The Shifter

by Janice Hardy

  “Tali will need food when we get here.” I handed her three oppas. “Buy enough to last a few days.”

  “This is too much for a few days’ food.”

  “I need you to stay here and wait for Tali. You’ll miss work. The extra should cover it.”

  She chewed her bottom lip as if she hadn’t thought about that. “Thanks.”

  “Thank you.” I hugged her. She smelled like coffee. “Remember what I said about Danello. Don’t forget about them.” And don’t run off and sell the pynvium yourself. I didn’t mean to think it, but it popped in there anyway. Aylin wasn’t a bad person, or a desperate one. She’d do as I asked, despite her distrust of the pain merchants, even with a year’s rent, food, and maybe even a new dress in her hands.

  I hoped.

  “I won’t.”

  “I’ll be back in a few hours. I’m getting Tali out this time if I have to carry her past the Luminary on my back.”

  Sunrise cast Geveg in pale gold. I hurried along with tavern cooks and kitchen mistresses on their way to market ’til the street forked, then crossed the bridge and found myself alone except for the always-present soldiers. League Circle was unusually empty of the hurt and hopeful. Maybe they’d all been turned away yesterday and had accepted there’d be no healing for a while. Except for those willing to pay a Duke’s ransom through the back door.

  Of course, no one else knew that part; otherwise there’d be lots of people here, shouting and waving rakes and fishing poles, or whatever weapons they could find. I’d seen such anger before. And seen how little it mattered.

  I pulled the white scarf off my head and shifted the “laundry” to my hip. Just a simple apprentice returning with her clean clothes. I’d put Tali’s uniform back on, so the gate guard nodded with little more than a glance and yawned. I nodded back and walked through the gate.

  Without people in it, the antechamber seemed twice as big, my footsteps twice as loud. I struggled against tiptoeing. Apprentices didn’t need to sneak into their own house, but I stepped as lightly as I could anyway. Past the guard outside the dorms. Through the treatment ward, down the hall of closed doors, and finally to the stairs that led to Tali. I grabbed the rail and started to climb.

  “Where are you going?”

  Oh, for the love of Saint Saea, did they have people watching these steps? I turned. A stern-faced woman stood at the base of the stairs, four gold cords coiled on her shoulder.

  “What?” I asked.

  “That way’s restricted.”

  “I’m relieving Lanelle for breakfast.” I tried to look bored, look normal, look like this was the most natural thing in the world for me to do.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Tatsa.” I winced. Did they keep records about who they sent upstairs? “I’m running a little late. Lanelle must think I forgot about her.” I chuckled and waved a hand toward the upper levels. “Can I go now?”

  The reasonable request battled with whatever lie the Elders had told everyone about letting folks up the stairs. Her brows wrinkled and she glanced around.

  “No one told me Lanelle had a replacement.” The clock tower rang seven, its bell sharp in the quiet morning. “Come with me while I verify this with an Elder.” She glanced down the hall, then grabbed my wrist.

  Whoomp. The pynvium beads of Aylin’s bracelet triggered under the pressure and flashed. My wrist and hand tingled, but whoever had enchanted the beads had done a good job. The pain flashed up and out, over the fourth cord’s hand.

  She yelped and snatched her hand away, staring at me with wide eyes.

  “Why do you have—”

  I tackled her, leaping off the stairs like a frog from a tree. She squealed as I knocked her to the floor; then her cry shifted to a wheezy gasp. It was only a matter of seconds until she caught her breath and fought back. Running I was good at, but fighting? I swung the sack, slamming it against her head. Her head flew back and cracked against the tile. She stilled.

  For a terrible second I thought I’d killed her, but then she groaned. I felt my way in real quick and sighed. Just unconscious, not even a bone bruise. She’d be out for a bit, but not nearly long enough for me get Tali.

  I scanned the hall, but no one dashed into view to see what all the noise had been about. Moving her would take time Tali might not have, but I couldn’t leave her there. Folks might be willing to overlook a lot of things in the League these days, but an unconscious fourth cord on the floor wasn’t likely to be one of them.

