“It’s not over. Other things can be done. Once we solidify our control over the city again, there will be—”
Sam lunged at her.
Helen moved out of the way easily, and Sam stumbled, collapsing.
“Ah… It seems as if your Kaver has suffered.”
“Leave her alone,” Alec said, regaining his footing.
“A Kaver would be useful for what I have planned. If there are any remaining, I will see to it that they all participate in what we have in mind.”
Alec reached into his pocket, curling his fingers around the jar of eel. All he wanted was a piece, maybe two so that he could get one to Sam.
“Alec?”
He turned to see Jalen standing at the end of the hall. “Jalen. It’s…”
Lyasanna darted down the hall.
Alec pulled the jar out of his pocket and opened it, his heart sinking. It wasn’t eel at all, but his father’s sedative.
Helen stalked toward him. “I have had enough interference from you. I think that perhaps we will drain you the same as we have drained the others. I’m sure I can find a use for it.”
As she reached for him, Alec did the only thing he could. He tossed the sedative at her face.
She jerked back, but not quickly enough.
Helen spat, glaring at him. “What is this? What have you…”
She sank to her knees.
The sedative was fast acting, and a significant amount went into her mouth when he tossed it at her. Even with an augmentation, she wouldn’t be able to fight it for long.
Alec pushed himself off the wall and looked over at Eckerd. “You can decide. If you’re going to continue to fight with Helen, I will see you face justice. If you would choose to heal, and if you would choose to serve the people of the city, I won’t prevent that.”
“The Thelns—”
“The Thelns were never the enemy. The enemy has always been Helen and the others like her. They are the reason the Thelns have attacked. It’s a long story, but I will explain if you stand down.”
Eckerd looked down at Helen lying motionless. She still breathed, but she was out.
“I was only trying to do what I thought necessary for the university.”
“I’m well aware of what you were trying to do.”
Eckerd went to his knees and bent his head. “Do what you must.”
Alec ignored him and looked down the hall. Jalen was making his way toward him, dragging his sister by the arm. She was limp, and Alec frowned. “What did you do?”
“It seems that all of my training to pretend to be a Kaver has paid off. My dear sister always thought that I was a lazy Kaver, and I decided I needed to prove I was not lazy.”
“Keep an eye on these two,” he said to Jalen, pointing to Helen and Eckerd.
“What do you need to do?”
“The Book. I need to retrieve the Book.”
Alec reached for Sam and helped her to her feet. She looked over at Helen and then Lyasanna. A satisfied smile came to her face.
He hurried into the library and into the masters' section. Alec moved a few books out of the way and reached for the hidden book. When he pulled it out, he set it on the large table in the center of the room.
“Now we have to destroy it,” Alec said.
“Only the page that made Tray sick,” Sam said from behind him.
“Not only that page. We need to destroy the whole Book. And any other volumes. These cannot exist.”
Sam nodded. “How?”
“With the eel venom. And then with fire. And then, you and I will see if we can place an augmentation that will heal your brother.”
Epilogue
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Alec asked as they approached the forest.
“I don’t know that it’s safe, but the chamyn won’t attack, not since we are coming with the Thelns.”
Alec looked over and saw the line of Thelns in their boats. When they all reached the forest, the Thelns led the way through. Ralun had been silent, and for that, Alec was thankful. He wasn’t sure what he would say to the man, not sure whether there was anything to say. Ralun had tried to kill them, and now, they were supposed to work together? Now, he was supposed to believe that Ralun was not a threat?
Were it not for Sam, he didn’t know that he would.
With the city safe—and Bastan in control of keeping an eye on Helen and Lyasanna—they had ventured out of the city, planning to be gone only a short time. Sam didn’t want to be gone long, but she had wanted to come to see whether their augmentation had helped Tray. From the way she described his condition, he could already have been lost.
“I never thought I would come this far,” his father said behind him.
Alec looked back. “You don’t have to.”
“I owe it to your mother to visit.”
“Do you think she knew?”
“I don’t know what she knew. I know she was sent to gather information, and I know she missed her homeland, but she never spoke of it. She had been willing to stay for me. There is so much I wish I could’ve done differently, and I wish I could have helped her, saved her…”
“I know, Father.”
As they made their way through the forest, Alec had a sense of the strange creatures watching them from the treetops, but they weren’t attacked the way they had been before. They were allowed to pass directly through, and in little more than a day, they reached the edge of the forest, and from there, a sweeping plain spread out in front of them. It took two more days to reach the outskirts of the Theln territory, and when Asalar came into view, Alec could hardly believe it.
The city was beautiful. Sunlight glittered off the buildings, catching the amazing tile work placed along the sides of towers, creating a dazzling, almost sparkling effect. The entirety of the city amazed him. It was enormous, all made of a similar gleaming stone inset with colorful tiles, catching the sunlight in ways that even the palace in Verdholm did not. Ralun guided them down a side street on the outskirts of the city before heading toward what appeared to be a palace.
