Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

  Could it be that Elaine didn’t know exactly how many Kavers remained?

  If Lyasanna were interested in attacking in the city, it would fit that she would want to conceal the presence of Kavers.

  “I don’t know if she’s a Kaver or not. I won’t know until we are able to wake her up, but I don’t know that it’s safe to do that.”

  “We need answers,” Sam said. “Bastan is gone, Alec.”

  “Bastan?”

  “We found Camellia in a house Bastan’s men had been watching. They had seen physickers going in and out. When we went in to investigate, we were attacked by Kavers. We found Camellia hanging from the ceiling, but alive, so I brought her here. Bastan stayed behind to guard the four Kavers who’d attacked us. When I returned to the house, he was gone, as were two of the Kavers, and now…”

  She swallowed back a lump in her throat and wiped away tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes. She wouldn’t allow herself to cry. Bastan wasn’t gone.

  “You said there were four and then you came back, and two were gone. What happened to the other two?”

  “The same as happened to Camellia and this woman.”

  Alec breathed out. “What is Helen using all of this blood for?” He pulled the sheet back over the injured woman. “I don’t understand it. What does she think she can accomplish?”

  “Isn’t there anyone you can ask? I thought Master Eckerd was a Scribe.”

  “Master Eckerd is a Scribe, but he’s not as knowledgeable as Helen. I think she was keeping certain aspects of her ability secret. And that’s not all.” Alec lowered his voice and leaned close to Sam. “I think she has been to the Theln lands and returned.”

  If that was true, then Helen might know more about what it meant to be a Scribe than anyone. Could Helen know how to use the blood in a way that would give her even more power?

  Then again, a Kaver’s blood drew upon the power of the Kaver. If the Kaver was dead, would the blood taken from the body still have any power?

  She didn’t think so. Which meant that an attack on the Kavers, draining them of their blood, wouldn’t make any sense. It would only serve to weaken her position by removing her resources. She needed Kavers alive.

  “We need to figure out the purpose behind bleeding out the Kavers.”

  “I don’t know where to look. I’ve gone to the masters' section in the library, but there isn’t anything there that helps.”

  “And we’ve looked in Helen’s rooms.”

  Alec nodded. “Virtually empty. Even though she’s been at the university for as long as she has, there wasn’t anything of importance.”

  Sam tried to think if there was anything in the palace, but they hadn’t come across anything that would help her discover any secrets about Helen.

  “What else do we know about her?”

  Alec frowned. “Not much, but there is someone who might. I hadn’t thought to ask him, because he was the one who…”

  “The one who what?”

  “He was the one I thought had betrayed me.”

  “This is your friend? Stefan?”

  “He used to be my friend,” Alec said.

  “He was helping Prince Jalen,” Sam said.

  “I didn’t know it at the time, and he didn’t know what Jalen was. Which means he simply betrayed a friend.”

  “Or he was following the commands of his prince.”

  Alec let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s possible too. Let’s go find Stefan.”

  “What about her?”

  “Until she wakes up, there’s no way she will be able to provide you with any answers. And there’s nothing more we can do for her without more information. I don’t know how long it’ll be, if ever. She lost a lot of blood, and it could be hours or days, but she’s been given every chance she can to wake up.” He thought of the young physicker he’d sent off into the city to learn what he could about her. “When she comes around, I will make sure they send word to me.”

  As Alec led her from the hospital ward, she glanced back at the woman. Maybe there was something familiar about her, but what?

  They headed up a set of stairs that Sam had only been up a few times. It led to the students’ section of the university, and Alec hurried along the hall until he reached a door halfway down. He knocked heavily. The door opened, and a tall young man with a narrow face looked out.

  “Master Stross,” he said.

  “It’s not master anything, Stefan. It’s Alec. Can we talk?”

  Stefan glanced from Alec to Sam, and he licked his lips, swallowing. “What is this about? Did I do something that will get me expelled from the university? You would need to talk to Prince—I mean King Jalen if you intend to do that.”

  Sam smiled to herself. If nothing else, Stefan seemed to have a bit of a spine. He was willing to stand up to Alec even though Alec was a master physicker, albeit one who had once been his close friend.

  “You’re not going to get kicked out of the university. I have questions about your grandmother.”

  Stefan’s face paled. “I don’t know anything about Grandmother. Others have come and asked me the same thing.”

  “Which others?” Alec asked.

  “King Jalen has asked. Master Eckerd has asked. Master Carl.”

  Sam could see a mixture of emotions flicker across Alec’s face. “They might have asked their own questions, but I have several of my own I need answered,” Alec said. “Can we speak? You said your grandmother had a home in a section near here.”

  “She did—I mean, she does. Why?”

  “We think Helen might have something that could be helpful to us.”

  “What do you think she might be keeping?”

  “Information that would be beneficial to a certain subsection of the university. Will you help?” Alec asked.

  Stefan glanced from Alec to Sam and then nodded. “When do you want to go?”

