Rowan ran to the window and brushed the curtain back. ‘No.’ He breathed and clamped his lips together. ‘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 shifted to hook 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 roofing 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? Rhaena? 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. The words appeared directly in her head, muting Jonas’s response.

Nausea swept through Llew, her whole body trembling. She looked up and down the street, and up at the roofs above them. That had sounded like Braph. He couldn’t be there, could he? But he could fly. He could be anywhere. A small bird landed on the edge of a roof above.

Nice to see you, too. How is my brother getting on? He wasn’t particularly talkative. The small bird flew away.

Even as her insides screamed in alarm, to run, to hide, to be prepared to fight Braph, Llew looked Jonas over clinically, as if driven by someone else. She still cradled Jonas’s head, the rest of him lying flat on the dirt road. Her fingers had stopped moving, and Jonas was looking back up at her, his eyes narrowed. Rowan’s shadow fell across them. She looked up at him, but the sun was almost directly behind him, and she had to look down again. Not of her own accord her gaze slid down Jonas’s legs and lingered where his right leg ended abruptly.

A new family resemblance.

Are you— Are you in my head? She shuddered anew at the thought, remembering the last time Braph had taken control of her body, using her in place of her mother, whom he would claim to love. But he had her mother now, he didn’t need Llew anymore.

Ah, there we go. I was trying to find out if it was possible to host a two-way conversation. My brother was unhelpful. Braph’s voice came again. And it is not merely a claim. My feelings for her are as real as yours are for Jonas.

He could read her thoughts? Get out. Get out, now! Llew’s trembling intensified, her fingers curling tighter in Jonas’s hair. He winced and she forced her fingers to release.

Soon. I need to offer a proposition.

Jonas rocked his body in an effort to generate momentum. Llew’s hand gripped his shoulder, keeping him down. He squinted at her, in an unvoiced question.

Get out! Llew tried sending the thought again.

‘Llew?’ Jonas queried.

Llew opened her mouth to respond to him.

Turn yourselves in. I can’t promise Jonas will live to see his son grow, but you will. And if you cooperate, you could be a part of his life. Braph ‘spoke’ quickly. That’s the best I can offer. I don’t rate your chances of escape. Llew’s eyes lingered on Jonas’s stump again, though she knew well enough what it looked like.

‘Bugger off!’

‘I didn’t—’ Rowan started and took a step back.

Jonas looked up at her, briefly startled before his jaw set hard. ‘Braph,’ he growled.

Braph’s chuckle echoed through her head, and she wasn’t totally sure it hadn’t escaped between her own lips. Well, I’ve done as I promised. The rest is of no concern to me. Good luck, I suppose. But I suggest you consider the president’s offer. All the search parties know to be sympathetic if you approach them humbly.

‘We. Will. Not!’ Llew uttered through gritted teeth.

She felt Braph’s presence lift. Her shaking subsided, and her body wanted to slump at the release.

‘He wants us to surrender,’ she said even as she caught her breath, like she had just dumped a heavy load. ‘He believes it would be best for Joelin.’ In the moment, Braph’s words seemed the voice of reason. Feeling him inside her head, in control of her body had muddled all Llew’s senses, leaving her unable to grasp an entire thought, except the ones he’d planted. ‘You or I might be able to see him grow.’

‘Empty promises, Llew.’ Jonas rocked forward again, reaching a hand out for Rowan to help him up.

Rowan had retrieved the crutches and handed them to Jonas again.

‘He’s handed Joelin over to Turhmos.’ Jonas stopped to clench his teeth on that thought. ‘You’ll be caged, and I’ll be dead. Neither of us has a place in Joelin’s life in that scenario.’

Llew shook her head and scrubbed her hands through her hair, trying to scrape off the ghost of Braph’s touch. ‘You’re right.’ She growled. ‘I hate that he gets to me.’

‘Understandable.’ Jonas reached a hand down for her to pull herself up using him for leverage. ‘I ain’t immune, myself.’ He quirked his lips. ‘Let’s stick to the plan.’ He looked to Rowan and nodded for him to lead the way.

‘What can’t that man do?’ Rowan glanced to either end of the street and up at the roofs above them.

‘The list is gettin’ shorter.’ Jonas turned in the direction they had been heading before Braph’s intrusions and indicated again for Rowan to lead the way.

‘He didn’t see you, Rowan,’ Llew said. It seemed important to say. ‘The sun blotted you out.’

They continued in silence, every sense heightened and with frequent glances over shoulders. The sound of Braph’s voice, and the feel of him in her consciousness repeated in Llew’s head and through her body. She felt like she should have been able to block him out. Next time she wouldn’t let him rattle her so much, though she very much hoped there wouldn’t be a next time. She glanced at Jonas a few times wondering what Braph had said to him. He often returned her looks accompanied with a reassuring smile but divulged nothing.

Eventually, Rowan waved them to a stop in the shadow of a building. They were at a T-junction, and over the road stood a thin strip of forest, with flat farmlands stretching away either side.

Rowan leaned out cautiously, peering around the corner of the building.

‘They’re watching this exit,’ he said as he pulled back. ‘And I presume all the others.’ He turned introspective. ‘I don’t think they know you’ve been treated here in Northhollow, so they’ll need to check other towns.’

‘But how many towns are within a day’s walk and west, north-west of Duffirk?’ Jonas asked.

