Page 16 of The Ember and the Emerald

“Did you start this time loop?” I asked flatly. Might as well dive in.

“I can do many things. I’m an oracle like you. But I cannot do that. I started none of them. Perhaps the storms carried you to where you needed to be.”

Uh. “How many are there?”

“Depends on who you ask,” she said, making no sense. Then she paused to contemplate me more intensely than I was comfortable with. “What is it you want from me, Oracle Rye?”

“I told you. I’m not an oracle. And you’re not a very good one.” I’d learned my lesson with Iris. To negotiate a discount, you must showcase a water maiden’s weaknesses. “Someone as powerful as you should know what I am, and what I’m not.”

“I assure you, I’m not wrong about your origins.” She heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m never wrong. You will come to learn this. I just hope you do so faster this go-round.”

I, too, heaved a sigh. Forget my supposed title. Wasn’t like I could prove I wasn’t what she thought. Forget the time loops, too. The past, the future. “Let’s focus on the present and get down to business.”

“Silly girl, we are in the middle of our negotiations.” She stalked a circle around Jasher. “You should restrain the monstra.” A pair of ancient handcuffs appeared draped over her palm. In one fluid motion, she tossed the cuffs near my feet. “If you do not, Daniel Shaker and Queen Sandrine will be harmed. You will, too.” Menace iced her tone. “I don’t want anyone harmed.”

I reared back a step, disturbed on multiple levels. Shackle Jasher? No. Never. But let my parents get hurt? No again. “First, I’m unwilling to pay for the cuffs.” In fact, I left them on the ground. “Second, I need passage for two to Hakeldama with a side of time-travel.” She couldn’t start loops. Fine. Maybe she could bend a few months. “I also require information about restoring my mother’s memory loss and finding the Ember of Everlight. Let’s talk payment.”

“Those I love, and those who aid me, I protect for free. The shackles will aid you, which will save Sandrine and Daniel. Therefore, no charge.” Elowen faced me and canted her head in challenge.

I still didn’t touch the cuffs. Free gifts from water maidens weren’t gifts but hooks. Plus, the shackles would damage Jasher’s trust in me. And perhaps that was her game. Ruin my relationship with the executioner so I’d have only one source of aid: the water maiden herself.

“The timing of your landing isn’t up to me,” she said. “I am not the one who manipulates time.”

“Then who?” Because it wasn’t me.

She skipped right over my question. “Tell me why you seek the Ember of Everlight. Consider it payment for my presence. I’m eager to leave, you see.” To reinforce her claim, she glided back to the puddle.

Dang her. “Supposedly, I can use the Ember to stop the time loops, save Queen Sandrine and King Ahav, and spare Hakeldama from Ian and his monstra. Spare you from the monstra.” I hadn’t met her in the future. She might be a casualty of the war.

I didn’t mention my plan to free Jasher from his tie to the Guardian. She might refuse to help. “Payment has now been given. Your turn.”

She slipped into quiet reflection. “I know the Ember was found by the first of my kind, Andrea. Not Morris, as the Ori’Emets believe. She was his first wife, and she, through the Ember, ended the original monstra invasion.”

Andrea. Not a name I’d heard before. But like Elowen’s, I reacted to it.

“The Ember will indeed do all that you hope,” she said, “though perhaps not as you wish.”

I wouldn’t ask. “What’s the price for passage to Hakeldama?”

One of her brows winged up. “Passage for two, you said, neither of which is the queen?”

“Let me guess.” My dry tone drew a tinkling laugh from her. “This, you won’t give for free.”

Now, she stalked a circle around me, sailing between shadows and light. “Considering your monstra is the second passenger, I require a small…donation. As for Sandrine’s memory loss, I can do nothing. She drank a potion to hide her memories, and she made me swear never to restore it.”

“She wouldn’t do that.” I couldn’t reconcile the strong, vibrant mother I’d grown up with willingly wiping away her past.

“The loss of King Ahav broke her,” Elowen admitted quietly, scars stark. “She did it for her baby. Among other reasons.”

For me. Sorrow pierced me, an arrow straight to the heart. “She’s started to remember on her own.”

“Yes.” She said no more on the subject. “Daniel spoke true. This Jasher is probably playing a…what did he call it? Oh yes. A long con,” the maiden said, tone coaxing. Leading. “You would do well to end your association with him.”

“So you were listening to our conversation through the water.” Should have known.

“Perhaps you are like Andrea,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Destined to learn the true meaning of heartache. The tide of your time rises for the final crash. Do you feel it?”

Yes. No. Maybe? Her words pricked me, but I didn’t know how, or why, and it didn’t matter, anyway. I would live this life as if it were my only one, just as I always had. Because this was my only one.