And why didn’t they share it? If nothing else, they should have the same interest in trying to understand illness and to develop the same breadth of knowledge, but not all of them felt that way. Matthew was one of many junior physickers who didn’t see serving as a physicker as a calling as much as a way toward something else. Maybe it was respect and a lifestyle that serving as a physicker granted. Maybe he was like Master Carl, someone who hoped to eventually move into politics, wanting to take the level of physicker and use that to give him a sort of credibility.
And then there was Alec. Didn’t he have ulterior motives for serving as a physicker? Wasn’t his interest now something other than only healing others? Everything he did, and everything he saw, he applied to his connection to Sam and how he might better be able to augment her. Maybe he wasn’t so different from Matthew and some of the other junior physickers.
He paused at a thin older woman. She had bulging eyes, and a sheen of sweat clung to her. Even without doing more than a cursory examination, he recognized a glandular issue. It was the same as what he’d seen from Mrs. Rubbles when she had been sick. He had healed her with the easar paper, but there were other treatments. He had known of those treatments even when he had been with his father, and now that he’d been at the university with their access to the library, Alec had learned of even more possible treatments. He flipped open the records, scanning what they’d tried, and his breath caught.
What were they thinking? This wasn’t simply old age claiming her as one note suggested, and there was no evidence of infection as another claimed, not from what he saw in the notes. Yet that was what the junior physickers were attempting to claim. So far, it didn’t appear that any master physickers had reviewed her case.
Alec looked around to make sure none of the junior physickers were watching, and he scrawled a quick note, trying to mimic Master Jessup’s handwriting. If nothing else, he would see if he could get this woman a different type of help.
He set the records down and started away. If he’d had access to medicines, he would’ve mixed them and attempted to administer them himself, but the university worked quite a bit differently than his father’s apothecary. His father would have rows and rows of medicines, while the university had a massive supply cabinet where they kept their medicines. As a student, and without a master sending him, Alec wouldn’t even be allowed in. It would take reaching junior physicker level before he would be granted access.
When he paused at the next cot, he started to examine the person. There wasn’t anything obviously wrong, which was his favorite type of illness. It was the mystery that he enjoyed. He reached for the record, wanting to see what this man had presented with, when he heard the booming sound of Master Carl’s voice.
Alec froze. He didn’t want Master Carl to see him here, not without his master physicker and other students.
But it was too late. Master Carl entered, a group of students in tow. When he saw Alec, he headed his way, an angry look on his face. “Mr. Stross. And why are you here?”
“I just was checking on the progress of a few of the people that I’ve seen.”
“Indeed? Have you decided that you are a junior physicker now?”
The students arranged around Master Carl watched with widened eyes. They were all newer students than Alec, though he recognized Jen from his earliest days at the university. Alec had come in at the same time as some of them—particularly Arnold, a pudgy highborn who snickered behind Master Carl at the uncomfortable way that Alec shifted his feet.
“I haven’t decided that I’m a junior physicker. I’m simply wanting to see what progress the people that I had seen before have made.”
Master Carl looked down at the man on the cot. He grabbed the record from Alec and scanned it. “I don’t see any record of Master Eckerd having seen this individual.” He looked up, and Alec wanted to shrink away from his stare. “Tell me, Mr. Stross, do you believe you are more talented than the junior physickers here?”
Alec glanced around. He saw Matthew standing near the woman whose records he’d just made notes on. She was sick with a glandular problem, and it was advanced, but it had been overlooked by the junior physickers. He didn’t know how many had studied her, or how many had overlooked the nature of her illness, but he did know that they were wrong in their treatment.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m more talented, but I would say that I have a different background.”
He needed to choose his words carefully. Master Carl already didn’t care for him, which put him in a difficult spot. How would Alec ever reach the level of junior physicker if Master Carl wouldn’t support it? It took the support of all master physickers for students to take the next step.
“A different background is right. You are an apothecary. If you ever want to be anything more, you will focus your studies, and you will stop setting yourself apart from the university training. There is a purpose to the way we do things, Mr. Stross.”
“I understand that, Master Carl.”
“I don’t believe that you do. When Master Eckerd returns, I think that perhaps I will discuss this with him.”
“Do you know when he will return?” Maybe some good could come out of this confrontation. He didn’t like the idea of facing off with Master Carl, but if he could learn where Master Eckerd had gone, it would be useful to him.
Master Carl’s brow furrowed. “Do I look as if I keep track of where each of the master physickers spends their time?”
Alec flushed. This wasn’t what he wanted. He didn’t need a confrontation with Master Carl, and he didn’t need to raise his ire any more than he already had.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be going.”
Master Carl looked down at the man. “Tell me, Mr. Stross, did you come up with a treatment for this man?”
