Wasting: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Yeah, I didn’t say it was easy. I might have gotten wet. Good thing the canal eels didn’t come for me.”

  He shook his head. “The eels aren’t real.”

  “If not the eels, there’s something in the water.”

  They hurried down the street and reached the bridge arching up and over the canal. She took the steps two at a time and then hurried back down equally quickly. Somehow, the staff didn’t get in the way as she moved.

  On the other side, they were in a section nearer to his, but still a bit out. The streets were wider here, and the buildings had a newer feel to them. Many were brick, though there remained some of the wooden structures, many with the same style that he’d seen from Marin’s home. There was something almost regal to the design, a flair he wouldn’t have expected to find in one of these outer sections.

  They passed a few people in the streets, but for the most part, Sam made a point of weaving around others in the street or changing streets as to avoid others altogether.

  When they reached the next canal, Alec was surprised to realize his section was on the other side.

  “You can cross, but I’ll have to jump,” she said.

  “Even if you’re with me?”

  She motioned to herself and shrugged. “Lowborn. Not lowborn,” she said, pointing to him. “This is fine. Just meet me at your apothecary.”

  With that, she planted her staff in the middle of the canal and leaped over the water. Alec still marveled at how easily she managed to do it. When she landed safely on the other side, she seemingly made a point of unscrewing her staff and separating the two halves, hiding them within her cloak.

  Alec hated that they had separated. With Sam, he felt as if he were capable of something more, almost as if he were capable of being someone more. Without her, he was left with the same doubt and insecurity that had always plagued him. It was that doubt his father tried to remove, but Alec had never managed to get past it completely.

  Realizing he stood alone in one of the outer sections, he shivered and hurried toward where Sam promised he’d find the bridge. It was there in the distance, close enough that he began to feel a sense of relief working through him.

  Would it really work to heal the princess if he destroyed the page? Was that all that it would take?

  Marin seemed to think so, and she seemed to know more about the paper than he or Sam did. There were secrets she knew, and that Alec wanted to know, and answers he wanted from her, such as why she referred to him as a Scribe.

  As he neared the bridge, Alec thought he heard something and turned.

  There were only shadows.

  He would feel better when he reached the other side of the canal. When he did, he would not only be able to search for the missing page of paper—and hopefully the answer to healing both the princess and Marin, but he would know the streets. Sam might tell him the others in this part of the city wouldn’t harm him, but everyone knew the outer sections were dangerous.

  There came a sense of another shadow.

  Alec spun again, this time his heart racing.

  There was nothing there.

  Why hadn’t he at least grabbed something to use as a weapon? He might not know how to use a sword, but he would have felt better at least pretending. Anyone who thought to harm him might think again if they saw he was armed.

  He reached the stairs leading up to the bridge arching over the canal.

  This time, he could swear he heard something, only it seemed to come from the other side of the canal. Alec hesitated at the top of the stairs, not sure whether he’d really heard something or not, before continuing on. There had been nothing, but he began to hurry.

  He was overreacting, and he knew that he was, but it didn’t change the fact that he felt uncomfortable. As he started down the stairs, he took a few calming breaths, determined to slow his heart rate.

  There was nothing here.

  This side of the canal immediately felt better. The streets were wider and paved with cobblestones, and the buildings were like those he had known his entire life. He started forward, and as he did, he thought he saw a shadow moving out of the corner of his eye.

  Alec paused, and turned toward it.

  Too late, he realized he’d been followed.

  One of the brutes—the same one he’d seen in the princess’s room at the university—swung the flat end of his sword at Alec’s head. When it struck, Alec crumpled, his sight fading into blackness.

  31

  An Attack in Ashes

  Where was Alec?

  Sam found the burned husk of the apothecary and waited outside, wondering how long it would take him to cross the bridge and reach her here. Jumping canals did make it easier to move between sections, but once she was here, she feared she’d be out of place. Having the cloak back seemed to help, but it only obscured her, and didn’t hide her completely. She didn’t feel as if she could walk openly, not even in a merchant section of the city.

  Were it not for Marin’s illness, she wasn’t sure she would care enough about trying to help the princess. Did it matter if the highborns suffered and failed? But Marin… Marin had answers that Sam needed. Without Marin, would she ever understand what happened to her mother? Would she ever learn about herself? And Marin had promised to get Tray out of prison. Saving the princess hadn’t even done that.

  But if what Marin said was true, it meant she was something other than lowborn.

  While waiting for Alec, she started into the ruins of the apothecary. Piles of ash inside the building marked where the shelves had been. Would the page still be here?

  It couldn’t be, could it?

  After a fire like this, there didn’t seem any way the page would remain, but she didn’t think it was already destroyed, otherwise the princess would have been healed by what Alec had done. For that matter, Marin would have been healed. Neither was.

  She made her way toward what had once been the back wall of the shop. This was where he had placed her on the cot, and had done what was needed to help her recover. Without Alec, she probably would have died.