‘So, there’s no reason to assume they’ll give up easy, is there?’ Llew had a sinking feeling in her belly.

Rowan thought a moment more. ‘I’ve got an idea. How agile do you feel?’ he asked Jonas.

Jonas shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’ll make it work,’ he said.

‘We won’t liaise with Elka until tomorrow, anyway. We’ve got time. Come.’ Rowan beckoned them to follow and turned back down the street, away from the town’s perimeter. He paused at a corner, holding a hand up behind him to halt Llew and Jonas, then waved them forward again.

‘You’ve been planning this?’ Llew asked once they were safely across the intersection.

‘We knew we’d have to help get you out some time,’ Rowan said. ‘Obviously, we’d hoped for later rather than sooner, but it was always a risk.’

They carried on down one street and another, Rowan taking the lead and checking around each corner before they risked exposing themselves. Eventually, they circumvented a long brick building, disappearing into dense, mature forest.

The forest undergrowth was thick with ferns, saplings, and slippery, half-rotted leaf-fall. Jonas’s armpits ached from their new weight-bearing role. His hands, too, ached already, and they’d barely been on the move for a half-hour. Maybe if he’d still possessed his Syakaran prowess it would’ve hurt less, but he doubted it. Even with added strength, this would still be new to him.

And – just to add to the delight of having to move in a hurry despite his new reality – his back tingled, waiting for an arrow or, at the very least, a shout of recognition. He was wounded prey. It didn’t feel good.

Now they’d left the roads, he had the added challenge of having to swing the crutch tips over the undergrowth and take care how he placed them, making each and every step slow and hard. Step. He still thought of them as that. Hop seemed too happy, it was something kids did for fun. Jump was distinguished from hop by the presence of a second leg, so it wasn’t a jump. Stride? Perhaps. But stride sounded strong, purposeful. He couldn’t be that under these conditions.

He glanced at Llew, and she returned a brief smile of reassurance, or shared fear, or something. Whatever her intent, he found her presence reassuring.

Rowan walked behind; between Jonas and recognition, or an arrow, but Jonas found little comfort there. It used to be he only needed to keep his senses honed and rely on his enhanced strength and speed to avoid trouble. His new vulnerabilities had amplified the moment he’d climbed out that damned window. He didn’t know how to make peace with his weaknesses. For now, he had to forge on, seething at them. Anger, he knew. Fear was an unknown, and he wasn’t prepared to make its acquaintance when keeping moving was imperative.

So far, any time he dared examine his fears, paralysis lurked in the dark.

Luck held and they delved deeper into the forest. Focused only on moving as quickly and quietly as possible, they didn’t speak for— Jonas didn’t know how long. His attention was firmly locked to how to move between trees with crutches – too often he had to sidle between near-growing trees, and almost as often the tip of a crutch would slip on a root or sink deep, and he would nearly topple over in his efforts to pull it back out. Leaving the town behind, Rowan pulled away ahead while Llew stuck close, beside Jonas when she could fit, or slipping behind him when single file was required.

‘Let me help.’ She moved in when, once again, Jonas’s crutch slipped on a root and sunk into soft bog on the other side. The lingering winter chill didn’t allow the ground to dry between the early-spring rain showers. Stifling the urge to sigh, he lifted his elbow so she could hook her shoulder under him. She gripped the crutch with both her hands, while he leaned into her, and pulled against the muddy vacuum. Keeping a hold of the crutch, she slipped her arm around his back and helped ease him forward.

It felt all kinds of wrong being so helpless, especially in the heart of Turhmos, and yet, a strange warmth settled in his chest as they worked together as a team to keep him moving. Jonas had always been the one to lift the weight, run to aid, dive into the fray. He was the one others relied on, believed in. He did his duty, did as told. Now he was powerless, broken, and yet, somehow, free. He had never had to rely on anyone, well not since he was drafted into the army, earning his own way since fourteen. Here he was reliant on Llew if he were to have any hope of leaving Turhmos, and that thought didn’t scare him at all because he absolutely could count on her.

‘I love you,’ he said to the back of her head.

She looked at him, smiled, and squeezed him around the waist. ‘We’ll get out of here. And when we move back to your farm, with Joelin, you can get all sentimental on me, and I’ll give it back tenfold. Just try and peel me off you, then.’ She grinned at him, before sobering and glancing at Rowan’s back. Jonas laughed. She could be quite affectionate when they didn’t have an audience, or she forgot they had one.

‘I don’t think they call it sentimental when you gotta be peeled off of someone.’

‘Sentimental squared, or multiplied, or whatever. I said tenfold. That puts it in a whole different class than standard sentimentality.’

Jonas found one of his eyebrows seemingly raising of its own accord. He didn’t quite understand what she was saying, but it tickled his humor.

‘Let’s get to Merrid and Ard’s,’ said Llew. ‘Rowan built that leg. He can build another—’

‘Elka’s got it in the cart,’ Rowan called over his shoulder. ‘Might as well build on what we’ve already got.’

‘There we go.’ Llew smiled. ‘Hinden had supplies and Ard’s got a furnace. One step at a time, huh?’

‘Or somethin’,’ Jonas muttered.

They trudged on in silence again. Well, not talking. There was little chance of silence in the forest. Hours seemed to pass. Jonas’s muscles trembled, hungering for sustenance and rest. He sure hoped Elka made it safely onto the road and wasn’t followed. And he hoped she’d thought to bring food.