Chapter three, Yeah, right.
“Alright, but quietly. Listen, I’m going to say it quickly once, then I’ll go back and fill in the holes. Mummy’s an Oracle.”
I laughed. Not much, just a little bit. But… I mean, an oracle? It was all a bit much. I knew that oracles told the future and everything, but they were fictional. Fake. Not. Real.
“Okay. What’s wrong? Really?” I asked.
“Really. Mum’s an Oracle. She has been ever since before you were born. I don’t know how, I haven’t gotten there in my training yet, but I suppose I’ll learn eventually.”
“So you’re serious,” I said shortly. I was waiting for the punch line. But the punch line didn’t come.
“I’m very serious.”
“Why did you run away, Lucas?” I asked him straight. I hoped he would be just as straight with his answer. I should have known better.
“Mum’s not… well, like I said, she’s the Oracle. The Oracle isn’t like she is in the movies, Lucy, she’s unpredictable. She took Mum, so she’s not really… Mum anymore. I know you probably don’t understand, but basically, the Oracle changes hosts every now and then, and the Oracle chose Mum.
“The hosts are allowed one child. I was that one child… but then you came along. The Oracle got angry…”
“Wait!” I interrupted, forgetting myself. “Mom got angry because of me?” I asked. I was really that unwanted?
“No, Lucy, haven’t you been listening? The Oracle got mad.”
“But you said Mom was Oracle,” I said, confused.
“She was the host for the Oracle. That doesn’t make them the same person, even though they are close. Anyway, the Oracle got mad, because Mum had defied her orders. So, she took over Mum almost entirely, and… well, it wasn’t safe for you or Dad to stay with us anymore.
“Dad took you to here, to America, and you’ve been here ever since. Once you were gone, the Oracle pretty much let Mum go, even though she… reminded us… every now in then of who was in charge. When that happened, it wasn’t pleasant. But I at least knew that you were safe.”
I was still confused. “Then why did you run away? It sounds like you were happy.”
“Well, I had a cool life. I didn’t go to normal school, the Oracle’s minion sidekick thing taught me about the Oracle’s magic so that I could—“
“Woah woah woah. The Oracle’s magic? You didn’t say anything about magic.”
“It’s an Oracle, Lu, what did you expect?”
Lucas’s playful chide and nickname almost stopped me short. I had a brother. I had a brother and a nickname. I smiled in spite myself and nodded.
“Well, as soon as I started learning about the magic I realized that something was odd. Everything I learned made too much sense. It was like I’d almost known it all ready, and I was just being reminded. I told Mum last week, but the Oracle heard me too. The Oracle got excited and called me something… ‘the Ordan’. I don’t know what an Ordan is, but I am one. And… I can do magic.”
Lucas bit his lip, knowing that I probably wouldn’t believe him. And… did I believe him? I mean, come on. Magic? But Lucas had seen my doubt coming.
“Lucy, I didn’t fly here on a plain. I flew here by myself. Look.”
As I watched, Lucas held out his left hand. He took his right hand and swiped it over his left. When he revealed his hand again, there was a miniature white dove sitting on his hand.
I stared. The bird was as tall as my pinky finger, too small to have been real. But as I watched, it flapped its wings and flew to me, perching on my shoulder. I lifted my finger to it, and it nipped it softly before stepping on.
I moved the bird so that it looked me in the face, but as I did, it jumped off my finger. I expected it to fly away, but it didn’t. It dive bombed the ground, turning into a single feather before it hit the ground.
Lucas picked up the feather and tucked it in his pocket. All doubts I had in him were erased.
“Okay. So… Magic…” I said softly. Lucas smiled lightly before taking my arm again and leading me away from the library.
“Yeah. Well, the Oracle flipped out, tried to make me her minion. Took over Mum again, and it was bad. So I ran away. I found you, and now I’m here. I still don’t know what to do.”
“So… we have to research the Oracle. My history teacher at school…” I trailed off. School! I checked my watch. Fifteen minutes time. If I ran really fast… I took off.
“School. I have to get to school.” I told Lucas over my shoulder. He followed me.
“School? Lucy, did you hear anything I just said? This is the Oracle we’re talking about. Telling the future. Powerful magic. Could destroy the world?”
I stopped running.
“You didn’t say anything about destroying the world. Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what I heard her say.”
“It sounds like you left something out of your story.”
Lucas blushed, and went on. “I overheard her talking to her minion thing. He lives with us, teaches me and helps Mom do chores. I’ve always wondered why the Oracle needs him, and I found out why the other day. They thought I was asleep, but I’d come back downstairs to ask Mum a question.
“She was sitting in her chair, but the Oracle had her. She was talking to her minion, and she was talking about world domination.”
I almost wanted to laugh. This was ridiculous! But the look on Lucas’s face told me otherwise.
“Okay, so no school?” I asked him, trying to get a straight answer.
“No. We’ve got to get back to London. Immediately. You can meet Mum, and the Oracle, but you’ve got to pretend to be someone else. Mum’ll know who you are of course, you’re her daughter, she’ll know right away. But it’ll fool the Oracle, at least until she thinks to check Mum’s thoughts.”
He grabbed my arm again as he spoke and walked me to the edge of the street. He waved down a taxi and hopped in. I followed.
The way he talked was confusing; as if the Oracle and Mum… er, Mom, were the same person, and yet two individuals at the same time. It was more than disorienting. His forehead wrinkled.
“Did you understand any of that?” He asked me skeptically.
“Nope.”
“That’s what I thought…” He turned away from me, and told the taxi driver where he wanted to go.
