“You obviously don’t know my brothers. The wizard was in this town for who knows how long, and I didn’t sense him. The villagers we interviewed told us he’d eaten their food and drunk their ale, sitting at a table in the middle of the market square. And yet I never sensed him. It is my duty to protect Rassa from creatures like him. I was sent here for this specific purpose—to give warning and report—and I failed. I won’t fail again.”
The men were close enough now Ravi caught the grimace the guard made in response before the man said, “I understand, holy brother, but no man can go on indefinitely without rest. You’ve investigated every tiny wisp of something strange for nearly three days straight. You won’t be able to do much of anything if you pass out on your feet.”
The brother did look pretty haggard. His eyes had that glassy, crazed look Ravi’s had probably had when Daks had forced him to come to bed only a few days ago. He’d feel sorry for the brother if he wasn’t in imminent danger of being discovered and possibly killed… or worse.
Making the sign of the Three yet one more time, Ravi closed his eyes.
I know most of the time I’m pleading with you to leave me alone, so this might sound a bit ungrateful, but please, please, don’t let them find me.
Something stirred inside him, a tingling, and his stomach lurched.
Of course. He was cursed. For a second there, he’d forgotten.
Swearing internally, he scrabbled around until he found a thick branch on the forest floor. The brother gasped and pointed as the Vision erupted in Ravi’s mind. But this time, instead of overwhelming him, it simply overlayed his reality. Like some sort of miracle, he still had use of his limbs and his wits.
Blinking away the disorientation of having two scenes atop each other, he rose and ran farther into the woods, away from the camp and more soldiers. He stumbled several times, trying to get used to differentiating between what appeared to be a Vision a few seconds in the future and reality.
When the Vision suddenly showed the brother turning and heading back toward the camp, Ravi stopped running, spun to face his pursuers, and shouted to get their attention. He was no match for a trained guard, but he’d be finished for sure if the brother brought more soldiers after him on horseback.
With courage only desperation and a grim sense of impending doom could muster, he lifted his branch and faced the two men.
“Put the branch down,” the guard ordered, drawing his sword.
The voice in his Vision had barely faded before the real guard repeated the command. Ravi’s heart thudded as his palms grew damp around his makeshift club.
He was so out of his depth it was laughable. What did he think he was doing? Daks might be able to fight his way out of a situation like this, but Ravi was not Daks.
Think!
In his Vision, the guard charged him, swinging to knock the weapon out of his hand, and Ravi had only a few seconds to decide what to do about it before the guard actually moved. Instead of trying to counter the strike, he lurched out of the way, managing to clip the guard on his unprotected side as he went. The Vision swirled, blurrier now, and Ravi danced backward, trying to make sense of it even as the guard growled and came after him again.
When Ravi ran toward the brother, hoping to maybe use the man as a shield, the sudden thunder of hooves radiated through his Vision, drawing him up short. The sound of actual hooves echoed through the woods a moment later, distracting the guard and the brother, and Ravi’s eyes bugged out as a large white blur surged from between the trees.
“Horse?” he gasped, not quite believing his eyes.
Horse didn’t stop. He bowled straight into the guard before spinning and charging the brother. The brother shrieked and ran, leaving his companion rolling on the ground moaning. Ravi didn’t stop to wonder or marvel. He ran to Horse and leapt awkwardly onto his back. With no saddle to grab, Ravi had to practically drag himself up, using Horse’s mane and the dangling reins, but Horse didn’t buck him off.
“Sorry. Sorry,” he gasped. “Gods, I can’t believe you’re here. How in the hells…?”
Horse took off running, leaving Ravi gasping and clinging to his neck.
At least Horse headed in the direction Ravi’s gift had been pulling, so Ravi didn’t have to try to figure out how to turn him. Horse didn’t slow his headlong dash until they were far up the northwest road. When Ravi could finally relax a little and pry his cramped fingers loose from the reins, he made the sign of the Three to be on the safe side while searching the road behind him for the hundredth time.
“Not that I’m ungrateful,” he huffed as he tried to catch his breath, “but if you were going to show, couldn’t you have done it just a half hour earlier?”
Horse broke into another bone-jarring trot that left Ravi scrambling for a tighter grip on the reins again. He was cursing at every bounce of his ass against boney horse spine by the time the animal slowed to a stop once more. Knowing he’d probably regret it when it came time to remount, Ravi slid off Horse’s back and staggered a few feet away. Much more of this and he’d be lucky if he could walk at all.
Once the worst of the pain and tingling in his extremities had subsided, Ravi limped to the river. The landscape around them had turned significantly wetter the farther west they went. They were headed back into the boglands, a thought that definitely did not bring him comfort. How soon before he needed to start looking for traps around every corner? Maybe he
