Poisoned: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “How do you know?” Alec asked.

  “Because Master Carl is—”

  “Your father?” Sam asked. It would be perfectly fitting for the man who wanted to poison Alec to have been related to his new girlfriend.

  “Not my father,” she said, a look of disgust on her face. “I’ve had to come here before.”

  “Why would you have to come here?” Alec asked.

  Beckah glanced from Alec to Sam, seeming to debate her answer. For a moment, Sam wondered if she would even say anything. Maybe she would avoid the question, which would only lead Alec to question her more. Sam couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction at that.

  “I used to be a messenger,” Beckah said.

  “A messenger? Highborns aren’t messengers.”

  “They are if they want to get into the university and can’t,” Beckah said. She looked at Alec, making a point to ignore Sam. “I barely belong here, but they couldn’t keep me out any longer. I’ve tested four times, and each time, I was certain that I would gain admission. When I got notification this time…”

  “I don’t understand why you would hide this,” he said.

  Sam laughed. “You don’t? It’s because you’re too close to the highborns to really understand. When you don’t have something, and you really want it, you’d do anything for it,” Sam said. She hated that she was speaking on behalf of Beckah, but this was something Alec had to understand.

  “When have I ever seemed to care about class?” he asked Beckah.

  “You haven’t,” she replied. “I have. I need to continue to progress through the university to maintain my status. My failures have been a huge disappointment to my parents. They stopped talking to me until I was finally able to get into the university.”

  “But you barely have to study,” Alec said.

  “Barely? I study all the time. I only give you a hard time about it because you seem to know so much already. Every moment that I’m not in my room studying, I’m looking for something else that I can study.”

  “But—”

  Sam stepped forward, and between the two of them. “Can the two of you have this conversation another time? I think that whatever else, we need to keep moving, and shouldn’t remain here for too long. I mean, you said this is the master’s quarters.”

  Alec glanced from Beckah to Sam before nodding. “What do you propose?”

  “I think I should go in,” Sam said. She’d been thinking about the options as they’d followed Beckah through the halls, and it was the only one that made any sense. If either Alec or Beckah went into one of the masters’ quarters and was caught, it would likely mean expulsion from the university. Sam didn’t necessarily mind that for Beckah, but she did not want that for Alec.

  Sam, on the other hand, had no such issues. What would it matter if she were caught?

  Better yet, if she had some augmentation, it was possible that she wouldn’t be caught.

  “You don’t even know what this man looks like,” Alec said.

  “I know enough that he’s dead but not dead. Don’t you think I can find that?”

  “How will you get in and then out?” Alec asked.

  Sam slipped the sheet of easar paper out of her pocket. “Practice,” she said, trying to avoid meeting Beckah’s gaze.

  Alec glanced from Beckah to Sam before nodding. “It might be the best chance we have,” he said. “I’m not sure that I like the idea of you going in there on your own, but it might be our only choice.”

  “What are the two of you talking about?” Beckah asked.

  Sam wasn’t sure what Alec would answer. Would he share with Beckah—a woman that he clearly had a connection to—that he was a Scribe and that Sam was a Kaver? There would be questions if he did, and they would be forced to share more than what Sam wanted, but she would trust Alec in this. It was his decision to make about how much to share.

  “Beckah, you should head back down. If you’re caught here—”

  Beckah shook her head. “I won’t get in trouble if I’m caught here. I used to be a messenger.”

  “But you’re not now.”

  “What of you? What happens if you’re caught?”

  “I won’t be caught. I’ll follow you in just a minute.”

  Beckah let out a sigh, flickering her gaze from Sam to Alec before nodding. “Don’t linger for too long.” She took Alec’s hand and squeezed it.

  Sam turned away, her heart fluttering and nausea rising in her stomach. Those were emotions she shouldn’t feel, that she didn’t deserve to feel. Alec had every right to establish friendships—and more—at the university. She shouldn’t—and couldn’t—begrudge him those.

  Beckah disappeared back down the hall.

  “We should hurry,” Alec said.

  Sam nodded and held her hand out. Alec took a knife out of his pocket and made a small nick in the palm of her hand, doing the same with his. When blood oozed to the surface, he scooped it with the knife and smeared it together with his finger.

  “This will be rough,” he said. “I don’t have a pen or any other way to mix this efficiently.”

  “It will work. We’ve tried it this way before.”

  Alec nodded. “I remember.”

  “I thought that you might have forgotten.”

  Alec took her hand in his and squeezed. “I won’t forget what we can do.”

  Sam met his gaze. What they could do. Not what they could be. Not who they could be.

  It hurt, but she tried to keep the hurt from her face.

  “I hope this works well enough that we can keep you from getting caught,” Alec said.

  He used the tip of his finger and quickly started writing on the easar paper. “Speed and strength will help,” she suggested.

  “I know.”

  She closed her eyes, not looking as he continued to write. She didn’t know what he would add but trusted that what he chose to write would be effective.

  She felt it building within her.

  “It’s done,” he said.

