Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

  Exsanguinated

  The Book of Maladies Volume 7

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2018 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover art by Damonza

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  1. Preparations Begin

  2. Search For a Scribe

  3. Within the Swamp

  4. Back Home

  5. Making Paper

  6. The Captured Kaver

  7. Search for Kavers

  8. The Bloodletting

  9. A Sedative

  10. The Poisoner and the Palace

  11. Search for Bastan

  12. A Surprising Find

  13. The Book of Maladies

  14. Bound

  15. Understanding the Book

  16. Saving a Friend

  17. Awake

  18. Out of the City

  19. Reaching the Forest

  20. Decisions and Returns

  21. Captive

  22. Asalar

  23. Lost Cousins

  24. The Effects of the Book

  25. A Dangerous Plan

  26. Reaching the Artist

  27. The Sangr Artist

  28. Beneath the City

  29. A Return and the Plan

  30. The Scribe’s Intent

  31. The End of the Book

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Preparations Begin

  Alec moved a stack of papers on the desk, not content with how they were organized. There was nothing about this room that felt quite right, but mostly because it was far larger than any he had ever had before. Now that he had been moved to the masters’ quarters, promoted within the university to a position where he still didn’t know that he belonged, he was given a suite of rooms, far more than he thought he deserved.

  The room was practically empty. Alec didn’t have enough belongings to fill it. Whatever sparse belongings he once had destroyed in the fire that consumed his father’s original apothecary shop, burned down when the Thelns first attacked the city. Everything he had could fit within the satchel that he carried with him, the notes and references he had made since coming to the university all he prized any longer.

  A knock came at the door, and Alec turned. Beckah poked her head in.

  Her eyes were tight, and she frowned, the perpetual smile she once had long since faded. Ever since the attack, and Master Helen’s attempt to kill her, Beckah no longer smiled quite as easily.

  “You don’t have to stay at the door,” Alec said.

  “I wasn’t sure,” she said.

  He stared at her. There was an uncertainty in Beckah that had never been there before, and he felt it his responsibility to see if he could help eliminate that. What happened to her was his fault. Master Helen had attacked Beckah because of him. “You’re welcome to come in. I would be happy to have you here.”

  He didn’t have too many visitors. Since his promotion to master physicker, he was still trying to come to grips with his role at the university. It wasn’t that reaching the master physicker level wasn’t what he wanted. Ever since reaching the university, becoming a master physicker had been the dream, though it had been one he thought unlikely, at least for him to obtain it in such a short period of time. Alec had only been at the university for barely more than a year. In that time, he had been promoted quickly—far more quickly than anyone else ever had. Part of that was out of necessity, but part of it was because of the training preparation his father had given him long before he had ever attempted to come to the university.

  “How are you settling in?” she asked.

  “I’m settling in about as well as I can. It doesn’t take too long, but mostly that’s because I don’t have much to do.”

  Beckah looked around the room. “There’s so much space here.”

  “You’ll have more space after your testing.”

  “I don’t know that I’m ready,” she said. She stared down at her hands, fidgeting.

  “What do you mean? You were ready months ago.”

  She looked up at him, and her eyes remained haunted. What exactly had Master Helen done to her? Beckah hadn’t shared, and when they had found her, she was tired and sickly, but not poisoned, not the way that Alec had been. He wished she would speak of it, if only for him to understand what she’d gone through so he could help her better.

  “I might have been ready months ago, but not anymore.”

  “Beckah—”

  She took a deep breath, forcing a smile. “When I’m ready, maybe it’ll be easier with you there. You will be there, won’t you?”

  “There aren’t that many master physickers remaining,” Alec said.

  Far too many had left the university. Master Helen had forced them out, taking them with her, and there had been no sign of where they went. That troubled Alec more than it troubled others.

  “You didn’t answer,” she said.

  Alec smiled. “I will be there.”

  “That might make it easier.”

  There was a knock at the door, which Beckah had left slightly ajar, and Alec looked over and saw Jalen. He wore a long physicker jacket that came to his knees. It was the jacket of a full physicker. He’d tested for that but still had not yet achieved the master physicker level, not the way Alec had. His own testing had been straightforward, though time-consuming. It had consisted of a week of questions given to him by each of the master physickers, spending hour after hour sharing his knowledge, but it seemed that his creation of the easar paper had been the most convincing. It was almost as if he had proven himself with the discovery. Alec felt a little guilty about the fact that he hadn’t really discovered anything. He had simply followed instructions in a book his mother had left long ago, and it had been the prince—now the king—who had discovered the svethwuud to be the key.

