Poisoned: The Book of Maladies Read online

  A growing unease built within her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to get out, but Marin’s room was on an upper floor, and the only way out was through the window or back down the stairs.

  She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was prepared for an attack.

  Sam assembled her canal staff and flicked it at the window. It was no longer the time to worry about making too much noise.

  Glass shattered and sprinkled the street far below.

  Sam listened, waiting to see if someone noticed what she’d done, but she heard no one.

  If she had rope, she would have an easier way of getting down. All she had was her staff. It was far too high for her to jump from here, too high to use her canal staff for support.

  What choice did she have?

  The thudding increased, and Sam recognized heat behind it.

  Why would there be heat?

  Not just heat, but a familiar type of heat.

  Thelns. They had used some sort of explosive to destroy Bastan’s tavern, and they had done something similar at Alec’s father’s shop.

  If the Thelns were here, and if they had observed her, did they know that it was she, or did they think that she was Marin? They look similar enough that it was possible they’d made a mistake.

  Sam licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry.

  If the Thelns were here, and if she had no augmentations—and no Alec to assist her—she was in a dangerous position. Even her training with Thoren wouldn’t have prepared her to face the Thelns.

  And now she had blown out the window glass, revealing herself.

  Heat continued to rise, and the stone of the building began to tremble.

  Sam had to get out of here. The building would explode, and if she was in it, there was no augmentation that would save her.

  Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she raced toward the window and jumped.

  The jump carried her out the window and sailing into the street. She clutched her staff, trying to spin as she jumped, and jabbed down with the staff, needing to find a way to balance. She wasn’t certain that it would even work, and if it did, didn’t know if her staff would support her or if it would flex and snap.

  The wind whistled around her, and she reacted the way she had when training at the palace practice grounds, facing Thoren.

  She kicked up, twisting in the air and spinning around.

  The change in perspective gave her a chance to survey the street, however briefly.

  Two massive men emerged from the door into Marin’s home. A third, a massive man with eyes that were nearly black, stood in the middle of the street, watching her movements.

  Still airborne, Sam flipped her staff around and swung it toward him.

  A hint of a smile played across his face, and he reached up for the staff.

  Kyza!

  She jerked it away and pushed the tip down, into the ground along the street, not wanting to give him an opportunity to grab her only weapon.

  When it touched down, she felt the staff flex, and for a moment, she feared it would snap. Thankfully, the staff pressed back up, and she was able to carry the momentum upward and rotated one more time before landing on her feet on the street.

  Sometime later, she would have to give herself a chance to celebrate what she had just done. Never before had she managed to dance with the staff like that, and the fact that she had jumped out of a second story window, with only her staff for support, should be reason for celebration.

  The large man in the middle of the street lunged toward her, and she scrambled backward.

  She held out the staff, preparing to flick it at the man, to use the length and speed that she could generate with it to attack.

  As he had before, the man casually reached toward the staff.

  Sam jumped back and almost bumped into one of the other two men.

  She spun around, frantically trying to react, and dipped the staff toward his feet before twisting it up, catching him between the legs.

  Once again, she felt a sort of whistling in the air, one that told her to drop, and she rolled onto the cobbles, flicking the staff around an arc as she did. Even if she didn’t catch any of the attackers, she hoped to prevent them from chasing her, to at least give them pause as they threatened to attack.

  If these men were Thelns, Sam doubted she would have any way of overpowering them. She struggled with even a single Theln when she had her augmentations, and to attempt to face three of them without any sort of augmentation would be suicide.

  Sam darted toward an alleyway, one that she knew would lead her toward a rooftop that she could jump on, and hopefully escape that way, but one of the men blocked her way.

  She tipped her staff into the ground and flipped up, soaring over his head. When she landed on the other side of him, she swung her staff toward his back with two sharp cracks that struck him, sending him staggering forward.

  She needed to thank Thoren when this was over—and if she survived.

  She continued forward, racing toward the alley, and to safety, when she heard a soft peal of laughter.

  “I suspected you would make the mistake of coming here,” one of the men said, his voice thick with gravel. Sam had heard a similar voice before, and there was no question this man was a Theln.

  As she reached the alley, she flipped up, climbing to the nearest rooftop. She paused, then turned around and noticed that the Theln hadn’t directed the comment to her. Another stood in the middle of the street, watching the Thelns with a wary expression. At first, Sam thought it might be Marin, and if it was, she was determined to let them have her.

  But it wasn’t Marin. It was Elaine.

  19

  Rescuing a Kaver

  Sam scooted forward on the rooftop, wanting a better vantage to see what Elaine might do. Had she followed Sam here? Or had she followed the Thelns? As she stared, she saw a cluster of men a street over lying on the ground, none moving.

  Another merchant?

  Had Thelns been responsible for the attack she’d seen?

  If so, they’d been back in the city far longer than she’d realized. And it meant that whatever protections Elaine claimed existed to keep the Thelns from the city had failed.

