Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
For the path they were on suddenly forked up ahead and it seemed they were going to the left as the main walkway continued to the right.
“I don’t fucking like this,” Saxon growled, as they went further into the darkness. “I want you between us, little Miri.”
“An excellent idea,” Lynx agreed.
He plucked Miri off the “pet” walkway and placed her on her feet, between the two of them.
“But I thought I wasn’t supposed to stand,” Miri protested.
“Never mind—it’s only for a moment,” Lynx assured her.
“We have to be sure you’re safe,” Saxon rumbled. He slipped an arm around her waist and Lynx put one around her shoulders.
As they waited to see where the offshoot of the walkway would lead them, Miri thought that at least she felt safe. Even in the depths of the Oracle’s mountain, she knew her Monstrum wouldn’t leave her.
And then they turned another corner and came to a stop.
THIRTY-TWO
MIRABELLA
The moving walkway stopped in front of a huge, silver mirror—larger than any mirror Miri had ever seen in her life. It rose many stories over their heads and seemed to stretch forever on either side, like a vast, silver lake that had somehow been made vertical.
The light was still dim in this new chamber—the chamber of the mirror—but it was multiplied by the vast, silvery expanse making it easy to see the three of them standing there, reflected in its surface.
And then a face appeared in the mirror. Not a humanoid face, Miri thought—it seemed to be a face made from the mirror itself. It was silver and shiny and though it had regular features, there was no color to it but the color of the mirror—the colors reflected in it. It pushed out of the mirror in a kind of 3-D effect and it was huge—as big as a hovercoach. It also looked slightly female—at least to Miri.
“What the fuck!” Saxon muttered, pushing Miri behind him. Lynx closed ranks with him, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his Bond-Brother to protect her. Miri found the only way she could see was to peer between their muscular arms.
The enormous silver mirror face waited silently, watching the three of them.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Lynx asked, frowning up at it.
“I am she who sees beyond and afar. I saw you come from a distant star.”
The voice had a shimmering echo, as though a thousand shards of glass were tinkling against each other. It was feminine too and Miri remembered that one of the attendants had called the Oracle “she.”
“You came from afar to seek advice, why do you look at me in such surprise?” the Oracle continued.
“We’re not surprised,” Miri said, stepping out from behind the wall of muscle her two Monstrum had made to protect her. “We’re just a little…uncertain. You’re, uh, much bigger than we expected.”
“I can be small, if you wish it at all.” Suddenly the mirror face began to shrink. It went from the size of a hovercoach to the size of Miri’s own face in mere seconds. “Is this fine? What you had in mind?” the Oracle asked.
“It’s certainly less intimidating,” Lynx remarked.
Saxon only growled.
“Yes, it’s much better,” Miri said firmly. “Thank you. Um…we’re here to ask you—”
“Who should be the Ruling Member of the Sacred Seven and govern Yonnie Six,” the Oracle finished for her promptly, failing to rhyme for the first time since they had encountered her.
“Oh, well…yes.” Miri nodded. “Er…how did you know that?”
“I am the Oracle,” the mirror face said simply. “I know all. Here and there, near and far, even on a distant star.”
“Good, then can you answer our fucking question so we can get the Seven Hells out of this creepy place?” Saxon growled.
“I can,” the Oracle said gravely. “However, I will not do as you ask me to…until you three give me something new.”
Here we go, Miri thought. Let the bargaining begin.
“What do you want from us?” she asked the mirror face.
The face smirked.
“Here in my mountain, things are dull. I watch fortunes rise and fortunes fall. But what I like the best to see, is passion and pleasure and love running free.”
“All right,” Lynx said. “So what do you want us to do?”
“I wish to see the two of you, giving pleasure which to her is new.” The Oracle nodded at Miri. “But do it in your beastly form—that for her cannot be the norm.”
“What?” Miri exclaimed and Lynx and Saxon exchanged a look.
“We cannot do what our Lady doesn’t wish,” Lynx told the Oracle. “And I do not think she would wish us to take her in our Fur Forms.”
“And we can’t Shift all the way, anyway,” Saxon pointed out n a low growl. “We wouldn’t fucking be able to come back from that.”
“This I know, I tell you so,” the Oracle informed them. “But you can at least, be partial beasts.”