Poisoned: The Book of Maladies Read online

  Table of Contents

  Epilogue

  Staff Training

  Therapy

  Making a Visit

  Study Partners

  A Library Session

  The Master Physicker

  A Merchant Caravan

  Where We Differ

  Following the Kaver

  A Study Group

  Neither Alive Nor Dead

  Understanding the Past

  The Training Continues

  Foxglove Toxicity

  In the Apothecary

  The Test

  Into the Morgue

  Searching for Marin

  Rescuing a Kaver

  The Easar Paper

  Surgery

  A Summons

  Protections on the City

  First Visits

  A Meeting

  The Dangerous Plan

  Search for Answers

  Bastan’s Man

  Kavers Fight

  How to Save a Friend

  The Tavern Destroyed

  Another Scribe

  The Next Step

  Appeal to the Masters

  At the Canals

  The Plan

  A Kaver Attacks

  Names and Terms

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  Poisoned

  The Book of Maladies

  D.K. Holmberg

  ASH Publishing

  Copyright © 2018 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover art by Rebecca Frank

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  If you want to be notified when D.K. Holmberg’s next novel is released and get free stories and occasional other promotions, please sign up for his mailing list by going here. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

  www.dkholmberg.com

  Contents

  1. Staff Training

  2. Therapy

  3. Making a Visit

  4. Study Partners

  5. A Library Session

  6. The Master Physicker

  7. A Merchant Caravan

  8. Where We Differ

  9. Following the Kaver

  10. A Study Group

  11. Neither Alive Nor Dead

  12. Understanding the Past

  13. The Training Continues

  14. Foxglove Toxicity

  15. In the Apothecary

  16. The Test

  17. Into the Morgue

  18. Searching for Marin

  19. Rescuing a Kaver

  20. The Easar Paper

  21. Surgery

  22. A Summons

  23. Protections on the City

  24. First Visits

  25. A Meeting

  26. The Dangerous Plan

  27. Search for Answers

  28. Bastan’s Man

  29. Kavers Fight

  30. How to Save a Friend

  31. The Tavern Destroyed

  32. Another Scribe

  33. The Next Step

  34. Appeal to the Masters

  35. At the Canals

  36. The Plan

  37. A Kaver Attacks

  Epilogue

  Names and Terms

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Staff Training

  Sam leaned over, resting her elbows on her knees, slowly trying to catch her breath. She ached all over from the countless blows that she’d sustained, a mass of bruises blooming all over her abused body. She managed to look up, her dark hair hanging in front of her face, and stared at a woman she had long thought dead.

  “You still react too slowly,” her mother said.

  “Too slowly? I’m practically flying with my canal staff.”

  Her mother took a step back, tapped the staff on the open lawn, and casually soared twenty feet, landing in a quick roll. She bounded back to her feet and shot Sam a satisfied expression.

  “Like I’ve told you before, I need my augmentations to manage what you’re doing.”

  Elaine shook her head. “You need no such… augmentations. All you need are your natural abilities. You are descended from Kaver blood, and you don’t need augmentations to grant you your abilities.”

  Sam wasn’t about to argue with her mother. In the months since they had been reunited, she’d learned that her mother was fairly rigid with her beliefs. She had no tolerance for Sam’s attitude—which often wasn’t nearly as compliant as Elaine preferred. Then again, some of that attitude was well-deserved. Sam had thought her mother dead.

  This time, it made no sense to argue with Elaine. She’d seen the way Marin could jump the canals, managing to do so with amazing deftness, her skill putting anything Sam could accomplish to shame. Sam had a similar ability when augmented, though with Alec continuing his studies at the university, they had fewer opportunities to work together to practice those augmentations.

  “If you would only show me how to do that, then I wouldn’t need my augmentations.”

  Her mother approached slowly, the slender canal staff gripped lightly in hand. It still impressed Sam that she could break her staff down so that it was no longer than her forearm. Each piece slid neatly into the other, hollowed out, and still was sturdy enough for her to balance on. And here Sam had thought her two-piece canal staff something to be excited about. She kept waiting for Elaine—or the princess, though she rarely saw her—to offer her a staff made similarly, but they never did.

  “You’re learning slowly, Samara.”

  Sam let out a frustrated sigh. Slowly. Always slowly. It seemed the theme for her. She’d never been tall enough, or strong enough, and now it seemed she wasn’t even smart enough.

  “Well, maybe it’s because Marin made a mess of my brain,” Sam said, slapping her canal staff into the hard-packed earth.

