The True Oracle Ch. 02

Adastriana moaned softly as she rolled her hips back and forth, moving just that part of her body. The shifting movement of his cock inside her was lighting up every nerve within her tunnel. She decided that he fit her perfectly, as if his penis had somehow been crafted specifically to fit every contour of her vagina.

She settled atop him. They kissed torridly. The residual flavor of his orgasm upon her lips did not deter Gavin; instead, he found it arousing, and began pumping up into his lover with carnal intensity. Adastriana willingly surrendered to his thrusts, her body quaking atop his with every erotically forceful drive he gave.

Abruptly, Gavin sat up, one arm around Adastriana as the other supported his weight. He lifted off the mattress for a moment, his lover wrapping her legs around his waist to keep him inside her, then turned about and lay her upon her back. Adastriana sighed and smiled sexily, face, neck and breasts blushing. She opened herself willingly to him. Now on top, Gavin kissed her as she had done him, and slid back and forth inside the beautiful zantrist. Knowing he would not achieve orgasm too soon, he did not bother to slow his movements for his own sake. He pounded into her again and again. Adastriana gasped, gritted her teeth, contorted her face. Her pussy sucked madly at his shaft.

Gavin pushed himself up until his weight rest on his knees, and held his lover's legs wide. He stared at the erotic sight of his cock sinking again and again into Adastriana's body, watching the way the pink petals of her lips flared around his shaft. Sex for him had always been a discrete, mechanical affair, often conducted in a harlot's room with little, if any, lighting. But this coupling with Adastriana was undeniably the most erotic experience of his life. He felt as if he was giving himself to a woman for the first time.

She tensed and moaned after only a few minutes more, inner muscles clenching his cock like a silk-wrapped fist. The woman gasped, convulsing slightly upon the bed as she experienced another orgasm. Aroused even further by the sight, Gavin nearly joined her in throes of passion. But he managed to hold back.

Adastriana gave her lover a burning-eyed, fierce look of passion. "Let me turn over," she managed to say. "Take me that way."

Skin glistening from his exertions, Gavin smiled euphorically. "Whatever my lady wishes," he said, withdrawing from Adastriana's pussy. His stiff shaft glistened with her fluids.

The zantrist doubled over, gripping Gavin's cock at the base. With a growl of approval, she engulfed his length to the root, sucking away her own essence. She pushed every inch of him into her mouth and throat, slipping out her tongue to caress his testicles.

"Gods," muttered Gavin, placing his hands upon her head. The sensations were incredible. A minute, at the most, and he would be feeding the woman his seed once more.

But Adastriana slurped her mouth from him and flipped about, positioning herself on all fours. She arched her back deeply, brazenly offering the swollen wet sex beneath her perfect cheeks. With an intent glare over her shoulder, she commanded, "take me. Use me."

Gavin groaned, a feral sound that confirmed his complete surrender to primal urges. He lined up his cock with the glistening, gaping entrance to Adastriana's pussy and shoved in deeply. She responded with a hoarse cry of abandon. Her inner walls spasmed around his cock.

Gripping the woman's hips, he pounded into her again and again. The air became filled with the sounds and aromas of their coupling. Adastriana's body trembled with each powerful thrust, making even her firm backside ripple.

Giving in to primal lust, Gavin reached for a handful of dark hair and pulled her head back. His lover responded with another heated expulsion of breath and shuddered once more. Pumping into her again and again, Gavin felt the beginnings of his rush. His breathing became more labored, his movements more urgent. Adastriana could tell he was about to erupt, and that realization triggered her own orgasm.

They climaxed together, moaning, crying, sighing, grunting. Gavin's cock burned with the release of his seed deep within Adastriana's womb. Her spasmodic tunnel rippled along his shaft as the woman's body heaved up and down, milking his shaft for every drop of fluid. At the culmination of their shared bliss, Adastriana reared back, lifting off the bed to press herself against Gavin. His arms encircled her automatically. Only by clutching one another did they keep from falling over.

He kissed her shoulders, the back of her neck, tasting fresh, sweet sweat. Adastriana sighed in approval, clutching the strong arms that embraced her. Together, they began to recover, letting the heated moment cool blissfully.

