Healer's Touch (17 page)

“You really should go, too,” said Alvaro. “This could get messy.”

“I expect it will,” she stated coolly. “But Aris took me on to help, so I’m helping. Besides, four against however many is always going to be better than three.”

“Damn it, Llew! You’re as pig-headed as any boy, but I’ll not have you getting hurt again. Those ain’t street urchins back there–”

“You won’t have
what
?” Her voice reached an octave she would not have imagined herself capable of. “If you hadn’t noticed, I’m fine! And for your information–”

“Children! Enough!” Jonas shouted, his gruff voice making Llew jump and feel as if she really was a child.

Alvaro slapped the flat of his sword against the rump of Llew’s mount, and it whinnied in protest and bolted – unfortunately, back toward Stelt. Somehow Llew managed to maintain her seat and, grabbing her horse’s mane, tried to pull in the slack reins. The horse wrestled against her efforts, fighting to regain his head. She finally pulled him up a few yards from seven riders coming from the direction of Stelt.

As she looked into the startled, angry eyes of one of the men, Llew was flanked by Alvaro and Jonas; she sensed Cassidy approach from behind.

“We just want the girl.” The front rider looked a little confused as he took in the group, finally nodding at Llew.

“I suggest you keep ridin’,” Cassidy said softly.

The man looked past Llew.

“You killed many men, boy?”

“Have you?” Jonas asked. He raised his loaded crossbow until it pointed directly at the leader’s head.

The man swallowed. “You got to understand. There’s a lot o’ money involved, and he said he weren’t gonna hurt her . . . ”

Out of the corner of her eye Llew caught the slight shake of Jonas’ head.

“But there are seven of us,” the leader said.

“That’s what the last lot said,” said Cassidy. “You remember how many of them survived, Al?”

The leader was starting to look nervous.

“I dunno, two?” said Alvaro.

The leader half smiled, apparently liking those odds. Llew guessed he was forgetting that it was often the leader of a group that went down first. At that thought, Llew wasn’t so fond of her position front and centre.

The group of riders split as though at a pre-arranged signal to encircle Llew and her friends, and Llew realised she was between Jonas and the leader of the Stelt riders. She spun to look at him, and a chill ran through her. The crossbow was pointed directly at her.

He fired and the bolt breezed by her ear. She turned to see the crossbow bolt sunk deep in the skull of the leader. The man’s eyes lost focus and he slumped in his saddle. His horse took fright at the change of weight and bolted down the road, with the dead man sliding from the saddle to be dragged like a rag doll toward Osurnu.

Jonas threw down the spent weapon so that it hung from the strap attached to his saddle, grabbed two knives from his waist coat and threw them into two riders closer to him.

Llew tried to get her bearings. She held the knife Jonas had given her at the ready and turned her horse, looking for a target while trying not to become one. Alvaro was locked in a sword-fight with one of the Stelt riders. Llew was enthralled as Alvaro disentangled his sword from his opponent’s and took a swipe at the man. The Stelt man parried the blow and swiftly brought his own sword back into play, aiming a strike at Alvaro’s body. Alvaro’s horse swung him out of harm’s way, giving him time to regain his balance and deflect the strike. An arrow pierced the chest of Alvaro’s assailant and the man slid from his horse, hitting the dusty road with a dull thud, followed by the metallic clatter of sword and coins. Alvaro nodded to his cousin and engaged the next opponent.

Cassidy threw his bow aside, now useless in the close fight, but even as he drew his short sword one of the men rode in and swung at him, hacking a blade into his side and slicing it out again. Llew gasped and her own insides wrenched as a look of shock entered Cassidy’s crystal blue eyes. He fell from his saddle. His horse moved out of the fray, but remained close. At once a knife shot through the air to pierce the throat of Cassidy’s attacker. Blood spewed from his neck and mouth, his sword clattered to the road and he soon followed. Bile rose in Llew’s throat. This was far bloodier than anything she had seen before.

