Comatose: The Book of Maladies

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Comatose: The Book of Maladies Page 21

by D. K. Holmberg


  No. There had to be enough left.

  Alec tried pushing back, but he could barely move. His entire body felt as if he had just run a great distance.

  Was this all from his attempt to use an augmentation? Or was this because he had already been healed using the easar paper and now his attempt to heal Sam was too much?

  “I think you will need to explain why that paper is so important to you,” Ryn said. He had stormed closer to Alec, close enough that he could smell the man. He had the stench of the swamp on him.

  “No,” Alec said. “And whatever you do, Bastan will find you.”

  “Will he? I don’t think Bastan cares enough to find me. If he hasn’t searched for his brother after all this time, what makes you think that now will be something different?”

  Alec froze. Brother?

  Had Bastan said anything about a brother?

  “Sam!”

  Suddenly, she moved.

  It wasn’t just that she moved, but she flipped into the air, pushing off with the end of her staff, and came spinning around, striking the nearest man with the free end. She continued in a fluid movement and caught the second man. With both of them down, she turned toward Ryn.

  But he was gone.

  Alec breathed out heavily. “Sam. We need to—”

  “I know. We need to get out of here. Can you help me with Master Helen?”

  “I hope so.”

  “Let’s get her back to the university. I think I can get us there quickly,” Sam said, walking to the wall and kicking it. It caved in, and as it did, Alec realized that he hadn’t placed an augmentation. He’d healed her but hadn’t augmented her strength or speed. How was it that she was able to do that without him placing an augmentation?

  “Not the university,” Alec said.

  “Why not? Helen needs help.”

  “And we’ll get it for her, but first, we need to go to Caster and talk to Bastan.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Ryn is his brother.”

  25

  A Different Sort of Calling

  Sam continued to look over at Alec as they approached Caster. She couldn’t believe he been captured and couldn’t believe he was the reason that she had been forced to fight. Typically, it was because of something she had done, and she was the reason they had to find a way to fight free, so for it to be Alec this time, she found that… almost amusing.

  “Who is this Ryn, beyond being Bastan’s brother, that is?” Sam asked, still unable to believe it and wanting answers from Bastan.

  “Well, apparently Bastan’s talents run in the family. Ryn apparently runs the Hosd section as Bastan runs Caster.”

  “How did you end up getting involved with him?” Sam asked. They walked through the streets, and she kept her staff out, using it as a way to deter people who might think to attack them. She wasn’t about to get into another fight, though she wasn’t afraid to do it if it came down to that. Now, though, she had two people to protect. Master Helen followed, though she did so behind her, moving slowly. Sam had to adjust her pace to keep from getting away from her.

  “He’s the one who’s apparently responsible for what happened to a young girl I was healing.”

  “And this has to do with eel venom?” Sam had a hard time believing that the eels were responsible for anything. They had attacked her staff a few times, but nothing more than that. Thankfully, she hadn’t fallen into the canals—or the swamp—where she had to worry about the eels devouring her.

  “Trust me, it has everything to do with eel venom.”

  When they reached Caster, Alec started to veer away, heading to one of the side streets.

  “It’s this way to Bastan’s tavern.”

  “We can’t go there, not yet.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Because there’s something here that I lost.”

  He stopped in front of a darkened alley and started down it. Sam hurried forward, casting a glance over her shoulder at Master Helen, who waited patiently, her hands clasped in front of her. She hadn’t said much in the time since they had left Ryn’s hideout, but Sam thought the woman should at least say something that might keep Alec from doing something foolish.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I had ducked down into this alley when they came after me,” he said.

  “A dark alley? Didn’t I teach you better than that? Caster can be dangerous, and—”

  Alec leaned down and he picked something up off the ground. Sam frowned when he turned back to her, holding some kind of jar out toward her.

  “This. This is what I was hiding. I didn’t want them to get it, especially since I didn’t know who they were or how hard it would be for me to get this back.”

  “What is it?”

  “You have extracted eel venom,” Master Helen said. Her eyes widened. “That… That should not be possible.”

  “Why?” Sam said, turning back to her.

  “We have tried. Even when we can capture an eel, we have not been able to find their venom.”

  “There are two different types,” Alec said, leaning back and grabbing another jar from the ground. When he straightened, he turned and faced Sam, a smile on his face. She had seen that smile before. It was his excitement at something he’d uncovered.

  “Let’s get out of the alley,” Sam said, guiding both Alec and Master Helen. Master Helen’s gaze continued to drift down to the jars in Alec’s hands, and Sam placed herself in between the two of them not wanting Master Helen to think to grab them from Alec. Sam didn’t know how hard it had been for him to extract the eel venom, but she saw the way he protected it, so he must think it valuable for him to have risked himself coming down the alley so he could hide it from his attackers.

  Once out of the alley, she turned to Alec. “And now what?”

  “Now, we can go to Bastan,” he said.

  She glanced at Master Helen, who nodded in agreement. “I think I would be beneficial.”

