Jonas’s smile was layered in humor, sadness, and doubt, and he shook his head. “I believe in you, Llew. You’re doin’ everythin’ to make that happen. I know.” He tapped his temple. “But we’re meddlin’ in things beyond anythin’ I understand. I do believe in you and what you’re doin’. I want to believe it’ll work. But this …” He placed his hand over his heart. “I got a hollow feelin’ when I think of the future I want. It’s not real enough for me. Karlani’s strength is real. Today. Or it was.”

  “You don’t believe you’ll live?”

  Jonas held out a hand and Llew placed hers in it. He covered it with this other, his crutches safely stowed against an armpit. “I want to, Llew. For you. For Joelin. I really hope I do.”

  “We’ve talked about this. I’m not letting you die.”

  “I know. I believe that part of all this. I just wish it didn’t cost you so much.”

  “For you, it doesn’t.”

  Jonas only closed his lips firmly on a response to that.

  Llew sighed. “Well, let’s go and not let this so-called joke be Karlani’s last, I guess.”

  ***

  Everyone was standing around Karlani when Llew and Jonas arrived. With so much of Jonas’s energy needed to focus on his footing and pushing through the bouts of pain that still assailed him, they hadn’t talked further, and Llew had grown numb. She had said no more blood. A part of her felt like her hand was being forced, while another insisted she could still say ‘no’ and damned Alvaro. He’d find another woman.

  She met Elka’s gaze and any pigheadedness about giving Karlani more blood vanished. Well, most of it.

  Still, she would never withhold blood from Jonas, and this was as much for him as Karlani. If nothing else, it would show them that Syakaran strength and speed could be healed through Aenuk blood transfers. Llew sure hoped so. If they failed here, then their future was even more in doubt.

  Without a word, Llew sat beneath a tree, rolled up her sleeve and presented her arm to Eirian then Lyneth and focused on tuning out the hot burn each time a needle pierced her skin. Doing this for Jonas was one thing, but she fumed at each syringeful they pressed into Karlani. She’d said she’d do this once and once only. She understood Jonas’s doubts, and the need for a backup, but this felt far too much like being incapable of fighting back when Braph had used her. Karlani wasn’t restraining her this time, nor holding her captive through magic mind control, but her thoughtless action forced Llew’s hand, if they needed the Syakaran woman to live. And with Jonas still at the mercy of Braph’s bug, yes, it seemed keeping Karlani alive was a good idea.

  This was what her life had come to: repeatedly convincing herself to let Karlani live. It took work.

  And so there she sat, growing more determined to succeed at defeating the bug and returning Jonas’s Syakaran powers. While letting him die had never been an option, she might have been satisfied to have him live powerless, if only to have him live. But if they still needed Syakaran strength and speed, then it had to be contained in Jonas, not Karlani.

  Alvaro crouched by her. “Thank you so much, Llew. I know—”

  “No. You don’t.” Llew didn’t look at him; kept one arm extended, resting on a knee, and kept the other palm pressed to the tree. Sensations of being held down on cold stone floor washed through her, Karlani’s hands pressing down; that satisfied grin breaking through the grimace of effort. Llew had been strong then, and still not strong enough.

  Jonas stepped in beside them, watching stonily until Alvaro reluctantly moved away, then eased himself beside Llew, laying his crutches beside him and folding his arms across his knee. “I hate it, too, but it’s the right thing to do.”

  Llew took a breath against the urge to lash out. “Maybe.” She turned to him. “But if you were full strength, she’d be dead.”

  “Dead dead.” He grinned, and paused as Edwyn and Lyneth returned for more blood, resuming when they returned to Karlani. “But I’m not, and she will be. And Syakaran power can still be a greater good.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Or evil.”

  They sat in silence for several rounds of blood-letting. Llew understood why she sat there giving blood, and she was doing it almost willingly. No one physically or magically held her down, and given their situation she would say “yes” again, and yet it still felt defiling. She’d said no more, and she’d meant it. And so she seethed.

  “How is she?” Jonas asked, when Edwyn returned once again.