One of the last fighters rode hard at Jonas, sword raised ahead like a lance while a suicidal scream issued from a face contorted in fear and rage.

Llew hefted her knife as she had seen Jonas do and threw it. Handle first it hit its target and fell to the ground. The distraction was enough to cause the man to waver from his course and Jonas knocked the sword aside with his forearm and drove his knife into the man’s ribs. The rider bellowed and fell to the ground as Jonas grabbed his knife and looked for the next target.

Llew swept her eyes over the scene. Six bodies littered the ground, with the leader of the band some yards along the trail, and Alvaro was about to add the last. She looked back to the heap that was Cassidy and felt a chill run through her. He hadn’t moved. She kicked her horse into action and steered him closer, before swinging down from the saddle. She knelt by him and was reassured to see he was still breathing. He opened his eyes and turned his head, trying a weak smile; then he grimaced in pain. Blood pooled on the road by his midriff.

Jonas and Alvaro joined her and Alvaro lifted Cassidy’s shirt, revealing a gash at his waist steadily seeping blood. There was no doubt it was a grievous wound. Llew looked to Jonas, and found no comfort. Cassidy laughed, and grimaced again.

“How bad?” he managed, as Alvaro pulled his own shirt over his head and pressed the material to Cassidy’s wound.

“It might not be fatal,” Jonas said with clinical steadiness. “Depends how much blood you lose.”

“Aris will be wondering . . . what happened . . . to us.” Cassidy moved to rise.

“Stay down!” Jonas and Llew both reached out to push Cassidy back. “You’ll bleed to death.”

As Llew pushed Cassidy down, a ringing began in her ears. She looked at her hand on his collarbone: the palm tingled. She pulled it back and her ears and skin fell silent. She didn’t know what it meant, but she was willing to try anything for Cassidy, so she reached out to touch his skin again.

Cassidy looked at her questioningly as her fingers began to burn. Her ears buzzed again, and her eyes ached so she squeezed them shut. A bizarre sensation of hot and cold extended from her fingers, up her arm, across her chest and through the rest of her body. Her heart pounded erratically and her breathing became laboured, but she couldn’t pull back. For a moment she felt as though all the blood in her body was alternately boiling and freezing; then she felt herself fall backwards.

Nausea filled her throat, so she twisted herself onto her shoulder, supporting herself with one hand as she coughed up bile. Everything ached and her body heaved. Between dry retches she breathed heavily, almost panting. She tried to open her eyes, but they were already open. She couldn’t see. As her breathing settled the solid black became black splotches.

Exhaustion overcame her and she lay back on the road. Her body hurt all over, but if she just lay back it would go away, she told herself. She closed her eyes and her breathing eased further, becoming slow and shallow. There was pain, but it would be gone soon.

Strong hands gripped her under the armpits, lifting her from the road. Her feet scraped across the stony, muddy road. She thought she heard her own voice say something about sleep and being fine, but she couldn’t remember moving her lips.

“Come on, Llew.” Jonas’ voice seemed to float through her head.

The surface under her heels changed from the loose, muddy gravel road to the softer feel of vegetation. Her shoe caught on grass and fell off.

She felt herself gently lowered amongst the cool, wet roadside plants.

* * *

Braph watched from behind the crest in the road a couple hundred paces away. Seven men. He shook his head. He had known really that he needed more to take Jonas on, but it was all he could drum up in Stelt. As a Karan himself he was worth a few men, but he wasn’t willing to risk his own skin against Jonas yet. He still didn’t know what the Syakaran’s limits were.

The only Syakara he’d known were his own father, Jonas’ mother and Jonas himself, and it wasn’t as if he made a habit of fighting his parents as a child. Besides, his father had generally been away on the battlefields. Sometimes Jonas’ mother joined him.

