Comatose: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

“It’s… It’s about his granddaughter.”

  The waitress looked around the tavern and finally turned her attention back to Alec. “Wait here.”

  She hurried off.

  “That was strange,” Beckah said.

  “I think everything about this place is a little strange.”

  They didn’t have to wait long. The waitress returned, and she had a man with her. The man was in his thirties and had a thick beard and dark eyes that seemed to penetrate everything. There was something about the way he stared at Alec that made him uncomfortable.

  “I understand you’re looking for Ryn.”

  “I am. His granddaughter came to me for help. She said that she worked for a seamstress in this section.”

  “There ain’t no seamstresses in this section.”

  “I’m getting that sense,” Alec said.

  “And it’s not safe for someone like you to be over here and asking questions about Ryn.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Let’s just say that it’s not.”

  Alec looked over to Beckah, wishing he had Sam with him. If anyone had a way of navigating places like this, she would have done well. “Can you at least send word to him that I have questions about his granddaughter?”

  The man glared at him for a longer moment. “Send word where?”

  “If you find him, he’ll know where.”

  Alec stood, leaving his ale untouched. He fished a few coins out of his pocket and set them on the table. He motioned to Beckah, hoping she had the sense to follow him.

  As he backed away from the table, he had an unsettled feeling in his chest. It didn’t disappear when they stepped outside, and it stayed with him as they made their way along the streets, hurrying toward their section, and back toward the university. He couldn’t shake the sense that someone followed them, though he doubted that they did. There would be no reason to follow them.

  Beckah said nothing on the way back to the university. Only once they were back did he realize that something was wrong.

  “Beckah?”

  She didn’t answer. Her eyes had a glazed appearance to them.

  “Beckah?”

  She slumped. He barely managed to catch her in time before she crashed to the floor.

  Alex scooped her up and hurried through the university and into the hospital ward with her. As he did, his heart hammered, wondering what had happened to her. Hopefully, the fact that he was with her meant that he could reverse the effect of whatever had taken place.

  But what was it?

  16

  A Friend in Need

  “You were with her the entire time?” Master Helen said.

  Alec looked down at Beckah. She hadn’t moved since he’d brought her to the ward. She rested quietly on a cot, her hair brushed back so that it didn’t obscure her features. Alec had examined her and found her heart and lungs regular, her stomach normal, and no findings on her skin. She was no different from Kara or his father. He knew nothing, other than the fact that Beckah shouldn’t have ended up like this.

  “I was with her the entire time. We had been here, working with the unresponsive woman, and then I decided to venture out into the city to see if I could discover more about one of my other patients.”

  “Physicker Stross, I don’t need to remind you that that is highly unusual.”

  “Maybe it is, but I didn’t know any other way to help her. I thought if I could understand more about where she worked and lived and what she’d been through that I might be able to restore her eyesight.”

  “You took on a patient with changes in eyesight and thought that was appropriate for the university?”

  “It’s a young girl with a rapid change in eyesight. I thought that it was interesting enough I could learn from it,” he said, telling her the same as what he had told Master Harrison.

  “Show me to her.”

  Alec guided Master Helen over to Stacia. He had been so focused on trying to help Beckah that he hadn’t even had a chance to confront her about the seamstress shop and everything else that she had told him.

  “Physicker. Have you come up with anything?” Stacia asked.

  “I went to the Hosd section, thinking that I could find some information about what happened with you.”

  Master Helen arched a brow at him. “You went to Hosd?” she asked softly.

  Alec nodded, keeping his gaze focused on Stacia. “There isn’t a seamstress shop there.”

  “There is. I promise that there is.”

  “And I went with my friend to a tavern, looking to find your grandfather, but we were threatened.”

  “Physicker Stross?” Master Helen asked.

  “Who is he? Who is your grandfather, if that’s even who he is? And why were you not honest with me?”

  “I… I didn’t know if I could be honest. I wanted to get help, and Ryn was convinced that he could get answers here.”

  “Ryn? As in Rynance Vold?” Master Helen asked.

  Stacia looked down at her hands and nodded slowly.

  “Who is he?”

  “Only a very dangerous man.”

  “A dangerous man with no tongue?” Alec asked.

  “Rynance Vold has no tongue?” Master Helen asked.

  “The man who was with her had no tongue, I don’t know if he’s the same one,” Alec said.

  “Doubtful. Rynance Vold leads the northern crime syndicate.”

  “Crime syndicate?”

  Would Bastan know him?

  It was likely that he would, which meant that Alec would have to go find Bastan and see what else he could learn.

  “He has been nothing more than a rumor for a long time, but from what I hear, he’s been looking to gain territory.”

  A rumor and now Alec—and Beckah—had been caught up in it.

  “What really happened with your eyesight?” Alec asked.

  Stacia shifted on the cot, keeping her gaze down on her lap. “I… I came into contact with something that burned my eyes.”

