Poisoned: The Book of Maladies Read online

  “I hope you find what you need.”

  “What if I do and I don’t like what I discover?”

  “Do you think that’s a possibility?”

  Sam turned toward the door. “I wouldn’t have thought so, but the more I learn about Elaine, the more I begin to wonder if maybe Marin did me a favor by taking me away from that.”

  “Sam…”

  “No. You’re right. All I wanted was to know who my parents were, to have a chance to get them back, and now that I got them—well, one of them—I don’t know that I want her.” She sighed. “I’d just like to know what happened. Maybe if I can ever find Marin, I can learn what she did and see if it can be undone.”

  “I’ll keep looking, too,” Alec said.

  Sam swallowed and looked down.

  “I miss seeing you,” he said.

  “I miss that, too.”

  “Now that we have some paper…”

  She glanced up and smiled. “I don’t think Bastan was thrilled that he had to reveal his supply. That made me happy.”

  Alec chuckled. “I’m sure it did.”

  “He has more. I’m sure of it. I’ll go back to him and see what I can get.”

  25

  A Meeting

  Sam made her way across the bridge slowly. She took a moment to flash her papers, identifying herself as from the palace, still feeling awkward about the fact that she did—and could. It was an uncomfortable thing for her to be able to claim that she was from the palace, and even more uncomfortable for her to feel like she could travel as easily as any of the highborns.

  As she moved farther from the center of the city, she felt increasing comfort with her surroundings. Not because she was necessarily more familiar with them, but more because she was away from some of the formality, and away from people who seemed to watch her with judging eyes. She needed that about as much as she needed to fall into the damn canal and deal with the eels.

  If only she had augmentations.

  She felt that way most of the time as she wandered between the sections of the city. She had her canal staff, and she had what she’d been taught by Theron, but she still didn’t have anywhere near the same level of skill as she had seen from Elaine. Her mother didn’t need augmentations to be dangerous.

  Had whatever Marin did to cloud her mind forever eliminate her connection to that part of her abilities? She could augment and access them, but nothing more than that. Without them, she was perhaps better able than most to navigate the city, but she still had limitations.

  There had been no more attacks on merchants in the city. In the weeks since the Theln attack at Marin’s, there had been no further sign of them, either.

  Had they disappeared?

  Sam had a hard time believing that they had, but if they weren’t gone, where had they disappeared to? And why couldn’t she learn anything of Marin?

  All this time, she should have been working with Alec, preparing for the Thelns. Even with her augmentations, the Thelns made her nervous. More than that. She feared them. Growing up in Caster, she hadn’t really been afraid of anything—she was confident she could protect herself—and Tray. But the Thelns did scare her. They had beaten her more than once—and the last time, they’d nearly beaten Elaine, who was better equipped than any to stop them. If she couldn’t, what hope did Sam have?

  If the protections of the city failed and the Thelns reached them, what could she do to defend herself? How could she keep them from getting to Tray?

  That frightened her most of all.

  It was Marin’s betrayal to her brother, even more than what she had done with Sam.

  He had to know what Marin had done before the Thelns came after him.

  What if they attempted to recruit Tray?

  Sam had no idea if that was something the Thelns did. Elaine refused to talk about them, and every time she’d attempted to bring it up, the woman had changed the topic. Would they learn that Tray was part Theln? Was there anything they could do that would convince him to join with them?

  Tray wanted to prove himself. That was all he’d ever wanted. He wanted to prove to Sam that she didn’t need to protect him, that he could be the one to keep her safe. She’d made the mistake of minimizing his ability to do that and pushing him away all these years. Now she needed him. He might be the one person that could keep her safe from the Thelns if they were to attack.

  She reached the edge of a section—the Yalling section—and paused at the canal. Standing on the edge, she looked out over the water, listening to the soft sound of the current as it flowed past, and took a deep breath. There was a barge in the canal, and it moved slowly with the current, the captain poling his way along, pushing the boat forward and toward the outer sections of the city. There weren’t that many barges willing to travel all the way to the outer sections, so this one must either be poor, or he smuggled something not meant for the center of the city.

  Sam waited until he had passed before she assembled her canal staff and took two steps back before jumping over the canal, plunging her staff in the middle of the canal as she leaped.

  There was a simple joy found in flying over the canal. Wind whistled around her. The scent of the canal was prominent, but it was not unpleasant from up here, not as it could be from street level. The perspective allowed her the ability to see everything around her, to see the section she left as easily as she saw the one she soared toward.

  Then she landed. Sam shook off her staff and disassembled it.

  She could have kept it out, but doing so would only draw attention to her. Traveling to Caster and back to Bastan for the second time in a few weeks left her with a desire for anonymity and the ability to appear without warning. Bastan had enough men stationed along the bridges connecting the various sections of the city that he would know she was coming. Sam didn’t mind him knowing, but she would prefer to surprise him.

