Warrior's Touch (Deadly Touch book 2)

They reined in outside Merrid and Ard’s farm an hour or so before sunup. The house cows were already baying, and the glow of a lone candle seeped through the gaps around the kitchen shutters. They waited not long before the cottage door opened and old Ard stepped out, carrying a covered milk bucket and, without looking up, turned to face the door as he closed it quietly. Then he turned back and froze.

Llew slipped from Amico’s back and started up the path. Ard dropped the metal bucket on the porch and armed himself with the pitchfork.

“It’s me, Ard,” she called. “Llew... Llewella.”

“Llew—?” His voice shook with uncertainty. She moved closer and his face softened in recognition. “What’re you doin’ back, girl? You’re supposed to be safe.”

“Something came up.” She stepped into his embrace. “We didn’t want to bring trouble, but we hoped you could put us up. A shed will do.”

“Pah! Merrid wouldn’t hear of it. You have a bed here. We’d be just as happy if you’d never needed it again, though, eh.” He looked beyond her.

“Jonas of Quaver.” Llew indicated the Syakaran.

“Aye, we’ve met.”

The two men nodded once to each other.

Hisham jumped from the cart and, as he came near, Ard beamed.

“Lieutenant.” Ard stepped forward, clasping Hisham’s hand in both of his. “Good to see you again. You know, Merrid made a big batch of that stew you liked so much just yesterday. We were goin’ to be eating it for lunch and dinner today, maybe again tomorrow. As much as I enjoy it, I like it better when we change things up a bit. I’ll be glad for your help in gettin’ through it.”

Hisham laughed. “Be glad to.” He patted Ard’s arm.

Ard looked back to where Jonas still sat astride Chino, beside Braph. “No Cassidy this time?”

The heavy heart that accompanied every mention of Cassidy settled in Llew’s chest.

“I’m afraid Cassidy didn’t make it out of Turhmos the last time,” Hisham said.

“Oh,” Ard’s brow creased. “That’s a shame. I liked Cassidy. Good man, he was. And his cousin...?”

“Alvaro,” Llew supplied. “He’s back home with his family. He hasn’t forgiven me for Cassidy’s death.”

“Aye?!”

“It weren’t Llew’s fault,” Jonas said, stating fact so firmly Llew was almost convinced herself. “There was a misunderstandin’ and Alvaro had to place blame somewhere.” He brought Chino a pace closer. “We’d like to get the horses and cart off the road before it gets light.”

“Alright. You can put ‘em in the stable out back,” Ard said, friendly enough, though it looked as if Jonas rubbed him the wrong way. “But I’d like to know who I’m welcomin’. Who’s this?” He nodded to Braph.

“That’s Jonas’s brother,” Llew said. “Braph.”

“The magician.”

“Not anymore,” Jonas, Llew and Braph said in unison. Braph lifted his stump to illustrate.

That seemed to please Ard some. His lips stretched a little. His gaze slid to Jonas again, no doubt making a mental black mark for his relatedness to Braph. “Alright. Well, you lads can settle your mounts in the stable corral. Llew’s gonna come help me with my ladies.” He collected the milk bucket from the porch, still clutching the pitchfork in the same hand, and rested his other hand on Llew’s shoulder to guide her to where the cows waited, pausing a moment to direct the men where to go when their paths diverged.

“We need somewhere to shelter the cart from pryin’ eyes.” Jonas waved a finger at the sky. Llew wasn’t sure if Ard would know what he meant, but the farmer didn’t seem confused at the suggestion of eyes in the sky. That worried her. It suggested the flying machine had already been over their farm, and likely would be again.

“I’ve a three-sided shed the other side of the stables. There’s space there if you move a few things, gentle like.” Ard indicated the cart’s load. “If you want to use any of that wood, you’ll need to dry it.”

“You got a way we can do that?” Jonas asked.

Ard smiled. “I reckon I can wrangle somethin’.”

Jonas smiled and nodded his thanks and turned to help with leading the horses and cart to the stable.