  Trembling, I dragged her to one of the empty treatment rooms down the hall and plopped her behind a cot. Doubtful anyone would be using the room this early. I bound her hands and feet with her cords, which seemed pretty fitting to me, then shoved Aylin’s scarf into her mouth. With luck, no one would go looking for her until Tali and I were gone.

  I slipped out of the room and resumed my climb. Kione leaned against the door at the end of the hall, same as before. He stood straight as a soldier as I stepped onto the landing, then slumped his shoulders when he saw it was me.

  “I’d hoped you weren’t going to show up.”

  “Well, I’m here.” I fought the urge to look behind me.

  He eyed my “laundry” but didn’t say a word, like we agreed. With a deep breath, he opened the door and walked inside. “Hey, Lanelle, your relief’s here. Let me buy you breakfast.”

  Lanelle yawned and smoothed the wrinkles in her white uniform. Behind her was a cot with a green vest lying across the foot. She’d slept here?

  “I’m starving,” she told Kione, then turned to me. “Do I have time to wash, or do you need to get back soon?”

  Take all day, you horrible, heartless rat. I forced a smile. “You have time. They don’t need me in the ward until this afternoon.”

  She grabbed her vest and slipped it over her skinny shoulders. “They’ve been quiet all night. The two under the lamp there are looking rather waxy, so you might want to check on them more often. They might not last the day.”

  I gripped the pynvium tighter. “I’ll check them.”

  “Come on, Lanelle, I’m hungry.” Kione tugged at her arm.

  “And if Elder Vinnot comes by early, my symptom report is on the table there. Three of the symptoms he asked me to watch for have manifested. He’ll want any bodies too.” She paused and glanced at the beds. “For dissection, I mean, so they can figure out what’s causing this.” She spoke in a rush, as if trying to convince both of us that was the truth.

  She had to know they were lying. Impossible for her to spend time in this room and not figure out what was wrong. I fought the urge to shove her through the door and out the nearest window.

  “And if—”

  “I’m starving here, Lanelle.”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

  Kione gave me a quick nod as he shut the door.

  I ran to Tali. She was still breathing, still pale, and still alive. I ripped open my bundle. “Tali? I have pynvium. Wake up, Tali, you have to dump the pain. Hurry, we don’t have much time.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and she cried softly, like a kitten.

  I grabbed her hand and shoved a chunk of pynvium into it. “Feel it? Fill it up.”

  She whimpered and shook her head slowly.

  “You can do it, Tali. Push, please, for me.” For an instant, I felt it, a quiver under my fingers as she pushed her pain away. I handed her another. “Now this one.”

  A sob burst from her lips and broke my heart. Her hands shook, barely able to hold the pynvium, let alone grab it.

  “Please try.”

  Another tingle, another injury thrown away. One by one I passed her chunks of hope, begged her to find the strength to shove the pain away. Prayed that no one would find the fourth cord tied up downstairs anytime soon.

  Her hands stopped shaking on the seventh chunk. On the tenth, her color returned. By the twelfth, her sunken cheeks had filled in a little. I handed her the thirteenth chunk, hardly bigger than a chicken’s eg
g. “Last one, Tali. Push as hard as you can.”

  She did, and though pain shone in her watery eyes, awareness did too. “Where. Get this?”

  “A pain merchant. I’ll explain later, but we have to get out of here right now. Can you stand?”

  She struggled to sit up, then fell back with a pained yelp. “No. Hurts.”

  I touched her heart and forehead. Still so much pain, but I sensed something else—something worse. The thickening of her blood, like Danello. Saints have mercy. Takers weren’t immune; they only needed more pain over more time before it killed them too.

  I was out of pynvium. She was out of time.

  “Tali, listen to me carefully, because I may not be able to tell you afterward. When you leave here, go right to Aylin’s.”

  “Leave?”

  “Do you remember where Aylin lives?”

  She hesitated. “Yes.”

  “Go to her right away. She’ll have food for you, and clean clothes. She’ll take you to a boy named Danello and his family. You’ll need to heal them. She’ll have pynvium to hold it.”

  “How?”