  How much longer before they attempted another attack on the princess? How much longer before they dared breach the palace? With what Elaine said about the Kavers dwindling in numbers, there might not be enough of them left to stop the Thelns.

  Kyza.

  “The only mistake I made was not destroying you outside of the city,” Elaine said, casually gripping her staff. She was dressed in a flowing gray robe that seemed to catch the wind and swirl around her, reminding Sam of the one she used to have.

  The massive Theln grunted. “Nearly dying wasn’t enough?”

  “Did I nearly die?”

  The Theln laughed. “You’re a fool coming here. You against three of us? Do you believe in yourself so much that you think you can take us on?”

  “Yes.”

  Elaine jumped into the air.

  The suddenness of it was jarring. She flipped high into the sky, clearly augmented, and swung her staff around in a vicious, whistling arc.

  She caught one of the Thelns who had been approaching from behind her, a man she shouldn’t even have seen, but was somehow aware of him. The force of her strike sent the man staggering, his skull crushed. Sam doubted he would rise from that injury.

  That left only two Thelns.

  Elaine might have augmentations, but the Thelns had a different sort of magic, one that Sam still didn’t fully understand. The larger of the two had seemed casual with his movements when he had reached for Sam’s staff, but when facing Elaine, the movements were anything but casual.

  He reached forward, his hand fast as a snake attacking, and snatched her staff.

  Sam’s breath caught, but Elaine went with it, following the movement, holding on to the staff, and swung her feet toward him, kicking him as she did.

 
; She managed to get her staff free, and flipped up into the air once more, coming down and striking not the large Theln, but the one trying to sneak up from behind. She caught him twice, once on the leg, buckling him, and the second on the back of his neck, sending his head flying toward the cobbles with a sickening crack.

  The large Theln grinned at Elaine. “You will make a nice prize,” he said.

  “Is that what women are to you? A prize?”

  The Theln grinned. “One with attitude as well. You most definitely will make an excellent prize.”

  Elaine lunged at him, flickering her staff as she did, swinging it in an arc and whipping it down at the last moment, catching the Theln on the arm. Somehow, he ignored the force of the attack and simply shook it off. He grinned at Elaine and moved so quickly that Sam had a hard time tracking him.

  He reached toward the staff, and this time when he grabbed it, he shook it, flinging Elaine free.

  She went soaring, colliding with the building near Marin’s.

  Sam tore her attention away from the fight, realizing that she hadn’t paid any attention to what was happening to Marin’s building. The power that she had detected was still there, pressing away, building gradually, leaving the heat haze in the air.

  The building was going to explode. Sam knew that deep within her, certainty that she couldn’t overcome.

  Elaine lay motionless, the Theln having thrown her violently, leaving her unable to get up.

  Sam watched, feeling helpless.

  What could she do?

  There was nothing. She didn’t have augmentations, not like Elaine did, and even with them, she hadn’t been able to overpower the Theln. Maybe had Marin not wiped her mind, suppressing some part of her that gave her Kaver abilities, Sam might be able to do something, but those were lost to her. She was still too slow. Maybe she’d always be too slow. All that would happen if Sam got involved would be her injury. She would be tossed around even more violently than Elaine.

  But Sam needed to help Elaine—her mother—otherwise, the woman would be carried off by the Theln. She wasn’t about to allow that to happen. If nothing else, she thought she could provide a distraction, and give Elaine a chance to get up and maybe get away.

  Sam crawled toward the edge of the roof. If she timed this right, if she managed to coordinate it with the pending explosion, she could grab Elaine right before the building exploded, and use that distraction to prevent the Theln from chasing them. He had to know that it was coming, but maybe he had a resistance to the heat and fire. She knew so little about the Thelns other than what they were capable of doing and the violence they brought with them.

  The heat became unbearable. Her hair felt as if it vibrated, attempting to stand on end.

  She had to act. She knew it, though wasn’t sure if she could be fast enough—or strong enough—to do so.

  Sam took a deep breath, collecting herself, and jumped.

  For the second time today, she jumped from a high level, unmindful of the fact that all she had was her eight-foot-long canal staff. It was long enough to help support her, but she would feel a severe jarring when it stuck.

  Sam braced herself.

  The staff plunged into the cobbles and flexed.

  The Theln kicked, catching the staff as it flexed. Sam pushed up and twisted her body in the air, angling so that she went flying toward the building where Elaine had collapsed. She held tightly onto her staff, knowing the way the Theln would try to disarm her, and tumbled to her feet near her mother.

  “You have to get up,” she said.

  “Samara?” Elaine asked, barely opening her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

  “Trying to save you. Now get up.”

  “You shouldn’t be here. The Theln—”

  “I know what he can do. I was already here, anyway.”

  She scooped her arms underneath Elaine, trying to get her to move. Her mother was only slightly larger than Sam but seemed to weigh quite a bit more. Was that because of the augmentation? She could envision a situation where having increased weight would be an advantage, especially when facing a much larger Theln. It was something she would have to talk to Alec about. If she survived.

