Exsanguinated Read online

  “Or she doesn’t know the truth,” Alec said.

  “Fine. Either way, I need you to get answers.”

  “Sam, how do you expect me to find answers? I’m not the right person for this.”

  “You might not feel like you’re the right person, but I don’t know of anyone else we can go to.”

  Bastan took a seat on Alec’s bed and clasped his hands together, looking over at Alec. “I could obtain information from her, Stross, but I think the way I would do it would be much less desirable than the way you might be able to.”

  Alec heaved a cautious sigh. “Bring her through here,” he said, motioning to the door. He guided them beyond his private sleeping area and into his research room. He watched Sam as she entered, and her gaze drifted around the lab, settling quickly on the tray with the easar paper.

  “Did it work?”

  “I think so. I used much less of the root this time, hoping I would have enough to make a few more sheets, but it still takes considerable time and effort to make the paper. If we have to go sheet by sheet, this will be a very time-consuming process.”

  “Only if you’re the only one making it,” Sam said.

  “We can’t trust anyone else to make it,” Alec said.

  “Can’t we?” She looked over to Bastan. “I imagine you could find paper makers in the city who might be of benefit to us.”

  “I imagine I could.”

  “Alec has other tasks he needs to be responsible for,” Sam said. “And if he’s keeping his focus on making paper, he can’t be working on these other tasks.”

  “What other tasks do you intend for your friend?” Bastan asked.

  Sam glanced down at the woman. “Tasks like figuring out what Camellia knows. Until we know, and until we know whether she was involved with Helen, we can’t take the next step.” Sam looked up and met Alec’s gaze.

  He knew what she was thinking and recognized the concern she had. She wanted to go after Tray, and until they managed to confine Helen, going after Tray would have to wait.

  “I can try to find out what she knows. If I come up with anything…”

  Sam nodded. “I can stay with you. I can help you question her.”

  “You mean interrogate her.”

  “I don’t mean interrogate. I mean ask her questions.”

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” Bastan asked.

  “There are things I can administer to her that will sedate her enough that she can answer questions, but she shouldn’t be able to overpower me.”

  “Shouldn’t be able to?” Bastan asked.

  “Sam was only able to overpower Master Jessup because I placed an augmentation on her.”

  “What makes you think the same won’t happen with this woman?”

  He didn’t know. “Fine. I will be more aggressive with my sedation.” He looked at Bastan, and he shook his head. “Sam has other things that she needs to do.”

  Sam stared at him for a moment. “More than I realized.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that Marin showed me some markings, and she thinks the Scribes are attempting to break into the prison to free Lyasanna.”

  “How can they break into the prison?”

  “The same way that augmentations were placed on the building where I was captured once. They’re using the structure itself as some sort of documentation. They’re placing symbols onto the stone somehow, and it’s weakening it. I don’t know how long it will last. I have Marin trying to create other walls around it so that anyone who might break in will get confined, but I don’t know how effective that will be.”

  “Do you need to have someone else there?”

  “Who?” Sam asked. “Who do we trust that could go and sit that close to Lyasanna and could understand whatever symbols they are placing?”

  Alec sighed. “There’s one person who might know or would be able to figure it out,” he said.

  Sam frowned at him. “Who?”

  “My father.”

  6

  The Captured Kaver

  Sam glanced from Bastan to Alec then down at the woman on the floor. “I don’t like the idea of leaving someone like this in your room unguarded, Alec.”

  “Nothing will happen while we’re gone.”

  “Unless she manages to escape.”

  “I can sedate her in a way that will prevent her from escaping,” Alec said. He disappeared into his lab and returned with a vial and began shaking it. “This is ashesl. Enough of this, and she will remain sleeping until I return.”

  “I think we need to keep her more than just sleeping,” Sam said. “If she manages to come around, not only you but everyone in the university will be in danger.”

  “I doubt she will attack the university,” Alec said. “Doing so would pit her against too many people.”

  “You think she would just sneak out? Helen has no qualms about attacking anyone who gets in her way. I’m sure she’s trained her Kavers to behave similarly should the need arise.”

  Alec let out a heavy sigh.

  “I know you don’t like it,” Sam said. “I know it’s difficult for you to believe a physicker would do that, but I think we have to agree that she has proven herself as something more than a simple physicker. She is less interested in healing and helping than she is in maintaining a certain type of power.”

  “I know. I just… I just don’t like it.”

  Sam took his hands. “You don’t have to like it. I don’t like it, either. But I like the idea of allowing her free rein in the city even less. We need to be able to question this woman.” She glanced at the woman on the floor, then over to Bastan. “She’s the first lead we’ve had. We can use her.”

  Alec poured some of the liquid from the vial into the woman’s mouth. He massaged her neck, forcing her to drink. “This should keep her out for a while. It should give me enough time to go to my father and get back, and then we can see what else we might need to do.”

  Bastan glanced at Sam but said nothing.

