Healer's Touch (22 page)

She found Jonas leaning against a tree near the edge of the forest cover, and positioned herself against a neighbouring tree and stared into the dark. There was little to see.

They stood in silence for a time. Even the forest around them was silent for a few minutes after Llew’s arrival, but soon tiny critters resumed skittering through the undergrowth and night birds flapped overhead, rustling the canopies as they sought their perches. Llew wondered if the birds, or any of the forest animals for that matter, took much interest in the intruding humans . . . or whatever they were. She looked across at Jonas, barely visible in the night. What was he? A Syakaran? Some sort of superman. And she a Syaenuk. Some sort of healer. But a killer, too. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, forget that.

She thought he spoke.

“What?”

“Her name was Kierra.”

Llew took a moment to realise who he meant. She didn’t know what to say. What if he’d still loved her but Aris had insisted he spread himself around? No wonder he had been so quick to shut her down when she’d joked about going to Turhmos. He knew firsthand what it was like to be valued for
what
he was over
who
he was. Still, if he was so strong, why did he have to do what Aris told him if he didn’t want to?

Silence reigned once more.

“I didn’t mean to . . . insult you. I’m sure you loved her.”

He didn’t reply.

“Jonas?” she asked into the night.

“Hmm?”

She shaped the question, rolled it over, and tried to massage it into something easy to say. But there was no nice way to ask. “Would you kill me if I asked you to?”

Jonas was silent.

The scratch of stubbly chin on jacket collar reached Llew’s ears before his voice emerged. “Would you ask me to?”

Llew released her breath. She didn’t know what she had been holding it for. Had she thought he would say
Yes
and lunge at her right then and there? Had she thought he would say
No
, possibly meaning that he simply couldn’t do it? Instead he’d asked her a question, and one she couldn’t answer.

“I don’t know. I healed Cassidy. That’s a good thing, right?”

“It was a great thing.”

“But that girl . . . ”

“I know.”

It was another long while before Jonas spoke again.

“Llew, do you remember what you said before we left Osurnu, about never makin’ the same mistake again?”

Llew nodded, then realised that he probably couldn’t see it in the dark. “Yes.”

“We made a mistake. We won’t make it again.”

Her tree was covered in moss and the cold dampness seeped through her jacket and shirt. She shivered as moisture spread across her back, and she wrapped her arms about herself and let her body try to warm itself with erratic muscle twitches.

Jonas pushed away from his tree and came to her.

“Here.” He guided an arm behind her, gently pushing her away from the tree, then slid in behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. “Better?”

She could feel the knives in his leather vest digging into her back. At least she wasn’t against the damp tree any more, and didn’t have to grow tired free-standing. And he did create a warm patch against the side of her neck. That was enough. She nodded, his whiskers scratching her cheek.

“You loved him, didn’t you?”

“Who?”

Llew supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. Whatever Jonas felt for Braph as a child was well and truly gone now.

He didn’t return to camp when it was Llew’s turn for watch and the two of them stood in silence for another couple of hours. It was comforting having the company, and much warmer.

She woke Cassidy for his watch, and Jonas was waiting by his bedroll when she came to climb into her own. Without a word, he invited her to join him. She didn’t need to be asked twice: it was freezing, after all. Removing shoes and jackets they slid in close beside each other and she was soon fast asleep.

She was rudely awakened by a boot to the thigh.

“Get up,” Aris commanded.

Llew and Jonas untangled themselves from bedding and each other.

“I thought I told you–”

“We was just sharin’ heat, Aris. It was nothin’,” said Jonas.

“She can cuddle with Cassidy.”

“I’ll do it,” Alvaro piped up from by the fire.

“There you go, Alvaro will have her.” Aris turned back to them with a satisfied smile, which vanished in an instant. “No more.” Aris waved a finger between them and went to turn away.

“Because I’m Aenuk, is that it?” She sensed the look Jonas gave her and it almost made her smile. She was standing up to his commanding officer, something he himself would probably never do. His respect for authority would make him a fine soldier, she was sure, but it would also mean a life of others making his decisions for him.

Aris turned back slowly.

“What?”

“Is your problem that I am Aenuk, or that I’m
not
Karan?”

Aris pressed his lips together. He clearly didn’t know what to say, and Llew knew then she was right. Jonas could sleep with whoever he, or Aris, chose. Just not her.

“Llew–” Jonas put a hand on her arm.

“Just do as I say. You and him. Will . . . not . . . happen,” Aris said, and turned away again.

Llew threw up her hands. “Well, that’s just stupid,” she said at Aris’ back. He either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her. Turning to Jonas, she said, “What if we were destined to fall in love?”

“The folk I love end up dead,” Jonas stated flatly, and low enough not to be overheard.

Llew gaped at him. She had meant it as a joke.

“In case you’ve forgotten, I can’t die. Not permanently, anyway.”

“Yes, you can. And, in case
you
forgot, everyone I loved ended up with
my
blade through ’em.” His eyes blazed and his hand hovered by the handle at his hip. “I ain’t about to go fallin’ in love with some Aenuk street girl we met in Cheer. Best you get used to that idea.”

“That’s fine. I wasn’t looking for love. Whatever gave you that idea? You think that just ’cause I’m a girl and you’re a big, strong, good-looking man, I’m going to trip all over myself trying to win your heart? What makes you think I even need a man? Even one as–” She hesitated. “–like you. I can look after myself.”

They stood glaring at each other. Anya, Emylia, Cassidy, and Alvaro were watching intently, fully engrossed in the drama.

“So you’re just going to marry someone of Aris’ choosing to make baby Syakarans?”