“And I don’t want any of you goin’ into my home without my say so. You’ll give Merrid a heart attack, you lot wanderin’ in there. You finish with your horses, you come find me an’ Llew. We won’t be long.” The farmer guided her on, one hand on her shoulder, the other still carrying bucket and pitchfork. “Merrid will be right pleased to see you, but I meant what I said. You weren’t supposed to come back. They know about you now. They’ve been lookin’.” He waved the pitchfork in a generally skyward direction. Damn. Llew had wanted to be wrong. “And now I know you’re here, I reckon it’s for you in particular.”

“I know,” Llew said. She opened the wooden gate and the two cows pushed through, eager for breakfast and to have their udders eased. “We ran into a patrol last night,” she continued, turning to follow Ard and the cows to the open shelter, which was a roof suspended over a pad of compacted dirt, where they would be fed and milked. “That’s why we were hoping you could shelter us a few days. There’s more at stake now than just me or my life.” She leaned against the stable wall as Ard poured a measure of dry feed into a trough for the cows.

“Here we are, girls. Eat your fill, there’ll be more bad weather comin’.” Nodding his pleasure at seeing the cows tuck in, Ard entered a tiny storage shed that, from the outside, looked barely big enough for him to stand in, never mind storing things around him. He came out with a second bucket and two wooden stools.

“You done this before, girl?” he asked, placing a stool on either side of the cows, alongside the buckets.

“Done …” Llew looked at the scene again: two cows, two buckets, two stools... two people. “Uh.” She could hear Hisham, Jonas and Braph talking while they unsaddled and brushed down the horses around the corner. Not their words, just voices. She would rather be there with them. She knew what to do with a brush and a hoof pick.

“Take a seat.” Ard bent to pull one of the stools back, as a gentleman might for a lady. “Best place to ponder the world’s problems is with a fist round a teat.”

Llew baulked, but she could see no way out. Before her rear touched the seat, Ard shuffled the stool closer to the udder before her, so she was perfectly positioned to begin work. He placed one of the buckets ready to catch the morning’s yield and set about explaining – with a demonstration – how to draw the milk down and out from the teat. He had Llew demonstrate what she had learned before he moved to the other side of the cows to start his own work. The task had Llew’s own breasts tingling in sympathy.

“It doesn’t hurt them?” she asked.

“Oh no.” Ard chuckled. “It’s leavin’ ‘em full that hurts. They let me know if I’m runnin’ a shade late of a mornin’, and Merrid used to moan when our babes first slept through the night.” He laughed again, setting a steady rhythm with his milking. Llew tried to match it. “You’d think she’d be grateful for the sleep, but her bosom had other ideas.”

A snort behind her nearly had Llew toppling from her stool. Amico’s head hung over the fence, a look of accusation in his eyes. Why hadn’t Llew been the one to groom him? No doubt the men hadn’t spent long enough, having their own mounts to care for.

“Sorry,” she murmured.

Llew’s cow shifted her hind foot, giving Llew another start, but the animal was just shifting weight, not fixing to kick, so Llew settled back to work.

“You’ll learn all about it when you have tots of your own,” Ard was saying.

Llew felt the pang in her gut, no less fresh than the moment she had felt her children perish. Her fingers squeezed as tight as her jaw clenched while she focused on blinking away tears. The hoof came up, stomped the ground, and came up again, wavering with threat. Llew eased her grip and the foot lowered.

“What’s so important you had to come all the way back to Turhmos, then?” Ard asked. “And a dead patrol behind you. That’ll only attract more trouble.”

“It was us or them.” Llew kept concentrating on the rhythm set by the farmer. She was still wrestling with how much to tell. In the little more than a month since she’d met Merrid and Ard, so much had happened. Though she hadn’t known it at the time, she’d already been pregnant when she stayed with the couple. She didn’t know how they would feel about her being in such a condition without being married and, for some reason, Ard already seemed wary of Jonas. Telling them the full story seemed to be asking for trouble. “A very powerful and dangerous man has come to Turhmos. We don’t know what he’s going to do. All we know is that he hates Aenuks more than anything else and, as far as we know, Jonas is the only one with any chance of defeating him.”

“Then Jonas should have come. He didn’t need to put you in danger.”

“There’s more to it than that. Jonas needs me.”

“Every man needs a good woman. He can need you just as well from across the border.”

