Roulette by Fitzsimmons Ash

Author:Fitzsimmons, Ash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ash Fitzsimmons
Published: 2022-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

* * *

Kib’s shift was long over by the time Gentle Breeze and I reached the lab, but the massive male troll who was apparently in charge in her stead accepted the original baggie and our confiscated stash with an appreciative rumble. “Any progress?” the chief asked him.

He shook his head. “Minimal. Whatever it is, this Roulette potion is complex. Whoever brewed this must be brilliant—we’ve only just begun isolating components, and we’ve already found ten.”

“Most potions don’t have more than six or seven,” she explained to me. “The more ingredients, the more effects in play—”

“And the trickier the overall effect to undo,” the technician finished.

The worm of dread in my stomach, which had been sleeping for most of the morning, began to stir. “So, uh…say, something like the language potion…”

“Seventeen ingredients,” he replied. “It’s a beast. Wrote my final thesis on it, actually,” he added with a hint of pride. “One of the ingredients is a holly. If you swap it for a related plant, nothing massive should happen, but instead, you end up with a highly explosive liquid, and no one is quite sure why. Experimental thaumaturgy is fascinating stuff—”

“And a topic for another day,” said Gentle Breeze, cutting off the lecture before it could begin. “Rose, we should swing by quarantine on the way out.”

As she escorted me past the control station, I murmured, “Thanks. He was going to give us a full dissertation, and I can’t do more than smile and nod like an idiot.”

She patted my shoulder. “Give yourself time. And since you’re a walking cautionary tale about experimental thaumaturgy…” Catching my glance, she whispered, “Whoever designed the death draught never imagined you, kid. It’s supposed to suppress talent down the bloodline, right? Who’d have thought that two doses would cancel each other?”

If the quarantined patients were freaked out by Gentle Breeze’s appearance, their eagerness for news overcame their fear, and they clustered near the door as two sorcerers prepped me for entry. Waiting for the inner doors to release me into the dormitory, I noted a few improvements to the holding area: a large urn of coffee, half empty, beside a tray of mugs, a projection of a nature documentary on one wall, and in the back corner, a clear booth the size of a handicapped stall in which Maya and another woman sat, puffing on cigarettes. The smoke rose inside toward a pipe connected to the ductwork overhead, preventing the whole unit from smelling like an ashtray.

The patients’ faces fell when I explained that no one had miraculously found a fix overnight, and their spirits sank lower as I relayed what I’d learned concerning the potion’s complexity. “This is nasty stuff,” I said to a semicircle of long faces. “They’re working on it around the clock, but it’s going to take time.”

“And we’re just going to rot here until then?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know what the plan is,” I replied. “But I’ve got more bad news.”

Cries of dismay met my announcement of George’s death, especially once I revealed that he was another victim of the potion.

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