It's Always Braph

Llew sat up, alert and fearful. And Braph’s presence disappeared, but not before leaving a lingering sense of smug triumph. Jonas pushed it down.

“He’s back?” Llew asked.

“He’s gone.” Jonas gripped her hand in reassurance, but his jaw clenched at the implications. “But he knows where we are, and that Anya’s with us.”

Anya was looking about the room as if she thought Braph might leap from a dark corner or cupboard.

“I don’t think he’s near,” Jonas tried reassuring her. “But he’s workin’ for Turhmos. He’ll tell ’em.” He tapped his temple. Anya’s eyes widened. He gave Llew a significant look. They weren’t safe here.

Llew’s fists clenched. “Damn Braph!” she exclaimed. “He’s got what he wanted. Why can’t he leave us alone?”

Jonas could only shake his head over his own lack of insight. He should’ve known his half-brother better than anyone, but he had nothing.

“He was—” Anya swallowed. “—in your head?” She looked like she wanted to be sick.

The door opened, and the others sidled in. Elka eased her medical satchel to the floor while Rowan placed a sack of bread and fruit in the middle of the table and then they didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves, and remained by the door.

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Anya. “I’m starving.” She reached into the sack, tore off a chunk of bread and handed it to Llew, then repeated for Jonas and everyone else.

“There’s not much, but it should plug a gap,” Rowan said.

Alvaro eased himself around the table and stood by the cold coal range, looking down on the three at the table as he chewed bread.

“Braph knows where we are and is probably telling Turhmos right now,” Llew said, almost achieving nonchalance.

Anya shuddered as she locked her gaze on Jonas. Likely, she was remembering the boat ride to Phyos when Braph had used her to attack Emylia. “That doesn’t make sense.” She narrowed her eyes. “Doesn’t he want to kill you himself?”

Jonas almost laughed, but remembered neither Anya nor Alvaro knew their full situation.

“He said there was no challenge in it, now that—” He flicked his gaze between Anya and Alvaro, and withdrew his hand from Llew, sitting back. “Now that I’m powerless.” He looked down; didn’t want to see what they thought of him now. He could guess. Funny how someone like Alvaro, who’d always been kind of useless, could walk around owning his space, yet Jonas felt he could shrink to nothing and he still wouldn’t be small enough.

“We saw the headlines,” Anya said. “How?”

“Braph.” Llew’s sneer resounded through the word. “It’s always Braph.”

Alvaro grunted his agreement.

Jonas glanced up to see Anya’s pity settled in at full measure and he had to look away again.

“If they have any reason to believe you’re here, they’ll tear this place apart,” Alvaro said. “They know about the bunker. We can’t hide, not this many. And not with—” His voice trailed off, but Jonas heard all that remained unspoken. Not with him . Weak and broken, he was nothing but a burden.

***

Little felt better than moving inside Orinia, especially when she made those little gasping sounds that told Braph she was enjoying herself, too. Little felt better. Perhaps only flooding his system with Immortal power compared. Now, the combination of coital bliss with one’s true love and the rush of incredible power created something akin to the greatest sensation of all time. Only one thing might be better.

Braph’s imagining of the power he could extract from the Taither tree elicited a groan of deeper satisfaction from his lover. Orin stirred in his bed roll nearby and Braph bent down to cover Orinia’s mouth with his own. He cared little about being discovered by his son, but Orinia insisted she couldn’t truly let herself go if Orin might wake, and Braph liked it when she let herself go. He teased her with his tongue, drawing hers into his own mouth, toying with it, sucking. He caressed her neck, across her shoulder, and dimpled her thigh with his flesh hand, supporting himself on his metal one, and with a thought and a slight flex of the muscles in his right arm, drew in more power and generated a vibration through his body he’d never be capable of without magical enhancements.

Orinia gasped, her eyes flying wide open. In one smooth, deft move, Braph shifted his metal hand under her head to catch it before she hit the ground and covered her exhalation with his flesh hand. He shushed her through a grin and a laugh, and kissed her cheek. Shushed her again as they flexed together in their final tremors.