  Sam opened her eyes, noting the easar paper with his handwriting across the page—still neat despite using his finger—detailing the method of augmenting her. She grabbed the paper, re-folded it, and stuffed it back into her pocket.

  “You don’t want me to hang on to that?” Alec asked.

  She shook her head. “I can hang on to it. I think Bastan needs to know that I’ll return with it.”

  Alec tried to hide the hurt in his eyes but failed. “I should…”

  Sam nodded. “You should head back down with Beckah. I’ll find you in the same place as before?”

  Alec glanced at the door. “Not the same place. Let’s meet in the courtyard outside the university. That way, if you need to escape quickly, you’ll be someplace that you can do it.”

  Was he trying to get rid of her? Or was he simply thinking through it, wanting her to get to safety?

  Sam tried not to get caught up in the possibilities. Doing so would only end up with her confused and hurt.

  “Go. I’ll be fine.”

  Alec squeezed her hand and then took off down the hall, moving quickly before disappearing altogether.

  Sam stood in front of the door, her body tingling. The augmentation had taken hold, appearing quickly. Everything around her seemed to move more slowly, but she knew that was the augmentation for speed. It was she moving more quickly, not things around her moving more slowly. She was eager to test the augmentation, eager to find out whether it would work, but first, she had to break into the room and see if the man who wasn’t dead was inside.

  If nothing else good came of her visit to the university, at least she had an opportunity to have an augmentation once more. There was something right about it, something that felt good to her.

  She tested the door handle and found it locked.

  What she did next would reveal her presence, and she knew that there would be no backing down at that point. She could use her strength augmentation to break
the handle, but once she did, there would be no concealing the fact that she had been here.

  Instead, Sam jerked on the door handle once sharply, forcing the lock within to release. With a loud snap, the handle twisted. The breach would be discovered soon enough, but it was subtler than a broken handle. She pushed, opening the door and stepped inside.

  It was an open room, and empty. She saw no one here, nothing that would indicate that the master both Beckah and Alec were concerned about had been here. There was a bed against each wall, each with a trunk at its foot. Shelves rose in between the two beds, and a long table ran along one wall, books stacked on top of it. In the corner was another shelf, this one filled with what appeared to be various medicines. It was similar to what she had seen at Alec’s apothecary.

  As she took a closer look at the nearest bed, she realized its sheets were disheveled and lumpy. Sam darted over and pulled back the sheets. There was no one there.

  Sam sniffed at the air, wishing for a moment that Alec had augmented her sense of smell, as well. There was a hint of a medicinal odor in the air that also carried the scent of various treatments, which reminded her even more of the apothecary.

  Beneath it, was something of a sickly odor. This was nothing like the apothecary and left her with an unsettled stomach.

  She should have asked Alec to stay with her. He would have recognized the different medicines on the shelf.

  Was there anything there that was useful?

  Sam hurried to the shelf and scanned it. She noticed leaves in several of the jars, each of a different shape and color. Another jar had what looked to be berries. And another had something like long, thorny twigs.

  Sam paused. What had Alec said about the thistle root? They had made an offhand comment about the texture, and the barbs along it.

  But, if this was thistle root, why would the master not have used it on Alec when he’d accidentally taken too much?

  Sam grabbed the jar and stuffed it into the pocket of her cloak. If nothing else, Alec could replace what he’d taken from his father’s shop.

  Nothing else on the shelf was familiar. Alec—or Beckah, she had to admit—might have known what was here, but she did not.

  She started to turn when something about the nearby wall caught her attention. It was different—and just different enough that she stared at it a moment before realizing why it looked different.

  It was a door.

  Sam hurried over to it, running her hand along the edge. Her time with Bastan had taught her to notice things like this. Hidden doors were something he was quite fond of. But how was she to open it?

  She ran her hand along the edge, looking for a seam, something that might trigger a hinge. There had to be a room on the other side, but she had to find a way to reach it.

  But there was no handle, no hidden latch, nothing.

  She pressed on the wall.

  Something clicked deep within it, and Sam stepped back. The wall had popped out slightly.

  Was the entire section a trigger?

  She ran her fingers under the raised edge and pried the door open.

  On the other side was a room, as she had expected. In it, Sam noted a single cot, but it was empty. There was another row of small jars on a table, and these looked different from the ones in the other room. Sam took a view of the jars and stuffed them into her pockets. Alec could look at them later and maybe tell her what they were.

  A moan came from behind her, and she turned her attention back to the cot.

  Was it not as empty as she had thought?

  Sam hurried over and found a man lying on the ground, his wrists and ankles bound. He had dark hair and what appeared to be a scruffy beard but appeared unharmed. Was this the man that Bastan sought? Was this the man that Alec and Beckah had tried to help?

  If it was, why would he be in Master Carl’s hidden chamber? Why did Master Carl even have a hidden chamber?

