Was that what he wanted?
He wanted to help Sam. That thought, more than any other, stayed in his mind. And if she was in the palace, and if she was in danger, he was determined to go after her and do whatever it took to help and ensure she got to safety.
“You don’t have to come with us,” Bastan said.
“I think I do.”
“When this is over…”
“When this is over, I will not likely be able to return.”
Bastan clapped him on the shoulder, pausing long enough to turn to him. “You are a physicker, regardless of anything else. From what I’ve seen, you are a damned good physicker. You don’t need the university to prove that to yourself.”
Alec tore his gaze away from the buildings rising up. He didn’t. Bastan was right. He had gone to the university to learn, to study, but what had he discovered? He had learned some things from the master physickers, mostly about surgical skills, but when it came to treatment of illness, and the various approaches, his father had taught him most everything that he knew. The only thing the university had that his father did not was access to the library, all of the records that the physickers had acquired over the years.
He didn’t need the university. He didn’t need to become a master physicker.
He turned his attention toward the palace. On the other side in the section adjacent to it, there was movement.
“Do you see that?” he asked Bastan.
“I see it.”
“What is it?”
“That is Chester answering my call.”
“Chester?”
Bastan shrugged and started forward, crossing the bridge leading to the university section. When they reached it, soldiers suddenly swarmed out of the university.
Bastan made a motion with his hand, and the men with him hurried forward, engaging the soldiers in sword combat.
It was war.
There was no other way to describe what he saw.
Alec had never expected to see anything like it, and certainly not within the city, but as Bastan’s men attacked the guards, men cried out, screaming as swords cut into flesh, and as men fell. Blood sprayed, filling the air with its coppery smell.
Alec couldn’t take his eyes away. With each injury, he assessed how he would heal them, ways that they could be helped.
“Wait for me,” he said to Bastan. Alec ran around a side door and inside the university. “We need physickers!” he shouted, uncertain whether anyone would respond. He ran up the stairs and reached the hospital ward. He threw the doors open, “We need physickers outside. Now!”
There were two junior physickers, and one of them started toward him.
“Find others,” he shouted at the man. “Outside. Now!” Alec turned and raced back outside. When he rejoined Bastan, the other man looked over at him. “I couldn’t leave them all simply to die,” Alec said.
“You can’t save everyone,” Bastan said.
“I can save as many as possible, even if I’m not the one to do it.”
The fighting died down relatively quickly, with Bastan’s men being the victors. Bastan guided him toward the palace section. As they went, other men joined them. There were more and more people coming, and it took Alec a moment to realize that the people joining them were with Bastan.
They reached the bridge and crossed over. It was wide enough for five people to cross at one time, and when they reached the middle of the bridge, they were met by a dozen soldiers, all armed with swords and crossbows.
Bastan stepped forward.
Alec feared that something would happen to him, surprised he would feel that way about Bastan. He watched as Bastan stepped up to the nearest guard and spoke something softly to him, his sword still sheathed. Were Bastan concerned, he would unsheathe his weapon, but the fact that he kept it sheathed, and that he approached so casually, left Alec thinking that perhaps he knew this person.
After a moment, Bastan turned back.
“We will continue,” Bastan said.
One of the guards suddenly surged forward, and Alec cried out.
Bastan reacted even faster.
He unsheathed his sword and swiped around, cutting down the guard who ran at him.
He stood, his sword raised, glaring at the rest of the guards. Then he raised his hand and motioned.
The men with him surged forward.
They reached the guards and made quick business of taking them down. Many were thrown into the canal, and Alec watched in horror as they splashed around, fearing for what would happen to them. Would the eels attack?
Bastan grabbed his sleeve and pulled him along, and Alec had no choice but to follow.
They reached the palace lawn.
There were soldiers here, but Bastan’s men and the others who had crossed from another bridge began to take them down. Bastan greeted a gray-haired man in the middle of the palace lawn.
Alec’s eyes widened. The Shuver.
“This will be bloody,” the Shuver said.
“Not as bloody as you think,” Bastan said. “If my person inside has anything to say about it, this will be over quickly.”
“And then? It will be as you promised?”
“It will be as I promised,” Bastan said, glancing over to Alec.
The men made their way toward the palace. When they reached the doors, they found them locked. Bastan picked the lock and threw them open, surging inside.
Alec expected they would encounter guards, but there was no one.
“You have been here before. Is it always like this?” Bastan asked.
“There usually are guards—”
The sound of fighting came from down the hall.
Alec motioned, and Bastan made his way toward it. When they reached it, Alec nearly froze in place.
Marin was there, holding a staff, and she was moving so rapidly that she was knocking down soldiers before they even had a chance to turn toward her.
She was augmented.
He had seen Marin fight before, but he had never seen her fully augmented, not like this.
Marin seemed to take them in. “Apothecary. Sam needs your help.”
Bastan’s men hurried forward and joined the fight.
