Tormina: The Book of Maladies

by D. K. Holmberg

  “There are no promotions planned.”

  “None?”

  She shook her head. “None are planned, Mr. Stross. I’m sorry, but I think your idea of having your friend come to a gathering of masters will be ineffective. Now, if that will be all, I think I take my leave and go to my quarters.”

  He sighed. How else could he gather the masters together?

  He had one other question, and he wasn’t sure whether Master Helen would answer or not, but at this point, he decided it couldn’t hurt to at least ask. “Master Helen?” She hesitated, and turned back to him. “Would there be any record of all the master physickers who are at the university?”

  “All master physickers are recorded in the record of promotions.”

  “The record of promotions?”

  She nodded. “I’m sure that my grandson would be able to show you. Isn’t that right, Stefan?”

  Alec hoped that Stefan wouldn’t reveal himself, but he stepped out from around the row of shelves and looked at his grandmother. His face was pale, and he trembled slightly. “I can show him, Grandmother—I mean, Master Helen.”

  “Very good. I don’t know how much good it will do you, but if you intend to survey the records and see who is here and whose name you recognize, that would be a place to start. Perhaps you could use that record to determine whether there is anyone here that might have helped your friend.”

  Alec nodded. “Thank you.”

  “If that will be all, you should both head to bed, and perhaps you could take Ms. Reynolds with you,” she said.

  Beckah stepped out from behind the shelf, and she was as quiet and somber as Stefan. “Thank you, Master Helen,” she said.

  She glanced at the three of them. “You three have bright futures ahead of you, but if you continue to attempt to dig into things that are outside of your level of understanding, your futures may be much dimmer than they appear at this time.” She fixed Alec with a hard expression as she said it, and he knew she was speaking primarily to him.

  With a nod, she turned and departed the library.

  Alec looked at the others. “I’m sorry.”

  “This is about finding who helped your friend?” Stefan asked.

  “It wasn’t someone who helped her. This was someone who harmed her,” Alec said.

  “Harmed? And this is a master physicker?”

  “As far as we know.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell my grandmother that one of the master physickers had harmed your friend?”

  Alec glanced at Stefan and then looked over to Beckah. “Because I didn’t want her to think that I was going to do something to one of the master physickers.”

  “Do something? What kind of thing would you do?” Stefan asked.

  “I don’t know, maybe challenge him with why he would harm my friend.”

  “I hadn’t considered the record of promotions,” Beckah said. “That would make sense, especially considering it would have a listing for every master physicker that has been promoted over the years. All we have to do is figure out timing, and we should be able to determine which one might have been here at the same time.”

  “The same time as what?” Stefan asked.

  Beckah found the record of promotions and set the book out on the table in front of the stack where she’d found it. She glanced at Alec briefly before turning her attention to Stefan. He had been watching Alec, and there was a growing irritation to the way that he did. Was he angry that they weren’t sharing with him? Or was it simply curiosity?

  “What do you think?” she asked Alec.

  “I think that it’s late and we need to return to our rooms.”

  “I thought you wanted to go through the promotions and see if there was anything that might trigger something for you,” she said.

  “At this time of night? I don’t know that it makes sense to do it.” He was getting tired, and if they were going to be of any use to Sam, then he needed to get some rest.

  “We can always return later…” Stefan said.

  Beckah lifted the book of records and she clutched it to her chest. “I’m ready,” she said.

  “Beckah—” Stefan began.

  She looked over at him and shook her head. “What? If Alec isn’t going to stay here, we’re going to take this with us so that we can continue the research that we need.”

  Stefan reached for the book, shaking his head. “That’s supposed to stay in the library.”

  “There will be other copies,” Beckah said. “Besides, it’s not like anyone else is coming here looking for the record of promotions. We’re probably the first people to come looking for it in years.” She held out the book and pretended to wipe dust off the cover. “Are you going to move out of my way or do you really intend to block me from getting through? Because if you are, I will push through you.”

  He looked over to Alec, beseeching him to help, but Alec thought Beckah had it right. If they could take the book, they would be able to search through it at their own pace, and wouldn’t be dependent on having access to the library—or drawing any attention while they were here.

  “I think we take it,” he said.

  Stefan looked from Alec to Beckah and threw his hands up. “Fine. You do what you want, but I’m not going to be a part of it.” He stormed out of the library, closing the door firmly behind him.

  Beckah watched him go. “Do you think we made a mistake?”

  “Maybe. But knowing Stefan, he’ll get over it pretty quickly,” he said.

  “I don’t know. I’ve known Stefan a long time. I’m not sure he will—at least not too quickly. First, we used him to get to his grandmother, and now, we are taking this book from the library that he doesn’t think we should.”

  “I could go talk to him,” Alec said.

  “And tell him what? Would you reveal to him what a Scribe is? Is that your intention?”