  “Now,” Sam said. She stepped forward and grabbed Stefan by the sleeve and pulled him out of his room. He didn’t even resist. She had thought he had a bit of a spine, but maybe not.

  They headed out of the university and across the bridge, ignoring the row of people waiting for healing. Alec didn’t ignore it nearly as easily as Sam did, and his gaze drifted along the bridge, all the way out to where the line ended. She could see him calculating, trying to work through a problem, but considering what she had seen in the hospital ward, not only did they not have enough beds, but they might not have enough physickers to help this many people.

  Stefan guided them toward a highborn section near the university. It was only one section over, and close enough that Helen wouldn’t have had to stay at the university if she didn’t want to. It made sense that she wouldn’t have many belongings at the university, having a home so nearby.

  “It’s this one,” Stefan said, motioning to a modest home. It was two stories and had a wide lawn, and a high fence—easily ten feet tall—encircled the entirety of the property. No light was visible in any of the windows.

  Sam was hopeful no one was in there, but if they were, she was going to be prepared. She assembled her canal staff and looked over to Alec. “Do you have any paper?”

  “I have the paper that I made, but…”

  “But what?”

  “But I’m not sure how effective it will be, especially after the attack. I don’t know if they influenced or possibly contaminated anything I made.”

  Sam frowned. “Your back room was targeted?”

  “It wasn’t targeted, which is why I’m worried about it. Why would they have destroyed the front room, but left the back of the room untouched?”

  “Maybe they didn’t know about it.”

  “It’s not much of a secret. There’s a door there, which I don’t lock. Would they not have at least gone in to see what was in there? And if they did, would they not have taken the opportunity to sabotage my work?”

  “Maybe the focus was on getting Camellia out of the room.”

>   “It’s possible, but Sam, I’m just not sure we can trust the easar paper. I am nervous about attempting to use it on you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  She took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly. “Then we’ll have to see if we can get by with only my own augmentations.” She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. As tired as she was, she wasn’t sure she would have enough strength.

  Alec studied her for a moment then reached into his pocket and pulled out a jar. He held it out to her.

  Sam frowned at it. “What is this?”

  “Just take one. I don’t know how well it’ll affect you, but it should at least restore you.”

  She reached into the jar and realized that it was eel meat. She had never consumed eel meat before, but it was a restorative, and if it could do anything to help, she should try it.

  She braced herself and popped a chunk of the eel meat into her mouth and chewed it. It was bitter and awful and reminded her all too much of the swamp. She forced herself to swallow.

  A wave of warmth washed through her. With it came a surge of energy. It was almost like an augmentation, but not entirely.

  “How is that?” Alec asked.

  “It’s… It’s better.”

  “I wish I knew what it felt like.”

  “You been eating it for the last couple of weeks. How do you not know what it’s like?”

  “Because I’m trying to counter the poisoning, I don’t get to enjoy the benefit of it otherwise.”

  Sam sighed. “You’re right. Let me just tell you that it feels like warmth, and then within a few moments, it’s a feeling of alertness.”

  “That’s what Jalen says too.”

  “How much of the meat has Jalen consumed?”

  “Enough that he was worried about becoming dependent on it. He was going to stop, but I convinced him to keep using it.”

  “Using it? What does that mean?”

  “It means that it can help him think more clearly. Until we get through this, we might need him to be able to think clearly enough to outmaneuver Helen.”

  Stefan had been watching them, saying nothing. He glanced at the jar, a question on his lips that went unasked.

  “I’m ready,” Sam said.

  She tried the main gate in the fence and found it locked. She could jump the fence, but Alec and Stefan couldn’t, so she pulled her lock-pick set out of her pocket and made quick work of unlocking the gate. As she did, she looked along the street to see if anyone was watching them, but there did not appear to be. Even if someone did, she wasn’t sure she would have stopped. What would they do to her anyway?

  “How is it she knows how to do that?” Stefan asked.

  Sam straightened and stuffed the lock-pick set back into her pocket. She pushed open the door and glanced over her shoulder. “Because she’s a thief.”

  The house reminded her of the manor house where she and Bastan had found Camellia—and where she’d lost Bastan, though this house was smaller in scale. There was a garden, though this one might have been larger. Some of the flowers had gone stale, and weeds had cropped up, marring the beauty that otherwise would have grown here.

  Sam hurried to the front door. She tested the lock and used her lock pick to open it. It popped open, and a musty odor emanated from inside the home.

  Alec rested a hand on her shoulder. “We need to be careful.”

  “Why? Because the room stinks?”

  “Because it smells like something has died in here.”

  Sam frowned and leaned forward, trying to smell into the room, but she didn’t notice the stench of death. All she noticed was the staleness. “Are you sure?”

  Alec nodded. “It’s faint, but I’m certain.”

  “How can you smell it?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just do.” Sam readied her staff and wished they had a lantern to carry inside. She stepped across the threshold and looked around as her eyes adjusted. Some light from outside streamed in, not enough for her to easily see, but enough to make out gradations in shadow. As her eyes adjusted, she was able to see that it was a well-appointed home. There were more decorations than had been in Master Helen’s rooms at the university. A thick carpet covered the floor. Paintings hung on the walls, and there was a lantern on her desk.

