Amnesia: The Book of Maladies Read online

  Sam chuckled. She hadn’t, but people that she cared about had been.

  “It will be okay, Samara,” Bastan said. He grabbed her wrist and turned her toward him. “I can tell you are nervous, and I know you worry about him.”

  “Of course I worry about him. We have a connection.”

  “It’s more than this shared bond that the two of you have. I understand he is your Scribe, whatever that means for the two of you, but he is something else to you. You have someone you care for. I also know it’s difficult for you to care.”

  “You’ve gotten sappy on me these days, Bastan.”

  “Not sappy. I just recognize there are things we need to not take for granted. People you care for are top on the list.”

  She stared at him for a moment before swallowing. “I don’t want to lose him. With everything that we can do, I…”

  Bastan pulled her toward him and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her. “I will do everything in my power to help make sure that you don’t lose him.”

  He said it with such a ferocity that Sam almost laughed, but coming from Bastan… He did have considerable power, so there was probably quite a bit he could do. But in this case, she didn’t think his power could help, no matter how much he hoped it could.

  They reached the hospital ward and Sam hurried in, scanning quickly to see if there was any sign of Aelus or Beckah. She found Aelus near Alec, and he was ministering to him, wiping something across his brow and stuffing something into his cheek.

  “You brought the apothecary,” Bastan said as they walked over.

  “I went for him. The master physickers weren’t available.”

  Bastan shot her a hard look. “You are at the university. How were the master physickers not available?”

  Sam shook her head. “How am I to know? They weren’t here.”

  Bastan practically growled. “I am growing tired of this division between highborns and lowborns. If it consumes one of their own, I think…”

  Sam sighed. “You and Alec both.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Alec is incredibly frustrated by the idea of a separation between highborns and lowborns too. He is frustrated by the idea that highborns are able to afford treatment while the lowborns are not. He thinks everyone should be able to be treated.”

  They reached Alec, and Aelus looked up, his eyes wide as he looked from Sam to Bastan.

  “Did you get it?”

  “We have it,” Sam said.

  “Let me see it.”

  Sam handed the bundle of eel meat over to Aelus. He took it, unfolding it, and cut off a section, quickly slicing it into thin fragments. When that was done, he began chopping it even more finely, swishing it into something that resembled a paste. He mixed that with a few drops of what appeared to be in the oil, and then stuffed that into Alec’s mouth, shoving it all the way down into the back of his throat.

  “Is that really necessary?” Sam asked.

  “It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s the only way to ensure that the medicine gets as far down as possible— as quickly as possible.”

  “How much do you need to give him?” Sam asked.

  “All of it,” Aelus said.

  Sam looked at the eel meet. “All of it?”

  He nodded again. “I don’t know what the proper amount is. I’m determined to give him every chance that I can. So, I will stuff as much of this I can down into him.”

  “And then what?” Sam asked, looking around the hospital ward before settling her gaze back on Alec. She couldn’t tell if his breathing had changed. His skin looked pale, and she understood why Aelus was wiping his brow. Sweat beaded on it.

  “Then we wait.”

  14

  Understanding an Illness

  Somewhere, Sam had found a stool.

  She sat crouched on the stool, looking over Alec, resting her elbows on the cot. Was he breathing more easily, or was it only her imagination? She’d lost track, not able to tell, and not certain whether she could trust her observations, anyway. Alec was the one who typically made observations, especially when it came to healing, not her. He would have laughed had he known she was trying to determine whether a patient was improving or not.

  She wasn’t the only one sitting at his bedside. Aelus had taken a stool and rested his head on his hands as he leaned forward. He murmured softly, speaking to himself. Sam had given up trying to understand what he was saying.

  Bastan stood behind her, and his hands rested on her shoulders. Every so often, he would pat her shoulder, as if trying to reassure her, but it really didn’t do much.

  Beckah had stopped in a few times, but she continued to search for the master physickers. So far, none had come in here.

  “What is this?” a booming voice said.

  Aelus jerked his head up and stood with a start. He looked toward the voice and frowned. “Carl.”

  The other man sneered at Aelus. He was enormous, with a huge belly that stuck out, and he strode forward with his hands clasped behind his back, marching through the ward like a man heading off to war. Sam knew from the name who he was. And she knew the master physicker had always had it out for Alec. “Aelus. Just because your son is a physicker doesn’t mean that you have any right to be here.”

  “I can be here as a visitor,” Aelus said.

  “There are particular hours when you are allowed.”

  “It is between dawn and dusk,” Aelus said.

  “Not any longer,” the physicker said.

  Sam remembered what Alec had told her of this man. They didn’t always get along, but he respected Carl’s mind. Alec had claimed he was brilliant, and for Alec to make such a claim, she suspected he truly was.

  “Alec was exposed to something,” Sam said.

  Master Carl frowned at her. “And who are you?”

  Bastan stepped forward. “She is my daughter. And she is his… friend.”

  Master Carl took a look at Bastan and blinked. Bastan had that effect on many people, and even someone as massive and blustery as this Master Carl took a moment to reconsider when faced with the reality of Bastan.

