Beyond the Boundary Stones (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 3)

by Holder, Angela

  He approached Borlen, gently stroking the snake’s sinuous curves. Borlen took a deep trembling breath, sheathed his sword, and put out a shaking hand. Elkan smiled encouragingly. “Of course a window showed it was no monster, but an old grey—”

  The snake’s head shot out. Its fangs sank into the back of Borlen’s hand. Kevessa screamed; workers shouted. Borlen stared at his hand, frozen, as the snake drew back and two scarlet drops of blood welled out.

  After an instant of motionless shock, Elkan snatched his slender surgery knife from his belt. The snake didn’t move as he put it to the skin at the base of the snake’s throat. His first tentative cut failed to pierce the tough scales, but a second, firmer stroke opened a small slice. Blood ran down the snake’s body as it dropped its head to rest on Borlen’s hand directly atop the place its teeth had punctured.

  Josiah forced himself to breathe. It would be all right; this was just like dozens of other bondings he’d seen. Even if none of them had featured poison spreading through the potential wizard’s veins.

  Several of the workers surged forward. Elkan raised a hand. “Stop!” he ordered, his voice echoing through the hall with the tone no one ever disobeyed.

  The lead worker halted and glared at him. “The boy’s dying! Kill the beast and tend to him!”

  “He’s not.” Elkan radiated authority as he stared the man down. “The Mother has chosen him as a wizard.”

  The worker eyed Borlen and the cobra, his manner still threatening. The young soldier stood motionless, eyes closed, outstretched hand supporting the equally still snake’s head. Elkan couldn’t move to protect them because he still held the rest of the snake, thick loops of its body festooning his shoulders and arms.

  Josiah jumped down and went to stand beside his master, glowering at the worker. Sar came to join him. Tobi bounded to Elkan’s far side and pressed her shoulder against his hip. After a moment of hesitation, Kevessa climbed down from the table in a swirl of skirts and took her place in the protective ring of wizards. Nina sat up on her shoulder, one paw on her ear, and scolded the man.

  He spread his hands and stepped back, scowling. “Have it your way. I was only trying to help the poor fellow. It’s nothing to me if he dies. Just keep that thing away from me and my men!”

  “We will,” Elkan told him. “In fact, I suggest you take your crew out to the main room and find something to do there. I personally guarantee this snake will harm no one. If it does, I’ll answer to the Matriarch for it.”

  The man gave the snake a last loathing look and stomped off to gather the rest of the workers and shepherd them out. Borlen and the snake still didn’t move. Bondings didn’t usually take this long, did they?

  Vigorre came up beside him, staring at the frozen pair. “What’s going to happen?”

  “You’ll see.” Josiah spared him a quick sideways glance. Now that he thought about it, he was surprised the snake hadn’t gone for the young Keeper. Not that Borlen wouldn’t make a great wizard, because he would, but there was something about Vigorre that reminded him of Elkan, or even Master Dabiel…

  A wondering sigh escaped Kevessa’s lips. Josiah jerked his attention back to Borlen. A sphere of gold light bloomed where the snake rested against his hand.

  “It’s all right,” Borlen said in a dazed tone. “He says he didn’t eject any venom.” He blinked hard a few times and looked around at the circle of wizards watching him. “That—that was the Mother.”

  “Yes.” Elkan smiled warmly as the snake slithered across to drape itself around Borlen’s shoulders. “Welcome to the Wizards’ Guild.”

  “She asked if I was willing…” Borlen shook his head and looked down at the snake. A wondering smile spread across his face. “I’m really—We can—”

  “No more line duty,” Josiah said with a grin. He rolled his eyes at Elkan. “Three apprentices, Master? You’re going to have to hold classes like the professors at the University.” He elbowed Borlen, careful not to jostle the snake. “Just remember I was first!”

  Elkan laughed and beamed around the circle, his eager gaze including Vigorre and Thanna, who’d jumped down from the table to join them. “Maybe I will. Our company is only going to get bigger. Tharanirre will choose a bondmate soon, and it won’t be long before other familiars join us. The Mother is well on her way to supplying Ramunna with all the wizards it needs.”

