Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) Chapter 14: 14: Are We There?

Read chapter 14 of Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) by Deb E Howell on NovelPedia.

The road remained quiet. Whether that was normal for this stretch, or the checkpoints at every town entrance were creating a lull, Llew didn’t know. The clop of unaccompanied hooves they ignored, hunkering silently, waiting for the travelers to pass. With each growing crackle of hard wheels rolling over the fine stones of the road from the direction of Northhollow, Rowan eased himself around a tree trunk to peek at the road. The sky was just fully light when he gave a yell and waved at the road, then returned to help lift Jonas. Elka had pulled up in a canvas-covered two-horse wagon. Llew gave her a wave and clambered into the rear. The floor space was narrow, with lidded benches each side. Rowan lifted Jonas into the back and Llew helped haul him in, but could only drag him along the floor. Rowan leaped into the back and clambered past them and through to the front with Elka. As soon as he disappeared through the cloth doorway, the cart lurched forward. The brother and sister’s murmuring voices drifted back through the canvas, but not their words. Llew eased herself into a cross-legged position on the floor and pulled Jonas’s head and shoulders into her lap. He had been awakened by the rough handling required to get him into the cart and remained so. A few minutes later, Rowan returned and sat on one of the bench seats that lined each side. “Hungry?” he asked. “Oh, yes.” Llew looked down at Jonas. He managed to lift his eyebrows to express his own eagerness to eat, and even that small gesture seemed to exhaust him, his eyes turning dull and listless. Llew tried to work out how long it had been between his getting struck by that arrow and his beginning to weaken. It didn’t help that he hadn’t disclosed his earliest symptoms to her, but it had been some three weeks since she had learned of his weakness. Did they have so long before this … bug that was attacking him finally killed him? Or was it something he could live with for years? She didn’t want to consider only having weeks left with Jonas and didn’t even want to consider what a future without him might look like. The pulsating Ajnai tree in Taither came to mind again. They were weeks away from it. But they were on the way. They had to have that long, at least. A vibration buzzed against her chest, and Llew was only a little surprised to discover she had drawn Jonas into her and was smothering him against her chest. He must have been protesting. “Sorry,” she said as she released him. His eyebrows gave all the expression he was capable of for now, and Llew found herself delighted by the display of a lingering sense of humor when he glanced towards her chest before meeting her eye and raising those eyebrows twice. His lips managed the slightest of an upward lift. She rolled her eyes in return and smiled. Rowan raised a hinged lid that doubled as a seat. He sifted through the contents. “There’s sourdough, jerky, apples …” He sidled along the bench-cubby, remarkably well-balanced in their rolling conveyance. “… a few varieties of pickled vegetables. You want me to put something together?” He looked over his shoulder at Llew. “Can we tear into the bread? We’re both starving.” Llew thought it safe to speak on Jonas’s behalf. Her own stomach was threatening to digest itself. Jonas grunted his agreement. “Bread it is.” Rowan lifted out a material-wrapped loaf, tore off a hunk for himself, and handed the rest to Llew. The loaf was moist and heavy, and the crust had a tough, almost leather quality. Llew couldn’t imagine Jonas having the energy to chew it, so she dug into the soft center, pulled out a handful and offered it to him. Jonas’s lips pressed together and his eyes looked in the direction of one of his hands, which made an effort to lift, but he lacked the energy to raise it. With a faint sigh, he let her poke the bread into his mouth in small pinches. In between feeding him, Llew tugged off strips of the tough crust and chewed them. At least the bread was tasty; sweet and s