At the palace, Ralun separated from the rest of the Thelns. They disappeared, leaving the party from Verdholm with Ralun. Alec’s father clapped him on the shoulder and turned to him. “I will leave you here.”
“You will come, apothecary,” Ralun said. “As will you, Kaver,” he said looking at Marin.
Aelus and Marin both looked over at Ralun and then nodded.
They headed into a strange building with black and white tiles, and he guided them to the second story and into one room and then another.
Inside this room, the smell of sickness wafted out. Alec recognized it as the same stench as had emanated from the princess. It might have been a wasting, or it was something similar, either way, the malady used on Tray was awful.
Alec hurried over to Tray’s bed. He was thinner than he’d last seen him, and his face had a slight sheen to it. He checked his pulse, finding it regular, and when he listened to his breathing, it was regular.
“He will recover.”
Alec turned to see a dark-haired woman standing in the doorway. She was slightly taller than Sam, and her dark hair was pulled back behind her head, tied with a purple ribbon.
“You must have found the Book?”
Aelus stared at her. “Who are you?”
“Why?”
“You… You look so much like my wife.”
The woman frowned. “Wife? What was her name?”
“Tesiya.”
The woman’s eyes widened slightly. “She was my sister.”
“Sister? That would make you Irina.”
The woman frowned and looked from Alec to his father. Could it be possible? Could Alec have found an aunt after all of this?
“Sam?”
Alec turned his attention over to Tray. He had opened his eyes, and Sam smoothed back his hair while he lay there, squeezing his hand. “I’m here, Tray.”
Marin rushed over to his side and looked dow
n at him. In that moment, Alec realized that though Tray’s real mother had no interest in him, he had always had a mother. It was much the same way that Sam had always had a brother and father.
“How?”
“How? You big idiot, you know I was never going to give up on you.”
Tray breathed out heavily. “Sam, you won’t believe what I’ve been through.”
She threw herself on him, hugging him, and Alec rested his hand on her shoulder while she sobbed, tears of relief for her brother pouring from her.
“Why don’t we leave them for a moment,” Irina said. “It seems this will be a family reunion for many of us.”
Sam looked up at him. “It’s okay. Go. Learn about your family. I’m going to stay here with mine for a little while longer.”
“I don’t like being apart from you.”
“And I don’t like being apart from you, and we won’t have to be, not anymore.”
He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. Sam kissed him back, and he felt a cold washing through him, the same as he felt when they placed an augmentation.
He stepped back, smiling, and looked over to see his father watching him, uncertain what expression burned behind his eyes. Maybe it was irritation, maybe it was sadness at thinking about what they’d lost. Maybe it was uncertainty.
As they stepped out into the hall, his father clapped him on the shoulder. The expression had changed, replaced by a smile. “I’m proud of you, Alec. You are much more than I ever hoped you could become.”
“I’m sorry I won’t be the apothecary you wanted.”
“No. Not an apothecary. You have forged your own path. You have become something more—much more.” He glanced back to the door. “And you have found someone who makes you happy. That’s all a father can hope for.”
Alec looked back and saw Sam and Tray murmuring to each other. Marin watched them both, a satisfied smile on her face. It was the same one Alec’s father had.
Their families were back together. After everything that had happened, their families had been reunited.
Alec smiled as he made his way down the strangely checkered hall after his father and his aunt. And now that everything had ended, he and Sam could finally learn what it meant for them to be something more than Kaver and Scribe.
They could be Alec and Sam.
With the thought, warmth washed over him, like when she’d kissed him, similar to an augmentation, though different. Energy surged through him, and for a moment, he thought that he imagined it. But it was too strong to ignore. Power surged through him.
Alec hesitated for a moment. Maybe there were a few things they still had to learn. And perhaps they weren’t entirely done being Kaver and Scribe. But they still were Alec and Sam, and together, they could determine what that meant for them.
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Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading Wasting: The Book of Maladies. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.
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All my best,
D.K. Holmberg
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
The Book of Maladies
Wasting
Broken
Poisoned
Tormina
Comatose
Amnesia
Exsanguinated
The Collector Chronicles
Shadow Hunted
Shadow Games
Shadow Trapped
The Shadow Accords
Shadow Blessed
Shadow Cursed
Shadow Born
Shadow Lost
Shadow Cross
Shadow Found
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowsteel Forge
The Guild Secret
Rise of the Elder
The Sighted Assassin
The Binders Game
The Forgotten
Assassin’s End
The Teralin Sword
Soldier Son
Soldier Sword
Soldier Sworn
Soldier Saved
Soldier Scarred
Exsanguinated Page 26