Page 186 of Alchemised
She looked back.
“There’s a rumour Bennet’s experimenting with alchemy suppression.”
“Why?” she asked, hoping he knew something, that she’d be able to take new information back to Crowther, proof of Kaine’s continued usefulness.
Kaine didn’t shrug, but his expression shifted to communicate that he would if he could. “Who knows.”
She stepped away from the door. “You mentioned once that Morrough thinks Paladia is key to the immortality Hevgoss wants. Do you think he could be looking for the Stone of the Heavens?”
He set down the drink he was pouring. “You think the High Necromancer came here to steal a magical orb that doesn’t exist?”
She flushed. The stone was a fairy tale. The belief that Sol’s blessing was a physical object was a misinterpretation of the early artistic renderings of Orion Holdfast. The region had been prescientific and illiterate at the time; the imagery was all that many people knew.
While the historical records had been corrected, the myths had endured. Helena had believed there was a real stone for years until Luc awkwardly corrected her.
“No,” she said quickly. “I know it’s not real. I just thought maybe Morrough heard the stories and came here thinking it was. It’s not like there’s any reason Sol couldn’t have made it a stone.”
Ferron scoffed. “You believe in Sol?”
She shifted, gripping the strap of her satchel. “Yes, well, maybe not exactly the way people here do, but—you don’t? Not—not at all?”
Kaine’s lip curled. “Not at all.”
CHAPTER 36
Julius 1786
KNOWING THAT HER DAILY HEALING PILGRIMAGE WAS coming to an end, Helena found herself taking a sense of proprietary pride in her work. She hadn’t been sure a full recovery was possible, but now the wasted, skeletal version of Kaine had vanished completely. When he was dressed, a person might not even realise he’d been injured.
When the Abeyance arrived, Crowther still had not sent word or issued orders. The choice to heal Kaine, and whatever consequences arose from it, would rest entirely upon her.
Helena packed her satchel in preparation, and she was applying the finishing touches on what she hoped would be the last batch of numbing salve when there was a knock at the door.
She turned just as Luc entered.
“I didn’t know you had a lab,” he said, pausing and looking around the small room. What had once been a ramshackle workstation had been transformed into a true alchemist’s workshop, filled with crucibles, flasks, and shelves stocked with a variety of alembics and cucurbits.
“I wanted to help make ends meet during the supply shortages in the hospital,” she said, eyes darting past him to see if there was anyone else with him.
She used to dream about Luc visiting her lab, seeing her work, and realising everything she was doing for him, but instead of elation, all she felt was worry.
She couldn’t be late tonight.
Luc smiled, but it was one of the broad ones he made when performing. “Sol always provides, doesn’t he? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It just—never came up, I guess,” she said, twisting the jar of salve in her hands.
His smile vanished. “Well, I guess there’s a lot I don’t know, isn’t there?”
Her spine went rigid.
He wasn’t looking at her. “I went to see Falcon Matias. I wanted to tell him that he shouldn’t have talked about you like that in the meeting, that you’d only done what you’d been asked. And he told me that you were censured, months ago, and that’s why he doesn’t trust you, and why there are new healers. Because you proposed using necromancy on our dead soldiers.”
He gave a dry laugh. “Apparently everyone knew about it except me.”
Helena’s mouth went dry. “Don’t be mad at Lila,” she said. “She wasn’t there, either.”
Luc’s jaw clenched. “I know she wasn’t. But she still found out. Soren told her, but no one told me. You could have told me.”
