Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

  Five men reached it before they did.

  Alec thought for a moment that Bastan might turn and head in a different direction, but he threw himself forward and spun with his sword, twisting in a violent explosion of power. Alec could feel it. The sense of it practically hummed in his veins, though he didn’t know why that should be.

  Bastan made quick work of cutting down the men. He left them dead or dying, bleeding out on the street, and it took a great force of will for Alec to resist the urge to try and help them. Bastan had to grab his sleeve and pull him along with him, forcing him across the bridge.

  “Right now, you’re not a master physicker. Right now, you’re Sam’s Scribe. Right now, you’re Sam’s friend.”

  Alec took a deep breath before letting it out. Bastan was right. He had to resist the urge to do anything, especially as these were men who intended to stop them. He needed to go with Bastan, get to Mags, and see if there were anything she could do that would help Sam.

  They crossed the bridge.

  On the other side, two more men waited. Bastan barreled into them, kicking and slashing until they fell.

  “We’re close,” Bastan said. He was breathing heavily, and blood dripped from one arm.

  “You’re cut.”

  “It doesn’t matter, not yet. We need to get to Mags.”

  They hurried along the street. Alec remembered this from the last time he’d been here, though then, it had been darker, and he had been in a different place. Then, he had wanted nothing more than easar paper so that he could restore Sam after she fell from a roof, and continue to learn about their abilities.

  Now… now there was a much different motivation for him.

  Bastan paused, swearing under his breath.

  “I don’t suppose you remember how to find Mags,” Bastan said.

  There was a tightness in his voice, and he stared along the roofline, forcing Alec to turn his attention upward. A dozen men, maybe more, watched from the rooftops. Several of them seemed to be armed with crossbows. One stood watching with a longbow, and Alec shivered at the sight.

  Against weapons like those, there would be nothing that they could do.

  “I remember how to find her from here, but—”

  Bastan shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Get to Mags. I will get you enough time.”

  “Bastan—”

  “Go,” he said softly.

  He shoved Alec along an alley, pushing him out of the way, and Alec staggered, twisting so that he could see Bastan. A crossbow bolt streaked toward him, but Bastan managed to swipe it out of the air, slashing at it with his sword. Another streaked toward him, and once again Bastan managed to deflect it. Alec allowed himself to begin to think that perhaps he might survive, when one of the crossbow bolts sank into Bastan’s arm.

  “Go,” he said.

  Alec turned away, hating that he did.

  26

  Reaching the Artist

  The street was empty here, and Alec hurried along it, staying close to the edge of the building and trying to remain in the shadows. It was a technique Sam had taught him, making him harder to see while allowing him to watch his attackers’ movements.

  The street was familiar, though he wasn’t entirely sure that he could find Mags, not from here. But he was determined to try. If Bastan had sacrificed himself for him, he needed to find Mags.

  And if Bastan was lost, this had better be worth it.

  He saw no other men. Maybe all of them had attacked Bastan, but Alec feared that wasn’t the case. More likely, he wasn’t able to detect other attackers who might be waiting for him. Could they be on rooftops as they had been before? As he scanned the roofline, he saw none watching. He was careful to observe the windows, looking to see if shadows were moving inside, but he saw nothing.

  And then he came across a building he’d seen before. It was a small, unremarkable building with a sign hanging out front that looked to be two people dancing, though the paint was faded.

  Alec looked up and down the street, searching for signs of movement, and saw nothing.

  He started across the street.

  When he did, doors along the street opened.

  People poured out.

  Kyza. What was this?

  Alec froze. He stood in the middle of the street, looking around. Terror ate a knot in his stomach, and he held the dagger uselessly in his hand. There was nothing he could do against an onslaught of people like this.

  Had Bastan known he would get here only to be confronted like this?

  Or, more likely, Bastan had intended to draw them away.

  He had warned that reaching Mags would be dangerous, especially uninvited, but Alec hadn’t known quite how dangerous it would be.

  One of the men raised a crossbow, aimed at Alec.

  “Wait!”

  The man stared at him.

  “I’m trying to reach Mags. I helped her with her son, Nashon.”

  The man cocked his head to the side, and two others scurried off, disappearing.

  “Please. Go find Mags. She would vouch for me. I need—”

  “Quiet.” The man’s voice was a harsh command, and Alec could do nothing but obey. He didn’t dare say anything or do anything, fearing that if he did, they would attack.

  Alec stood perfectly still, the dagger gripped in his hand, though he didn’t dare raise it, not wanting to give the man with the crossbow any reason to fire at him.

  Moments passed before one of the men returned. He leaned toward the one with the crossbow, whispered something softly, and then, thankfully, the crossbow was lowered.

  The people in the street began to retreat, disappearing back into buildings.

  “Come. She will see you.”

  Alec looked around. Amazingly, the street was already empty. It was almost as if no one had been there, as if what he thought he had just seen was nothing more than imagined. And he had thought Bastan had command of his section. Bastan didn’t have an army quite like this, ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Bastan didn’t have this level of control, able to wave people away. Bastan was powerful in the Caster section, but Mags was terrifying.

