Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Delphi Delilah Ayala removed the tile over the small drain in the center of the scrying room’s floor. Nothing again. The Moon’s highest oracle had seen nothing of the Sunwolf’s location or the future results of his plans for over a month. It was almost the solstice but to Del it seemed as though the winter sent he and his witches into hibernation. She needed to discern his plans; spring was coming.

There was a glimmer as she turned her silver bowl. Luca’s eyes appeared for a moment before the salted and oiled water flowed over the lip and into the tiled channel. She could feel him reaching for her, watching her, longing to comfort her frustration. She longed for him too, but it hurt so much every time she saw him, every time she felt his presence or his caress. It was like he was dying in her arms again.

“Please, Luca. Stop coming,” she begged.

‘Why would I stop coming, mon ange? You are troubled. Do you not miss me?’ His spirit asked, and he appeared as translucent as the incense smoke.

“I miss you with my whole soul, but it hurts too much when you leave me again. I love you, but please... please, I can’t bear the pain.”

Tears flooded down her cheeks, their hot salted water falling on her arms and chest. She felt his hand brush her face like a change in a faint breeze.

“The dead cannot wipe the tears of the living away,” she managed to say.

‘As you wish, Delilah. You only need call. I love you...’

Delilah shuddered as she felt the Gate to the Tides closing and Luca’s soul moving away from her. “I love you, Luca,” she whispered into the empty room.

She looked down at the glowing tattoos on her body, they laced and looped around her arms and torso and curled down her legs, spreading from her Moon Marks like morning glory vines, twisting into the symbols for servant, maiden, mate, daughter but not the one she most wanted. Her hand rested on her abdomen and she choked on a sob at the thought that she would never bear the mark of motherhood. Her Luca was gone, and she could not imagine herself mated to another.

She could feel the darkness of the Goddess’ closed eye rising with the sun. She needed to run, and run hard, to burn the pain in her soul away with the burning icy pain that came with outdoor exertion in winter. Teaching Ainsley had brought up a longing she had never realized she had.

She wondered how Nyall held it together, he lost both his mate and his pup. He was so diligent with his studying and training, that even Kaiyou was impressed. But Del knew it was so Nyall wouldn’t have to deal with his broken, mate-lost soul. She told him to hate her and not the Moon, so he did with a passion and fierceness that would make a lesser wolf fear for their life, but Del wasn’t a lesser wolf. She was the Delphi, the Oracle of Oracles. A Daughter of the Tides by her lineage as the last Naphtal Oracle. Chosen by the Moon Goddess Herself, and no amount of longing or hatred for what had been would change what she was or what would be. Comhnyall of New Wemyss would fulfill his destiny even if Del had to drag him kicking and screaming to victory over the Sunwolf.

Rising slowly, Del carefully tended her mother’s silver bowl. Her right fingers spread reverently over the enameled surface as her left hand carefully wiped the polished silver interior clean and dry. Setting it on the shelf, she purposely pressed her fingertips into the cold silver inside for just a moment. The pain caused by the dangerous metal was like a jolt of fire. Then she wiped her fingerprints away, just like the pain wiped her longing away, if only for a short time.

Delilah heard a sound; a shiver ran through her and she cocked her head to listen. Some oracle was across the Tides. Ainsley was visiting her family in the Fields of the Moon. Shaking her head with a smile, Del wrapped herself in a robe and went to check on her youngest and most powerful acolyte.

Earlier that night...

Ainsley sat in her window staring up at the moon; her damp hair hanging almost straight down her back. Her heart seemed to beat harder as if something important was coming, someone important was close. Her spirit had asked the Moon what it was but all she had seen was a pair of eyes fading into shadow and felt the promise of love to come in the far future. She huffed, she didn’t like it when she didn’t have a clear vision. She tipped her head contemplating if it had something to do with the vampires and the images Del had asked her to copy.

The Augur Vampyr was the only living Vampire Seer and Ainsley was excited for the day or rather night when she could go study under her and learn about the Goddess they worshiped. Ainsley sighed happily as she thought about all she would be learning over the next decade or so before that night came, but secretly she hoped it wasn’t that long away. The time when she went to study with the Auger was exciting to her and she could barely wait.

Mamó chuckled as she turned down the bed, “Come to bed, beag sionnach (little fox), the Moon can speak to ye while ye sleep. And ye are not to sneak Nyall onto the Tides to see do phiuthar (your sister), ye were lucky the Delphi has a soft spot for ye, or she would have been cross with ye.”

Ainsley looked at her sadly for a moment, then sighed and nodded. She tapped her heart and made a gesture of the heart breaking like Essie had taught her, before pointing through the wall to where Nyall’s room was. He wasn’t in there tonight. Protector Kaiyou had dragged him out into the winter night to see how good his tracking skills were. The eighteen hours of darkness in the height of winter made for long training hours.

“Aye, I know. He has to live his share of the prophecy alone unless the Moon grants him a boon, which I am sure She will. She is quite fond of Nyall or She would not have the Delphi watchin’ o’er him,” Mamó reminded. “Now, get ye some sleep, you’re still a growing pup.” The ancient she-wolf kissed Ainsley on the head and went out, shutting off the light and closing the door.