  No… there was no probably about it. She would have died without him. It had been more than the salve he’d used on her, but that didn’t change the fact that Alec had been responsible for her recovery.

  A few remnants of paper remained scattered atop a blackened frame of what had once been a bench. She remembered waking to see Alec working at the table, and had laughed at the meticulous way he documented everything in the way his father had trained him. Now, she acknowledged that meticulous hand had been the reason she recovered.

  A Scribe. That’s what Marin had called him.

  And how had Alec learned it?

  That might be the better question, she realized. Had he not known how to document on the paper, she would never have been augmented and they would never have escaped the brutes.

  As she looked around the remains of the apothecary, she wondered… could his father have been a Scribe, as well?

  Marin might know the answer to that, if only she could recover. Which meant destroying the page that remained, if they could find it.

  Where was Alec?

  He should have found her by now, shouldn’t he?

  Sam made her way toward the street and noted movement there.

  Pulling the cloak around her shoulders, she ducked into where shadows coalesced around the street, joining together. With the cloak, she’d be able to remain hidden. She reached for the canal staff, wanting to pull it from beneath her cloak, wanting the reassurance she would get from having it in hand, and pulled only one end free. Screwing the two ends together would only draw attention to her, and she didn’t want to do that, not unless she knew what was out on the street. It was possible it was nothing more than one of the other merchants who lived on the street. Chances were good Alec knew them.

  As she hid, she heard a steady breathing, deep and coarse. She’d heard a similar sound before and remembered it from when she’d faced the brut
e in the princess’s room.

  They’d been found.

  Sam wanted to move, to get anywhere but where she was, needing to hide so the brute wouldn’t find her. Without any augmentation, there wasn’t anything she could do to fight him. It was better to run and get the chance to fight again later than to risk herself here.

  But if he was here, it meant that he thought there was a possibility he might find the missing page.

  She needed to find it first.

  Doing so risked discovery, but not doing so risked him obtaining the page first, which meant that not only was the princess going to continue to waste away, but so would Marin and any hope of Sam finding out more about what she was—and what she could do.

  Slowly, she lowered herself behind the brick wall that almost toppled over. Simply bumping into it might bring the wall crashing down. For now, it provided some protection, and she needed it. Moving back into the apothecary, she went straight for the table where Alec had sat. If the page would be anywhere, wouldn’t it be at the table?

  She reached into the ash but found nothing more than that. There was no sign of the page, nothing that would make it seem the paper had survived the fire.

  Sam swore to herself and backed up a little, trying to get closer to the wall. She might need the cover if the brute made his way into the shop and started searching. As she did, she realized he wasn’t alone.

  Another figure slumped in a heap in the middle of the street.

  Sam recognized the still form of Alec.

  The brute had found him.

  Even if she didn’t find the page, she couldn’t leave Alec lying here. That would be abandoning him to the brutes, something she wasn’t willing to do. He’d helped her too often for her to be willing to leave him to the brutes.

  “Find the page.”

  Sam tensed when she heard those words. The brute wasn’t alone.

  She didn’t see anyone else with him, but then, she didn’t risk moving and exposing herself yet.

  “The place was burned, Ralun. If the page remained here, it would have been destroyed.”

  Maybe he would have the book.

  If they couldn’t find the page in the ashes, maybe there would be something in the book that would allow them to heal Princess Lyasanna.

  “We know it wasn’t. Lyasanna fails. We need to control the page until she’s gone. Then my revenge will be complete.”

  It really was the way that Marin claimed. They wanted the paper because it was somehow responsible for poisoning the princess. Which meant it was the same one that was responsible for poisoning Marin.

  Footsteps crunched along the burned remains of the building and came closer to her. She needed to move now, or she’d be discovered.

  Crawling forward, she glanced into the street, looking for Alec.

  He was gone.

  Kyza!

  Had the brute moved him?

  She ducked back down. As she did, something grabbed at her cloak and jerked her up and around.

  Ralun stared at her with his dark eyes. “You’ve been hiding from me long enough. You should have been eliminated long before now. That you haven’t been is my fault. It is a mistake I will correct now—”

  She didn’t let him finish.

  Jerking the two halves of the canal staff free, she smacked him in the stomach with them, bringing the narrow lengths of wood up and around to connect with his arms. They struck loudly, but he didn’t drop her.

  Sam pulled back again and hit him one more time, pushing more effort into it. It struck him, but he barely made any expression that it hurt.

  He looked at her with amusement and casually threw her to the side. “Without your Scribe, you are nothing, are you?”

  Sam scrambled backward, her back crashing into a remaining section of brick wall, and it toppled over. She continued pushing herself back, needing to get away, and needing to find out what had happened to Alec. Where had he gone? What had they done to him?

  Ralun stalked closer to her, his sword now unsheathed. “It’s time I finish this. Even untrained, you have been troublesome.”