  What was he thinking? There was something on Bastan’s mind, and maybe it was only his concern about leaving this Kaver in Alec’s room. But then, Sam agreed that they needed to get additional help, and who better to help than Alec’s father?

  “I can’t stay with her,” Bastan said. “There is too much at stake, and—”

  Sam shook her head. “No one was asking you to stay with her.”

  “We can’t leave her here unguarded.”

  “No. I don’t want to leave her, either.”

  Bastan let out a heavy sighed. “Let me send some men.”

  “You don’t need to send anyone. She will be out,” Alec said.

  “Until she’s not,” Bastan said. “What happens when you return and she’s awake? What happens when you come back, and she is waiting for you, ready to attack? What will you do then?”

  Alec glanced from Bastan to Sam, almost as if looking for help from her, but Sam wasn’t about to offer it. She agreed with Bastan, at least in this.

  “Your men can’t be seen in the university.”

  “And why not?” Bastan asked.

  “Because the physickers will have questions.”

  “More questions than you would have if you had a Kaver running free, attacking?” Bastan asked. “I think I can keep my men concealed.”

  “I’ll stay here until Bastan sends his people,” Sam said. “Does that work for you?”

  Bastan nodded. “That would make me happier than having this woman left alone.”

  Bastan slipped out the door, leaving Alec and Sam.

  “Is this what we are to become?” Alec asked.

  “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

  “Are we going to continue to have to fight? To deal with this type of deception? Is that what we have now?”

  “Only until this is all done.”

  “What happens then?”

  “Then?” It was the question she didn’t dare ask, but it was a question s
he knew needed an answer. Until she understood how to corral Helen and the others, there could be no peace for the two of them. There could only be more fighting. There was a need for the Kaver and the Scribe, not for Sam and Alec. “Then we get to find out. But until then…”

  Alec took a deep breath and grabbed a jacket, though not his university jacket. “Don’t let her escape,” he said.

  Sam smiled. “I have no intention of allowing her to escape. Just hurry back.”

  Alec departed, leaving Sam alone with the woman. She looked around for something she could use to bind her and settled on sheets. She cut several strips free and began to tie the woman’s arms and her legs. She’d apologize to Alec later for destroying his bed linens.

  She paced the room; her mind was buzzing. Not only did she need to find Helen, but she hoped that Alec’s father would figure out a way to somehow prevent Helen from breaking the princess out of the prison. Would that even be possible? With everything they were going through, could they deal with that on top of everything else?

  She took a seat and waited.

  It was difficult to only sit and wait, but she had no choice, not with what else they needed to do. This was her task, at least for now. In time, she would have other tasks, and she would have other responsibilities, and if everything went well, she would finally be able to go after Tray, but until then, she had to sit here and wait until Bastan and his men returned.

  She lost track of time until Bastan knocked. She nodded to the two men, recognizing both of them. Both were trusted men of Bastan’s and had survived the attack on his tavern.

  Ricken was large and had a sizable belly that matched his enormous beard. He was strong, and she’d seen that he was good in a fight. Paulie was not quite as big and didn’t have as large a beard, but he made up for his less-than-intimidating stature with extensive tattooing along his arms and his neck.

  “Ricken. I hadn’t expected to see you again so soon.”

  “Is it your fault we keep getting these assignments?” he asked. He scratched the beard on his jawline and looked around the room, wrinkling his nose.

  As he did, Sam realized there was a strange odor in Alec’s room, though it was one that she had grown accustomed to. It wasn’t a stink. It was more the smell of the various medicines that Alec kept.

  “Don’t blame me. I would blame Bastan. You know he doesn’t think all that much of you.”

  Bastan glared at her. “Don’t think to influence my men with your negativity.”

  Sam leaned to Ricken. “Did you hear that? Now you’re his men. If I were you—”

  Bastan grabbed her arm and pushed her toward the door.

  Sam glanced back grinning. “Be careful with that one. She’s tied, and she’s sedated, but if she gets free…”

  Ricken glanced down. “This one? Doesn’t look like we should be all that concerned about her.”

  “Are you concerned about me?” Sam asked carefully.

  Ricken frowned. “I’ve seen you fight.”

  “Know that she can fight as well as me.”

  Pulling the door closed, she and Bastan headed out of the university. Sam looked over to the hospital ward as they passed the double doors, wondering about the activity inside. Since Alec had been promoted to master physicker, he had changed much about the university, making it much more accessible than it had been before, and allowing others from the outer sections in the city to come for healing without repercussions and fear that they didn’t have enough funds. It didn’t take long for word to spread that the university had changed their policies. When Alec had loosened the restrictions, people had begun coming quickly, almost as if they had been waiting for just such an opportunity.

  And probably they had. She imagined how many people were desperate for the kind of healing that could be found at the university. There were hundreds and hundreds of people needing healing throughout the city, many of them reliant upon apothecaries, many of the apothecaries with much less skill than Alec’s father, and many people suffering because of that. Having the university to go to, having any place like that to go to where they could get the help they needed was a positive change.

  “Where are we going now?” Sam asked.

