Iron Oracle (IronMoon #2, PUBLISHED/SAMPLE)

Her Servant

 I knocked on Flint's door.

"Luna." he greeted me.

"I need to talk to you. Now." Not that I expected Flint to put me off, but on the off chance he did, no confusion.

He stepped aside and gestured for me to enter. On his coffee table was a battered-looking novel featuring a woman in a skimpy, torn dress and a rather rugged-looking bare-chested man bent over her as she swooned. Flint picked it up, dog-eared a page and set it aside. He sat down on his couch, and it was only then I noticed he was just wearing a plaid robe that fell just to the tops of his knees, and unlikely anything else under it, and my mind remembered the tattoos that extended to the top of his thigh. Normally they were hidden under the hem of his kilts, so intricate, glossy-blue and unreal, and I frowned, trying to remember and inadvertently staring at his his lower body.

"I can disrobe if there's something you want to see." Flint's voice intruded into my thoughts.

That yanked my eyes to his. The tattoos, I wanted to see those, they had lifted off his skin and wrapped through my awareness, but beyond my understanding. But that's not what I had come for, I had come to confirm something else. "You were in Gabel's office."

He didn't blink. "Yes."

"Why?"

"I was summoned, as you were." Flint replied.

"Do you know what's coming?" I had never heard of a male Oracle, but the crazy state of my life, I was willing to believe anything. Gabel was the Comet, I was Balance, I had been two to weird places thanks to a tourmaline spike I had only encountered perhaps-not-by-chance Flint being an Oracle? I'd believe almost anything at this point.

"No. I am not an Oracle. I am only a servant."

"A servant." That meant nothing to me.

"A servant." Flint repeated. "But you know that. You've seen my tattoos. You know I am pledged to Her service."

"I didn't realize you were in so tight with Her." I muttered. I finally sat down on the other end of his couch.

"Jealous?" Flint asked wryly.

"No. This is all." I gestured to my head, "This has all become more than just an ambitious male wanting to be a King and having a violent streak."

Flint half-smiled. "Did you just want to know if I had been there, or if I had just been part of the vision?"

"I need your help. With what I saw. Where I went. Well. I am not the one who will need your help. Gabel will. I will be on my own."

Flint titled his head to the side. "Go on."

A day to digest what I had seen had helped me grasp at least what was going to happen, even if I didn't know why. In my vision, I had seen Flint counsel and stand by Gabel, so it seemed reasonable to involve Flint in what I had been shown. "The Moon has created a future that will come to pass. The SableFur, through the Oracles, are going to come for me soon. Gabel will be forced to repudiate me, and the SableFur will take me with them. When Gabel abandons me, the Moon will constrict our Bond, but won't sever it. She will keep the Bond just barely alive, but everyone except for you, I and Gabel will believe it is dead. She told me that even Gabel and I will have to doubt, because everyone has to believe."

Flint's face carved itself into deep frown lines. "To what end?"

"I don't know. She said to cause change within and without. We had to know before it happened, so we could play our parts. In the future she showed me, you were at Gabel's side. I've already told Gabel all this, and he's sworn he won't give me up, but the Moon has promised me She will force him to."