  I took her hands. “Get to Danello’s as fast as you can, Tali. They don’t have much time left before their pain kills them.”

  “Nya. Don’t.” Tears flowed across her temples toward her ears.

  Eyes closed, I pressed my forehead to hers. “I love you, Tali.”

  I kissed her cheek and drew.

  TWELVE

  Agony swiped my knees out from under me. I collapsed beside Tali’s cot, knives twisting in my lungs, needles stabbing my belly. Aches I didn’t even have names for ate away at my joints. I moaned, and even that hurt. How had Tali withstood so much for so long?

  “Oh no, Nya, no!” Tali slipped out of the cot and knelt on the floor beside me, moving gingerly, as if she expected everything to hurt. That was my job now.

  “Run,” I wheezed. “Hurry.”

  “Why did you do it? You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “Go. Danello. Needs. You.”

  She hugged me. “I won’t leave you.”

  “Go!”

  “Not without you.”

  The fourth cord I’d tackled might be conscious by now, and someone would find her soon—if they hadn’t already. I gritted my teeth and gathered as much pain as I could in the hollow place between my heart and guts. The pain eased a bit, but I couldn’t hold it there long. My fingers tingled, needing me to push the gathered pain away.

  If only I could.

  “Tali, you have to go,” I gasped, struggling to hold on to the words. “If they catch you, they might kill you.”

  Anger darkened her face. “They already tried to do that.”

  “Then get out before they try again.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  The door opened and Tali sucked in a gasp.

  “Tali,” I whispered fast, “tears.” Crying would give her away for sure. No one working in this room would cry over a bunch of useless, orphaned ’Vegs.

  She cocked her head at me, then her fingers darted up and smeared away her tears. Even in the dim light, I could tell she’d been crying.

  “You will never believe what happened!” Lanelle said in a fearful rush. I didn’t hear Kione or another set of footsteps. Was she alone? Moving hurt too much to check. “Elder Nostomo found Sersin tied up in treatment room three. Can you believe it? The guards are everywhere. The entire League has been sealed!”

  I shifted my head a little, and fresh pain washed over me. I took stomach-settling breaths and prayed Tali had time to escape.

  “Was she hurt?” Tali asked. Sweet of her to care, but now was not the time to worry over folks who wanted her dead. She wasn’t a Healer today, at least not until she got out of the League and over to Danello’s.

  “I don’t know. She’s still unconscious. I heard there was blood on the floor!”

  Blood? How could I have missed blood? Hasty hands do no good, as Grannyma used to say. Tali had to leave, now.

  “Why would anyone attack Sersin?” Lanelle came into my line of sight and jerked to a stop, a flush across her face. “What happened? Did she fall out of bed?” It almost sounded like real concern.

  “Um, she had a seizure.”

  “Really? That’s a new symptom, but it isn’t on the watch list. Elder Vinnot says we’ll learn enough about pain from watching them to develop entirely new treatments, maybe even some that don’t require pynvium at all! He’s doing special research for the Duke himself, and he’s even letting me help. I’ve been writing it all down in my notebook. How long did the seizure last?”

  “I, uh…”

  Tali had never been a quick liar. As a child, if she broke a vase, she said the crocodiles had done it. Forgot her homework—the lake wind had blown it out the window.

  “Oohhh.” I started twitching and moaning, even gurgled up a bit of spit. I barely had to fake it this time.

  Lanelle grimaced, and shame flashed across her pink cheeks. “What am I thinking? We’d better get her back into bed first.”

  “Probably best.”

  She knelt and reached toward me, then stopped. Her brows wrinkled. “Is this the same—”

  “You grab her shoulders,” Tali said quickly, nudging Lanelle forward so she wasn’t staring at my face. “I’ll get her legs.”

  I slipped a sigh into my next moan. Not much of a liar, but she could think on her feet when she had to.

  Lanelle lifted me gently, not putting too much pressure on any one spot. More care than I was expecting, but then she’d been dealing with the pain-filled apprentices for days now. I bet she handled them carefully so they didn’t scream and give her a headache.