  Sam managed to get the lantern lit, quickly pushing back the room’s shadows. A layer of dust covered everything. This might be Master Helen’s home, and it might have been where she spent most of her time, but she hadn’t been here for a while.

  “I don’t think we will find the answers we need here,” Sam said.

  “We came to look around,” Alec said.

  Sam surveyed the room but didn’t see anything that might help. The layer of dust that made it clear that Helen hadn’t been here in some time troubled her. If this was where she had kept some secret stores, why wouldn’t someone have been through here recently?

  She hadn’t been.

  And if she hadn’t been here, then Sam feared her hope of discovering what she might have done with Bastan was lost.

  Alec joined her in the middle of the room and took her hand. It was as though he sensed her hopelessness. “We will find him,” he said gently, squeezing her hand.

  “What if we don’t?”

  “We will.”

  “We don’t even know what she wants. We don’t even know what she’s after, or why she is doing all of this. All we know is that she’s taken Bastan. She’s hurt people, and…”

  “We will find out what she wants,” Alec said.

  Sam didn’t feel quite as confident in that. Without having any way for them to understand what Helen was after, she didn’t believe they would be able to find her—or Bastan, for that matter.

  He was lost to her.

  12

  A Surprising Find

  Alec made his way through Helen’s house, searching for any clue that might help. Sam was struggling, and he needed to figure out if there was anything that could be done to help Bastan, especially with Sam unable to think clearly. It might not have been as bad had she not lost Elaine so recently, but losing her mother and now losing Bastan, Sam was not in a good place. It was his responsibility as her friend—as her Kaver—to help her find a measure of calm.

  He didn’t like the idea of looking around Helen’s home alone, but Stefan was not going to be helpful, not with his grandmother involved. And Sam… Sam’s mind was elsewhere.

  He should have thought about this place before. He knew that Helen had some place beyond the university where she spent much of her time. She had to, mainly since she was often absent from the university for long periods of time. He hadn’t expected it to be quite so close to the university, though.

  He was determined to figure out what it was that she was after. Partly, it was a pride thing for him. He wasn’t going to let Helen outsmart him. Wasn’t he the youngest to ever be promoted to full physicker? Helen might have demanded testing in much the same way Alec had but hadn’t she only been promoted to junior physicker?

  He couldn’t let himself think he wasn’t smart enough to stop Master Helen. That mindset would only end up with him setting himself up for failure.

  He surveyed the home. There had to be something here.

  It was doubtful Helen would have returned—at least on her own—especially once she had been discovered. But could she have sent someone else? Could she have come in some other way?

  And if she had, how would she have gotten here? There were no footprints on the ground outside, no disruption of the dust layering the floor, so either her last time here had been long ago, or she hadn’t come through this way.

  Alec frowned to himself. Of course, she wouldn’t have come this way. If she had, someone would have seen her. Bastan had eyes everywhere.

  He made his way to the back of the house. Stairs led up, and he searched for a stairwell going down, thinking of what Sam had described in the manor house she and Bastan had been in, but there was no evidence of
a cellar here.

  That meant up.

  Alec looked back and saw Sam and Stefan making their way around the entry room. He would leave them. It might be for the best if he did. He started up the stairs, and as he did, he noticed that the layer of dust changed, disappearing, about halfway up.

  “Sam?”

  She came over and stood at the bottom of the stairs. “What is it?”

  “Come up here.”

  Sam hurried up the stairs and joined him, and he pointed, motioning to where the layer of dust changed. “Do you see that?”

  “I’m not sure what you’re trying to show me.”

  “Look at the transition here. Do you see how the dust goes from a thick layer to nothing?”

  Sam crouched down and stared at it. “I do now. How is it that you saw it so easily?”

  Alec shook his head. “I think it was because I was watching for it.” He continued up the stairs, and at the top, he found a wide room. There were no decorations here, nothing other than a few shelves. A single chair was angled so that it faced toward the window. Alec crouched down to lower himself so that he could see what view Helen would have from the chair and wasn’t surprised to discover that the window offered a view of the palace.

  “Why would this place be scrubbed of evidence of her presence?” Sam asked.

  “Maybe it wasn’t evidence of her presence.” He looked over at her. “With everyone looking for her, Helen wouldn’t have been able to get back to her home, not easily. She’s a Scribe, and her abilities aren’t that of physical finesse. But a Kaver? A Kaver would have been able to get upstairs without leaving a trace of evidence behind.”

  “You think that Helen sent one of the Kavers to her old home to find… What?”

  Alec looked around. That was the question, wasn’t it?

  Helen was after something, and if he could figure out what it was, maybe they could figure out how to stop her.

  What he needed was information that might help them understand what she knew as a Scribe that other Scribes apparently did not. Could it be somewhere here, in her house?