Poisoned: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  Where was Alec? If he would show up, she could at least try to get an augmentation, but that would require that he get more of her blood. And that just wasn’t possible if she had to fend off Marin.

  Sam glanced at the man lying on the ground, still unmoving. No matter why Marin wanted him, Sam had to prevent her from taking him. She’d rescued him from whatever the university masters were trying to do to him and was prepared to continue to keep him safe. Somehow. She wasn’t entirely certain how she would do that.

  “Samara, don’t do anything foolish.”

  “I should say the same to you,” Sam said.

  “Just hand him over, and you and I can have a conversation.”

  “Who is he to you?”

  “Just a part of a plan. A key part, since you interfered with my other plan.”

  “I didn’t interfere.”

  “You have always interfered.”

  “The merchants?” Sam asked, watching Marin warily. “What did you want with them?”

  “Not them. What they bought.”

  “Which was?”

  Marin took another step, and Sam would have backed up, but doing so would have left the man unprotected. She watched Marin, prepared for any sudden movement, but Marin was approaching slowly, carefully.

  Did she think that Sam was augmented? If she did, was there some way that Sam could take advantage of that?

  Marin’s gaze dipped down to the man. “I will be taking him from you, Samara.”

  Sam took that opportunity to reach for her canal staff and jerked it free of her belt.

  Marin smiled tightly. “That’s how you want it to be?”

  “What’s your plan? I know you intend to bring Thelns into the city.” Marin didn’t respond. “Were you responsible the last time?”

  “That was not on me,” Marin said dangerously.

  “Why now?”

  “You can’t understand,” she whispered.

  “Try me. You’re the one forcing this. All I want is you to answer my questions.”

  “We’re beyond answering questions now. And you’ve made a mistake. One lesson I’ve made clear to you is that you must learn to live with your mistakes, Samara.”

  Marin pulled out the two pieces of her canal staff and bolted forward, moving quickly. It was fast—but not augmented fast.

  Sam swung her staff’s two pieces around, blocking Marin’s initial attack. Then quickly jammed the ends of her canal staff together, forming a whole. Marin didn’t, leaving hers disconnected, and slung them separately, a flurry of attacks at Sam.

  Had she not had her staff lessons with Thoren, she wouldn’t have had any way of fending her off, but she had improved in her skills in the time since she had last faced Marin. Sam managed to block most of the attacks and had learned to prepare herself for those that slipped past.

  As Marin neared her, a dark grin spread across her face. “You’ve gotten some instruction.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  “On the contrary, I’m thrilled.”

  Marin danced around her and caught her in the back. Sam staggered forward, but jammed her staff into the ground, managing to right herself. She flipped the end of her staff up and caught Marin on the leg. It was a glancing blow, barely enough to slow the woman, but it disrupted the flow of her movements.

  Sam flipped up onto the tip of her staff, holding herself upright as she’d once been taught, and quickly considered her options.

  Marin didn’t give her long. She kicked at the bottom of Sam’s staff, forcing her to flip up once more, and spin around. She landed with her staff swinging out in a sweeping arc. Marin jumped over the end of her staff, dancing backward with a hint of a laugh.

  “He hasn’t lost his touch, has he?”

  Sam spun, bringing her staff around, and barely missing Marin. “Who?”

  “Thoren. I can tell that you’ve spent time working with him. You reveal yourself with the technique you use,” Marin said.

  “What does that say about you?”

  “I use many techniques,” Marin said. “It reveals nothing.”

  She spun the staff again, dancing toward Sam. The free ends of her staff moved too quickly for Sam to follow, and she could only block half of the attacks. It wasn’t enough.

  Sam stumbled. As she fell, she realized that she’d tripped over the body of the man she’d been trying to save. If she didn’t do something—anything—she would lose him, and the opportunity to learn whatever the reason was that the masters at the university thought to keep him hidden in that room as they had.

  Sam started to get up, but her body ached from the attacks.

  “Consider this another lesson, Samara. Be prepared when facing a superior opponent.”

  “Prepared for what?” Sam asked, swinging her staff around, trying to catch Marin with at least a lucky blow. So far, she’d managed nothing.

  “Prepared for defeat.”

  Two things happened at once. Marin leaped toward Sam, and Sam felt a strange tingling throughout her.

  An augmentation.

  Alec.

  She pushed off with her staff, moving quickly, and it took a moment for her to realize that it wasn’t strength or speed that he augmented this time, but that he made her lighter.

  They had practiced this before. She knew what it was like to be lighter, to move more quickly with her own strength. It was an augmentation that did not require as much energy from either the Kaver or the Scribe.

  That was good, Sam wasn’t sure how much she had to lend to any augmentation.

  As Sam swung around, Marin eyed her. “Where is your Scribe? I’ve tried getting to him, but they’ve kept him protected here, haven’t they?”

  “You’re not going to get to Alec.”

  “Get to him? I only want to borrow his skills. He would be useful to me.”