  They got me “back” onto the cot. My skin burned as Tali draped the blanket over me. I swallowed my cry but couldn’t stop the shakes.

  Please don’t let her notice. She had to hold herself together, and she couldn’t do that worrying over me. I gathered the pain again, shoved it away best I could.

  “Did you, um, need me to stay?” Tali asked. “I could help for a while longer.”

  Maybe I’d been too fast to praise her quick thinking. I tried to force Tali, leave into her brain with a glare, but she wouldn’t look at me. Lanelle stood by my shoulder, peering at Tali with that same funny look she’d given me. We looked an awful lot alike, and in the dim light might even pass as twins, but my guts said Lanelle wasn’t as dumb as she seemed.

  “What was your name again?”

  Panic shook loose my hold on the pain. It raced through me, and sweat tickled over my body like tiny spiders. A gasp burst its way out, and a sob followed close behind.

  Tali dropped to one knee and grabbed my hand. “Ny—no, no, don’t fight it.”

  “Go,” I whispered.

  Her eyes widened like I’d given us up. She swallowed and patted my hand. “That’s right, let it go.”

  If only I had enough strength left to kick her.

  Lanelle tugged at her shoulder. “Leave her be. She’ll feel better once she falls back asleep. It’s the only thing that’s helped them so far.”

  “I guess so.” Tali stood, gazing at me with far too much worry on her face. Lanelle’s had too much suspicion.

  My fingers tingled again, clearly seeing what my fuzzy mind had missed. I didn’t need pynvium to dump my pain—I just needed a place to put it. Lanelle was helping them. She deserved to know what it felt like to be in one of these cots, didn’t she? They lied to her too—she might not know. I tried to shut up a conscience that sounded a lot like Grannyma.

  Lanelle stood at the head of my cot, a few feet from my shoulder. The distance kept changing, shifting to and fro like waves on the shore. I closed my eyes a moment to squash down the pain again and focus. This wasn’t about me but all of them. Lanelle could help them by helping me and Tali escape. The sacrificial cow to save the herd.

  “I’m Lanelle, by the way. Not sure we were ever introduced.”

  “Tali.”

  I
almost heard her gulp. She glanced at me and I curled my fingers toward me as best I could. Get her closer.

  “That sounds familiar.”

  “I guess I told you before then. Or maybe we had a class together?”

  “Maybe.” She frowned and pointed a finger at Tali. “Why is your uniform so wrinkled?”

  “I, uh…”

  I strained to sit up, lunge my crippled body at Lanelle, grab her by the ankles, and get rid of the hurt. My focus dropped again, and pain shattered under my skin.

  Tali sucked in her breath and took a small step toward me. I mouthed no, gathered the pain yet again, and curled my fingers.

  Lanelle folded her arms across her chest. “Okay, what’s going on here? You’re acting strange.”

  Tali gasped and yanked her gaze away. “I fell asleep on your cot,” she blurted.

  “You fell asleep?” Lanelle repeated as if she wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Yeah, silly, huh?” Tali chuckled. “So, you were saying before, about Sersin being attacked?”

  Lanelle gaped for a moment longer; then gossip won out over suspicion. “Can you believe it? They found her tied up in one of the treatment rooms with her own cords!”

  “That’s terrible. Are we in any danger up here?”

  “I don’t think so. Kione’s guarding the door.” Lanelle took a step toward it—and toward me. My fingers twitched. Almost in reach.

  Clink!

  Pynvium rattled. The sack!

  “What’s this?”

  “That’s, um…”

  Lanelle knelt and opened the sack, then jerked back as if something with teeth had popped out of it. “There’s pynvium in here!”

  “Really?”

  Even I didn’t buy Tali’s innocent tone.

  The door slammed open and footsteps thudded in. Several people in boots, which meant guards. Lanelle scrambled up, her face pale. Tali went white as her underdress.

  “Good morning, girls,” said a man with a smooth, commanding voice. It was almost gentle unless you listened closely—then you heard the edge to it. A serrated one too, not a blade that would cut cleanly.

  Lanelle clasped her hands behind her back. “Morning, sir.”