“Then we have to prepare ourselves to fight.” Llew stood and sidled out from the table, looking around at each of her companions. “Jonas and I can't run. Nowhere's safe for us.” All the pain of losing Merrid and Ard, and her anger at Braph's violation of their sanctuary, settled into cool resolve. Jonas was right. Their legacy would live on. Ajnais would grow. Aenuks would be freed. But only if Llew fought for her own life.

“We need you. All of you.” She made a point to look at Alvaro. “But I can't ask any of you to give your lives for something you don't believe in. If you go now, you will be free to do so. Turhmos have no reason to hurt any of you.”

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

“We're here for the Ajnais, to get Jonas's strength back as best we can and get him used to a prosthetic. Then we'll carry on to Quaver, where I believe I can heal Jonas for good. On the way, I'll plant as many Ajnai as I can, and when we return, I'll be freeing Aenuks, as Merrid and Ard did.”

“Brilliant. We're in. 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 to his sister for confirmation. Elka nodded. “Anything you need,” Rowan finished.

“We need your engineering brilliance 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.”

All at once, 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. This group of six versus Braph and the whole of Turhmos?

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

“I need to speak with you,” Alvaro said. “Outside.” He opened the door and stepped through.

Llew doubted he had anything to say that couldn't be said in front of the others. Still, he'd come all this way. She followed him out.

Alvaro stood in the shade of an Ajnai, away from the house.

“Thank you for being here,” Llew said as she approached him. “Please don't think I don't appreciate it. You don't owe me anything. If either of us owes the other, it'd be me owing you.” She stood before him.

“Cassidy wasn't a favor.”

“I know—”

“Llew.” Alvaro placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let's not fight. We need a united front. You're not safe in Turhmos. We need to get you out. Keeping Jonas around will only slow you down.”

“What—?”

“You should focus on your tree planting. I can protect you while you do that.”

“Not against Braph.”

“I can come up with a plan for Braph. I'm not stupid. You're not safe in Turhmos. Come on, let's just go.”

“I've got a plan, I—”

“You said you believe you can heal Jonas for good. What if you can't? 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 have 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.

“Who is that?” Alvaro asked.

Llew's stomach dropped, even as her temper flared hot, as the dark skin tone and general ease within her curvy body consolidated into Karlani.

***

They'd thought Karlani dead. The Turhmos paper had reported as much. Llew had never had cause to consider politics until recently, but she supposed it wouldn't be beyond reason for a nation to allow false information to spread to keep a secret within its borders.

Memories of the other woman moving in dance-like combat moves with Jonas, and, worse yet, holding Llew down as Aris thrust a knife into her gut, replayed. Sweat tingled across Llew's skin and fury simmered. A rage tempered by fear. In theory, Karlani could kill Llew before Llew took a breath. How a confrontation between them would play out in practice... Llew left those what-if calculations to whir in the back of her mind while she assessed the reality of now.

Karlani paused her surveillance when she saw Llew looking back at her and crooked her lips in a smug smile. Llew swallowed, forcing Alvaro's words behind her. Karlani was a new challenge and deserved her full attention. Llew may have bested Karlani in a fight once before, but she no longer had the physical advantage here. As much as she loathed the thought, any dealings with this woman would have to be diplomatic.

“Stay.” Llew signaled to Alvaro, drew in a fortifying breath, and walked towards the well, remembering the first time she'd seen Ard, and him her. On the run in the heart of Turhmos, Llew had stopped for a drink at that well and Ard had invited her indoors and offered a meal, courtesy of Merrid. Ard had credited that well for drawing in other Aenuk fugitives the couple had helped over the years, hiding them in the bunker beneath their home, and seeing them safely to Quaver or Brurun, or beyond. How many lives had that well saved?

She used her momentum to perform a graceful swing with both legs clearing the waist-high wooden fence and allowed herself a little self-congratulation for the ease of the move. Petty and meaningless as it may be to celebrate her physical prowess when facing a Syakaran, she had to take every win. Besides, she still had to approach Karlani from downhill. Karlani had all the advantages here, as always.

