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

drown, but at least it had a fighting chance if the ferry went under. The humans could decide their own fates.

A calming numbness finally took over his fear as he took the last steps to the head of the ferry and gazed longingly at the distant riverbank. His hands had stopped trembling and his mind had cleared. This might change at any moment, but he was glad for the reprieve. He’d be no use to anyone shaking and vomiting in a corner.

The other passengers continued to squawk and squabble behind them, periodically yelling something in their general direction, but Daks let it roll over him. Ravi’s breathing was fast and erratic, and Daks couldn’t exactly blame him, despite the damage it was doing to his own obviously short-lived calm. When Ravi suddenly tensed beside him, Daks closed his eyes and swallowed. After a breath, he reluctantly turned to face upriver and opened them again.

At first he saw nothing beyond what he’d seen before—clouds, distant rain, lightning, and choppy water—but then he spotted it, a wave of frothing white spreading far past the river’s normal banks and rolling toward them. Someone shouted behind him, and a woman screamed.

All at once, several people started cursing, and the ferryman began blaring on his horn, hopefully warning those on shore. Daks spared a moment to worry about Shura, hoping they’d retreated to the market to get some food as she’d said and would be far enough away they wouldn’t be hurt. Then he turned to Ravi.

“I think I forgot to ask if you could swim,” Daks admitted with a forced, breathless chuckle.

Ravi rolled his eyes, but his face was pale and worried. “I lived near the sea my whole life. Bathing in the sea was free. I can swim. You’re the one who nearly—”

Daks put a finger to his lips, cutting him off. He didn’t want to hear the D-word right now.

“I can swim. That thing Shura told you about was because I fell through some ice and got trapped.” He eyed the approaching wall of water with his heart in his throat. “We need to go. We need to get as far away from the ferry as possible. Don’t look back. Don’t worry about me. Jump in and swim as hard as you can… like your life depends on it.”

Ravi swallowed visibly and nodded.

They both climbed over the railing and balanced on the narrow strip of wood on the other side as the ferry rocked more violently. They exchanged a single weighted glance before Ravi dove into the water and Daks jumped in after him.

Daks broke the surface sputtering and scrambled to find Ravi. The rapidly increasing current had already put several yards between them when Daks finally spotted him, but at least Ravi didn’t seem to be struggling beyond his fight to swim against the flow. Without wasting another second, Daks ducked his head and swam with all his might. He couldn’t help Ravi any more than he could help himself, and if they’d tried to stick together, they probably would have gotten in each other’s way. He didn’t even bother looking upstream. He couldn’t do anything about what was coming.

When the leading edge of the flood hit him, it sent him tumbling helplessly beneath the surface. He had no idea which way was up or if he’d ever stop spinning. The initial impact eventually let go, and he scrambled toward the light, bursting through the surface and gasping for air only long enough to hear a loud crack from the direction of the ferry behind him before another wave took him under again.

The next few minutes felt like an eternity of fighting to keep his head above water. He couldn’t even gather enough strength to truly swim, even if he’d known what direction to swim in. His heart pounded as the icy water dragged at him. He was tiring too quickly, and his hopes of surviving this were draining away with his strength.

At last the waters stopped tossing him around like a doll long enough for him to spot the shore not too far away. He had no idea which shore it was, but it didn’t matter. He swam for it, pushing past pain and exhaustion. He had a moment to think he might just make it, and to wonder if Ravi had fared any better, before something huge and hard slammed into him from behind. Stars burst behind his eyelids before all went dark.

Chapter Eleven

RAVI HAD never been so exhausted in his life by the time the river spit him out into a muddy tangle of reeds, roots, and dead branches along the shore. He coughed water out of his lungs for what felt like ages until he collapsed, gasping, in a heap in the mud. He woke with a groan when stinging rain started pelting his face.

Could the gods not give him even a second of reprieve? What had he ever done to them?

With another groan, he rolled onto his hands and knees. He had to stay that way, with the heavy rain stinging his back instead, for a while before dizziness and fatigue passed enough for him to attempt to stand. In nothing but his sodden underclothes, he staggered through pools of slowly receding floodwaters to a tree trunk and leaned against it. The tree’s canopy of leaves gave him some shelter from the pouring rain as he wiped at his eyes and squinted at his surroundings. The curtain of water falling from the sky made discerning anything impossible, so he slumped against the base of the tree in defeat.

He had no idea where he was or what had happened to Daks. A wave of fear and abject desolation threatened to swamp him. Everything hurt. The bruises across his chest made breathing that much harder, and he was shaking with cold as the rain blotted out the rest of the world. He needed to find Daks. That was the only thought running through his head over and