Amnesia: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “The barge would draw attention. It’s too large and too unnatural. At least with the staff, I can balance on it and look something like one of the trees.”

  Bastan arched a brow at her. “One of the trees? Do you really think I should believe you can hide as a tree?”

  “The barge is far more noticeable. Just stay here—”

  “I’m not staying here.”

  “Then stay far enough back that you don’t draw attention to yourself, Bastan.”

  He studied her for a moment before nodding.

  Sam flipped forward. As she did, she tried to think of an augmentation, wanting her vision to be enhanced. The way that it worked for her was focusing on the sensation she had when the augmentation was written on easar paper. She focused on the words, and on the intent, as well as what Alec might do in order to grant her an augmentation. Somehow, that combination was important. She still wasn’t certain why, but she had managed to add enhancements to herself using this technique.

  Vision.

  That was what she wanted. If she could enhance her eyesight, and find a way to see through the darkness, she would be better equipped for whoever—or whatever—she might be facing.

  Slowly, the sense of the augmentation washed over her. It came as a cold chill, and it started deep within her and washed up through her legs and into her stomach before going into her head. With it came a shifting of the light, a change from darkness of night to something that was almost daylight, though more like a cloudy sky than anything else.

  Sam perched on the staff, scanning the swamp. There was no sign of movement, but she was sure she had seen something. Whatever it was would be out there, and maybe it was nothing more than an animal, but she would see that too.

  It had come from deeper into the swamp.

  She jumped, pushing off with her staff, and flipped forward. It might only be her imagination, but she felt like her strength had improved recently, almost so that she no longer needed the same level of enhancement to throw herself as far forward. When she landed, she balanced on the staff and tried to remain as motionless as possible.

  The flip to reach this portion of the swamp was enough movement to draw attention.

  “Have you seen anything?”

  She looked down as Bastan pushed up behind her.

  “I thought I said stay behind me.”

  “I am behind you, Samara.”

  “You’re going to draw more attention than me,” she said.

  “I’m not sure that I am. I think your jumps will draw enough on their own.”

  It was possible, but Sam was hopeful that the way she flipped—pushing up so that she arced high over the swamp—wouldn’t attract as much notice. Then again, someone who knew what to look for would be able to see her and would likely know a Kaver traveled through the swamp.

  She turned her attention back to surveying the swamp, and when she did, there was a flicker of movement in the far distance.

  This time, she was sure she had seen it.

  Sam pushed off, flipping forward. When she landed, she didn’t pause, flipping forward again. One after another she went, chasing where she had seen movement.

  And then, she paused. The movement had been from here.

  This part of the swamp seemed even darker than others. There were thick clusters of trees that created hiding places. The reeds weren’t nearly as prominent, but a cloud had shifted over the thin moon, giving off even less light in the night. Her augmented eyesight remained, but everything had a grayness to it. Eventually, the augmentation would fade.

  What had she seen?

  Once more, she focused on augmented sight, wanting to increase it even more. Now it was more about enhancing her eyesight, not just improving her night vision.

  The augmentation came on slowly, washing through her.

  Sam blinked, able to make out everything with much more clarity.

  Staring into the distance, she finally saw the movement.

  It was rapid and speeding away from her, away from the city, and moving more quickly than she would be able to catch up to without an augmentation.

  Kavers.

  There were at least three, and they were skilled, streaking through the swamp, flipping forward great distances as they launched from one landing point to another.

  She might be able to catch them, but if she did, what would she do? What would she say?

  More troubling was the question about where they were going.

  They were heading toward the Theln lands, and that alone was unusual, especially as the Kavers rarely traveled there by themselves, let alone in trios. Either they were going for information, or they were going to complete a mission.

  And Sam wouldn’t put it past Lyasanna to finish what she had once asked Marin to start.

  Bastan reached her, and she looked down at him for a moment before dropping onto the deck of the barge. “Did you see anything?”

  She nodded. “We need to get back, and quickly.”

  “Why?”

  “I think it’s time for us to finish our training. And I think it’s time to go after Tray.”

  4

  Advice

  Daylight sent swirls of color around the palace, the sun barely creeping over the top of it as Sam arrived back to this section. She was tired—well, really more exhausted—and she only came here because she needed to question Elaine. Had she not that need, she probably wouldn’t have come.

  Even at this time of the morning, there were the sounds of people training in the courtyard. It would be Kavers, most likely. The palace guards trained somewhere else and didn’t seem to care for the fact that the Kavers spent as much time as they did here, training with staffs.

  Sam entered the palace and hurried along the corridor as she made her way to Elaine’s rooms. She no longer paid much attention to all of the signs of wealth in the palace. It was more than she once could have believed, but then again, she was more than she once would have believed.

  When she reached Elaine’s room, she pounded on the door.

