Yadugara lay on the floor, and Senior Apprentice Penant fretted next to him. He saw that Luca was conscious and trying to stand.
“Daler! Daler!”
“What’s up with the master?” Luca asked.
“This is your fault, murderer!” The senior apprentice’s eyes flashed with fury. “Whoreson of the abyss!”
Penant suddenly leapt at the boy and raised his arm. Metal gleamed in his hand. Luca raised his hand mechanically to cover himself and felt an explosion of pain. The scalpel blade stuck out of the back of his hand.
But the next moment, the senior apprentice screamed even louder: the blade dissolved, absorbed into the hand, and mere heartbeats later, the wound knit itself shut.
Luca looked at his hand in astonishment, nodded to himself, understood, and then looked around the healer’s office, deciding what to do. Run away? But where to? Penant was twice his size. He couldn’t take him in a fight, but he’d have to, because his mother was waiting for him, and if he was accused of murder...
A fist started banging on the door. Penant rushed toward it and unlocked it. The gate guard slave appeared at the threshold.
“Daler! The slave killed the master!” the senior apprentice babbled. “Bind him immediately!”
Roaring, the guard rushed toward Luca and spread his arms wide to prevent his escape. Recognizing that something irrecoverable was happening, the boy ducked under his elbow and ran to the door of the office.
Penant barred his path. The senior apprentice shouted something and threw his fist forward. Luca didn’t have time to dodge, he took the blow to the face and stopped, grabbing his cheekbone. A hit from the guard rushing up from behind sent the boy to the floor.
He came round a little later, when Daler threw his body onto the cold, slimy earth of the cellar floor. He heard the clank of a lock and familiar voices from beyond the door.
“Something’s definitely wrong with him!” Penant’s voice dripped with spite and shock.
“Yes, you’re absolutely right, senior apprentice. And thank Two-horns that he broke the tethers himself, otherwise...”
The muffled voice quietened, started whispering, then Reyna asked a question.
“What kind of beast is he, Master Yadugara?”
“Oh, Reyna, my dear, this is a very curious specimen!” The healer had a coughing fit, then triumphantly announced: “I haven’t found any references to such as him in all the two centuries I have lived in this world. This is an incredible discovery! And we are going to find out what is wrong with him...”
Chapter 14. Master Yadugara’s Edicts
“SLAVE LUCA DEZISIMU, I forbid you from leaving the bounds of the room in which you now sit!” the master’s words were imprinted as sure as death in Luca’s mind. “I forbid you, knowingly or unknowingly, to do harm to me, your Master Yadugara, my senior apprentice Penant, or my property, slaves or servants, including Reyna, Moraine and Daler. If you break these edicts, your heart and all your brain activity will be forcibly stopped. Do we have an understanding, slave Luca Dezisimu?”
From behind the door came a rustle, a cough and the boy’s strained voice.
“I understand, Master Yadugara.”
“As punishment for what happened, you are deprived of all rights to warmth, food, water and conversation for seven full days. Next time you wish to interrupt my... research, remember the suffering you will endure. And be more compliant.”
His speech over, the healer knocked on the metal door with his fist and started climbing the ladder from the basement. Penant, Reyna and Daler followed him. Each of them had had to sit in the basement as punishment, but never for such a long time. As a rule, the master limited himself to single days, not wishing to damage his own property.
“Will he... survive?” Penant dared to ask. “The chinils are down there! They’ll suck out all his blood!”
“The collar will let me know if he is near death,” the healer answered. “I won’t let him die just like that. He’s going to pay me back for everything a thousand times over!”
Yadugara stopped in the lounge and started giving orders.
“Pen, go to Master Judge and find out everything the court knows about Dezisimu and his family. Reyna, invite Mister Arden over. We will try taking advantage of his glassblowers’ services, for it is clear that metal must be avoided when we work with Dezisimu.”
Penant and Reyna nodded and rushed to carry out their orders. The master himself sat in an armchair by the fire and lost himself in thought.
Daler patiently waited for the master to address him, but the pause stretched out.
“Should I return to my post, Master?” Daler dared to interrupt his thoughts.
“I am not afraid of enemies from outside. We have one inside now. Your task from now is to guard the basement. If you hear anything suspicious, tell me at once!”
“Understood!”
Once alone, Yadugara sat for another half an hour, digging through his two-hundred-year memory, but recalling no cases like Dezisimu’s.
He grunted, rose from the chair and walked to his office. The interrupted and reversed transfusion and his old age bit hard. His mind was scrambled, his body a wreck.
In his office, he looked over the remnants of what had happened and sighed deeply. He wanted to lie down and sleep, but he had to record it all.
Once he finished his notes, he tidied up personally. He couldn’t stand disorder, and he didn’t want to trust Moraine — Aunt Mo — with valuable instruments. Once he’d finished, his senior apprentice returned.