Ainsley sneaked the book on human holiday customs she was reading and her torchlight out of her bedside chest. Essie had not come to tuck her in tonight and Ainsley wondered if she had gone to deliver the drawings Ainsley copied for the Augur Vampyr.

Yawning, she started to read about a holiday called Easter, where rabbits hid colored boiled eggs and chocolates for children to find. Ainsley didn’t like eggs; she hated the flavor and the texture, raw or cooked, but chocolate tasted good, and so did rabbit. Easter was related to the religious holidays of two groups. As she read about them, she found herself terrified then saddened that the same God would put his people through a time of ten plagues, then centuries later, have one of them volunteer to suffer so terribly and die to absolve the rest of them of their sins. She decided she needed to get one of their religious text and read it. Surely, there had to be more to it than that.

Later as she lay on her side staring at the dark sky and drifting stars, she wondered if she could get the wolves of this land to believe that if they would put lamb’s blood on their door lintels, the demon of fire would pass them over, like the angel of death had passed the ancient tribes over. Or if like the teacher who was crucified, if they would have to spend three days in the darkness of a tomb. It made her confused and curious.

Beyond her window, the world was frozen in the hard white of the northern Canadian winter. Watching the dancing curtain of green iridescent light in the dark velvet sky beyond the glass, Ainsley wondered what the seers and oracles of the other faiths dreamed. Did they see the coming horrors she saw? It tugged at her mind before she drifted off to sleep, what if Comhnyall and Delilah failed? Could she and the Seer of the Vampyr unite the world against the Sunwolf and his God of Fiery Death and Chaos or would the world fall to his false promises and charismatic rhetoric? Would intolerance keep the faithful of the world divided enough for the burning one to conquer it? She wouldn’t know until the weather changed and a new season began.

A presence shifted the bed as it sat down, ‘Oye, beag sionnach (little fox), ye are just a tiny lass, too young to be havin’ such thoughts.’

‘But someone must, Mum. With Moire in the Fields with ye and father and brothers, Comhnyall has lost all hope. An’ Mamó says the hopeless succumb when trouble times come,’ Ainsley responded wisely.

‘Ye always were such a strange child, always dreamin’ and drawin’ things that made no sense to me and your father. I am sorry I did not pay closer attention to your gift.’ Merida gently pushed a stray curl from Ainsley’s forehead, her fingertips felt cool in the darkness, like the touch of moonlight. ‘Moire told me ye brought Nyall to see her, ye know it was wrong. The Goddess may have given ye gifts as strong as the Delphi’s, but ye cannot use them for selfish reasons.’

‘But, Muuuummmmm, I can feel his pain. Moire cut his soul off from hers, gives him nothin’ but silence, and he knows from Shamus that she could reach back to him iffen she wanted to. It hurts him that she shuns him so. Tell her to be kinder to him, he is her ceile (mate),’Ainsley scolded, adding crossly, ‘He blames Del for it.’

Her mother’s lips quirked in a slight smile at her youngest daughter’s cross tone and crosser look. Merida bent and pressed a kiss onto her forehead, ‘Ye cannot dictate to the dead, little fox. Moire is sufferin’ too, but she feels this is what she must do so Comhnyall will look for love again. In a few years, ye will understand. I must go, but I warn ye daughter, do not tempt the Goddess’ wrath or the Delphi’s.’

‘I promise to be a good lass. I love ye, Mum.’

‘An’ I love ye, Ainsley.’

A ghostly touch stroked her coppery curls as a whisper-hummed song helped her drift deeper into sleep. She dreamed of braiding crowns of flowers with her sister, and Moire making her promise to watch over Nyall. They chased butterflies and sang and laughed as they rolled down a hill of grass. Ainsley felt herself falling in the real world and woke up.

She found Delilah, wrapped in a fluffy gray robe, holding her. Del had caught Ainsley before she fell off her bed. The Delphi smelled of temple incense and moonlight, and Ainsley knew she must have just come from the Tides. She raised up and placed Ainsley back on her bed, silently straightening the covers and tucking them around her.

“Did you have a good visit with your sister?” Del asked. Ainsley nodded, smiling sheepishly.

“Because you know it’s cheating, we aren’t supposed to do that,” Del scolded with a smirk, her expression was anything but angry.

Ainsley gave her another shy smile and held up her hands with a shrug to say, It happens.

Del laughed, and for a moment, the sadness left her eyes then it came back. “Get some sleep, little one, morning will come soon enough.”

Ainsley clicked her tongue and Del regarded her as she made the hand gestures for, Are you going to run today? It is so cold. Ainsley had worked hard to learn sign language with Del and Essie.

“My wolf doesn’t mind the cold; it is still warmer than our soul since we lost our mate.”

Ainsley reached for Del’s cheek and patted it, then she patted her heart. She made a broken heart shape with her hands, her thumbs touching as her curled fingers moved toward each other to end in a whole heart shape, before pressing the shape over Del’s heart.

Delilah’s eyes glistened with tears, as she placed her hand over Ainsley’s hands, “I hope my heart heals too, little one. Now back to sleep and no more rolling down the hills and off your bed.”