Sam watched, feeling helpless.
What could she do?
There was nothing. She didn’t have augmentations, not like Elaine did, and even with them, she hadn’t been able to overpower the Theln. Maybe had Marin not wiped her mind, suppressing some part of her that gave her Kaver abilities, Sam might be able to do something, but those were lost to her. She was still too slow. Maybe she’d always be too slow. All that would happen if Sam got involved would be her injury. She would be tossed around even more violently than Elaine.
But Sam needed to help Elaine—her mother—otherwise, the woman would be carried off by the Theln. She wasn’t about to allow that to happen. If nothing else, she thought she could provide a distraction, and give Elaine a chance to get up and maybe get away.
Sam crawled toward the edge of the roof. If she timed this right, if she managed to coordinate it with the pending explosion, she could grab Elaine right before the building exploded, and use that distraction to prevent the Theln from chasing them. He had to know that it was coming, but maybe he had a resistance to the heat and fire. She knew so little about the Thelns other than what they were capable of doing and the violence they brought with them.
The heat became unbearable. Her hair felt as if it vibrated, attempting to stand on end.
She had to act. She knew it, though wasn’t sure if she could be fast enough—or strong enough—to do so.
Sam took a deep breath, collecting herself, and jumped.
For the second time today, she jumped from a high level, unmindful of the fact that all she had was her eight-foot-long canal staff. It was long enough to help support her, but she would feel a severe jarring when it stuck.
Sam braced herself.
The staff plunged into the cobbles and flexed.
The Theln kicked, catching the staff as it flexed. Sam pushed up and twisted her body in the air, angling so that she went flying toward the building where Elaine had collapsed. She held tightly onto her staff, knowing the way the Theln would try to disarm her, and tumbled to her feet near her mother.
“You have to get up,” she said.
“Samara?” Elaine asked, barely opening her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to save you. Now get up.”
“You shouldn’t be here. The Theln—”
“I know what he can do. I was already here, anyway.”
She scooped her arms underneath Elaine, trying to get her to move. Her mother was only slightly larger than Sam but seemed to weigh quite a bit more. Was that because of the augmentation? She could envision a situation where having increased weight would be an advantage, especially when facing a much larger Theln. It was something she would have to talk to Alec about. If she survived.
“You need to run, Samara. Don’t let him reach you.”
Sam felt a whistling that reminded her of when she sparred with Thoren, though this seemed to press against her, much like the pressure building within Marin’s building.
She rolled, flipping Elaine with her, and managed to move her moments before the Theln crashed into the wall.
Sam smacked him twice with her staff, doubting that it would do anything, but feeling a twisted sort of joy that she managed to hit him.
She forced Elaine to her feet, thrusting her in front of her, and they staggered down the street.
“We won’t outrun him,” Elaine said.
“We don’t have to outrun him. We have to outrun the explosion.”
Elaine glanced at her. “Explosion?”
Sam dragged her down the street. As she did, the heat continued to rise, and she felt the pressure tingling under her skin.
“We can’t leave him in the city,” Elaine said.
“We can’t beat him, either.”
Just then, an explosion thundered from Marin’s building.
Rock and debris and dust sent both of the women flying forward. Sam held on to her mother’s hand, keeping a tight grip on her, and they went sprawling across the cobbles.
Thoren’s comment about getting to her feet stuck in Sam’s head, and she scrambled forward, dragging Elaine with her. She managed to stand and hazarded a glance back.
She tensed, fearing that the Theln might appear from the rubble, but she saw no sign of him.
“Come on,” she said to Elaine.
“We need to get back to the palace,” Elaine said.
“Not yet. You’re injured, and we need to make sure that you can handle the journey.”
“I think I can—”
She wasn’t able to finish, and her eyes fluttered before she collapsed.
Sam swore under her breath. Somehow, she would have to carry Elaine. Elaine had used her augmentations during the fight, but Sam didn’t have the necessary augmentations to ensure that she could carry her easily.
It didn’t seem quite fair.
20
The Easar Paper
The tavern smelled of smoke from the distant hearth, mixed with the savory scents coming out of the kitchen. Sam barely managed to hold on to Elaine as she staggered into the tavern. If she had to go much farther, she would drop her.
Every so often, Elaine would groan. She writhed in place, resisting Sam as she clutched her against her. Sam couldn’t lift her and had been forced to drag her as they made their way down the street to the tavern.
Kevin reached her as they entered. He cocked a brow and waved her in, scooping an arm underneath Elaine to help Sam.
“Is he here?” she asked.
“He’s here. He’s—”
Sam ignored him and shuffled toward the back of the tavern, one arm still around Elaine, though Kevin had taken over most of the lifting at this point. She banged on Bastan’s door with her foot, no interest in being discreet.
The door opened, and he shoved his head through. “What is—”
Sam nodded toward Elaine. “I need your help, Bastan.”
