They reached the stairs leading up to the masters’ section, and Alec hesitated only a moment. He swept up the stairs and began opening doors.
“What are you looking for?” Sam asked.
“Any of them.”
“Why?”
Alec glanced back at her. Sam seemed remarkably well, especially considering what they had been through. He was surprised. He half-expected her to be suffering from the attack, but she didn’t seem to be. The easar paper had worked.
He, on the other hand, still struggled with the effects of the poisoning. He was tired—incredibly so, especially after what they had experienced. If only the easar paper could take that away. He’d have to continue to study to determine what it was Helen had done to him if he ever intended to recover completely. If he could recover completely.
“Master physickers were involved. I don’t know exactly what they were doing, but they were involved. And that needs to end now.”
“Do you think you can end it by yourself?” Sam asked.
“I’m hoping to, but if I can’t, that is why you are here.”
A part of him wanted to go to the hospital ward to see if the other physickers had managed to help any of those injured during the battle outside the university, but that could come later. He continued to open doors and glance inside. In one, he came across Master Carl.
“Come with me,” he said.
Master Carl looked up, and he started to say something until he realized that Alec was with the prince. He nodded quickly.
As they made their way down the hall, there were only a few master physickers present. He came across Master Harrison, and there was Master Carson and a few others.
Alec stopped at the end of the hall.
“Is this it?” the prince asked.
“What is this?” Master Carl asked, somehow finding it within him to summon a spine.
“We need to go down to the hospital ward,” Alec said.
They started down the stairs to the back access to the hospital ward, and when he entered, he found chaos. There were dozens of junior physickers all scrambling around, all stitching or working on the injured soldiers. A few full physickers worked, though not as many as what Alec would have expected. For a moment, he thought there were no master physickers, but then he saw Master Eckerd, moving from bed to bed, and surprisingly, Aelus.
Alec breathed out.
Master Eckerd saw him and made his way over. “Alec. We could use your—”
“How many Scribes remain?” Alec asked.
Master Eckerd glanced from Alec to those with him. “What is this about?”
“This is about an attempt to overthrow the power in the city,” the prince said. “This is about my father dying. This is about needing to create stability now.”
Master Eckerd blinked. “Alec—”
Alec shook his head. “We need to know. How many Scribes are missing?”
Eckerd breathed out heavily. “I don’t know how many Scribes. There never were that many to begin with, and of those on the ruling council…”
“Who sat on the ruling council?”
“Only three. Helen, Brendel, and…”
“And who?”
Eckerd looked over at Alec. “And Lyasanna.”
“She was on the ruling council?”
“She is one of the Anders,” Master Eckerd said.
And though she was now being held in a cell at the palace, the two Scribes were missing.
“The council needs to be replaced,” the prince said.
“It’s not that easy,” Master Eckerd said. “I don’t know much about it, as I didn’t sit on the council, but I know there are things that they were privy to that the rest of us were not.”
“Easy or not, it must be done. If we can’t trust them, we need to place those we can trust on the council.” The prince glanced to Alec. “Who do you trust?”
“You’re asking me?”
“I’m asking for your opinion.”
Alec looked back. He disliked Master Carl, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be trusted. He thought he could trust Master Eckerd, but could he? Which of the other remaining master physickers could be trusted?
The prince touched his arm. “I can see this is difficult for you.”
“It’s not that,” Alec said.
“Then I will choose. It will be you, Master Eckerd, and myself.”
Master Eckerd blinked. “The council is led by master physickers.”
“From what I’ve seen, Physicker Stross has the intellect to be a master physicker,” the prince said.
Eckerd considered Alec for a moment. “I won’t dispute that. I suspect were he tested, he would easily pass to master level, but I’m more concerned about you.”
“There is no need for you to be concerned about me.”
“The council has always been comprised of master physickers and an Anders. That Anders was a Scribe. And from what I can gather, you are a Kaver.”
“Not a Kaver, and though I haven’t spent any time in the university, it’s not as if I have no training. There is another who can vouch for me.”
Alec frowned, wondering who might be able to vouch for the prince. It was shocking enough to learn that he was a Scribe, and it was even more surprising to learn he had studied, training as a physicker.