  “What are you going to name him?” Josiah asked, watching in fascination as the snake glided through Borlen’s hands to rub his head against the soldier’s cheek. “Or does he have one already?”

  Borlen’s eyes went unfocused. “Not exactly. But he thinks of himself as something like… Death-who-strikes-from-the-shadows?” Borlen shrugged sheepishly as the snake gave an approving bob of his head.

  “We can’t call him that,” Kevessa said, putting out a cautious finger to stroke the snake’s gleaming scales. “What about Shadow?”

  Borlen conferred with his familiar. “Shadowstrike,” he finally reported. “But he’ll accept Shadow for short.”

  The snake raked them with a haughty glance. Its attitude reminded Josiah of the Matriarch, as if he expected them all to bow and curtsy.

  Vigorre wrinkled his nose, though he seemed as awestruck as everyone else. “Patients are going to be terrified of him. Cobras are usually killed on sight. You saw how the workers reacted.”

  Thanna nodded, flinching when Shadow’s head swung to orient on the motion. “Why would the Mother choose such a frightening creature for a familiar?”

  Elkan shook his head. “Nobody knows why the Mother touches the animals she does.”

  Borlen frowned. “She said something about having a reason, although it didn’t really make sense to me. She said ‘Josiah should watch when he strikes.’ She said you’d understand.”

  Josiah blinked, startled that the Mother had transmitted a message just for him. His heart pounded as he tried to make sense of her words. “When he strikes? Like, when he hunts prey, and bites them? How am I going to do that?”

  “He’s hungry right now,” Borlen said. “It’s been a long time since he ate.” His brow creased. “Seven sunrises? That can’t be right.”

  “It could be.” Elkan said. “Sethi only—”

  A flash of motion made Josiah jump. He skipped backward, flailing his arms, as a large rat dashed past his feet. Yelps and shrieks sounded from the others.

  Shadow dropped to the floor and pursued the rat, catching up to it directly in front of Josiah. His head drew back and lashed out. Bared fangs sank deep into the rat’s flesh. Shadow’s dark eyes met Josiah’s.

  What did the Mother want him to see? Shadow’s fangs were long and slender, like needles. Unlike when he bit Borlen, he kept hold of the rat, moving his jaw in a chewing motion. He must be pumping venom into the rat’s body—

  In a flash of insight, Josiah understood. Sar! The donkey was under his hand in an instant, sending the Mother’s power to envelop snake and rat. Knowledge of what was happening poured into Josiah’s senses.

  Shadow’s fangs were hollow. Sacs in his skull contracted, forcing venom through them and out the tiny holes in their tips. It pooled in the layer of fat under the rat’s skin. Josiah couldn’t sense the venom directly, because it wasn’t alive, but its effects leaped out at him, a greenish-brown bitter hissing numbness. It spread rapidly from the point of the bite throughout the rat’s body, paralyzing its muscles, shutting down its ability to breathe.

  The rat jerked, stiffened and fell motionless. Even before its last bright traces of life vanished, Shadow withdrew his fangs and maneuvered the rat into position to swallow. His mouth engulfed its head, his jaws spreading impossibly wide as he worked it bit by bit down his throat.

  Josiah pulled his hand away from Sar and left Shadow to his meal, thinking furiously about what he’d observed. The venom had traveled around the rat’s body swiftly, even though Shadow’s fangs hadn’t been anywhere near a major blood vessel. The thread-fine ones that permeated all fles
h had absorbed it and circulated it everywhere…

  Josiah let out a whoop and whirled to grab Thanna. “I know what we have to do!” he crowed. “Come on, I’ve got to tell Gevan and Nalini.” He dragged her toward the door.

  She shook off his grip, half laughing, half annoyed. “What?”

  “The insulin. Once we figure out which one it is, we don’t have to put it into a blood vessel, just under your skin. Like the venom.” Her eyes remained baffled. “Oh, never mind, I’ll explain better when we get to Gevan’s workshop.”

  “Go on, Thanna,” Elkan said. “I don’t understand either, but Josiah obviously does.”

  “All right. Just let me finish my meal first.” She retrieved her bowl, which luckily hadn’t been knocked off the table, and scooped up a big bite of curry.