Llew paused briefly, knowing full well that in doing so she lost some of her edge in Karlani's eyes, and also acknowledging she was too close if Karlani decided to go full Syakaran and attack. Llew's hands flexed, ready to pass the pain and damage right back. Karlani could break Llew's neck, and Llew would survive. Would Karlani? And how much of Merrid and Ard's farm would suffer? Not too much, with Karlani near by. Llew judged the farm safe enough should Karlani turn violent. But it was still too much risk for Llew to volunteer the first move. Diplomacy it was.

Llew walked on.

“Technically, that's thieving, that is.” Llew drew strength in quoting Ard as she approached the other woman. The farmer wouldn't brook nonsense from the likes of Karlani, and neither would Llew. She folded her arms across her chest.

Karlani pushed herself off the well to stand and hesitated only a moment – looking Llew up and down before retorting. “I suppose you would know all about the technicalities of theft, leech. Aris filled me in on your previous career. He didn't think too highly of you.”

“The feeling was mutual.”

Llew stood watching Karlani, leaving the other woman to decide what she wanted to do, and still unsure how to take this woman who had done so much to hurt Llew, but now seemed in need.

Karlani looked up and down the road, down at the bucket, picked it up and took a swig. She placed it down and stood back with a casual air, pursed her lips, then looked back at Llew. “Is Jonas with you?” she asked.

“Yes.” Llew filled the word with the assertiveness she needed when facing Karlani. The other woman didn't know of Jonas's weakness, nor injury, yet. The longer Karlani believed she might not survive an attack on Llew, the longer Llew had to assess the situation.

“And his friend?”

Llew kept her mouth shut, but she couldn't help glancing towards the hilled paddock over which Hisham may still have lain. But again, while Karlani believed herself underpowered, Llew had time. She could send Karlani away, but that didn't guarantee they wouldn't cross paths again, and next time Llew might not be fortuitous enough to spot Karlani first. Killing her was a risky option, no matter how much she deserved it. Llew's gut clenched at the memory of Karlani holding her down while Aris attacked. If Llew had a weapon in her hand, if she knew she could strike true before Karlani could defend or counterstrike, the Syakaran woman would be dead already. But she didn't have a weapon, and she'd mock battled Jonas enough to know he always had the upper hand, and Karlani would, too. An impotent rage flowed through her, but Llew tamped it down. It did no good here. And, though she loathed to consider it, if Karlani would lend her strength, there was little doubt they could put it to use.

“Look, I've got work to do. Despite my better judgment, I'm going to give you the choice between joining us or fending for yourself.” Without awaiting an answer, Llew turned for the homestead. She would just as happily have continued to believe Karlani dead, but since the Syakaran was alive, she'd prefer to know where she was and what she was doing. She could be a powerful ally or foe. Neither of which appealed to Llew, but one was a lesser evil. She cleared the fence again and kept walking. She no longer had the benefits of Syakaran strength and speed, but her own fitness had improved over the preceding months.

At least, she didn't think she had Syakaran strength and speed.

The soft crunch of Karlani alighting on the cartway behind her halted any thoughts Llew might have had regarding babies. She'd know as soon as she touched Jonas again, anyway.

“This is Karlani. She's Syakaran,” she said offhandedly as she passed Alvaro and continued on to the homestead, leaving Karlani and Alvaro to figure out their own next moves, and rolled her shoulders, trying to shake the tingle down her back at having the Syakaran woman behind her. Llew didn't think it worth getting into all the detail with Alvaro right then. It was simply a relief to have his attention diverted.

Llew opened the door to chaos.

***

“Jonas?” Anya shook Jonas's shoulder, then straightened as Llew entered, her face full of anguish.

Rowan and Elka also crowded in close to where Jonas slumped.

“His pulse is weak,” Elka said.

“Then get him out to a tree!” Damned Alvaro! He'd cost them precious time.

Rowan moved immediately, scooping Jonas from the bench seat. Llew collected Jonas's crutch and held the door for Rowan, and they ran as fast as they could 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.

“What happened to him?” Karlani's face screwed up in revulsion as she approached.

“He's sick, is all,” Llew said, as she placed the crutch beside Jonas. “He just needs some help to fight it.”