They lay on the Quaven bank of the Kulverdeen River, at approximately the same spot Braph had crossed in the other direction with Llewella and Jonas more than a month earlier. While the last time the winter chill had seeped deep inside everyone and coated everything, this time the spring flourished in sync with Braph’s and Orinia’s rediscovery of each other. The last time, Braph had been powerless. This time he was more powerful than he had ever been. Last time, he’d had to make the swim through the icy cold waters. This time, he’d simply grasped a hold of his family, and they to him, and they’d flown across without dipping a toe in the water, powered by Orin’s power pumping through Braph’s veins. A much more pleasant way to travel.

Braph eased his weight off Orinia, lay his head on her shoulder, cupped her breast, toyed with a nipple, then hooked his flesh hand around her other shoulder in a somewhat awkward but still comforting hug. “How do you wish to travel today, my love? We can walk, commandeer horses from a town on the way, or we could fly again, if you prefer.”

Orinia sighed, as if she hadn’t wanted to be pulled back to reality after Braph’s ministrations. This pleased him. “The journey is pleasant.” She allowed herself a sly side-eye glance at him. “I would hate for it to be over too soon.” She sighed again. “Although, I suppose being somewhere with a bath would be even better.” She angled her head to look at him as squarely as possible with their faces so close. “Would any Quaven inn proprietors put us up for the night?”

“If they wish to be paid handsomely, they certainly will.” Braph settled in, savoring the closeness of his lover.

He drifted back to sleep in the chill morning before Orin finally awoke and they all rose to make their way deeper into Quaver. They didn’t carry bags of supplies, and Braph wasn’t about to eat bush meat. And while Orinia’s Syaenuk healing could allow her to live with little to no sustenance by mouth, Orin’s and Braph’s internally generated magics required more food than the average person. Sure, Braph’s device allowed him to make up for any lack, but that was reliant on Orin’s blood, which relied on Orin being well fed. And so, they sought the nearest town.

Quaver had towns much closer to the border as Aenuk destruction of the land was reduced compared to the Turhmos side. Braph supposed Aenuks might be more easily overpowered and killed swiftly on the Quaven side, while on the Turhmos side they would find more support, and be that bit more likely to survive while injured, to drain the surrounding landscape. However it happened, he was pleased to reach a small town within half a day where he and his family could enjoy a midday meal hearty enough to make up for the missed breakfast.

Orinia’s pale skin earned her more than a few wary glances, while Braph bore enough of a resemblance to his brother to elicit double takes, as well as awe and confused wonder. When he folded his metal hand over his flesh arm, the wonder might be blended with, or entirely obliterated by, horror. Regardless, all that mattered was that they be well fed and watered, and Braph paid handsomely to ensure Orinia could bathe unmolested.

Once sated and cleansed, Braph allowed their trio to rest awhile in the restaurant-bar, and while Orinia played cards with Orin, Braph sat back and closed his eyes, once more reaching out across the lands with his mind.

The land was vast and the automatons miniscule, but Braph knew them just as well as he knew his brother, and he could calculate their likely location based on their trajectory and speed. While they must have already arrived in Quaver, deposited their first load and departed again, there was no sense of urgency or distress in the Quavens Braph and his family had crossed paths with. Given that less than two hundred of Quaver’s thousands of Kara would be infected, so far, Braph wasn’t surprised. Besides, the concentration of Kara in and around Taither likely served to draw the critters on and past any individual Kara near the border. Braph was confident that the mood in Taither would be quite different by the time he arrived. Chaos would free him to focus on tapping into the Ajnai without interference.

Scanning the northern Turhmos landscape, the energy signature of the automatons front of mind, he located a group of four south of the border. Hmm. He supposed if one or two had hunted deeper into Quaver than the others, they may remain separated for the rest of the journey. A nuisance for Nilv, no doubt, but of little consequence for Braph, really. So long as his man did his job.