  Noise in the middle of the section caught her attention, and she veered away from the road leading along the water’s edge.

  She should ignore the noise. There was no reason for her to go chasing after things that would only distract her, but curiosity pulled her along.

  The section was mostly merchants, though they were lower-level merchants that would not be found in other areas in the city. Some of the inner sections were much more well-off, and the merchants that served those areas had significant financial resources. Merchants found here tended to serve the outer sections, those that had less money, and less prestige.

  As she rounded a corner, she saw a commotion in the street.

  It was a fight, the kind of street fight that was likely to lead to an arrest, and jailing of those involved. These were the kinds of fights that the city guard disallowed, making every effort to clean them up and do everything they could to ensure that they were short-lived.

  Could this be another merchant attack?

  It had been weeks since the last.

  Three men attacked a fourth. The three men were of average size and build, but they seemed to have some experience working together, and boxed in the fourth man, trapping him in the center. None of them were armed, but they bashed at the other man, pounding him with their fists. The fourth man was larger than his attackers, and he fought back with some amount of skill, his punches sending one after another staggering back.

  As she watched, Sam thought he might actually fight them off, but the other three kept coming, managing to get up time and again, only to throw themselves at the other man once more.

  One of the men pulled out a pair of knives. The faint daylight glittered off of them, and Sam’s heart skipped. What had been nothing more than a street fight—little more than a brawl—now had a different dynamic to it.

  Something prompted Sam to rush forward. As she did, she assembled her canal staff and launched herself up and over the outer men, coming to land in the middle of the fray.

  She spun, bringing the staff around with a sharp crack, colliding with the nearest man, sending
him flying backward.

  She flipped the staff around, connecting with the man holding the knives, and the sharpness of the blow cracked his wrist.

  That left only one man.

  The man getting attacked lunged at him, knocking him to the ground, and began pummeling his face. He struck with a furious intensity, one that battered the other man and left his face a bloody mess.

  Sam reached in and tried to pull him back, but he was larger than she was and clearly stronger. Had she any augmentations, she would have been able to restrain him, but, she didn’t.

  What she did have was her canal staff.

  She swung, using minimal force, but caught him in the stomach, forcing him back.

  The man grunted. He spun toward her, and Sam nearly dropped her staff.

  “Tray?”

  “Sam?” Tray’s voice had changed, having grown deeper since she’d last seen him. Had so much changed in that short time? “What are you doing here? You haven’t been in Caster in—”

  “This isn’t Caster. And you shouldn’t be fighting.”

  One of the men groaned, and Sam grabbed Tray’s sleeve and pulled him with her.

  He might outweigh her, but he didn’t resist, letting her drag him as they moved out of the street. She wanted to get him away from the fight, not wanting him to get caught near the three men. She had questions and doubted that he’d answer them, but she would press him.

  She pulled him along with her as they made their way along the street. Tray remained silent, though Sam wasn’t offended by that. He seemed larger than the last time she’d seen him, though that had been months now. In that time, so much had changed for her—and obviously for him.

  When they reached the waterfront, the canals stretching out in front of her, she rounded on him. “What was that about?” she demanded.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters, Tray. Those men were going to kill you.”

  “They weren’t trying to kill me. They were—” He shook his head, cutting himself off before he could say anything more.

  Sam could tell that he was careful about what he said to her and had to admit that she found it a little disconcerting that Tray would censor himself in such a way. He had always been the one who shared everything with her, and she had always been the one to resist telling him anything more than was necessary.

  “Well? Are you going to tell me what happened?” she demanded.

  “Are you going to tell me where you’ve been the last few months?” Tray asked.

  Sam leaned on her canal staff, shaking her head. “What’s there to tell you?”

  “Maybe you start with telling me how you learned to fight like that.”

  She shot him a hard look. “Fight like what? Like my brother’s life was in danger?”

  “I’ve known you my entire life. I’ve never seen you fight quite like that. That was something I’ve only seen from men who are soldiers. Have you become a soldier?”

  Sam glanced up the street, looking for any sign of movement, but there was none. “Why won’t you tell me who those men were?”

  “Because it doesn’t matter. And now that you beat them the way you did, it certainly doesn’t matter.”

  “You’re not going to tell me what that was about?”

  Tray stared at her, his face unreadable. “You’re not going to tell me what your sudden skill improvement is all about?”

  Sam began breaking down her staff, pulling the ends apart. “I’ve been learning how to defend myself, okay? Living on the streets in Caster, you have to learn how to protect yourself.”

  “It doesn’t have anything to do with that boy who likes you?”

  “Boy?”

  Tray shrugged. “Fine. Man. He’s still not all that old.”

  “This has nothing to do with Alec.”

  “The last time I saw him—”

  Sam jabbed a finger at his chest. “About that. The last time you saw him, it was at Marin’s home, and you were watching it for her. How many other jobs have you done for Marin?”