  She still couldn’t believe that Marin had wiped her mind, convincing her that her mother had died, making her believe that she was alone—and that she had a brother. What sort of augmentation had she used on Sam? If she ever managed to reach Marin, she was determined to find out. The problem was that since learning about her mother, Marin had essentially disappeared. There was no sign of her at her home, her belongings having been packaged up and taken… somewhere.

  Her mother’s hardened expression seemed to ease, albeit barely. “You can’t continue to blame her for what happened.”

  “Not blame her? Who should I blame? She took me from you. Why aren’t you angrier?”

  Sam had so few memories of her mother, something she should have thought strange before. Since being reunited, her mother had yet to show much emotion—at least no positive emotions—almost as if she had been happier when Sam had been out of her life.

  Had she not wanted Sam?

  She tried not to think that way. Doing so only left her with mixed emotions.

  “Angrier? You don’t think I was angry? I spent years searching for you, Samara. Years when I thought Marin had stolen you from the city and taken you to the Thelns as a bargaining chip, and ultimately had come to terms with the fact that you had possibly already died. There are limits to a Kaver’s ability. Finding you was all I wanted, but not something I ever thought I would succeed in doing. Instead of focusing on your own anger—or questioning my lack of it, you should concentrate on our reunion and how relieved I am to have found you once more.”

  Sam swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. She had wanted to hear wo
rds like that—needed to hear them. It wasn’t that she didn’t think her mother was pleased to see her again, but she’d begun to ask herself whether she had wanted to find her for the sake of finding her daughter, or if she had wanted to find her to use her in some way.

  “We will find Marin,” Elaine said. “We will uncover what she did. And we will help you unlock your true potential.”

  Sam could only nod. At least Elaine had said we. It meant she wasn’t abandoning her. She didn’t expect that she would, but a part of her had wondered whether they would be more interested in using Sam to track down Thelns than allowing Sam to participate in the search for Marin.

  “Tray deserves to know,” she said.

  Elaine furrowed her brow. “Trayson does deserve to know but knowing in his case places him in a unique position. Once he learns what happened—and how you were used as part of Marin’s plan—how will he react? Will he assist you? Or do you think he will side with Marin?”

  Sam could only shake her head. What answer was there to the question? Regardless of what Marin had done, the way she had used not only Sam, but Tray, left her with no real answers. How could anyone use her own son in such a manner? It was horrific and painful. Still, in spite of everything, he was her brother. How could he not be when memories of what they had gone through together remained in her mind?

  “I don’t know how he’ll react. Probably the same way I did.”

  “I doubt that,” Elaine said. “You’ve been angry, which is understandable, but you have allowed yourself to keep a measured response. When he learns the way his mother used him—and you, the person he believes is his sister—do you think he’ll remain calm?”

  Sam considered her mother for a moment, before realizing Elaine wasn’t at all worried about the information Tray would receive—or about his reaction. It was something else. “You’re concerned because he’s part Theln, aren’t you?”

  Elaine’s gaze went distant for a moment before returning to meet Sam’s. “Should I not be worried?”

  “If Marin is a Kaver and Tray is part Theln, what will that combination mean for him?”

  “I don’t know. I suspect that’s part of the reason she’s kept him here, keeping him close—protected—so the Thelns can’t get to him. They would be interested in that combination as well. Gaining that understanding would likely lead to much heartache for the Kavers and Scribes.”

  “Why not bring him to the palace? With the princess—”

  “We don’t know what he is capable of. We don’t know what he might do. And until we find him, we won’t know.”

  Had they been looking for Tray? Sam thought only she had been. “Capable of? He’s my brother.”

  “No. He is not. He’s Marin’s son, not your brother.”

  Sam turned away, gripping her canal staff tightly in her hand. What could she say that would convince Elaine that Tray would do the right thing? Probably nothing, she decided. Elaine had already made up her mind about Tray. Which meant that the princess had already made up her mind, too. Did that put Trayson in danger? She hoped it didn’t, but they hadn’t allowed her to get close enough, to learn enough about their plans, to understand exactly how Trayson might factor in. Somehow, she had to believe that he did.

  “Now, it’s time to continue. Do you think you’re ready to focus again?”

  Sam slammed her canal staff into the earth, the frustration rising within her different from before. She was ready, and she was determined to figure this out, partly so that she could learn the skills that, as a Kaver, she was born to, but partly so that she could keep Marin from hurting her if she came across her again—and so that she could get answers.

  Sam spun the staff and stepped back, ready to face Elaine. She tipped her head in a quick nod and barely had time to react when Elaine swung her staff.

  2

  Therapy

  I know that you have a friend within the university. You could speak to him.”

