Poisoned: The Book of Maladies Read online

  “It’s okay, Samara.”

  Tray never called her by her full name. “What’s okay, Trayson?”

  He grinned at her. “You don’t have to stay here. If something’s happening near the palace, and you have access, you should go.”

  “I can’t bring you to the other side.”

  “I know. I’ll see what else I can find here, and you go and make sure Marin isn’t doing anything dangerous near the palace.”

  Sam gave Tray a hug. He stiffened as she did, then relaxed slightly. “Thank you.”

  “All I’ve ever wanted was to help you,” Tray said.

  “And all I’ve ever wanted was to keep you out of trouble. Kyza! I went to jail to try to get you free.”

  Tray grinned. “That wasn’t necessary, you know.”

  “I know that now. At the time…” She hugged him again.

  When she released him, she ran toward the bridge, reaching for her documentation. She glanced back, noting that Tray simply stood there watching her. She wasn’t sure what he would do, or where he would go. Whatever Marin was after involved the canals, but what?

  She was granted quick access to the other side, and ran across the bridge, scanning the palace grounds, but found nothing. What did she expect? Marin had skill and cunning. Would Sam even be able to detect her presence?

  Had she made a mistake?

  Sam ran back toward the canal, this time to the east. As she approached it, she saw fighting on the bridge. She’d come across a different bridge—three bridges connected the palace to the other sections of the city—but if there was fighting on this one, what might be taking place on the others?

  There were two massive men on the bridge facing the soldiers.

  Thelns.

  The commotion drew other soldiers out from the palace, and they raced toward the bridge. Sam got out of the way, not needing to get involved in a battle. The men were trained for that. She was able to use her staff, but this was a more open conflict.

  Too late, she felt a buildup of heat.

  “No!”

  The bridge exploded. Chunks of stone went flying, and she ducked to avoid one striking her on the head.

  Dust and debris scattered, and the bridge collapsed into the canal with a rumble and an enormous splash of water.

  Another explosion struck, this time from the north side of the section. Sam didn’t need to see it to know that another bridge had collapsed.

  That left one bridge.

  She ran, sprinting toward it.

  She would be too late—she knew she would—but if she could stop the explosion… How? What could she do that would stop the explosion?

  She reached the bridge and wasn’t surprised that it was the same one she had just crossed. Guards ran along the bridge, filling it. She spotted a single man on the opposite shore. He was enormous, looming against the night, and fought against three Thelns of the same size.

  Tray.

  What was her brother doing?

  As Sam watched, she saw someone flipping toward him, a canal staff spinning.

  It was Marin.

  If Marin got to Tray, he might give up the fight, he might allow those men to cross the bridge and blow it up as the others had been destroyed.

  There were too many people on the bridge for her to pass.

  That meant having to jump to cross the canal, but she’d never jumped that far. Even when she’d trained, even when she had been practicing, she had never managed such a distance.

  It wasn’t possible. Not without an augmentation, and Alec was at the university, trying to get help from the masters.

  She watched helplessly as Marin got closer. Within moments, she would be there, reach Tray, and Sam didn’t have to imagine how that would go. Marin would convince him of what she was doing, and Tray would stop fighting.

  One of the Thelns fell, leaving Tray facing two.

  Sam had to reach the other side. She had to help.

  Could she jump?

  Elaine had proven that it was possible and had shown that without an augmentation, a Kaver could leap even the widest canal, but Sam didn’t have that ability. Or if she did, it was locked in her mind, trapped there when Marin erased who she was and who she could have been.

  Sam had to try. She didn’t like her chances, but she was willing to do her best. If she failed, what was the worst thing that could happen? She’d splash into the water, and not for the first time. She thought of the eels, but was there something worse? She didn’t know what Marin had placed in the water, but if Tray had been working with it, it couldn’t be fatal.

  Marin neared Tray.

  Sam took a few steps back, then sprinted, jumping into the air and plunging her staff to the bottom of the canal.

  The jump wasn’t far enough.

  She pressed off, the staff flexing, forcing her up, and she flipped, swinging her staff back around, hoping to complete enough of a rotation that she could reach the other side.

  She started to come around and felt herself going too far, so she quickly plunged the staff down, using the energy of her rotation to send her up, and all the way across.

  It was a double jump, one that she’d never attempted before, and when she landed in a roll, she felt her heart pounding wildly as she looked back across the canal, amazed at the distant she’d just cleared.

  She didn’t gaze for too long.

  Not hesitating, Sam threw herself forward.

  Her staff smacked into one of the Thelns, knocking him down. The distraction was enough to give Tray an opening, and he dropped the other.

  Sam didn’t have the time to marvel at what she’d done.

  Marin reached her.

  As she did, Sam knew that she wouldn’t be fast enough—she couldn’t be fast enough—without augmentations. Marin moved quickly—too quickly.

  She was augmented.

  “You shouldn’t have come back here,” Marin said.

  “What choice did I have?” Sam asked.

  “There’s always a choice. And you made the wrong one.”

  Marin lunged at her, and Sam knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop her.

