The Reawakened by Jeri Smith-Ready Read Free Book Online

left, a lanky man with thinning light brown hair. He snatched the letter from Sura’s hand and tore it open, wrinkling his nose at her. She became more aware than ever of not having bathed in four days.
    “What does it say, Adrek?” asked a woman with dark red hair sitting on his other side.
    He squinted at the letter for several seconds, then tossed it to the inquiring woman. “Bolan has bad handwriting.”
    She rolled her eyes and unfolded the letter. “It says this girl is who she says.” She kept reading, then her jaw dropped. “Your mother’s been captured?”
    Another round of gasps, even louder.
    “Come.” Elora stepped aside and beckoned Sura to the circle’s center. “Let everyone hear.”
    Sura recounted the story of Mali’s arrest. Her voice cracked when she told the part about her mother’s beating, but she just lifted her chin higher and kept her breath steady.
    When she had finished, Tereus came to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry for all you’ve suffered. You’re among family now.”
    She stared into his deep blue eyes, crinkled with age and long-ago laughter. Her own eyes grew hot and blurry. She pulled away.
    “Before I can help her, I need my Bestowing. I need to train to use my Snake powers.”
    At the mention of her Spirit, the crowd members exchanged glances and a few cocked eyebrows. She felt like throwing a sack over her body, but she put her hands on her hips and challenged their gazes. “I need to find Dravek.”

    The afternoon light angled gold and silver through the pine branches as Sura made her way toward the fire ring. After meeting dozens of Kalindons—friendly and not-so-friendly—she relished having a few moments alone. Even when she’d taken a bath at Elora and Tereus’s house, where she would be staying, the two had hovered outside her room, asking her questions about the situation in Asermos.
    The breeze blew her clean, damp curls in front of her face. She rarely wore her hair down, but her scalp was sore after being tormented by a tight braid for four days.
    She heard a rustle behind her and jerked her head to look over her shoulder. Nothing but a sparrow rooting among the pinecones for its lunch. Sura let out a deep breath, reminding herself that here, no soldiers monitored her every move.
    The fire ring appeared in the distance, past the place where the trees ended. A clatter of boards told her someone was there. She put on her thin leather gloves—to protect from splinters, she told herself, knowing the gesture was actually to hide the sweat covering her palms.
    What if Dravek wanted her to prove her powers? She couldn’t create fire and couldn’t control its spread. All she could do was extinguish it. Though she knew that many people never exhibited any magic at all before their Bestowing, her lack of skills made her feel inadequate.
    A tall figure dressed in black stepped through the opening in the fire ring. He flung an armful of wood into the stone trench, then turned back through the gap without noticing her. His shoulders hunched and his fists clenched as he stomped out of sight. Her steps slowed for a moment at the sight of his menacing posture, until she reminded herself she’d faced much more dire threats in Asermos than an eighteen-year-old tantrum-tossing Snake.
    Sura stood next to the trench, listening to him gather wood on the other side, muttering to himself.
    “Either they’re idiots, or they’re trying to make my life miserable. Wouldn’t put it past Daria, but Kara, what’s her issue now? What have I done this time, what did I say, who did I look at for one too many moments and how long am I going to have to hear about—”
    He rounded the corner of the gap, arms full of wood, and stopped short when he saw Sura.
    She stared at him across the rocky trench. Her toes curled in her boots as if they could clutch the ground that seemed to sway beneath her.
    Everything about him was black—his clothes, his gloves, his