Healer's Touch (11 page)

Aris looked at her appraisingly. “Your folks weren’t too fond of lessons, huh?”

“My pa taught me plenty! He taught me metal shaping, he taught me how to handle horses and he taught me bookkeeping. That I haven’t had to use any of that since he left ain’t his fault.”

Aris raised a hand, chuckling. “Alright. Sorry I said anything.”

“And he told me about the Aghacian Alps. How they’re not all just mountains, some are volcanoes and a lot of the Aghacian rocks came from there.”

“Well then, he certainly knew his geology. But didn’t he tell you about where you came from?”

“I came from Quaver.”

Aris paused a moment, taken aback. “Huh. Interesting. Then I suppose it’s by the by to tell you that Aghacia was actually settled by folk from way off to the west. You’d think Phyos would’ve got here first, wouldn’t you?”

“I suppose.”

“Yes, well, it might not matter much to you, but to someone such as Anya it can matter a great deal. Her ancestors came from the motherlands. Same place a lot of Phyos folk came from, especially Brurun. I can trace
my
family back out west. And probably Cass and Alvaro can, too. Jonas, well he’s all Quaven. But for the rest of us, it’s good to think about where we came from now and then.”

Llew didn’t know what to say. She knew nothing beyond her parents having moved to Quaver before she was born. Beyond that, she was ignorant. She’d never felt bad about it before, though.

“Right.” Aris clapped his hands together. “Ladies first. You boys settle the horses while Anya and Emylia take a swim. Jonas, scout the area, make sure we aren’t steppin’ on any toes. Take Llew with you.”

Alvaro’s face fell so fast Llew caught the flicker out the corner of her eye. She ignored him. Jonas was the one who would kill her, Jonas was the one she needed to stay on the right side of. What she really needed from Alvaro was to forget what he’d seen so she could get to Rakun, receive her payment from Aris and strike out on her own.

Jonas caught her attention and indicated for her to follow.

“Guess you’ll be swimmin’ with the boys, then,” he said as they stepped among the trees surrounding their camp, and then laughed at Llew’s surprised expression.

She followed him, stepping over ferns and ducking under low lichen-covered branches while he checked the area for tracks or signs of Zaki dwelling nearby. Her thoughts of what would happen when they returned to camp for their turn to swim tripped over themselves. It was too hot to sit on the sidelines, but she couldn’t risk swimming with them all.

“What do I do? Just strip off and say ‘Surprise, everybody, I’m a girl’?” she said, looking around keenly but without having any clue what they were looking for. “‘Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner’?”

“If you like,” Jonas said over his shoulder, ducking past another tree and peering into the gloom of a forest-choked bank.

“Well, thanks. A lot of help you are.” Llew scowled at his back, and kept scowling when he turned to carry on their approximately semi-circular route around the camp.

“I ain’t seein’ the problem.” He stopped, turning to face her. “Alvaro knows already and he don’t have a problem with it.” She scowled even more. He was mocking her. He wasn’t taking it seriously at all. “So, you swim with Emylia and Anya. Maybe even bunk with ’em when we stay at the next inn.”

“But they’re
girls
. And I haven’t been a girl in such a long time. I don’t know if I can handle it. Besides, I don’t even know them.”

“You don’t know me, Cass or Al, either.”

“I know you pretty well, don’t I?”

“There’s a lot you don’t know, Llew.”

“Then, tell me. You know about me.”

Jonas considered her a moment. “That’s not helpin’ you make up your mind ‘bout takin’ a swim.” He returned to the task of scouting.

“At least tell me about that gryphon. Where did it come from?”

Jonas stepped around another tree, peering into the depths of the forest once more.

“It was a gift.”

“From who?”

“Nobody.” He pushed between her and a tree to continue his scouting.

“How can I get to know you better if you won’t answer a simple question?” she asked, following him.

“Maybe you
should
tell them. I’m sure Anya would be glad of the company.”

