Page 33 of Stranger's Choice
She hesitated, wondering how to reassure him without risking letting him know the full truth of Sebin’s treatment of her. She knew the sprite would not do anything like Lhashiki had. Auraelie even trusted that her secret would go absolutely no farther than him. However, she did not know what impact revealing her secret might have on Sebin’s plans.
She didn’t know Sebin’s intentions, but she knew he had a goal. Around people like Marsone and Pianti, he was a different man than in private. A man whose image might very well hinge on the belief that he was sleeping with Auraelie. Sebin was a man who understood that the only way to keep a secret was to keep it secret. He did not share his plans with her. He had explained in broad terms his strategy for an afternoon or evening, but while Auraelie knew which people he wanted to get close to, she did not know why.
He had checked repeatedly with her that she did not mind the innuendos he employed to support the impression that she shared his bed. Considering that he had started this campaign only days earlier, and how many times he had looked for that reassurance from her, she suspected he intended some benefit for himself in maintaining that impression. Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel so guilty about doing exactly what she had agreed would be for the best.
Auraelie trusted Heolin with her secret, but she wasn’t sure she should trust him with Sebin’s. Still, she felt horrible letting him think she was suffering. He cared. He hated the treaty between the oracles and imperial family and did not want to see anyone subjected to the treatment the Emperor’s Oracle received every generation. In fact, he sought a way to change it with more fervor than her own people did.
On the other hand, Sebin had protected Auraelie in a way that did not demand her loyalty, but made her want to offer it, anyway. It could all be part of some master plan, to win her over to his side. If it was, it was working.
So Auraelie reassured Heolin in a way that would not destroy the reputation Sebin had built for himself ever since the night she showed up at his room in the seven veils. “He is kind. Gentle.”
Perhaps it was not the descriptors Sebin gave himself when laughing with courtiers, but it was a reasonable answer for Auraelie to offer.
The words failed to banish the worry from Heolin’s eyes, “I am both glad to hear that and sorry to be grateful for such a pitiful mercy. If only he had never come to our shores, never set foot in this city.”
“If all my futures crossed paths with a man immune to my power, better this man, this future, than some other.”
“Perhaps.” Heolin sighed. “Now, I suppose I must accept that cup you are holding, so the Emperor can see that I am still trustworthy.”
Heolin grabbed the rim of the goblet, his large hands able to span it in such a way that only two fingers actually touched the metal before he pulled it from Auraelie’s grasp. The fleeting contact, the way he ensured the greatest distance between her hand and his during the exchange, guaranteed that she saw very little of Heolin’s future.
What she saw, though, was enough to send her heart racing. For there, between bursts of gray, she had seen herself at Heolin’s side, walking through the woods that led to the oracle settlement where she had grown up.
The leaves of the forest were bright reds and yellows, autumn in full swing. This coming autumn. Heolin was wearing one of his typical outfits. But Auraelie? Auraelie had been dressed in a tunic of yellow as bright as the leaves, trousers in cerulean blue, with no court veil in sight.
Freedom. She had seen freedom bare months away. Freedom . . . or treason.
She stared at Heolin, hope and horror warring within her. She embraced the hope, knowing that if she wanted that freedom, she could no longer toe the line. It was time to risk the consequences.
She darted a glance around the banquet hall. None of the Will were nearby. None would have seen her hand Heolin that glass. She reached out a hand. “I need another image. One I can share.”
Heolin’s eyes went wide, but he did not ask what she had seen, or if she was sure. He simply held the goblet out again.
This time, Auraelie controlled how long her power had to flow into the sprite and scan his future. She kept the contact short. She didn’t have the energy for much, but she touched the cup for long enough to gather plenty of images, paths she could analyze, turning points she could manipulate to bring about the future she desired.
When she pulled back, she gave Heolin a single look, then turned and wended her way out of the banquet hall.
She had an image she could use, a glimpse of a probable future that would arouse no suspicions. But the turning points she had hoped for, the moments in time when a single choice could change the course of history, were all shrouded in impenetrable gray.
