These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

Author:Sara Raasch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

16

BEN SAT AT the desk in his front room, crouched over parchment and quill. He wrote until his vision swam and his candle burned low and every muscle in his back cried out for reprieve.

Of the more than fifty varieties of botanical magic native to Grace Loray, Inquisitors found that four were pure enough to use to heal people.

A tray of garlic fish and tomatoes slid onto the desk. “Eat,” Jakes prodded.

Ben didn’t look up, wringing his brain dry to extract every drop of magic knowledge.

Several texts from Grace Loray claim there are more, but some, like Drooping Fern, have proven too dangerous to use, as their effects inflict harm or encourage the sins of overindulging and intoxication.

The holy ones are: Cleanse Root, Healica, Powersage, and Alova Pipe.

Jakes planted his hands on the tabletop, jolting the candle flame.

“Tell me what you need,” he whispered. “Let me help you. Let me in.”

Ben closed his eyes. He needed supplies. He needed a new laboratory. Could he still use the Mecht’s aid money? He needed plants, too, but he doubted his father would provide more.

But he needed this now. Before Elazar swept in and withdrew his orders. Before Ben lost his feeble grip on change and defensors led him to a pyre the same way he had been living all these years: alone and afraid.

Though—that wasn’t true. He hadn’t been alone.

Jakes’s breathing was calm and rhythmic.

Ben kept writing, forcing himself to remember everything Rodrigu had once taught him.

Healica and Alova Pipe used together cured boils. The result was instant when applied to the skin in a paste and imbibed in a liquefied tonic.

Powersage and Healica cured influenza—again applied in both a paste and a tonic, but healing came after two days of repetition.

Jakes grabbed Ben’s hand and lifted the quill. Ben rose with it.

“This is what I am.” Ben spoke so Jakes couldn’t. “A servant of the Pious God, doing the bidding of our Eminence.” Until he decides what I am doing is sin. Until he reveals his true motive, and it was to get me on a pyre all along.

“I know,” Jakes said. “You walk around as though the fate of your people’s souls hangs on your actions. It is one of the things that made me fall in love with you—you care, in a way few people in Argrid still do. In the way my family did.” Jakes’s smile was lopsided. “When I see your devotion, I hear my sister’s voice, speaking of honor and loyalty to Argrid. You will, one day, be the king Argrid needs. Grace Benat.”

Jakes smiled, expecting Ben to be honored. But Ben’s heart squeezed.

Would you love me if you knew what I believe?

The question sent him buckling back into the chair. When it came down to Elazar’s will or Ben’s, which side would Jakes choose? The side of the Pious God—or the side of a heretic?

Ben crouched over, bile crawling up the back of his throat. If he lost everything to create this tonic and show Argrid that magic could be good, he would make the best goddamn healing tonic the world had seen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.