  He swung, and she raised the staff rods up to block, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop him.

  Somehow, she managed to catch the sword with the staff, and deflected it to the ground.

  Sam jumped out of the way of his next blow, thankful that she still seemed able to do that much.

  “All of this over paper?” she asked.

  “If this were only about the paper, I wouldn’t have come myself.”

  “This is personal for you?”

  Sam rolled out of the way of his next attack, and the sword whistled past her head, almost close enough for her to feel the cold coming off the blade. A moment later, and the sword would have split her in two. It was almost as if he played with her.

  With a sinking sensation, she knew why he seemed to be playing with her. Because he was. There had been another brute with him at the apothecary.

  Almost too late, she spun, bringing the staff around, and she caught the second brute in the head and in the leg with more force than she should have.

  An augmentation.

  The brute dropped briefly to one knee, his eyes going wide and looking to Ralun, then looking out into the street, as if seeing that Alec was gone. “The Scribe. Where did he go?”

  Sam could think of only one reason why they would care about where Alec had gone, and it was the same reason that she would seem able to stop their attack.

  Had Alec woken and found a way to write on the page?

  Where would he have gotten some of her blood?

  Ralun rounded on her and she jumped, needing to test if anything had changed.

  Sam arced up and over him, coming to land behind him. As she did, she swept the staff toward his legs, and caught him in the back of his calves. Ralun slipped and righted himself quickly.

  He spun, coming around to face her.

  She would have to be faster. Would whatever Alec had done be able to help her get faster than she was now? She would need speed to stop Ralun.

  But she detected the other brute behind her.

  She would be caught between them.

  Ralun smiled a predatory flash of teeth.

  Using the staff, she leaped into the air and pushed off. As she did, she swung the staff up and caught the other brute in the head, sending him flying backward. Sam brought the staff around as she landed, and it crashed through his chest.

  She tumbled off to the side and yanked the staff free. The brute didn’t move. Given the way the staff had pierced him, she didn’t think he would.

  That left Ralun.

  Unless there was another brute.

  Sam jumped to her feet again, worried that the augmentation would fade. The last time Alec had managed to augment her strength and speed, it had disappeared fairly quickly. If the same thing happened again, she wanted to be able to stop Ralun first.

  He watched her, his eyes glittering with dark anger.

  “I will kill you quickly, but I will take my time with your Scribe.”

  He flicked something from beneath his cloak.

  Without thinking about what she did, Sam pressed off with her staff, sending herself into the air. The crossbow bolts had been poisoned, so she had every reason to believe that any other weapon they’d use on her would be, as well, so she needed to get above it.

  Ralun reached beneath his cloak again.

  She flipped the staff in the air, swinging it down, catching it forcefully on his arm.

  The bone splintered.

  Sam landed and swung the staff around again, catching him in the back and sending him sprawling. With another swing of the staff, she hit his head with a heavy thud, his face smashing into the floor. Ralun didn’t move.

  She needed to finish him off, even search him for evidence of the book, but the sound of movement disrupted her thoughts. It came from the street.

  Was that where Alec was?

  She ran into the stree
t, nearly tripping over her feet as the augmentation faded and speed left her. She should have grabbed Ralun’s sword and run him through before leaving, but she needed to see to Alec first.

  She found shadows in a nearby alley.

  Stalking toward it, her staff ready, she prepared to attack if needed.

  One figure hunched over something on the ground, but there was another beside him who didn’t move.

  Sam paused.

  Hadn’t Alec been the one to augment her skills? He was the only one to know how to do it, wasn’t he? But that wasn’t Alec leaning over the paper writing with a long quill.

  “Kaver,” a man with a deep voice said as he looked up.

  “Who are you?”

  The man set the quill down, his gaze darting to the end of the alley before returning to Sam. “The Thelns. Where are they?”

  “One is dead. The other is out. Might be dead.” She glanced back, thinking she needed to return to finish off Ralun, especially now that she knew that Alec wasn’t in any danger. “Augment me, and I’ll go back and make sure he’s finished.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “It is possible. You must have been the one who did it before, especially since Alec is still out.” She didn’t know who this man was, but he must understand the Scribes and the Kavers, for him to have managed to help her as he had.

  “I’m out of ink,” he said, holding up a vial.

  “Use mine, then.”

  The man shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. Scribes are keyed to their Kaver.”

  Sam tipped her head to the side, noting movement.

  She spun, readying her staff, but there was nothing. Had Ralun disappeared?

  If so, she might have lost her chance to find the book and the necessary page to help the princess and Marin.

  Without them, the princess would die.

  Marin would die.

  “Who are you?” she asked, turning back to the man.

  He ignored the question, folding up the page and stuffing it into Alec’s pocket. Sam wondered why he hadn’t put it in his own. Then he lifted Alec, hoisting him to his shoulder.

  “You know what I am, which means you must know Marin. Who are you?”