Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

  “It’s whatever she’s doing. However she’s using the canals, she’s somehow targeting the Thelns.”

  Sam crouched down next to Ralun. His eyes were closed, and he moaned. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I will help you. I will figure out what Helen has—”

  Marin moaned and dropped to the ground.

  “Marin?”

  “It burns, Samara.”

  “What is it?”

  Marin shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s almost as if my body is burning from inside.”

  Sam looked at the Thelns and then over to Marin. How was it affecting Marin too?

  More significant, why wasn’t it affecting Sam?

  “Find the Book, Samara,” Marin said.

  “I can’t leave you.”

  “You need to leave me. You need to find the Book. Otherwise, I’m going to die here the same as all of these Thelns.”

  Sam looked up, trying to figure out where they were in the city. She hadn’t been to this section—not that she knew—but it was a merchant section. From here, she thought she could find Arrend, and there, she hoped that Alec’s father still had the Book.

  She patted Marin on the shoulder. “I will go as quickly as I can.”

  She ran off, assembling her canal staff. As she ran, she noticed warmth working through her, almost the same sort of warmth that she had felt when eating eel, but this was different. This seemed to radiate out from her. It was uncomfortable, and she could feel it becoming more painful.

  Was this what was happening to Marin? Was this what was happening to the Thelns?

  Why had it not affected her before now? Why did it not incapacitate her?

  The only thing she could think of was that Alec had given her some of his blood. Maybe it protected her.

  She jumped across a canal, racing toward the apothecary. She reached a section familiar to her and tore through it, and then she was in Arrend. Sam reached the apothecary and hurried inside. There was no sign of Aelus.

  Why was the apothecary unlocked?

  Sam looked around, searching for signs of him. She found him on the floor, lying near the back of his shop, sleeping soundly. A pot boiled on his hearth. Sam shook him but to no avail. He did not come around.

  Kyza!

  She looked through his stack of books, but the Book they had taken from Helen’s home was not here.

  Could Alec have returned and taken it?

  If so, it could be anywhere. She had no idea where Alec was.

  She needed easar paper.

  With easar paper, she might be able to counteract the effect of this, at least long enough for her to recuperate. She thought she might be able to delay what was happening to Marin and the Thelns.

  Where could she get easar paper?

  She thought about going to the university and thought about the supply that Alec had, but that was unreliable, especially if she didn’t know how much he might have created.

  There was one place she could go, but how much paper was there?

  Sam raced toward the palace. Her body burned, her insides starting to feel as if a flame raced through her. If she didn’t get there quickly, how much worse would this get?

  As she ran, she focused on an augmentation. Healing. She focused on it, wanting it to tamp down the burning within her. The cold sensation came slowly, but it came, pushing back the pain.

  Could she hold on to it?

  She had to. Somehow, she had to.

  Sam reached the canal separating the rest of the city from the palace. She launched herself over, pushing off with her canal staff, and when she landed on the palace side, she hurried for the building. Already, her strength began to wane. She doubted she would be able to hold on to the augmentation much longer,. And if she couldn’t, would she end up incapacitated the same way as Marin and the Thelns?

  Sam staggered into the palace. She looked around. Where was everyone?

  Upstairs. That’s where she needed to go. There would be a supply of easar paper there if she could reach it.

  Sam dragged herself up the stairs. Each step was difficult, but she pulled herself along until she reached the top and sprawled out on the landing. Sam got to her knees. She focused for a moment, thinking of an augmentation. Strength. If she could add strength, she should be able to reach the room she needed.

  As before, when the augmentation rolled through her, it did so slowly.

  Strength seeped back into her. Sam got to her feet and staggered along the hall. At the end of the hall, almost dropped to her knees, the augmentation fading, not nearly enough to counteract whatever was happening to her.

  She focused on one step and then the next. She reached the room. They had been using Elaine’s room to store the easar paper they had recovered. Where was it? Could there be enough left for her to counteract whatever it was that was happening?

  She found the drawer in the desk. She pulled on it, but it was locked.

  Sam blinked, trying to clear her head. Not only was weakness overtaking her, but pain tore through her.

  She reached for her lock-pick set and pulled out of her cloak, thankful Irina hadn’t stolen it from her. Everything had been in her cloak when it was returned to her, for which Sam was thankful.

  She jammed the pick into the lock on the drawer. She had a key somewhere, she was certain of it, but right now, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was somehow finding a way to get the drawer open and get to the easar paper.

  Somehow, she managed to pick the lock.

  Sam slipped but pulled the drawer open as she did. She reached inside, grabbing the stack of easar paper. When she pulled it out, she flipped through the pages, trying to figure out how much they had, and realized that there was a marking on each page.

  She hadn’t noticed that before. Had they taken the time to even look at the papers?

  Marking meant that it had been used. The marking meant that it was part of the Book.

  Sam didn’t even know whether the paper could be reused.

  She sank to the floor, holding the pages in her hands. She had failed. The Thelns would die from this. Sam and Marin would die. And Helen would succeed.