  “When student physicker Reynolds came to me with the report that one of our physickers was injured, I didn’t realize it was Physicker Stross. What happened?”

  Sam was pleased that he addressed Aelus, asking him what he knew. He lifted the binder at the end of the cot and began flipping through it. His brow furrowed as he read what was on the page. Would he be angry that Aelus had been the one to make documentation? Would he even know?

  “It’s all right there, Carl.”

  “This is you?” the physicker asked without looking up.

  “I still recall how to document appropriately,” Aelus said.

  “I’m only asking because you have been gone from the university for so long,” Master Carl said.

  “Just because I’ve been gone doesn’t mean I have forgotten everything that I learned when I trained here. In fact, from what my son has told me, there are many things I remember that others don’t.”

  “Is this necessary?” Sam asked, stepping forward. “Is this helping Alec, any of it?”

  Aelus shook his head. “You’re right.”

  Master Carl looked at Sam, and he frowned for a long moment before glancing at Aelus and then back down to Alec. “What happened to him?”

  “As Sam said, he was exposed to something,” Aelus said. “He was attempting a mixture, and it is likely that there was something toxic in it.”

  Master Carl glanced back down at the binder and scanned the page. “None of these items are toxic.”

  “That was my thought, as well.”

  “Then what do you think?”

  “Well, nothing that he’s suffering from seems to be a typical symptom of any of the individual components, and even when mixed in combination, I don’t think they would cause this level of impairment.”

  Master Carl took a deep breath, and then he nodded. “Agreed.”

  “W
hich makes me suspect there was something else added to it.”

  “Your son is nothing if not a diligent recorder of what he does. What do his notes say?”

  Aelus shook his head. “His notes record only what I’ve shown you there.”

  “There has to be something else, and you must have missed it. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve made a mistake, Aelus.”

  Aelus took a step forward, and his jaw clenched.

  Sam glanced over at Bastan. “I didn’t realize physickers were as stupid as men from Caster.”

  Bastan chuckled. “Men are stupid regardless of where they come from, especially when they have a grudge against each other.”

  “How do you know they have a grudge?”

  “Look at them,” Bastan said. “Something happened between them.”

  Sam decided to ignore the two men arguing and looked down at Alec. This time, she was sure it wasn’t her imagination. She was sure he was breathing differently. Color seemed to have returned to his cheeks, much more than had been there before. “Aelus?”

  The two men continued their seething argument.

  Sam gritted her teeth. “Idiots.”

  The two men looked over.

  “I think you should look at your patient. Is it just me, or is Alec…”

  Aelus hurried over and began to perform an assessment. Master Carl joined him, and together, they worked Alec over. As they did, she could tell that Alec was breathing more regularly. Every so often, his eyelids would flutter, and his fingers twitched.

  “What did you treat him with?”

  Aelus glanced up, appraising Master Carl as if debating whether to answer. “There are only a few compounds that provide the necessary healing effect when the treatment is unknown.”

  Master Carl’s breath caught. “You know that’s forbidden. You know the consequences if you attempt that. What would make you even think to try it?”

  “Because this is my son,” Aelus said. “Do you have a son, Carl?”

  Master Carl frowned. “That has nothing to do with what the university has forbidden over the years. You know the price we all pay if that safety is compromised.”

  “I know much more than even the university.”

  Master Carl glared at Aelus. “I suppose you had a supply of this?”

  Aelus shook his head. “He did,” he said, motioning to Bastan.

  When Carl looked up at Bastan, Bastan only tipped his head, as if shrugging. There was a hard edge to his eyes, and it was enough that Sam would have laughed, had the situation not been so dire.

  “Alec?” she asked, taking his hand.

  His eyes continued to flutter, and finally, they opened. “Sam? What are you doing…” He blinked. “Father.”

  Aelus leaned forward. “What were you doing? Where did you get that book?”

  “That’s your first question for me?”

  “It shouldn’t be the first, but I think it’s the most important.”

  “If it was mother’s…”

  “If it was your mother’s, then it would be even more dangerous for you to work through,” Aelus said, glancing up at Master Carl.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Aelus said.

  “It’s more than nothing. And it likely has to do with you and now your son—a physicker at the university who hasn’t been here long enough to understand exactly what it is he should and shouldn’t do, especially when it comes to something like this.”

  “My son has been involved in far more than you understand,” Aelus said. “And my son has been far more essential to—”

  “I am well aware of what your son has done,” Master Carl said. “He shares your arrogance.”

  “Arrogance? Alec?” Sam said.

  Alec squeezed her hand, seeming to try to distract her.

  Sam shook her head, getting annoyed. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you,” Sam said, stepping up to Master Carl. He was probably a foot taller than she was, and easily outweighed her by two hundred pounds, but she summoned all of the strength she had at her disposal, even going so far as to force an augmentation through her, drawing on strength she didn’t necessarily feel. “We haven’t met. My name is Samara Elseth.”