  Sam guided them through the streets. She stuck to the wider streets, still feeling a bit of concern that one of Ryn’s men might try to jump them again, and had no interest in dealing with that, especially since she didn’t know how powerful his men might be. They had managed to sedate her, knock her out. Had Alec not risked himself, Ryn and his men would have captured her.

  They reached Bastan’s tavern shortly afterward. They had no further issues, and when they entered the tavern, she looked around, expecting to see Kevin come out of the kitchen as he often did, but he wasn’t there. There were a few familiar faces, though not Kevin and some of the others who typically ran the kitchen.

  “Kevin was attacked,” Alec said, looking over at her, seeming to notice what she was focusing on.

  “What do you mean he was attacked?”

  “He was searching for information about what happened to my father. I had come to Bastan after my father was brought to the university. My first thought had been to search the shop to see what he’d been working on that he might have accidentally ingested. When I realized someone had taken the eel venom from his cabinet, I knew I had to go to Bastan. I hadn’t even realized he’s asked Kevin to go in search of information. When they found Kevin in a similar state as my father, Bastan came for me at the university. We have no idea who attacked him or the woman at the hospital, but we now have a total of four who have fallen.”

  “And Beckah, too, right? I saw her in the ward when I went looking for you. I’m sorry, Alec.” She was surprised to realize she actually meant it. She was sorry. “Who else?”

  “The young woman I spoke of. Her name is Kara. I don’t know much more about her than that other than that Bastan knows her. He recognized her when I brought him to the ward.” Alec made a point of keeping his gaze fixed on Sam as he said it, and she saw Master Helen staring at him. Was Alec not supposed to have brought anyone to the ward? Would he be punished for doing so?

  “We have to help them,” Sam said.

  “I’m tryin
g,” Alec said.

  “That was why you were coming here?”

  Alec nodded. “I needed something to test the venom on so I can get a sense of what it might do. I needed to know what potency it had so that I could figure out how I could counter it. I wasn’t sure there was a way to counter it, but there must be.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “I had to help one of Bastan’s men, a man by the name of Tanis, when he was injured while we were fishing for eels. I used a scrap of easar paper, and I wrote that there was an antivenom.”

  “So?” Sam said.

  “So, most of the time when I do something like that, I use a known antidote, or some known treatment, and this time, I wasn’t sure whether there was any treatment. Because of that, I wrote that there was an antivenom, not knowing whether or not that was true.”

  “And you think that because it worked, there must be an antivenom?”

  “There has to be something,” he said.

  Sam guided them across the tavern and stopped in front of Bastan’s door. She ignored the looks of the men around the tavern and knocked twice.

  “Interesting that he would use a place like this as his hideout,” Master Helen said.

  “I don’t think Bastan is hiding anything,” Sam said. “In Caster, he’s pretty open about his role in this section.”

  Master Helen frowned, and Sam waited for the door to open. When it did, Bastan looked out, his face haggard, and his eyes drawn. “Samara. Is this really the best time—”

  “Alec was attacked,” she said, stepping inside and pushing Bastan out of the way. She nodded to Alec and Master Helen to follow her in. When they did, she closed the door, giving them some privacy. “He was coming to meet with you, and he was attacked.”

  “When was this?”

  “I don’t know, maybe a few hours ago,” Sam said.

  “And you think it’s remarkable that Alec was attacked at that hour?” Bastan turned his gaze to Alec and shrugged. “He’s not from this section, Samara. Even if he were, that wouldn’t protect him, not late at night.”

  “It’s not that. It’s that the man who caught him was after him because of you.”

  “What man?”

  Alec glanced from Sam to Bastan. A slight flush worked up in his cheeks, and Sam shook her head. “It’s fine. You need to tell him.”

  “His name is Rynance Vold. He is in—” Bastan cut Alec off.

  “I know who he is and where he is,” Bastan said. “What I don’t know is why you would have any contact with him. That section of the city is dangerous.”

  “I always thought you believed that Caster was dangerous,” Sam said, resisting the urge to ask more about his brother.

  “Caster is dangerous, but I keep it as safe as I can. The Hosd section is far more dangerous, and it’s far more likely that outsiders would have difficulty with people there.”

  “Well, Alec was attacked because he went there looking for information about a girl he was trying to help.”

  “What does this have to do with me?”

  “It’s all tied to eel venom,” Alec said.

  “Are you certain?” Bastan asked.

  “Ryn said as much when we were talking. Presuming he was going to kill me, he admitted that he had been the one who poisoned my father and took his supply of venom. They… They followed you when you went after him in the swamp.”

  Master Helen stepped forward and grabbed Alec by the sleeve. “Aelus knew the secret to eel venom?”

  “My father was the one who managed to acquire a supply of it so that when Bastan attacked the Thelns, we were prepared,” Alec said.

  “And he didn’t share this with anyone?”

  “He didn’t. I don’t think my father wanted anyone to know.”

  “And I told him not to,” Bastan said. He rested his hands on his desk, leaning toward them. As he did, he loomed, his presence seeming to get larger. It was a trick, but Bastan was so accustomed to commanding rooms that he managed to do so even with a master physicker. “I expected a certain level of confidence from him when I employed him,” Bastan said.

