The Seer by Rowan McAllister (reading comprehension books .TXT) 📕

fog over his thoughts and the churning nausea made it almost as bad.

“Wha—?” he croaked, but his mouth and throat were so dry he couldn’t get anything else out.

He licked cracked lips and blinked in what seemed to be early morning sunlight streaming through a canopy of trees as what sounded like a stream burbled happily somewhere nearby. If it weren’t for the pain and the queasiness, the whole scene would have been rather idyllic, actually.

A cup brimming with clear water appeared in front of him, but he fumbled it, spilling half its icy contents onto his hands and over the ground. The water was so cold it made his teeth ache. Still, he sucked down as much as he could without a second thought, desperately thirsty for some reason.

When he blinked up at the kind soul who’d provided the life-giving draught, an all-too-familiar scarred, scruffy, disreputable face filled his vision, and Ravi’s dreamy idyll vanished as a red haze descended. “You asshole! You drugged me? You drugged me?” he screeched, chucking the cup at Daks’s head even as he winced at his own volume.

Daks’s expression had been searching and concerned, but at Ravi’s outburst, he ducked the missile and threw his hands out in front of him as he backed away. “Whoa there. That wasn’t me.” He crooked his thumb behind him at Shura and another woman standing near some horses. “Blame her. She’s the one who did it.”

Ravi gave Daks one last glare before shooting daggers at Shura, but when the Cigani woman lifted her eyebrows and took a step in his direction, Ravi yelped and scrambled to his feet.

“Keep her away from me!” he cried as he threw out a hand to brace himself on the tree they’d propped him against.

He didn’t think he imagined the slight quirk to her lips, but her expression was bland and unreadable the next time he looked, so he couldn’t be sure. Daks continued to make appeasing motions with his outstretched hands.

“Okay, let’s all calm down a little. Shura’s not going to do anything else to you. Are you, Shur?”

She was silent for far too long before she said, “Only when necessary.”

“Oh, that’s great. Just great. And who gets to decide what’s necessary?” Ravi fumed past the throbbing in his skull.

Maybe this had been a terrible mistake. What had he been thinking, trusting these people?

He wished to the gods that he wasn’t so unsteady on his feet and that he wasn’t so ignorant of the world outside of the city. He had no idea how long he’d been out or where the hells they were or anything.

Cursed. I’m cursed. Why does no one ever believe me when I tell them that?

Daks took a cautious step forward, eyeing him warily. “Don’t listen to her. I won’t let anything happen to you. We’re halfway to Urmat already. Another half-day’s ride and we should be there. We’ll find our friend, and he’ll take us across the river to Samebar tomorrow morning. Easy as pie. No need for any more drugs or violence. Okay?”

Daks cast a meaningful look toward Shura, and Ravi relaxed marginally. He braced a second hand against the tree trunk and blew out a breath. He felt like he’d been run over by a wagon… and then dragged behind it.

“We’re out of the city,” he said unnecessarily.

“We are.”

“Did anything happen?”

Daks paused a beat before shaking his head. “Nope.”

Ravi narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t I believe you?”

“Because you’re very untrusting?”

Ravi scowled, and the big oaf just blinked at him innocently.

“You had another Vision last night, even while you were drugged,” Shura cut in harshly. “But luckily it didn’t last long enough to bring the entirety of the Brotherhood down on us, probably because you were drugged. This is why what I did was necessary.”

Hells. Ravi closed his eyes, turned, and slumped against the base of the tree again in defeat. He didn’t remember any Vision. He didn’t remember anything.

Was he going mad, or was it just the drug?

Casting a glance at each of his three new traveling companions in turn, he struggled to calm his temper and think. If the big dumb brute was telling the truth, he only had another day before he’d be safely in Samebar. He didn’t have to travel with these lunatics all the way to the school of mages. Maybe he could ditch them at the first town they came to on the other side of the river. Surely someone might want a Seer in their house or hold, even an untrained one. If all the stories were true, he wouldn’t have to hide what he was in Samebar. Plus, he had other skills to offer. He could read and write, and he’d learned a bit of Sambaran before he’d been forced to leave his childhood home. He could put up with Shura and Daks for one more day, surely. He’d just have to watch his back.

“What now?” he asked in a slightly calmer tone.

“We’re giving the horses and ourselves a little rest,” Daks replied, seeming relieved. “I suggest you eat something, whether you’re hungry or not.”

After moving to one of the horses, Daks tossed him another wizened apple, and Ravi caught it and bit into it mechanically, not at all hungry. He suspected the lingering nausea was from the drug he’d been given, and he shot another ugly look at Shura, though the woman’s attention was riveted on the petite blond standing beside her.

“Who’s that?” he asked, jerking his chin in the woman’s direction.

Daks glanced up from the pack he was fiddling with. “Mistress Fara Sabin. She’s part of the bargain we struck to get us out of the city. She’ll be traveling with us to Scholoveld.”

The woman looked up at her name and nodded to Ravi, though her gaze seemed a bit uncomfortable. He gave her a nod in return, before biting another chunk off his mealy apple. His gaze wandered irritably over the rest of the sun-dappled clearing until it landed on the unsettlingly pale