Free Jalia in the North (Jalia - World of Jalon) by John Booth Page B

foot having left Swift tied to the wagon. It was far too dangerous to ride a horse along this road at night. An owl hooted from a small stand of trees and everyone jumped. Lonny sat alongside Maya with her head in her hands and Daniel could appreciate how she must feel, having left the man who both abused her and provided for her. He once had a similar relationship with his brother, Yousef.
    Jalia appeared from a shadow and Maya stifled a scream, so unexpected was her return.
    “There’s some sort of trouble about half a mile ahead, to the left of the road. A woman is wailing. Should we investigate?” Normally Jalia wouldn’t have bothered asking, but they had already had quite an eventful day and she was exhausted.
    “That’s the Gilben farm,” Lonny told them. “He and his wife Megan and their children live there. They’re good people, better than we were.” Lonny lapsed into silence as Daniel considered their options.
    “Jalia would never forgive me if we didn’t look,” he said at last. “Let’s go and see if we can help.”
     
    When they approached the farm they heard a woman sobbing. The farm buildings were surrounded by trees and it wasn’t possible to make out where the woman was. Daniel shouted a greeting into the night.
    “Hello the house. We are travelers seeking shelter. May we come forward and offer assistance?”
    “Why not, what more can be done to us?” the woman said in a voice filled with despair.
    Jalia lit a lamp and, by its light, Daniel, Jalia, and Lonny walked into the dark towards the voice. They found the woman kneeling on the ground by a dark shape and as they got closer, they saw the shape was the body of a man.
    He had taken a terrible beating and his head was covered in blood.
    Lonny stepped forward.
    “It’s me, Megan. These are good people, not like Teague. You can trust them.” Lonny went to kneel besides the woman and put an arm around her.
    “Hold the lamp,” Daniel said to Lonny. “Jalia and I will carry him back to the house. Is it safe here or are the people who did this still around?”
    Megan pulled herself together and looked at Daniel. She saw a young man barely older than Ben, her eldest son, but he had kind eyes and she found she trusted him on sight.
    “They were slavers. They knocked out Gilben and took our sons. My daughter hid from them and has gone to fetch a healer, but I think my husband is beyond healing.” Megan stood and came closer to the light and they saw that she too was bloody with a nasty cut above her brow.
    Megan took the lamp and led them back to the house. Daniel and Jalia carried her injured husband between them. They placed him on a bed and Megan and Lonny went to get water from the well to wash his wounds.
    Gilben was breathing in a labored manner and they saw a blow to his head had caved in his skull.
    “I don’t think he will last the night,” Jalia said dispassionately. She had seen many injuries in her life and ones like this were always fatal. She left Daniel to stand watch over him as she went to bring the wagon and the children to the house.
    Daniel felt frustrated. It was as if a force inside him was banging in his skull saying ‘let me heal him’, but Daniel knew such a thing was absurd. His fingers tingled and he touched Gilben’s forehead as much to try and make the tingling go away as anything else.
    Gilben’s eyes opened and moved frantically, his hands reached for Daniel’s arm and held him close, as if by doing so he might escape the call of death. Daniel felt as if he was being drained of energy, but he didn’t mind because it made the frustration ebb away. Gilben’s hands went slack and released him as the man fell back into sleep. Being awake for a few moments seemed to have done him good because his breathing sounded normal and Daniel saw that his dented skull had risen in some manner.
    Megan arrived with a bucket of water started to wash her husband’s head, “It doesn’t look as bad as I thought.