  The man with the crossbow guided Alec into her home and studio. An older man sat in the outer room, and he watched Alec with distrust. Was it the same older man he had seen when he’d come before? Was there another?

  They headed upstairs, and Alec walked into the studio where he had seen Mags the first time. The old woman appeared from behind a curtain. Her hands were stained red—blood—and her eyes had a hollowed appearance. When she saw Alec, they widened slightly, and her mouth pressed together in a tight line.

  “You may go, Helas.”

  The man glanced over at Alec before nodding and disappearing back down the stairs.

  Mags began a slow circle of Alec from a distance, walking around him and forcing him to turn in place so that he could keep his eyes on her. He was hesitant to lose focus of her. He didn’t know what she was capable of, only that she seemed to have some connection to blood.

  “Where is Bastan?”

  “Bastan tried to come with me, but he was caught in the street.”

  “That fool. He knows better than to come unannounced.”

  “It’s my fault.” He swallowed. And because of him, Bastan would be lost. Sam had wanted to rescue Bastan, and now Alec would be the one to have put him in danger, and it would be because of him that Bastan would die.

  “Then you will be the one to take the blame for the lives that will be lost today. I will make sure that Bastan knows you are the one who owes that price.”

  Alec shivered. What kind of payment would Mags require? Would it even be one he would be willing or able to pay?

  “I think Bastan is lost,” he said.

  Mags paused, still several paces from him, and she tipped her head, smiling. “Is that right? Do you believe the people of this section skilled enough to take down Bastan?”

  “But I saw…”

  She
sniffed. “If it were that easy to take Bastan down, why do you think I would need so many people here? No, Bastan is far more formidable than that. They would slow him, nothing more.”

  “Why would you want to slow him? I thought you worked with Bastan.”

  “I must ensure my safety, especially in this place.”

  Alec swallowed again.

  Mags leaned toward him and inhaled deeply. “Eshandar.”

  “What?”

  “I smell eshander on you.”

  Alec shook his head. He didn’t know that herb, though maybe he wouldn’t. He didn’t know much about Mags, but he did suspect she had an arcane sort of knowledge that was quite a bit different from his own. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Could it be the eel meat? Could she smell it from several paces away even though it was in a closed jar? Maybe she had a different term for it.

  Mags inhaled again, leaning in, but keeping her distance. “It’s in you. Interesting.”

  “What is eshander?”

  Mag started to circle him again, and when she completed her circuit, she stopped and faced him. “Why are you here, physicker?”

  “A question I thought you might be able to answer.”

  “You have a question you think Mags could answer that a physicker could not?”

  “This one has to do with blood.”

  She started to walk around him again, and as she did, Alec realized she had a trail of blood forming on the floor. It seemed to come from her feet. It was a spiral forming, one that started out much wider and began to narrow as she came closer to him. Seeing the spiral unsettled him, and he worried that perhaps she was using some magic on him. Could she be forming some sort of augmentation using blood?

  If he didn’t get the answer he needed before she finished, he thought he would have to step outside of the circle. He didn’t want to stay too close to Mags, not if she was doing some magic on him.

  “And what does a physicker need with blood?”

  Alec stared at the floor. With each full circle, she continued to close in on him. Again, she stopped and faced him. He hoped that her pausing would give him time to ask. Maybe this was her way of giving him a countdown, some sort of timer.

  All he knew was that he doubted he wanted her to get all the way over to him.

  “I have encountered several people in the city who have been drained of blood. Do you know anything about that?”

  Mags pressed her lips together and began to circle again, continuing a slow path around Alec. “Those who come to me do so willingly. I would never take from someone without their permission. That destroys the art.”

  “I don’t know what it does to art, but I have seen several people who have had their wrists cut, and their blood drained, and—”

  Mags stopped again. She was close, and now she was near enough to Alec that he could smell her. She had a musty odor, and it was mixed with the familiar coppery scent of blood. Alec was all too well acquainted with that, but his mind washed with the memory of the massive blood loss Sam suffered. The buckets of blood.

  “Where have you seen this?”

  “Several places.”

  Instead of continuing her circling, Mags bent and sat down on the floor. She dipped her hand into her pocket, and when she withdrew it, she began to trace a pattern on the floor. Alec noticed that this, too, was done with blood. It was almost as if she were a Scribe, documenting on easar paper, but the way that Mags worked was different.

  She was drawing the city.

  The detail in her art was outstanding. Alec didn’t think he’d ever seen anything quite as well drawn, and she showed each of the sections, with the canals running through them. How was she able to manage such fine detail with only her finger?

  “Where did you see this?”

  Alec used his dagger and pointed to the sections. So far, the places where they had encountered the Kavers drained of blood were along the merchant sections. He tapped, tracing the dagger from one place to the next, and realized that they trailed the great canal, that which separated the outer sections from those of the inner part of the city.

