The Shifter Page 14

  “Any trouble this morning?”

  “No, sir. It’s been quiet.” She stepped closer and shoved the pynvium under my cot with her foot. Perhaps Lanelle had a plan of her own simmering in that not-as-empty-as-I’d-hoped head of hers. Like steal it and make a fortune.

  “Anything unusual happen?”

  “Not really. This patient had a seizure and fell out of bed, but she wasn’t hurt.”

  “Did she now?” Footsteps, then a shadow fell across me. I looked up, my eyes catching immediately on the heavy braided gold bars on his shoulders.

  The Luminary stood over me, close enough to touch.

  THIRTEEN

  I couldn’t fail here. Tali wasn’t safe. Danello and the twins were still dying. So many Healers were still in agony.

  “Sir,” Tali said with more respect than I’d ever heard her use. “With your permission, I’d like to return to the treatment ward. My rounds start soon.”

  Lanelle looked ready to jump out of her skin, but she stayed quiet. So did I, not even a whimper of good-bye. If facing the Luminary finally got Tali to run, I’d stare at the rat all day.

  He glanced at Tali, then nodded. “Report to Elder Tyleen.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You, go with her,” he added.

  “Sir?” Kione sounded as shocked as I felt. I didn’t even know he was in the room.

  “I don’t want anyone walking around alone today. Make sure everyone has an escort.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I took a deep breath and let some of the panic seep away. Kione was with Tali now, and she was on her way out. Would he let her go? Doubtful, since it meant defying the Luminary, but maybe he’d continue to “do nothing” while she slipped away from rounds. Maybe…

  I jumped. The Luminary was studying me, staring at me with sky blue eyes as if he knew what was stumbling through my head. He was younger than I’d thought, barely forty. He didn’t bother with a Healer’s braid and kept his black hair short against his head. I looked away, tried to make my darting eyes look like delirium.

  “Has she manifested any of the symptoms?” the Luminary said calmly. Lanelle had mentioned symptoms too?

  “No, sir. Only the three I told Elder Vinnot about yesterday. But I can barely go near the Kolvek girl anymore. It hurts from at least three feet away. I had to move her cot away from the others.”

  My ears perked up despite the pain. Hurts?

  The Luminary nodded, studying me. “I’ll send someone up to remove her—for your safety.” He said the last part as if it was an afterthought.

  “Am I in danger here, sir?” Lanelle asked.

  “No, just keep watching like Elder Vinnot asked. I’ll leave one of the guards outside. If you see anything suspicious, notify him immediately.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  One of the guards. So there were several. I tried to remember how many different voices I’d heard, but my brain felt muddy.

  I shifted my gaze back to the Luminary, and it was hard to glance away again. From my angle, he seemed tall, but he didn’t have broad shoulders. He probably hadn’t fought in the war, only healed those who had. On the Duke’s side, of course.

  “Sir?” a young voice called from the door. “Elder Mancov is asking for you. He says Sersin is awake.”

  The Luminary’s eyes gleamed and he turned away before my panic displaced my calm. The fourth cord. She would describe me, but she’d also be describing Tali.

  Tali needed more time to get out. I took a deep breath and…

  “Aaaiiieee!” Screaming hurt, but I screeched as loud as my lungs would let me. Flailed my limbs, gritted my teeth against the agony my fake seizure caused. I blubbered. Drooled. Thrashed.

  “She’s having another one!” Lanelle cried, running over.

  The Luminary knelt and grabbed my arms, pinning me down and sending fresh stabs of pain where he touched me. A quick twist and I could grab him. Send him flailing to the floor.

  “Have any of the others developed seizures?” A new voice, older, with more curiosity in it than concern.

  Lanelle answered. “No, Elder Vinnot.”

  At least four of the Luminary’s people were in the room, maybe more, and they would skewer me if I hurt their precious leader. I grabbed his arm anyway, giving Tali a few more seconds to get away. Danello needed her, and I needed them both alive and safe. I imagined pushing my hurts into the Luminary, the one person who deserved it more than anyone else, even the Duke. At least the Duke had been honest about trying to kill us. I held on to that image while I forced my screaming muscles to move.