  Josiah was dancing with impatience, but she had a point. He served himself a new portion to replace what had been spilled and shoveled it in.

  The others gathered around the table, cleaning up the mess and congratulating Borlen. Elkan’s hand fell on Josiah’s shoulder. For a moment he worried his master would scold him, but Elkan’s voice was warm and approving. “What you saw will allow you to treat diabetes without the Mother’s power?”

  “I’m positive. We just have to get a smith to make us a hollow needle—”

  Elkan chuckled. “I believe you. You can give me all the details later.” His fingers tightened. “This means the Mother approves of what we’re trying to do. She’s helping us. We’re on the right track.”

  “Of course we are.” Josiah gulped down one last bite, then pulled away as Thanna put her bowl down. “We’ll be back in an hour or two,” he said as they headed toward the door. “Although now you’ve got Borlen and Shadow you’ll hardly need us!”

  “I still expect you to do your share of the work!” Elkan called after him with mock sternness.

  Josiah laughed and quickened his steps.

  * * *

  Josiah’s hands waved in the air as he spoke, outlining what he described. “So I thought we could find a smith or metalworker or something, maybe one who makes sewing needles, or wire, or something like that. We need a really skinny pointed tube, like a snake’s fang, but made of metal. Strong enough to poke through Thanna’s skin. If it’s very thin it will only hurt a little, and the hole it leaves will heal right up. It might not even bleed. Then something to force the insulin—it will have to be liquid, I guess, not powder”—Nalini nodded—“through the needle and into the flesh. I wouldn’t have thought there would be space for it, but the venom went right in. The fat under the skin absorbed it like a sponge.” He made a face. “I don’t know how we’ll do that.”

  “Something like this, perhaps?” Gevan said. He picked up the enlarging glass and thoughtfully twisted the knob that slid the metal tubes together and apart. “If the inner tube was closed off, and the needle affixed to the other end of the larger…”

  Nalini nodded. “That should work.” She gestured to her row of vials. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. A fang won’t help unless we’ve got insulin to put through it.”

  Josiah deflated a little, but nodded. “All right. We try these today using the Mother’s power, then Gevan can commission someone to make the fang needle once we know which one works.”

  “If any do,” Gevan cautioned.

  Josiah shrugged off his pessimism. Nalini had at least a dozen different vials to try. Surely one of them was what they were looking for. “I want to try pooling it under the skin that way. No need to cut all the way down to a big vessel if we don’t have to. We can try a small, shallow cut first. Somewhere there’s a nice thick layer of fat right under the skin. Maybe your belly or thigh—” He broke off, his face hot. He was so used to thinking about the inside of people’s bodies he sometimes forgot how they related to the outsides. “Um, your upper arm should work.”

  Thanna nodded grimly. “We can try the other places if not.”

  Josiah had her sit in a chair, the sleeve of her dress pushed up and pinned so it would stay out of the way. Sar positioned himself at Josiah’s left. Nalini opened the first vial, handed it to him, and moved in with her scalpel. Josiah put his hand on Sar’s back and the donkey sent the Mother’s power over Thanna’s arm, dulling her pain as Nalini cut a neat slit and directing the blood away so only a little seeped out.

  Nalini stepped back. “All right. Put it in.”

  At Josiah’s direction Sar pulled a small amount of liquid from the vial. The blob glimmered in the light of the Mother’s power as it floated toward Thanna’s arm. Sar elongated it into a thin stream that flowed into the cut. Josiah could see and feel and hear how the liquid moved into and through the fatty tissue, the minuscule blood vessels absorbing it. He urged Sar to widen their awareness and paid careful attention to the flavor of Thanna’s disease.

  The sweet thickness didn’t diminish, but her body reacted in other ways. The area around the cut began to redden and taste sour. A smoky smell accompanied a sensation of heat. Stop!

  Sar ceased the flow of liquid into the wound, depositing the rest back into the vial. Together they worked to ease the trouble, but as long as the foreign substance remained under her skin Thanna’s body kept reacting to it. Eventually Sar had to speed the effect through to its end, with Thanna’s own natural processes breaking down and eliminating the invader.