“I can vouch for him,” Master Carl said. Alec turned, and Master Carl shrugged. “I’ve been working with him for the last ten years. He never wanted it known he was training with me, so I have kept that secret. I didn’t know any other way to teach, so I trained him as I would any student physicker.”
Master Eckerd glanced from Alec to the prince. “It seems we need to hold a testing for two master physickers.” He turned his attention to the hospital ward, looking at all of the activity. “But first, there is something else we must do. We need to settle all of this down, and then we can talk.”
Alec nodded. “I will help.”
“As will I,” Jalen said.
Epilogue
Sam waited for Alec, sitting in his now cleaned room, staring at the wall, unable to do anything else. She hated waiting, but what choice did she have? When he returned, his hands stained with blood, his eyes weary, she stood. “You need eel meat.”
He sighed. “Eventually.”
“I can send Bastan for some.”
“Thank you,” he said. He sank into the chair at his desk and looked up at Sam, weary. “We helped as many as we could, and… It was good.”
She smiled. She enjoyed seeing Alec like this, enjoyed seeing the way that he worked with the patients in the hospital, and she realized that this suited him.
“Bastan found something,” she said.
“What did he find?” Alec asked, resting his arms on the desk and leaning forward.
“While trying to secure the palace, he came across a storeroom the princess had. Within it were stacks of easar paper.”
Alec blinked. “Stacks?”
“That was why she had recalled all of Kavers. She had sent word that they needed to steal as much easar paper as possible and bring it back into the city. We knew she had, but I never imagined it would have been so much. She intended to use it to complete her attack. But that’s not all,” Sam said.
“What else?”
She handed Alec a folded sheet of paper, and he took it, blinking his weary eyes a moment until they cleared enough for him to read the contents of the page.
“All of them?” Alec asked.
“So it seems. I don’t know how they managed it, but all of the Kavers we faced had been influenced. Master Helen was far more skilled than we realized. You need to see what she did, the way she documented.”
“We need to find her,” Alec said. “I don’t know what more she can do, but if she manages to attack here again…”
“I can’t stay, not in the city.”
“You still intend to go after Tray?”
“I have to. He’s been gone so long, and with what just happened�
�”
“I can’t go,” Alec said. “I’m needed here, at least until all of this settles down.”
Sam smiled. “I know.”
“Sam—”
She crouched next to him, taking his hands, trying not to think about the blood that had stained them. “I need to find Tray. I need this to be over.”
“And what happens if the Thelns attack when you go?”
“I have a plan for that,” Sam said.
“What plan?”
“I intend to offer a trade.”
Alec blinked, and it was a moment before understanding came to his eyes. “Oh, Sam, you can’t really intend to do that. You can’t intend to use her like that. How is that any different from anything they have done?”
“She needs to pay for what she has done. We need to have a lasting peace with the Thelns. And…”
“And what?” Alec asked.
“And we need to understand why Scribes who go to their lands don’t return. I think… I think it’s better that you stay here. I would be too afraid of what might happen if you went.”
Alec blinked, and it was a measure of his fatigue that he only nodded. “When do you intend to go?”
“I don’t know. Probably soon. I need to make some preparations, and I want to make sure that everything is stable here, but then…”
Alec breathed out. “At least that will give us some time together before you go.”
Sam smiled and pulled him close, hugging him. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave you.”
“I know.”
“I wish we could just be together and understand what it means for us to be Kaver and Scribe.”
“I don’t.”
Sam swallowed and pushed back. “You don’t?”
Alec shook his head. “I want to know what it could be like for us to be Alec and Sam.”
Sam pulled him close and embraced him again. “I want that too.” She feared they might never know what that was like. She feared that, with everything they had to do, she would always be left wondering. She feared she wouldn’t be able to return from the Theln lands.
She couldn’t tell Alec any of that. Instead, she just remained in his arms, letting him hug her, and hugging him back. For now, they would have this moment together, even though both knew it wouldn’t last.
Don’t miss the final volume of The Book of Maladies: Exsanguinated!