  She wasn’t ready to say anything more about Marin, or about the fact that they weren’t actually related, but maybe she wouldn’t need to. Maybe Tray would tell her what he knew about Marin.

  “Marin asked me to do a few tasks for her. You know that she wants only to help keep us safe. She knew Mother.”

  Sam clenched her jaw to keep from snapping at him. It wasn’t Tray’s fault that Marin had deceived them.

  An idea began to come to her. Marin had deceived both of them, but she had always worked on behalf of Tray, had always made sure that he was protected, even sometimes at the expense of Sam. Could Marin somehow be doing that now?

  “When did you last see her?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I can’t talk about that, Sam.”

  “She’s doing something, Tray. I need to find her.”

  Tray stared at her, not saying anything, but she could see the look in his eyes, the one that seemed to struggle with how to answer.

  “What has she asked of you, Trayson? Is it something that’s going to end up getting you hurt?”

  He laughed, and there was a hint of bitterness in it. “She hasn’t asked me to do anything more dangerous than you ever asked.”

  “I only ever asked you to watch.”

  “Watch. And we saw where that got me, didn’t we?”

  Sam stared at him for a moment, wishing there was something she could say that would convince him she hadn’t been responsible for him ending up in prison, but there wasn’t. It had been her fault. Had she not asked him to stand guard, to watch over her as she broke into the highborn house, he would never have been captured, and never would have ended up in prison.

  Sam had spent only a short period of time in prison. She didn’t know what he’d experienced in the weeks that he’d been held captive. How awful must it have been?

  And Tray had not said anything to her. He had kept that experience to himself. It was almost like he’d done so to protect her, but she wasn’t the one who needed protecting, that was Tray.

  “I’m sorry you were captured,” she said.

  Tray shrugged. “That’s not what I’m getting at,” he said.

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Only that I’ve been in more dangerous situations before. You have to trust that I can take care of myself, Sam. I’m thankful you’ve always been there for me, but now, this is something I need to do.”

  “What does she have you doing?” Sam asked.

  Tray looked around, turning his attention up the street where they’d come from, before looking back to Sam. He crossed his arms over his chest, and she felt a sense of enormity from him. Tray had always been large, and muscular. He’d been that way since they were children, and she’d felt slightly jealous about that fact, feelings that only worsened as they grew older, and she remained the same size. Now when he crossed his arms, his biceps pressed against the fabric of his sleeves, and she was completely aware of how much larger he was.

  “I’ve told you. She has me watching.”

  “Watching what?”

  Tray shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “I think it does. I need to know what’s happened to her. Where she’s gone. Others will get harmed if we don’t find her.”

  “Others? Like you? Marin made it clear that you had abandoned her.”

  “I didn’t abandon her. I just…”

  She couldn’t tell him what she had done. If she shared, then she would have to explain more, and not only was she not ready to do that, she wasn’t certain it was the right thing to do in the first place.

  “You just what?” Tray asked.

  “I just—I just want you to be well.”

  “Then stop trying to save me.”

  “You’re my brother, Tray. I’m never going to stop trying to save you.”

  Tray watched her, and opened his mouth once, as if he were going to say something more to her, maybe object to what she
’d said to him, but then he clamped it shut once more. He turned and started off down the street, without saying anything more.

  Sam blinked, watching him go before anger bubbled up within her and she stormed after him, stopping in front of him and smacking him on the chest with her canal staff.

  “That’s it? I haven’t seen you in months, and you decide it’s okay to just run off without saying even goodbye? Tray—I’ve been worried about you.”

  “I’ve been okay.”

  “At least let me know how to find you,” she said.

  “It’s not safe for you to find me.”

  “For who?”

  “For you.”

  She tapped him on the chest with her staff again. “I have proven that I can defend myself a little bit. And I’ll do whatever it takes to defend you, as well. Don’t… Don’t do something stupid.”

  “Like I said, I’ll do whatever is necessary to finish this job. That’s what Marin asked of me.”

  “I need to find her, Tray.”

  “I don’t know if that’s possible.”

  “Why?”

  Tray gave a half smile. “You haven’t said anything about Marin’s home, and I know that you were there.”

  Sam’s heart fluttered for a moment. Had he been there? Had he been watching when Elaine had fought the Thelns? She wanted to keep Tray as far away from them as possible and did not want him to learn about his connection to them, not knowing what he might do, or how he might react. If he’d been there, then he might even have seen Sam intervene, and might have seen her carry Elaine off to Bastan’s.

  “Have you been watching me?” she asked.

  Tray shook his head. “I haven’t watched you. I don’t think I could keep up with you even if I wanted to. I can’t get across the canals the same way you do. I have to find a different way across. Don’t you remember that?”

  Sam smiled to herself. Tray had never been especially skilled at jumping the canal, which was the reason he’d often stayed behind, watching from the other side as Sam did whatever task she needed to. Something had obviously changed though, since Tray was much farther from Caster than she’d expected him to be.