There's More …

Once again, Raena finished up an inspection of Jonas’s stump and replacement of his bandage. She no longer applied tin, just a gauze patch and bandage wrappings.

Llew lounged in the chair, as pleased to hear positive murmurs between Raena and Elka as she was to have no expectations to meet. Jonas’s phantom limb pain and restlessness had woken him and Llew several times in the night. With them being confined to this single room, though, they were just as likely to sleep in the day when boredom reached a peak. They were both itching to get moving, but weren’t prepared to do so without Raena’s go ahead.

Quick, heavy steps on the stairway saw the room settle into a tense silence, all eyes on the door.

“Leela’s out?” Elka asked quietly.

“Yes. She was,” Raena murmured in response.

The footsteps moved swiftly along the corridor, with no care for stealth.

Jonas pushed himself up to sit, swinging his leg over the side of the bed.

Llew brought her feet in and leaned forward in the chair, ready to leap up and take whatever action was necessary. The handle turned, and the door swept open. Rowan ducked his head as he stepped through the door and the tension dispersed in a collective sigh. But the furtive glances he directed around the room suggested the newspaper he carried brought no cause for celebration. He closed the door behind him, opened the paper and displayed the front page. Disturbingly accurate likenesses of Llew and Jonas looked out at them from beneath the headline: Syakaran lives; on run with escaped Syaenuk. REWARDS.

“Yes. I did that, too.” Rowan nodded to Llew, drawing attention to her gaping mouth. She closed it and glared at the paper, but the print below the headline was too small to discern from halfway across the room. She stood and approached him.

“Sy—” Elka lisped behind her.

“That makes sense,” Raena murmured.

Llew glanced up at Rowan as she reached for the paper. He looked unblinkingly back at her. A look that was entirely unreadable. It implied no threat and did nothing to deny that he might know more than she and Jonas wanted him to. He let her take the paper and she skimmed the article seeking only confirmation of how much more trouble she and Jonas might find in Turhmos, or indeed this household. And, sure enough, it was all there.

Braph must’ve spoken to someone, for it was he who received the credit for Jonas now being powerless. She supposed she should be grateful they were wanted alive. That wouldn’t make it easy for the average Turhmosian to collect on the bounty. But how could they have known about the surgery?

Llew shifted her gaze to Rowan again, not meeting his eyes, taking in his height and build. Taller and thicker set than Jonas, he’d be a tough opponent. But Llew had spent weeks sparring with Jonas and Hisham. She was almost sure she could take him, if need be. Was he the leak?

“It’s going to be a lot harder to move across Turhmos, now,” Rowan said.

Llew examined his tone for a hint of threat but found nothing obvious. She raised her eyes to meet his from beneath her brow, trying to get a read off him, while remaining aware of the rest of his body. If he made a move, she would be ready.

“But I think we can do it,” Rowan finished.

“We?” Llew asked as Jonas also queried, “What’s it say?”

With no signs of hostility emanating from Rowan, Llew turned to face Jonas, letting all the defeat show on her face.

“Everything.” She lifted her hands and let them fall against her thighs. “They know you’re powerless, that you’ve had surgery within Turhmos, and obviously they know all about me.” It was right there, in the boldest print.

“Powerless?” Elka looked heartbroken as she gazed down on Jonas.

Jonas repeated Llew’s reaction, studying Raena first, as his most immediate threat to himself, glancing past Elka and finally, warily, taking Rowan in. He may not have been a particularly imposing man under normal circumstances, but Llew was very aware of his presence hulking behind her shoulder. “Who told them?”

Rowan, Elka, and Raena all looked at each other, shaking their heads. Llew looked back at Rowan.

“No, I didn’t— I haven’t spoken to anyone,” Rowan said. “I wouldn’t do that to my family. We’re a target too now, you know. They don’t know where you are, but there aren’t a lot of surgeons experienced in amputations within a day or two of Duffirk.” He crossed the room to the window, looked down to the street then back at those in the room. “People are going to come asking Ma questions. It’s not like we’re not glad we could help, but you two are poison.”

Raena waved her hands in the air, asking for calm. “We would never have turned our backs on you. We knew what we were getting into and are simply awed by your presence. We know of Aenuks, of course, but they are barely real to most Turhmosians. Almost myth, as they’re never seen. I wonder at that paper’s use of Syaenuk. What does that even mean? I can’t comprehend.”

“It means she’s seen the other side, too many times,” said Jonas.

“You’ve … been dead?” Rowan asked.

“But how …?” Elka spoke quietly.

