I Can See Clearly Now Read Online Free

to Gate you
to the Sherim? We’d better get moving.” She pushed Van Raighan
forward again and he stumbled right into Pollack’s chest. The
Sherriff grabbed him clumsily. Pevan continued, “Try not to lose
him again, Sherriff. I won’t always be here to clean up your
mess.”
    Van Raighan
yelped as Pollack’s eyes bulged, the Sherriff’s arm tightening
across his captive’s chest. Pevan gave them a sweet smile, head
tilted to one side, then took Rel’s arm and pointed at the rough
stone of the nearest wall. “You need your bag, Rel?”
    Rel was always
surprised by how soft his sister’s hands were, even through the
fabric of his shirt. And small, with fine fingers. The only
feminine feature she possessed, he was sure. He swallowed. “No
time.”
    Pevan nodded,
and a Gateway appeared on the wall. They stepped through and out
under a bridge. In front of them the canal surface rippled with
rain. Rel knew where they were - still a good mile and a half from
the Sherim.
    “Pev-“
    “You know it’s
a bad idea to Gate directly to the Sherim, Rel. For that matter,
you know it’s a bad idea to go twice in the same day.” Pevan put
her hands on her hips again, fixing him with a glare as if he was
just out to make mischief.
    “It’s not like
I have a choice.” He looked around nervously, but apart from a
faint shimmer around Pevan’s head, there was nothing to worry
about. If that was all her disapproval, then either the Sherim was
quiet today or she secretly approved. And Pevan never approved of
anything he did, even when it was obviously the right thing to do.
At least a quiet Sherim meant it was safe to talk for a moment or
two.
    She winced, “I
know. Will you go all the way to the Court?”
    “Better safe
than sorry. Can’t you get me any closer to the Sherim?”
    “Be careful.”
She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, and Rel
found himself clenching his fists as he grabbed her. Too late to
back out now, but this was stupid. If the Second Realm itself
didn’t find some inventive new way to kill him, the Wildren would
get him, and if they didn’t he’d have to come back to Dora. If he
was lucky, she’d only skin him alive metaphorically. If she came
back herself from whatever she’d been doing.
    In the wall of
the bridge, the Gateway twisted. The swirling wrongness of the
Sherim was visible beyond the opening, but the surface of the Gate
rippled, distorting the image. Reluctantly, Rel let his sister go,
and pointed at the Gateway.
    “Is that
normal?”
    “Up here?
That’s calm. Get going, I feel like my brain’s turning to
soup.”
    Rel took a deep
breath and took a step towards the Gateway. Normally, stepping
through was like stepping through a doorway, but his hair stood on
end just being close to it. He closed his eyes and walked through,
trying to fight down a shudder.
    The Sherim
looked like an ordinary wooden door, standing upright without a
frame on the wind-swept grass. To either side, the ground fell
away, to the Federas valley on one side and towards Nursim on the
other. Ahead, the brow climbed to the low top of Aruls beyond the
Sherim. Not that you could walk a step past the Sherim in that
direction.
    The Gift made
Rel’s eyes ache as he walked down to the door, and he stifled a
yawn. Focussing on the door kept his attention off the strangeness
at the corners of his vision, but he was used to it anyway; the
slopes to either side, if glanced at carelessly, seemed to ripple,
almost to flap like wings.
    A few feet
short of the door, Rel stopped, turned to his right, and began to
circle it. This wasn’t the only Sherim to be marked by a door - the
clash between first- and second-realm logic threw up some strange
patterns - but at none of them did one open the door to pass
through. Some doors simply didn’t open; some, like this one, would,
but all anyone would tell Rel was that there were dire consequences
for doing so.
    He let himself
dwell on that as he passed round the