  “You can’t keep secrets like that, Bastan,” Master Helen said.

  He watched her. “Do I know you?”

  She shook her head. “No. But I know of you.”

  “Good. Then you understand the kind of man that I am.”

  “Stop,” Sam said, stepping between them. “You’re not convincing anyone, Bastan. You don’t need to be so intimidating, or pretend to be.”

  “Who’s pretending?”

  “You are. You have no intention of doing anything to Master Helen. I know you better than that.”

  “Do you?”

  Sam eyed him. What was Bastan’s reason for acting like this? She looked from Master Helen to Alec and wondered if it had anything to do with Bastan’s perception of family and connections that he thought he needed to protect. He didn’t need to do anything to protect Sam. She was able to protect herself, especially when it came to Alec and Master Helen.

  “Tell us what you know about the eel venom,” Sam said.

  “I know nothing more than his father acquired it for me. He said he had a specific toxin that might be effective against the Thelns. He never told me what it was.”

  “But you followed him,” Alec said.

  “I followed him. I needed to know what it was so I didn’t have to—”

  Bastan smiled. He spread his hands out and stepped back, looking at each of them.

  “So, you didn’t have to pay him for additional supplies?” Alec asked.

  “I’m a businessman,” Bastan said. “If there’s a way of reducing my costs, then… Well, then I take it. Your father—”

  “My father doesn’t charge much for his services.”

  “If you think that, then you are mistaken,” Bastan said. “When it comes to this particular kind of service, he does charge, and his fees are enough that I would love to reduce them if I could.”

  “How much did my father charge for the eel venom?”

  “Fifty gold coins,” Bastan said.

  Sam coughed. “Fifty? Where would you have gotten the kind of…”

  She turned her attention to Alec. He had gone pale. She could only imagine what he was thinking. Alec revered his father and revered the knowledge he had passed on to him, and if his father was responsible for somehow using that knowledge to cause harm to others, that would be difficult for him.

  “Alec, you don’t know—”

  Alec shook his head. “I do know.” He turned to Master Helen. “You knew this, didn’t you?”

  “I knew that your father had taken on a different sort of calling.”

  “Calling?”

  “He wanted to continue to serve the city.”

  “How is this his way of serving the city?”

  “You would be surprised. If your father found some way of countering the Thelns, it would be incredibly valuable.”

  “But my father isn’t a Scribe!”

  Master Helen shrugged. “There are many of us who question. Your father left the university after being promoted to master physicker, but I’m not sure if he was ever tested to determine whether he could be a Scribe. If we can’t restore him, we may never know.”

  “Are we going to have this ongoing debate?” Bastan asked.

  “Maybe we wouldn’t have to if you weren’t hiding things from us,” Sam said.

  “I’m not hiding anything from you. I think your anger is misplaced.”

  Sam let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Were you able to extract the venom?” Bastan asked Alec.

  Alec nodded, barely able to meet Bastan’s eyes.

  “And?”

  “And I don’t have any way of testing a cure.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t have any way of testing an antivenom. And—”

  Bastan pushed past him and reached the door. “Wait here,” he said.

  When he was gone, Sam walked over to Alec and put her arms around
him, pulling him into a tight embrace. He looked as if he needed it, though he shouldn’t feel bad about having been deceived as he was by his father. Her mother had deceived her. Marin had deceived her. Sam’s entire life was about deception.

  “Where do you think he’s going?” Master Helen asked.

  “Maybe to find a test subject,” Sam said.

  “It would kill them,” Alec said. “Without easar paper…”

  “I have easar paper,” Master Helen said. She patted her pocket. Sam eyed the pocket, wishing she had the same supply. All they had were scraps, and even that supply was almost gone. Then again, now that she had discovered the secret that allowed her to perform augmentations without writing on the easar paper, would they have the same need?

  “Even with easar paper, I wouldn’t subject anyone to that,” Alec said. “I don’t know what the effects are, not entirely, but I do know that no one deserves to suffer from the eel venom. I saw it up close once, and that was enough.”

  He shivered, and Sam squeezed his arm, trying to reassure him. She wasn’t sure she did anything to fully reassure him, but it was all she could offer.

  Bastan returned, and he carried a wooden box with him. “Here,” he said, thrusting the box toward Alec.

  Alec took it carefully and lifted the lid before slamming it shut once more.

  “What is it?” Sam asked.

  “Rats,” Alec said.

  Sam stared at the box. “You just happen to have rats?”

  “I run a kitchen, Samara. Every kitchen has rats.”

  “Remind me not to eat near your kitchen ever again.”

  “Remind me not to offer you free food. Perhaps the next time you’re hungry and come to me, I can let you starve.”

  She glared at him, and Bastan only shrugged.

  “I need a place to work. I can go back to the apothecary—”

  Bastan shook his head. “No. I want to know if this works. We are going to help Kevin.”

  “Just Kevin?” Alec asked, looking up at him.

  “If you find the key to helping Kevin, you will find the key to helping your father. You can use my office.”

  “And if it’s not effective?”

  “Then we will keep looking.”

 

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