Amnesia: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  It made him feel less like a prisoner and more like he was simply working with the prince.

  “This is what it was like when you were mixing it with Helen?” the prince asked.

  Alec shook his head. “There was something more irritating in it.”

  “Could it have been the maple?”

  Alec doubted it. “It’s possible…”

  “But you don’t think it likely,” the prince said.

  “No. The species of wood shouldn’t make a difference. Maple in particular is a fairly benign wood. It doesn’t interact with anything.”

  “And what of this svethwuud?”

  “I’ve never heard of it. I don’t even know what it is, or whether it’s simply the Theln name for another type of wood. If I had the book…”

  “I can’t allow you to leave here until I know whether this is going to be effective,” the prince said.

  “I would come back,” Alec said.

  The prince grunted. “It’s not so much a matter of whether you would come back as whether you would be allowed to return.”

  “Who would prevent me from returning?”

  “I’m not the only one who is after this paper,” he said.

  Alec leaned back in the chair, looking around the room the prince had set up his makeshift lab. All around him were shelves packed with books and various leaves and roots and oils, all things that Alec had requested. The prince had gathered them without hesitation, managing to acquire them quickly and easily, far more quickly than Alec ever would have managed.

  The table they used was made of metal and likely incredibly heavy. The pot sat on top of the table, and a fire burned beneath it, heating the contents. The pulp mixture steamed, but it did so with a quiet sort of burbling, and while there was a strange odor to it, it was nothing like what he had experienced when at the university.

  He was even more confident that Master Helen had done something, and that she had poisoned him somehow, but why? He still couldn’t understand why she’d have done that.

  “I think the key will be acquiring the svethwuud,” Alec said.

  “You had thought the eel venom was a part of it.”

  Alec frowned. “Only because that was what Master Helen said. And maybe this recipe isn’t for easar paper, so it could be I’m wrong.”

  “But you don’t think so,” the prince said.

  “No. I think this is for easar paper.”

  There came a knock at the door, and the prince got up to answer it, pulling it open briefly before stepping back inside and closing it once more. When he returned, he carried a tray that he set down on the table. Chunks of some kind of meat were piled on the tray, and Alec frowned at it. It was a strange, almost silvery-looking meat, nothing like anything he’d ever seen before.

  “What is it?”

  “This is what you asked for. Eel meat. I thought you said you had partaken of it before.”

  “I had, but I was barely awake when I did. My father force fed it to me.”

  “I will tell you that it took some difficulty to acquire it. From what I could tell, this is not something many have ever fished for.”

  “The university claims it’s toxic to prevent others from going after it. The meat has restorative powers, but they try to limit those who may go after it.”

  “Typical,” the prince said.

  Alec smiled. “Why typical?”

  The prince waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it’s not the first time the university has tried to claim one thing when another is for their benefit.”

  “Such as treating only those who have the means to pay?”

  The prince’s face contorted into a scowl. “It’s unfortunate the way they have sought to accumulate wealth. Had they only partnered with the Anders…”

  Alec stared at the prince, not sure what to say. So, he said nothing and took a piece of the eel meat, tentatively putting it in his mouth. There was a foul flavor to it. How had he eaten this before? Maybe the foulness to it was enough to deter others from eating it. It certainly made it believable that it was toxic.

  “It’s not to your liking?”

  “It’s not good,” he said.

  The prince picked up a piece and slipped it into his mouth, chewing it. He did so slowly, as though attempting to savor the piece. When he was done, he swallowed, a frown on his face. “It is interesting. I can see why you would be displeased with it.”

  “It’s not so much that I’m displeased, it’s more that it tastes terrible.”

  The prince stood for a moment, then his eyes started to widen. “Oh.”

  “What is it?”

  “I feel… I feel a strange warmth.”

  Alec hadn’t felt anything quite like that. Then again, he wasn’t sure whether the poisoning he’d been subjected to prevented him from feeling the same warmth. “As I said, it’s supposed to have a restorative property.”

  “This is different from restorative. This is almost… power.”

  Alec frowned. “Power?”

  The prince stared at Alec. “You have never experienced this?”

  He shook his head. “When I took the eel meat before, it was intended to help restore me after the poisoning. I don’t remember anything else.”

  “Try some more.”

  Alec took another piece, and then another. Soon, he had consumed half the platter. Still he hadn’t felt anything.

  As he thought about it, he realized that wasn’t quite true.

  The more meat he consumed, the more he began to feel strength returning. It happened slowly and built up gradually. Thankfully, it seemed the eel meat still worked to restore his energy and his strength. Was that what would now be required to maintain his strength and stamina? Would he now need to consume eel meat on a regular basis?

  He looked at the tray. If that was the case, it was a foul future for him.

  “It’s almost like an augmentation,” the prince said.

  “But?”

