Jonas glanced at Elka and smiled his thanks for her part in him now being upright, before allowing his gaze to drop to her equipment, including the syringes that had filled him with Llew’s blood. It hadn’t quite been the same this time. Sure, each vial of blood had filled him with a sense of power, but now that he lacked his own power to combine with it, it left much to be desired – reminding him how good it had felt in the meadow and leaving him longing to feel that again. Would he ever be able? Then again, did he really want to? Braph had spent the better part of the last decade hooked up to Aenuk blood, feeding on it constantly. And for the Aenuks to provide the power – Llew’s folks – they had to drain life from something, or someone. He couldn’t make Llew do that for him, no matter how willing she may seem.

He needed to pee.

He excused himself and maneuvered himself around the far side of the homestead, finding a hedge to fertilize. It was awkward adjusting his trousers while leaning on the crutch, but he found some satisfaction at simply being able to do it himself, and gratitude for the Ajnai trees. Briefly, he considered that Llew keeping him supplied with blood while she had the trees to heal from wouldn’t be so bad, but she would still have to jab herself with needles. No. Tempting as the power was, he couldn’t do that to Llew. He wouldn’t.

When he returned, Llew waited for him, while everyone else had gone inside already. She smiled as he neared.

‘It’s so good to see you up and about. How do you feel?’ She spread her arms and Jonas leaned into her hug, bringing his arm up around her waist in kind.

‘Yeah, good,’ he said. Good enough to leave him hungering for more. He was going to have to work on that. It didn’t sit right with him; caring for Llew and wanting her blood. Needing her blood was a different matter. But this want . . . It wasn’t right. ‘I’m starvin’. I, uh—‘ He glanced at the swinging bodies of the farmers. It seemed rude to feel so eager to raid their kitchen. Seemed he was lining up to face a few uncomfortable realities.

Llew followed his gaze. ‘Merrid would’ve welcomed us in and fed us very well.’

She was right.

Rowan was bent to the task of lighting the range’s fire when Llew and Jonas entered the kitchen, Anya stood behind him, supervising. She looked up at Llew.

‘We thought it might be safe to light a fire with everyone here.’ She glanced towards Karlani. ‘We found bacon in a cool store. The only bread we’ve got is what you brought with you today, I’m afraid. I’ve never learned to bake it. There are a few preserves here, too, but it seems to be too early in the season for anything fresh. Luckily, some of the chickens seem to be back on the job, already. So, if we can just get this going . . .’

Llew’s stomach growled. Yes, food would be wonderful. In the meantime, she helped Jonas slide onto a bench seat and then sat beside him. Her shoulder bumped Jonas’s, as she pulled a bite from the bread, and she gave him a smile, which he returned. The small interaction lit her up inside. It felt good to be sitting beside him. Relief, first and foremost, but also like a quick breath before diving under again. His strength would wane, and she would need to keep propping him up, until they could find a permanent solution.

‘So,’ Karlani began, ‘did you fix him?’

Llew shook her head, chewing her mouthful.

‘I’m alright, for tonight,’ Jonas said.

Alvaro shouldered his way through the door, arms laden with wood for the fire, which he dumped into a large bucket near the range. The loud clanging of wood hitting metal had Llew rubbing one of her ears. Alvaro straightened and dusted himself off, sending a self-congratulatory smile Karlani’s way. Llew didn’t know what he hoped to achieve with that display – Karlani would remain magnitudes stronger than him no matter how much effort he put into training.

‘Braph invented some sort of bug,’ Llew said. ‘I don’t know much about it, except what he told me. All I know is he’s infected himself with it before and used my mother’s blood to fight it. But he didn’t let it get this far. And I think we have to do something to kill the bug itself to make sure it doesn’t keep sapping Jonas’s strength, and I don’t know how to do that.’

‘You’ve got a plan, though.’ Alvaro kept his voice flat, trying for nonchalance, Llew guessed.

She nodded.

