Long Road

“I have read every twelve s— cinqa short s— story and graphic novel there is about the Great S— Syakaran of Quaver.” Elka’s earnestness pleaded with the man before her to consider seeing himself the way she imagined him.

Llew admired the effort.

“You’re probably s— surprised how deep your tales have come inside Turhmos.” Elka took a step towards Jonas, her body lilting startlingly. Llew flinched with an initial reaction to catch the young woman, but Elka swung her leg through and continued the step as though there was nothing to worry about. “But we have no heroes of our own. At least, nothing to compare to you. Our Aenuks are confined to the military, and no one writes books about them.” Elka moved alongside the other chair. “S— sorry, I didn’t get the chance to tell ma about you, yet. I’ll need to s— see what is wrong s— so we can make a plan to fix it.”

Llew cleared the books from the chair into a tiny pocket of space on the floor. She remained by the chair, facing Jonas.

Our Aenuks , Elka had just said. What did that mean for Llew? Elka’s admiration for Jonas was clear. Surely Turhmos locals liked their Aenuks. Unless they’d been raised to fear them. But, o ur Aenuks . That had to be a sign of good favor.

Elka sat opposite Jonas. “Oh. Is that what it looks like?”

“What?”

“Your tattoo? I’ve s— seen drawings, but they … Well, they weren’t accurate, clearly. I’d love to see the whole thing.”

Llew bet she would’ve, especially the tail end curled over his butt cheek. She kept her lips closed on that detail for now, though.

“Anyway, I am here to look at your foot.”

“It ain’t pretty,” Jonas said.

“That’s okay, neither am I,” Elka replied.

Llew had been in the middle of preparing for the sight to come, but instead found herself choking on her own breath. Half of her wanted to defend Elka from her own words, and yet her cheeks flamed, because she couldn’t deny having discounted Elka’s appearance on first sighting her.

Jonas, too, froze.

Elka looked from Jonas to Llew, bright with mirth, and Llew and Jonas both laughed uncertainly, then she leaned forward and waved a beckoning motion at Jonas’s foot. “Let’s take a look.”

Jonas lifted his foot from the pile of books and swung it into her lap.

Elka glanced at the foot briefly then back up at Jonas. “I heard you died. I’m glad that’s not true.” She looked down again. “Oh.”

The mood in the room shifted. Elka took a moment to compose herself before somberly taking in the marks on Jonas’s leg. She ran stiff fingers up the red line and beyond, following an imaginary extension past his knee. She pressed against his flesh in several places along or near that line, watching Jonas for reaction. His jaw remained tense, greater discomfort only evident in a twitch of his eyes.

“I think … I’m going to have to get my mama involved. I think you need s— surgery.”

Jonas nodded.

“It may have to come off.” Elka held his gaze.

Llew’s entire body buzzed with the urge to simply reach out and touch Jonas and fix whatever was wrong with him, all her earlier anger pushed aside. Of course, if she could do that, they wouldn’t be here. She knew that. She didn’t want to believe it.

Jonas’s face hardened and he looked down as he nodded again.

“I’m s— sorry,” Elka said. “It must be difficult for you.”

Jonas looked up at her with a pained expression. How could they talk about their recent troubles with this girl who had faced difficulties since the day she was born?

“We maybe could s— save it, if debridement is all that’s needed,” Elka continued. “But I’m not sure. Ma will have to look when she’s free. It will depend on where the obs— obstruction is. Maybe it’s just the cold, but weren’t you in Duffirk to fight?”

Jonas cleared his throat, and said, “Yeah. Got hit here.” He laid his hand over his thigh, just above the knee.

“Oh.” Elka sat back, carefully placing Jonas’s foot back on the pile of books. She reached out and pressed the tips of her fingers to the spot Jonas had indicated, her lips pressing together. “I don’t know. I can’t feel anything, but I hate to get your hopes up. Ma will have to look. Worst case, you lose from here down.” She waved her hand mid-thigh watching Jonas’s reaction.

Jonas remained stoic, holding Elka’s gaze.

His thigh? He might have to lose up to his thigh? Getting safely out of Turhmos was looking more and more like some fairy tale dream.

Llew glared at Jonas, willing him to glance at her with some semblance of surprise. Surely this was news to him, too. He didn’t. Just kept looking at Elka, and gave the slightest of nods.

Had Jonas guessed all along how much of his leg he might have to lose? Was that why he had been so melancholy? Losing his foot was bad enough … Then again, with a moment to think on it, it didn’t matter how much of his leg he lost, he couldn’t walk on it. He’d need a walking aid of some type. And, no matter where they cut, he would have an open wound to heal from. At least that part was something Llew could help with, eventually.

“Either way, you’ve got a long road to recovery ahead,” Elka continued, echoing Llew’s thoughts.

“Do whatever you have to do, then I can heal him.”

Jonas’s expression hardened, watching Elka’s reaction to Llew’s admission.

Elka said nothing for a moment. Then she looked up at Llew. “Aenuk?”

Llew nodded.

