Tormina: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “It is. Apparently, he’s some high-ranking Theln, and Elaine was quite concerned by the fact that he returned to the city, and now she thinks…”

  When Sam didn’t finish, Alec frowned. “Now she thinks what? Is that why you’re training as hard as you are? She thinks he’s after you, doesn’t she?”

  Sam breathed out heavily. “That’s what she’s afraid of.”

  “Is that why you finally came to me? You wanted me to know that Ralun might be after you? I’m happy to place whatever augmentations you need to defeat him, Sam, but I need to know what’s going on so that I can help you.”

  “That’s not why I came to find you,” she said.

  “No? You would’ve kept that from me?”

  “Only because there’s nothing I can do about it. Elaine has made it quite clear that I’m not allowed to go after Ralun, and without the support of the Kavers, I don’t know that it even makes sense for me to try. Besides, there’s something else that is more important.”

  “Not the Book. We’ve already talked about it. You can’t go after the Book, not without knowing more about it.”

  Sam glowered at him. “That’s not what I was going to say, and you can’t tell me not to go after the Book. It’s the only hope I have of getting my memories back. But Helen believes that even destroying that page might not work. I need to know what Marin did so that I can remove its effects. I need to know more about what happened before I lost all of my memories.”

  “What will that change?” Alec asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe nothing. Maybe all it does is show me that I had a mother who cared about me, rather than this hard woman who wants nothing more than to train me and hone me into a Kaver so that I can effectively defend the princess. I need to know that there was something more once. If Ralun is in the city, and if he has access to the Book, I need to get to him so I can get my hands on it.”

  “I thought you said that wasn’t why you were here.”

  “It isn’t. Not totally. Listen, I don’t know if there’s any way for me to get to Ralun, but if there is, I’ll need to be careful approaching him. I know better than to attack him without your support.” She looked up at him before glancing back at the university. “But there is something else. The night I was attacked… When I awoke, bound to a chair in some strange room, there was someone there.”

  “Why do I get the feeling that this is someone I should be afraid of?”

  “I don’t know if you should be afraid of him, but he’s a physicker. Marin’s Scribe.”

  Alec’s breath caught. “Marin? You were held captive by Marin’s Scribe?”

  Sam nodded. “It was the same night that I followed Tray. It was Ralun who captured me and took me to this Scribe. Tray was there when I was attacked, but for some reason, the Scribe didn’t seem to know that we had lost Marin. He wanted me to bring her to him or maybe he wanted to take me to her, I don’t really know, but either way, he didn’t know that Tray had her.”

  “Why is that significant?”

  “It’s significant because Tray could have told him that he had Marin. But he didn’t.”

  There was anguish on her face. Alec hated how much this was hurting her, and hated that he had to push, but they needed to know, especially as there were so many questions that remained with Tray and his involvement with the Thelns.

  If it were Alec in a similar situation, wouldn’t he want to know more about who he was and what it meant for him to be a Theln? He knew that he would, much as he suspected Tray did.

  What would happen if Tray decided that he was pleased by what he’d learned? What would happen if he decided he wanted to work with and side with the Thelns?

  How much danger did that put all of them in?

  He knew that it would cause problems for Sam. She had a soft spot for Tray, regardless of how that had gotten there. He was a weakness, and maybe the only weakness Sam had.

  “And when you escaped?”

  “When I escaped, I didn’t think about bringing him with me. I thought only of getting to safety.”

  “Which means that he got away.”

  “That’s what it means. I went back after escaping, but he’d already disappeared. I don’t know where he went or where Tray is now. I haven’t seen him since that night.”

  “You want to find this man, and you think I have some way of doing so?”

  “He’s a Scribe, and he was wearing a physicker jacket.”

  “If he’s a Scribe, it likely means he’s a master physicker.”

  “That was my concern, but Elaine tried to convince me that would be unlikely.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because she thinks that all of the master physickers would have been screened, and that if one of them was working with Marin, they would have known about it.”

  “And you don’t agree.”

  “I don’t know if I should agree. Marin was able to deceive us—me—for an incredibly long time. Who’s to say her Scribe isn’t doing the same thing?”

  Sam reached out and grabbed his arm, and Alec didn’t pull away. He enjoyed the comfort of her touch, and as that realization set in, so did everything that Beckah and his father had been teasing him about. Could he allow himself to feel for Sam? Or was that dangerous, especially given their connection? Ruining that would only lead to problems. A Kaver and Scribe only connected rarely, and the fact that they had such a connection, and that they got along as well as they did, was something that he needed to treasure and protect not ruin by his foolish feelings toward her.

  “Listen, if her Scribe was a master physicker, then you would need to find someone who has been away from the university for a while,” Sam said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Alec asked. “Marin was still active in the city. It only stands to reason that her Scribe remained active, which means he might still be at the university.”

  “Who do you think it might be?”

  Alec tried to think of the different master physickers, wondering if any of them could be tied to Marin. There were quite a few he suspected to be Scribes, but that secret was kept from him. It seemed to be reserved for the master physickers, those like Master Eckerd or Master Helen, and not for any of the students with potential.