  “Why wouldn’t you have told me?”

  “I thought that a physicker would have been able to figure that out.”

  “Not when there’s nothing that appears wrong,” Alec said.

  “You said that you would look into it.”

  “I did look into it, but I can’t help you if I don’t know everything that happened. Where is this chemical that you came into contact with?”

  “Ryn has it.”

  “He does? And he’s in the Hosd section?”

  “Most of the time. I’ve been working for them for a few years, mostly doing a few small jobs here and there, and I was hopeful that I could get away. There wasn’t any other way to support my grandparents.”

  Alec shook his head. It sounded far too familiar. It was something similar to what Sam had gone through with Bastan, though would Ryn have the same affection for Stacia as Bastan had for Sam?

  If he did, it would make sense for him to try to get help for her.

  “That’s where you got money for healing, isn’t it?”

  Stacia nodded. “Ryn wanted to help, but he couldn’t be seen helping. Does that make sense?”

  “It makes as much sense as anything else,” Alec said.

  “So, can you help me? Can you bring my vision back?”

  “Without knowing the nature of the caustic compound, any attempted healing would be potentially dangerous,” Master Helen said. She directed the words at Stacia, but Alec could tell they were meant for him. It was a warning, another admonition to keep him from using the easar paper.

  “But if we know there is a caustic reaction, it seems it would be a simple matter to restore her eyesight,” he said to Master Helen.

  “Nothing is a simple matter, and if you don’t know the true nature of the injury, attempting to restore her eyesight could be dangerous. There could be a residual effect, and you would be continually attempting to make such repairs. At a certain point, the energy and effort involved might be more than wha
t you can withstand.”

  He swallowed. “It seems I must return to the Hosd section and find Ryn.” He looked over at Beckah lying unresponsive on a nearby cot. “But not until she’s recovered.”

  “Yes,” Master Helen said. “What did she come into contact with?”

  “Nothing. We went from here where we were working on the other patient, and I was the only one mixing the restorative, and went to search for Ryn. We went to a tavern, and asked questions—”

  “Which tavern?” Stacia asked.

  “I don’t know. All the taverns seemed alike.”

  “Not in Hosd. The taverns there are pretty different. Most of them side with Ryn, but some don’t, and those are the ones you have to be most concerned about.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because if they think you’re working with Ryn, they’ll attack.”

  Alec looked over to where Beckah lay motionless. “But we weren’t attacked. All we did was ask about Ryn and ask about you, but we were served our ale before we started asking questions.”

  Stacia’s eyes widened. “They got you.”

  “What do you mean they got me?”

  “At the taverns that support Ryn, if two highborns walked in, they would immediately be suspicious. They would’ve put something in your drink. If they were able to determine that you weren’t a threat, they would have added an antidote.” She frowned at him. “How is it that you’re not hurt?”

  “Because I didn’t have a drink.”

  But Beckah had.

  “What do they use to poison people with?”

  “I don’t know. They used to use something that would only cause vomiting. It was their way of deterring anyone who might come after them, and it protected Ryn. Lately…”

  Alec looked over to Master Helen. “Can you see what you can do for Beckah?”

  “What is it that you intend to do, Physicker Stross?”

  “I need to get more information.”

  “It seems the last time you went to that section, you were attacked.”

  “Which is why I don’t intend to go alone.”

  “You will find that your… friend… is preoccupied at the moment.”

  “Where is she?”

  “There is a certain assignment she has been given. If you intend to confront this Ryn, you will need to go a different way.”

  Alec breathed out heavily. There was only one other way he could attempt to find Ryn, and that involved Bastan.

  But would he help?

  Alec looked over at where Beckah lay motionless. Now, there were four of what appeared to be similar—and possibly related—poisonings, and one of them had seizures. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but he needed to find answers before their conditions worsened, and he needed to understand more before anyone else was harmed.

  17

  Threat to Caster

  “I don’t understand,” Alec said, looking over at Bastan. He had made it all the way to the Caster section again, dragging himself through the city, and once more wishing he had Sam with him, if for no other reason than her familiarity with these parts of the city. He didn’t like coming here, though he felt infinitely more comfortable than Beckah when she had come.

  “You think I am going to help you get information about this person?”

  “But I understand they’re moving in on your territory,” Alec said. He hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to tell Bastan about Ryn, but he seemed completely disinterested. That surprised Alec. He figured Bastan would be intrigued by any such rumors, regardless of the source. And this one came from Master Helen, so the source seemed as if it should be solid.

  “There’s no way anyone would make such a move,” Bastan said.