  30

  The Scribe’s Intent

  The ground thundered, and it startled Sam awake. She had been sinking into nothingness, beginning to lose consciousness, and losing track of everything that was happening around her when the explosion struck.

  It was nearby.

  The walls of the palace shook, trembling with the force of the explosion.

  What was it? What was it that she detected?

  Sam dragged herself to her feet, still clutching the pages from the Book. She staggered out into the hallway and saw people running.

  Where had they been before?

  Sam reached the top of the stairs and slipped, tumbling down them. Miraculously, she managed to maintain her grip on the pages, so that when she landed, she fell and nearly struck her head.

  She looked over. The door to the cells beneath the palace was open, and smoke drifted out of it.

  Could the explosion have come from there?

  Sam pushed off with her canal staff, climbing to her feet, and staggered down the hallway. She focused on augmentations, trying to draw out something, using whatever strength she had left. She was tired and didn’t have much remaining, but there was enough for her to do this. The augmentation washed over her, and she took a deep breath, drawing in the strength from it.

  Kyza, help me.

  Sam reached the door and saw an opening where the wall had been, the same opening Helen had used to extract Lyasanna. The smoke was coming from there.

  Sam climbed through the hole, and it quickly became dark—far too dark for her to see. The smell of smoke and another stink, one that she had noticed before, but only at the university, filled her nostrils.

  The ground sloped downward, and Sam staggered, following the slope, slipping and beginning to tumble. She tried to catch herself and couldn’t. She held tight to the
pages of easar paper but lost track of her canal staff.

  When she finally stopped rolling, she saw light.

  It was a greenish sort of light in the distance and people moved around. Someone screamed. Other people moaned.

  Sam got to her feet and started forward. Bodies were bent over, and she recognized a few of them as Bastan’s men.

  What would Bastan’s men be doing here?

  “Bastan?”

  She coughed, and her voice didn’t seem to carry very far.

  There was movement near her. She turned and fell forward, and someone caught her. She looked over and saw a familiar face. “Kevin. What happened here?”

  Kevin looked down at her. “Sam? I heard you were taken.”

  “I’m back. What happened?”

  “The woman you’ve been searching for was doing something here. Bastan brought us here, and we were trying to stop her when there was an explosion.”

  An explosion.

  “We think we stopped her—”

  Sam shook her head. “You didn’t stop her.”

  “How do you know? She didn’t get to do anything before the explosion happened. Alec managed to stop—”

  “Alec is here?”

  “Alec is the one who brought us here. He figured out where this was taking place, and he stopped her. Whatever she was doing is over.”

  “It still happening. I feel it. Whatever she’s doing is happening to me.”

  Kevin slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Oh gods, Sam.”

  “Where’s Bastan? Where’s Alec?”

  Kevin started her forward, and they reached Bastan. He was crouching over someone lying on the ground, and it took her a moment to realize that it was Alec. Blood poured down the side of his face. Something must’ve struck him. But he was awake. Alive.

  As Bastan sat Alec up, both of them turned to her, and they threw their arms around her at the same time.

  “How are you—”

  Sam cut Alec off. “Helen. I don’t know what she’s doing, but it’s killing the Thelns. It’s killing Kavers.”

  Alec and Bastan shared a look. “We stopped her.”

  “You didn’t stop her. Whatever she was doing…” Sam swallowed. “I thought I could bring easar paper, but it’s been used.”

  “What do you mean it’s been used?” Alec asked.

  “The easar paper. It was already used. I think she used it to create the Book—”

  “Do you have it with you?” Alec asked.

  Sam pulled the pages out, and Alec flipped through them. “We need to destroy these.”

  “Destroy? Alec, we need to use them to figure out a way to stop whatever she’s done to us.”

  “I think whatever she’s done is tied to the Book. She’s using Kaver blood to augment it but drawing on a much more epic scale.” Alec turned, taking the pages, and crawled over to one of the bluish-green flames erupting from the ground. He held one of the pages overtop the fire and looked at Sam as he did. The flame consumed it, but not quickly.

  “Fire doesn’t burn easar paper like this,” Sam said. “Nothing does.” They had been lucky when they had tried to counter the Book before and had destroyed the page, but that had taken considerable effort. If this was using multiple Kavers and their blood, it was possible that there would be no counter for it.

  “There is something,” Alec said. When Sam frowned at him, he shook his head. “I came across it by accident. When I was trying to make easar paper, we had been using different things, trying the different eel venoms until we realized that it was the svethwuud. But the venom counteracts the paper.”

  “Which venom?” Sam asked. She fell, unable to support herself anymore. Bastan grabbed for her, and she shook him off. It was easier to remain on the ground.

  “The neutral venom.”

  “How does it work?”

  “I don’t know,” Alec said. “All I know is that when it’s mixed, both the tail venom and the oral venom, it seems to counteract the easar paper. It was an accidental discovery.”

  “We need that mix,” Sam said.