  A blur moved at the edge of my vision, above the Luminary’s shoulder. Then a low voice, maybe Vinnot’s. “There might be a problem with the Mus—”

  “Not now,” the Luminary snapped.

  I strained to focus, but pain and despair finally stilled me. I let the tears fall with the cold sweat. My body felt like I’d been writhing for hours, but mere minutes had more likely passed—if not seconds. Was it long enough for Tali to get out of the League?

  “Strap her down if her seizures continue,” the Luminary said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  He rose and left me in hazy agony. Deep voices muttered too low for me to hear; then the door thudded shut.

  Please, Saint Saea, let Tali escape before they realize she was here.

  Black and red swirls closed in around me. Surrendering to unconsciousness sounded good, but soft footsteps coming closer kept me awake awhile longer.

  Lanelle knelt, her face close enough to grab. I no longer had the strength.

  “Who are you?”

  I panted, unable to answer even if I wanted to.

  “What are you doing here?” She glanced nervously around the room, fingering the single gold cord on her shoulder. “I don’t know why you and Tali traded places, and I don’t care as long as you keep me out of it. But if you threaten my position here, I’m telling the Luminary everything. I need this job, bad as it is.”

  “Don’t. Please.” Even whispering hurt, but if I kept her talking, kept her close, maybe I’d get enough strength back to dump it all into her. Or maybe ask for help. No, she’d never help me, not if she could ignore the suffering apprentices.

  “Are you thieves? Is that where you got all this pynvium?”

  “Merchants.”

  She wiped her upper lip, and I could almost see her totaling up the oppas. “How much is in here?”

  “Used. For Tali.”

  She leaned back on her heels, honest desperation on her face. Did she also have someone who needed it? “It was stupid to try and heal her. You can’t stop the flow of pain when it is that bad. How do you think they all got here in the first place?”

  “Disease,” I said, though I doubted my sarcasm came through.

  She winced. “You know that’s not true.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why do this?”

  “My sister.”

  A flicker of emotion crossed her face, but it vanished before I could figure out what it was. Couldn’t be sympathy, not after what she’d done. “Even stupider. You know they’ll grab her again the next time an aristocrat needs healing.”

  I tried to gather the pain again, but it was slow to pool. Was my blood starting to thicken already?

  Lanelle sighed and rolled a pynvium chunk between her palms. “Maybe she’ll get out. A few did in the beginning, when the rumors started, but the Luminary’s men caught them. Made examples of them.” She shuddered and gripped the pynvium tight. “After that, no one wanted to try. If we did what the Luminary said…”

  I tried not to picture what the Luminary did to those who escaped, but images from the war kept popping in. Gevegian leaders tied to posts, their backs whipped bloody. Baskets of severed hands. Bodies cast onto the trash pyres like garbage. Things I’d thought I’d buried years ago when the nightmares had finally stopped.

  “What makes you think you won’t be next?” I asked.

  “Becaus
e he needs me. I’m helping him.” Her voice cracked.

  “Not many left who aren’t.”

  She folded her arms across her chest and stuck her chin out. “What do you know? You’re not even in the League, are you?”

  “No.”

  “Then shut up. I have it good here. Elder Vinnot said I could go far, but I’ll lose it all if they find out you tricked me. They’ll do to me what they did to—” She stared off into space, jaw tight, eyes scared.

  My fingers crept toward her arm, mere inches off the edge of the cot. Skin brushed skin. My whole hand tingled, and a twinge of guilt tickled my belly. If I did this, was I any better than the Luminary?

  “People depend on me,” she whispered. “And I can’t do anything else.”

  The door slammed open and Lanelle jerked away. The Luminary was on her in seconds, clearly in a panic. He grabbed her arms and shook her like a child scolding a rag doll.

  “That girl who was here before, who was she?”

  “Ta-Tali, sir.”

  “What was she doing here?”

  Lanelle glanced at me, then her eyes lowered to the sack hidden under the cot. “I don’t know. She said she was here to relieve me.”