  Sam lifted him, the augmentations given to her by Alec making her strong enough to carry a man of this size. He moaned again as she did. Sam debated what to do. If this was the man who’d been in a dead sleep for days, who knew when he might awaken. She didn’t know how long she had to wait. So, her only alternative was to carry him from the chamber—and hope that her strength augmentation lasted long enough to get them both to safety.

  But she also had speed.

  She cradled him in her arms and ran out of the hidden chamber. On the other side, she hurried to the door just as it started to open.

  Sam hesitated. What would happen if Master Carl appeared—and if he had been the one tormenting this man?

  It would be dangerous for her to be caught. She had been seen within the university before, and could be associated with Alec, which she wasn’t certain was safe for him, either.

  Hoping for the best, she ducked behind the door as someone stepped in. Sam kicked the door and heard a loud crack, followed by a thud as the person fell to the floor.

  She bounded around the door, jumping over the fallen form, and raced down the hall, hurrying back toward the entrance to the masters’ quarters. She didn’t stop as she passed through the door and didn’t stop as she raced through the halls of the university, already feeling the flagging of the augmentations. Much longer, and they would fade completely, and she would be left with nothing. She needed to get to the courtyard, to Alec, so that she could get to safety.

  When she reached the front door to the university, she barreled through it, ignoring a shout that came from behind her.

  Sam stumbled out into the courtyard, searching for Alec—or for Beckah—but neither was there.

  Sam stood there, heart racing even as her augmentations began to fade. Without Alec and his ability to augment her again, she would be caught, and this man would be taken back to endure whatever torture she’d rescued him from.

  29

  Kavers Fight

  Sam was ready to collapse. Carrying the man had been difficult, but now, with the augmentation gone, and she could no longer hold herself up. Her body ached, and her palm throbbed where Alec had nicked her skin to draw the blood for the augmentations.

  That was new. It was unusual for her to have pain in her hand when the augmentations wore off. Had Alec done something different? Maybe it had been the blunt way that he’d used the blood ink to write them.

  Or there could be any number of other possible answers. She still didn’t know much about her abilities because Elaine hadn’t trained her well enough.

  Where was Alec?

  If he didn’t come help her, she didn’t think she’d be able to cross the bridge to get out of this section. Even if he did come, she wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to move. The effort she used to carry this man had drained her, and she wondered if attempting other augmentations would be too much for her. They had rarely attempted repeated augmentations.

  If only she understood that better.

  She saw a figure exit the university, but it was too short to be Alec. Was it one of the other physickers? In her haste to escape, she’d shouldered past several physickers at the door. Could they have come after her?

  “You have been hard to find,” a voice said.

  Sam frowned. She recognized that voice, though it took a moment for her to understand why.

  “Marin?”

  Marin stepped closer, and in the moonlight, she managed to see the woman more clearly. “Samara. I understand that you sent word for me to find you.”

  Sam’s heart pounded as she realized she would have to face Marin alone. Without benefit of augmentation. “I sent word for you to find me at Bastan’s tavern.”

  Marin stepped closer, and she smiled. “Bastan thought you might be here.”

  Had Bastan told Marin how to find Sam?

  No. Bastan wouldn’t have betrayed Sam. He wanted to protect her. He wouldn’t have done anything that would have caused her any harm.

  “What did Bastan tell you?”

  Marin continued to approach, inching cl
oser and closer to her. Sam reached for her canal staff and prepared to assemble it, but Marin smiled as she did.

  “Samara. You have no need to do anything quite so foolish.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “I’ve only ever tried to protect you.”

  Renewed anger at Marin’s deception surged through her. “You can’t make that claim, Marin. I’ve learned what you did to me.”

  Marin arched a brow. “What I did? I think whoever told you might have been mistaken.”

  “No. My mother didn’t die fighting alongside you. You told me that so you could attempt to control me. I don’t know how you did it, but somehow, whatever you’ve done has been with the intent to prevent me from reaching my Kaver abilities.”

  “I’m not sure how you could believe that, especially since I was the one who shared with you what your abilities meant.”

  “You didn’t share that with me. You tried to hide them from me. And then you disappeared when I had questions.”

  “Samara.” Marin took a step closer and nodded toward the unconscious man at Sam’s feet. “I’m going to need to have words with that man.”

  “Why? What is he to you?”

  Marin shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. But I need you to release him.”

  Sam wished she still had her augmentations so that she could lift the man and carry him away, and prevent Marin from getting too close, but they had faded, leaving her weak, with barely any strength of her own remaining.

  “Tell me who he is to you?”

  “I think I’m done sharing with you.”

  “Have you shared the truth with Tray?”

  Marin tensed but didn’t take another step toward her.

  “Because I know the truth.”

  “And what truth is that?”

  “The same truth that you didn’t want me to find out, I suspect. It’s the same truth that you’ve hidden from Tray. It’s the truth of our connection, the truth of whatever bond there might actually be between us.”

  “There are reasons for what I’ve done.”

  Marin took another step toward her, and Sam prepared for the confrontation. She didn’t like the odds of succeeding if forced to face off with Marin. Marin had already proven herself to be more skilled than Sam.