‘About two and a half months ago, Aris and Karlani—’ She gave the Syakaran a hard look. ‘—attacked me, and—’ Her throat caught on the words, and suddenly Llew didn’t know if she could continue. But she had to. She coughed, hoping the physical effort could clear the emotional blockage. ‘They killed my babies.’ Her voice trailed off, the final word almost too quiet to be heard over the normal rustle of people shifting and breathing.

Jonas reached an arm around her shoulders and drew her into him. For a moment, she let fresh tears fall, though she was soon lulled into calm by his presence. He was alive because she had carried his child. She believed he would be whole again, in strength if not in body, because their child now lay buried amongst the roots of an Ajnai tree.

Llew sat up, dragged her sleeve across her eyes, and met the gazes of each of her acquaintances at the table. Jonas let his arm slip from her shoulder and let it rest on her hip. Anya looked on with sympathy in her eyes. Rowan, too, took on the knowledge gently, pausing in his efforts to light the stove. Alvaro observed Llew and Jonas coolly, as if they had somehow injured him personally with this revelation. Karlani still sat back, maintaining a distance from Jonas, her expression unreadable.

Llew turned back to the tabletop, cleared her throat again. ‘One of the babies was unharmed by the attack,’ she continued. ‘But died shortly after.’

Jonas shifted uncomfortably, scowling at the table, blinking fast. Holding back tears? The baby had died in his hands.

‘Anya designed a memorial garden for them.’ Llew smiled at her friend. ‘And we planted an Ajnai tree over them. And I know this will sound weird, but the child that didn’t die by Aris’s hand is somehow still alive in there, or its soul is, or something. It—’ Llew kept her focus on the wooden tabletop, knowing what she had to say was unbelievable, but also true. She took a fortifying breath. ‘The Ajnai trees speak to me. But that one spoke with two voices. Well, not voices. The tree shows me images and projects feelings. But there was this other presence that . . . cooed. I know how weird this sounds, but the fact is, there’s an Ajnai tree in Taither with an Immortal wrapped in its roots, an Immortal child of Jonas’s, and something tells me that has to mean something.’ Finally, she felt brave enough to look up at her companions and gage their responses. Anya, Rowan, and Elka all looked as she might’ve hoped: hopeful. Alvaro looked like he simply didn’t care.

‘If this tree can help Jonas, do you think it can fix any Karan that become infected with this . . . bug?’ Karlani asked, her arms folded across her chest.

Llew shook her head. ‘I don’t know. But I don’t think so. The baby is connected to Jonas. When they were still inside me, I could heal Jonas with a touch, but I couldn’t heal Hisham, so it didn’t break the Karan-Aenuk barrier fully.’

‘What if a Karan carried an Aenuk’s baby? Do you think that would have the same effect? The Aenuk father could heal the Karan mother?’

Llew could only shrug and look to the rest of the room, but no one else had enough knowledge to guess further, either.

‘I need to meet myself an Aenuk chappy, then.’

Alvaro looked at Karlani and scowled.

Karlani laughed. ‘It’s alright, normy. Even you can scratch certain Syakaran itches.’

That startled the whole table to silence for a moment. Alvaro briefly looked like he wanted to hide and may have been about to blush, but he straightened himself up, like he’d already made his conquest.

Good for him, Llew supposed. It was a matter that had little to do with her mission.

‘All the Aenuks we know of are held by Turhmos, except me and my ma. Any others that Merrid and Ard freed could be anywhere.’

‘I was joking,’ Karlani scoffed. ‘Aenuks are gross.’ She peered down her nose at any daring contradict her.

Llew couldn’t be bothered. She had no extra energy for the likes of Karlani. She quietly shook off the insult. ‘While we’re here, I can keep Jonas alive without killing anything else. But we need to travel to Taither without losing Jonas on the way. Braph was able to condense Aenuk blood into crystals.’ Llew looked over to where Rowan nearly had his head inside the stove again, gently pumping a set of bellows. Noticing her looking, Rowan nodded back wordlessly, understanding Llew’s intent.

‘We’re not working entirely blind,’ Llew said. ‘Jonas helped Braph make a device the last time we were here.’ She tapped the table pointedly. ‘As for how to make the crystals, I don’t know. I’ve been in Braph’s home.’ She rolled her shoulders against the threatening shiver. ‘But I didn’t see the machine he made the crystals in.’ She’d heard it working, though. She’d heard too much.