  Could it be someone like Master Carl?

  He didn’t care for the man, but he had a sharp mind and would certainly have been skilled enough to be a Scribe. He had some political ambition also, and that seemed fitting with a Scribe, somehow.

  “You have someone in mind?”

  “I’m just thinking through the different master physickers and who it might be,” Alec said. “Did you get a good look at him?”

  “Only as I attacked him once you augmented me,” Sam said. “He was mostly in shadows. When I broke free, the lantern broke, and I wasn’t able to see him. I ran before I got a good look at him.”

  “That’s unfortunate. If you had seen him, I could have brought you into the university, perhaps playing the part of someone with an illness, and maybe you could have identified him.”

  “I heard him talk. Would that help?”

  Alec tried to think of a way that Sam might be able to recognize the voice of her captor, but struggled. There weren’t many times when all of the master physickers came together, which made it unlikely that there would be an opportunity for her to identify him by voice.

  “I could still come in and play the sick role,” she said, covering her mouth and coughing forcefully. “See? And if you really needed to create something, you could use easar paper, and give me some mild illness that would be unexplainable.”

  Alec smiled to himself. That wasn’t a terrible idea, if only because the easar paper wouldn’t lead to a permanent deficit. It would be temporary, which was all he would allow Sam to have.

  “Even if that worked, I doubt it would make a difference. When people come in sick, they’re assigned a junior physicker, and it’s only the illnesses that are more challenging that are given to a master ph
ysicker and the students. And since I don’t know how the assignments are made, I wouldn’t be able to ensure which of the master physickers you’d be assigned to.”

  Maybe it had something to do with interest, or maybe it had something to do with skill level. Some of the master physickers were more skilled than others, especially when it came to certain areas.

  “Let me look into it. I can see if there’s any way that we can come up with something that might work so that we can bring you in.”

  “I don’t like waiting. If he’s out there—”

  “I’ll work quickly,” Alec said. “But I don’t want you going off and doing something stupid in the meantime.”

  “Stupid?”

  “You know what I mean. Without any augmentations, if there are Thelns in the city, you’re in danger. Ralun was hard enough for us to defeat the first time.”

  “I know. I seem to remember being the one who had to combat him.”

  “And I seem to remember being the one who granted you the augmentations you needed so that you could.” He stared at her. “Please, Sam. With you out there on your own, I worry about whether you’re in danger or harmed or any number of other things that could happen. And as with your recent capture, I would have no way of knowing. My decision to augment you when you needed it was pure guesswork. Just… I know you have to go, but whatever it is you do, do me a favor and just be careful.”

  “Now you’re starting to sound like Elaine.”

  “You’re equating me to your mother?”

  “Well, not necessarily my mother, but… Well, I suppose, Elaine is my mother, but not in quite the same way. We don’t have that maternal connection, so to speak.”

  “Please, Sam. I don’t like not knowing if you’re in any danger. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

  She sighed. “You’re right. I will be careful. I promise not to go running into danger, if you promise to do all that you can to search for information about who this master physicker might be.”

  “And if he’s no longer with the university?”

  “If he’s not, there has to be some record of him,” Sam said. “And if he still is with the university, you need to search for who it might be. See if there is some way you can bring all of the master physickers together, maybe.”

  “I doubt that would be quite possible, but I can look into who might have had a connection to a Kaver in the past.” If only he could find Master Eckerd. If he could, then he might be able to discover who had that Scribe-Kaver connection. “And Sam?”

  She turned back to him, arching a brow.

  “Don’t wait so long to come back and visit. I…” Alec flushed. Should he tell her what he was feeling? Could he not? It seemed that she deserved to know, but it also was difficult for him to be that honest with her. Then again, if he wasn’t honest with her, would he miss out on the opportunity to do so? “I miss you,” he said.

  Sam watched him for a moment, and in that brief moment, fears rushed into Alec’s mind, fear that she might be upset with him, or that she might disregard his affection, or countless other possibilities. He hated feeling that way. He was always accustomed to being in control of his emotions, of being the one who knew rather than feeling uncertainty. Even when he did face uncertainty, one of the things about healing that he loved was that he knew where to go to find answers. With Sam and his uncertainty about how he felt toward her, he didn’t know where he could go or who he could turn to.

  “I miss you, too,” she said. “I wish… I wish we could go back to training together, rather than being separated, but I think Elaine is right. I think that I am too dependent on my augmentations, and I haven’t taken the opportunity to discover what other talents I might have. And from what I am learning, there are other talents that Kavers possess, and if I can learn those, you and I can be more effective together. I’m hopeful we can work together again soon. That we can be together…” she said, her voice trailing off at the end.

  Alec stood for a moment before rushing over and giving her a quick hug. He enjoyed feeling that closeness with her even if it was only for a moment, and even if it couldn’t last. When she stepped away, she gave him a small smile, then turned and flipped out over the water, twisting her staff back down and hopping across the canal, never touching the surface of the water, all without an augmentation.

  She had improved. That was something she never would have been able to do before, and he marveled at her skill, knowing that for her, he needed to improve. She deserved that.

