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 prepare 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.

  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 at 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.” Perhaps that would be enough to keep Elka and Raena safe.

  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.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  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 easily, 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, leaf-fall. Jonas’s armpits throbbed 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.

  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.

  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 crowded 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. 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 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.

  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 away from her ma’s and wasn’t followed. And he hoped she’d thought to bring food.