  “I didn’t know you had company,” Jalen said.

  Beckah got to her feet and bowed deeply.

  Jalen glanced from Alec to Beckah, shaking his head. “That’s not necessary here. “Here, I am a physicker, the same as you… Well, the same as you will be.”

  Beckah flushed and lowered her eyes.

  Jalen glanced over to Alec, frowning.

  “She’s not certain she wants to be tested,” Alec said.

  “Why?”

  “After everything that happened, she’s…” Alec shrugged. He didn’t fully understand what she was feeling, but he was determined to find out, if only to better understand what Master Helen had done to her. It had turned her into a cautious person who had lost all the self-confidence she’d once shown. Alec would see that she was restored to the woman he knew.

  “We need good physickers,” Jalen said.

  “I understand, Sire. It’s just that I—”

  Jalen stepped forward and shook his head. He touched her on the arm, and she looked up, meeting his eyes. “Here, we are all physickers.”

  “It’s just… It’s just that I don’t know whether I can continue to do this,” she said.

  “I know that you can do it,” Alec told her. “If it’s simply a matter of gaining confidence, then use the people who care about you. Use your friends.” She looked at him
, and he could see a brief glimmer of hope in her eyes. “And if you need a mentor, then use me.”

  She eyed him for a moment, and finally nodded slowly. Alec felt a little guilty about offering himself in that way, knowing that now, not only did he offer his friendship, but because he’d been promoted to master physicker, she as a student wasn’t in a position to refuse his offer, even if she were to want to. Then again, Alec was determined to help her, even if she didn’t want to help herself.

  “How about I meet you at the hospital ward in a few minutes after I speak with Jalen?” He made a point of using the king’s first name, though he still felt awkward with it. It didn’t feel quite right for him to be so informal with someone so important, but for Beckah, he needed to show her there was something almost normal about having the king wandering the halls of the university.

  She took a deep breath and left the room. When she was gone, Jalen turned away from the door and looked at Alec. “I would pay much to know what Helen did to her during her captivity.”

  “I would too,” Alec said. “She’s not the same person she was before.”

  “Do you think she has turned against us?”

  “Beckah? I don’t see how that would be possible.”

  “You saw the documents. You know what Helen was working on.”

  Alec’s gaze drifted to the table set along one wall of his sitting room. On that table was a stack of easar paper, and written on the easar paper were Master Helen’s notes detailing her attempt to turn the Kavers who had been working with them against the rest of the Anders family. She had been successful—far more successful than she should have been. Alec was still trying to work through exactly what it was she had done. It was difficult because her method of documentation was somehow different from that of the physickers and from how his father had trained him.

  “I know what she was working on, but that doesn’t mean that she used Beckah that way. Beckah hasn’t turned against us. It’s more that she’s uncertain. Her confidence is gone.”

  “You care about her?”

  “She’s been my friend since I came to the university.”

  “It’s unfortunate what happened,” Jalen said.

  “Even more unfortunate would be was not finding a way to bring her back,” Alec said. “She’s incredibly smart, and with as many physickers as we lost, we need to help her as much as we can.”

  Jalen watched Alec for a long moment. “And what about you? How are you feeling?”

  “Other than overwhelmed? I was still struggling with serving as a full physicker when I was promoted to master physicker.”

  “That’s not what I mean. How are you feeling?”

  Alec sighed. “I feel about the same as I have for the last month. I’m coming to terms with what it means for me to tire easily, and I am still not fond of the taste of the eel meat, but I appreciate the fact that it helps.”

  “I have given some thought to whether there could be any long-term complications to you consuming it. I have not yet come up with an answer.”

  “You have given some thought?” Alec smiled at him. “Is that because you have been eating it?”

  “It wouldn’t be much of a test for us to be ignorant of the effects that the eel meat has on someone else, now would it?”

  Alec chuckled. “I think you enjoy the way it makes you feel.”

  “Perhaps, which is why I recognize the danger. If I’m enjoying it, then I need to be careful. I begin to see why it had been forbidden.”

  “I still think it needs to be forbidden, or at least strongly monitor its use. We can’t let others know the way it can be used.”

  “No. I don’t think we can reveal the truth of eel meat to many. It seems there are already too many people who know.”

  “They are all master physickers.”

  “Other than your father. Bastan. Your Kaver.”

  “I get your point.”

  “That’s not the point. The point is that I worry for you—about what might happen if we fail to harvest more. What happens if our supply of the eel meat dwindles?”

