The Book of Maladies Boxset

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You were expecting it to happen rapidly?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know. I was hoping he’d sit up, look around the room, and thank us for saving him.”

  “What if he didn’t want to be saved?” Alec asked.

  “Why wouldn’t he want to be saved?”

  “Not all people want to live.” He’d seen that often enough in his time with his father and recognized that there were plenty of people who had no interest in living. Some had traumatic events happen to them and became depressed, others simply lost the will to live. His father had often tried various combinations of medications, but rarely had he ever been successful. It was one failing of the types of medications his father knew.

  “I don’t know how much longer we should stay here,” Alec said. More than that, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could tolerate being in the morgue. The stench was nearly unbearable.

  “What if he wakes up?”

  Alec watched the man and shook his head. “If he wakes up, it will seem as if the foxglove wore off. Probably nothing more than that. But if we’re caught here, especially this late at night, there will be other consequences.”

  “None of the masters care that we’re here. All they care about is that the bodies are properly disposed of.”

  “I think that if they find us here in the middle of the night, they’ll have different opinions about whether or not we should be allowed to be here.”

  Beckah looked around, and a sly grin crossed her face. “As in how they might think we’re into some pretty strange things?”

  “I’m not interested in finding out what the masters might think of us,” he said.

  Alec checked the man’s pulse again, waiting to see if there might be any sign that the thistle root took hold, but nothing had changed.

  Beckah gave him a strange glance before nodding and leading him away from the morgue. Alec followed her, wanting nothing more than to get out of there, feeling surprisingly uncomfortable around all the bodies. Considering the amount of time he’d spent with his father, time spent healing, it surprised him that he should be uncomfortable around death.

  Maybe it was the fact that nothing had been able to be done for so many of these people. The physickers had failed them. Or maybe, it was something else. Either way, he was relieved when they closed the door behind them and started back up the stairs.

  18

  Searching for Marin

  Sam jumped canals here with ease, no longer paying attention to how much space she gave before making the leap, simply reacting. At one canal, as she flipped up, she felt the staff begin to wobble beneath her. Sam pressed up, balancing briefly, before realizing that she was doing just as Thoren had taught her.

  She kicked, carrying herself over the canal, landing once more on the solid shore. This side of the canal was protected and had dozens of shops, most of them barely highborn. A merchant section. It was situated between the lower sections of the city and those that were traditionally considered the upper-class sections. She wasn’t far from the section where Alec’s father had his shop.

  Sam didn’t remain there very long.

  She hurried along the edge of the canal, ignoring the scents here, and paying no attention to the barges pushed along the canals. There had been a time not so long ago when she would have avoided the barges, not wanting to draw their attention, but what did it matter anymore? Now she had papers in hand and could easily use those to hop on one of the barges and take that toward the palace.

  She passed another couple of canals before finally landing in Caster.

  After months away, she had been here several times in the last week.

  She wandered along the street, making her way toward Marin’s house, deciding on impulse to take a look at it. She had already examined the woman’s house herself after Marin had disappeared, so a return wouldn’t matter. How could it? Marin was far too clever to leave anything incriminating behind.

  The building was one of the oldest in the Caster section. It was well-constructed and as fancy as anything found here, nice enough that she half expected someone to have attempted to move in since Marin had been absent. But the entire complex had an air of disuse to it.

  Sam paced around the outside of the building, circling the perimeter carefully before using her canal staff and leaping up to one of the neighboring rooftops. From there, she crouched, waiting.

  There was no movement.

  She watched it for a few long moments, ready to disappear if she saw any sign of someone within. Knowing Marin, she would likely keep her home monitored by someone. Maybe even Tray. Then again, had she kept her home monitored, Sam expected that Bastan would have been aware and would have said something to her. That he hadn’t mentioned it suggested there had been no sign from Marin.

  Sam slipped down from the rooftop and crept toward the building’s front door. In times like this, she wished she had an augmentation. She wasn’t sure what she would use in this circumstance, but Alec would probably have had an idea. He could make her small, small enough that she wouldn’t be noticed. Maybe he had some way of turning her into a wisp of smoke, though Sam wasn’t sure that she cared for what risks might be involved in something like that.

  If she only had her cloak, the cloak that she’d once taken from Marin, she would be able to hide. Instead, she was forced to rely on her own stealth.

  It had been months since she had needed these skills. Now that she did, would they be rusty, or would she fall back into her familiar patterns?

  Making certain there was no one moving along the street, she hurried forward and reached the door front door to the building. When she tested the handle, it was unlocked.

  Sam frowned as she slowly opened the door and went inside. That was not typical for Marin. As far as she knew, Marin was the only one who lived in this building, the woman having bought out everyone else, and she was a stickler for keeping her door locked. Sam doubted that anyone else would have broken in and left it unlocked.

  Had she hurried away so quickly that she hadn’t taken the time to secure it?