Elka’s eyes went wide and she looked from Llew to Jonas and back again.

“I always wanted to meet an Aenuk,” she said. All the adoration she’d looked upon Jonas with earlier was now directed at Llew. Llew didn’t know what to do with it. “My mama reckons I wouldn’t be like this—” She waved a hand at herself. “—if we had access to Aenuks.”

“What happened?”

“The cord. Wrapped round my neck.” Elka swirled her hand around her head in demonstration, then jerked it up sharply and let her head fall to the side, doing a good impression of hanging herself. She strained, her tongue flopping out. And her eyes sparkled with glee at Llew’s horror and Llew sensed she was being toyed with. Maybe the graphic display was funnier to people who had never been hanged. Elka dropped her hand in her lap. “No. Mama had an accident. Took a tumble with me s— still inside.” She pressed her lips together. “Mama reckons maybe some Aenuks could have reversed the damage.” She shrugged. “Me and my mama are healers, too. And Aenuks are the people of Turhmos, no other nation has them. But most Turhmos locals never s— see one. Hardly fair, is it?”

Llew shook her head. “Certainly not for the Aenuks in the cages.”

Elka conceded the point with a nod, then her brow furrowed. “But he is Karan, how will you heal him?”

“He can use my blood to heal himself. We just need a needle and syringe.”

Elka’s face relaxed in wonder. “We have those, of course. But how much blood would he need? And you’ll need a source of jin to replenish it, won’t you?”

Llew shrugged. “It took a lot the first time we did it, but he was nearly dead. And, yes. I think I can replace my blood just like anyone else, but while I’m short I’ll drain life from anyone or anything I touch in the meantime.” With that thought, Llew was thrown right back to Braph’s home with that room with the cold stone floor and the twin chairs with straps at ankles and wrists, and the children he had brought in to replenish her as he drained her blood. Two dead had given him two crystals made from her blood. “I guess this wouldn’t be as bad.” She hoped.

“If my mama and I do our jobs right, he shouldn’t end up nearly dead, no. It’s just a flesh wound once the infection is gone.”

Once the infection is gone …

Elka looked pensive a moment. “S— Still, there’s not much around here you could drain off without leaving a s— sign. Unless you used a person …”

“I’d rather not. But if I had to— It would be simpler if we had an Ajnai,” Llew added, wistfully.

“There haven’t been Ajnais s— since the days of the Immortals,” Elka said.

“I, sort of, stumbled upon one awhile back.”

Elka’s jaw fell open. “An Ajnai tree? You found one?” Her enthusiasm reminded Llew of Anya and made her heart ache. Her best friend would be distraught to know they were trapped in the heart of Turhmos with Jonas so grievously injured. But how could she know? The latest she would likely have heard would be of their capture. Even that would have Anya scrabbling to rescue them. But they couldn’t wait around for Anya to save them, nor would Llew wish her friend to try. Brurun resided in peace while it remained neutral. Llew doubted Anya could afford to make demands of Turhmos.

“Yes, one,” Llew said. “Now there is one in Brurun, another in Quaver, and a whole avenue near Hinden.”

“Hinden?” Elka asked. “That’s not far from here. Well, not by train. I always wanted to take the train.”

“They’ll be too young,” Jonas said. “The trees.”

“One let me heal Ard—” Llew said.

“And it died,” Jonas countered.

“It knew what it was doing.” Yes, she was aware of how she sounded. “And they’ll be bigger now.” The Ajnais grew faster than any tree Llew had seen as a sapling, and it had been a fortnight since they’d left the farm with its new row of magic trees. “And maybe we can spread it out over several of them.” Llew wished she had thought of that when healing Ard, but doubted Braph would have allowed it. Without him standing over them, they would have plenty of time to coordinate across multiple trees, drawing Llew’s blood and injecting it into Jonas. Just replacing her blood, rather than healing his hounds directly, might very well be less taxing on the trees anyway. As much as Merrid and Ard might wish for Llew to be outside of Turhmos already, she desperately wanted to see the farmers again, assure herself they were okay.

“S— seems we have a plan, then. Mama and I will fix you up s— so all you need is a little help. It shouldn’t tax your trees too much.” Elka pushed herself up from the chair. “I’ll talk to Mama. She should be free s— soon. I would offer you more food, a proper meal, but it is not recommended before s— surgery.” She surveyed the room. “I think we’re going to have to do it in here. It doesn’t look the best, but me and mama work clean.”

“I’ll tidy it up,” Llew said.

Elka gave her a lop-sided smile and continued on through the room’s debris.

At the door, she paused, looking at Jonas. “My ma’s s— seen men with no more reason to die than a dark mood do just that, and others with little to keep them alive but a desire to do s— so pull through. This?” She waved a hand at Jonas’s foot. “This is … a shame. But it’s nothing you can’t come back from. You’ve been a hero to many. Now fortune has seen to land here. Time to put your faith in me, my ma, and your Aenuk.”

“Llew,” Jonas said.

“Llew.” Elka nodded to Llew, opened the door, and disappeared through it.