  36

  The Plan

  They reached the canal, and Alec was breathing hard. He clutched his satchel against his side, afraid of losing it. Beckah had tolerated the run more easily, as did Master Eckerd. Neither seemed to be panting quite as much as Alec was.

  As they turned to head down toward one of the bridges, thunder rumbled. “A storm?” Alec said.

  “Not a storm,” Master Eckerd said, pointing down the canal. Alec looked and saw the bridge collapsing into the canal. Dust from the explosion filled the air, and there was a strange energy there, as well, one that he’d felt before, and recognized.

  Was it Thelns?

  He had thought they wouldn’t be able to reach this far into the city, but the explosion, and the power he detected, had traits of the Thelns.

  “Where are they?” He asked the question mostly to himself, but Beckah answered anyway.

  “I don’t see anyone here,” she said.

  Another explosion thundered, and Alec’s breath caught as it did.

  That left one bridge leading to the palace side. All of them seemed to wait, the air within the city—in this section of it—still, as if the city itself seemed to wait for what happened next.

  Nothing came.

  “By the gods!” Master Eckerd said.

  “What about the third bridge?” Beckah asked.

  “It’s not the bridge,” Eckerd said. “Look.”

  Rather than pointing toward the bridges connecting the palace section to the others, he pointed toward the water. Alec stared, trying to make sense of what would have drawn the master’s attention, and realized that it was something in the water.

  Alec crept closer, not wanting to get too close to the edge, and saw leaves floating there. “Are those—”

  Eckerd sniffed. “Foxglove.”

  “Why would they want to put foxglove
in the canals? Diluted like that, it wouldn’t have much of an effect on anyone in the city, even if they were to drink it.” Alec looked to Eckerd, whose face had gone ashen. “It’s not about the supply of drinking water, is it?”

  Eckerd shook his head. “It’s harvest time, and we’ve had our suppliers collecting all of it.”

  “Suppliers?”

  “Foxglove is incredibly difficult to grow in this climate. And we pay a hefty premium to all who collect it.”

  “That’s what money from the university goes toward?” Alec asked.

  “There are many purposes for the money the university collects.”

  “Why foxglove?”

  “You aren’t far enough along in your studies to hear the answer to that,” Master Eckerd said.

  “I think we’ve shown that we are a part of this,” he said.

  Eckerd sighed. “The city was originally designed as a haven for those with Scribe and Kaver abilities. It was designed that way to ensure certain protections from those who would cause harm.”

  “How could it be designed…” Alec looked to the canals. “The water?”

  Master Eckerd nodded. “The greatest canvas ever attempted. Those ancient Scribes used the canals to create an augmentation for the city itself, one that provides protection to all of those within it and excludes the Thelns.”

  “But it hasn’t excluded the Thelns,” Alec said.

  “It has, until recently. Something has changed. There has been activity, an intentional attempt to bypass the protections placed upon the city.”

  “How would foxglove poison affect them?” Beckah asked.

  “The canals have particular qualities that make it work.”

  Alec nearly asked what qualities, when he realized what they had to be. It was the reason that even the strongest person he knew was afraid of them. “The eels? They’re real?”

  Master Eckerd studied Alec for a long moment. “You really do have an astute mind, Mr. Stross. Very few have ever come to that understanding.”

  “So, the foxglove is designed to poison the eels,” Alec said.

  “And, I suspect, it will work,” Master Eckerd said. “The eels share something in common with Scribes, and it makes them quite sensitive to the effects of foxglove.”

  “Is that why it affected me as strongly as it did?” Alec asked.

  Eckerd nodded. “Master Carl has never administered the foxglove test before. It is typically administered by those within the university who understand its purpose. It served as something of a screening process, and those who pass are typically those with the potential to become Scribes.”

  “But Beckah didn’t have the same reaction,” Alec said.

  “Ms. Reynolds had not had any training as a Scribe. I suspect that if she were to take foxglove now, the effect would be even more potent.”

  “We have to stop this, don’t we?” Beckah asked.

  “I think you need to help your Kavers,” Master Eckerd said, nodding down toward the only remaining bridge.

  In the distance, Alec saw Sam leap across to the other side, somehow managing to stick a second jump before landing safely. What would have prompted her to make such an attempt?

  Then he saw the reason. Tray was there, fighting several others, and… Marin approached.

  “What will you do?” Alec asked.

  “Others have already been notified,” Master Eckerd said. “Now that I know what she intends, I think I might be able to counter it, but… It will be painful.”

  “There’s not enough thistle root to counteract the foxglove.”

  Master Eckerd smiled tightly. “Thistle root is the antidote that we have allowed known. There is one other. Unfortunately, as I said, it will be painful.” He motioned toward the fight. “Go. Help your Kavers.”

  Alec nodded, and they started off. As they approached the fight, he slowed.

  “What is it?” Beckah asked.

  “We need a sample of blood for this to work,” he said. “That’s the unfortunate side of this magic. It requires blood ink in order for it to be effective.”

  He watched Sam, as she was tossed back, jumping toward him.