  It took a moment, but Elaine pulled the door open. She was the same size as Sam, though the wrinkles around her eyes spoke of many more years, and the slight sheen of gray to her hair was different from Sam’s dark hair. She was already dressed and had her canal staff separated into sections and hanging from a belt beneath her cloak.

  “Samara. You have been away from the palace for a while. I wasn’t sure that you were interested in training any longer.”

  “I’m plenty interested in training. What do you think I have been doing?”

  Elaine studied her. She took a deep breath, smelling Sam. “The swamp. You remain fixated on the swamp?”

  “You’re the one who told me I needed to practice,” Sam said.

  “And by practice, I meant that you should continue to work with other Kavers, those like myself or some of the others who are even more skilled.”

  “Other than Marin, you’re not the most skilled?”

  Elaine was paired to Lyasanna, whatever that might mean. Marin had already proven herself to be a more skilled Kaver than Elaine, able to teach Sam things Elaine could not.

  “I serve the princess, but that does not mean I am any more skilled than others. My connection to her has given me access I would not otherwise have, but…”

  “But Marin is better than you.”

  It was blunt, but it needed to be said, especially if Elaine was to continue attempting to train her.

  “I have never claimed to be anything more than I am,” Elaine said.

  “You haven’t claimed to be anything.”

  Elaine stared at her. “Did you come here to disparage me, or have you come for another reason?”

  “Why were Kavers crossing the swamp?”

  Elaine frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is that I saw three Kavers crossing the swamp. Why?”

  Elaine looked past her before grabbing Sam and pulling her into her room. “Where did you see
them?”

  “I told you, in the swamp.”

  “Where in the swamp? Were you close to the shore?”

  Sam shook her head. “I was probably a day out,” she said. Maybe admitting that was more than what she should do, but she needed to know why the Kavers traveled across the swamp. If they were going into Theln lands and going in numbers that were more than about ensuring safety, she wanted to know if there was anything she needed to be worried about.

  Besides, it still didn’t change what she had planned. But she was hopeful she could find out more, and if she could, then she could be better prepared.

  “A day? You have improved.”

  “I told you.”

  “Are you still determined to go after… your brother?”

  “Tray is my brother. I don’t care that we might not be blood relatives. He is my brother. And if the princess means him any harm, I intend to protect him.”

  “Even if it means going against the Kavers?”

  Sam licked her lips. “I don’t want to. All I want is to help Tray. Why does it have to be one or the other?”

  “I will not go against my princess.”

  “You mean you won’t go against your Scribe.”

  “Are they so different?”

  “They are.”

  Elaine took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Perhaps if I were to have the same ability as Marin, and if I were able to apply augmentations without my Scribe, it would be different. Such an ability is unusual, even among Kavers.”

  Should Sam admit that she was able to do that? It wasn’t consistent, and it didn’t happen with nearly the same strength as when the augmentation was applied through easar paper, but she could do what Marin had taught her. And maybe there was more to it. Maybe if she were to spend more time studying with Marin, she might be able to do even more than what she had.

  “Have you asked her?”

  “Asked her what?”

  “Whether what Marin said was true.”

  “What good would come of that?”

  “The good would be the truth. You might discover that the person you have served so faithfully all these years has been deceiving you. The good would be that you would understand that she might not be worthy of your service.”

  “Worthy? Samara, we serve the Anders family. That is the way it has been, and the way it will always be. You are a Kaver, which means you are tasked with such service.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. Just because I have this ability doesn’t mean I have to blindly follow. I can do what I think is right. And right now, what I think is right is to see what Lyasanna intends to do with Tray. If there is nothing to it, then…” Sam hadn’t given much thought to what she would do if Lyasanna didn’t intend to harm Tray, but if she did, she would have to help him, wouldn’t she?

  What if it meant siding with the Thelns?

  That was something she didn’t want to consider, but she knew she needed to. With Ralun as his father, and now with Tray spending time with him, getting to know him, how much would Tray have changed? Probably even more than she had changed.

  “You can’t go after him on your own.”

  “What makes you think I will?”

  “You might think I don’t know you, but I’ve paid attention. I know what you think to do. And you can’t take your Scribe. You said it yourself, you can’t cross using your staff if he goes with you.”

  “There are other ways to cross the swamp than using the staff,” Sam said.

  “Sam, we’ve discussed this already. There have been plenty who have tried to cross the swamp using barges, but eventually, they fail. Either they turn back, or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Or they are lost. There have been plenty of captains who have thought to venture into the swamp, and most of them never return. They think they can go after riches, but what they find is nothing more than their own destruction.”

  Sam looked around Elaine’s room. It was sparsely decorated, the sign of a woman who either wasn’t in her own room very often, or intended to not be there for long. It was nothing like the way Alec had settled into the university rooms he was given.