  Finally her arm was back to normal, as far as Josiah could tell. He pulled his hand away from Sar’s back and took a deep breath. “Well, it wasn’t that one,” he said, but his forced levity fell flat in the face of Gevan’s worry and Nalini’s skepticism. In a shaky voice he explained to them what had happened and how he and Sar had dealt with it.

  “We knew that sort of thing might happen,” Nalini said. Gevan indicated his agreement. She pulled the wax stopper from the next vial. “Keep going.”

  “Thanna, are you all right?” Josiah almost hoped she’d say no.

  But she rubbed her arm and nodded. “Not surprising it wasn’t the first one.”

  They’d healed the cut, so Josiah had Nalini shift to a different spot and make a new one. The second liquid didn’t provoke such an unpleasant reaction, but it didn’t do anything to alleviate Thanna’s diabetes, either.

  One by one they tested each of the vials. Most set off a similar inflammatory response. A few were inert. One sent Josiah into a flurry of panic as Thanna’s throat swelled, nearly cutting off her breathing. Sar had to slow most of her body until he could get the fluid moved out of her tissues and clear the offending substance from her system. None of them had the effect they were looking for.

  Finally they reached the last vial. Josiah’s shoulders sagged. He’d had such hopes. Now they’d have to start over from the beginning. What good would the Mother’s revelation do if they didn’t have any insulin to inject? He plopped his hand on Sar’s back and braced for the power drain as Nalini made one last cut. Poor Thanna must feel like a well-basted piece of meat.

  Sar sent the clear liquid streaming into the cut. Good, no immediate bad reaction. Maybe this would be one of the harmless ones.

  The Mother’s power enveloped Thanna’s body. Josiah monitored the sweet, heavy hum in her blood. It was getting pretty bad. They’d need to give her pancreas a good nudge after they were done to tide her over until tomorrow’s treatment.

  Wait. Was that…

  For several long minutes he watched, but he still couldn’t be sure. Put more in, Sar!

  He heard Nalini’s indrawn breath as Sar pulled another, bigger blob of liquid from the vial and sent it into Thanna’s arm. Gevan murmured a question, but Josiah ignored him.

  It was working. It was. The strong honey flavor was abating. The hum was subsiding to a normal background level. The flow across his skin felt smooth instead of sticky. Just like after they’d sped up her pancreas and caused it to deposit a good amount of insulin into her bloodstream. More, Sar!

  Once again Sar pushed a thin stream of what Josiah was now certain was insulin
into the cut on Thanna’s arm. The additional dose accelerated the affect. Her body felt nearly indistinguishable from a non-diabetic person’s, now. If this was the first time he’d examined her, he’d never know she had it.

  He opened his eyes and met the others’ intent gazes with a wide grin. “That’s it. It works just like we hoped. That’s insulin.”

  Satisfaction flashed across Nalini’s face, quickly veiled as she took back the vial and carefully stoppered it. Gevan clapped Josiah on the back. Thanna stared at the spot on her arm as Sar sealed it closed and let the Mother’s light fade. “You’re sure?”

  “Absolutely.” He threw his arms around her in an exuberant hug. “Just think. As soon as we make some fang-needles that work, you won’t need wizards at all. Just Nalini or someone else who can make the insulin. She can recruit people and teach them how. We can make lots, enough to treat every kid with diabetes in Ramunna. Tevenar, too. No one will ever have to die from it again, whether or not there’s a wizard to treat them.” His head swam at the prospect.

  “That… that’s wonderful. Amazing.” She shook her head hard. “Nalini, you’re sure you know exactly what you did to get it? You can make it again?”

  Nalini tapped her notebook. “Don’t insult me. Of course I can.” But pleasure lurked behind her offended tone.

  Gevan pulled out his notebook and began rapidly sketching. “I know just who I’ll go to for the needles. Mollirre is the metalsmith who made the casings for the window-glass and enlarging glass. He works with a man, Sorenna, who draws lovely even wire. If anyone can make what we need, he can.”

  Josiah leaned over his shoulder and made comments on his design, pointing out errors and making suggestions. Nalini went to a cabinet and lifted out a large container full of ground cow pancreas steeping in alcohol. She brought it over to the workbench and decanted a generous amount of liquid, humming to herself.