Amnesia: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “It wouldn’t be possible without… The Book? The Thelns used the Book on you?”

  “Not the Thelns. Someone else.”

  “Now is not the time, Samara,” Marin said.

  “I realize that. I don’t know that there’s ever going to be a time, but that doesn’t make it so that I will forgive you for that.”

  “Even knowing why?”

  “Even knowing why.”

  Boots thundered down the hall, and the prince jerked his head around. “We waited too long.”

  “Samara, how augmented are you?” Marin asked.

  “I’m augmented as well as I can be. They aren’t as strong as when Alec places them.

  “It’s not about the strength of the augmentation, it’s about having the benefit of it. The ones you place yourself will be longer-lasting, and you will be better able to resist an attack.”

  “I won’t have an augmentation,” Elaine said.

  “Because you never managed to master those skills,” Marin said. “If Samara can do it, then you can do it.”

  Elaine looked at Sam. As she did, a dozen people appeared in the hallway. Some of them carried swords and would be palace guards, though others didn’t. Kavers.

  “I’m not as strong as Samara,” Elaine said.

  “If they capture me, they will make certain the attack happens,” the prince said.

  Sam grunted. “Then I guess we can’t let them capture you.”

  She tapped her staff on the ground and surveyed the people in front of her. As she did, she focused on adding her own augmentation, and it swept through her slowly, a warning that she was already growing fatigued. How much longer would she be able to last?

  She glanced over to the prince. If he was trying to prevent Lyasanna from attacking the Thelns, then she had to work with him. She had to help him.

  Even if he wasn’t, she needed to get Marin out of here. Marin was the one who would be able to help her reach Tray.

  Sam tried to prepare herself, and as she did, the Kavers attacked.

  Four of them surged forward, their attention focused on Elaine.

  “If I could get a staff—” Marin said.

  Sam jumped forward, twisting in the air, and landed in the middle of the four Kavers. She drew their attention to her and flicked her staff, twisting it, catching one man on the wrist, the other on the ankle, and both of them staggered, but they didn’t fall.

  They were augmented.

  She spun, twisting again, bringing her staff around in a blur, needing only to separate one of them from a staff. If she could, she could even the odds a little.

  Elaine was fighting near her, but without augmentations—and without the same ability as what Sam had developed—she wouldn’t be of nearly as much use. She would be skilled—Sam had seen exactly how skilled Elaine was, even without augmentations—but she wouldn’t be as terrifying as these other Kavers were.

  Steel clashed with steel, and out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw the prince fighting, flashing through a series of movements with nearly as much skill as what she had seen from Bastan.

  Sam flipped her staff up, and she connected with an arm of one of the Kaver’s.

  She flicked her wrist, bringing her staff in so that it connected with his flank, and then she kicked. The kick separated his staff from him, and it went skittering over toward Marin.

  Marin darted forward, twisting through a series of movements, and joined Sam, standing side-by-side with her as they fought, pushing back the Kavers.

  “You really are quite skilled, Samara,” Marin said.

  “Is now really the time?” Sam asked.

  “I just thought you should know.” Marin grunted, spinning her staff. She was amazing to watch. Even augmented, Sam wasn’t sure that she would be able to defeat Marin. There was something about the way she flowed through the movements with her staff, the way she worked it through the air, that was almost otherworldly. She was able to do that without the same sort of augmentation that Sam relied upon. That amazed Sam, but she had to keep herself from staring for too long.

  One of the other Kavers smacked Sam in the back. She was thankful that it was her back, as she was able to stagger forward, catching herself before she fell, and spun her staff around, managing to defend herself.

  “I really do think it was good I began training you. If I hadn’t, can you imagine what might’ve happened?”

  “Can you imagine what would have happened had you only told me the truth?”

  “I told you, you never would have felt quite as devoted to Tray.”

  Marin flipped her staff around and caught two Kavers on the side of the head, and they crumbled.

  She slipped forward, positioning herself in the middle of the Kavers, and twisted her staff. Each time she did, she connected. More than how she was able to connect, taking down Kaver after Kaver, it was the way that she was able to evade the others and avoid attack.

  More people appeared.

  These were soldiers, but with the numbers that arrived, there wasn’t a way they could fight back.

  “We need to get out of here,” Elaine said. “We can’t fight off this many.”

  “Maybe you can’t,” Marin said.

  “No, she’s right. We need to find another way,” Sam said.

  “Besides, we need to get to the king.”

  “Kyza!” Marin flipped, landing on the other side of a row of Kavers, and twisted her staff, pushing them back. “Go. I will hold them off.”

  Elaine grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled her away. They reached for the prince who joined them, and they backed along the hall, heading toward a wide staircase at the opposite end. Marin stayed in front and single-handedly gave them time to retreat. Every so often, Sam felt compelled to join her, and when she did, she found that Marin already had things taken care of.

  They reached the stairs, and as they climbed, Sam could hear Marin continuing to hold off the Kavers. With Kavers in front of them, it was difficult to retreat with any speed.