  And they needed to find answers. They would, working together. He would uncover who might be Marin’s Scribe, and he would get that information to her so they could uncover whatever deception might exist within the university, if there was one.

  Alec turned back to the university, smiling to himself. All it took was that brief time with Sam for him to feel better. Maybe Beckah and his father were right. Maybe his feelings for her were much deeper than he had acknowledged. And maybe Alec didn’t care. If it meant that he could work with Sam, and that he could protect her, why did it matter?

  17

  The Assignment

  The university was quiet, calm for this time of morning, and Alec clutched his set of journals to his side, not wanting to drop them. The journals were his most prized possessions. They held his notes from all of the sessions that he’d studied, lessons that he’d had from the various masters, and he dreaded losing any of them. He no longer felt comfortable leaving them in his room, especially since Beckah had played that prank on him. If she was willing to play pranks, and was willing to compromise the accuracy of his journals, he would need to keep them with him.

  But there would come a time when his journals would be too heavy to carry with him. Eventually, he’d have to store them somewhere else, and he wasn’t certain where he could store them safely.

  “I’m not going to change do anything to your precious journals,” Beckah said, glancing over at him.

  Alec looked over at her, and he only shrugged. “That’s what you want me to believe. How do I know that you won’t pull some prank on me again?”

  “If I were going to play a prank on you, I wouldn’t do the same one. It’s only fun once.”

  “It wasn’t funny the first time,” Alec said.

  “Maybe not to you, but I thought it was funny.”

  “Can you focus?” he asked.

  “I am focused. Just because you’re worried about this doesn’t mean that I need to have the same concern,” she said.

  “If what Sam told me was true, then we all need to be concerned.” Lowering his voice, he said, “If Marin has a Scribe in the university it puts us at risk.”

  “Have you talked to Master Eckerd?”

  “I haven’t been able to find Master Eckerd,” Alec said. That bothered him, though he knew that it shouldn’t. Master Eckerd owed him nothing, and as one of the master physickers, he would be free to pursue his own studies. There were other master physickers that Alec knew were Scribes, but he didn’t know them well enough, certainly not well enough to question.

  “Well, now is not really the time to try to find him,” Beckah said. “If we are late to Master Carl’s class, he’s only going to be angrier at you.”

  “Only me?”

  “He might be angry at me, but if I come in with you, he’ll focus most of his attention on you.” She smiled. “That’s an added benefit of spending time with you.”

  “Great,” he said.

  “At least there are benefits to spending time with you.”

  “You don’t have to. You’re more than welcome to avoid me.”

  “If I did, I think you’d miss me.”

  They hurried along the hall and came to their classroom. Alec was surprised to see that Master Carl wasn’t there, not yet. Where was he?

  They took their seats, neither of them saying anything. A few others were present, but Master Carl’s lectures were never meant for a large class. He preferred to keep his sessions more intimate, b
etter for him to harass more students.

  “Where do you think he is?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we’re early.”

  Alec arched a brow at her. “When have we ever been to one of these lectures early?”

  “I seem to recall that you used to be early to most of them,” Beckah said.

  “That’s true,” Alec said. “That’s what kind of a bad influence you’ve been.”

  “I think you are mistaking bad for entertaining.”

  “And I think you fail to know what entertaining means.”

  The door opened, and Master Carl swept in. He glanced around the room, and when his gaze fell on Alec, his expression soured. He clasped his hands behind his back, thrusting his belly outward. He stood tall, his back curved, and paced in the front of the classroom. “Today, we will be discussing techniques for assessing injury. I would have you all take out your notebooks.”

  Everyone quickly grabbed for a notebook. Alec already had his on his desk. Master Carl took a piece of chalk and began scratching on the enormous chalkboard that covered the front of the room. He drew a diagram of a body, with far more skill than Alec would have expected from Master Carl. It surprised him that he had such artistic ability. Then again, it shouldn’t surprise him. Master Carl wasn’t incapable.

  “Now, let’s discuss internal injuries. There are many theories about which internal injury would be the worst, if only because they’re difficult to diagnose and subsequently treat. Which injury would you be most concerned about?”

  Master Carl looked at Alec, practically daring him to answer.

  He had read about internal injuries, but only recently. Working with his father, they hadn’t had much time to study such things, mostly because if such patients came to the apothecary, his father sent them on to the university. There were limits to what his father could treat, the kind of limits that made him unwilling to attempt surgery with the breech delivery.

  But Alec’s interest in injuries came from his time working with Sam. So far, using his own skills and having access to easar paper had been enough. But if she were injured again—and he was all too certain she would be—he wanted to be able to help her quickly, and he couldn’t do that without being able to assess the nature of her injuries. It forced him to explore the various types of injuries that she might sustain. He hoped he’d never have to bring her to the university in the event her injuries were beyond his abilities, but that concerned him. The more that he learned about her role as Kaver, the more he wondered whether or not that would be possible. With the right master physickers, she could come to the university and be healed, but there were times when that might not be possible, and when questions might arise, especially if she went off on her own, searching for Marin and information about her.