Llew switched to working the other teat pair as the first seemed to have run dry. Ard didn’t think Jonas was looking after her well enough. She congratulated herself for not mentioning her pregnancy. She could imagine the farmer striding round the corner to give Jonas what for. “The man we’re chasing is an Immortal. He’s as strong and fast as Jonas and can heal himself, without draining anything. Jonas can’t fight him alone.”

“What can you do against an Immortal? Aenuks can’t heal Kara.”

“Braph showed us that we can, but it’s... complicated.” Llew didn’t think Ard would take too kindly to blood injections, probably even less so to her pregnancy. “Besides, there’s nowhere safer for me than by Jonas’s side. Turhmos could find me in Brurun. They nearly found me in Aghacia. And there’s no saying what Quaver would do with me if Jonas abandoned me there.” They’d incarcerated her once already. “We’re doing the best we can.”

“Still no reason he couldn’t make it an honest pairing.” Ard scraped his stool back. The cows must have heard the sound thousands of times, as both girls remained placid. “It ain’t right, a single girl travelin’ day and night with three men. If I had a say, I’d have that Hisham courtin’ you. Now, there’s a nice lad.” Ard brought his pail of milk around by Llew and pressed the lid into it. “But your heart’s been with the Syakaran from the get-go, so I s’pose there’s no changin’ your mind.”

Draining the last of the milk, Llew sat back flexing her hands. They’d done a good morning’s work and the sun was barely above the horizon. “He’s been good to me.” She looked Ard right in the eye. “Honest truth.”

“Well, it sounds to me as if you’ve got somewhat more to worry about than some Turhmos patrol.” Ard pulled Llew’s full milk pail out from under her cow and set about pressing the metal lid in place, sealing it firmly. “You’ve always got a place here, Llewella. You know that.”

“Thanks, Ard.” Llew embraced the farmer as he stood, seeking strength against the chill that shook her at his use of her full name as much as thanking him for his words.

“We best get you inside to Merrid. She’ll be right mad at me if I keep you all to myself any longer, especially wet as you are from the rain.” He scowled at the blood stains and tears in her shirt. “Been good to you, huh?” He scratched at his stubbly chin.

He shooed the cows back to the paddock where they were to spend their day, then Llew waddled alongside him, her full pail hanging in front of her legs so she could grip the handle with both hands. He’d offered to take it, but it would be poor form for him to carry both while she carried none. No matter how much he assured her he did so every morning she insisted on doing her bit and he politely let her, even if walking at her pace made the job doubly hard.

Their loads were lifted when they reached the point where their path merged again with the men. Hisham took Llew’s pail and Jonas took Ard’s. The two Quavens carried the milk pails as if they were empty, though Llew thought she caught a slight wince as the thin metal handle settled in Jonas’s burnt grip.

“Our horses need new shoes,” Jonas said as they walked.

“What you’re askin’ is if I have my own forge and tools. Which I do. And iron. But I’m guessin’ you’re lookin’ to work somethin’ else, too.”

Jonas’s smile said You’re onto it and Llew felt a warm glow. Ard was the closest thing she had to a father now hers was gone, and that made her want Jonas and Ard to get on that much more.

“And none of you can make the trip to Hinden without likely attractin’ some trouble.”

Jonas smiled again, clearly not feeling a need to confirm as he and Hisham eased the pails down on the porch.

“Alright. What do you need?” Ard asked as the two Kara straightened.

Jonas turned his gaze to Braph, who said, “Lead.”

Ard’s brows shot up. “That right there.” He pointed to his own forehead. “That’s the look I’ll be gettin’ around town with that request.”

Jonas wasn’t the type to slump, but he did look disappointed.

“Don’t mean I won’t do it.” Ard’s surprise turned to disgust. “Right, clean up your grubby mitts and let’s get inside.” He indicated the pitcher of water and wide bowl on a table beside the door.

Everyone took their turn at washing their hands and freshening up before presenting themselves to Merrid. Jonas took his time, letting his scalded hands soak in the cool water. They must have been stinging, but he wouldn’t admit to that.

When everyone was ready, Ard pushed open the door.

Merrid looked up from her breakfast preparations, a welcoming smile becoming wide-eyed wonder and flustered apron removal and wide arms as she came to the door and pulled Llew into a hug that nearly winded her.