Doublesight Read Online Free Page A

doublesight along its shores, oblivious of the trees and the sky. She wished she could ignore everything and everyone and just flow easily through life.
    “Zimp?” Arren held a piece of pan bread with dried fish paste spread over it. He thrust the bread toward her and sat on the stones next to her feet once she took it.
    “I am not your favorite cousin,” he said. “I know this. But I will say what I must. You don't appear to be strong enough to lead us.” He lowered his own pan bread and let it rest on his thigh. He looked into Zimp's eyes. “Although my allegiance is to Oro. I trust her completely.” He appeared to be thinking. When he looked up again, he said, “You probably couldn't tell, but she had selected you from the start. Zora was a front while you were being trained in the dark arts.”
    “That's not true,” Zimp said.
    “I wish it were not true, but I am not mistaken. I can see clearly when it comes to warrior training.”
    “I don't want it to be true.”
    Arren picked up his bread and stood. “Should Oro die, you can choose another,” he said before walking off.
    Zimp watched him go. He hated her, she thought. He'd listen to Oro as long as she was alive, but he had already begun to take over. Once the clan recognized him as surrogate leader for Oro, it would be a small thing for him to continue in the lead. Zimp didn't want to expend the energy it would take to expunge Arren's apparent need to command. The intuitive arts took silence and a softness of spirit. How did Oro balance the external demands of energy necessary for leadership with the meditation and quiet needed for communication with other realms? Zimp wished that Oro would choose someone else.
    After eating her pan bread, Zimp sat with her legs stretched toward the Lorensak River as it licked at the pebbles in front of her. Not farfrom the shore the river current raged southward toward City Raldern, the economic center of Brendern. The water appeared to run smoothly, but Zimp knew that had she stepped several feet into the river from where she sat, the undercurrent would drag her violently down to a rocky bed and most likely drown her before delivering her downstream. That, she thought, was what Oro possessed. Even the thought of trying to maintain such a character exhausted her.

4
    NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE LORENSAK RIVER, at the Brendern Eastlake spill, many tributaries spread over almost a mile of shallow swamp interrupted by mounds of dry dirt and stone outcroppings. Only one wagon got stuck while crossing the River. It took an hour of digging, shoving, and dragging to separate it from the bottom silt. Dozens of men and women lay on the ground around the wagon, resting for a moment. The sun blazed horizontally in the shimmering distance, still hot in the clear sky.
    “We're ready,” Zimp alerted Oro.
    Oro rolled to her side and glanced down at Zimp standing outside the wagon. “I don't like camping in the open. We need trees so that our guards can perch high and see far.”
    “I'm sure Arren will feel the same way,” Zimp said.
    “Arren has taken more than his share of command today,” Oro responded in anger. “Go and tell him that we will camp at the edge of Brendern Forest this evening if we have to travel several hours into the night to do so.”
    Zimp jumped from the wagon. She knew where to find Arren. At the head of the caravan. Up the hill. Zimp pushed forward into a jog.
    Arren must have seen her coming. He waved two of his brothers away as she approached. He stood firm.
    “Oro said that we travel to the edge of Brendern Forest before we stop. Even if we travel through the dark.”
    “I was just saying the same thing,” he said.
    “You didn't send anyone to Oro?”
    “Anyone would have made the same decision. I didn't need her approval for what was obvious.” A strained smile crossed his face.
    “We camp when we reach the forest,” Zimp said before leaving.
    A short distance from him, Zimp allowed her body to