Bastan glanced from Elaine to Sam before shaking his head. “It’s not a good time, Samara.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt one of your meetings. I need your help.”
Bastan glanced over his shoulder before stepping into the tavern and closing the door behind him. He made his way across the tavern toward the kitchen, motioning for Sam to follow.
Sam did, but looked back at his office, wondering who he was concealing. There was something going on in the office, something that Bastan intended to keep from her, but maybe now wasn’t the time to push him.
The kitchen was a coordinated sort of chaos. Four cooks worked near the oven, shoving food from place to place. The servers stepped in, grabbing plates or ale, before heading back out into the tavern. Bastan crossed the kitchen and led them to a door along the back wall. He pushed it open and hurried through and down a series of steps.
“She needs help, Bastan.”
He paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Like you did when you fell?”
“This is different. This is…” How much did she tell him? Did she admit that this was a Theln attack again? He’d faced it before and had nearly come up on the wrong end of it, his tavern destroyed. Bastan being who he was, had quickly rebuilt, but would he be eager to bring such danger upon himself again? “Yes. It’s like me when I fell.”
“I’ll send word to the university and get your friend to join us.”
“That will only work if we have”—she glanced back at Kevin, lowering her voice—“more of the easar paper.”
Bastan’s face tightened, and she realized that he was going to be forced to admit something that he did not want to.
A comment made by Kevin the last time she’d come to the tavern came to the front of her mind. Bastan had been seeking supplies—art supplies. That meant paper. “You have more of it, don’t you?”
“I have a few sheets.”
“Why? You can’t use it.”
“But you can, Samara. I’m not foolish enough to believe that isn’t valuable in the right circumstances. You might think that we are done work
ing together, but I don’t.”
Bastan continued down the short hall and pushed the door open. When Sam reached him, she set her hand on his arm, and Bastan turned and looked at her with his hard, gray eyes.
“I don’t think I’m done working with you,” she said.
“No? You’ve avoided me for the last few months.”
“After all the years we’ve worked together, you think a few months matter?”
Bastan slowly began to grin and then nodded. “Good. Otherwise I would be compelled to find some way to force you to work with me.”
Sam punched him on the shoulder, and Bastan shrugged it off as they entered the room. Had she her augmentations, he wouldn’t be able to so easily shrug it off. A threat like that from Bastan was meaningful. It was more than likely that he would find some way to force her assistance. It was entirely probable.
“What happened?” Bastan asked.
“She was attacked.”
“Did you see the attacker?”
“He’s a larger man. And she’s tiny.”
As Kevin helped her to a cot, Bastan glanced from Elaine back up to Sam. “You’re tiny, but I’ve seen you face down much larger men.”
Sam shrugged. “With the help of the paper. Otherwise, there’s not much I can do.”
Bastan turned to a nearby desk and wrote a note on a slip of paper, folding it neatly and placing the wax seal across the edge. “Take this to the university. Ask for Alec,” Bastan said to Kevin.
“University? You’re sending me for a real physicker? You know they won’t come to Caster.”
“Not a physicker, but a student.”
“Looks like this woman needs more than a student,” Kevin said.
“Which is exactly what she will get,” Bastan said.
When Kevin hurried from the room, Bastan turned his attention back to Sam. “Are you going to tell me what really happened?”
Sam sighed. “She’s like me.”
“I can see that.”
“No. She’s able to receive augmentations, the same as me. But that wasn’t enough to escape the attack.”
“I thought your augmentations… One of them was in the city, wasn’t it?”
Keeping it a secret from Bastan was not anything she wanted to do. It was better for him to know the truth, especially as he had been such a help to her when she’d needed it—most recently when she had nearly died from a fall while trailing the princess.
“Three, actually.”
“And where are they now?”
“I think two are dead,” she began. She nodded toward Elaine. “And the third was much larger than the others. Even with her augmentations, she was no match for him.”
“Where were they?” Bastan asked. “It must have been near for you to have brought her here.”
“Marin’s. I was looking to see if there was anything I could discover when I realized they were approaching.”
“They came after you?”
“I don’t know if they came after me, or if they came after Elaine, or whether they thought they were finding Marin, or even if they were the ones who attacked the merchant.” She hadn’t had the opportunity to see if the men she’d seen in the street were like the others. “There was another attack, Bastan. In Caster. I saw the bodies down in the street.”
“Not in my section. There shouldn’t have been.”
“There was.”
His brow furrowed, and irritation flashed across his face. “And here I thought my attempt to watch the merchant movements had been effective in preventing more attacks like that.”
“You did that?”
“After what you told me the last time.”
Sam frowned. Could that be why the attack was in Caster this time? That seemed unlikely, but maybe the Thelns had come after Bastan for meddling.
“You have to be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
“I’m not kidding, Bastan. If the Thelns have returned, and they intend to attack…”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m not.”
He smiled. “Tell yourself whatever you need.” She glared at him, and he ignored it. “Do you know why the Thelns returned to the city?”
