Holmberg, D.K [Book of Maladies 03] Poisoned by D.K. Holmberg

Author:D.K. Holmberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2018-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

21

SURGERY

The hospital was as busy as usual today, and Alec kept his hands clasped behind his back as he looked over the line of students in front of him, peering over the cot. They were with Master Eckerd again, and he made a point of speaking quietly, almost as if he didn’t want to reveal too much to the people near him.

The patient here was fairly young, certainly younger than many of the patients that were often seen at the university and had dark brown hair that reached her shoulders. Her skin was deeply tanned, and he wondered if she spent significant time working outdoors or if she naturally had a darker complexion. There were many people within the city with darker complexions, though most were lowborns, which fit with their tendency to work outdoors. Most of the highborns had pale skin and preferred to maintain that by remaining inside and keeping covered. It was another way to maintain division between the classes.

“What do you see about this woman?” Master Eckerd asked.

Alec couldn’t see anything unusual. Her eyes were closed, and she breathed regularly, but she hadn’t moved in the time they been there. There were many ingestions that could lead to such a coma, and many of the medications used by the university as sedatives would also induce something similar.

“Has she been administered anything?” The question came from Matthias, who stood across the cot from Alec and shot him an amused glare as he asked the question.

“An excellent question,” Master Eckerd said. Matthias flashed a satisfied smile at Alec. “But as far as we can tell, she’s not been administered anything.”

“Nothing from the university?” Alec pressed.

“There has been no need. She has been motionless since she arrived.”

Stefan took one of the woman’s hands and raised it to examine her nails, then pulled back her sheet to look up her arms.

Master Eckerd chuckled. “This is not a self-inflicted injection, either.”

Stefan shrugged. “I only thought—”

“You thought that I would have another person who had indulged in solpace juice?”

Stefan looked down.

“Master Carl was teaching us about foxglove,” Matthias said.

Master Eckerd’s gaze narrowed. “He was teaching first-year students about foxglove, was he?”

No one answered immediately, so Alec nodded.

“Well then, if you’ve learned about foxglove, see if you think this might be a similar ingestion.”

Matthias pushed one of the other students—Karen—out of the way. She was short, nearly the same height as Sam, but dressed in much more formal clothing that Sam wouldn’t be caught dead in. She wore a floral-patterned dress that reached to the ground, and a heavy gold locket hung from her neck.

“He might want to be careful. He’ll upset his girlfriend,” Beckah whispered.

Alec’s eyes widened. “She’s his—”

Beckah shook her head. “Not her. Nanci.”

Nanci was a taller woman, who dressed nearly as formally as Karen, but didn’t wear the same gold chain, or any other sign of the highborns. Alec had rarely spoken to either of the two women.

Matthias grabbed the patient’s wrist and checked for a pulse. He moved up to her neck, feeling the artery there, before leaning his head down to her chest to listen.

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