  “If you want to try and deter me, you don’t need to scare me into changing my mind. Telling me something more specific would be helpful. Otherwise, I’m simply going to risk it.”

  “I have little doubt you will risk yourself, regardless, Samara.”

  “And you don’t intend to stop me?”

  “Why should I?”

  Sam frowned. “I thought you didn’t want me to attempt reaching the Theln lands.”

  “I don’t, but short of holding you captive, I don’t know that I can prevent you from doing anything,” she said.

  “You would hold me captive?”

  “I said short of holding you captive.”

  Sam studied Elaine for a moment. “What happened to Marin’s Scribe?”

  “He is being questioned. Until we figure out where she might have gone, he will remain in prison.”

  Sam shivered. She had spent only a few hours within the prison, not nearly as long as Tray, but her experience there was enough to make her not ever want to revisit there again.

  “He is inaccessible, even to you,” Elaine said.

  “I have no intention of going after him.”

  “Not even to determine where Marin might have run off to?”

  Sam still had not shared with Elaine that she knew exactly where Marin had gone, mostly because the moment she did was the moment she placed herself in opposition to the rest of the Kavers. Even holding her as long as she had—well as long as Bastan had—she had placed herself against the Kavers.

  “The only reason I want to find Marin is to understand what else she might have lied about,” Sam said.

  Elaine studied her, and Sam wondered how much Elaine already knew. Could she have discovered that Sam had captured Marin? Would Bastan have sent word to her? That seemed less likely, especially since Bastan would only do what he thought would protect Sam, and he didn’t think turning Sam into Elaine would protect her—he couldn’t.

  “That woman is dangerous. Whatever else you think about her, know that she is the reason you were taken from me.”

  “And if what she said was true, she is the reason that Tray still lives,” Sam said softly. “If nothing else, that has value.”

  Elaine sighed. “What if Tray—the Theln you call your brother—decides to identify with the Thelns? What if he decides to take after his father and rule?”

  “Then I would tell him that he has every right to it,” she said.

  “Even if that means that you are pitted against him?”

  “Why would I be pitted against Tray?”

  “Not against Tray. Against the Thelns. What will you do if you are forced to fight the Thelns which mean you fight against Tray?”

  Sam stared at Elaine. She started pacing, trying to clear her mind. Movement helped, which was why spending time in the swamp, regardless of how disgusting it smelled, helped her think. “I won’t harm Tray.”

  “You might find that you don’t have a choice.”

  “What if I make a different choice?”

  Elaine glowered at her. “You would go against the Kavers? You would go against me?”

  Sam didn’t like the idea of going against Elaine, but it had less to do with the fact that she was her mother and more to do with the fact that the city was the only place she had known.

  “I will do what I think is right.”

  “You will do what is your duty,” Elaine said.

  Sam stopped her pacing and turned back to Elaine. “My duty?”

  “Yes, Samara. Your duty. You are a Kaver, which means that you have an obligation to help protect this city. You may not care for that responsibility, and you may not think you need to, but those beliefs are because of what Marin did to you, the way she used you. If you had your memories, you would not feel the same way.”

 
Sam wondered. Wouldn’t she? Even without her memories, she had always felt that doing what was possible to help her brother was the most important thing for her. And now, she felt that way about Bastan, recognizing that he was family. Alec too.

  But the city?

  What had the city ever done for her? What had it done other than put her in a position that made her feel she was somehow less than those who lived in the center portions of the city? What had it done other than show her that some people were more important—and therefore, more valuable—than others?

  Did she have a responsibility to protect that?

  “Is that all?” Sam asked.

  “You came to me, so I suppose if you have said all you need, you may depart.”

  Sam breathed out. “If you learn more about those Kavers, will you tell me?”

  “If I learn more, and if it’s relevant to you, I will tell you.”

  Sam supposed that would have to be enough.

  She turned away, and headed out of the palace, possibly for the last time.

  5

  Working in the Ward

  The hospital ward carried a certain stink to it today. Alec had the books in his pocket, and he stuffed his hand inside it, running his fingers along the covers. He almost didn’t want to stop here, but he knew he needed to. He had been gone long enough, and it would be unusual for him not to stop in the hospital ward. All he wanted to do was return to his room, sit down, and study the books. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to learn anything from the one he was increasingly convinced was his mother’s, but he suspected there would be some way for him to work through it, trying to decipher the language so he could understand.

  The ward was busier than it had been in quite some time. Alec liked to think he had something to do with that. He had continued to encourage the master physickers to relax the requirements for admission to the hospital, convincing them the students would learn more if they had more patients to study. Admitting more people didn’t mean they charged anything less. No. In fact, the master physickers continued to charge just the same, not showing any willingness to reduce their fees. Maybe that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they had been willing to treat people they otherwise would not have.