  “You need to turn and face forward,” Marin said to Sam. “I don’t know what we will encounter at the top of the stairs—”

  As they rounded a landing, she came face-to-face with Lyasanna.

  “Samara. I don’t know what you think you’re doing—”

  “Sister,” the prince said, “I have you to thank for this?”

  “Jalen. You are a fool for getting them involved.”

  “Getting them involved? They were already involved. And what have you done with father?”

  “Father has ruled long enough.”

  “Father doesn’t rule. You know that.”

  “Helen has decided that father has been the figurehead long enough,” she said. “And considering that I have trained at the university, and that I am a Scribe, it is time for one of the Anders to truly rule in the city.”

  “Why you and not to me?”

  “Because I’m a Scribe.”

  Sam got in between Lyasanna and her brother, positioning herself so that she could keep the princess from harming him. She didn’t know what augmentation Lyasanna had, but if it was strength or speed, she needed to be able to block her from attacking.

  “Don’t make me strike you,” Sam said.

  “The moment you attack me, is the moment that your treason is complete,” Lyasanna said to Sam.

  “My treason? I’m not the one who sent a Kaver to murder an infant.”

  Lyasanna glared at her. “You know nothing, Samara.”

  “I know what you did. I know the kind of monster you are, and I know you will never lay a hand on Tray. Not as long as I have anything to do with it.”

  “What is this?” The prince step forward and jabbed at Lyasanna with his sword, but she simply stepped off to the side, twisting out of the way. Speed. At least Sam knew one of the augmentations she had. Perhaps not all of them, and perhaps she didn’t have the same level of speed that a Kaver might manage, but she avoided the prince’s sword easily.

  “
Oh, Jalen, don’t act as though you have never done anything immoral.”

  “What is this about a child?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Does father know?”

  Lyasanna grinned. “Why would it matter if father knows? Now that he will soon be abdicating the throne, handing over the rule to me, it makes no difference what father knows.”

  “We need to get to him,” Elaine hissed.

  “And you,” Lyasanna said, facing Elaine. “You are the greatest disappointment. You were supposed to ensure my safety. That is your task as my Kaver.”

  “My task? I have served the Anders a long time, and I have always done everything in my power to ensure your safety, but if what Marin said about you is true, I can no longer serve as your Kaver.”

  “You don’t get to decide to simply stop serving as my Kaver.”

  “I can choose. And I choose not to serve someone who would slaughter a helpless child.”

  “Even a Theln?”

  “Even a Theln.”

  The conversation was taking too long, and Sam realized almost too late that was the point. Guards appeared above them, dozens of them, and mixed in with them were a few more Kavers. They were on the stairs below and now on the stairs above. Attempting an attack on either front would be difficult. They were trapped.

  Lyasanna smiled. “You see, there is nothing you can do now.” She turned to the prince. “And you, brother, will need to come with me. I think that once you share with me who your Scribe is, I will have another way to set augmentations, and another way to ensure my position. It really is too bad you never wanted to train as a Kaver. If you had, perhaps you would be more formidable.”

  The Kavers on the stairs above and below surged toward them almost simultaneously, and Sam realized that they were trapped, and that there might be nothing that they could do to escape.

  She turned and saw the prince take a deep breath and pull a sheet of paper out from his pocket.

  Easar paper.

  He glanced past the princess and then looked at the Kavers approaching, before turning his attention down the stairs, to the hall below.

  “Have you ever wondered why I never trained with the Kavers?” he asked his sister. When Lyasanna frowned, a hint of a smile twisted his mouth. “Because you aren’t the only Scribe in our family.”

  With that, he pulled out a vial, and Sam realized that it was blood. He dipped his finger in it and quickly scrawled a few words on the paper.

  “You’re a Scribe?” Lyasanna asked. “Who is your Kaver?”

  “I thought she was dead for so long, only to learn recently that she still lives.”

  The sound of shouts beneath them rang out.

  Sam’s eyes widened. “Marin? I thought Jessup was her Scribe?”

  “I was the first.” The prince smiled at his sister.

  “Do you think that one Kaver is enough to stop all of this?”

  “I don’t know that we need to stop anything,” he said. “We merely need to get past you.”

  The Kavers began to push forward.

  Sam came to a decision.

  She flipped her staff and smacked Lyasanna on the side, sending her staggering. She twisted but didn’t fall. Sam flipped over her, landing amidst the oncoming Kavers. “I will buy time. Go check on your father,” she said to the prince.

  “You can’t do this, not alone,” he said. “Even the two of you.” He glanced back to where Elaine stood ready.

  “I have to. If you can stop an attack on the Thelns…” It wasn’t so much that Sam cared about the Thelns, it was that she cared that an attack on the Thelns meant an attack on Tray. If they attacked, if the Kavers made a push into the Thelns lands, it meant that Tray would be in even more danger than he already was.

  She started to work through movements, twisting with her staff, fighting against a pair of Kavers whose names she didn’t know. How many of these hidden Kavers had the princess summoned back home? How many had already been in the Thelns lands, positioned for an attack? How many more could still be in the palace?