Stretching out his awareness like this was taxing. Too taxing to make it worth seeking the final two flying critters. He simply had to have faith in his own genius. His creations worked. They would return home to be refueled and reloaded. They were ingenious magical devices within the well-oiled machine that was his life.

Orinia caught his eye, and they shared a smile.

He was a blessed man.

***

Llew stood and sidled out from the table, looking around at each of her companions. “Jonas and I can’t run. Nowhere’s safer for us than right here.” All the pain of losing Merrid and Ard, and her anger at Braph’s violation of their sanctuary, settled into cool resolve. “We’re backed into a corner. We’ve no choice but to fight. We need you. All of you.” She made a point to look at Alvaro. He was no Jonas, but at least he could fight. “But I can’t ask any of you to give your lives for something you don’t believe in. If you go now, you should be free to do so. Turhmos has no reason to hurt any of you.”

Rowan, Elka, and Alvaro stood impassive, unmoved by Llew’s words. Anya opened her mouth to speak, but, surrounded by silence, she retreated.

“We’re in.” Rowan glanced at Elka, who nodded. “I mean, if that wasn’t obvious from, you know, racing out of our ma’s house with you.” Rowan flashed a smile and looked at his sister for confirmation. Elka nodded again. “Anything you need,” Rowan finished.

“Thanks. We could definitely use your practical skills, and Elka’s medical knowledge. We need Alvaro’s sword, if you’ll lend it. And Anya …”

“You need a friend. Someone who will root for you every step of the way; make sure you’ve eaten and can focus on what’s important,” Anya said. “I’m here for you.”

Llew was overwhelmed by the love in the room, and the sense of dread. Alone, she’d needed no one. Now, she didn’t know how she could ever go back to that. She used to think that needing others signified weakness, but here, now, basking in the support of her friends, she didn’t think she’d ever felt stronger. Still, she couldn’t deny an uneasiness that she didn’t know what she might end up leading them all into. The bodies hanging outside were a powerful indicator, along with a source of pain that cut so deep Llew had to fight the urge to curl up in a corner just to remain standing and take up the mantle of leadership the situation demanded.

Her gaze rested on Jonas slumped across the table. One step at a time. First: Save Jonas.

“Help me get him out to the tree.”

Rowan moved immediately to help, scooping Jonas from the bench seat, while Llew collected Jonas’s crutch, and they ran to the nearest Ajnai that wasn’t dead from Llew’s efforts to revive Ard a couple of weeks earlier. Rowan did his best to lean Jonas against a trunk. The wait for Elka to hobble across the cartway was almost unbearable. Anya walked beside her.

Alvaro placed himself just off to the side, a scowl darkening his face. “This is one of those trees.”

“That’s right.” Llew murmured.

Alvaro’s eyes darted from Jonas slumped at the base of the tree to Llew to Elka and Anya. “Well, don’t you just touch him now? And it works?”

“He’s Karan. We have to do it differently.”

Elka placed her satchel down and dug around inside for a syringe, her hands covered in leather gloves.

Alvaro’s scowl turned perplexed. “But last time— I mean, didn’t you just—” He vaguely mimicked Llew grasping Cassidy and Jonas’s wrists, as she had to keep them alive long enough to get them to the Ajnai, while trying not to destroy too much of the Turhmosian landscape.

“It’s different now.” Llew loosened her sleeve, rolling it to expose her inner elbow where Braph had always extracted her blood from previously. Elka approached with the syringe. She couldn’t balance in a crouch, but she managed to sit herself down beside Llew and arrange her legs in a way that was comfortable for her.

“Pump your fist, like this.” Elka demonstrated opening and closing her hand and Llew copied. “There,” Elka said after a few squeezes, and pointed with the needle to a blue line beneath Llew’s skin. Llew took a deep breath, preparing herself for the bite. “Ready?” Elka looked up at Llew. Llew nodded and turned her head, hoping to reduce her experience of the minor pain if she didn’t see the needle pierce her.

