Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) Chapter 42: 42: Huzzah

Read chapter 42 of Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) by Deb E Howell on NovelPedia.

Despite the locked doors, the restaurant’s basement cool-room had been stocked with several cuts of meat, eggs, jars of preserved fruits and vegetables, and a courtyard garden had yielded early spring greens, luscious in their youth. The stove was gas fired, so heating a pan and searing a few tasty morsels was swift and rewarding. The family returned to the garden satisfied both in their full bellies and hearts, and unburdened by having to clean up behind them. Braph had been ever so tempted to leave the stove burning, but Orinia had objected strongly. Still, their days in Quaver were clearly numbered. Returning regularly to gather more sap would be a costly exercise, and Braph found his mind investigating more deeply the idea of planting a tree in his own garden to see if it would eventually make a connection to this Taither one. Evidence to date suggested it might. The tree showed no signs of having healed the holes from the morning’s endeavors. A shame, no doubt, but so be it. They had collected all the sap they were going to on this particular visit. The afternoon was spent gently simmering the sap beyond syrup and into it’s more transportable taffy form, and tolerating Orin’s intolerance for boredom yet again. After a couple of hours, the child got so bored he gave up and lay down for a snooze, and Braph’s work progressed much more pleasantly. “You said Ieuan offered himself up to help. Had he heard about me?” Orinia had been piling their sap collecting gear neatly. They would leave everything behind. She came to stand beside Braph, watching the tiny bubbles distend and break the syrup’s surface. Braph put an arm across her shoulders. “I think he always knew where you were. He just never came for you, not before Turhmos took you. Not that you needed rescuing from me, eh?” He squeezed her shoulder tentatively. A smile briefly lifted the corners of Orinia’s mouth and disappeared again as she stared into the pot. “It was a confusing time,” she murmured. “Indeed. I admit, as barely beyond my boyhood at the time, I perhaps didn’t treat you all that well in our earliest days. I’d like to think I have made it up to you.” He squeezed her to him again. “And intend to keep doing so.” She looked at him then with true warmth. Orin woke grizzly from an average doze, and of course hungry, at dinner time. By then, the pot’s contents had reduced to the lightly oiled taffy consistency Braph had sought, and they gathered it into a bowl for transport. Braph promised Orin they would stop for a snack in a Turhmosian township, but he intended to return to his home that night. *** Two days later, Eirian and Ivor returned with the tattooing supplies Rowan had requested, and Jonas joined Llew in managing physical discomfort and pain. While Eirian and Ivor had been away, Rowan had constructed a wooden ‘tattooing station’ that provided a seat for Jonas and a frame for him to lean into allowing Rowan to sit behind him and tattoo the Syaenuk magic into his back. They set up outdoors to make the most of the natural lighting. No one on the farm had experience in tattooing, but Rowan was confident in his ability to learn. He’d painted plenty and created stamps to brand the leather shoes he’d cobbled over the years. With no need to create a design, simply looking to achieve a purpose, they opted for filling in the bare skin between the black swirls of Jonas’s existing gryphon tattoo. With Llew working to tolerate the messages received through the tree while her blood flowed into a collection vessel, Jonas worked to tolerate the needles piercing his skin, leaving traces of Llew’s magic beneath. He hadn’t been tattooed since having the gryphon completed some eighteen months prior, and the first several pricks were the hardest to endure, but he soon grew accustomed and even found a strange pleasure in the pain for a time. After about an hour, both he and Rowan needed a break. “I’ve filled in about three square inches there,” Rowan said, pressing the fingers