The boys had fought plenty as children. But Braph had five years on Jonas, and neither of them knew the Syakaran boy’s strength by the time they were separated after their parents’ deaths. It had been twelve years since the brothers had last seen each other, and Jonas had grown into his power, and no doubt the years he’d spent in the military had honed his skills. Braph had always known his brother would be a tough fight. He supposed it was lucky Jonas hadn’t been home when Braph had gone to kill him a year earlier, after all. But once he got his hands on the blood of the Syaenuk . . . His hand touched the heel of his boot where Orinia’s last crystal was buckled tight. He could use it, but it was all Braph had left of her, and now he wasn’t even sure if Jonas would go down from just one Syaenuk crystal. It might well take two, or three, to finish him. He looked back down the road at the girl who appeared so much like her mother.

For now, she was travelling in the direction he needed her to go. Of course, should Jonas decide he’d rather kill her than take her with them, Braph might have to act. He had been surprised when Jonas had helped the girl heal in Stelt, and then taken her with him. It was not at all what he’d expected, but it might just turn out for the best since this way, Braph wasn’t burdened with the girl’s care.

There was still Turhmos to consider, too. Braph had seen more messages flying up and down the telegraph system – now they were sending soldiers to find her. If they came upon Braph travelling with the girl, it wouldn’t take a particularly smart mind to work out who she was, but they would never suspect Jonas to be travelling with an Aenuk. It was the perfect cover.

And then he would just have to figure out how to get her away from Jonas once in Phyos. The opportunity would come. Braph knew it.

* * *

Llew had no sense of how long she lay there. She thought for a moment it had been a dream – or a nightmare. She scrunched her fingers, feeling the rain-wet and dead undergrowth, and was grateful for having her jacket to keep most of her dry, though the sleeves were pulled up to expose her arms to the plant-life below her.

She opened her eyes to see Cassidy and Alvaro leaning over her, both their faces smeared in blood. She turned her head and gazed at Jonas kneeling beside her. He was smiling, just. She liked the way his whole face lit up when he smiled, even when it was just a small smile like right then. She found herself smiling back groggily.

“Hey, Llew.” Alvaro spoke gently. “That was amazing.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” she breathed. Her head swam.

Cassidy beamed at her.

“Seems not killing you back in Stelt might’ve been the right choice after all,” Jonas said, and Llew was glad to rock her head to the side and gaze upon him again.

“Hooray,” she said weakly, the dream-like sensations returning.

“Alright. We’ll talk later,” said Jonas, becoming serious again as he pushed himself up. “Come on, you two. Let’s round up the horses and tidy this mess.” He stepped from her view, returning with her shoe and the knife he’d given her, before disappearing again.

Llew could hear soggy scraping noises as she lay amongst the dead grass, ferns and tree roots. She became aware of a root digging into her back, as her mind began to clear. When she was lucid enough to know what it was, she cringed and felt nauseated by the sound of her friends moving the bodies from the road. They had neither the time nor the tools to bury them. The best they could do was clear the road and push the corpses out of sight of passers-by. The carrion eaters would deal with them.

After a while, there was the clip-clop of horses approaching. She heaved a sigh and pushed herself from the ground. All three men made a move to help her, but Alvaro was there first, lifting her up and supporting her while she wiggled her foot into her shoe. Jonas brought her horse forward and they all made sure she was up and secure before mounting their own horses. While Llew didn’t like feeling useless, right then she thought she could get used to that sort of male attention. If that was what it was like to be a real girl, she might even start growing her hair.

As they turned their horses toward Osurnu, leading the captured horses from Stelt, she tried to ignore the dark stains that were testament to the battle on the road. But she couldn’t ignore the signs of what she had done, the death and destruction of everything around them, the grass brown and brittle.
Cassidy is alive.
She had to cling to that thought.

They rode in silence, Llew flanked by Jonas and Alvaro, with Cassidy on the other side of his cousin. Jonas stayed silent after discouraging the other two from harassing Llew with too many questions.

Llew cleared her head of the ugliness of the fight, keeping the memories of death there and back in Cheer at bay, and let the celebratory air from Alvaro and Cassidy flow through her.