Wasting: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  Sam sighed, wondering how much she should share. “The night I… borrowed… some paper from the highborns, he was grabbed. He wasn’t doing anything but watching over me, but with his size, they probably thought he was up to no good—”

  “While you were the one up to no good?”

  Sam smiled, making her even more attractive, if that were possible. “It’s usually me. Most of the time, Tray just watches out for me, trying to keep me from getting in trouble. I can’t carry weapons, so he’s my protection.”

  “No weapons? What about the knife you had when you first came to me?”

  “That’s different. It’s barely more than a sliver of metal. Anyway, he’s my protection, and without him there… I got captured,” she said. “Kyza knows I was lucky to get out, and I need to do what I can to get him out. Even if it means helping a highborn.”

  A dozen questions came to mind, but the one he asked was, “Who—or what—are the brutes?” If they were the ones who had attacked her, one of them was likely the same man who had destroyed the shop. After seeing what they were capable of doing, he didn’t think he wanted anything to do with them.

  Sam squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I don’t know much about them. They’re not from the city, I know that much at least. Someone I know called them Thelns, but I don’t know if that even means anything. All I know is that they’ve attempted to kill me twice. And I believe they’ve poisoned the princess which the highborns intend to pin on me to hide the fact that Thelns are in the city.”

  “They what?”

  Sam breathed out heavily, and she looked around her. A pained look crossed her face. “They poisoned the princess. I saw her. She’s… I don’t know how to describe what she is. Sick. Wasting away. Dying. And they are hoping to blame Tray and me for what happened.”

  “Why would they want to do that?” That didn’t make any sense to him. Why would Sam matter to them at all?

  “Because I stole that paper. Nearly died in the process. There is much we don’t know about this paper, but with my brother in prison, I think the only way I might be able to save him would be to help the princess get better, so we can’t take the blame for what happened. That’s why I want your help. The healers in the university aren’t able to heal her.”

  “Physickers.” When she frowned at him, he said, “Physickers. That’s what they’re called. They’re not healers or apothecaries.”

  “Call them what you want, but that’s why I need you.”

  “Sam… I don’t think I can help.”

  “You don’t even know what I’m asking,” she said.

  “It seems like you’re asking me to help you do something inside the university.” He arched a brow at her, waiting to see how she would respond, and Sam only met his gaze. “Is that it? Is that what you’re intending? To break into the university?”

  “I don’t know what I’m intending, only that I have no way of helping Tray otherwise. If we can somehow help the princess, then I have to believe there’s something she can do for him.”

  Alec shook his head. “When you were here with me the last time,” he said, waving around what was once his father’s shop, “you were pretty clear that you had no interest in helping the highborns.”

  “I will if it helps me. Most of us lowborns don’t really care what happens in the palace, so long as it doesn’t affect us. Well, this affects me.”

  “You think those of us in the Arrend section are so different?”

  “You’re not lowborn.”

  Alec shook his head. “You speak of sections as if they matter. I’ve not seen that it matters which section you come from.”

  “Because you’re from a closer section to the highborns.” She shook herself, looking around at the remains of his shop.

  Alec followed her gaze. In the growing daylight, it was hard not to take in all the destruction that had happened here. The shop was in ruins. And, if what Sam told him was true, it was because of some plot against the princess.

  “Sam—”

  Sam grabbed him on the arm. Alec was surprised by the strength in her grip. She wasn’t very tall, but she was strong. “Don’t say it like that. Didn’t you say you would help heal others regardless of their ability to pay?”

  “That was my father. I’m not my father.”

  Sam smiled. “I don’t know your father, but I know what you were able to do for me. If you could help heal me, there has to be something you can do for the princess.”

  Alec sighed. It seemed it would do no good to argue with Sam. How could he prove to her that there was nothing he could do? That if the physickers at the university were unable to help the princess, he would be unlikely to offer anything more? Even were his father here, it might not matter.

  “At least come. See if there’s anything you can do. Do it for my brother.”

  “I don’t know your brother, and if what you said is true, then he’s a guest of the palace prison.”

  “A guest?”

  Alec flushed. “I didn’t know how else to phrase it.”

  “You could have just said prisoner. Because that’s what he is.”

  “And I don’t know him.” He shook his head, looking around. There wasn’t anything in the shop for him, not anymore. There was no shop.

  And as much as he wanted to say no, his father’s training kicked in, telling him that he needed to help, even if he did nothing more than look to see what he might be able to offer. He doubted he would be able to offer anything, but maybe he could gather information that he could provide to his father when he returned. And maybe he could find some way to get word to his father from within the university.

  But doing so would require breaking in.

  That wasn’t something he was willing to do, even for Sam.

  “They won’t release him, Alec,” she said, her voice now in a whisper. She swallowed back what seemed to be a lump in her throat. “With what happened to the princess, they will blame me. They will blame Tray. Do you know what that means? Do you know what those in the palace do to those of us who are lowborn?”