A moment later, she felt it and was then able to watch Elka suction the blood into the vial.

“What is this?” Alvaro stood over them. “You never had to do that before.”

“This is how Kara can use Aenuk blood to heal themselves.”

Vial full, Elka withdrew the needle, paused, and looked at Llew. “Does it matter where it goes?”

Llew was struck by the question from her medical expert, but of course Elka had never taken part in this particular remedy before. For a moment, Llew even doubted her own knowledge, but she thought back to what she knew of Braph’s devices, and the few times they’d used the needles themselves. “Into his bloodstream. A vein …”

Elka shuffled closer to Jonas, syringe held aloft, while Llew pressed her hand to the tree, closing her tiny wound and refilling her blood vessels. The tingling lasted little more than an instant. She pushed off the tree and crawled to Jonas’s side as Elka slid the needle into a prominent vein on the back of his hand. Llew spared a glance for their audience. Rowan watched with intense fascination. Anya looked vaguely horrified. Alvaro watched with a stern expression that didn’t entirely give away what he was thinking, but Llew could guess. And he wasn’t going to like her answer.

Elka depressed the plunger slightly, then paused.

“What are you doing?” Llew asked.

“If it bruises, I got it wrong.”

Llew studied the spot where the needle disappeared under Jonas’s skin. She could see nothing. She looked up. The day’s shadows were muted under an overcast sky. She had no idea how much blood Jonas would require to be merely normal again, and get him through the night.

Elka continued to depress the plunger and withdrew the needle. Llew presented her arm again and, once Elka had refilled the vial, pressed her hand to the tree again.

“No. There’s something you’re not telling me,” Alvaro said. “Why do you need to do that? It worked differently last time.”

Anya reached a hand in his direction, but didn’t touch him.

“It’s because I’m not pregnant anymore. Okay?” Llew’s heart ached to have to say it, the loss still raw, but she didn’t have the energy to say anything but the truth.

Alvaro stared at her for a few moments, then turned and stormed off.

“I could … talk to him …” Anya said.

“Let him go.” Llew presented her arm for Elka again.

They injected two more vials before Llew clung to the tree a little longer, willing it to be sure she held no injury, then moved to Jonas’s side and took up his hand and stroked the thumb of her other across his forehead. “Come on. You can do this.”

He looked back at her, listless.

“Don’t worry about your leg, yet. Let’s get some energy back.”

“I don’t—” He stopped to swallow and take a deep breath. “I don’t know what n— needs fixin’.”

“What did Braph tell you the first time?” Llew hated to turn to Braph for wisdom, and yet, if it hadn’t been for him, they wouldn’t know how to help Jonas or any other Karan. “You just need to feel better. Maybe that’s all you need to do. Think about how you want to feel.”

Jonas puffed out a frustrated breath. “It’s too much, Llew. I’m tired.”

Llew wasn’t about to admit to everyone the terror screaming through her at the thought Jonas might be too weak to heal himself. He had to heal himself. He was Karan. There was no other option.

“More blood.” She nodded to Elka and extended her arm.

A couple more vials of blood and Llew was almost certain Jonas’s eyes looked more alive. “Keep doing what you’re doing,” she urged, then moved around him, and knelt by his shortened limb, unpinned the cut end of his trouser leg, slid it up over the bandage and set about unwrapping his stump. “Let’s see if we can’t fix this, hey?”

The end of the bandage slipped away from his stump. Anya gasped, but otherwise kept her reaction in check. And Llew presented her arm again.

“Think,” she said to Jonas. “Remember at the Ajnai how you healed a bone, and all those cuts and grazes. This is partly done already. You just need to finish it.”

Jonas nodded and kept concentrating. When Llew pressed her hand to the tree again she sensed fear alongside the healing tingle and closed her eyes in acknowledgment. This tree had done all it could. She presented her arm again for Elka, then moved to the next tree in line to close the hole and replace the blood.

“Rowan, time to put your thinking hat on.”

“My—?” He rolled his eyes as if trying to see the top of his own head and patted it with a hand.