  That didn’t fit with what Sam knew of Marin.

  The entryway was quite nice for anyplace in Caster. The walls had evidence of fine craftsmanship, though it was aged and more ornate than was common these days. Even the lanterns on the walls were nice, though she had no idea how long it had been since the lanterns had been lit. No one but Marin lived here for as long as she could remember, and she had never lit them.

  Sam crept up the steps, keeping her feet light, not wanting to disturb the silence within the building. When she reached Marin’s door, she paused a moment, listening for sounds on the other side. There were none.

  She forced the door open. Unlike the door out to the street, this one was locked. It took a bit of effort, no longer carrying the lock-pick set Bastan had given her, but she managed to pick it open and stepped inside.

  As she had suspected, the room was empty, though not completely so. There was a cot along one wall, and the shelves that had stored Marin’s collection of books remained, though none of the books were here. Had Marin come back and collected them? Had she sent someone else after them, possibly Tray?

  She made a slow circle of the room and stopped in the center, looking around. There was no evidence that Marin had been here in months.

  The wind rattled the window. Below her, something thudded.

  Sam froze. Was that the wind, too?

  It has certainly been windy enough when she had come here, but she didn’t think that sound was the wind. How could it be so gusty all of a sudden? It hadn’t been nearly that gusty when she had been up on the rooftop, and if she had felt it anywhere, that would have been the place.

  That suggested there was another answer.

  Was there someone else in here with her?

  She thought she’d been careful and had paid attention to activity on the street around her, surveying the area around Marin’s building, looking for evidence that anyone else might ha
ve been watching, and she hadn’t seen anything—had she?

  There hadn’t been anything obvious, nothing that would have told her she had been spied but was it possible that she had missed something?

  Sam hesitated, listening, and the rattling came again. This time she was certain that it wasn’t the wind, but there was no questioning that the window had rattled and that whatever had caused it was leading to a building pressure.

  Below her, she felt a thudding again.

  She’d felt something similar in the past, hadn’t she?

  Sam approached the window slowly, taking a closer look, but didn’t see anything that would tell her why she was feeling the pressure here.

  A growing unease built within her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to get out, but Marin’s room was on an upper floor, and the only way out was through the window or back down the stairs.

  She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was prepared for an attack.

  Sam assembled her canal staff and flicked it at the window. It was no longer the time to worry about making too much noise.

  Glass shattered and sprinkled the street far below.

  Sam listened, waiting to see if someone noticed what she’d done, but she heard no one.

  If she had rope, she would have an easier way of getting down. All she had was her staff. It was far too high for her to jump from here, too high to use her canal staff for support.

  What choice did she have?

  The thudding increased, and Sam recognized heat behind it.

  Why would there be heat?

  Not just heat, but a familiar type of heat.

  Thelns. They had used some sort of explosive to destroy Bastan’s tavern, and they had done something similar at Alec’s father’s shop.

  If the Thelns were here, and if they had observed her, did they know that it was she, or did they think that she was Marin? They look similar enough that it was possible they’d made a mistake.

  Sam licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry.

  If the Thelns were here, and if she had no augmentations—and no Alec to assist her—she was in a dangerous position. Even her training with Thoren wouldn’t have prepared her to face the Thelns.

  And now she had blown out the window glass, revealing herself.

  Heat continued to rise, and the stone of the building began to tremble.

  Sam had to get out of here. The building would explode, and if she was in it, there was no augmentation that would save her.

  Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she raced toward the window and jumped.

  The jump carried her out the window and sailing into the street. She clutched her staff, trying to spin as she jumped, and jabbed down with the staff, needing to find a way to balance. She wasn’t certain that it would even work, and if it did, didn’t know if her staff would support her or if it would flex and snap.

  The wind whistled around her, and she reacted the way she had when training at the palace practice grounds, facing Thoren.

  She kicked up, twisting in the air and spinning around.

  The change in perspective gave her a chance to survey the street, however briefly.

  Two massive men emerged from the door into Marin’s home. A third, a massive man with eyes that were nearly black, stood in the middle of the street, watching her movements.

  Still airborne, Sam flipped her staff around and swung it toward him.

  A hint of a smile played across his face, and he reached up for the staff.

  Kyza!

  She jerked it away and pushed the tip down, into the ground along the street, not wanting to give him an opportunity to grab her only weapon.

  When it touched down, she felt the staff flex, and for a moment, she feared it would snap. Thankfully, the staff pressed back up, and she was able to carry the momentum upward and rotated one more time before landing on her feet on the street.

  Sometime later, she would have to give herself a chance to celebrate what she had just done. Never before had she managed to dance with the staff like that, and the fact that she had jumped out of a second story window, with only her staff for support, should be reason for celebration.

  The large man in the middle of the street lunged toward her, and she scrambled backward.

  She held out the staff, preparing to flick it at the man, to use the length and speed that she could generate with it to attack.