  Alec studied her face, wishing there was something he could say, but she was right. He had no idea what it was like to live in her section, where she had to learn to sneak and thieve to make a living. It was nothing like his section with the cozy shops he’d known as home. The Arrend section was large enough that he’d barely ever left, staying mostly within the confines of the canal borders. Other than when he had gone looking for his father at the university, there had only been a few times he’d ventured beyond his section and never out of the city.

  “You don’t know that they will do anything to him.”

  “I know. I’ve known too many to get lost to highborns with power. Alec…” She swallowed again, and licked her lips, looking down at the ground. Alec wished that he could reassure her that everything would be fine, somehow provide comfort to her, but what was there for him to say? “I can’t lose someone else from my family. He’s all I have left.”

  Alec thought about it for a long moment then shook his head. He shouldn’t even be considering it, but he was. Doing it risked any chance he had for a future of studying at the university. It risked any chance of him ever becoming a physicker himself. “Do you have any money?”

  “Money?”

  He nodded. “That’s how were going to get you back into the university.”

  20

  Smoke Inhalation

  They walked toward the university section of the city, and Alec glanced over at Sam. She fidgeted with the edge of her cloak and looked around as if trying to think of some way to run, but he kept his arm looped through hers, feeling the heat of her body as it radiated against him. As they approached the university, she tensed.

  “What are you concerned about?” he whispered.

  “I’m concerned about what happened the last time I was here.”

  She rubbed her jaw, and he glanced at the fading bruise on her cheek. It angered him that anyone associ
ated with the university would do something like that. And they had to be associated with the university, didn’t they? Otherwise they shouldn’t be allowed access to it.

  “We’re taking a different way. Once we’re inside…”

  “Once we’re inside, I can find the way.”

  “I still don’t know what you expect me to do.”

  She looked up at him and his heart fluttered. “I’ll explain when we’re inside.”

  “You know I’m only an apothecary, and an apprentice at that.”

  Sam patted him on the arm. “You’re more than that.”

  They joined the line leading up to the entrance. Alec fingered the coins in his pocket that Sam had grabbed, trying not to think about how she had grabbed them. Had she stolen them from someone, or was it money she had?

  The line was as long as it had been the day before, and he hoped that different students would be screening people at the entrance. If it was the same ones, would they recognize him? Likely they wouldn’t. There were hundreds of people in line, all waiting for healing, and likely only a few with the ability to pay.

  “Let me lead when we get up there,” Alec said.

  Sam patted the long staff that she had tucked under her cloak before nodding to him, and said nothing.

  They approached the pair of students, and Alec was pleased to note that they were not the same. He breathed out, preparing his story. What would it take to get through and gain entrance to the university? Now that they were here, he worried that they didn’t even have enough money. He hadn’t given that much thought. When he’d been here before, he hadn’t tried to figure out how much it cost to gain entrance.

  “Do you have the necessary fee?” The student who asked was young, possibly as young as Alec, and he had dark eyes that looked at him with boredom. Obviously, they didn’t expect Alec to have the money.

  “Please. My sister…”

  Alec feigned an attempt to push past. He had seen others doing the same, and thought it would show a sense of urgency. Having that urgency would make his request more believable… At least he hoped so.

  “Your sister?” He frowned as he studied Sam. Would it not be believable for them to be siblings? They didn’t look terribly similar, though he’d rubbed some soot on Sam’s face, using that to add to the presenting complaint.

  “Please,” Alec started again. “My sister needs help.” He fished the coins from his pocket. “This is what I have. It’s not much, but it’s all I have.” Others who had come had not brought coins out. Alec took a chance, thinking that it might be the key difference between them, a way for him to differentiate him from the others seeking help.

  The student glanced at the flash of coins before nodding and making a single motion over his head. As he did, a young man emerged from a hidden doorway behind the gate and scooped the coins from Alec’s hands before leading them through the gate.

  Sam held tightly to his arm, squeezing it as they were escorted away.

  Alec stared at the student who’d granted him access. The next person in line was holding out empty palms, and the student was pointing away from the gate. There was a part of him that had hoped that healing at the university wasn’t only about how much someone was able to pay, but he’d seen enough evidence from those in line to know otherwise.

  “What would have happened if he hadn’t been able to pay?” Sam asked the man leading him into a narrow entrance.

  The man glanced back. He had a soft and clean-shaven face, and wore his hair parted down the middle, longer than Alec would have felt comfortable. “You wouldn’t have been given entrance if you couldn’t pay.”

  “What about those with severe illnesses?” Alec asked, knowing that he shouldn’t. Anything that drew attention to them put them in danger. They were trying to gain entrance to the university, not challenge the protocol within the university.

  “The physickers are limited on who they can heal. We must save our talents for those who need them most.”

