, I promised you I would keep our den safe." He assured me.

Not that I fully believed Gabel could keep that promise, or any wolf, really. He would keep it as best he could, which would be better than most.

He rose out of his crouch and looked at my wrapped lumps of obsidian. "How long?"

"Six weeks, then they have to be carved. Spring."

"But you still have the blue stone."

"The tourmaline?!" I gasped. It was wrapped in silk and on the shelf, my body still bruised and aching from the last time I had touched it. "I can't control it! Even meditating over it is dangerous."

"You think the same thing will happen again?"

"I don't even know what happened the first time." I shuddered. The memories of being dragged through that glowing blue water, knowing I could neither breathe nor scream, bubbled up from the surface of my memory and washed over my brain. I dug my fingers into my hair.

"I researched it. It's a rare stone, but not extremely so, and hardly considered precious. Don't you think if it was dangerous you'd have been told?"

"Maybe not. Maybe we weren't told about powerful but dangerous thing. Temptation."

He frowned. "I find that hard to believe. Like foolish humans who believe if they do not tell their children about sex, they will not have sex. Plenty of babies to show for that idea."

"Please, Gabel, I don't want to touch it again!" My brain tumbled around as if it were back there, and the Moon's Eye opened and closed and down the stairs, those endless, dark, stairs!

Creases on his face formed, deepened a bit. "I'm not asking for you to. I'm only asking if you still have it. Buttercup, I was here when you woke up, remember? But if the need were great enough, would I have to ask?"

"If you think the MarchMoon are worth it, think again!"

"I don't think they are."

I got to my feet, and reluctantly pointed to the shelf. "Of course I still have it. I was thinking of putting out in the yard as a demented garden gnome."

"May I?"

I shrugged. There was no reason he couldn't touch it. It was very beautiful, and one day I figured I'd have it carved into some kind of statue. It would probably be very beautiful decorating the koi pond in some way. It was just too soon. Where it had taken me still quivered under my awareness, ready to leap out and scare the shit out of me all over again.