  “Unfortunately, I had intended for you to return to whatever it is you’ve been up to, but something has come up.”

  “What’s come up?”

  “Another visitor.”

  “Another Kaver?”

  Bastan glanced over. “It’s possible.”

  “One of them needs to talk,” Sam said. “If they don’t…”

  “If they don’t, we will find a way to make them talk.”

  They made their way through the city, passing over bridges, with Bastan nodding at men he knew. Sam still marveled at the fact that he was as well-connected as he seemed to be. She shouldn’t be. She knew Bastan was quite connected in the city.

  They reached a merchant section, Huls—a section where there was a preponderance of clothing shops—and Bastan slowed. This was a section Sam had visited many times over the years, having discovered that the people of Huls rarely kept their doors locked. It made for easier thieving that way. There was a limit to how much she had been willing to steal, not wanting to draw too much attention to her work, but this had been a place where she had come without Bastan’s assignments.

  “You recognize this section?”

  Sam frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Bastan chuckled. “You don’t think that I’ve kept an eye on you all these years? I know you liked to come here and try clothing on before discarding it, choosing something much simpler.” He looked over at her, almost sizing her up. “I know you prefer the cloak Marin gave you, and I must admit it does have some interesting qualities, but from the amount of time you’ve spent here, it seems you have another interest.”

  “My other interest was finding something I could steal.”

  “Steal. Wear. And now, you could purchase whatever you want.”

  “I don’t have unlimited funds.”

  “Don’t you? You have access to everything the palace has. And you have learned that you are descended from the Anders, which gives you a certain connection to that wealth you didn’t have before.”

  “I haven’t thought much of that connection.”

  “I know you haven’t, and there will come a time when you will need to, Samara. I know you don’t like to think of yourself as a highborn, but everything you’ve learned about yourself has told you that you are much more than you ever realized. It’s time to start acting that way—and dressing that way.”

  She frowned. “Now you’re telling me I need to change my clothing?”

  “I’m telling you that you need to stop dressing like a lowborn.”

  “Is that why we’re here?”

  “Partially.”

  He reached a shop and headed inside. There was a soft tinkling of bells when the door opened, and it reminded Sam of Alec’s father’s shop. Sam hadn’t known what kind of place Bastan was taking her, but the inside looked like a tailor’s shop. When he had mentioned he was taking her someplace to look at clothing, she half expected it to be a dress shop. That didn’t fit Sam at all. She wasn’t the kind to wear dresses, and even if she had been, they weren’t practical for what she needed to do. She could only imagine a dress flying open as she sailed over a canal.

  Instead, there were pants and jackets and shirts, all different sizes and colors, and Sam paused. She had been here before. Had Bastan chosen it because he knew that?

  “Bastan—”

  She didn’t have a chance to finish. A small, elderly woman appeared from the back of the store. She had a strange-looking hat, and needles were stuck into it. Some had thread hanging from them. Deep wrinkles lined the corners of her mouth, and she had a serious set to her eyes.

  “What can I do for you… Bastan. What are you doing here?”

  Bastan tipped his head. “Madame Fornay. I brought someone that I would like you to hel
p dress.”

  The woman glanced from Bastan to Sam before stepping forward. She took a measuring tape from around her neck and began stretching it down Sam’s arms and around her stomach and then moved up to around her chest. At that, Sam pushed her back.

  “Not the type for a dress, then?” the woman asked.

  “Oh, I imagine she would love a nice dress, but the better question would be whether she would wear it.”

  “She would not wear it,” Sam said. “And if that’s what you think—”

  Bastan chuckled. “She needs something that could help her fit in regardless of what section she visits,” Bastan said to Madame Fornay.

  “Which sections are we implying? If it’s your typical places, that leaves a wide range, Bastan.”

  “It’s not my typical. She needs to be able to visit both outer sections and all the way into the inner sections.”

  “What inner sections? There are some places where we can get away with a little less formality, but there are others where a young woman such as yourself should be seen only wearing a dress.”

  “This young woman would never be seen wearing a dress,” Sam said.

  “A dress is not necessary,” Bastan said, as if ignoring Sam. “But it needs to be practical. Anything you have needs to have pockets deep enough to hold an assortment of items. And ideally, you would have something that would support this.” He grabbed Sam’s cloak and pulled it back, revealing her canal staff hanging from her belt.

  “Interesting. Is she an acrobat?”

  “Of a sort.”

  “I will see what I can come up with. I doubt I have anything ready-made for you, but I suspect it would only take me a few hours to create what you are looking for and have it sent wherever you would like.”

  Bastan tipped his head, and Madame Fornay disappeared to the back of the shop. Sam looked over to Bastan, shooting him an angry glare.

  “Is this about you getting back at me? Did I do something that angered you?”

  “You didn’t anger me, but I have become increasingly aware of the fact that you are descended from the Anders, and with you spending time at the palace, I think you need to be dressed appropriately. The people need to see their rulers dressed in ways that they expect.”