“Well, let’s see.” Llew brought up her hands to count off her fingers. “I’ve been cut by a bottle, hanged – which I think accounted for three times. I’ve been killed in a fight, had my heart filled with arrows—”

“No. I mean h— you.” Elka focused on Jonas, who looked pained at Llew’s list. “How did you lose your power?”

“A bug,” Llew said. “A micro—” She could never remember the rest, and threw her hands up at the lack.

“Microorganism,” Elka finished for her. “So, he is s— sick. Does that mean we can heal him?” She looked to her mother, who frowned in contemplation.

“There’s an Ajnai in Quaver that I believe can do it.” Llew caught Jonas’s eye. That tree was a long way off, though.

With a tug, Rowan drew Llew’s attention back to the paper. He wanted it back.

“There’s more,” he said as she released it, allowing him to open up an internal page. “Your brother—”

“Half-brother,” Llew and Jonas corrected in unison.

Rowan paused. “Oh. Kay. Uhm.” He looked back down at the page, giving it a shake, as if that would make it fill in such omissions. “The Magician, Braph, seems to be developing a close bond with our current president. It says here, he’s handed over his nephew, a Syakaran child—”

“Joelin.” Jonas’s voice sounded breathless.

“He’ll be all right.” Llew spoke on instinct. “We’ll get him out.”

Jonas held her gaze before dropping an accusing scowl on his own shortened leg.

“We’ll get them all out,” she said, wanting to believe it.

“So, we get you back to this tree in Quaver, return your Syakaran powers, and sneak back into Turhmos to free the Aenuks? It almost sounds simple,” said Rowan.

Yet again, Llew picked up on his use of ‘we’, but Jonas spoke before she could question it.

“And what if we can’t return my powers?” The scowl he leveled at her was almost accusing, but she chose to interpret it for the fear that more than likely lingered there. “I can’t die tryin’ to get them back with my son still out there.”

“Do you think you can get him back without them?” It didn’t feel good, putting Llew’s own need for Jonas’s powers ahead of a child, but what choice did they really have? Of course, the real possibility that Jonas would die in the process of trying screamed in the back of her head, too.

“Can’t he fight the microorganism?” Elka asked. “Like a cold?”

“There are many conditions people have to live with for the rest of their lives,” Raena said. “I’m afraid you’ve already exhausted my expertise on this matter. Germ-theory is such a new science. We’ve only recently learned the value of cleaning our hands and our tools. Whatever this is—” She indicated the entirety of Jonas. “I’m sorry I’ve got nothing more to offer, but your Ajnai theory sounds promising.” She finished with a shrug and a sorrowful look.

“The m—” Llew gave up. “—bug is something Braph invented. All I know is he tested it on himself and used my mother’s blood to beat it.”

“Then we know it can be beaten,” Raena said with evident relief. “Your mother is Syaenuk, like you?”

Llew nodded. “But Braph didn’t let himself get this sick. I think I can keep Jonas alive with my blood, but beating the bug will take more. We have to get to Quaver.”

Jonas was still watching Llew with a stubborn set to his jaw and a haunted look in his eyes. Llew turned to him, pretending, for the moment, they were the only people in the room.

“If we can’t return your power, then we go in anyway. You’re still a soldier.” She glanced at his stumpy thigh and, for the briefest moment, considered crumpling to the floor and admitting defeat. But some other part refused to do so. She didn’t have all the answers right then, just some sense that if they didn’t fight for the incarcerated Aenuks, or Jonas’s son, or her ma, no one else would. It wasn’t a matter of knowing how they would do it, they just had to. “I can keep you supplied with blood. You know I don’t mind.”

Jonas pressed his lips together. He minded. Llew had asked Jonas once before if he would wear a device, when the choice had been between him or Braph – of course she would rather Jonas be the one to wield that power – but Jonas had refused. He didn’t like using her blood. Or, rather, he feared he would like it too much.

“I’ll build you a new leg,” Rowan said. “And we’ll be able to come up with something akin to what this Braph wears, if that’ll help.”

Jonas continued to flex his jaw.

He noticed Llew looking and turned to Raena. “Are we done?”

Raena reacted instantly to the dismissal, gathering her things, and signaling Elka as she said, “Yes. Certainly.”

Rowan leaned close to Llew. “Did I say something wrong?” he asked quietly.

Llew shook her head, still watching Jonas. Was it so wrong for him to use her blood? To Rowan she said, “We appreciate your help.”

By then, Raena and Elka had reached the door, and Rowan turned to go with them. Before he left, he turned back. “We’re honored to help you. Truly.”

Llew smiled back and waited for him to close the door before facing Jonas again.