  Sam could only think of one way that Alec might be useful to Marin. Did she intend to use him for his ability to scribe? Was it even possible for her to do so?

  Hearing that made her angrier than she had been. Anger wasn’t always valuable in a fight. Thoren had made that clear to her when they’d practiced, but there was some benefit to it. It helped lift her waning strength and allowed her to refocus her energy.

  There had to be some way of using her lightness to her advantage. When they had practiced with it before, what had she discovered? There was more to it than simply her being able to react more quickly, using her own strength to carry her farther. There was also the fact that she could jump higher and seemed to hang in the air when she did.

  Sam gathered herself and pushed off. As she did, she swung her staff around, bringing it toward the ground, and hopefully toward Marin.

  Marin seemed to recognize what Sam had done, and flipped upward, kicking at Sam with her pointed boots.

  Sam was barely able to react in time, and swung the staff around, knocking her back.

  Even augmented, she wasn’t going to be able to easily beat Marin. Whatever it was that was special about Kavers, whatever innate ability they possessed, Sam did not have it. Maybe it was locked within her mind, much like her memories.

  Marin smiled again, the two halves of her canal staff spinning. “I don’t think that I’ll end you. Let’s consider this a lesson. Besides, you still have value to me.”

  Sam landed just as Marin struck her on the shoulder with one half of her staff. The other she jammed into Sam’s shoulder, and she realized it had been sharpened.

  She screamed in pain. Where the staff pierced her shoulder, it burned. Her arm went numb and limp.

  “Useful? I haven’t been useful to you.”

  “Oh, but you have. You’ve always been useful to me in protecting Tray.”

  “Because you haven’t wanted to tell him the truth?”

  “He wouldn’t understand the truth. It was better for him to think that I wasn’t his mother than for him to know the truth. Much like it’s better for you to believe what you think, rather than know the trut
h.” Marin swung her staff again, and this time, it smacked into the side of Sam’s head.

  As her vision began to fade, she saw Marin grab the man Sam had rescued from the university, lifting him more easily than she should have been able to.

  With her fading thoughts, she wondered—had Marin been augmented?

  30

  How to Save a Friend

  When Alec reached the entrance to the masters’ quarters, he found Beckah waiting there.

  “What is this? What are you trying to keep from me?” Beckah asked.

  “I’m trying to keep Sam safe,” Alec answered.

  “Who is she to you? I know that she’s not highborn—her skin is far too dark for that—but you two are close.”

  Alec nodded.

  “Is she the one who’s been visiting?” Beckah asked.

  “Sam hasn’t visited me at all. I know she wanted to, but she said that she couldn’t reach me.”

  “Then it was somebody who must have looked like her. Which would surprise me because your friend is too small to be easily confused with someone else,” Beckah said. “Is she the one you’ve gone over to see?”

  “Too small?” Alec frowned. In the time since he’d known Sam, he’d encountered a few women who were about her size.

  “Do you know who prevented her from getting access to the university?” Alec asked.

  “I thought you said it wasn’t she?”

  “It might not have been, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to know who it was. There’s another alternative, one that is possibly worse.”

  “Worse? I thought you were excited to see this friend of yours.”

  Alec nodded. “I was, but now I’m concerned that someone who is very dangerous might have been getting into the university.”

  They hadn’t seen Marin for months, and Sam believed that she might have left the city, but the city was enormous, and there were many places where she could hide.

  There was another possibility, but it seemed too hard to believe. Could Marin have been hiding in the university all this time? Could she have been skulking around someplace?

  If she had, why?

  He needed Sam, but she was still inside Master Carl’s quarters. If they were lucky, she’d find the man poisoned by the foxglove and get him out of there. He knew they had to return him to Bastan, but he hoped they could possibly heal him with the easar paper before that.

  Alec glanced back at the door, looking for a sign that Sam might be coming. There was nothing.

  What would happen if her augmentations failed while she was up there?

  If they failed, she could get caught.

  “Alec,” Beckah said.

  “What?”

  She grabbed his arm and pulled, dragging him down the hall.

  “Beckah, Sam is still in there.”

  She dragged him down the hall until they rounded a corner. When they did, she motioned down the hall, pointing in the direction of the entrance to the masters’ quarters. When Alec looked, he saw that someone was coming. They’d been lucky so far and hadn’t encountered anyone up to now, but the longer they stayed, the more likely it was that they would come across somebody trying to reach the masters’ quarters. Worse would be if they came across Master Carl, but any of the masters would question their presence.

  “Who is that?” Alec asked. It wasn’t Master Carl. Carl was far too fat to be this man. The person coming down the hall was not slender, but certainly not as robust as Master Carl.

  “I don’t know,” Beckah said.

  Alec frowned. There was something familiar about the figure.

  What was it?

  He crept forward, ignoring Beckah pulling on his arm.

  As he approached, there was something about the size—the muscularity—that he recognized. It was Tray. Alec was certain of it. Why would Tray be here? Alec hadn’t seen him since Tray had caught him breaking into Marin’s home.