  But… Tray remained ignored. It was almost as if Marin had chosen to fight Sam first, thinking—probably rightly—that Tray wouldn’t attack her.

  “You’re going to have to draw Tray away, and get a sample of blood from him,” Alec said.

  “How do you suggest I draw him way?”

  “I don’t know. Harass him the same way that you harassed me?”

  “What about you? What are you going to do?”

  Alec looked over at Sam, watching her fight. She was getting thrown back, and Marin moved much more quickly than what Sam could do. It was not a fair fight, especially since Marin was augmented, and Sam was not.

  “I need to find a way to reach Sam.”

  “Alec—be safe.”

  He tore the easar paper in half and handed her a piece. “Go and help your Kaver.”

  She sighed. “Why do I feel that I might have been better off never learning about this magic?”

  There were times he felt the same way.

  37

  A Kaver Attacks

  Sam was thrown back again, the end of Marin’s half-staff striking her shoulder. She managed to block, but only deflected it slightly. Marin fought with each half separately, moving faster than what Sam could keep up with. She’d been struck a few times, and each one stung, but so far, Marin hadn’t poisoned her as she had before.

  It was almost as if Marin toyed with her.

  “Tray knows the truth,” Sam said.

  Marin glared at her. “Neither of you knows the truth.”

  “Why are you poisoning the canal? What do you think you can accomplish here?”

  “Accomplish? I think to right an injustice. Unfortunately, you are in the way.”

  Sam managed to block two blows. She continued to dance back, and when she glanced over her shoulder, wanting to ensure that she didn’t trip over anything, she saw Alec and Beckah.

  If she could get to him, she might be able to even the fight.

  “Where’s your Scribe?”

  Marin grinned widely. “What makes you believe that I need a Scribe?”

  “Because you’re a Kaver. Kavers need their Scribes.”

  “Ah, Samara, how much you have to learn.”

  She attacked with a renewed fury and sent Sam staggering backward.

  “It’s time for me to end this, so I can complete my task.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why won’t you help me understand? Why let Thelns into the city?”

  “Ask your mother.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that not everything is what you believe.”

  “Like my mother being dead? Like how Tray’s mother was dead?”

  Marin’s eyes narrowed, and she flicked her staff at Sam.

  It sent her dropping to the ground, rolling so that she could get away from the attack. She crashed into Alec, thrusting out her hand, hoping that she timed it well.

  She felt a sharp pain and rolled toward Marin, swinging her staff as she did.

  Sam hoped she’d given Alec enough time.

  Marin grinned and jumped into the air, flipping before coming back down, driving the ends of her two staff pieces toward Sam.

  If she rolled either way, she’d be hit. Sam flipped back, dangerously close to the edge of the water, and jabbed with her staff before flipping backward.

  As she did, her body began to tingle.

  Had she given Alec enough time? It seemed too much to believe, but she felt power flow through her.

  Sam jumped.

  She surged higher into the air than what Marin had managed and swept her staff around in a rapid arc.

  With the augmentation, she caught Marin off guard, the staff crashing into her shoulder, knocking her to the side.

  Sam landed in a roll and swung again, this time connecting with Marin’s leg. />
  Marin had recovered, and reacted, twisting her staff as she did so that it forced Sam’s up, leaving her body exposed.

  Marin thrust forward, and Sam twisted, barely managing to evade the attack.

  “Clever. Now we can see what you’ve learned.” Marin lunged forward, and Sam jumped again, tapping her staff as she did so that she flipped higher into the air.

  She rotated, spinning her feet as she swung the staff around, and connected with Marin’s back.

  Sam kicked again, but this time she missed, and Marin grabbed her leg and swung her. It sent Sam sailing nearly to the water. She twisted, throwing her staff down to push off, and managed to flip back to shore.

  As she landed, Marin kicked, catching her in the chest. Something struck her arm, and then her leg. Each blow was harder than before.

  Marin had been holding back.

  Sam spun around, trying to get her staff into position, but she was too slow.

  Three more blows rained down on her, catching her legs and her arms. One of them left her arm hanging limp, her shoulder likely broken.

  It left her with only her right arm.

  She couldn’t fight with only one arm. She could barely manipulate the staff.

  Marin toyed with her, swinging one of her staff ends at her, and danced away as Sam flicked her own staff in her direction.

  She could barely stand, pain shooting down her legs, and she staggered with the movement, nearly falling over.

  “It’s a shame that you are so unprepared. You have potential. I thought you could be useful, but it seems I will need to make other arrangements.”

  “Why?” Sam asked. She hoped to draw Marin in, wanting the opportunity to strike her one more time, hoping to use the last of her augmentation to maybe keep Marin from doing any more damage.

  “Why what?”

  “Why do what you did to Tray?” she asked, nodding to where he had been. Where had he gone during the fight?

  “All that I did was to keep him safe. Ask your mother about that.”

  “By poisoning the canals?”

  “That’s for a different purpose.”

  “What are you going to tell him?” Sam asked.

  “Nothing. He needs to know nothing. And soon, you will know nothing.”