Alec stood there, clutching the tray that held the possible easar paper, knowing what Marin meant, but afraid the easar paper he’d made would not be enough. Yet, if he didn’t try, if he did nothing, what would happen to Sam?
He reached into his satchel and pulled out a vial of her blood. He poked his finger with his belt knife and added his own blood to Sam’s, sat down on the floor, and began writing on the paper.
32
A Kaver Rises
Pain flooded through Sam. She tried not to think of it, tried not to allow the thoughts of everything that she would lose to work through her in her last moments, but she couldn’t help it.
She cried out.
She tried reaching toward her staff, but her arm seemed to be broken. It didn’t work, and besides, even if she managed to grab it, there were simply too many. Even augmented—or, at least, even with the augmentations she could place on herself—she had not been enough.
And now…
Cold washed through her. Was that the sense of the end? Was that all she would know in her final moments?
It began in her feet, working its way up to her legs. When it reached her heart, she anticipated that it would stop. Why was her mind slowing like this? Why was everything seeming to happen slowly?
The blows continued to rain down on her, kicking her in the stomach, the back, something jabbing her in her shoulder. All of it was pain, and all of it was almost more than she could bear.
She wished she could see Alec, even if just one more time. Hopefully, he had gotten away as the prince had said. If he’d managed to make it out, maybe he could get help, use his father or Bastan to help him get the support he needed, to continue supplying eel meat for him.
The cold reached her chest and hovered.
Th
e pain began to dissipate.
Her mind began to clear.
Was she not dying?
Could the cold that washed through her be something else? Could it be…
An augmentation.
Alec had found more paper… Or he had actually managed to make it.
Power flooded into her. Sam could scarcely believe it, and she grabbed for her staff, ignoring the blows raining down on her. Her body, her skin and bones, suddenly impervious to the attack. Strength filled her. Everything seemed to slow.
Sam attacked.
She hadn’t felt the power of an augmentation granted to her by Alec in quite some time, and now, having it flooding through her, she welcomed that power, she added her own awareness of how to augment herself, and it allowed her to attack with more vigor than she had before.
The two Kavers standing in front of her fell.
Sam spun, ducking beneath the next attack, finding it almost easy to do.
What had Alec done? How had he placed in augmentation like this?
She would ask him later. She needed to work quickly. When the augmentation faded… she wasn’t sure he had enough blood from her to continue placing augmentations, and she wasn’t certain how much paper he had made, or how much strength she would have to hold on to these augmentations.
Her staff was a blur. She jumped, flipping into the middle of the attackers, and spun her staff around, knocking down soldiers and Kavers.
When they were down, she turned her attention to the others she had come with. The prince lay motionless on the ground, and she found her mother standing in front of Lyasanna, a sword piercing her chest.
“No!”
The princess held the sword, and she was saying something to Elaine, whispering softly.
Sam pushed off with her staff, swinging around and connecting with the back of Lyasanna’s head, sending her staggering toward the stairs. Sam heard the sword fall to the floor as she spun her staff back around, connecting with Lyasanna’s side, and then back around, knocking her leg, satisfied when a crack rang out as it broke under the force of Sam’s blow.
Lyasanna screamed and fell to the floor. As she writhed in pain, Sam stepped up to her and jabbed her in the chest with her staff, knocking the wind out of her. Sam nudged the princess’s body with her foot, and Lyasanna’s head rocked to the side as her eyes closed.
Sam grabbed the sword and threw it off to the side, the she ran up to Elaine and pressed her hands on her belly, putting pressure on the wound, holding steady as the blood poured out from her.
“Elaine,” she said.
Her mother turned her head toward her, and she blinked. “Samara. You are even more than I ever could have imagined.”
“We need to get you help. We need to get you—”
Elaine shook her head. “There will be no help, not for me. This… this is the kind of wound that there is no coming back from.”
“We can help. Alec must’ve found more paper, and we can place an augmentation, we can restore you, and…”
Elaine shook her head again. “Samara. I’m so proud… I’m so proud…”
Her eyes closed.
“Alec!”
Sam stood and turned to the stairs. She raced down them to find Marin finishing off a row of attackers. Surprisingly, Bastan was there with dozens of men she knew, and there was the Shuver, fighting alongside Bastan. What were they doing here together?
Alec sat on the floor, his head bowed, furiously writing.
Sam ran over to him. “I need your help.”
Alec looked up. “Sam. You’re okay.”
“I am. Thanks to you. But now Elaine needs your help.” She grabbed him and lifted. Her augmentations were fading as they climbed the stairs, but she didn’t need the augmentations, not anymore. When they reached Elaine, Alec immediately took I the scene and crouched down next to her.
He quickly began to assess her injuries, first checking for a pulse and putting his ear against her chest to listen for her breath sounds. Sam had seen him make assessments like this enough times that she understood what it was he was doing, but he wasn’t moving fast enough. He wasn’t checking her fast enough.
“There was a sword to her chest,” Sam said. “Fix that.”