  “Did you verify that with Elder Mancov?”

  She shook her head, glanced at me again. “No, sir, I—”

  “Stupid girl.” The Luminary shoved her back and she fell. Pain and terror crossed her face in equal measure.

  “It’s not my fault. I didn’t think anyone could get up here without authorization. And there was a guard at the door! She got by Kione as well.”

  The Luminary hesitated, probably wondering how stupid he’d been in sending Kione and Tali out together. If Kione was faced with helping Tali or sending her back, I hoped he’d be strong and choose right. “Did you see either of them together before?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Did you see her talking to anyone who isn’t part of the League?”

  “No, sir.”

  Relief smoothed his brow, but then it wrinkled again, as if she hadn’t soothed him after all. He huffed. “You’ve been here for days, what could you possibly know,” he muttered, turning away. “Useless ’Veg.”

  Lanelle threw me a look of sheer panic and darted after him.

  “Sir, I think she traded places with that girl there!” she rushed. “I was about to notify you. I was, um…trying to verify it first before I bothered you. I know how busy you are.”

  He snapped around faster than a croc eats a duck. “Which girl?”

  She pointed at me, finger trembling.

  The Luminary darted over and shook me. I screamed, but he didn’t stop. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

  “She said she was Tali’s sister,” Lanelle continued, sounding as desperate as the Luminary. “They look an awful lot alike, which is why they were able to fool me at first, but I figured it out soon enough. I think she healed Tali so she could esca—leave the League. You can probably catch her at the gate!”

  His eyes went glassy with fear. “An apprentice left?” He stared at Lanelle.

  “Wait—” I lunged, grabbed for his arm. Guards or not, I needed to give him bigger things to worry about than where Tali was. The Duke and his heartless men were not going to kill the last of my family, not if I could stop him.

  The Luminary backhanded me across the face before I could touch him. Pain flared around my head and I fell back, nauseated. From pain, from failure, from dread—I couldn’t tell anymore.

  He stomped away, but his fear was clearly still there. It was more than worry about the panic that would happen if Geveg knew there was no more pynvium. I’d bet next year’s pay no one outside the League knew what he was doing. I’d bet even more the Governor-General didn’t know. He paused at the door, but “find that apprentice now, before she” was all I heard before it slammed shut again.

  No! Images of Tali forced to heal flooded me with strength. I had to get out, find Tali, and warn her.

  Lanelle stepped closer, her hands clenched at her sides; she looked as scared as a caught bird. “If this gets me picked for priority healing, I’ll—”

  My fingers darted to her arm, and I pushed into her all the hurt and pain I’d taken from Tali. Guilt fluttered at the edges of pain, but I ignored it. I would not feel guilty about hurting a traitor.

  “Aahhhh!” Pain twisted Lanelle’s features and she toppled over. I clawed closer, pushed harder.

  And then it slowed, as if she were pushing back.

  She snatched her arm away and dragged me out of the cot. We both collapsed on the floor, gasping.

  She resisted? How? Could Takers refuse pain, or was Lanelle different, like me? Different. A chill cooled my burning muscles. What symptoms were on Lanelle’s list? Symptoms of those who were different?

  “What did you do to me?” Pale and teary-eyed, Lanelle scooted away on her butt. “Stay away!”

  She’d taken half the pain, and already my strength was returning. Then again, so was hers. Healers knew pain, and the shock of it wouldn’t disorient her for long. She grabbed the edge of the cot next to her and struggled to her knees, gasping, still unable to scream more than a rasp, but that also wouldn’t last.

  “Hel—” Lanelle’s scream was cut off as a red-haired boy in the nearest cot rolled off and tackled her. He straddled her, pinning her down and keeping a hand over her mouth.

  “Hurry, finish it!” he cried, while I stared open-mouthed. “Come on!”

  “Finish what?”

  “Whatever you did to her before. It’s our only chance to get out of here.”

  Lanelle struggled under him, whimpering and hollering into his hand. Would the guard outside hear?