  As he had before, the man casually reached toward the staff.

  Sam jumped back and almost bumped into one of the other two men.

  She spun around, frantically trying to react, and dipped the staff toward his feet before twisting it up, catching him between the legs.

  Once again, she felt a sort of whistling in the air, one that told her to drop, and she rolled onto the cobbles, flicking the staff around an arc as she did. Even if she didn’t catch any of the attackers, she hoped to prevent them from chasing her, to at least give them pause as they threatened to attack.

  If these men were Thelns, Sam doubted she would have any way of overpowering them. She struggled with even a single Theln when she had her augmentations, and to attempt to face three of them without any sort of augmentation would be suicide.

  Sam darted toward an alleyway, one that she knew would lead her toward a rooftop that she could jump on, and hopefully escape that way, but one of the men blocked her way.

  She tipped her staff into the ground and flipped up, soaring over his head. When she landed on the other side of him, she swung her staff toward his back with two sharp cracks that struck him, sending him staggering forward.

  She needed to thank Thoren when this was over—and if she survived.

  She continued forward, racing toward the alley, and to safety, when she heard a soft peal of laughter.

  “I suspected you would make the mistake of coming here,” one of the men said, his voice thick with gravel. Sam had heard a similar voice before, and there was no question this man was a Theln.

  As she reached the alley, she flipped up, climbing to the nearest rooftop. She paused, then turned around and noticed that the Theln hadn’t directed the comment to her. Another stood in the middle of the street, watching the Thelns with a wary expression. At first, Sam thought it might be Marin, and if it was, she was determined to let them have her.

  But it wasn’t Marin. It was Elaine.

  19

  Rescuing a Kaver

  Sam scooted forward on the rooftop, wanting a better vantage to see what Elaine might do. Had she followed Sam here? Or had she followed the Thelns? As she stared, she saw a cluster of men a street over lying on the ground, none moving.

  Another merchant?

  Had Thelns been responsible for the attack she’d seen?

  If so, they’d been back in the city far longer than she’d realized. And it meant that whatever protections Elaine claimed existed to keep the Thelns from the city had failed.

  How much longer before they attempted another attack on the princess? How much longer before they dared breach the palace? With what Elaine said about the Kavers dwindling in numbers, there might not be enough of them left to stop the Thelns.

  Kyza.

  “The only mistake I made was not destroying you outside of the city,” Elaine said, casually gripping her staff. She was dressed in a flowing gray robe that seemed to catch the wind and swirl around her, reminding Sam of the one she used to have.

  The massive Theln grunted. “Nearly dying wasn’t enough?”

  “Did I nearly die?”

  The Theln laughed. “You’re a fool coming here. You against three of us? Do you believe in yourself so much that you think you can take us on?”

  “Yes.”

  Elaine jumped into the air.

  The suddenness of it was jarring. She flipped high into the sky, clearly augmented, and swung her staff around in a vicious, whistling arc.

  She caught one of the Thelns who had been approaching from behind her, a man she shouldn’t even have seen, but was somehow
aware of him. The force of her strike sent the man staggering, his skull crushed. Sam doubted he would rise from that injury.

  That left only two Thelns.

  Elaine might have augmentations, but the Thelns had a different sort of magic, one that Sam still didn’t fully understand. The larger of the two had seemed casual with his movements when he had reached for Sam’s staff, but when facing Elaine, the movements were anything but casual.

  He reached forward, his hand fast as a snake attacking, and snatched her staff.

  Sam’s breath caught, but Elaine went with it, following the movement, holding on to the staff, and swung her feet toward him, kicking him as she did.

  She managed to get her staff free, and flipped up into the air once more, coming down and striking not the large Theln, but the one trying to sneak up from behind. She caught him twice, once on the leg, buckling him, and the second on the back of his neck, sending his head flying toward the cobbles with a sickening crack.

  The large Theln grinned at Elaine. “You will make a nice prize,” he said.

  “Is that what women are to you? A prize?”

  The Theln grinned. “One with attitude as well. You most definitely will make an excellent prize.”

  Elaine lunged at him, flickering her staff as she did, swinging it in an arc and whipping it down at the last moment, catching the Theln on the arm. Somehow, he ignored the force of the attack and simply shook it off. He grinned at Elaine and moved so quickly that Sam had a hard time tracking him.

  He reached toward the staff, and this time when he grabbed it, he shook it, flinging Elaine free.

  She went soaring, colliding with the building near Marin’s.

  Sam tore her attention away from the fight, realizing that she hadn’t paid any attention to what was happening to Marin’s building. The power that she had detected was still there, pressing away, building gradually, leaving the heat haze in the air.

  The building was going to explode. Sam knew that deep within her, certainty that she couldn’t overcome.

  Elaine lay motionless, the Theln having thrown her violently, leaving her unable to get up.