‘I can put some thought to it.’ Rowan gently squeezed the bellows, trying to increase the heat of the smoldering kindling without blowing whatever fledgling flame might be about to catch. ‘I think Hinden is close . . . Not that I have a lot of money for those kinds of resources, but we have some.’

‘I can get money,’ Anya said. ‘But it will help Gaemil find us.’ She gave a sheepish grin. ‘Gaemil opened a conversation with the Turhmos president as soon as we heard about Jonas’s fight,’ Anya said. ‘We wanted to find out where you were. When the messages came back vague, I knew you must’ve been in trouble. Gaemil was trying to be diplomatic, but I— Well, my faith in the official process was weak, so I asked Alvaro to help me . . .’ She smiled, clearly proud of herself, if still concerned about the consequences of her actions. Then she flicked a hand up, waving away her timidness. ‘Oh, never mind. What’s the worst he can do? Take me home? Pfft! So long as my credit’s still good to get you what you need, I’ll know I’ve done my part.’ She sat forward, her gaze boring into Llew. ‘Just save his life, Llew. I want to go to your wedding.’ She sat back with a glint in her eye and Llew could see the girl who designed a garden for her babies. Anya thrived on having a mission.

‘Huzzah.’ Rowan stood, triumphant. A flame had taken hold.

‘Yay.’ Anya clapped.

With a pleased smile, Rowan placed the thin packet of matches back up on a nearby shelf. ‘Eggs and bacon? Sounds like a fine dinner.’

Llew’s thoughts turned to food, and it seemed everyone else in the room joined her.

Anya turned to Alvaro. ‘How about you and Karlani go and slice some of the bacon we found in that shed, then. And collect as many eggs as you can.’

Llew watched Karlani and Alvaro slip out the door, Karlani giving Alvaro a cheeky pat on the arse before the door closed behind them.

Rowan caught Jonas’s attention. ‘While we wait, how’s about we try out that prosthetic. Test it out before bed and then sleep on it. Give you a head start for tomorrow.’

‘Sure.’

A deep baying, somewhat ghostly and wholly distressed, sent a chill through Llew. Everyone in the room froze.

‘What is that?’ Anya whispered.

The sound came again.

‘The cows,’ Jonas murmured and Llew relaxed. Of course.

She took a moment to decipher what the calls meant. Ard’s house cows provided the milk for the homestead. How long had it been since the girls had been milked? She’d known mothers in Cheer who’d suffered when their babes weaned, or simply didn’t feed well. And Ard had said something along those lines when he’d had Llew help him milk them the last time they’d been here at the farm.

‘Maybe I can help them,’ Llew said.

‘I can help,’ said Elka.

And so, the farm settled into a hive of activity.

Ard’s house cows stood leaning into the fence nearest the shed where he fed and milked them. One simply pushed against the fence, as if she thought she could walk through it. The other pawed the ground and walked agitatedly around its friend. Having little idea what she needed to or could do for Ard’s girls, Llew strode over to them. If all she could do was ease their pain, she would start there.

Drawing closer, their udders were prominent and reddened and, on seeing Llew, ears laid back, eyes rolled, and feet stamped.

‘Shh.’ Llew slowed her approach with a hand raised. The nearest cow took a step back into the other cow, who bayed her annoyance and gave no quarter. Llew managed to brush fingertips over the nose of the closest cow. The head swung away, ceasing the tingling in Llew’s fingers. But then the wide nose came back for a tentative sniff. At this second contact, the nose pressed into Llew’s palm. And she burned.

The initial intense pain was short-lived, but a subtle simmering continued through that touch. The cow heaved a sigh, blowing damp into Llew’s palm.

Llew bent to find a patch of grass still green on her side of the fence and sunk her fingers amongst it, then stood and swung herself over the railings, landing softly beside the cow she’d helped, who didn’t flinch.