  “I… I don’t have any. Gathering eels would take too much time.” He turned to Bastan. “Might you have any of your supply left?”

  “I might have some,” Bastan said.

  “It’s not the eel meat that we need. It’s the venom.”

  “I’ve stored the entire eel.”

  Pain surged through her. “If you’re going to do it, it needs to be quick.”

  31

  The End of the Book

  Alec stood at the edge of the central canal holding a vial of mixed eel venom. It had taken a while to harvest, but with the help of several of the junior and higher-level physickers, they had managed to acquire a significant quantity.

  When he had smeared it on the easar paper, it had done nothing other than make the paper easier to burn. With the paper destroyed, he had hoped that Sam and the others would recover, but they hadn’t. It meant the augmentation still held. It meant that the canvas was greater than easar paper.

  Then again, he knew the canvas was the canal.

  He’d hoped it would be more straightforward, and that Helen’s stockpiling of paper meant she had used it for this purpose, but that hadn’t been the key at all. And if not the paper…

  That left only one possibility; he would have to try pouring it into the water, though he had no idea if it would work.

  What choice did they have?

  And now, they stood at the edge of the canal, preparing to pour it into the water.

  Sam moaned, no longer awake. Whatever augmentation and poisoning Helen attempted was killing her. Bastan had found Marin and the Thelns, and his people had gathered them up, moving them to a warehouse for safekeeping. If this failed, if they all died, what would happen then?

  Alec motioned to the physickers on either side of him. They followed him to the water’s edge and began to pour the eel venom into it.

  Would this be enough to disrupt the augmentation? Would this be enough to change the canvas, as Mags would say?

  The water had taken on a pinkish color. How much blood had Helen poured into it? How much had she used to poison the canals?

  If everything went right, physickers all around the city would be pouring in a similar mixture into the water.

  Now they had to wait.

  Alec looked over, watching Sam.

  The water began to slowly lose its pinkish color. Gradually, it started to become a dirty brown color, and then, even that faded. It became clearer, no longer dark, and he could see to the bottom.

  He’d never been able to see to the bottom of the canal, and though he knew the water wasn’t that deep, seeing it as clear as it was now was striking.

  Someone coughed behind him, and he spun.

  Sam sat up, rubbing her head. “Alec?”

  “Kyza, Sam,” he breathed, hurrying over to her. “How do you feel?”

  “Tired. Beat up. But the fire is gone.”

  Alec sighed and looked around the canal. The physickers had succeeded. They had helped the Thelns. Most didn’t even know them, but when he had explained that the entire city would be poisoned, they had been willing to listen and had been willing to attempt his treatment. It had surprised him how quickly they had responded. Then again, hadn’t Alec proved himself time and again? He shouldn’t have been surprised that they followed him so willingly.

  “You should rest.”

  Sam stood and looked around. “I can’t rest. Not yet. Tray needs me.”

  “You found him?”

  “I did. Helen used the Book on him. We need to find it. I thought it might be at your father’s apothecary. That’s where I went first, thinking Helen was using the Book to do this, but I didn’t find it there. And your father was out, collapsed.”

  “He’s been testing sedatives, trying to find some way to prevent Helen from harming us.”

  “Where is the Book, if it’s not at your father’s apothecary?”

  �
�I hid it at the university,” Alec said.

  “We need to go.”

  “Sam… you’re not in any shape.”

  “I don’t know how long Tray has. He was in rough shape when I left, and it took the better part of two days to get here. Every delay means Tray is closer to dying. I can’t lose my brother.”

  Alec helped Sam up. “Then I guess we have to go to the university.”

  They weaved through the streets. The city was quiet, and no guards prevented them from crossing between sections. By the time they reached the university, Alec was half expecting to find people congregated on the university or the palace section, but there was no one.

  Had Helen’s attack done more than he realized?

  They hurried inside, with Alec guiding Sam, barely keeping her propped up. He did everything he could to support her, but he couldn’t hold her much longer. He didn’t have to. They had only a little farther to go. He supported Sam as he guided her up the steps to his room and paused when he entered.

  He chided himself. This wasn’t where he’d left the Book.

  Before leaving, Alec grabbed a jar on his desk. It would have eel flesh, and maybe he would need it. Maybe Sam would need it.

  When they turned around and left the room, Sam looked over at him. “Where are we going?”

  “I forgot that I had moved it. I put it somewhere I thought it would be useful and less likely to be found and confiscated.”

  “Where?”

  “In the library. In the masters' section.”

  They hurried along the hallway, and when they reached the end, nearing the door to the library, Alec saw it was ajar.

  Someone was here.

  Who would have come with all the activity taking place in the city? Who would have been here when all of the physickers, including many of the students, had been taken out to support the canals?

  “Sam, I don’t think—”

  The door opened, and Master Helen, Eckerd, and Lyasanna appeared.

  “We stopped your plan,” Alec said. “I don’t know—”

  Helen jumped forward, somehow still augmented. She grabbed him and threw him forward, where he hit the wall, almost collapsing.