The Seer (Tellaran Series) Read Online Free PDF

father recounted stories of the princes and honored Seers of the court and a king who ruled over a golden age . . .
    Jolar signed inwardly.
    Maybe it is just Father and his fanciful tales.
    But maybe I just want more than anything to believe that’s she really is just a frightened young woman with hauntingly beautiful eyes, lost and alone, that I need to protect, need to take care of.
    Jolar passed his hand over his eyes. Oh, hell, I really should be afraid.
    And she’s not the only obligation I have to honor.
    “I understand the risks,” he said gravely.
    Dacel made one final tap on his desk. “All right. She’ll get the non-telepath ID, a good amount of money and her freedom but only if she helps you—truly helps—or she gets nothing. Make sure she understands.” Dacel’s gray eyes went hard. “Make sure you do too, Jolar. If she impedes your mission in any way—”
    “She won’t,” Jolar said quickly. “My first duty is, as always, to the Realm.”
    And whatever crazy thoughts I’m having about her, whatever this insane attraction is, I can push them aside. I can focus on what I need to do.
    She doesn’t get to me.
    Not ever.
    His comm unit signaled and he pulled it from his pocket. “This is d’Tural.”
    “Jolar,” Jensah’s voice was grim. “We’ve got a problem.”

Four

     
    Arissa drew her legs to her chest and rested her cheek on her knees, curled around herself for warmth. Her cell contained the lumpy cot she sat on, a ‘fresher unit and a sink. She’d been locked in here for hours. It was long past midnight now—maybe even the wee hours of the night. Exhaustion was dragging at her but she couldn’t sleep.
    Fleet Security had taken the stolen badge, her clothes and her shoes. The FleetSecs gave her too-large coveralls of cheap, itchy material to wear but they wouldn’t give her a blanket against the chill. She was barefoot; the floor was too icy to rest her feet on and the overhead lights were annoyingly bright, but at least the FleetSecs took the wrist restraints off before they locked her in here.
    The beige walls were bare and there were no windows to the outside. The cell door had a single thick window and every now and again one of the tan uniformed FleetSecs would appear there and peer at her through the plexisteel, but none entered or spoke to her. They wouldn’t respond to her questions either. She wondered why they bothered to do a visual check at all. Surely she was being watched via security eye.
    She wondered bleakly if the reason she was still alive was to give that doctor a chance to study a real live subject.
    Execution or a lifetime of rooming with the blood plague? Hard to say which sounded worse, really.
    Arissa raised her head.
    Someone was coming for her.
    TelSec.
    She swallowed back tears. She’d done a lot of that in the last eight months.
    Her parents had worked so hard, given up so much, just to keep her alive. She hadn’t been able to survive alone for even a year.
    She closed her eyes briefly. I’m sorry. I tried.
    The door lock released and the heavy door slid open.
    Arissa blinked.
    "Surprised a Seer," Jolar said from the doorway. "Guess not many people have ever gotten to say they did that."
    He was alone and she couldn’t sense the guards anywhere nearby either now. "What—what are you doing here?"
    The anger in his sense glowed in his blue eyes. "You were supposed to wait for me. Did you think I wasn't coming back?"
    "I knew you would.” She wet her lips. “I just wasn't sure what you would do when you did."
    "Did it occur to you that whatever I was going to do, I might’ve wanted to do it quietly? You made a real mess for me tonight.”
    “I wasn’t trying to get caught, you know,” she said tightly. “Your doctor friend must have found me gone and called the gate to stop me.”
    “I called the gate.” His glance went over her. “Did they hurt you?”
    “ You called them?” she cried, on her feet now despite the frigid duracrete floor.