“Urgh!” Llew couldn’t even voice her distaste for the idea. “But Anya’s such a . . . a
girl
.”

“That is the idea.”

“So we’d sit in the carriage together discussing dresses and boys, and what stories she’s going to write to her future husband along the route?” she said. “No thanks. I’d rather take my chances sharing with boys, farts and all.”

“You sure make it sound romantic.”

“Well, I don’t know much about romance. Sex, on the other hand . . . ”

Jonas’ eyes widened.

They turned at the sound of feet scuffing through the undergrowth.

“There you are,” said Alvaro, emerging from the trees. “I hope you’ve done more scouting than yakkin’. Aris said if it’s clear, we men,” he looked at Llew, “can cool off in the river before dinner. I said I’d come get you.”

“Yeah, alright.” Jonas started off back to camp. Alvaro hung back to walk beside Llew, and she focused firmly on the uncertain footing. Alvaro was dangerously close to being a problem.

Minutes later, she was lying on a rock carefully not quite watching as Alvaro and then Jonas ran up from behind her and leapt, naked, into the swimming hole. She’d decided not to join them, despite Alvaro’s pleas. He came up first, standing chest-deep and shaking the water from his hair. Jonas stayed under for a little longer, finally emerging near the water’s edge. When he stood, the water level nearly left nothing to the imagination. Llew would have admonished him for teasing her yet again, but she was awestruck by the huge tattoo curling up the left side of his torso. A collaboration of swirls in varying lengths and thicknesses contrived to fool the eyes into seeing a gryphon rising up and wrapping about his ribcage, the beak just sitting over his pectoral muscles and the wings sweeping down his back.

Alvaro looked up to see if Llew had been watching the display and his expression turned dark when it was clear she had not only seen it but was failing to hide her appreciation. Then a smile touched his lips.

“Hey, Llew. We were all scrawny teenagers once.” Llew turned to see Cassidy running straight at her, naked as the forest critters, but with less fur or feathers. “You got no excuse!”

“What–” She gasped and rose to move from his path, but he extended an arm, grabbed hers and pulled her with him – off the rock and into the air above the water, backwards.

Any other time, she might have enjoyed the moment of flight before she plummeted down. She fell deep into the water and had to put all her effort into suppressing the need to take a panicked breath while still under. She floated for a moment gaining her bearings, and then kicked and clawed her way to the surface. Exploding out of the water, gulping air and scraping hair and water from her eyes, she tried to move to where her feet reached the bottom. She fought blindly across the current, figuring that would take her closer to one of the shores.

Still gasping for air and fighting to regain her temper, but with her feet now safely supported underneath, she stood and wiped her eyes clear. Alvaro was off to one side, a finger wiggling at his ear.

“That was a scream, alright,” he said.

“It certainly was,” Cassidy agreed, mirroring his cousin and squinting in exaggerated discomfort.

Anger flooded through her. Now what was she supposed to do? If she left the water, her clinging clothes would give her away immediately. But she didn’t feel like staying in the water, not now. Evening was coming on and she would freeze as soon as the sun lowered . . . 

There was nothing for it. She simply could not enjoy a swim in the mood she was in. She turned for the bank and, letting herself feel as incensed as she thought she deserved to be, waded to the shallows, water cascading from her.

“Llew!”

She chose not to acknowledge Jonas and kept pushing her feet through the last few watery yards.

“Aw, come on, Llew. It’s just a little water,” said Cassidy.

She turned, and must have looked a sight because both cousins drew back. “Just a little water?
Just
a little
water
?!” Cassidy leaned forward again and glanced at Alvaro. Alvaro smiled. Her wet shirt clung to every bit of her. It was white, too. No doubt they could see everything. She might as well have been as naked as them. “Happy, now?”

“Llew–” Jonas took a step closer.