Alec looked up at her, tears welling in his eyes. “Sam. There isn’t any fixing this.”
“No. You can augment her. Here,” she said, holding out her hand, waiting for Alec to poke at it and draw blood. It didn’t matter whether he took too much, not now, not if it was enough to help bring Elaine back. She didn’t know her mother, but she wasn’t about to lose her, not now.
“There are things that we can’t fix,” Alec said. He stood and took Sam’s hand. “She was stabbed in the heart. I can’t augment that. I can’t repair that. She lost too much blood.”
“What are you saying? Alec, with everything that we’ve done, what are you saying?”
“I’m sorry, Sam. She’s gone.”
Sam looked down at Elaine and grabbed the easar paper from Alec. She crouched next to Elaine, looking for something to write with. She reached over for Lyasanna’s sword, wanting only to stab at her hand, wanting to draw blood so that she could try an augmentation herself. Alec had taught her enough that she thought that she might be able to help. She didn’t need him to do this for her, especially if he refused…
Someone grabbed her and lifted her.
She turned to see Bastan.
“Samara. She’s gone. You’ve seen enough in your days to know that she’s gone.”
“But, Bastan, she’s…”
“I know what she was. I know who she was. But she’s gone.”
Sam sobbed, and Bastan pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her, hugging her, letting Sam rest her head on his chest. She beat on him, and he ignored the blows, ignored the pain he must feel as her fading augmented strength attacked him, content to simply hold on to her.
She shouldn’t feel like this, not for Elaine, not for someone who had never really been there for her, but it was her mother, and she had not had the opportunity to know her, not as she wanted. And now, she never would.
“We need to finish this,” Bastan said as her sobbing began to ease.
“I don’t know how,” she said.
“Whatever took place here needs to be done,” Bastan said.
Sam took a shaky breath and pulled away from Bastan. “The princess,” she said, motioning to Lyasanna where she lay motionless. She still breathed, unlike Elaine. Sam had half a mind to change that. “She intended to lead an attack on the Thelns. She had convinced the king,” she said.
“And him?” Bastan motioned to the prince. Alec was checking him, and rolled him over, and given the way he didn’t try to do anything, seemed content that his injuries weren’t significant.
“He was caught up in it,” Sam said.
“Why don’t we go and check on the king?”
“Bastan…”
Bastan looked over at her, a hint of a smile on his face. “What?”
“What do you intend to get out of this?”
“Samara, what do you take me for?”
“I take you for a businessman. I take you for an opportunist.”
Bastan chuckled. “Yes, well, that would be fitting, wouldn’t it? Let’s just say I have an interest in maintaining peace.”
“You have an interest in ensuring your powers aren’t disrupted.”
“Is that so different?” he asked.
The prince groaned as he started to awaken, and he sat up, grabbing his head. “Apothecary,” he said, looking over at Alec.
“He’s not an apothecary,” Sam said, grabbing the prince and jerking him to his feet. “He’s a physicker. And he’s my Scribe.”
The prince glanced from Sam to Alec before his gaze settled on Bastan. He looked beyond Bastan, to the men gathered behind him, his eyes wide. “And it seems you have your own army.”
“I have friends,” Sam said. “We need to check on your father.”
<
br /> The prince nodded, and they headed down the hall after him. They reached some stairs, and they made their way in a direction that Sam had never been, though perhaps that didn’t matter. They climbed the stairs, and at the top, they found a set of double doors closed. The prince pushed them open and led them inside.
A massive bed occupied much of the room. A thin man lay on the bed, his skin pale, and his arm stretched on either side. Needles were stuck in his arms.
Alec gasped. “They exsanguinated him.”
He rushed over and examined the king, but even from where Sam stood, she could tell that the king would not come around. He was gone. Lyasanna had drained him of all of his blood—and all of his power.
“Lyasanna did this?” the prince asked.
“She wouldn’t have been able to do this, not by herself. This is…” Alec closed his eyes, swallowing. “This was surgical.”
“That means the university,” the prince said.
Alec nodded.
“It was Helen,” Sam said, understanding what she’d said to her. “She did this.”
“Then we need to go to her,” the prince said.
33
The Master Physicker
Alec entered the university, trailed by Sam and Marin, with Bastan and a couple of his men along with them. Beckah remained in the palace, rescued after the attack from what had appeared to be Helen’s private cells. There had been a few other students, which left Alec thinking they might be Scribes… or had the potential to be.
The prince walked at his side, and it felt strange having him with him. A few people they passed in the hallway paused and glanced at Alec, but when their gaze fell on the prince, they hurried away.
Master Helen had disappeared sometime during the fight, and though they now had Lyasanna restrained in one of the cells, Alec was concerned about what she might do. How long would they be able to hold her?
And how long would any of this remain quiet in the city?
Maybe it didn’t matter. To most within the city, the ruling family was nothing more than that, and did little to influence their day-to-day lives, but he feared there might be a different sort of chaos within the city.
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