“What's she doing here?” Llew didn't think she'd ever seen Anya angry before, but it was clear as she arrived at the trees.

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

“I stopped for a drink,” Karlani said.

“She's here because where else would she be?” Llew said. Even Llew couldn't decide if it was luck or punishment.

Anya kept her eyes narrowed at Karlani but relaxed her stance.

“Aenuks can't heal Kara.” Karlani spoke with a hint of a question in her voice. Llew figured she'd see what they could do soon enough. “And I was talking about his leg. I sure hope that's not catching.”

In all the stress and worry of Jonas's fatigue, Llew had almost forgotten the loss of his leg. “He fought Aris. The leg didn't heal, was going to kill him. Elka's ma took it off for us.” It seemed like such a clinical, unemotional thing to say. It was clinical and emotionless. The leg would've killed him. It had to go.

“And the sickness?” Karlani pressed. “Can we catch it?”

“I don't know. He was shot by a crossbow bolt laced with the stuff. None of the rest of us seem affected, but we're not Kara.” She gave Karlani a hard look. They could use someone with Syakaran strength and speed, so she didn't want to scare Karlani off entirely, but it wouldn't hurt to remind her she wasn't invincible. A shiver ran down her spine. She was thinking like Aris must have to keep Jonas under control. She didn't like it, but neither did she like not knowing what Karlani might do.

Karlani took a step back. Alvaro took a step closer to her, his expression stern, but he said nothing.

Llew sat with her back to the tree and nodded to Elka while rolling up a sleeve to reveal 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 under 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 allow herself to watch Elka suction the blood into the vial.

Llew sensed those around them shifting their weight, but no one spoke.

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. I think you'll need to find a vein.”

Elka shuffled herself closer to Jonas, syringe held aloft, while Llew pressed her hand to the tree, closing her tiny wound and refilling her own 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. Karlani still didn't seem to like what she saw, her lips twisted with distaste. Alvaro watched with an unreadable, possibly neutral expression. 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. She supposed she didn't have to heal him to that extent. He'd been “normal” a fortnight earlier. She just needed him to make it 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 to replace her donated blood and close the tiny hole.

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, let the fingers of her other hand rest knitted in his short hair and stroked her thumb 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.

“Is it working?” Karlani asked.

Llew ignored her, keeping her focus on Jonas.

“You can butt right out and let them do what needs doing, so you can.” Anya placed herself halfway between Karlani and Llew and Jonas, waving her hands to shuffle the Syakaran woman back.

A couple more vials of blood and Llew was almost certain his eyes looked more alive.

“Keep doing what you're doing.”

She moved around him, kneeling 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, revealing the appendage to their audience. At least one gagged. Alvaro? Llew didn't spare a glance behind her, simply presented her arm to Elka again.

“Think. 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.

“Now, Rowan, time to put your thinking cap 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. It was far from smooth, but 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. “Now the rest of your energy. Just do what you can to be able to stand. 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. Braph made 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 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. 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 is 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 be stiffening up. 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 internally, and they repeated this dance three more times.

Llew healed herself, 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 his waist, pressed her nose into the side of his neck and luxuriated as he wrapped her in an 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 assumed it was directed at his sister.

Jonas shifted a little, pressing his lips to the top of Llew's head. Llew could savor the kinds of tingles such interactions set off all day and night. Still pulling her tight against him, he inhaled deeply. Llew doubted her hair smelled especially lovely. It'd been days since she'd had a chance to bathe and many, many weeks since she'd used anything perfumed.

“Just a bit stiff.” Elka's voice brought Llew back into the now.

Jonas shifted his weight to leaning 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, and stepped back.

Looking to Elka, she echoed Rowan. “Everything alright?”

“I have salve.” Elka massaged the palm of one hand with the thumb of the other and lifted her hands in the direction of the farmhouse.

Llew managed not to roll her eyes. She ensured Jonas could manage with his crutch then slipped away from him and gripped Elka's hand. Again, the transfer was minuscule. “It's that easy,” she said, then pressed her hand to a tree before returning to Jonas's side and clutching the hand he wasn't using to grip his crutch. If she had her way, she'd never let him go again.