“Don’t you
dare
come near me until you have pants on!” She turned on her heel and exited the river. She really wanted to go back to the camp and see if Aris and the women had got the fire started because her stomach was protesting, and she hoped dinner wasn’t far from ready. But she didn’t want to return to camp in her wet, clinging clothes. Aris would see her. She’d had enough old men ogling her to last a lifetime thanks to her father’s drinking buddies. So she turned from the direction of the camp, storming through the undergrowth. Now everyone would know. Aris would wonder what they needed her for, another useless girl. They probably wouldn’t let her keep the horse, even if he hadn’t been theirs to start with, because how else could she pay for the clothes Aris had bought her?

Rage was turning to tears when Llew found herself face to face with a dark-skinned, black-haired man carrying a spear; his body, naked but for a grass skirt, was covered head to toe in black swirls. The tattoos were like the one Jonas bore, except that they didn’t hint at any sort of animal. That made them no less impressive, nor the man any less intimidating. His pectoral muscles protruded further than Llew’s breasts.

He looked her up and down, until his eyes settled on her wet shirt. A smile crept onto his lips. Llew folded her arms across her chest, but her forearms were too long to cover her small breasts without being, and looking, decidedly uncomfortable. She didn’t know where to look, other than not at him, looking up, then down and finally settling on somewhere past his left shoulder. He spoke, but she didn’t recognise the language. Then he laughed.

Leaves rustled behind her, much to her relief: one of her party had caught up.

The man spoke again. Another man answered in the same tongue behind her and Llew’s nerves constricted. Then the head of the man before her swivelled on his huge neck and his face went from angry to surprised to guarded in moments.

Jonas appeared beside her, now wearing trousers and carrying the dry clothes Llew had stolen on her way out of Cheer.

The man said something, but Jonas didn’t seem to understand either.

“She’s with me,” he said. To Llew he added, “Zaki.”

The man repeated himself, more angrily, gesturing at Jonas. Jonas stood listening, and then straightened to his full – not particularly intimidating – height and placed an arm across Llew’s shoulders, pulling her into him.

The man bristled, making himself look even bigger. Biceps and triceps bulged, thigh muscles heaved, neck and temple veins swelled.

“Alright.” Jonas removed his arm from Llew, unbuckled his knife belt, and handed it and the clothes to her. He started to turn away and then turned back, as though gauging whether he could trust her. Then he nodded and faced the man, indicating that he should put aside his spear. The man’s lips twitched and then he laughed an open-mouthed hearty laugh. If Llew had been hoping for a different outcome, she might have found the fact that Jonas was half the man’s size funny too. But Jonas merely gave the man a nod and crouched, ready for combat.

With a quick, confident glance at Llew and then past her to his companion, the Zaki leaned the spear against a tree and mirrored Jonas’ movements. Llew moved to the side, leaving as much of the small clearing to the men as possible as they circled one another. Llew didn’t know which had moved first but, at some cue visible only to them, both men lunged. Jonas twisted, the gryphon writhing, and the Zaki flew over his shoulder and into a tree. He made it look easy.

Jonas turned and waited for the man to right himself. He appeared calm and relaxed, though every muscle in his body seemed to have a life of its own, constantly moving under his skin, making it seem as though even the black gryphon was alive and ready to pounce.

Growling through his teeth, the Zaki lunged again, his powerful legs launching him at incredible speed. Llew gasped and flinched, ready for the crack of flesh on flesh, bone on bone. But it didn’t come. Instead Jonas simply caught the man, guided him over his head and sent him into another tree. Blood trickled from grazes inflicted by the tree bark and the man looked dazed; but he wasn’t ready to give up yet.

This time the Zaki feinted one way but went the other, swinging a huge arm around. Llew bit her lip, unable to tear her eyes from the huge fist aiming for Jonas’ head. Jonas managed to spin out from the fist’s trajectory, but both men went down, Jonas on his back, crushed by a mountain of Zaki warrior. Llew looked at the other Zaki who grinned from ear to ear. But Llew didn’t want to be a Zaki prize. She pleaded with whatever might listen to do something to push the fight in Jonas’ favour. A dead branch from above . . . anything.