The Shifter (12 page)

Take all day, you horrible, heartless rat
. I forced a smile. “You have time. They don’t need me in the ward until this afternoon.”

She grabbed her vest and slipped it over her skinny shoulders. “They’ve been quiet all night. The two under the lamp there are looking rather waxy, so you might want to check on them more often. They might not last the day.”

I gripped the pynvium tighter. “I’ll check them.”

“Come on, Lanelle, I’m hungry.” Kione tugged at her arm.

“And if Elder Vinnot comes by early, my symptom report is on the table there. Three of the symptoms he asked me to watch for have manifested. He’ll want any bodies too.” She paused and glanced at the beds. “For dissection, I mean, so they can figure out what’s causing this.” She spoke in a rush, as if trying to convince both of us that was the truth.

She had to know they were lying. Impossible for her to spend time in this room and not figure out what was wrong. I fought the urge to shove her through the door and out the nearest window.

“And if—”

“I’m starving here, Lanelle.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Kione gave me a quick nod as he shut the door.

I ran to Tali. She was still breathing, still pale, and still alive. I ripped open my bundle. “Tali? I have pynvium. Wake up, Tali, you have to dump the pain. Hurry, we don’t have much time.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she cried softly, like a kitten.

I grabbed her hand and shoved a chunk of pynvium into it. “Feel it? Fill it up.”

She whimpered and shook her head slowly.

“You can do it, Tali.
Push
, please, for me.” For an instant, I felt it, a quiver under my fingers as she
pushed
her pain away. I handed her another. “Now this one.”

A sob burst from her lips and broke my heart. Her hands shook, barely able to hold the pynvium, let alone grab it.

“Please try.”

Another tingle, another injury thrown away. One by one I passed her chunks of hope, begged her to find the strength to shove the pain away. Prayed that no one would find the fourth cord tied up downstairs anytime soon.

Her hands stopped shaking on the seventh chunk. On the tenth, her color returned. By the twelfth, her sunken cheeks had filled in a little. I handed her the thirteenth chunk, hardly bigger than a chicken’s egg. “Last one, Tali. Push as hard as you can.”

She did, and though pain shone in her watery eyes, awareness did too. “Where. Get this?”

“A pain merchant. I’ll explain later, but we have to get out of here right now. Can you stand?”

She struggled to sit up, then fell back with a pained yelp. “No. Hurts.”

I touched her heart and forehead. Still so much pain, but I sensed something else—something worse. The thickening of her blood, like Danello. Saints have mercy. Takers weren’t immune; they only needed more pain over more time before it killed them too.

I was out of pynvium. She was out of time.

“Tali, listen to me carefully, because I may not be able to tell you afterward. When you leave here, go right to Aylin’s.”

“Leave?”

“Do you remember where Aylin lives?”

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“Go to her right away. She’ll have food for you, and clean clothes. She’ll take you to a boy named Danello and his family. You’ll need to heal them. She’ll have pynvium to hold it.”

“How?”

I took her hands. “Get to Danello’s as fast as you can, Tali. They don’t have much time left before their pain kills them.”

“Nya. Don’t.” Tears flowed across her temples toward her ears.

Eyes closed, I pressed my forehead to hers. “I love you, Tali.”

I kissed her cheek and
drew
.

TWELVE

A
gony swiped my knees out from under me. I collapsed beside Tali’s cot, knives twisting in my lungs, needles stabbing my belly. Aches I didn’t even have names for ate away at my joints. I moaned, and even that hurt. How had Tali withstood so much for so long?

“Oh no, Nya, no!” Tali slipped out of the cot and knelt on the floor beside me, moving gingerly, as if she expected everything to hurt. That was my job now.

“Run,” I wheezed. “Hurry.”

“Why did you do it? You shouldn’t have done it.”

“Go. Danello. Needs. You.”

She hugged me. “I won’t leave you.”

“Go!”

“Not without you.”

The fourth cord I’d tackled might be conscious by now, and someone would find her soon—if they hadn’t already. I gritted my teeth and gathered as much pain as I could in the hollow place between my heart and guts. The pain eased a bit, but I couldn’t hold it there long. My fingers tingled, needing me to
push
the gathered pain away.

If only I could.

“Tali, you have to go,” I gasped, struggling to hold on to the words. “If they catch you, they might kill you.”

Anger darkened her face. “They already tried to do that.”

“Then get out before they try again.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

The door opened and Tali sucked in a gasp.

“Tali,” I whispered fast, “tears.” Crying would give her away for sure. No one working in this room would cry over a bunch of useless, orphaned ’Vegs.

She cocked her head at me, then her fingers darted up and smeared away her tears. Even in the dim light, I could tell she’d been crying.

“You will never believe what happened!” Lanelle said in a fearful rush. I didn’t hear Kione or another set of footsteps. Was she alone? Moving hurt too much to check. “Elder Nostomo found Sersin tied up in treatment room three. Can you believe it? The guards are everywhere. The entire League has been sealed!”

I shifted my head a little, and fresh pain washed over me. I took stomach-settling breaths and prayed Tali had time to escape.

“Was she hurt?” Tali asked. Sweet of her to care, but now was not the time to worry over folks who wanted her dead. She wasn’t a Healer today, at least not until she got out of the League and over to Danello’s.

“I don’t know. She’s still unconscious. I heard there was blood on the floor!”

Blood? How could I have missed blood? Hasty hands do no good, as Grannyma used to say. Tali had to leave,
now
.