Llew laughed, even as Elka jabbed the needle home again and Jonas’s lack of progress filled her stomach with dread. She lunged back to the new tree, healed, and scurried back to Jonas. She raised his stump, inspecting the wounds where Raena had stitched the skin flaps closed, and she thought— Yes … She brushed fingers over some of the stitching, and it fell away, pushed through and out of his skin. “It’s working!” She cared little if her manic joy showed.

Jonas smiled, and there was a strength behind it he’d lacked the past couple of days. A part of Llew wanted to jump up, whoop with triumph and punch the air, but there was still so much to do. She placed a hand on Jonas’s shoulder and said, “We’ll do this every day, if we have to.”

She returned her attention to Rowan as Elka drew more blood. “We have to fit Jonas with a way for him to have a constant supply of my blood, like Braph’s crystals, but I don’t know how we’ll make them out here.”

Rowan nodded, watching Elka inject Jonas. His eyes alight with fascination and hardening as he got to thinking on the challenge before them. “Elka and I will come up with something. She knows more about blood and bodies than I do.”

“Jonas helped Braph build one of his devices, so he knows what went into it and how it connected to Braph’s bloodstream.” Llew held out her arm for Elka to take more blood. “For the crystals …” She glanced out over the farm buildings and fields. There had to be something they could use. “I remember steam, but I think he pressed them. I don’t know how we’ll do that here.”

“Give us a day or two to explore. We’ll think of something.”

As soon as Elka withdrew the needle once more, Jonas gripped the crutch, dug the end into the dirt and reached an arm up for assistance to stand. Llew instinctively clutched his hand, and a bolt of energy zipped into her.

She cursed and released her grip. She hadn’t been healing and replenishing from a tree while she’d been speaking to Rowan.

Jonas fell back hard, his head hitting dirt and the crutch striking up into the air, narrowly missing Llew, before he dropped it, letting it clatter to the ground beside him as he expelled a frustrated breath.

“I’m so sorry!” She dropped to her knees. She wanted to clutch his hand, draw him to her, but she was scared to touch him.

Jonas shook his head dismissively and puffed out another sigh. Fatigued. Llew cursed, ran to a tree, healed, and dashed back to Elka, her inner arm bared. “How many since I last healed? Three? We need to do at least that many again.” Elka nodded and got on with the task, though she held the syringe more awkwardly as her hands seemed to stiffen. She didn’t complain, and was becoming well practiced. She drew Llew’s blood swiftly and administered it to Jonas. Llew returned to her tree to heal and remove any danger she posed to her friends, still cursing herself, and they repeated this dance three more times.

Llew healed herself once more, pausing momentarily after the final tingle crossed her skin, as Rowan helped Jonas to his foot and passed him the crutch to lean on.

Llew stood before Jonas and spread her arms, and Jonas lifted his free arm in welcome. She stepped into him, wrapped her arms around him, pressed her nose into the side of his neck and luxuriated as he returned the embrace. One-armed though it may have been, there was strength there, and his eternal warmth. Llew wanted to fall into him, but she held herself up, leaning into him only for his warmth and solidity, his presence.

Elka shuffled beside them, gathering her supplies back into their bag.

“You alright?” Rowan asked. Llew glanced at him, but saw he spoke to his sister.

“Just a bit stiff.”

Jonas shifted his weight to lean into his crutch. While he didn’t remove his arm from around Llew’s back, she took it to be an end to their embrace, stepped back, and echoed Rowan. “Everything alright?”

“I have salve.” Elka massaged one palm with the thumb of her other hand.

Llew managed not to roll her eyes. “You good?” She checked Jonas was balanced with his crutch.

“Yeah. I— I gotta—” He waved a hand at the far side of the homestead. Oh, right. After receiving so much of Llew’s blood, he would need to pee.

Llew gripped Elka’s hand. The ghi transfer was minuscule. “It’s that easy,” she said, then pressed her hand to a tree.

