A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(37)

I jumped slightly when Aisha appeared beside me.

“We’ve found something, quick!” she said, and in an instant we’d vanished off the face of the rock. I blinked once, and suddenly we were standing at the top of the mountain – the whole of Nevertide at our feet.

At the apex of the final rock formation, there was a small opening, its interior cast in gloom. Next to it grew a single tree, low and small, with gnarled and twisted roots that had been battered down by wind. Hanging from one of its four branches was what looked like an old tin lantern.

Sky, Fly, Horatio and Ridan had waited for us. We all fell silent as we approached the opening, each on our guard as we prepared to face what might lie within. Before we could get within a few feet of our destination, a voice echoed from within the cave.

“I saw that you were coming. But you are a little late, I’m afraid.”

We glanced at one another in surprise. The voice was frail—female, and quite wispy—almost as if we were hearing the sounds of a ghost or some other disembodied creature.

I stepped closer to the cave, wondering if we’d found what we were looking for, or if it was another bewildered sentry hermit.

I heard a rustling noise, and a woman appeared, stepping out from the shadows into the morning light. Her body was stooped, but straightened up as she left the low ceiling of the cave. I stepped back. Not because she seemed threatening, but I was startled by her appearance. I half felt like I should have bowed down or something…She looked so mystical, like a princess or something. Despite her height, she was very frail-looking, her body like a reed in the wind, and her skin so pale it seemed to glow.

Her eyes fixed on mine, and I stopped breathing. Her irises were blue but so pale they were almost white, and she seemed to look past me, like I was a phantom. Her hair was long, almost touching the ground, and as white as snow. She wore a white dress too—a plain sheath of material that wrapped around her shapeless body, making it almost impossible to tell how old she was. The weirdest thing about her was her skin. Aside from it being so pale, black shapes or symbols moved across it, flickering in and out of view like shadows. I became transfixed by their movement, but she didn’t seem to mind or notice that she was being stared at.

“W-what do you mean we’re late?” Yelena asked eventually, her voice slightly trembling.

“You are late finding me.” She sighed. “But it doesn’t matter…time is turning as it wills, and the pieces of the story are falling where they should.”

“I don’t understand,” I replied, hoping that I wouldn’t offend her.

She smiled hesitantly—as if she wasn’t really used to doing it. I wondered how long she’d been up here by herself…or even if she was alone.

“I am what you’ve been seeking. The creator of the stones, the one who banished the entity.”

“We were under the impression that you were a jinni, and that there would be more of you,” Aisha interrupted, frowning at the woman. She seemed less than impressed by her appearance—the only one of us who was.

The woman shook her head. “There is just me.”

“What are you?” I asked.

“I am half jinn, on my mother’s side, and half-Ancient, on my father’s side,” she replied, her voice lilting with pleasure.

“A-An Ancient?” Aisha gasped.

“Yes,” the woman replied, apparently surprised at the jinni’s tone.

“And you’re an Oracle,” Aisha asserted furiously. “I recognize those symbols from the dead Oracle twins, but… you can’t possibly be the lovechild of an Ancient and a jinni—even regular witches and jinn are sworn enemies and practically never mingle, not to speak of Ancients and the jinn of old. They would have attacked each other on sight! You’re lying to us.”

The woman instantly looked troubled, and hurt. I balled my hands into fists, my chest tightening. Suddenly I wasn’t so convinced by her innocent and harmless appearance—I’d heard all about the Ancients, of course. They were an evil group of witches that used to rule The Sanctuary more than a thousand years ago. One of them who’d managed to survive, Lilith, had been the bane of my family’s existence, particularly my mother’s and Uncle Ben’s, for a significant amount of time—the evil old hag had wanted their blood. It was Kiev we had to thank for eventually ending her, after an extremely difficult struggle. I couldn’t imagine how powerful this creature might be… I had never heard of an Ancient conceiving an Oracle.

“We don’t mean to offend you,” Yelena mumbled, not understanding what was going on. She obviously felt sorry for the woman and glared at me, waiting for me to say something that might make her feel more at ease.