  “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  “I don’t know. How much time do you spend in the palace? If you would like to learn more about me, I would suggest you go to Princess Lyasanna. She would be happy to tell you all about me.”

  Master Carl paled. It was the necessary—and desired—effect. Sam remembered what Alec had said about Master Carl, and his political ambitions that had long ago failed. Throwing out the princess’s name, whether or not she would vouch for Sam, seemed to be the most effective way she would get his attention. Even if Lyasanna didn’t vouch for her, she would admit to knowing her.

  “And if you would like to speak with someone at the university to reassure you that I am telling the truth, you can speak with Master Helen. I have spent some time with her in the palace, as well.”

  Master Carl stared at her for a moment before taking a deep breath and straightening his back. All it did was serve to jut his stomach out even more. It would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. “Fine. Now that it seems your… friend… is well, I will leave the two of you.”

  He turned and started away, casting a glance back at Aelus every so often before heading toward the double doors leading out of the hospital ward.

  Alec let out a deep sigh. “What did you do to him?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Sam said. “It was mostly an empty threat.”

  “Not you,” Alec said, trying to sit up. He was weak, and despite that, he managed to get up on his elbows, propping himself up so he could look around. “And your threat wasn’t empty. If he goes to Princess Lyasanna, she at least has to admit she knows you. And if she doesn’t, Elaine will.” He looked over to Aelus. “What did you do to Master Carl?”

  “It’s a long story,” he said. “And I’m just glad that you are here. I’m glad that we were able to get you out of it.”

  Alec looked around, seeming to realize for the first time that Bastan was there. He nodded to him, almost a sign of respect. That surprised Sam. She didn’t know that Alec and Bastan had reached that point of connection. She wasn’t surprised that Bastan would attempt to form that connection, especially since he saw himself as something of her father, but she was surprised that Alec had taken the time to work with Bastan.

  “I don’t understand what happened. I was following the instructions in Mother’s book. It matched up with the other books, from what I was able to tell. Both Mother’s book and the others described the process for making paper. I thought I would use that and see if it made the easar paper,” he said. His voice was hoarse, but he was seeming to grow stronger the longer he talked. He looked at Sam more often than he looked at his father, seeming to avoid making eye contact with him. Hadn’t they worked things out? Aelus had come, barely hesitating when Sam told him Alec needed him, so she had assumed that they had, but maybe the two of them still hadn’t worked through the issues that had divided them.

  “I don’t think any of the ingredients you were mixing should have caused these symptoms, individually or in combination,” Aelus said.

  He held out the record and handed it over to Alec when he reached for it. Alec looked at the record of his own illness, scanning the page and nodding. “Nothing should have. I tested them individually, just to make sure, and even when I started mixing them, there was nothing more than the strange odor.”

  “There was more than a strange odor,” Aelus said.

  “You found it?”

  Aelus nodded. “Your friend Beckah took us to the classroom. She was the one who helped us find where you and Master Helen were working on this project.”

  “Well, it had been me and Master Helen, but mostly it was me. Master Helen hadn’t spent as much time working as I did. I think she was hoping to come in at the en
d and have the easar paper ready for her to use.”

  “This Master Helen, she is the same one I have met?” Bastan asked.

  Aelus looked over at him. “How is it that you know her?”

  “Possibly the same way that you know the Shuver.”

  Aelus paled.

  Sam glanced from Bastan to Aelus. “Who is the Shuver?”

  When Aelus didn’t answer, she grabbed his shoulder, the one where he’d been stabbed. “Is the Shuver the same one who had something to do with this?”

  Alec seemed to notice the injury to his father’s shoulder for the first time. “What happened?”

  “I went looking for your father, and I came upon two men who thought to attack him.”

  “They wanted to change the terms of the agreement,” Aelus said.

  “That is the Shuver,” Bastan said. “Why were you doing business with him?”

  “Who is the Shuver?” Sam asked.

  Bastan snorted. “He is someone like me, and yet not like me. He works primarily in the eastern sections of the city and has a reasonable amount of power.”

  “Then like Ryn.”

  “Not like Ryn. He doesn’t seek to expand his influence, not beyond what he already has. If he did, I would have eliminated him long before now.” Bastan said it so matter-of-factly that Sam couldn’t help but feel somewhat uncomfortable. “He serves his purpose. He is able to maintain stability in some of the more violent sections. And because of that, he allows trade to move through, the kind of trade the palace doesn’t always allow to come into the city. With his access to the sea, that is meaningful to me.”

  It surprised Sam to hear Bastan talking so freely about his business ventures, especially here in the university, but then, Bastan had begun to speak more freely about them in general.

  “He wanted a certain concoction,” Aelus said.

  “He wanted a poison,” Bastan said. “And I have little doubt where he would use it.”

  “I didn’t give it to him.”

  “Good. But if he comes to you again, I would suggest that you offer him an alternative.”

  “He’s not going to come again,” Sam said.

  Bastan glanced over at her. “Just because you eliminated a few of his operatives doesn’t mean others won’t make their way to him. Do you think removing a few of mine would remove the threat of me?”