Page 32 of The Poison Season

Leelo had expected Sage to be worried or frustrated. At worst, she’d expected Sage’s anger. But she hadn’t expected her cousin to side with Hollis over her. “We still have over half our shift left. I can take half of his tonight, if he wants.”

“It’s fine,” Hollis said. “I can do a double shift.”

“No,” Sage said. “That’s not fair. My mother will take care of Aunt Fiona. And Leelo can take the shift with Kris.”

Leelo stared at her cousin, hurt despite the fact that she’d brought this on herself. Sage stared right back, as if daring Leelo to argue again.

Suddenly remembering the outsider, she glanced around the beach. The boat was gone, and there was no sign of him.

“What happened to the boat?” Leelo asked.

Hollis shaded his eyes against the sun and looked up at her. “The council members found it washed up on this side of the shore this morning. Huge hole in the hull. They took it away for repairs.”

Where is the outsider?she wanted to scream, but she couldn’t admit that she’d seen him.

Sage was still watching Leelo with an inscrutable expression. “Why do you care about the boat?”

“I don’t,” Leelo lied. “I just didn’t realize they’d already taken it.” She forced herself to take a breath. The young man must not have made it to land after all. Which meant no one had been there to sing for him. She hoped he’d died quickly, at least.

“You can go,” Sage said when Leelo didn’t move. “You still have time to rest before your shift starts.”

Leelo glanced at Hollis to see what he made of all this, but he was just staring blankly across the shore. Sage seemed to be showing off for him, but Leelo couldn’t fathom why. Sage was not the kind of girl to swoon at the sight of muscles, and Hollis wasn’t anywhere close to an intellectual match for her.

Whatever the case, Sage wasn’t going to budge, and Leelo was exhausted. “Thank you for covering for me, Hollis,” she said.

He grunted in acknowledgment as she left the shore and headed back into the Forest. She would go home, sleep, and forget about the outsider, she told herself. But her mind kept snagging on Sage and Hollis. For someone who had all but sworn off marriage, he was an extremely odd choice for Sage. And for someone who had always been so loyal, she seemed rather quick to dismiss Leelo, especially for something as small as coming late to Watcher duty.

With a sick twisting in her stomach, Leelo started to wonder if Sage might know more than she was letting on.

And then she saw the trail of blood.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jaren stumbled through the Forest, dragging his injured leg behind him. After the girl had abandoned him on the beach, he had lain on the rocky shore for a few minutes, as far from the lapping water as he could get.

He hadn’t even inspected his leg. He knew it was bad, and he couldn’t risk staying out in the open, exposed. When the girl had grabbed the rope, he had been certain she was going to try to tip him or prevent him from coming ashore. Instead, she had hauled him toward the beach. But if she was trying to help Jaren, surely she would have checked on him. She had disappeared before he was even out of the boat, probably to get reinforcements, if he had to guess. His only hope right now was to hide somewhere and pray the wound wasn’t fatal.

He had hardly gone far at all when he heard voices in the Forest ahead. Somehow, he managed to scramble up a tree and hide among the leaves. He held his breath and watched as a boy and girl passed below him. If one of them glanced up, they would spot him instantly.

Fortunately, they were too absorbed in their conversation to notice him. He exhaled as quietly as he could and slid out of the tree, doing his best to avoid scraping his damaged leg. He had no idea if the poison would work the way it had on the rose, traveling throughout the entire flower until it was dead. If that was the case, then hiding wasn’t going to do him any good. But there was still a chance he might live, and if it meant getting back to his father and sisters, then he had to try.

When the pain and exhaustion proved too overwhelming, Jaren crawled through an opening in some dense hedges and sat down. He hoped he was hidden here. He needed water desperately, but he had no idea where there was a safe source on the island, so that would have to wait.

Gingerly, he peeled his trousers away from his damaged skin. The fact that he’d only been splashed on one leg was a miracle in itself. He took a deep breath, bit his lip, and looked down. It was worse than he’d feared. The poison had burned straight into his shin in several places, through the skin, muscle, and sinew, down to the bone. Fortunately, the bone itself appeared intact, although he’d have felt a lot better if he could have rinsed the wound with clean water, or better yet, alcohol. But he didn’t have anything with him, not even a waterskin.

He tore off the part of his trousers that had been soaked, just in case any more poison made its way through the fabric. He used a strip of tunic to bind the wound, although the bleeding seemed to have stopped on its own. Lars had said that when Maggie’s father died, it was because he had literally walked into the water on foot, drawn by the song coming from the island. He had been so entranced that he hadn’t even flinched as the poison began to burn off his flesh, and he had ignored the screams and shouts from his friends on the shoreline. They had never recovered any of his body.

Jaren felt a stab of guilt for laughing at the idea of magic. He owed Maggie an apology, if he ever made it out of here alive.

He didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he heard someone coming through the undergrowth. He sat up, feeling feverish and disoriented, the pain in his leg excruciating. He peeked through the bushes and saw something pale flash in the trees. He took a deep breath and willed his heartbeat to slow, though it pounded so loudly in his own ears he was sure he’d be discovered.

As the person drew nearer, he gasped. It was the girl with the silver-blond hair again. The girl he’d seen at the festival, and the girl who had hauled the boat to shore. He peered through the brush. She was clad in a tunic and trousers, just like he was. Her hair was braided, a few loose strands framing her heart-shaped face. She was looking at something on the ground, her brow furrowed in concern.

Blood. She’d been following his trail this entire time. He swallowed thickly, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. She was still alone, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t here to harm him. Perhaps she’d come to finish the job, not wanting to risk the lake before. Lupin had said most Endlans were good people, and she had seemed harmless enough the day of the festival, waving when she could have raised a weapon or opened her mouth in song.

But he was exactly what the Endlans feared most: an outsider, likely bent on destruction, as it didn’t seem anyone came to this island for sightseeing and a picnic. He glanced at his leg again. He had two choices: remain hidden, pray that his wound didn’t kill him before dark, and attempt to repair the boat...or take a chance on this stranger. He winced, the effort of moving causing stars to dance in his vision. He would never make it back to the mainland on his own.

The girl crouched down and put her fingers to the blood. She raised her hand and sniffed. And then, like a hawk narrowing in on its prey, her head swiveled to his hiding place. Their eyes met through the screen of branches.

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