  He hadn’t noticed that before, and now that he did, he wasn’t certain it was significant, but it was troubling.

  “Why would they only be happening along the great canal?” He asked it mostly to himself, but Mags looked up.

  “Water can do many things. It can be curative. I’m sure that as a physicker, you have much experience with that.”

  Alec nodded. There were many times when water was part of the medicinal treatment needed to restore people. Many of the combinations his father mixed used water in them as a sort of base. Others used oils, though many of the cleansing mixtures had water.

  “Water is life. Without water, man cannot survive.”

  The canals were a source for the city’s water, though it was a process to purify it.

  “I don’t understand. What do you think they’re using the canals for?”

  “Water is not only life, but it is used to cleanse.”

  “Why would they need blood for a cleansing?”

  “It is an interesting question. Why would blood be necessary for a cleansing? And yet, are not blood and water related in some ways? Are they not both necessary for life? You cannot have life without blood, and you cannot have life without water. Together…”

  “How do you think that idea is relevant to the bloodletting of Kavers?”

  “I’m not saying that it would make a difference,” Mags said. “You asked what purpose blood might have. It is possible that they have found a grand canvas, and they have decided to create a work that has never been seen.”

  “A canvas?”

  Mags nodded. “You have not asked about the power of blood which tells me that you are familiar with it.” She leaned close to him, and she took another deep breath. She sat on the floor, still not moving, and Alec was thankful for that, not sure whether she had given him a reprieve from whatever countdown she had before.

  “I’m familiar with the power of blood.”

  He wasn’t sure whether admitting that to Mags was dangerous or not, but he thought that she knew either way and denying it would only create difficulty with her when he needed her help.

  “I can smell that you are. Look around you, physicker. What do you see?”

  Alec looked around the room. The spiral of blood drew his attention, but when he tore his eyes away and looked at the walls, he saw that they were painted as well, though it was difficult to tell. The walls were a deep maroon, and at first, he thought they were almost black, but the more that he studied them, the more he realized they were painted with blood. She had coated the entirety of this room in it.

  He shivered.

  “This is my canvas. This is where I work. This is where I create power. Others have a different canvas. And if there are those who know the power of blood, they can use it on their own canvas. It is powerful in the right hands.”

  “What about the wrong hands?”

  Mags stood and clasped her hands in front of her. “In the wrong hands, it is even more powerful. For them, there is not the same reticence to abuse power.”

  Alec shivered again. Could that be what Helen was after? Had she figured out some way of using the Kaver blood, blood that already had power within it, to become even more powerful?

  “You mentioned the power of blood,” Alec said.

  Mags tipped her head in a nod.

  “What if someone who had a natural ability was used in such a way?”

  “Such as Bastan?”

  Alec hadn’t considered Bastan, but that was a possibility. “Bastan, or someone else.”

  Mags studied him for a moment. “Someone like that would have a great power to them. You add that to the canvas, and it increases what is possible.” She stepped toward him, no longer forming the spiral, now creating a line that led straight to Alec. “Whose blood do you know that has such power?”

  Alec shook his head. “I can’t tel
l you that.”

  “Then I can’t tell you how to prevent the canvas from succeeding.”

  Alec took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure whether sharing with Mags mattered or not. It was possible that she might know the information already, but it was just as possible that she didn’t know. The Kavers had remained hidden in the city for years. He didn’t want to be the reason that suddenly changed.

  “There are individuals with power. When they come together, when their blood comes together, they have great strength and are able to do even more.”

  Mags sucked in a breath. “Asalar.”

  “What?”

  “You would be wise not to challenge Asalar. Such a thing is dangerous.”

  “I’m not challenging anyone. The person I spoke of is using people within the city. They are people who have a natural ability, and she is taking it from them. If she uses it against the canals, if she destroys the canals, everyone in the city will be affected.”

  “Not in the city.”

  “What you mean?”

  “If she is using the blood of Asalar, it’s not those in the city who will be affected. It is Asalar.”

  Alec frowned. “I don’t even know what that place is.”

  “And yet you do,” Mags said, leaning forward and taking a deep breath. “I was mistaken when I said you had the smell of eshander upon you. That’s not it at all.” She leaned back, and a deep frown crossed her face. “I was mistaken when you first came. I did not realize you had the scent of Asalar. You must be careful, child of Asalar, if this woman succeeds in this.”

  “Why? What would happen?”

  “It’s time for you to go,” Mags said, turning away from Alec. “I do not want to be a part of this.”

  “I don’t know what this is. Help me, Mags.”

  “Not this. I would not place myself against someone who would think to risk such power. If she is willing to do so, it means that she has access to even greater power. I am sorry, physicker.”

  “I helped you once. All I’m asking is for you to help me.”

  “That debt was paid at the time.”

  “The debt of your son’s life?” Alec wasn’t certain if Nashon had survived, and Bastan had never said anything, but the fact that Mags had welcomed him the way that she had and that she had said nothing else suggested that he had. “Was his life worth only a few sheets of paper?”