  “Hurry—I can’t hold her down much longer.” Sweat beaded across his forehead, and his brown eyes shone with pain.

  I couldn’t stop now, or Tali had no chance at all. Lanelle would tell the Luminary I’d shifted. I’d be bound and gagged and headed for Baseer before sunset. The Duke was still searching for abnormal Takers, but maybe now he’d found a new way to discover them. Folks needed to know that.

  I crawled toward Lanelle and the boy.

  Suddenly the door opened and a guard walked in, annoyance on his uncaring face. “What’s going on in here?”

  I gasped and jerked backward as Lanelle renewed her kicking and muffled screaming. My knee hit something hard and rough.

  “Get off her! What are you doing?” The guard ran in, heading for Lanelle. He had black, glossy hair, dark as his Baseeri soul.

  The guard yanked the boy off and tossed him aside. I grabbed the pynvium, wishing I could shove my frustration into it like Tali shoved pain.

  “Leave him alone!” Childishly, I threw a handful of pynvium chunks at the guard. Throwing all my anger and hatred for what the Luminary and his Duke had done to my family, my home, my life, with it.

  Whoomp. A low sound more felt than heard. Pain flashed, shimmering like heat waves in the air, as the pynvium hit the guard in the chest.

  Whoomp. Another against his thigh.

  It flashed like the beads in Aylin’s bracelet had done when Sersin grabbed them. Like every trinket sitting on every shelf in every pain merchant’s shop. Hurt sprinkled me like blown sand while the guard screamed and dropped to the stone floor. Lanelle had curled into a ball and lay whimpering, her arms covering her head.

  I gaped at the moaning guard. How did I make pynvium flash? Only enchanters could trigger the metal to do that, like Papa had done during the war. I’d inherited his eyes—had I gotten more than that?

  What exactly was I?

  The guard was up on his knees now, crawling away while I gaped, still shocked as a caught fish.

  “How did you do that?” he wheezed, reaching for his rapier.

  I couldn’t let him tell the Luminary while I was helpless. I gathered what pain I had left and scrambled after him, forcing my legs to push me forward and ignoring the ripping aches shooting through them.

  Th
e red-haired apprentice was on his feet, stumbling toward Lanelle and the guard. “Stop them!”

  I grabbed the guard’s shin. He kicked at me but didn’t put much force into it. I put everything into him. Even my guilt in doing it. He screamed.

  My pain fading, I sucked in breath and tried to focus. The guard was unconscious. Lanelle too, so she wasn’t going anywhere. She’d taken half my pain and probably some backflash from the pynvium.

  Saint’s mercy, what had I done?

  “Did you just flash pynvium?” the apprentice asked, dropping to the floor beside me. He looked about eighteen, with tiny freckles across his short nose.

  “I don’t know.” I’d never heard of anyone flashing pain like that before, without an enchanted trigger to release the pain and shape the direction of the flash.

  “I’m Soek,” he said, pronouncing it with the distinctive lilting accent from Verlatta.

  “Nya.”

  “You’re that shifter everyone’s talking about, aren’t you?”

  “Uh…”

  “Come on, we have to get out of here.”

  “I know.” Still, too many questions spun through my head. “Did you sneak in here to save someone too?”

  “No, I’m an apprentice.”

  My mouth hung open for a shocked second. “Why aren’t you suffering in one of those cots then?”

  “I heal fast.”

  “You heal other people’s pain?”

  “I guess so.” He smiled, but I saw fear in it. I’d be afraid too. He was better than walking pynvium. He was renewable walking pynvium.

  “You’re different too,” I said.

  “Yeah. Though your differences are a lot handier in a fight.”

  Which we’d have more of if we didn’t get out of here. “Let’s go.”

  I snatched up the chunks I’d thrown and put them back into the sack. Who knew how many guards stood between us and freedom? A single pain flash would be enough to distract them, maybe even do more than distract if the pain was sharp enough.

  If I could flash it again.

  I paused at the door, even though the hall had to be clear or another guard would have already been there, pointing a rapier at my throat. Soek limped behind me, not saying a word about the pain.