Yadugara sat behind his desk and waved Pen into the chair opposite him.
“Master, I went to the judge...”
“Slow down! All in good time, senior apprentice.”
Pen nodded and prepared to listen.
“So, what do we have?” Master Yadugara raised his forefinger, twirled it and pointed at Penant. “Tell me again what happened while I was unconscious. Remember carefully, senior apprentice, and try not to miss a single detail!”
Penant scratched his head, wrinkled his brow and rolled his eyes to the ceiling to create the convincing impression that he was thinking. He didn’t remember anything new, but he spoke in a serious, confident tone, knowing how easily his master could detect the smallest signs of doubt.
“You fell, Master. I rushed over to you, then I heard his voice. Dezisimu asked what was wrong with you. I thought you were dead, since I couldn’t feel your pulse. In desperation, I shouted for Daler and attacked the slave. Forgive me, Master I lost control, my anger clouded my mind.”
“If you had ended his life, you would have had to replace it, Senior Apprentice Penant. A role you luckily retain, for now,” Yadugara noted with displeasure. “I hope you understand now?”
“Forgive me, Master!” Penant turned white.
He had learned of his master’s greatest secret only when he became his apprentice. Previously he had perceived the procedure of transfusing life force as a part of some sort of research. Pen feared even to think of how many years of life he had given to Yadugara in his service, but the appearance of a suitable donor gave him a chance to get back what he’d lost. They’d spent years searching for the previous donor, but he turned out to be an imperfect match for the master and died. The next was Luca.
“Tell me more,” the healer chuckled.
“I swung the scalpel at him, but he blocked it with his hand...”
“More details now.”
“The blade pierced his hand, he screamed. I pulled out the scalpel to strike again, but the blade was gone. Disappeared.”
Penant thought for a moment. During the fight, he had been so scared at the prospect of life without a master that he’d gone into a fury and desperately wanted only one thing: to punish the killer. The details of what had happened in that instant were hazy, they wouldn’t come easily.
“Pen? What next?”
“I got scared. The wound on his hand closed up. Even the blood flowed back in, or maybe just d
isappeared. I rushed to the door to open it for Daler. I told him to grab the slave, but the boy slipped past him and attacked me. I kept my cool and stopped him, punched him in the face. Then the guard got to him and knocked him out from behind. We bound him... And then you woke up, Master.”
“The bastard somehow put the transfusion procedure into reverse!” Master Yadugara slammed his fist down on the table. “So what is our conclusion?”
“He’s a monster!” Now that Penant had reviewed recent events with his master, he was even more scared.
“The slave possesses supernatural regeneration. He can somehow absorb metals. And — although this requires testing — his capabilities activate only if physical harm is done to him.”
“Sacred Mother! What a monster he is!”
“Enough wailing, Pen! You are not an illiterate bumpkin from the Empire’s outskirts, you are first and foremost my apprentice! Everything in this world has an explanation. And we will find it.”
“Forgive me, Master.”
Yadugara frowned.
“What do we know of his family?”
“His mother and sister were present at his sentencing. Master Judge gave me their address. Shall I bring them here?”
“We must be more subtle about this, Pen. You understand that his sister is of the greatest interest to us, both for the transfusion procedure and as a carrier of the same gift of regeneration and absorption.” Yadugara smiled at some hidden thought. “Do we have any other information about the girl?”
“Master Judge gave me the name of the complainant, a certain Nemania Kovachar, an innkeeper in the slums. He may know more. I could question him and his offspring, see what the neighbors have to say, learn more about the family.”
“No. Let Reyna do it. It’ll be easier for her to gain trust. She might even manage to make friends with Dezisimu’s sister and secretly take a sample for analysis.”
“Forgive me, Master, but would it not be simpler to capture the girl and put her in our basement? Who would go looking for her?”
“Unacceptable, Pen. Without a power collar, we can’t guarantee that she will be obedient. And if her mother complains to the imperial chancellery that we are breaking the law of free birth... All that we have will collapse! You know that not everything done in this house is entirely within the law.”
“So first we need to organize some accusation and a trial...”
“Exactly right,” Yadugara nodded.
They heard a tentative knock on the door.
“Come in, Reyna,” the healer responded loudly.
The door opened and the girl’s elegant figure stood outlined on the threshold. Reyna brushed a disobedient lock of hair out of her face and spoke.
“Master, I’ve come with Master Arden. He awaits downstairs.”
“Pen, go down and entertain our guest for now. As for you, Reyna, come closer. I have a special assignment for you.”