As her face was turned from him, Gavin did not notice that the zantrist's eyes had become cloudy white orbs once more. But he did notice the sudden snuffing of the lamps and the resulting plunge into darkness, and the stereophonic flow of the voice from the woman's lips.

"She needs you, Gavin Reed."

The words startled him from post-coital bliss. He fell back, watching Adastriana as she turned about on the bed. A baleful gaze spilled from the naked woman's ghostly eyes she she looked upon him.

"You must take her to Neustis, to confront the puppet and her master. All will be revealed there."

Annoyance rose in his heart. "Why? Is she truly the next True Oracle?"

"She is."

"I need to know more than that."

The woman was silent for a long moment, unmoving. In the darkness, her entire body looked almost ethereal. But then her lips moved once more.

"Show her the book. She will know what it is."

"And what of me?" asked Gavin in a slightly trembling voice. "Am I still to die tomorrow?"

Adastriana's pale eyes looked him over, an expression that might be considered sad decorating her face if not for the unearthly pale eyes. But then the lips curled slightly, almost as if to offer hope even though the word that next came was anything but hopeful.

"Yes."

Abruptly, the woman collapsed to the bed like a marionette whose strings had been suddenly clipped. The lights blazed once more within the room.

Gavin found himself breathing heavily. He took a moment to calm himself, to remember his years of devotional teachings. The idea that every day in which he breathed might be his last had always been a given; he had never believed he was afraid of death. But to be told when he was to die was frightening, even to him.

He managed to center himself, then reached for Adastriana. She lay recumbent, angelically comatose, breasts rising and falling as breath passed between slightly-parted lips.

If she is the next True Oracle, then her divinations are as certain as the rise of the suns. I cannot escape my fate, I know. The day, after all, was going to come sooner or later. What better way to die than in the service of the next True Oracle?

An unlikely calm came over the knight, and his hard face cracked slightly with a smile of acceptance and pride. He settled a hand upon Adastriana's naked hip. And I could not have asked for a better way to spend my last night alive.

"You are a strange and incredible woman, Adastriana," he whispered, before placing a tentative kiss upon the woman's lips. He rose from the bed, turned off the lamps, then slid back upon the mattress beside his lover. He curled up beside her, and she shifted in her sleep to accommodate his position. But it would be quite some time, Gavin knew, before he would follow his enigmatic companion into dreamland.

* * * *

Adastriana awoke with a smile the following morning, stretching upon the bed. She searched with her hands for the lover she hoped still lay beside her, but found herself alone. With a tired groan of mild distraught, she opened her eyes and pushed up.

Gavin faced her as he sat upon the edge of the other bed. He was clad once again in his armor, and the hallow look upon his face was both intimidating and worrisome to the zantrist. In his hands he held a simple, small, leather-bound book sealed closed with a silver clasp.

Her eyes darted from his stoic face to the book and back. "Gavin?"

He tossed the book onto the bed before her. "What is it?" he asked in return.

Confused, Adastriana reached for the aged volume. Its surface was scarred and worn, telling of its age. The cover sported a barely discernible rendition of a tree with numerous branches and roots, enclosed within a circular cartouche. As she took it up, a spark of recognition ignited in her eyes. She gasped. "The Journal!" she exclaimed.

"What is it?" he asked again, his voice more forceful.

She regarded the small tome with an obvious sense of reverence. "This . . . this book . . . It's the Journal of Insight. It contains the prophecies of all the Oracles throughout history. How did you come to possess it?"

His strong eyes studied her face. "You're certain it is that book?" Gavin asked.

She looked upon it once more and nodded firmly. "Though I have never seen it, I know this is it. In my temple, we have engravings based on the Journal. It is said that every divination of every True Oracle is imprinted within this book, at the moment the divination is given. For centuries, it was used to verify the prophecies of the True Oracle. Please, tell me, how did you find it?"

"It was given to me by the Minister of Compliance of Owrn," Gavin said. "My charge is to take this book to the True Oracle in Neustis. I am to have it there by midnight today."

