Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) Chapter 23: 23: That's All Llew

Read chapter 23 of Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) by Deb E Howell on NovelPedia.

The future lay before Llew in the form of dead Turhmosian soldiers, and she was in the unenviable position of having to choose whether to step into it. Could she afford to? She glanced at the Ajnai that had given its life to save Ard’s. It was dull, dried, and remained barely two feet tall. The other trees had shot up to around two to three times as tall as she was and their canopies spread nearly as wide. Their trunks, however, remained less than a foot wide, nothing like the ancient Ajnai that had been more broad than she and Jonas sitting side-by-side. What did these trees have left to give? And then there was the tree that had allowed her to save Anya. It was as tall and broad as the others, and she understood she hadn’t killed it, but it was damaged. She couldn’t call on it again any time soon. She looked back at the sprawled bodies; to Jonas, still taking a moment to savor his renewed energy; at Anya wrapped in Gaemil’s arms. The soldiers had come because Turhmos told them to. That didn’t make them bad people. And, surely, giving them their lives back would win their favor. “Please,” she waved a hand to draw the nearest of Gaemil’s guard’s attention. “Bring that one to me.” She pointed to the nearest body. The guard glanced at Gaemil who, despite still clasping Anya to him, tuned into Llew’s intent, and nodded. Yes, he’d said he couldn’t afford Turhmos witnesses, but if this worked they would gain allies. Once the body was in reach, Llew clasped the cooling hand and kept her other on the tree behind her. It didn’t surprise her when she felt nothing for several full seconds. She tuned her full attention to the sensation of skin-on-skin, as unsettling as that cool touch was, and became aware of the familiar vibration beginning from little more than imagination and growing, filling Llew’s body with hot and cold and a general restlessness. She dug her fingers into a crevice in the tree bark and clasped the warming hand tight. The soldier gasped, his breathing settled into a rhythm and, eventually, he opened his eyes, looked from Llew to Anya, Gaemil, and the Brurun guards standing over him, and panicked, trying to wrest his hand free of Llew’s clasp. “You’re not fully healed yet,” Llew murmured, hoping her words would reassure him, rather than panic him more. His gaze met hers as he processed her words, his expression shifting from a wild fear to a leery understanding. As soon as the flow of ghi eased, Llew instructed, “Next.” Once fully healed, the Turhmos soldier stood. He looked warily at his enemies surrounding him, and flinched as Rowan, Alvaro, and Karlani returned but, once it was evident no one intended to attack him, he simply joined the others in watching Llew as she accepted the hand of the second soldier. Again, it took time for the flow of ghi to begin, but begin it did, and soon a second Turhmos soldier returned from the dead, and Llew called for the next, her audience watching on in awed silence. But as the moments ticked past with the third soldier’s cold hand in her grasp, she had to admit defeat and, with a panicked tinge to her voice, she pleaded for the warmest bodies to be brought to her first. She had to get to the most likely to be saved, or she might save no more. A part of her thought making such a call should feel more painful, but those first two soldiers alive and breathing were nearly enough. Soon after gasping the first breath of his new life, the fourth soldier reached for a knife and was grappled by Turhmos soldier and Brurun guard alike, and pulled away while Llew got on with healing the next. From then on, one of the Turhmos soldiers ensured hers was the first face her compatriots saw when they returned to life and things went more smoothly, until eight Turhmos soldiers stood, marveling at their second chance, while the following thirteen remained lifeless. After holding the final cold hand for a few minutes, Llew let it drop, rested her arms on her knees, and sat in her mixed feelings. ***