  The Kavers she faced were skilled. They forced her back, and she was struck along the side, and then struck again, this time thrown forward.

  Kyza, but she wasn’t going to survive this.

  She hated the idea that she would die in the palace. There would have been a time when coming to the palace, and being here, learning what she had learned, would have seemed like all she would’ve wanted, but now? Now she would rather die in Caster. She would rather have Alec and Bastan and Tray with her.

  Sam fell, dropping to her knees.

  A staff struck her, and then another, the blows raining down.

  She heard a shout behind her and realized Elaine cried out.

  She had come all this way only to fail.

  31

  Gathering Troops

  After straining the pulpy mix, Alec flattened and stretched it across the table. It didn’t look like easar paper, but then again, he didn’t know what easar paper would look like when it was raw and unformed like this. Would it work?

  There wasn’t much of the swamp wood remaining, so in order for him to make more, they would have to find and harvest more of the roots, but for now, it might be enough that they tried this. He put what he’d stretched on a tray and headed out of his father’s shop, locking the door behind him.

  He needed to get back to Caster.

  He ran, hurrying through the streets, hoping he could find Sam and could get to Bastan. He needed eel meat so that he could feel a little stronger. The effort of working on the easar paper had drained him, and he was feeling run down, mentally tired and physically fatigued, and he wasn’t sure he would have the energy necessary if he needed to make even more paper.

  The city blurred past him. He kept himself focused on only one thing, and that was keeping upright, making his way toward Bastan and the others.

  Figures came toward him.

  Alec knew he should be concerned, especially with how quickly they were moving. They were storming toward him, dozens of them. As they approached, he realized most of them carried swords, not bothering to hide them.

  His tired mind had a hard time keeping things straight.

  He stepped off to the side of the street, not wanting to be jostled by these men—the soldiers—and someone grabbed him.

  Alec blinked and looked up. Bastan stared down at him, his silvery hair seeming to gleam in the early morning light.

  “Did it work?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m… I’m…”

  “You are tired,” Bastan said.

  All Alec could do was nod.

  Bastan took hold of Alec and helped lower him down against the wall, giving him enough space so that he could lie back. Alec kept the tray resting on his lap, not sure how long it would take for the mixture to dry. Bastan grabbed his face and pried his mouth open and shoved something in there. Alec tried to fight, forcing whatever it was out of his mouth, but then realized what it was Bastan was doing.

  He chewed.

  The eel meat was bitter, and each time he ate it, he felt the same way, but even with the first bite, he felt a growing warmth washing through him.

  “More,” he said.

  Bastan shoved another piece in his mouth.

  Alec chewed and began to feel more alert. He looked up and saw that dozens of men waited in the street, all of them armed.

  “What are you doing?”

  “It seems Samara has decided to break into the palace on her own.”

  “And you’re going after her?”

  “I’m at least going to make a show of going after her. With enough threat of force, I will—encourage—the palace to release her.”

  “Why would she go in there?”

  “The gods only know. She’s either after Marin or you, or she’s simply too stubborn to know she should’ve waited.”

  Alec took a deep breath and grabbed another piece of offered eel flesh. “Probably all of the
above.”

  “That was my thought. Now, we need to hurry, before the other arm of the attack takes place.”

  “The attack?”

  “It’s time for the palace to realize that those of us in the outer sections have some strength remaining. And considering what Sam has experienced, I am determined to do this now. Were it not for her, I might have waited. The timing isn’t quite right, but…”

  Bastan grabbed Alec’s hand and jerked him to his feet.

  “How much more do you need?”

  “All that you have,” Alec said.

  Bastan handed him a jar. Alec glanced at it and then looked up at Bastan. “You had this?”

  “Since you were injured, I made certain to have a supply on hand. I told you, I will look out for those who are mine.”

  “Am I now one of yours?”

  “Sam claims you, so I claim you.”

  Alec took another piece of the eel meat and chewed it slowly. He looked down at the tray and checked the paper. It was drying, but it wasn’t quite dry.

  “Is that it?” Bastan asked.

  “This is what I was able to make. I don’t know if it will work, but…”

  “But it is all that we have. I’ve tried finding more, but it seems there is no more to be found, at least not in the city.”

  “I think the university sources it from outside of the city. I think the Kavers bring it out of the Theln lands.”

  Bastan guided them through the streets, hurrying across bridges. As they went, Alec realized the bridges were unguarded. They went across them without having any challenge.

  “Bastan?”

  “I have removed most of them. I have advised them to return to their homes for their safety.”

  “Most of them?”

  “Some of them disappeared,” he said.

  “Where did they go?”

  Bastan shook his head. “All I can guess is that they were recalled to the palace.”

  As they neared the university section, the building gleaming in the distance, Alec felt a growing sense of trepidation. The physickers inside would not fight, and maybe they wouldn’t even be aware of a fight but going with Bastan like this meant that he was throwing himself in with people willing to go against the throne—and the Anders.