  “But it’s not. It’s just… energy. I don’t know how to explain it any other way, other than to say that whatever it is, I feel incredible.” He glanced down at the tray and took another piece, chewing it just as slowly. “I can see why the university would have wanted to keep this from the Anders.”

  “I don’t know that it’s so much that they kept it from the Anders as they kept it from everyone else. The eels provide a certain protection to the city from the Thelns.”

  “And how did the eels manage that?”

  “I don’t entirely understand it. I think it’s something to do with the way they encircle the city, creating an augmentation that pushes the Thelns back.”

  The prince took another piece meat. “You thought the key to making your paper was in the eel venom.”

  Alec nodded. “That was what Master Helen had suggested. I don’t know whether it was true, and considering the way that she attacked me…”

  The prince smiled. “What if it wasn’t the eel venom, but the eel meat?”

  Alec looked to the pot where the pulpy mix was slowly boiling. “I’m not even sure that is the answer,” Alec said. “It might be that there is nothing of the eel involved in the mixture.”

  “Unless the Thelns called something involving the eels svethwuud.”

  “But what would that be?” Alec asked. He didn’t expect the prince to answer and couldn’t think of the solution himself. He had anticipated trying different types of woods, going through them one by one until he came up with the answer, determined to experiment. With the prince as an ally—at least an ally in creating easar paper—Alec didn’t worry that he would run out of supplies. The prince seemed intrigued by the possibility, as if he thought they could work together to come up with this solution.

  “Maybe the wood has something to do with the eels,” the prince said.

  It was an offhand comment, but it got Alec thinking.

  What did he know about the eels?

  He knew they were found in the swam
p, and they had seemed to attack Sam and her canal staff. They seemed to congregate around the reeds, and were often found in greater numbers near the clumps of trees that grew in the swamp.

  “What do you know about the swamp?”

  The prince waved his hand, taking another piece of eel meat and popping it into his mouth. For a moment, Alec worried that there would be a problem with the prince consuming too much of the eel meat. He didn’t know what side effects there might be, if there would be any at all. Maybe to someone like the prince—a Kaver who must have some skill—there wouldn’t be any side effects.

  “I know about as much as anyone can know. It provides a border for us and is practically impassable.”

  “It’s not impassable.”

  The prince paused as he was reaching for another piece of meat. He looked over at Alec. “You have traveled through the swamp?”

  “Only a little bit,” Alec said. “When we were looking for the eels, trying to understand the venom, I went out on the swamp with a barge captain.” He decided that it was best to keep Bastan’s name out of it. It might not matter, but knowing Bastan, he would not want anyone else to realize that he had any involvement in it. “Besides, some of the Kavers have crossed the swamp entirely.”

  “That’s only rumor,” he said.

  “It’s no rumor. I’ve seen Kavers making their way across the swamp with nothing more than their canal staffs. It’s impressive, and I think if they were to rest along the way, they wouldn’t have any difficulty crossing the entirety of the swamp.” And then there was what was beyond swamp, though Alec didn’t know enough about what was there. He suspected that Sam might know—and most likely Marin did. He thought it possible that he could figure it out, but it would require the prince’s help. “There’s a place in the middle of the swamp, an island that Kavers can reach.”

  The prince steepled his hands together and frowned. “You have seen this?”

  Alec nodded.

  “Your Kaver?”

  He hesitated. If he answered this truthfully, it might put Sam in danger, but if he didn’t answer truthfully, it might prevent the prince from helping, and he wanted to see what the prince might be able to share with him. He might not know anything that could help, but what if he did?

  “My Kaver was working on trying to see whether she could cross the swamp, but I don’t think that she had mastered it, not completely.”

  The prince sat in silence for a while. “If it is possible, and if Helen was convinced the eels were required for creating the paper, it makes me wonder whether there is something about the swamp wood that would be a part of the creation of the easar paper.”

  Swamp wood.

  Alec shook his head. The prince might have unwittingly put it together. That had to be the key, didn’t it? It had to be that the swamp trees were part of the easar paper. And if the trees were a part of it, maybe they were granted their power by the canal eels, though not quite as directly as what Master Helen would have thought.

  “We need to find a supply of that wood,” Alec said.

  The prince stared at Alec for a moment. “I think I can manage that.”

  “I have a friend, someone who can help—”

  The prince shook his head. “No one else. Not until this is complete.”

  “And then what?”

  The prince didn’t answer, and it made Alec uncomfortable.

  25

  Svuthwuud

  It was only now dusk, but moonlight already sent silvery shafts of light across the water. Alec tried to focus on the beauty of it, but the now all-too-familiar stench of the swamp overwhelmed his senses. He thought back to his two previous experiences out here, the first having been when he’d gone out to the island with Sam and Bastan in search of Tray, and then again when he’d come out eel fishing with Bastan. There was something strange about the swamp, something that made him uncomfortable, and regardless of the fact that he was with the prince and two completely silent soldiers, he felt nervous.