“Tell me truthfully that you would rather die, abandoning me and Joelin, than stay hooked up to a supply of my blood for the rest of your life.”

He paused on a couple of false starts, but he didn’t have an answer to that.

She went to him, slid her arms over his shoulders, which noticeably relaxed as he looped his arms around her waist and rested his head against her chest. Llew closed her eyes and savored the heat of him.

“You were right. We should’ve run when you were goin’ to.” He shook his head. “I was gonna be the better man. Do right by you. I’ll do better. But using your blood … It’ll take too much just to keep me alive.”

Llew shook her head and kissed his head and wrapped her arms around it, holding him close.

“I ain’t treated you right.” Jonas’s voice was muffled through Llew’s arms.

“And I’ve forgiven you. I’m far from perfect.”

Jonas’s hands pressed into her back, pulling her into him. More than ever, she felt like they were one.

Someone raced up the stairway, the thumps on each step reverberating through the house.

Llew didn’t want to let Jonas go, especially if danger was coming. He tensed momentarily, too, before dropping his hands to either side of her hips and gently suggesting she step back and face the door with a push and a twist. She did no more than turn her head to look over her shoulder.

Rowan burst through the door. “They’re coming. We’ve got to get you out.”

He ran to the window and brushed the curtain back. “No,” he breathed. “Other side.” He pushed off from the windowsill and dashed back to the door, where he paused to look back at Llew and Jonas.

Llew released Jonas and was about to open her mouth to ask who was coming when realization hit, and her world shrunk. The room blurred and only she, Jonas and Rowan existed. They needed to not be there. She hooked a shoulder under Jonas’s armpit and helped hoist him off the bed. He accepted her help and reached his arm across her shoulders, leaning heavily as she took the place of his missing leg. They were ill-practiced and off balance. Jonas flapped his free hand, drawing Llew’s attention and redirecting it to his crutches leaning against the chair, just out of his reach.

“I’ll be faster,” he said.

Llew reached for the aids, nearly toppling and taking Jonas with her in her efforts, but she hooked them with her fingertips and flicked them within grasping distance. Once Jonas had them under his shoulders, he propelled himself across the room to where Rowan held the door. Llew hurried after.

A loud banging rattled the door at the bottom of the stairs.

“We’ll have to go through the washroom window.” Rowan opened the door of the room across the hallway.

Jonas hopped and Llew scurried behind him into the washroom paying little heed to how much noise they made before the front door opened and Rowan closed the door behind them, removing the temptation to linger and eavesdrop. Rowan dashed around the other side of the bath to open the window.

“You first, Llew,” said Rowan. “I’ll help you to the roof. You should be able to find leverage enough to pull Jonas up.”

Llew spared the briefest possible glance down as she grasped the windowsill, shifting her focus to each foot and hand as she placed them carefully and turned to find handholds above. There was little more than the spouting, and she had to hope she would find more as she was raised up. Rowan stooped to hug her around the knees and heft her up. Thankfully, the roof was a composite, with plenty of texture. With palms and fingers spread wide, she walked her hands up the roof surface as Rowan lifted her higher, his hands walking down her legs until he held her by the soles of her shoes. By the time he ran out of height, she could place her belly on the textured surface and hook a knee to pull herself up easily. Turning on her belly to face downhill was trickier, with vertigo playing havoc with her bravery. But they had no choice. If she failed, they got caught, and at the very least Jonas would end up dead. She snaked her way back to the edge as Jonas reached for it. As she had just done, he found purchase on the textured composite, but he didn’t have a knee to swing up while Rowan hoisted his other foot, so Llew backed up as he progressed and took a hold of his upper arms when he was able to reach no farther alone. Once he was up, his crutches landed at the edge of the rooftop, and Rowan soon followed, pulling himself over the ledge, kicking down once to shut the sash window, the weights in the wall dinging like bells.

“Phew!” he puffed, taking a moment to catch his breath. “It’s been a few years. The height’s better, but I’ve got some work to do on my arms.”

“You’re doing fine.” Llew decided against reminding him his arms had lifted her and Jonas to safety as she grasped the crutches and looked over her shoulder to check Jonas’s progress towards the roof peak. Rowan wasn’t the one needing built up as far as his physical prowess went.

“Keep going that way.” Rowan waved up at Jonas who was angling around on his belly just below the peak. “There’s a ladder at the end.”

Jonas paused briefly to narrow his eyes at Rowan, though there was little anger in it, and Rowan’s open face showed no signs of mockery, simply fact stated. Llew handed one of Jonas’s crutches to Rowan to share the load and ran in a crouch the few steps up to Jonas before getting down on her belly beside him. She inched her head over the peak but could see nothing but more roof sloping down the other side and the roofs of the buildings across the street. She could hear a voice, male, but could pick out no words.