  “No, but—”

  Beckah shook her head. “Then I don’t think it will help if you go to him. Let it blow over, and then we can see if we can’t help him.”

  She hung on to the book as they departed the library, and Alec took a moment to dim the lantern, casting the library back into darkness. He thought he saw shadows move, and he shivered before hurrying after Beckah.

  22

  The Apothecary’s Secret

  I’m not seeing anything here,” Alec said. He stared at the record of promotions, scanning the pages but coming up with no answers. Most of the names over the last few years were physickers that he knew, if only vaguely. There were names of other master physickers he came across that he didn’t recognize, but they were older names.

  “I think we need to keep looking,” Beckah suggested. She sat at the table in her room, and her hair hung over her face as she leaned over a section of the records, pressing her shoulder against his. They had been sitting like that for hours, poring over the book, and had come up with nothing, at least not anything that would be of use.

  “Without having a master physicker to help, I don’t know what use anything here is going to be,” Alec said, taking a moment to look around Beckah’s room. It was better decorated than his own. She had a few hand-drawn pictures hanging on the walls and had somehow managed to procure a thick carpet. Most student rooms were bare, and colder because of that. Not Beckah’s room. Hers was warm, almost inviting. “I don’t know that we thought through this plan all that well.”

  She arched a brow at him. “Are you blaming me?”

  He sighed. “I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying that everything we’ve been searching for here has been pointless.”

  “Not pointless. If you look at this, you can see which master physickers were promoted around the same time. That has to be valuable.”

  “We already knew that many of these master physickers were promoted at the same time.” He hadn’t known that Master Jessup had come up after Master Carl and Eckerd, but he had suspected that Master Helen was the oldest of them, which the record of prom
otions revealed.

  “We knew that, but now it’s been confirmed.”

  Alec shook his head. “I didn’t realize we needed that kind of proof.”

  “If we’re going to make an accusation against someone, we will need proof.”

  “No, what we need is some way of bringing all of the masters together.”

  Even if they did that, it would also require that they brought Sam into the university to identify the voice of her captor, and he knew she would be willing to do that, but would her mother allow her?

  Alec leaned back, pushing himself away from the table, and breathed out. The room smelled of flowers from the vase that Beckah kept sitting on the table. She had lilacs and daisies jammed into it. The aroma was almost overwhelming. “I think we need to return to our studies,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because that’s why we’re here at the university.”

  “Maybe that’s why I’m here, but I don’t know that you need same focus. Most of the time, when we’re going through these lectures, you already know everything that the master physicker is teaching.”

  “Not everything.”

  “Fine. You don’t have the same experience with the surgical suite, but not all masters spend time there. You wouldn’t even need to spend time in the surgical area to be a master.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” Alec said.

  “But it is. There are quite a few masters who don’t spend any time in surgery. Look at Master Harrison. I don’t think anyone has seen him in surgery in decades.”

  “Just because he doesn’t go to surgery doesn’t mean that he couldn’t. I mean, my father has more knowledge about the medicinal treatment of illnesses than many of the master physickers, but he isn’t a master physicker.”

  “Have you ever wondered why?”

  “I wonder that all the time,” Alec said. Even more now that he was at the university, and he saw how much his father had been able to teach him. If his father was here, and had that level of knowledge, why wouldn’t he have accepted a promotion?

  “How long has he been in his section of the city?”

  Alec shrugged. “I don’t know. Ever since my mother passed. I don’t know if he was there before that. I was too young to know.”

  “Hmm.”

  “What are you getting at,” he asked.

  “I’m not getting anything, only that I think there are questions you need to ask your father.”

  “My father doesn’t talk about his time at the university. Gods, had the shop not exploded, I don’t know that he ever would’ve told me.”

  “You don’t think he would have eventually? Was he planning on keeping you from the university?”

  “I don’t know if he wanted to keep me from the university as much as he wanted to protect me. I’ve told you how his approach to treatment is different from what’s found here.”

  “You’ve told me that he doesn’t charge for his services,” she said, her mouth screwing up as she did.

  Alec grinned at the reaction. It was a very highborn reaction to treatment. The more time he spent with Sam, the more he was aware of the class distinctions, and it was something he had never given much thought to until working with her, but she was right about the university being set up to treat the highborns and not others.

  “He only felt that everyone was worthy of treatment, regardless of their ability to pay.”

  “But if they can’t pay, how can the university keep open?” she asked.

  Alec drummed his fingers on the table. He wasn’t interested in having a debate about this with Beckah. It wouldn’t be valuable to either of them. He understood the reasoning behind the masters’ approach to encouraging payment, but he didn’t have to like it.

  “I think I need to head back to the wards.”

  “I thought you wanted to study and prepare for our classes,” she said.

  He threw his hands up. “I don’t know what I want to do. Looking at this book has been useless. More than useless. All we’re learning is what we already knew.”