  “You trust them?” Alec whispered.

  “More than I trust you.”

  Alec swallowed. “I’m only asking because—”

  “I know why you’re asking. Just know that they are trustworthy.”

  The prince stood near the stern of the barge, and he pushed with a long, slender pole that forced them out into the swamp. He had a steady and rhythmic pattern that made Alec think he had done this before, which left Alec wondering what other secrets the prince might be keeping.

  “How much farther do you think we need to go?” the prince asked him.

  Alec shrugged. “I’m not sure. All I know is that we need to get deep enough that we can reach the trees. And I don’t recall the trees growing too close to the edge of the swamp.”

  In those parts, it was mostly reeds, and none of the trees. He had grabbed a few reeds as they went past them, deciding that, if nothing else, they could try that also, but he didn’t want to only use the reeds. He had a growing conviction that what the prince suggested about the trees was accurate. What if the swamp trees were svethwuud?

  The idea intrigued him, and it was something he doubted Master Helen would have considered, especially given that she had been focused solely on the eels.

  As they continued to make their way further into the swamp, the prince remained silent, steadily pushing them along. Alec pointed every so often, directing him, trying to remember where they had been when he had seen the eels before. There had been a spawning ground somewhere deep into the swamp, and it was a place that his father had known about. Having come here only once before in search of the eels, Alec hoped he could find it again, but he wasn’t entirely certain he could.

  When full darkness fell, the moon was bright enough that it cast light, enough light he could easily see. “There,” he said, pointing in the distance.

  “I see it,” the prince said. He spoke softly, and Alec saw his whole body tense. How long could he maintain such effort?

  They reached a clump of three trees.

  “Like this?” the prince asked.

  Alec looked at the trees. “There are clusters of trees like this all throughout the swamp. I think they are all the same, which would mean they are likely the ones we seek.”

  “I sense your hesitation.”

  “I think… I think we need to ensure there are eels found around the trees. It could be that there are other species out here. The presence of eels could be the sign that they are the right ones.”

  The prince nodded slowly. “You have an interesting thought process, physicker.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make this more complicated than it needs to be—”

  The prince shook his head. “That wasn’t meant as any sort of insult. I was commending you for the way you are thinking through this. You’re right. If we are looking for trees that might be tied to the eels, we need to ensure eels can be found around the trees.”

  “There were spawning grounds in certain areas of the swamp.”

  “Do you remember which ones?”

  “I thought this could have been one, but I’m not certain, not anymore. It’s hard to know. At night, in the darkness, everything starts to look same.”

  “The only way to find out is to investigate.”

  The prince set the long staff on the deck of the barge and then peeled off his cloak. He pulled his boots off and stood at the edge of the barge… and jumped.

  Alec barely had time to react.

  The two soldiers remained silent and didn’t do anything when their prince jumped in. What was the prince thinking? Could he really believe he could withstand eel bites, and if the eel managed to pierce him with its tail…

  Unless the prince was augmented.

  It was a possibility. The prince could carry an augmentation, could be protected from anything harmful happening to him because of that. Alec hadn’t seen him place one, but Sam had proven she didn’t need easar paper for the augmentations to be effective.

  Alec
could only wait.

  He stood at the edge of the barge, looking down at the water. There were swirls, and a few bubbles that drifted to the surface, but there was nothing else. There was no flurry of eel activity, but there was no sign of the prince, either.

  The water wasn’t deep here. Looking at the long pole used to propel them through the swamp, Alec could gauge the depth of the water, and it would only be slightly above the prince’s head, certainly not so deep that would be unable to resurface. Then again, if there were eels in the water, he would be in much more danger.

  He glanced over at the soldiers. It shocked him that they seemed so nonchalant. This must be something they saw often enough that it didn’t bother them, though it did bother Alec. He didn’t want to be with the prince when he met his death.

  There came a splash along the port side of the barge and Alec hurried over. The prince grabbed the bottom railing and flipped himself onto the deck of the barge. He shook water from himself and tried to press more water out of his clothes. His mouth wrinkled in a distasteful frown.

  “That was unpleasant.”

  “What were you doing?”

  “I needed to know whether there were any eels.”

  “By jumping into the swamp?”

  “It seemed an easy enough way to find out. We could have swept a net through the water, but this was faster.”

  “I’ve seen people attacked by eels. I’ve seen the way they can pierce you with their tail, and the venom doesn’t have an easy antidote.” At least not without easar paper, and even that was a temporary solution. Without Sam’s blood, Alec would have had no way of helping the prince. They would need access to both types of eel venom. What was the prince thinking?

  The prince withdrew a small knife from his waist and jabbed it toward his stomach. Alec stared in shock until he noticed the knife bounce off the prince’s stomach.