Adastriana passed her hand over the cover of the book, evidencing her sense of awe. "It has been missing for half a century, even more," she said in a soft voice. "Ever since the current Oracle assumed her position. Many in my temple feared it had been destroyed."

Gavin shoved himself to his feet. He was obviously agitated as he paced in the room. "I was given a simple task," he said in a grave, aggravated voice. "To take this book to Neustis within three days' time. If I do not deliver on schedule, I am to take my own life."

He stopped pacing and faced Adastriana directly. "Since the start of my quest, many unusual things have happened. You're involvement is one, and that errant knight-gunman Corvo is another. Either someone really does not want me to deliver this book . . . or someone - or something - does."

Adastriana frowned. "I do not understand."

He stepped toward her with such directness it made the zantrist flinch and pull back upon the bed. Gavin lowered himself to one knee and stared into her eyes. "In my years of service to the Ministry of Compliance, I have done as they commanded without question. I was content to follow my orders. I found purpose and pride in that. I took lives, took liberties, took what I needed when I needed it and always felt I was doing right."

Adastriana's eyes quivered in response. She said nothing.

"But all that has occurred in the last two days has challenged everything I have ever known," Gavin continued. "And I want to know why. You have given me two divinations, neither of which have been none too encouraging."

She blinked. "Two?"

He nodded. "I lied to you, when you asked me as to the nature of the first divination you gave me. I said it was nothing of import. But it was."

"What was it?"

Gavin sighed heavily. "You said I was born to a dead mother and raised by a soldier father. That is true. My mother died during childbirth; I never knew her. My father was a simple infantryman, who always hoped to one day become a knight. But he failed every trial. He raised me, trained me, so that I would become what he could not. And in that, he succeeded. I became a knight, and at first, he was as proud as any father could be. But as my successes grew, as I advanced, he resented me. I was granted one of the highest honors I could receive, that of the Order of the Knights-Gunmen, and when that happened, my father turned his back. For more than four years, he has not spoken to me."

Adastriana's face fell in vicarious sympathy. "I am sorry."

He waved his hand dismissively. "I've come to terms with that," he said sharply. "I told you that only to confirm that the first part of your first divination was true. And because that part was true, I feel I have to believe the second."

"Which was . . .?"

He settled his eyes upon her. "That I am going to die today."

Adastriana caught her breath and looked upon Gavin with frightened eyes. "I said that?"

He nodded. "And you confirmed it last night, after we . . . after our . . . time together," he said awkwardly. "But you also said something else. Something about this book. That you would know what it is."

The zantrist looked at the small, slender tome she held. "And I do," she said, voice scarcely more than a whisper.

"But that was not all," Gavin said. "Apparently, I am also supposed to take you with me to Neustis, because, supposedly, 'all will be revealed there.'"

She lifted her eyes, wearing an expression that was conflicted between hopefulness and anxiety. "You are?"

"Yes," said Gavin with a nod. He drew the large pistol from its holster and held it at his side. His voice grew grim. "So now I am faced with a conundrum. A knight's charge is always singular and sacred. My quest is my own. To reveal my quest is tantamount to abandoning it. Therefore, I have two choices. The first, and most logical, is to kill you and continue on."

Adastriana's eyes flew open wide. She quivered in fear, eyes darting back and forth from Gavin's weapon to his face.

Gavin continued. "The other is to take you with me, and violate the code I have faithfully served for all of my adult life."

She watched his face, his body, the unsure trembling of the hand that held the pistol. After a few deep breaths to quell her own fears, Adastriana spoke.

"If you truly wanted to be done with me, you would have killed me already," she said. "You may be a machine in human form, but you are not heartless. For the sake of last night's lovemaking, you would not be so callous and cruel now."

His eyes remained hard. "From my point of view, it would be a kindness."

"But there is not only your point of view to consider, is there?" she asked pointedly. "There are other forces in play, other . . . views."

"So, what is yours?" he asked.

She stared back, never wavering as she captured his eyes with her own. "I have never believed that there is only one destiny for every soul; there are always choices," she said adamantly. "And you must understand that, otherwise we would not be having this conversation."