  Alec had given some thought to it, but he tried not to spend too much time, knowing that it wasn’t a problem he could easily solve. They didn’t know how to breed eels, so there wasn’t an easy way for him to create a supply for himself. It meant that he had something else to study, but he didn’t know if studying the eels was going to be helpful. He and Sam had tried, but they hadn’t come up with any more insight to them.

  “At least the supply hasn’t diminished yet,” Alec said. He looked over at Jalen. “Is that the whole reason you came?”

  Jalen flashed a smile. There were times when Alec still couldn’t believe he had befriended Jalen. It must have been the same way Sam felt when she first went to the palace to live and train. This was different, but mostly because Jalen had come to the university to live and train. Whereas Sam had been somewhat the prisoner under Elaine and Lyasanna’s control. Now, the palace was essentially abandoned. The Anders, represented solely by Jalen at this point, and the university united for the first time.

  “It’s not the entire reason I came, but I do worry about you. Probably the same way you worry about your friend.”

  “I appreciate that you do.”

  “It’s not entirely a selfless act.”

  “What isn’t?”

  “My worries. It’s just that, if something happens to you, I fear the ruling council of the university will be disrupted.”

  “I’m sure you will find a way to restore it.”

  “I’m sure that we will, as well. But it would mean more change. Change I fear we aren’t strong enough to navigate. I’d rather not have to replace any council members so soon. And you have identified my concern—there really aren’t that many master physickers remaining. Besides you and Eckerd and Carl…”

  “There are a few others,” Alec said.

  “There are others, but none of them are Scribes, and though they are skilled healers, they don’t understand the intricacies of what we have been doing. They don’t understand the challenges we face.”

  Alec met Jalen’s eyes. “I don’t know that I fully understand the intricacies and challenges you speak of.”

  “We have rogue Scribes who may or may not be in the city. We have Kavers who have been placed under their control. Eventually, Helen will attempt to lead this rebellion, and from there, she will attempt to lead something more.”

  “You think she would lead a rebellion instead of rescuing your sister?”

  Jalen’s face clouded. “My sister. I still don’t know what to do with her.”

  “I don’t know how long she can be held effectively,” Alec said. “If Helen has a supply of easar paper”—and with what she’d removed from the palace, he knew she did, more than what they had managed to accumulate, even considering what they found stored in the palace—“then it’s possible she will eventually find some way to spring her.”

  “That’s my fear, as well. If she gets my sister out and has her allegiance, she would have the potential to gain support within the city. I know you dislike the idea of the class system, but if she were to gain the support of the highborns, there would be great difficulty in the city.”

  “Bastan has control of the outer sections.”

  “Yes. The outer sections, but there are more people in the inner sections, and unfortunately, there is more wealth. If Helen manages to free my sister, I fear we will be facing a civil war in the city.”

  “Then we just have to keep your sister confined.”

  “As you said, that might not be possible.”

  “There might be something we could do.”

  Jalen arched a brow. “What are you suggesting?”

  “Well, we don’t have to leave your sister fully equipped to do harm should she escape.”

  “Do you mean to poison her?”

  The idea disgusted Alec, but with what the princess had done, and the way she had abused her power, and the threat that she pos
ed, did it make sense?

  “I don’t know that we poison her, but perhaps we find some way to mitigate her Scribe ability.”

  “It would have to be something Helen wouldn’t know about.”

  “It would. And… I think I know who I could ask.”

  Jalen took a deep breath before letting it out in a heavy sigh. “I don’t like it, but I think you’re right. I think we need to make sure my sister doesn’t pose too much of a threat to the rest of us. If she managed to get free, we would have more than a rogue Scribe on our hands.”

  Jalen set a jar on Alec’s table. Alec knew what was in it, and looked up, smiling. “You don’t have to leave that. I have a supply of my own.”

  “I think I need to stop consuming it. It’s not beneficial, and it only puts me at risk of becoming dependent upon it.”

  “I doubt that you could become dependent on it.”

  “You don’t know what it’s like. It helps you; it gives you a boost of energy that makes a difference since you’re weakened, but for me, not weakened at all, it does more than that. It provides clarity of thought, and it makes me more alert, almost feeling as if I’m more alive.” Jalen stared at the jar on Alec’s table. “I shouldn’t allow myself to continue to rely on it. I never had before, and I don’t know that I should now.”

  Alec closed his eyes. What must that feel like? The constant fatigue he’d endured ever since he was poisoned made every day a challenge. What would it be like to feel that energy again? That clarity of the mind? He was grateful that the eel meat gave him a little boost and let him at least function, but would his constant need become a dependency, as Jalen feared himself? Would he ever return to normal and not need it any longer? And, worse, was consuming the meat dangerous for him in any way?