Looking for another exciting fantasy read? Check out book 1 of The Dragonwalker: Dragon Bones
Dragons have been gone from the world for centuries, though their power remains.
A war fought a thousand years ago removed the destructive threat of dragons, allowing fire mages to use the magic stored within their bones to protect the empire for millennia. The empire has known a fragile peace, held together by that ancient magic.
Fes has always longed for stability. Raised within the slums of the empire, taught to steal and hurt others to make his way, when he’s discovered by the emperor’s chief fire mage, he’s given a chance to use his particular gift for gathering lost dragon relics to become something more.
An encounter with a priest in possession of a dragon bone reveals the existence of a new power that threatens to return the long dead dragons to the world. Chased by the dangerous enemies, Fes travels into the bleak lands of the Dragon Plains before others can reach it. If he survives, what he discovers means the continued safety of the empire and a promise of wealth and freedom. If he fails, the deadly power of the dragons might return.
Yet, with a growing and unexplainable magic within him, it’s the promise of understanding who he truly is that might be the most valuable, only it’s the same power that leaves him with questions some within the empire don’t want answered.
Dragon Bones is the exciting first book in an epic new fantasy series.
Names and Terms
People:
Aelus Stross: An apothecary and skilled healer. Alec’s father
Alec Stross: a physicker
Bastan: a thief who essentially runs Caster
Elaine: Sam’s mother. Kaver.
Hyp: a moneylender in the Arrend section who frequents Aelus’s shop
Kevin: Bastan’s employee
Lyassana Anders: Princess, Scribe to Elaine
Mags: a painter with a unique talent
Marcella Rubbles: owner of a stationary store in Arrend
Marin: a Kaver who had a dangerous assignment
Master Carl: Master Physicker, unpleasant to Alec
Master Eckerd: Master Physicker, mentor to Alec
Master Helen: Master Physicker
Ralun: A Theln
Rynance Vold: A dangerous man
Samara (Sam) Elseth: a thief
Trayson (Tray) Elseth: Sam’s brother
Places and Terms:
Arrend section: a merchant section
Balan Day: a day to celebrate the festival god
canal eels: possibly mythical creatures living in the canals
Callesh section: a merchant section
Caster section: a lowborn outer section of the city
Central Canal: the canal that separates the lowborn sections from the merchants and highborns
Drash section: a merchant section
easar paper: magical paper
Farnum section: a merchant section
Highborn: a term for the wealthier living in the center of the city
Hosd section: a lowborn section near the swamp
Jaku section: a highborn section where easar paper was found.
Kyza: one of the many gods worshipped in Verdholm
Lostin section: a merchant section
Lowborn: a term for people living in the outer sections of the city
Lycithan: a southern nation. Known for their skilled artisans.
Narvin Plains: east of the city, thin stretch of land
Physicker: healers with specialized training at the university
Piare River: connects to Ralan Bay and the canals
Ralan Bay: a trading hub along the coast of Verdholm
Sacred Alms: the healing religion Alec follows
Sornum: Bastan’s tavern
Thelns: dangerous brutes
Valun: a country known for various artifacts, including the stout rope Sam uses
Verdholm: an isolated city situated near the coast with canals running through it separating it into different sections
Yisl: one of the many gods worshipped in Verdholm
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading Poisoned: The Book of Maladies. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.
I’m also always happy to hear from readers! Email me at [email protected]. I try to respond to each message. Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook as well!
Review link HERE.
All my best,
D.K. Holmberg
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
The Book of Maladies
Wasting
Broken
Poisoned
Tormina
Comatose
Amnesia
Exsanguinated
The Collector Chronicles
Shadow Hunted
Shadow Games
Shadow Trapped
The Shadow Accords
Shadow Blessed
Shadow Cursed
Shadow Born
Shadow Lost
Shadow Cross
Shadow Found
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowstee
l Forge
The Guild Secret
Rise of the Elder
The Sighted Assassin
The Binders Game
The Forgotten
Assassin’s End
The Teralin Sword
Soldier Son
Soldier Sword
Soldier Sworn
Soldier Saved
Soldier Scarred
Amnesia: The Book of Maladies Page 28