“I think they constantly attempt to attack the city,” Sam said. “Elaine, and others like her, fend them off.”
“How many are there like her?”
“I don’t know. I know only of Elaine.”
Bastan watched her, his head tilted to the side as he considered her. “Just Elaine?”
“I understand one of them died outside of the city, if that’s what you’re getting at. I never met her.”
“Her? Are these people with augmentations always female?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, I’ve only met Elaine.”
“And Marin.”
“And Marin,” Sam agreed. “Marin told me nothing about them, other than the fact that I was descended from someone with some abilities. She was no different from anyone else in her attempt to keep that knowledge from me.”
“Maybe there was not an attempt to keep it from you, but to keep you safe.”
She shrugged. “I think I’m safer now that I understand a little bit about how to use my abilities, don’t you?”
“Honestly, Samara, I would prefer if you knew nothing about these abilities. It seems to me that since you’ve learned, you’ve been placed in much more danger than you ever had been before.”
Sam crossed her arms over her chest. If Bastan were closer to her, she would’ve hit him. She was of half a mind to assemble her canal staff to smack him from the other side of the room. “You put me in more danger than anyone else ever did.”
Bastan shook his head. “You were in danger, but none that I couldn’t help you with. You were never so far gone—or isolated—that I couldn’t lend a hand if it were needed.”
“Like you did with Tray?”
“Had you given me more time, I would’ve gotten Tray free.”
That wasn’t what he had told her at the time, but she didn’t want to argue with Bastan about that. “Instead, Marin managed to get him free.”
Bastan grunted. “Unfortunately, she did.”
“Unfortunately? You would rather have left Tray stuck in that cell, tormented by the guards, in danger of dying?”
“You were in the prison, however briefly it was. You know the prisoners are treated well. And your brother was never in any danger. My resources were clear enough on that. Had he been in real danger, I would have gone after him myself.” There was an edge to his voice, one that made Sam question why Bastan would act so fiercely on her behalf.
“If you were going to help Tray, you could have done it long before I had to intervene,” Sam began.
Elaine moaned. It was the first sound she had made since they had brought her down to this room.
Sam hurried over to her and took her hand, thinking that Elaine might open her eyes, but the woman only moaned again.
Bastan approached and stood on the other side of the cot, looking down at Elaine. “She’s quite lovely, albeit smallish.”
“Smallish? Don’t let her hear you describe her that way,” Sam said.
“Does she have a temper like you?”
Sam glowered at him. “I don’t have a temper.”
“I thought maybe it was a trait of those with your particular ability. I thought maybe you all got angry quickly. Marin certainly has a temper. And yes, Samara, even you have something of a temper.”
“Careful, Bastan, or you’ll get to see exactly how much of a temper I have.”
Bastan grinned. “I’ve seen your temper from time to time. Now, if you will excuse me for a moment, I’m going to check on the status of a few items and then will return.”
Bastan slipped out the door, leaving Sam alone with Elaine.
She looked around the room and decided that it had to be a different room from the one that Bastan had brought her to when she’d fallen. This was
simpler. Walls were boarded up, and there were no decorations here. The cot appeared otherwise unused, and she noted a few crates in the corner but nothing else.
There were other rooms along the hall, but Bastan had chosen this one, almost as if there were some particular reason behind it. Was there something unique about it? Or was it simply an empty room?
She turned her attention back to Elaine and watched her mother taking steady breaths. At least she breathed easily. Alec had taught Sam a few things about healing, and she remembered him telling her to first check to ensure the person was breathing, then check for a heartbeat, and then begin looking for wounds. Since Elaine still breathed, and she’d been breathing since Sam rescued her from Marin’s property, she had to assume that she also had a heartbeat. Any wounds that she might have were not visible.
“This would have been easier had you not gotten hurt,” Sam said to Elaine. “No, if I'm honest, this would’ve been easier if you had found me years ago. It would’ve been nice to know where I came from.”
Sam watched Elaine, thinking that she might open her eyes, or that her breathing patterns might change, but nothing changed for her. Strangely, it was easier for her to talk to Elaine with her unable to answer back. As she stood there, looking down at the woman who was supposed to be her mother, she found that emotions bubbled to the surface that she had not expected.
Anger was foremost among them.
Sam had spent the last decade of her life thinking that she was little more than a lowborn, that she deserved nothing from life, that she had to go out and take what she needed if she was to survive. That was the way—and the mindset—of the lowborns. She had never believed that she deserved anything more. And maybe she still didn’t. Maybe she really was nothing but a lowborn, and still needed to go out and take what she was owed.
It was hard for Sam to believe that Elaine had not known about her, especially considering some of the conversations they’d had since being reunited. Elaine was interested in training her, but that seemed about it. She was more focused on spending her time outside of the city, either fighting the Thelns, or serving the princess in whatever way that she did.
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