  “You need to run, Samara. Don’t let him reach you.”

  Sam felt a whistling that reminded her of when she sparred with Thoren, though this seemed to press against her, much like the pressure building within Marin’s building.

  She rolled, flipping Elaine with her, and managed to move her moments before the Theln crashed into the wall.

  Sam smacked him twice with her staff, doubting that it would do anything, but feeling a twisted sort of joy that she managed to hit him.

  She forced Elaine to her feet, thrusting her in front of her, and they staggered down the street.

  “We won’t outrun him,” Elaine said.

  “We don’t have to outrun him. We have to outrun the explosion.”

  Elaine glanced at her. “Explosion?”

  Sam dragged her down the street. As she did, the heat continued to rise, and she felt the pressure tingling under her skin.

  “We can’t leave him in the city,” Elaine said.

  “We can’t beat him, either.”

  Just then, an explosion thundered from Marin’s building.

  Rock and debris and dust sent both of the women flying forward. Sam held on to her mother’s hand, keeping a tight grip on her, and they went sprawling across the cobbles.

  Thoren’s comment about getting to her feet stuck in Sam’s head, and she scrambled forward, dragging Elaine with her. She managed to stand and hazarded a glance back.

  She tensed, fearing that the Theln might appear from the rubble, but she saw no sign of him.

  “Come on,” she said to Elaine.

  “We need to get back to the palace,” Elaine said.

  “Not yet. You’re injured, and we need to make sure that you can handle the journey.”

  “I think I can—”

  She wasn’t able to finish, and her eyes fluttered before she collapsed.

  Sam swore under her breath. Somehow, she would have to carry Elaine. Elaine had used her augmentations during the fight, but Sam didn’t have the necessary augmentations to ensure that she could carry her easily.

  It didn’t seem quite fair.

  20

  The Easar Paper

  The tavern smelled of smoke from the distant hearth, mixed with the savory scents coming out of the kitchen. Sam barely managed to hold on to Elaine as she staggered into the tavern. If she had to go much farther, she would drop her.

  Every so often, Elaine would groan. She writhed in place, resisting Sam as she clutched her against her. Sam couldn’t lift her and had been forced to drag her as they made their way down the street to the tavern.

  Kevin reached her as they entered. He cocked a brow and waved her in, scooping an arm underneath Elaine to help Sam.

  “Is he here?” she asked.

  “He’s here. He’s—”

  Sam ignored him and shuffled toward the back of the tavern, one arm still around Elaine, though Kevin had taken over most of the lifting at this point. She banged on Bastan’s door with her foot, no interest in being discreet.

  The door opened, and he shoved his head through. “What is—”

  Sam nodded toward Elaine. “I need your help, Bastan.”

  Bastan glanced from Elaine to Sam before shaking his head. “It’s not a good time, Samara.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt one of your meetings. I need your help.”

  Bastan glanced over his shoulder before stepping into the tavern and closing the door behind him. He made his way across the tavern toward the kitchen, motioning for Sam to follow.

  Sam did, but looked back at his office, wondering who he was concealing. There was something going on in the office, something that Bastan intended to keep from her, but maybe now wasn’t the time to push him.

  The kitchen was a coordinated sort of chaos. Four cooks worked near t
he oven, shoving food from place to place. The servers stepped in, grabbing plates or ale, before heading back out into the tavern. Bastan crossed the kitchen and led them to a door along the back wall. He pushed it open and hurried through and down a series of steps.

  “She needs help, Bastan.”

  He paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Like you did when you fell?”

  “This is different. This is…” How much did she tell him? Did she admit that this was a Theln attack again? He’d faced it before and had nearly come up on the wrong end of it, his tavern destroyed. Bastan being who he was, had quickly rebuilt, but would he be eager to bring such danger upon himself again? “Yes. It’s like me when I fell.”

  “I’ll send word to the university and get your friend to join us.”

  “That will only work if we have”—she glanced back at Kevin, lowering her voice—“more of the easar paper.”

  Bastan’s face tightened, and she realized that he was going to be forced to admit something that he did not want to.

  A comment made by Kevin the last time she’d come to the tavern came to the front of her mind. Bastan had been seeking supplies—art supplies. That meant paper. “You have more of it, don’t you?”

  “I have a few sheets.”

  “Why? You can’t use it.”

  “But you can, Samara. I’m not foolish enough to believe that isn’t valuable in the right circumstances. You might think that we are done working together, but I don’t.”

  Bastan continued down the short hall and pushed the door open. When Sam reached him, she set her hand on his arm, and Bastan turned and looked at her with his hard, gray eyes.

  “I don’t think I’m done working with you,” she said.

  “No? You’ve avoided me for the last few months.”

  “After all the years we’ve worked together, you think a few months matter?”

  Bastan slowly began to grin and then nodded. “Good. Otherwise I would be compelled to find some way to force you to work with me.”