5: The Holy Road by Ginn Hale Read Free Book Online Page B

all come so easily that he hadn’t even noticed. He had no idea how easily it could slip out of his control.
    He had seen the pictures of the Rifters before him. Their expressions were always wild and terrified as they stared at the earth shattering beneath their feet. The last one had cracked the entire Eastern Kingdom down to pieces of rubble, now lost beneath the sea. The Great Chasm was all that remained of that vast empire.
    That kind of destruction was something bombs did, something earthquakes and volcanoes did. It shouldn’t have been within the realm of a human being. John couldn’t imagine himself doing something like that. And yet he couldn’t be certain. Until a week ago, he had also believed himself incapable of murder. Then he had killed Dayyid, without hesitation or any real regret. Now a mistrust of his own nature pervaded him.
    Could such destruction be a reflex, something that he would do as instantaneously as he had torn apart that wagon? Was it some inherent characteristic, a choice, or a reaction? He knew that the Payshmura had unleashed previous Rifters upon their enemies. They had to have discovered the means to trigger the Rifters’ devastating capacities.
    He had read the holy books. Again and again they spoke of poisoning and bleeding the Rifter. Maybe that was the means. Perhaps the destruction was a response to pain and fear. Or maybe it was controlled by the Kahlil, who was bound to the Rifter.
    He couldn’t know, and he couldn’t afford to guess. He had to be careful. He had to keep himself from manipulating the world around him no matter how easily it came to him. He had to control himself.
    John pulled the blankets in around himself. Laurie had taken this so much better than he had. Of course, she hadn’t re ally believed John when he had told her that she was the Rifter. Chalk another one up for Laurie, John thought grimly. She’d been right. He wondered if she’d give him a smug little grin when he told her. Probably.
    That revelation could certainly wait until they were all safely back in Nayeshi.
    There was a soft knock at the infirmary door. Then John heard the door open.
    “Jahn?” Ravishan’s voice was hushed.
    John wasn’t sure that he was ready to talk to Ravishan. But he couldn’t hide behind these curtains forever.
    “Over here.”
    Ravishan walked to his bed quickly and opened the canvas panels. His face was pinkish from scrubbing and his black hair still wet. Thick white bandages engulfed his right arm. Ravishan crouched down beside the bed. He offered John a shy smile but then winced as the motion pulled at the tender scars on either side of his mouth.
    John gazed at Ravishan’s mouth. The small scars curved up from his lips, giving the illusion of a slight smile.
    If John hadn’t been there in Candle Alley when Dayyid had attacked Ravishan, then the wounds would have been far worse. They would have nearly severed Ravishan’s lower jaw. The scars remaining after Hann’yu treated them would have formed two pale lines running almost to Ravishan’s ears. John remembered stealing quick glances at those scars and wondering how a man got them. Now he knew.
    John felt suddenly cold. He glanced up into Ravishan’s excited eyes. Even without the Prayerscars, John recognized Kyle’s face looking back at him.
    All this time he had been living with Ravishan and he had never realized. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that they were the same person. John had recognized the similarity between them the first day he had seen Ravishan, but he hadn’t understood that the gates crossed time as well as space. Kyle had been a man in his early thirties, while Ravishan was a boy in his late teens. John couldn’t have known then that the gates had brought him back through time to Kyle’s youth.
    But now it was obvious.
    “I have good news.” Ravishan pulled a stool up to John’s bedside and sat. “The Issusha’im Oracles found the Rifter.”
    “Oh?” John did his