Alec looked at the man. He had normal coloration, and his breathing was regular, and when he had done his brief examination, he had noticed that his heart rate was regular. He hadn’t seen anything wrong with him, at least not so much that he could tell.
“I hadn’t taken enough time to fully assess him,” he admitted.
Master Carl sneered at him. “Fully assess? Now you would like us to think that you can examine as well as a physicker?”
“My father taught me—”
Master Carl cut him off. “I’m aware of what your father taught you. Just as I’m telling you that if you are training at the university, you need to practice the way that we teach, not the way that an apothecary would practice.”
“Again, I don’t mean any offense, Master Carl. I was only trying to say that I hadn’t taken the time to complete my examination. I was trying to see what he presented with so I could better understand why he came to the university for healing.”
“You can’t determine that by examining him?”
Alec kept his gaze fixed on the patient. “I could try, but it would be easier if I knew why he came, so I could have a better understanding as to how I might be able to help him,” he said.
“If you intend to be a master physicker, you should know that no diagnosis is necessarily easy.”
“I know that. I was just saying—”
“I know what you’re saying.”
Alec looked at Master Carl, unsure why he was escalating this encounter, rather than simply ordering Alec to leave the ward. Why was he pursuing this so vehemently? Master Carl watched him, and there was irritation on his face, but there was something else, an expression that Alec didn’t think was warranted, but it seemed Master Carl felt it, regardless.
Hatred.
He looked around, wanting nothing more than to retreat. When he did, he saw Beckah standing near the entrance to the wards, watching. Her eyes were wide, and she nodded to him, trying to motion him over.
“I… I will be going,” Alec said.
“What? You don’t want to stay and prove how brilliant you are, Mr. Stross?”
“It’s never been about proving brilliance, it’s about helping these people,” Alec
said softly.
He hurried toward Beckah, not giving Master Carl a chance to say anything else. As he did, he could feel Master Carl’s gaze burning on his back. Alec ignored it and fought the temptation to turn back, and to see what he might do—or say.
When he reached Beckah, she looked over his shoulder. “What was that?”
“That was Master Carl making it clear how he feels about me.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Alec looked at her, but she grabbed his sleeve and took them along the stairs, heading back toward their rooms.
“Why aren’t you surprised?”
“Because Master Carl and your father were here at the same time.”
“So? There were lots of people who studied here at that time, I imagine.”
“And your father was promoted to master physicker long before Master Carl.”
Alec stopped and turned to Beckah. “What?”
She nodded. “It’s what I found in the record of promotions. Your father was promoted before Master Carl. That’s probably why he doesn’t like you.”
“My father was a master physicker?”
Beckah shook her head. “Your father is a master physicker.”
23
A Father’s Grief
Alec pulled on the door to the apothecary, listening to the faint jingling of the bell as he entered. It felt strange entering today. There had never been a time when he had hesitated coming back to his father’s apothecary, certainly not as he did now, but after learning that he was a master physicker, Alec was filled with a certain trepidation.
Would his father even be here? It wasn’t a given that he would. There were times when his father disappeared, often for days at a time, usually to go out harvesting, though that wasn’t always the case.
The shop was empty.
Alec shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was disappointed. He needed to talk to his father, if only to better understand why he had left the university after becoming a master physicker. Why would he abandon such a prestigious post? Was it because he felt that people didn’t need to pay for his services? That seemed a fairly strange reason for him to abandon the university altogether, especially as there were other ways to work around it and still help people.
There had to be some other reason.
He wandered the shelves. There was something familiar and reassuring about walking along the shelves with their rows of cataloged leaves and roots and oils. Everything was neatly organized, and everything was where he remembered it. He smiled to himself. It might be easier for him to return to serving as an apothecary, at least then he wouldn’t have to deal with the physickers, and he could use his knowledge to help people. Wasn’t that what he wanted?
But if he did that, he would miss out on what it meant to be a Scribe, and what it meant for him to be connected to Sam. That was the benefit of staying at the university and continuing his studies there.
The cot at the back of the room was empty. A few bloody towels were near it, so Alec suspected someone had been here recently and had required minor stitching for wounds. A needle with thread still attached was poked into a cushion nearby.
All of this that he had once considered normal, his father simply being a skilled apothecary, but his father had been more—so much more.
The bell over the door jingled, and Alec turned.
“Alec.”
His father approached. He appeared tired, and his eyes looked almost haunted. He wore a heavy robe over his jacket, and dirt stained certain sections of it.
“Father. Where have you been?”
“I didn’t think I needed to answer to you now that you’ve gone to the university.”
“You don’t need to answer to me. I just wondered where you’ve been. You look as if you’ve been harvesting.”
His father sighed. “Harvesting, in a sense. It’s not always the easiest task.”