Rowan took the lead, remaining farther down the roof so he could maintain a stooped run without being seen from the other side, and possibly not from the road below. Llew and Jonas followed. Jonas was able to push off on his left knee, but with the stump of his right thigh still healing, all he could manage was a limping grip with his inner thigh on that side. Despite a sense of urgency spurring her on, Llew followed behind, just in case he slipped or faltered.

But it was Llew who nearly lost her footing when a bird alighted on the apex of the roof. Plain. Not too dissimilar from the sparrows she knew back home – in Cheer. Common, she was sure.

Its head turned one way, and the other, each eye seeming to look directly at her. It fluffed its feathers and gave a squawk, barely more than a cheep, but too insistent to be considered such, then it flew away.

Llew looked to Jonas who was looking back at her. He set his mouth in a grim line, then focused on moving forward. Llew did the same. Still, that was two birds, now. Not that there weren’t other birds flitting around the place, but … There was just something off about them. And yet, when she thought about it – birds landing on windowsills or rooftops – she couldn’t claim it as a phenomenon. Besides, greedy little sparrows had come to eye her up often in Cheer as she ate a hard-won meal.

Rowan raced down the ladder and was waiting on the side street by the time they reached the edge. The ladder was a fire escape for the second story that reached the roof. Jonas pivoted on his belly and Llew placed her hands at his armpits, ready to catch him if he slipped. Once he found a rung with his foot, he waved her away. Muscles straining, he gripped the top rung and the side bar and lowered his foot a couple of rungs. Knowing the physical ease Jonas used to possess made it hard to watch him struggle, but Llew could offer him no further help. When Jonas was nearly to the bottom, Llew dropped the crutch she still had to land by Rowan, turned, and started down the ladder. At a crunch of the fine gravel beneath them and an “Oomph” she paused to see Jonas sprawled on his side. Rowan hauled him up and handed him the crutches. Llew hurried the rest of the way, jumping the last couple of rungs and nearly toppling herself, before mastering her balance.

Rowan waved them around a corner, leading the way.

Llew settled into a skip-walk to match her pace with Jonas’s large, lumbering strides with the crutches.

“Where’re we goin’?” he asked.

Rowan glanced back at them then beyond. Llew looked over her shoulder too, expecting pursuit despite Rowan’s lack of alarm, but there was no one.

“Hinden,” he said. “Elka said something about trees.”

“The farm.” The words almost caught in Llew’s throat in the surge of excitement at the prospect of seeing Merrid and Ard again.

“We keep moving and don’t get caught,” Rowan said. “Elka will catch us up with the carriage.”

Elka? Raena? Llew gripped Rowan’s arm but failed to voice her concerns.

Rowan gave her a grim smile. “They knew what they were getting into the day Elka brought you home. We’ve worked out a plan. Now, we have to trust them.” He patted Llew’s hand. “We’ll meet Elka on the road.” His look didn’t invite doubt. He pulled Llew’s hand from his arm, released her, and turned away.

They pushed on as fast as Jonas could go, zigzagging through several streets. Every bird that dived between buildings, swooping past them, earned a glare from Llew, yet she couldn’t put her finger on what about them unsettled her.

Jonas growled between gritted teeth. Llew thought he might finally be succumbing to pain, or the discomfort of his crutches, but his face had twisted in raw anger.

“Get out!” he shouted, seemingly at the ground, though Llew couldn’t help feeling the words were somehow for her. Then Jonas clutched his head, allowing his crutches to fall free. Llew instinctively reached out to catch him, but she was too slow, and he tumbled, flailing his arms to grasp the air. When he hit the ground, he clasped his head and growled again.

Was this like the pain he felt in the part of his leg that was no longer there? Some side-effect of losing a limb? It reminded Llew most of his fight with Braph, when Braph had caused Jonas’s whole body to convulse and writhe. She dropped beside him, kneeling by his head, and placed a hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there with him. She dared not try to hold him still, lest it hurt him. At her touch, he flopped on the ground, breathing hard, suddenly relaxed, and blinking up at her, his eyes flicking here and there, taking in their surroundings. He blew out a relieved sigh. Strangely, Llew thought she heard a second sigh overlaying it. She lifted his head, shuffled her lap under it and let him lie back while she combed his hair with her fingertips.

“What was it?”

Hello, Llewella . Braph’s voice filled Llew’s head, muting Jonas’s response.