  “Breathing,” Lyneth said, lining up behind Edwyn, flexing her hands. “Little else, so far.”

  “Here.” Llew kept one hand pressed to the tree and reached out with the other.

  The price for muscle aches was the barest of tingles to Llew, but Lyneth and Edwyn went away much relieved.

  “We’ll be here all day,” Llew whined, having no interest in politeness or decorum.

  “Longer, if you want a Syakaran.”

  “I didn’t want that one.”

  Jonas didn’t dignify that with a response and they settled into a dull day of blood transfers.

  They paused briefly to direct several syringes to Jonas, keeping his energy up in his battle with the micro-organism, but otherwise, the blood kept flowing into Karlani.

  Llew grew sick of pressing a hand to the bark, so she lifted the back of her shirt, pressing her bare back to the tree instead. A cool breeze swept through, but at least she could relax some.

  Edwyn and Lyneth trained the rest of the Turhmos soldiers – Garnoc, Delwynn, and Ianto – to draw and inject blood so they could take a break. A lunch was brought out.

  And Llew’s blood kept flowing.

  Eventually, Karlani was able to sit, though she still looked exhausted for several more syringefuls. Llew had no real concept of the damage done to a body drained by an Aenuk, but if the external burn marks she’d seen on Jonas were anything to go by, she didn’t even want to imagine the internal damage caused when she returned to life with a touch from Karlani, or … Anya. It must’ve been awful.

  Alvaro sat cross-legged before Karlani, a hand resting on her knee. And Llew’s blood kept flowing.

  The farm chores were carried out around them. The sun began to dip. A dinner was brought out. Llew had to relieve herself, and dearly wished she and Jonas had managed to bathe in the river. She returned to the trees, sat once more, and provided blood to Jonas again. And the blood kept flowing. Llew was aware of Karlani, who was starting to converse with Alvaro, her voice becoming more chipper, but she refused to look the Syakaran’s way.

  Rowan got a small fire started near Llew and added to it log-by-log until its heat warmed Llew’s front in stark contrast to the chill caressing her back, then he retired for the night. Between needle jabs, Llew held her palms up to catch more heat, savoring the simple pleasure against the backdrop of her unwanted assignation. A log popped, making Llew jump and sending orange sparks up, soon caught in the air stream caused by the fire’s own heat, zigzagging into the dark. A moment of beauty. Fleeting.

  Something bumped Llew’s back and she jolted. She looked around at the others. Alvaro still sat by Karlani, the two of them just outside of the fire’s warmth. Jonas sat near Llew, but his attention was inward, his chin resting on arms resting on knee. Garnoc and Delwynn were on blood transfer duty, while Ianto and Edwyn loitered nearby, listening into the night, stretching their senses to detect trouble before it struck. Rowan, Lyneth, and Samlet were indoors, catching sleep while they could. Elka sat near the fire, idly poking at it with a green stick.

  No one seemed to have sensed anything, so Llew eased back into the tree cautiously. A sensation ran up and down her back; a vibration, almost as if the bark itself protruded and poked at her. She sat forward and glared at the tree, cautious not to twist the needle Delwynn had just pressed beneath her skin. It stood, as the trees always did.

  “What?” Jonas asked.

  “I felt something …” Llew shook her head – she was tired, imagining things – and eased back again, hooking her shirt up once more.

  An alarming buzz rushed through her torso and an image of the Taither Ajnai filled her mind, distinctive with its rainbow ripples, though she’d never seen such a full array of colors in person. Probably an exaggeration so she would have no doubt as to the message. This tree knew about the Taither one.

  Then warmth, like a soothing touch. A mother’s touch. Her mother’s face. This tree had never seen her mother. Had the one in Taither? Could her mother be there … now?

  An evil visage merged through the tree in her mind’s eye until it resolved into a sneering—

  Gasping, Llew waved her free hand at Garnoc, only able to make an inarticulate moan in plea to have the latest needle removed, and leaped away from the tree, spinning to face it, half expecting to see Braph somehow pull himself from within. A silly fear, and yet her whole body tensed and tingled.

  The tree stood, as they always did.