Jonas shook his head. It wasn’t a denial; it was simply an end to the conversation.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The farther north they went, the more Llew realised how isolated Cheer was: it seemed like a town on the edge of the world. Now they could spend nearly every night indoors and were even able to pause for the occasional lunch in a town. The food became more varied, too, and Llew enjoyed meals of stewed chicken steeped in spices, accompanied by a range of vegetables she had never had the pleasure of tasting before. The others, more worldly-wise, explained that the south of Aghacia just didn’t have the same density of population, natural resources, nor the opportunities for trade that the north did.

Aris kept a close eye on the telegraph semaphore towers, deciphering the codes flying up the country. Soldiers from Turhmos had arrived in Ryaen several days earlier and they would cross paths with Aris’ band in less than a week. There was little they could do to avoid the potential confrontation. They had to keep moving and couldn’t afford to hide out until the soldiers had gone through, as they still had to get Anya to Rakun and, no doubt, still had Braph on their tail. Aris just hoped the soldiers would be inexperienced enough not to recognise him and Jonas this far from home.

“What would happen if they did? Recognise you, I mean,” Llew asked when Aris warned them of the upcoming meeting as they were preparing to head out for the day.

“I’d have to kill ’em,” said Jonas.

Llew watched him a moment longer, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

“What, all of them?”

The flick of an eyebrow before he swung into his saddle was the full extent of his reply. Llew took that as a yes.

She grew wary as soon as the large contingent of mounted men appeared in the distance later that day, and she became doubly so when Jonas sat up straight in his saddle.

“Is that them?”

Jonas nodded. “Don’t do or say nothin’. They’re here for you,” he said, pulling his jacket over his knives and tipping his hat down to partially obscure his face.

After witnessing Jonas’ success against the Zaki warrior, and (more or less) seeing him down the men in Stelt, she only held the smallest doubt that he could kill all the approaching men if he needed to. Llew shuddered.

Rather than moving to one side of the road, the soldiers split, surrounding them. They rode past Llew and Jonas, eyeing the pair, but riding on. Jonas somehow managed to look relaxed; he could have been sleeping. He didn’t look like someone hiding his identity at all. Llew cocked her head slightly, tuning in to the murmurs of the passing soldiers while concentrating on appearing as relaxed as Jonas.

She estimated that the leading soldiers had passed the carriage and would be moving past Cassidy and Alvaro who, she hoped, wouldn’t arouse suspicion at all, being neither from Quaver nor Turhmos. The soldiers further back in the group were more at ease, and a couple even gave her a polite nod and smile, but she didn’t relax until the sounds of horses and riders faded well into the distance. She risked a glance over her shoulder to see that the soldiers were behind them and then she turned a smile on Jonas. They were free.

Aris warned them to remain vigilant a few days later when he deciphered a message heading back to Turhmos stating that the soldiers had seen the devastation Llew had caused near Osurnu, and were confident the Aenuk was no longer in Cheer. If fact, it seemed they had plans to hurry back north to Ryaen.

***

Travelling as far as they could each day, they arrived in Ryaen just under a week later, confident that the soldiers from Turhmos were at least several days behind them; there had been no further signs of Braph. For perhaps half a day, Llew could forget the trouble coming for her.

They arrived in Ryaen in time for lunch at a small bakery before heading for the docks. When Aghacia had been settled, Cheer had been the place to go for the gold in its hills. Ryaen was where that gold had gone to, if it didn’t carry on across to Phyos, and it showed. What wooden buildings there were, were taller, cleaner, stronger. Many of the buildings were made of stone or shaped concrete. The dresses were long, the necklines high, and the waists tight. The hats were tall, the watches shiny. There was money here, and Llew wondered why her father had felt the need to take her all the way to Cheer. To be farther away from Phyos, she supposed. She couldn’t argue with that logic.

The Ryaen docks clamoured with activity. All here was wooden: a boardwalk with individual piers and jetties jutting out into the turbulent water, boathouses, storage buildings, the ever-present bars, and the always expected brothels. Baskets of fish, crabs, and creatures Llew had never seen before were pulleyed down from ships, and men called to each other, competing with the crying gulls, while they hauled on ropes and shifted crates. A young boy sat on an upturned barrel, mending a net and shooing sea birds away. Another boy aimed a sling at one of the birds, missed, and swore. The wind whipped along the dock, channelling between buildings and boats and carrying the stench of the sweaty men and the pungent cargoes with it. Waves crashed into the wharf, soaking anyone too close.

“Great day for sailing,” said Aris. Llew wasn’t sure if he was being serious. She knew little of seafaring, but supposed that the wind could be a good thing, snapping sails into taut semi circles, straining masts and the ropes keeping the vessels in port, but the heaving swells unsettled her.

Llew turned at a shout to see the net-fixing boy running after the bird-shooting boy, a large red welt on his temple.

They headed for a huge ship docked at a comparatively clean pier; at least it was lighter on fish offal and the accompanying smell. Despite the waves breaking around it, the ship sat low in the water and rolled little. Llew’s fears eased. Behind the sails, two huge chimneys breathed black smoke across the harbour, and Llew felt even more inclined to agree with Aris’ assessment of the wind.

People made their way up the gangplank while burly men helped lift luggage and other cargo into place and led horses into the hold. Llew was glad she was allowed to take her mount across to Phyos with her. She felt that they had come to know each other and she hoped that she could keep him at the end of the journey. She had even named him: Amico.

Then a figure caught her eye, and a chill ran through her. Standing in the shadows of the ship was a man, his long coat whipping around his body. They hadn’t seen Braph since Stelt, but there he was, letting them know they wouldn’t be leaving Aghacia alone. She looked at Jonas. He nodded, acknowledging that he’d seen Braph, too. Llew looked back for the figure, but he had gone.