  Alec looked around the office. He marveled at the paintings along the wall. Though he’d been in Bastan’s office before, he’d not really paid attention to the artwork. Sam had told him of Bastan’s penchant for fine art. Some of these appeared to be by master painters, which he knew meant they were incredibly valuable. The most surprising was a painting of the canals that hung behind Bastan’s desk. It was exquisitely made and depicted each of the sections of the city with the canals surrounding them. Something like that had value for many reasons, though Alec suspected that for Bastan it was merely a way for him to identify which parts of the city he needed to focus his attention on.

  He turned his focus back to Bastan. “We were threatened in Hosd. And now Beckah—”

  “Your friend?”

  “The other physicker—student physicker—she was with me the last time we came here,” he said.

  “Why would you be threatened? Was she too vocal?”

  Alec almost laughed. It was a reasonable assumption to make about Beckah. She could be too vocal at times, and she had been quite vocal when she had been here before.

  “We went asking questions. There was a young girl who came to the university looking for healing.”

  “What did she come in with?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Maybe.”

  “She came in with a progressive blurred vision. She’s young—probably no older than fifteen—and said she was working for a seamstress and supporting her family.” Alec still felt like a fool for believing her, though she had preyed on his inherent desire to help. She couldn't have known Alec would be the one assigned to see her—the physicker who worked with each person who came in was not guaranteed—but once she had him, she had said the right things and forced him to offer his help.

  No. That wasn’t quite right. Alec would have helped regardless.

  “Blurred vision doesn’t seem like a very typical problem for someone of that age,” Bastan said.

  “It’s not. That’s why I offered to do whatever I could. I thought I could help, but it was difficult finding anything that might explain why she had suffered the gradual loss of vision.”

  “You were doing this while trying to understand what happened with your father and Kara?”

  “That has been just as difficult to understand,” Alec said. “I’m doing what I can, but…” He shook his head. “I haven’t been able to find any information that might lead me to a solution. To take my mind off it, I spent some time researching various treatments that might be effective for blurred vision.”

  “And you found nothing, so you went looking for more information about this girl.”

  “I did.”

  “What section is she from?”

  “Hosd.”

  Bastan clenched his hands. “I see.”

  “You do?”

  “Let me tell you what I know about that section. First, there are no seamstresses in Hosd, so whatever your young patient told you was a fabrication. Second, they are near enough to the swamp that they are somewhat different from other sections. There is crime, but not as much as in other places, especially not as much as in some of the outer sections.”

  “Like Caster?”

  Bastan glared at him. “Caster doesn’t have much crime, either. Not the way you would like to think. I ensure this section is safe.”

  The way he said it told Alec that Bastan had been angered by the mere suggestion that there was crime in his section, but Alec had seen it. He had lived it. There were thieves here—and Sam had been one of them.

  “I needed more information, and believing the information she’d given me, I went in search of a seamstress shop and her supposed grandfather, whose name was Ryn—”

  “You are a fool, aren’t you?”

  “What?”

  “You have significant book smarts. You must, otherwise you wouldn’t have been promoted to full physicker as quickly as you were, but you know nothing about the city.”

  “I’m a part of the city.”

  “Now that you’re at the university, you’re set apart from the city.” When Alec frowned, Bastan merely shook his head. “Tell me, before you went to study at the university, what did you think of it?”

  “I thought there were skilled physick
ers there, and—”

  Bastan shook his head. “No. What did you think of it.”

  Alec frowned. “What are you trying to get at?”

  “I’m trying to get what were your feelings about the university before you went there.” He looked around the room before his gaze settled on the door that led out into the tavern. “I have plenty of people who work for me who have an opinion about those who are at the university. Most of them see it as a place where only highborns—those with money—can go for restoratives. The rest of us are stuck with people like your father, and often times with people who aren’t nearly as good as your father.” He turned his attention back to Alec. “So, what I’m trying to get a sense of is how you felt about the university.”

  “Before I went there, I… I thought it was impossible. I wanted to learn from the university, but only because of the knowledge that was available there.”

  “And now?”

  “I still want to learn from the university, Bastan. That’s why I’m there. That’s why I stay there. My hope is to change things, and that in time, I will help to find a way to convince the physickers to work with those who don’t have the necessary financial means to obtain healing.”

  “Just like your father?” Bastan asked, a hint of a smile on his face.

  “My father didn’t leave the university because of the difference in what they charge,” Alec said.

  Bastan arched a brow.

  “It doesn’t matter why he left, not really.”

  “It does matter. Everything matters when taking a measure of a man.”

  “He left because of what happened with my mother.”

  “Does he blame them?”

  “No. He blames himself.”

  When Bastan frowned, Alec only shook his head. “Please, don’t make me go through this with you. Just know that my father feels he was wrong.”

  “How often has your father been wrong?”

  Alec stared at Bastan. “He’s lying sick and possibly dying at the university and you’re questioning my father’s skills?”

  “I’m trying to get a sense of him.”

  “I don’t know. Before he shared with me the reason that he left the university, I would’ve said that he was rarely, if ever, wrong.”