“Why would anyone attack Sersin?” Lanelle came into my line of sight and jerked to a stop, a flush across her face. “What happened? Did she fall out of bed?” It almost sounded like real concern.

“Um, she had a seizure.”

“Really? That’s a new symptom, but it isn’t on the watch list. Elder Vinnot says we’ll learn enough about pain from watching them to develop entirely new treatments, maybe even some that don’t require pynvium at all! He’s doing special research for the Duke himself, and he’s even letting me help. I’ve been writing it all down in my notebook. How long did the seizure last?”

“I, uh…”

Tali had never been a quick liar. As a child, if she broke a vase, she said the crocodiles had done it. Forgot her homework—the lake wind had blown it out the window.

“Oohhh.” I started twitching and moaning, even gurgled up a bit of spit. I barely had to fake it this time.

Lanelle grimaced, and shame flashed across her pink cheeks. “What am I thinking? We’d better get her back into bed first.”

“Probably best.”

She knelt and reached toward me, then stopped. Her brows wrinkled. “Is this the same—”

“You grab her shoulders,” Tali said quickly, nudging Lanelle forward so she wasn’t staring at my face. “I’ll get her legs.”

I slipped a sigh into my next moan. Not much of a liar, but she could think on her feet when she had to.

Lanelle lifted me gently, not putting too much pressure on any one spot. More care than I was expecting, but then she’d been dealing with the pain-filled apprentices for days now. I bet she handled them carefully so they didn’t scream and give her a headache.

They got me “back” onto the cot. My skin burned as Tali draped the blanket over me. I swallowed my cry but couldn’t stop the shakes.

Please don’t let her notice
. She had to hold herself together, and she couldn’t do that worrying over me. I gathered the pain again, shoved it away best I could.

“Did you, um, need me to stay?” Tali asked. “I could help for a while longer.”

Maybe I’d been too fast to praise her quick thinking. I tried to force
Tali, leave
into her brain with a glare, but she wouldn’t look at me. Lanelle stood by my shoulder, peering at Tali with that same funny look she’d given me. We looked an awful lot alike, and in the dim light might even pass as twins, but my guts said Lanelle wasn’t as dumb as she seemed.

“What was your name again?”

Panic shook loose my hold on the pain. It raced through me, and sweat tickled over my body like tiny spiders. A gasp burst its way out, and a sob followed close behind.

Tali dropped to one knee and grabbed my hand. “Ny—no, no, don’t fight it.”

“Go,” I whispered.

Her eyes widened like I’d given us up. She swallowed and patted my hand. “That’s right, let it go.”

If only I had enough strength left to kick her.

Lanelle tugged at her shoulder. “Leave her be. She’ll feel better once she falls back asleep. It’s the only thing that’s helped them so far.”

“I guess so.” Tali stood, gazing at me with far too much worry on her face. Lanelle’s had too much suspicion.

My fingers tingled again, clearly seeing what my fuzzy mind had missed. I didn’t need pynvium to dump my pain—I just needed a place to put it. Lanelle was helping them. She deserved to know what it felt like to be in one of these cots, didn’t she?
They lied to her too—she might not know
. I tried to shut up a conscience that sounded a lot like Grannyma.

Lanelle stood at the head of my cot, a few feet from my shoulder. The distance kept changing, shifting to and fro like waves on the shore. I closed my eyes a moment to squash down the pain again and focus. This wasn’t about me but all of them. Lanelle could help them by helping me and Tali escape. The sacrificial cow to save the herd.

“I’m Lanelle, by the way. Not sure we were ever introduced.”

“Tali.”

I almost heard her gulp. She glanced at me and I curled my fingers toward me as best I could.
Get her closer.

“That sounds familiar.”

“I guess I told you before then. Or maybe we had a class together?”

“Maybe.” She frowned and pointed a finger at Tali. “Why is your uniform so wrinkled?”

“I, uh…”

I strained to sit up, lunge my crippled body at Lanelle, grab her by the ankles, and get rid of the hurt. My focus dropped again, and pain shattered under my skin.

Tali sucked in her breath and took a small step toward me. I mouthed
no
, gathered the pain yet again, and curled my fingers.

Lanelle folded her arms across her chest. “Okay, what’s going on here? You’re acting strange.”

Tali gasped and yanked her gaze away. “I fell asleep on your cot,” she blurted.

“You fell asleep?” Lanelle repeated as if she wasn’t sure what to say.

“Yeah, silly, huh?” Tali chuckled. “So, you were saying before, about Sersin being attacked?”

Lanelle gaped for a moment longer; then gossip won out over suspicion. “Can you believe it? They found her tied up in one of the treatment rooms with her own cords!”

“That’s terrible. Are we in any danger up here?”

“I don’t think so. Kione’s guarding the door.” Lanelle took a step toward it—and toward me. My fingers twitched. Almost in reach.

Clink!

Pynvium rattled. The sack!

“What’s this?”

“That’s, um…”

Lanelle knelt and opened the sack, then jerked back as if something with teeth had popped out of it. “There’s pynvium in here!”

“Really?”

Even I didn’t buy Tali’s innocent tone.

The door slammed open and footsteps thudded in. Several people in boots, which meant guards. Lanelle scrambled up, her face pale. Tali went white as her underdress.

“Good morning, girls,” said a man with a smooth, commanding voice. It was almost gentle unless you listened closely—then you heard the edge to it. A serrated one too, not a blade that would cut cleanly.

Lanelle clasped her hands behind her back. “Morning, sir.”

“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.

“Because 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.