  Why would he have come to the university? And why would he try to get into the masters’ quarters?

  “Where are you going?” Beckah asked.

  If Marin had been somehow hiding out in the university, maybe she’d asked Tray to meet her here. Tray didn’t yet know that she was his mother, but she’d used him many times in the past and seemed to have no qualms about putting him in danger.

  “I know who that is,” Alec said.

  “Who?”

  “That’s Sam’s brother.”

  “Why would her brother be here?”

  “I… I have no idea.”

  Alec’s mind was racing trying to figure out what he needed to do. If it was possible that Marin was here, and with Tray definitely here, Sam needed help. Her augmentations would fail. He hadn’t used enough blood to keep them functional. Had she only left him with the easar paper, he could make another quick note.

  But… He had a piece.

  “We have to get to my quarters,” Alec said.

  “You’re going to leave your friend there?”

  He shook his head. “Not leaving her. There’s something I can do to help her, but I can’t do it here.”

  “I’ll help. Anything I can do, just let me know.”

  Alec should probably send her away. Sam would be angry that he allowed her to participate, but he needed help. He didn’t think he could do this on his own.

  “Good. I’m going to need you to keep an eye out for me.”

  He would have to tell her about his ability. What choice did he have?

  “What’s this about?” Beckah asked. “There is more to this than just finding the poisoned man, isn’t there?”

  “I didn’t think so, but I’m beginning to realize there is, but I have no idea what or why.”

  They reached his room, and Alec hurried inside. He grabbed his notes off the table, left there after Sam had appeared.

  “What are you after?” Beckah asked.

  Alec reached into the stack of notes and pulled out the slip of easar paper. He held it out, and Beckah took it from him, scanning the page.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s called easar paper. There’s something about it that grants specific abilities.”

  Beckah looked up at him, a frown etched on her face. “Abilities? It sounds a lot like you’re trying to suggest to me that the paper is magical.” Beckah looked back down to the page, and her eyes darted across it as she scanned what he’d written there when trying to help Elaine. “This is your description of the woman you helped in the outer section of the city, isn’t it?”

  “It is. There’s something about the paper that when a specific combination of ink is used grants power. It has the potential to heal, as well as a few other things.”

  Beckah looked up with a frown. “What kind of combination of inks?”

  “Mostly blood.” Alec took the page from her and laid it down on the table, next to a few of the narrow pens he’d used before. He grabbed one and pulled out his knife, which still had a dried coating of their blood. He didn’t know if it would work to moisten it again, but he had to try.

  Using water from his basin, Alec scraped blood off of the knife and started. He dipped the pen into it and took a deep breath, preparing what he would write.

  What did Sam need from him?

  She’d had speed, and strength, which worked well with an equal combination of their blood, but to help her now, he tried to think of what else they’d tried. It had been too long since they’d spent much time experimenting. In that time, his comfort and familiarity with the various ratios of blood needed to perform the specific augmentations had changed.

  He didn’t know what she might be facing. Maybe there was nothing. But if Tray—and Marin—were here, she might need whatever help he could offer.

  If only he knew what help that was.

  He grabbed his notebook and flipped to the page with notes detailing the various things they’d tried in the past.

  Most had a specific ratio of blood, but in order for it to work well, many of th
em required a greater concentration. What he had now was weakened, diluted. He didn’t know for certain whether it would work as he needed it to. If it didn’t, did that mean that Sam would be stuck?

  Worse, he didn’t know what she actually needed. Help of some sort, but what kind?

  He grabbed the page and his notebook, and carefully put what little blood ink he’d salvaged into a small vial, then raced to his door.

  “Where are we going?” Beckah asked.

  “The courtyard.”

  Alec ran, hurrying into the hall. When they reached the entrance to the university, he found two physickers lying motionless on the ground. They weren’t his concern. Not yet.

  He raced out the door and skidded to a stop in the courtyard.

  Standing there, he saw Sam and a figure lying at her feet. Was that the man they sought? But then he noticed someone else, as well.

  “Marin,” he said under his breath. Sam fought Marin, her staff moving more quickly than he could track, more quickly than he thought possible. How had she gotten so good?

  Beckah glanced over at him. “Marin? Who’s Marin?”

  It was apparent that Marin was much more skilled than Sam. Marin was able to spin with more fluidity and easily countered each of Sam’s attempts to stop her.

  Was there anything Alec could do?

  He dropped, and Beckah crouched next to him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “The only thing I can that will help her.”

  He pulled out his vial of ink. What would help her here?

  An idea came to him, but he wasn’t sure if it would work—or if Sam would be aware of the augmentation.

  He started writing.

  Beckah looked over his shoulder, peering at what he wrote. The scrawl was simple. It was the technique he’d practiced with her in the months before his coming to the university. It came back to him, though he wasn’t certain if it would work.

  “I don’t understand,” Beckah said.

  “It’s the paper. There is something about it.”

  Alec looked up, and Sam had been knocked to the ground. She lay there, just as Marin was about to attack, when her eyes widened slightly.