Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) Chapter 5: 5: Long Road

Read chapter 5 of Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) by Deb E Howell on NovelPedia.

“ I have read every twelve s— cinqa short s— story and graphic novel there is about the Great S— Syakaran of Quaver.” Elka’s earnestness pleaded with the man before her to consider seeing himself the way she imagined him. Llew admired the effort. “ You’re probably s— surprised how deep your tales have come inside Turhmos.” Elka took a step towards Jonas, her body lilting startlingly. Llew flinched with an initial reaction to catch the young woman, but Elka swung her leg through and continued the step as though there was nothing to worry about. “But we have no heroes of our own. At least, nothing to compare to you. Our Aenuks are confined to the military, and no one writes books about them.” Elka moved alongside the other chair. “S— sorry, I didn’t get the chance to tell ma about you, yet. I’ll need to s— see what is wrong s— so we can make a plan to fix it.” Llew cleared the books from the chair into a tiny pocket of space on the floor. She remained by the chair, facing Jonas. Our Aenuks , Elka had just said. What did that mean for Llew? Elka’s admiration for Jonas was clear. Surely Turhmos locals liked their Aenuks. Unless they’d been raised to fear them. But, o ur Aenuks . That had to be a sign of good favor. Elka sat opposite Jonas. “Oh. Is that what it looks like?” “ What?” “ Your tattoo? I’ve s— seen drawings, but they … Well, they weren’t accurate, clearly. I’d love to see the whole thing.” Llew bet she would’ve, especially the tail end curled over his butt cheek. She kept her lips closed on that detail for now, though. “ Anyway, I am here to look at your foot.” “ It ain’t pretty,” Jonas said. “ That’s okay, neither am I,” Elka replied. Llew had been in the middle of preparing for the sight to come, but instead found herself choking on her own breath. Half of her wanted to defend Elka from her own words, and yet her cheeks flamed, because she couldn’t deny having discounted Elka’s appearance on first sighting her. Jonas, too, froze. Elka looked from Jonas to Llew, bright with mirth, and Llew and Jonas both laughed uncertainly, then she leaned forward and waved a beckoning motion at Jonas’s foot. “Let’s take a look.” Jonas lifted his foot from the pile of books and swung it into her lap. Elka glanced at the foot briefly then back up at Jonas. “I heard you died. I’m glad that’s not true.” She looked down again. “Oh.” The mood in the room shifted. Elka took a moment to compose herself before somberly taking in the marks on Jonas’s leg. She ran stiff fingers up the red line and beyond, following an imaginary extension past his knee. She pressed against his flesh in several places along or near that line, watching Jonas for reaction. His jaw remained tense, greater discomfort only evident in a twitch of his eyes. “ I think … I’m going to have to get my mama involved. I think you need s— surgery.” Jonas nodded. “ It may have to come off.” Elka held his gaze. Llew’s entire body buzzed with the urge to simply reach out and touch Jonas and fix whatever was wrong with him, all her earlier anger pushed aside. Of course, if she could do that, they wouldn’t be here. She knew that. She didn’t want to believe it. Jonas’s face hardened and he looked down as he nodded again. “ I’m s— sorry,” Elka said. “It must be difficult for you.” Jonas looked up at her with a pained expression. How could they talk about their recent troubles with this girl who had faced difficulties since the day she was born? “ We maybe could s— save it, if debridement is all that’s needed,” Elka continued. “But I’m not sure. Ma will have to look when she’s free. It will depend on where the obs— obstruction is. Maybe it’s just the cold, but weren’t you in Duffirk to fight?” Jonas cleared his throat, and said, “Yeah. Got hit here.” He laid his hand over his thigh, just above the knee. “ Oh.” Elka sat back, carefully placing Jonas’s foot back on the pile of books. She reached out and pressed the tips of her fingers to the spot Jonas had indicated, her lips pressing to