Chapter 15. Chinils
ONCE THE FOOTSTEPS behind the door faded, Luca was in total darkness and silence. He feared neither, just as he did not fear Yadugara’s threatened punishment. But the fact that his mother needed help, which he couldn’t provide no matter how much he wanted to — that tore at his soul. He was also worried about Kora, who would probably come back tomorrow, and if she didn’t see him, she might try to get into the house, which could end in her being sent to the mines.
Luca felt his way from one corner to the other in the basement. It turned out he was in a small space; five paces long and six wide. The low ceiling tickled the crown of his head as he walked, and that made the boy stoop out of fear of hitting his head on some unseen protrusion.
Luca knew exactly how long he’d sat analyzing Yadugara’s (the boy’s new, growing personality felt it would be cowardly and pathetic to call the man Master when alone) actions — almost six hours. Patiently waiting for things wasn’t one the boy’s strong suits.
He started studying the traveler interface out of boredom. A miniature sun span in his field of vision, somewhere on the very edge. It was bright, but not blinding. It disappeared when Luca didn’t pay attention to it, but then reappeared and pulsated invitingly as soon as he remembered it. If he mentally stroked the little sun, text appeared before his eyes as if hanging in mid-air. As he moved, so did the text, always remaining visible without blocking his vision. The text was as if alive, growing and shrinking, or sometimes becoming completely invisible, at the boy’s slightest wish.
Luca’Onegut, life one.
Reminiscent. Successor to Esk’Onegut.
Influence level: 0.
Tsoui points: 1
Orion Arm, Milky Way, Solar System, Planet Earth.
Universe variation: #ES-252210-0273-4707.
Reincarnation: available.
Wheel spin cost: 10 Tsoui points.
Right to respin Wheel: none.
Talents:
Metamorphosis. Ability level one. This ability allows you to control your body on a basic level: temperature, energy expenditure, immune system, metabolic activity, rapid healing, tissue and organ regeneration, sharpened senses.
Luca knew from Esk’s legacy that as he increased his influence level, he’d get more points for deeds worthy of Tsoui. The level showed how much the traveler’s deeds affected universal harmony and how widely the traveler was known in the multiverse. In addition, the higher the level, the less it cost to spin the Wheel and the better the sectors were, which meant better abilities and talents and fewer negative and empty segments.
Hours went by. Luca felt himself falling asleep when he heard something strange. Something rustled in the far corner of the basement. The boy tensed and froze, then screamed and shook his leg, but the pain in it didn’t stop. In a panic, he slapped his knee, but then pain shot through his hand too.
Chinils!
Nimble, bloodsucking centipedes about as long as a man’s hand. They were the true curse of the entire Empire. They inhabited moist, dark places and were as enduring as the roaches of the Wastelands. Poison them and they wouldn’t die. Set them alight and they’d scatter, able to withstand the very hottest flame for a short time. Trying to squash them was useless. Their thick, chitinous shells were far stronger than a crab’s, hard to break even with a hammer. A sledgehammer wielded by a strong blacksmith could just about do it. Sharp spines like a comb down the creatures’ backs quickly taught people not to try to stamp on the bloodsuckers.
Although they did have one peculiarity — chinils lived in small colonies of about a dozen individuals that strictly maintained a constant population and range. You never got more than one colony within a half a mile.
Luca jumped up, panicking even more. He’d heard that a colony of these centipedes had drank one of their neighbors dry. The man had been drinking cheap, but effective moonshine and lost consciousness. By the time he came to, it was already too late. It was very strange that Yadugara was comfortable living in that house with such a deadly colony in his basement.
While Luca tried to detach one chinil that had latched on not only with its beak, but with all its legs, another laid its eggs on him, and the rustle and whisper of numerous legs on the floor got louder.
Detected lacerations in skin tissue...
Detected lacerations in muscle tissue...
Detected blood loss...
Activated enhancement mode!
Detected available organic materials...
Absorbing...
Transforming...
With a scream at the edge of ultrasound, two centipedes, deprived of several segments of legs, fell from the boy’s body. His ability continued to knit his wounds together, and once done, considered its master’s needs: it transformed part of the absorbed organic matter to recover his lost blood and increase the muscle mass of his arms and core[1]. But there wasn’t enough of the absorbed material to do it all, and Luca himself was too scared to comprehend the text as it rapidly flashed by and to use the bodies of the two surviving centipedes. Both of them scrabbled
on their backs, losing blood from their torn-off legs, their bellies looking as if rubbed raw by sandpaper.
Luca sat until midnight, getting angrier and angrier with the cursed healer. The understanding of what Yadugara had tried to do to him didn’t affect him as much as his despairing helplessness. It was all because of that damned slave collar!
He tried to tear it from his neck, but it only strangled him tighter. He couldn’t get his fingers under it. His nails scratched his skin until it bled. Luca wailed and cried in his impotence, but the more he tried, the tighter the collar gripped him.
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