  “I don’t think it’s been useless. Besides, it has given us a chance to sit and chat.”

  He looked over at her, arching a brow. “I don’t—”

  Beckah laughed, a sharp and biting sound. “You keep thinking that I’m trying to proposition you. When are you going to get it through your head that while you’re a handsome man, that’s not what I’m interested in?”

  “I thought that at one point.” She forced a smile, and Alec thought that maybe she was not being completely honest with him. “You could come with me to the wards,” he offered, trying to change the subject.

  “For what reason? There’s nothing there for us to study,” she said.

  “There’s always something there to study. I learn the best from the people that I’ve treated, using them to help me understand what illness they have, and what needs to be done to help improve their situation. It’s so much better than learning from books.”

  “You go. I’m going to continue looking through this to see if there’s anything I can come up with.”

  “You don’t need to do that. I understand that this is more for me than it is for you.”

  “Is it? If we don’t find what happened to Tray, I won’t ever be able to understand what it is for me to be a Scribe.”

  Alec sighed. “You’re right. I keep forgetting that, and I shouldn’t. I know how hard it would be if I didn’t have any way of working with Sam and trying to continue to master my abilities.”

  She turned her attention back to the record of promotions, and he left to head to the wards. He passed through the student section, moving quickly, avoiding the questioning glances of a few of the other students. Some of them gave him a knowing smirk as he left Beckah’s room.

  Great. Now, he was going to be the subject of a different sort of rumor. It was bad enough when he was the topic of conversation because of what he’d learned from his father. He didn’t need to be again because of a presumed scandalous relationship with Beckah.

  And he knew she didn’t necessarily care. It wasn’t as if she was worried about the perception of others about their friendship, but she didn’t need any perception of impropriety. Maybe they should have continued to meet in the library rather than anywhere else.

  He would have to worry about that later. He hurried down to the wards. He hadn’t been deceptive with Beckah. There was value to him spending time in the hospital, learning from the sick. That was how his father had taught him, so that was how he felt he learned the best.

  It was early in the day, past lunchtime, but still well before the dinner hour. Several of the junior physickers weaved around the room, pausing at the records as they made their notes, or possibly looked at notes made by the master physickers, and looked after the patients. These were the sickest of the sick, the people who came to the university with the most need. And this was where he felt compelled to spend more of his time. He glanced around, looking to see whether there were any master physickers and their cadre of students, but there were not.

  One of the physickers looked over at him and shrugged. Alec was a familiar enough sight here; the physickers didn’t mind his presence, especially as there were times that he had left notes in the records that had been helpful. He didn’t even attempt to gain recognition for it. It wasn’t the reason he had left a note. It was better that the people here got the help they needed.

  Alec paused at the cot of a young woman he had seen a few days ago. He glanced at the records, skimming the page, looking for any information about how she might be doing. They had continued with the treatment, and she had been making steady progress. It certainly seemed as if she was breathing easier, as if her overall coloring was better, which put him at ease. It was better that she had gotten help, regardless of how she had come to it.

  He moved on, looking over at the man a few rows over. The jaundice had receded, and he lay on his side, clearly having moved himself. That was progress for
him as well.

  “Are you checking on the master physicker’s work?”

  Alec turned and saw a junior physicker that he knew. “I’m not checking on anything, more just looking to see if those I’ve seen have improved,” he told Matthew.

  Matthew tucked his hands inside his gray physicker coat. He looked down at the man. “It was good that Master Jessup identified the proper combination of medicines for him. I don’t think we would have thought of it.”

  Alec only nodded. Would Master Jessup have come up with the treatment had Alec not come here? Probably, and it was likely that Master Jessup had only been testing him, rather than delaying treatment. There would be no value in that.

  “Are there any other interesting illnesses here?”

  “All of these are interesting,” Matthew said. He scratched the scruff on his chin. He was older than Alec, but not by much. He had managed to grow a thin layer of beard, something that Alec had noted many of the junior physickers did, thinking that it gave them an appearance of age. “Some are sicker than others. And there are a few that we simply can’t help.”

  “Which ones can’t you help?”

  Matthew gave him a quizzical look. “You think that you know better than the master physickers?”

  “Not at all,” Alec said hurriedly. “It’s only that I think I can learn more from those patients that are the most challenging.”

  That was what his father would have asked him to do. He had long ago moved past the more basic treatments and needed to focus more on the obscure, not only to test his knowledge, but to develop a deeper understanding of illness and the way the body worked.

  “Be my guest,” Matthew said. He stepped aside and continued to make his way through the room. Alec had thought that perhaps Matthew might lead him to some of the more complex cases, but he didn’t.

  Alec sighed. It wasn’t that he wanted to offend the junior physickers, and it wasn’t that he was trying to challenge them and what they knew, but they thought that way. Would there come a time when he didn’t feel persecuted for his interest in healing?