His eyes dipped. "There is a part of me," he said in a distant voice. "That could kill you and still love you, to savor the memories of our time together. It would be a way, I suppose, to lock those feelings within my heart without ever having to worry about disappointment or betrayal afterward. Especially more bearable, if I am, indeed, to die before this day ends."

His eyes flashed back up, fierce and strong. "But that would be lying to both myself and your memory," he growled and replaced the weapon in its holster. "And it brings me back to the notion that someone, or something, wants me - us - to continue. To see this through."

Adastriana breathed a heavy sigh of relief now that Gavin had put his pistol away. "Are you finished frightening me, now?"

The knight's face softened somewhat. "I am finished frightening us both," he said. "For the foreseeable future at any rate, the meaning of which, considering your involvement, takes on different meaning."

Adastriana made the effort to compose herself. "What are we to do, then?"

"First, we need to get you dressed, and quickly," Gavin replied. "Guardsmen have been searching the inns since dawn, ostensibly looking for me."

She gave him a quizzical look. "So you are a zantrist, now?"

He smirked. "A good listener," he corrected. "I went down to the stable just before daybreak to tend to our mounts. Some of the stable hands tend to speak loudly. So, come. We need to act with haste."

She threw off the covers then, and searched for her clothes. Gavin watched her with a faint smile, remembering the delights they had so recently shared. Under any other circumstance, he would have been willing to spend another hour or so reliving those delights. But time was not being kind to them.

Within minutes, Adastriana was clothed and their gear had been gathered. Leading the way, Gavin opened the door to the hall and started for the stairs at the end of the corridor. But he stopped after only a few steps. Adastriana nearly collided with him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

He settled a finger to his lips, indicating silence, as he listened. Two floors below, hard, commanding voices wafted from the tavern. They were voices of authority.

"Come," he urged his companion, heading back into the room. His eyes fell to the two windows through which rays of the early morning sun painted the far wall in gilded radiance. Quickly, he pushed open the one above the beds and peered out. Serendipity was on their side as he spied the roof of the stable shack below.

"I'll jump down first," he instructed Adastriana. "Then catch you. Once on the ground, we stay quiet and head to the stables, then ride out casually with cloaks donned. Understood?"

She nodded, then impulsively grabbed his head to plant a quick, searing kiss upon his lips. "For luck," she said.

He arched a brow. "A zantrist who believes in luck. Interesting." Before his lover could retort, Gavin pulled himself through the window, casually dropping the two stories to the roof of the shack below. He landed quietly, bending his legs to both absorb the shock and to lessen the noise. Glancing upward, he gestured to Adastriana.

She stared down in trepidation, but she harbored nothing but confidence in her protector and lover despite the tense start to their morning. Climbing onto the window sill, she teetered in a squat within the opening, looking down upon the man below, the man she could not help but trust . . . and even love.

Behind her in the hallway she heard heavy footfalls stomping closer. Her heart fluttered with anxiety. Gods! They're coming!

A moment later, the door burst open before the appearance of four armed guardsmen. They held their impressive shot-pistols at the ready, looking about the room. But they had come too late. All that greeted them were an unmade bed and an open window.

* * * *

Gavin tossed the stable hands a few extra coins to secure their silence before he and Adastriana, long traveling cloaks obscuring them, trotted the mounts out into the avenue before the inn. The early morning was typically busy with laborers on their way to work and shopkeepers opening their doors. Beggars were ubiquitous, seeking any handout they could get. But there were also guardsmen out in force, clad in the conspicuous red and green hauberks that marked their station. Gavin kept his eyes to the street.

The city gate ahead came into view. It lay open as merchants were checked in. Another minute of casual trotting, and their horses, Gavin knew, would bear them to freedom.

They passed a group of guardsmen who stood on the edge of the street, speaking casually.

". . . a man and a woman. The man is a knight-gunman, so take no chances. Anyone who kills him gets to have the zantrist bitch for an hour as payment . . . ."

Gavin frowned in alarm. They're looking for both of us? How do they know she's with me? In his remuneration, he turned his head to look upon the guardsmen. A couple of them looked back, and within Gavin's hard, experienced face, they saw something that made them suspicious.