Spellbound (55 page)

Authors: Blake Charlton

BOOK: Spellbound

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Nicodemus was unsure how to reply. But the ghost looked away, uninterested. The hallway led into a wide circular room with plane white stone walls. This was the entryway to the necropolis.

From the far wall protruded a single stone block. Atop it sat a sheet of paper covered with shifting Numinous runes. This paper extended through the wall and into the necropolis proper, the living were not permitted to enter.

Nicodemus watched as the ghost held his hand above the paper of shifting runes. The text seemed just about to press his hand down when he looked back at Nicodemus.

Man and ghost studied each other for a long time. “Good-bye, Magister,” Nicodemus said.

The ghost's expression grew distant and then thoughtful. He cast a sentence to Nicodemus.
“Or mayeb the sole isn't a singer. Maybe it's a chorus.”

Then the ghost put his hand to the paper and vanished.

FRANCESCA AWOKE IN the blue hour before dawn. Nicodemus lay next to her, at last asleep. After taking Shannon's ghost down to Starfall's necropolis, they had stayed up talking about Shannonâhis life, his work, his deathâuntil exhaustion had pulled them both down into sleep.

Now Francesca got out of bed. She couldn't say what had woken her. It hadn't been a dream or a sound â¦ but something that was â¦ wrong.

She stood, wondering if she needed to visit the privy, but on her feet she realized that she was nauseated. She sat back down and struggled with confusion. It was as if her seasickness had returned. She stood, wondering if a drink of water would â¦

Suddenly she knew that she was going to vomit. She ran for the balcony but bent over and heaved in the hallway. Long, painful contractions. Nothing came up. She hurried the rest of the way to the balcony and retched over the side, bringing up a mouthful of bitterness.

When she could finally stand straight, breathing fast, she found the cold sea air bracing. A crowd of gulls circled over the fishing boats heading out to sea. A second wave of nausea washed through her as if she were on one of those boats.

Two seabirds, white with flashes of black in their tails, soared overhead. Suddenly Francesca understood. She hadn't caught a flux or a flu. On the ocean, she had not been seasick. The cause of her nausea was so obvious that she laughed bright red. This explained why her body had not regained its draconic potential; it was undertaking a greater work. The future she had fought so hard to win had already taken shape in the body of her next patient.

Francesca had not thought this outcome possible. She and Nicodemus were both spellwrights after all, and no two spellwrights could conceive of this happening. But then again, she was not properly a human. This rule, apparently, did not apply to her.

A lavender noise made her turn around. Nicodemus was walking toward her, blinking away sleep.
“Fran, what hapened?”
he wrote.
“Are you allright?”

She nodded.
“I'm fine. Nausea is common in the mornings. We are just getting used to each other.”

“We?”

Francesca had not realized she'd used a plural pronoun to announce her newest patient. She took her lover's hand and laid it on her belly. Whatever ties they might have to Typhon's Disjunction, they were now radically transformed.
“Nicodemus,”
she wrote,
“I'm pregnant.”

TOR BOOKS BY BLAKE CHARLTON

Spellwright
Spellbound

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

You have your whole life to write a first novel; for your second, you have a year.
So the saying goes. When I first got the wheels turning on
Spellbound,
I had no idea how one person could possibly produce a second novel ten times faster than the first while simultaneously attempting to grow as a writer. I quickly discovered that it was impossible. No one author could do it. One author plus a small army of friends and colleagues, however, just might pull it off.

Before anything else, my small army provided the following sources of inspiration. In chapter one, the phrase “kill as few patients as possible” is used in homage to Dr. Oscar London's collection of humorous essays,
Kill as Few Patients as Possible
. Also in chapter one, the cardiac massage scene was inspired by Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland's description of the procedure in his book
How We Die
. The treatment of a tension pneumothorax in chapter twenty-nine came to me when I was studying Dr. Frank Netter's illustration of “Chest Drainage Tube Placement.” The peculiar effects the Savanna Walker has on the minds of others were inspired by many of the cases described by Dr. Oliver Sacks in
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
and
Musicophilia
. The impromptu brain surgery of chapter forty-six was inspired by D. J. Donovan, R. R. Moquin, and J. M. Ecklund in their article “Cranial Burr Holes and Emergency Craniotomy: Review of Indications and Techniques,” published in
Military Medicine
(171, no. 1 [2006]: 12â19). A very few scenes in the book were inspired by my encounters with patients or stories told to me by medical students or physicians. I have, of course, not included any information that might identify an actual patient. In that regard, I am fortunate that setting a novel in an imaginary world and populating it with creatures like dragons makes it exceedingly difficult to violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

First on the list of those who made
Spellbound
possible is its first reader: Dr. Asya Agulnik, who graciously provided criticism, kindness, and support. Thank you.

Many publishing professionals made invaluable contributions to this
book. My two editors, Jim Frenkel at Tor and Amy McCulloch at Voyager, provided brilliant feedback. Nina Lourie found both plot flaws and their remedies before showing me how I could more fully develop all of my characters. Megan Messinger's analysis of each character's story arc helped make the conclusion an order of magnitude more satisfying. When a deadline loomed, Lindsay Ribar saved the day by reading and skillfully critiquing as fast as I could edit. I'm very lucky to have the brilliant Cassandra Ammerman as my PR agent at Tor and look forward to working with her again. Irene Gallo and Todd Lockwood produced the perfect cover for this book, despite the complications arising from “second dragon” mystery. All through the year, Matt Bialer was a good friend and marvelous literary agent. I'm very thankful for Stefani Diaz, my foreign rights agent, who has sold this trilogy in more languages than I ever dared dream.

The Stanford University School of Medicine has been the ideal home for my dual careers. In particular, I have been blessed by the mentorship and friendship of Dr. Abraham Verghese, who has given advice about medical training and provided understanding when publishing deadlines have taken me away from my duties as his research assistant. Dr. Audrey Shafer and Dr. Irvin Yalom provided not only wisdom about the life of a physician-writer but also help in seeking institutional assistance. I am deeply grateful for the support of the Stanford Medical Scholars Research Program and the program in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities for their generous support of my different projects.

Many friends outside med school and publishing made vital contributions to this book. Jessica Weare, Swaroop Samant, Kevan Moffett, Josh Troke, and Nina Nuangchamnong read various drafts and provided vital insights. Saladin Ahmed helpfully critiqued the first hundred pages during a busy time. Deanna Hoak answered myriad questions about grammar. Much of the first draft was written across a coffee-shop table from Gail Carriger, who tolerated me as a writing partner even when I would hold my laptop over her head in hopes that some of her wit might spread via osmosis onto my hard drive. Kimberly Chisholm graciously read a late draft to help catch smaller errors.

And, through it all, I had the support of my father, Dr. Randy Charlton; my sister, Genevieve Johansen; my beautiful little niece, Lis Ana Johansen; and of course my wise and loving mother, Dr. Louise Buck, to whom this book is dedicated.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Blake Charlton's severe dyslexia kept him from reading fluently until he began sneaking fantasy novels into special-ed study hall in the seventh grade. He has been an English teacher, a biomedical technical writer, a learning-disability tutor, and a junior varsity football coach. He currently attends Stanford University School of Medicine.
Spellbound,
the sequel to
Spellwright,
is his second novel and the second book in the Spellwright Trilogy. Please visit him at
www.blakecharlton.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

SPELLBOUND

Edited by James Frenkel
Maps by Rhys Davis

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

TorÂ® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781429949880

First eBook Edition : August 2011

First Edition: September 2011