  Sam looked up at the master physicker. She was an older woman, heavy-set with thick jowls, but she had kind eyes and looked at Sam in a way that few physickers had done. She was one of several from the university that the princess had brought in to try to heal Sam. She carried with her a stack of books that she’d set on the table in the small sitting room the princess had agreed they could use. So far, all of their attempts to help restore her memories had failed. They had no idea what Marin had done, or how she had used particular augmentations to block Sam from remembering her family.

  Sam had wondered if that was the reason Elaine had been so distant with her. Was she upset that Sam didn’t remember her at all? Memories of her mother were faint, little more than snippets of happy times, but Sam wondered if those were even to be believed. Maybe whatever Marin had done had permanently damaged her and had permanently taken away any hope that Sam had of remembering her family.

  “He is… new to the university,” Sam said.

  She looked down at her hands, wishing she had a knife or her canal staff or something to keep her from feeling so helpless. But who did she need protection from? It was a strange sensation to be stuck in this room. She had to believe she was safe, but was she? Did she trust her mother? The princess? They seemed to be acting in her best interest, trying to help her restore memories of a life she hadn’t known. But she felt like she didn’t belong, that she hadn’t earned this. It was a hard transition for her to go from believing herself lowborn to thinking that she might be something more. But isn’t that what she’d always wanted? More? It had been hard enough learning that she was a Kaver and that Alec could be her Scribe.

  “I see,” the physicker said, nodding to herself.

  Sam didn’t want to tell the woman that Alec might know just as much as many of the master physickers. She had seen several times the way he had demonstrated his knowledge. And had seen him recognize symptoms and diagnose conditions that she doubted even the masters at the university would have done as quickly. Then again, Sam was biased.

  She looked around the room. It was nothing more than a sitting room. There were several plush chairs covered in brightly colored fabrics, with the ornately carved armrests that were so typical in the palace. There were paintings along the walls, most with the look of significant skill to the technique. Bastan might be better able to assess how well-made they were, but that would mean revealing to him what she’d been through. Eventually, she knew she would have to. He deserved that much from her since he had helped her more than she had ever realized.

  “From what I understand, there’s a belief that your potential is locked within you by what was done to you.”

  Sam nodded. Elaine had alluded to that fact, but she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Could she have her Kaver abilities restricted in some way? She and Alec had managed to perform augmentations, but it was apparently possible that she was capable of much more, especially after what she saw of Elaine.

  “Today, I’m going to try a different strategy.”

  Sam turned her attention back to the physicker. “Not medicines today?”

  The woman shook her head. “Medicines have failed us. Whatever was done to you will not respond to any of the typical medicinal treatments that I know.”

  That had been the only question Sam had asked Alec. He had known of nothing that would reverse what had happened to her and hadn’t any idea of how to restore her memories. If he had, she felt certain that he would have attempted it.

  She kept expecting Elaine and the princess to attempt an augmentation to reverse it, but neither of them had made that suggestion. Either they didn’t believe they would be successful or they didn’t have the necessary knowledge to reverse what Marin had done.

  As much as Sam might want Alec to experiment with augmentations, performing one that would affect her memories and possibly change her way of thinking bothered her. She didn’t think she could do that, though she might want to.

  “If not medicines, what are you going to do?”

  The physicker s
cooted forward in her chair, shifting so that she tottered on the edge. With her weight, she practically crushed the chair. An image of it collapsing beneath her weight flashed through Sam’s mind, and she had to suppress a smile. It would do her no good to upset the physicker assigned to work with her, the physicker to whom both Elaine and the princess felt comfortable enough to reveal what had happened to her. Sam needed to regain those memories, but she wondered whether anything would change if she did.

  “We’re going to talk.”

  “Talk?”

  The physicker nodded. “There is a strategy that I have read about,” she said, passing one of the books on the table next to her. “It’s not one that I had been familiar with before, but I think it would be applicable with what you’ve been through.”

  Sam shrugged. Anything was worth trying at this point. Maybe if the physicker could help her regain her memories, it would unlock something within her that would allow her to use her abilities in the way they expected of her.

  “What can you tell me about your past?” the physicker said.

  “We’ve been through this before.”

  “We have, but not this way.”

  Sam held her gaze and noted a hard intensity there. What was the woman doing with her today?

  “I don’t remember much of my past,” Sam said.

  “Tell me what you do remember.”

  Sam tried to think back, working through what she remembered, but all of her memories seemed fairly recent. That had never troubled her before, but it should have. She was nearly eighteen, and most of her memories were of the last eight years. Why hadn’t that struck her as odd?