Chapter 24
Jam
As teenagers growing up, I'd always known that my sister Angie was obsessed with boys. Like most other girls, she'd cut out pictures of young teen heartthrobs and a variety of singers from boy bands and plastered them across her bedroom walls.
After the canisters fell, well, that all changed. The pictures came down and she stopped looking at boys as if all her dreams had been shattered.
When Stevron joined our crew, I hoped that he'd bring my sister back to life. I guess I was hoping for too much.
LATE EVENING
The cool river water felt good as it lapped over my naked body in the shallow water close to the bank.
After my last ‘treatment’ Stevron unwrapped all my wounds, exposing my tattered flesh to the harsh elements. Despite both Calvin and Donahue's disapproval, Stevron insisted to the scientist and the medic that it would be good for me to soak in the river. As I rested my head back onto a patch of warm sand, I had to admit, I was thankful.
I was tired and I ached everywhere from sitting in the back of the moving truck the entire day and most of last night. I was still having a lot of trouble moving.
Carter, Stevron, Calvin, Donahue, and Dirk were bathing a little way up stream. Char was the only other male that hadn't joined us. I was glad he didn't.
I could hear the other men's voices, loud and laughing as they teased young Carter. Something about the few strands of hair that had popped up on his chest. I found myself smiling. I closed my eyes and drifted off.
The bristly feel of a familiar snout nudged my arm. I opened my eyes and saw Ragtop, ass down, in the water beside me.
“Time to get that shoulder in the river,” Stevron stated as he came into view.
I nodded and shifted my body so that Stevron could manoeuvre me fully into the cool water. He held the back of my head, in case I went under.
As I floated, I closed my eyes again. “You and Angie have another fight?”
“I told her about the unpleasant aspects of healing.”
I opened my eyes. The silver swirls in Stevron’s eyes had dulled, but he was still sucking on a bushberry. I knew the temptation to kill would be still strong.
“Which was she more angry about? The sex thing or the fact that every time you give me a 'treatment' you want to wring my neck?”
Stevron snorted.
“So it’s the sex thing. Good.”
Stevron splashed water onto my face. “Only you would be encouraging a man to have sex with your sister. You’re supposed to be protecting her.”
I laughed. “Ange can look after herself. Besides what better bodyguard can I provide for her than you? You’re already in love with her.”
Stevron didn't reply, so I asked another question.
“What are we doing all the way out here? Why did you bring us so far south?”
“This is my birth land.”
“Lovely spot,” I said dryly.
“It used to be.”
I heard something strange in Stevron’s tone. A mixture of anger…or was it despair. I couldn’t quite tell. “We’re rather close to Larcore territory, aren’t we?” I asked cautiously.
“Not so much anymore. They've relocated further north.”
A sharp pain slashed through me. I sucked in air.
I shot Stevron a nervous look. “I had no idea that the Larcore were on the move north.”
“And don't be telling anyone I said anything. Not just yet.”
“How close are they to where our base camp was?”
I saw Stevron glance up stream. “A few hundred miles.”
A bad feeling slapped me across the head. “Damn, Stevron, how could we have allowed them to get so close?”
Stevron shook his head. “I don’t know. Then again, how did Ragtop miss the Prayers?”
I didn’t want to be reminded of the Prayers. I was still too badly wounded to be much good to my family or the rest of our crew. I was failing in so many ways.
“Do you think something is screwing with the dog’s senses?”
It was a few moments before Stevron answered me. “Yeah.”
I did not like the sound of where Stevron was heading. It was dangerous territory. “What are you thinking? Is there a traitor among us?”
“It’s just a hunch, Jam, nothing more.”
“Hey, if it has you worried, we’re in deep shit.”
“How far away are we from the nearest fyre arena?”
I paused. “Angie said we’d come midway between seventeen hundred and eighteen hundred miles.” I quickly calculated the distance and how long it would take us to reach an arena. “We’re half a days travel, that is if we go at a measured speed. Angie wasn’t pleased that we burned through so many eggs.”
Stevron sighed. “At the moment Angie is not pleased about much.”
I chuckled. “Don’t sweat it. Ange will get over the sex thing.”
Stevron harrumphed. He released my head and said, “deep breath,” then gently pressed my upper chest and shoulders beneath the water.
When I surfaced and finished sputtering river water out of my mouth and nose, he continued our conversation.
“Has Verena mentioned anything about your father or Roarke? I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to her.”
“A little. Mostly after Char accused her and the others of being the cause of the Doorcou attack.”
Stevron nodded. “Char could be right. What did she say?”
“Just that she and my father had left Roarke and Calvin to go follow a lead. This was a short time before the Doorcou attacked.”
“What kind of a lead?”
“She didn’t say, although Char made some pretty heavy accusations that the four of them were all asking too many questions. That they were searching for someone.”
I felt Stevron take a deep breath. His hand tightened on the back of my head.
“Yes, I think your father was searching for someone, Jam. The Doorcou didn’t attack that village for no reason. They wanted someone or something dead.”
“Well they certainly achieved their goal. I haven’t seen that kind of carnage since the tun-” I shut up fast.
Images of the day the canisters fell flashed across my mind at lightning speed. I squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn’t going to go back down that road. Not today, I wasn’t strong enough.
“You’re sure Verena didn’t say anything about Roarke?”
I focused my attention back on Stevron and the water. “No, nothing other than that he and Calvin were at a shop that sold medicine the last time she saw him.”
“What did Calvin say?”
“Nothing.”
©Legend of the Sapphyre Wings by Janet Merritt