“What isn’t?”
His father sighed again, then reached his hand into his pocket, clutching something. “It doesn’t matter. To what do I owe this visit?”
“A question.”
His father paused before one of the shelves. “What sort of question?”
“Why would you have not told me that you were promoted to master physicker?”
His father’s eyes changed, shifting. “I hadn’t thought it necessarily important.”
“Not important? Why wouldn’t it be important for you to tell me that all of your knowledge was acquired at the university?”
“You already know that. Why would you need me to tell you again?”
“It’s not that I need you to tell me again, it’s just that…”
“It’s just nothing,” his father said. He moved past Alec and made his way toward the back of the shop where he had a locked cabinet. He pulled a key out and opened the cabinet, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jar. It was filled with a strange yellowish liquid, nothing like Alec had ever seen before. His father put it inside the cabinet, then closed the door.
“What is that?”
“That is what I just completed harvesting,” his father said.
“And?”
His father met his gaze. “And I told you that there were ways I served the palace that I can’t always explain to you.”
“It seems there are many things you can’t always explain to me.”
“Because I want to protect you.”
“Protect me from what? How does keeping me unaware of your connection to the university protect me? Why wouldn’t you share with me that you were a master physicker? And how does that have anything to do with what you’ve collected?”
“I told you that there are certain parts of my responsibilities that aren’t always the most… savory.”
“You haven’t exactly told me much, Father. What is that?”
“It’s eel venom,” he said.
“Eel? As in the canal eels?”
His father nodded. “As in the canal eels. There venom is valuable for many purposes.”
Alec frowned. “How would you harvest eel venom? Where would you harvest eel venom?”
“The canals are filled with the eels,” he said.
“They are, but you would draw attention to yourself if you were seen collecting eel venom in the middle of the city.”
“There are parts of the city that I can go where I don’t necessarily draw attention,” he said.
“Can I see it?” Alec nodded toward the cabinet.
His father studied Alec for a long moment before breathing out. He reached into the cabinet and handed over the jar. “You need to be very careful. There are times when this can be beneficial, but for the most part, it is incredibly toxic.”
“Then why do you have it…” Alec frowned to himself. His father had made it clear that he wasn’t always doing things that he was proud of, and that there were requirements placed upon him by those in the palace, but he had never thought that his father would use his knowledge in ways that could be harmful to others.
Was that it? Was he using his knowledge of healing to harm someone else?
“Do you intend to allow someone to use your knowledge to hurt someone else?”
“I intend to use my knowledge to help protect the city,” his father said.
“And if that entails killing someone?” Alec held up the jar of eel venom, and he shivered. It was slightly warm and it seemed to have an oily consistency. He shook it and watched as it coated the sides of the jar. He could easily imagine one of the eels clamping down on its unsuspecting prey, allowing its venom to seep into their bloodstream. Sam had described her experience with the eels in the canal, and he had never given her enough credit for what she had experienced. Maybe he had been mistaken.
“If that entails someone dying so that others may live, that is the price I must pay.”
“Is that what you wanted me to be? Is that why you didn’t want me to go to the university?”
His father motioned for Alec to si
t, and he did, taking a seat on the cot. His father pulled a chair around the table and sat across from him. “I’ve always known that you would need to go to the university. It was the only place that you would gain the additional knowledge you needed to complete your training. I thought I might expedite it by teaching you myself.”
“All that’s happened is that I’ve upset a significant number of master physickers.”
“Because they don’t care for me,” his father said.
“Why? Is it because you were promoted before they were?”
His father snorted and waved his hand in the air. “There wasn’t quite as much competition for promotion as some would like you to believe. There is some of that, but it has never been about who was promoted before who.”
“Then why does Master Carl dislike me so much?”
“He dislikes me. And because of me, he dislikes you.”
“Why does he dislike you?”
“Because I thwarted his political ambitions.”
Alec sat there, staring at his father. The door to the apothecary opened, with the bell jingling, and his father raised a hand, motioning for him to stay there, and he hurried off. Alec heard him speaking softly to someone before making his way along the shelves to find a collection of healing medicines, and then the door opened again with another jingling of the bell. When his father returned, he set a few copper pennies down. Likely, it wasn’t enough for the services his father had provided, but it was also likely that it was all the person was able to pay.
“How did you thwart his political ambitions?”
“Master Carl thought to use connections within the university to gain power. He thought to heal only those who could help him. When I called him out on it, there was enough of an uproar that…” His father shrugged. “After that, his political ambitions were quenched. The university has always been about profit, but they at least paid lip service to the idea of healing everyone equally once they reached the university. If they had the ability to pay, anyone would be offered the same treatment. Carl made a mockery of that.”
“Is that why you left?”
Tormina: The Book of Maladies Page 20