  “And they’re the ones who can pay?” Sam asked, glancing over to Alec.

  He knew what she was thinking. Highborns would have the ability to pay, where lowborns would not. At least his father wouldn’t have cared.

  Or would he?

  He thought he had known his father, but then he had never known that he had spent any time here. Had he come away with the same philosophy, hiding it behind healing others?

  No. His father was genuine in his desire to help others.

  The student nodded. “Healing bears a burden for all.”

  He said it as if he’d said the words before.

  “But it’s a burden only those with the ability to pay can reach,” Sam said.

  Alec took her hand and squeezed, trying to silence her. Now wasn’t the time for a debate about the differences between highborns and lowborns. Then again, he had never really seen a difference. There were poorer sections of the city, where people like Sam and others who lived in them referred to themselves as lowborns, and there were those with wealth. How is that different from any other city?

  As they made their way inside, he thought of all those in the line, those who didn’t and wouldn’t have the ability to pay. Had he access to the apothecary, he would have tried to help them. He would have attempted something rather than simply turning them away. The idea ate at him. Maybe it had done the same to his father.

  “Where are you taking us?” Sam asked.

  The young man didn’t even look back. “The intake room.”

  He led them through a series of connecting chambers, each growing narrower and narrower. Lanterns hanging on the walls gave enough light to see, and there were a few windows cut into the walls, as well, though less light spilled through them.

  Finally, they stopped at a doorway. The student pulled a keyring from his pocket and inserted a large key into the lock before pushing the door open. Dozens of benches lined the room, each occupied by several people. Alec noted the quality of dress was higher here, and those within the room looked less sick than those he’d seen outside.

  “This is the intake room?” Alec asked, glancing over at Sam. She shook her head. She hadn’t been in a place like this when she’d been here.

  “This is where you’ll be assessed and assigned the correct physicker. From there, they will decide what additional cost will be incurred.”

  Additional cost. He’d thought what he’d paid to gain admittance in the first place was exorbitant. What would have happened had his father asked for that much money to heal others?

  “How much additional cost would we be looking at?” Sam asked. She looked at Alec as she did.

  The man frowned at him. “You should wait to see the physicker before asking these questions.”

  He led them to the nearest bench, which was occupied by five others, each of whom sat silently and stared straight ahead. As Alec looked around the room, he realized that no one really spoke, there was a somberness to the room, a stillness that he wouldn’t have expected. Almost as if everyone waiting here held their breath while the physickers determined what would happen to them.

  Alec and Sam took a seat and looked up to the student, but he disappeared before Alec had a chance to ask him any more questions. Sitting down, he was acutely aware of the soot on their clothing and likely on his face, feeling so out of place here in the sterile environment of those with the money to pay for healing.

  “See?” Sam said.

  “I see,” Alec whispered.

  Every so often, the door to the room opened, and a man or woman in a long jacket entered. Alec decided they must be the physickers. Their jackets hung past their knees, and they were older, unlike the students who’d brought them here. They chose people from along the benches to speak to before guiding them off. There didn’t seem to be any order to it.

  After they’d waited for a while, a thin woman approached. She had a severe expression, and her black hair was pulled back from her brow and tied behind her head. “You will come with me,”
she said.

  The others on the bench with them looked over, and Alec couldn’t help but note the expression of longing on the face of each. What ailments did they suffer from that they would come here and be willing to pay the rates the physickers charged? As he looked at them, he mentally began assessing their symptoms, trying to determine what they might suffer from, but was pulled away before he had a chance to come up with a diagnosis for most of them.

  The woman led them away and into a small alcove off the main room. She left them there, alone, without saying another word.

  There was no place to sit.

  “This is so different from the way you do your healing,” Sam whispered.

  Alec was thankful that she whispered. There were small vents on the wall, and he worried that sound would travel. He leaned toward one, letting the fresh air blow through and fill his nostrils. “My father trained here,” he said.

  “I thought you said your father was an apothecary, not a physicker.”

  Alec sighed and pulled the note from his pocket, unfolding it and handing it over to Sam. She scanned it quickly before handing it back.

  “That’s why you came here?” When he didn’t answer, she shrugged. “You were familiar with what it would take to gain entry, so I suspected you’ve been here before. You came after you were given that note, didn’t you?”

  “I came before I thought through what I was going to do when I got here. It’s not like they would even recognize my father. To them, he’s only an apothecary. The physickers don’t view them the same—”

  Soft whispering came through the vent from the other side of the wall. Alec raised his finger to his lips to quiet Sam so he could listen.

  “What do you have?” he overheard a man speaking in hushed tones.

  “From the look of the clothing, a burn.”

  This was a woman’s voice, and he suspected it came from the one who’d brought them back here.

  “Clothing?”

  “They’re covered in filth. No burns on their faces or hands.”