“It’s so easy to forget that, especially after seeing how much harder it is for him.” Rowan gestured at Jonas’s return. “I mean, it’s great you can do it, huh?”

Llew nodded and turned to welcome Jonas back. “It’s so good to see you up and about. How do you feel?” She beckoned him into another hug – she’d wanted Merrid’s, but his would more than do – and Jonas leaned in, bringing his arm up around her waist in kind.

“Yeah, good,” he said. “I’m starvin’. I, uh—” He stood back, keeping his hand on her waist, glanced at the swinging bodies of the farmers.

Llew followed his gaze. “Merrid would’ve welcomed us in and fed us very well.” Her heart ached at the thought that such warm welcomes would have to be imagined from now on. Oh, to be wrapped in Merrid’s arms again. But she still had Jonas’s. She squeezed his waist, he returned it, and they headed for the homestead together.

As they climbed up to the porch, Alvaro appeared around the corner. “I need to speak with you.” He focused solely on Llew.

Llew really didn’t want to talk to Alvaro, especially not alone. She looked to Jonas.

“Not him. You.” Alvaro set his jaw and moved off the porch, heading for the Ajnais.

“It won’t hurt to listen,” Jonas said. “I can stand menacingly, if it’ll help.”

Llew looked him up and down. “I think that charade might be blown.”

“I’ll send Rowan out.”

“That … might work.” Llew turned reluctantly to where Alvaro stood in the shade of an Ajnai, while Jonas entered the kitchen. She took a fortifying breath and stepped from the porch.

“Thank you for coming,” Llew said as she approached him. “Don’t think I don’t appreciate it. You owe me nothing. If either of us owes the other, it’d be me owing you.” She stopped before him.

“Cassidy wasn’t a favor.”

“I know— I wasn’t—” She hadn’t been referring to Cassidy at all. She’d meant his accompanying Jonas to rescue her from Braph and now, chaperoning Anya safely.

“Llew.” Alvaro placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s not fight. We need a united front. You’re not safe in Turhmos. I came with Anya expressly to help get you out of here. Obviously, Jonas isn’t the strongman he was. I get—” He grimaced at whatever thought crossed his mind. “I get that you had feelings for him. But keeping him around will only slow you down. We need to get you home to Brurun. Bring back some seeds, set yourself up in the safety of our borders. You know you’re welcome there. And I can protect you. Help you make a home there.”

Reeling at his touch and deliberate choice of words, Llew clutched for arguments. “Not against Braph.” Not a good enough argument. Neither could Jonas. Yet.

“I can come up with a plan for Braph. I’m not stupid. The simple fact is, you’re not safe in Turhmos. Come on, let’s just go.”

“I’ve got a plan, I—”

Flustered as she was, Llew was relieved when Rowan stepped from the kitchen and leaned against one of the porch columns, arms crossed, appearing at once both a casual neighbor and an ally.

“What if you can’t fix him? What if you waste all this time, put your life and the lives of everyone who’s here – for you – at risk for nothing?” Alvaro stepped closer. “Even after everything, I will protect you with my life. Doesn’t that count for something?” He raised a hand like he was going to brush her hair behind her ear. Llew stepped back and Alvaro’s jaw rippled over clenching teeth. “What you think you had with him was never real. He was all high and mighty, and now he’s broken. You needed him, now he needs you. That’s not real. I’m real. And I love you.”

“Stop.” Llew raised a hand. “Just stop.” She opened her mouth to chastise him, but her eye was drawn to movement by the road. Her initial prepare-to-fight response subsided at the sight of a single figure at the well. She narrowed her eyes as the figure took a deep drink from the small bucket then leaned on the stone edge as they observed their surroundings. Despite the androgynous prisoner garb just like what Llew had been wearing when she escaped Duffirk, that crown of dark, curly hair was unmistakable. Oh no .

“Who is that?” Alvaro asked.

Llew’s stomach dropped even as her temper flared hot, as the dark skin tone and general ease within the curvy body consolidated to confirm her suspicion: Karlani.