The other cow lunged away but was reluctant to leave her herd-mate – as tiny as their herd might have been. Llew was surprised at her own lack of fear standing so near these agitated masses of muscle, but her need to soothe them was stronger than her need to avoid pain or injury. She reached out with her other hand, sinking her fingertips beneath neck hair. That cow froze, wide-eyed as Llew absorbed her inflammation.

‘Mastitis.’ Elka came to lean on the top rail of the fence.

‘What causes it?’ Llew turned her attention to Elka while she maintained contact with both cows, aware of a continuing draining of her ghi into them. Whatever she had healed wasn’t the source of their troubles, and Braph’s word ‘micro-organism’ echoed in the back of her mind. ‘I mean, they won’t have been milked since . . .’ Ard. Llew blinked against her tears that threatened every time she thought of either of the farmers.

‘Bacteria,’ Elka said. Llew nodded, tight lipped, not surprised. ‘In— Infection.’

‘Is there anything I can do to fight that? Braph said it might be possible for me to drain the— the bacteria. But he also said I might have to kill Jo— my patient to do it.’

‘The farmer probably had some treatments. Let’s look in the shed.’ Elka’s scowl remained deep, but Llew still didn’t know how to read her expressions.

Llew swung a leg up and hauled herself over the fence. She took a couple of steps and crouched to sink her fingers into the grass on cartway verge, watching closely as the ring of death spread towards the fence, and beneath. She broke contact before it reached the cows’ feet and led the way to the shed where Ard cleaned and stored the milking buckets. She would have to be careful not to bump into Elka as they worked in proximity.

‘Do you think we’ll need to milk them?’ Llew remembered all too well the ache in her hands after carrying out that task the last time she’d been here.

‘I think it’s b— best to let them dry off while we’re here to treat the inf— infection.’ Elka scanned the row of bottles, lifting one down to examine its label. ‘They’ve no calves at foot. My guess is they’re due to stop milking soon, anyway.’

‘Where did you learn about cows?’

‘Ma’s treated plenty of ladies weaning their babes over the years.’ Elka put the bottle back on the shelf and pulled down another. ‘Plus, Northhollow has a large d— dairy farm that supplies the town’s milk, cream, butter, and cheese. We’ve helped them a few times.’ She turned to Llew, proffering a bottle. ‘We’ll s— start with this. Your healing of the inflamm— mation will have helped.’

Llew dashed along the cartway to press her fingers to an Ajnai before running back to open the gate to the paddock for Elka, and the grateful cows stood patiently as they massaged the pungent oil into their udders. Llew could still sense the transfer of ghi from herself to the cow she administered to.

Elka stood from attending her cow, tottered, and landed on her arse. The now-relaxed cows barely reacted, just mulled around testing the grass by the fence for palatability as Llew rushed to Elka’s aid. As Llew pulled Elka to her feet, Elka sucked in a sharp breath. Llew cursed, shifted her hands to support Elka where clothes protected her from Llew’s touch until Elka was balanced. Llew stooped to collect the dropped bottle, and brushed her fingers through some remaining green grass, leaving a small circle dry.

‘I’m so sorry.’

Elka shook off Llew’s apology as she brushed dust off her dress.

‘We’ll do it again tomorrow morning and night.’ She favored Llew with a small smile and turned for the gate. ‘If y— you can ease their pain, we can fight the cause with that.’ She gestured to the bottle. ‘It will take a little time, is all.’

Llew held the gate open for Elka. ‘I’ll need your help to come up with a way to fight Jonas’s . . . infection. I can reverse the symptoms, but it’s too dangerous to fight the bug itself. And I’m not sure Jonas can use my blood to fight it himself. We need all the help we can get.’

‘Yes.’ Elka watched Llew a little longer and Llew got the sense of some respect, though, perhaps grudging from this fellow healer, before Elka turned for the homestead, leaving Llew to return the bottle of pungent oil to the shed.

Stepping from the shed, Llew paused to watch the cows. One dropped to her knees, then eased her bulk down to rest, while the other kept nibbling the short grass. They would need to be moved to more grass. Ard had pigs that would need checked on, too. And chickens. How many eggs awaited discovery? Llew started her trek back to the house before she became overwhelmed with all that would need doing. She could do it all. She had a team she could call on.