Page 40 of The Poison Season

Leelo rested her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. After talking to Isola, Leelo had determined to put an end to her problem. She couldn’t risk being caught and exiled. Her mother wouldn’t survive it. She had sharpened her knife before she went to the little hut, steeling herself for the spray of blood when she slit Jaren’s throat. That had seemed like the quickest way of taking his life, though the thought of all that blood made her woozy.

She had knelt down next to him for several minutes, listening to his breathing to make sure he was truly asleep and not pretending. She could feel the heat from his body, and it reminded her of Tate, how he always seemed to burn hotter than she did, so that even on the coldest nights she didn’t need a warm stone in her bed if he was with her.

Thinking of Tate had made her throat thick with tears, and she’d had to take several deep breaths to regain her composure. She had gone so far as to set the blade against the delicate skin of Jaren’s neck. And then he’d hummed a few bars of the prayer in his sleep.

The sound was unexpectedly beautiful. His voice wasn’t smooth and practiced like the Endlans’; it was ragged and a little off-key. But he had gotten the emotion of the prayer exactly, and her nerve fell away like autumn leaves. He was just a boy, and she’d brought him here.

With a heavy sigh, she had gone back to the door and opened it loudly on purpose, waking him.

Sage rolled over next to her, sighing in her sleep. A part of Leelo wanted to wake her cousin and tell her everything. If she already suspected what Leelo had done, then waiting would only increase Sage’s sense of betrayal. She was better off confessing now, explaining that she hadn’t known what she was doing, that she was sorry she hadn’t told Sage right away.

If Sage didn’t know and Leelo confessed, she might be able to help. She wouldn’t want to get Leelo in trouble, notrealtrouble. She was just angry with Leelo for being so upset over Tate.

At least, she hoped that was all it was. But then she remembered the way Sage had looked at her when she asked about the boat. How Sage had said Pieter deserved his fate. And if she could be that callous about an incantu, what would she do to a true outsider? The image of Ketty slitting the sheep’s throat came back to her, and Leelo covered her eyes with her hands, pressing the heels of her palms into the sockets until she saw stars.

Jaren didn’t seem like he would deliberately cause her any trouble. He was bigger and older than her, but he was also scared. She couldn’t blame him. He’d been chased here by an enormous wolf, and he was alone and friendless in a tiny hut in the middle of nowhere. She remembered how affectionately he’d spoken of his sisters and his father, how devastating the loss of their mother had been.

Leelo had felt so much empathy that for a moment she’d considered telling Jaren about Tate, but though she wanted to trust him, she couldn’t undo all the years of warnings she’d received about outsiders.

They say when the Wandering Forests were cut down by the outsiders, the trees screamed in agony, Ketty would say, when she told stories at night around the fire.When their roots were torn from the soil, they wept sap as red as blood. And when the animals of the Forest lost their shelter, they also lost their minds, turning into ferocious, bloodthirsty creatures who had to be destroyed.

Leelo had imagined such carnage when Ketty told her tales, fields full of bloody stumps and crazed animals with red glowing eyes. She’d had nightmares every night for years. Sometimes she overheard her mother pleading with Ketty to stop scaring the children, but Ketty would call her sister a traitor, a fool, and Fiona would eventually back down as she always did.

If Leelo confided in Sage and she “solved” this problem for her, Leelo would be indebted to her forever, just like her mother and Aunt Ketty. She could envision them years from now, Sage making all their decisions for them, constantly reminding Leelo of her foolishness, and the guilt would drag on her like an anchor. She couldn’t imagine her mother ever getting into a mess as bad as this one, but whatever Ketty had done for Fiona, she would never let her sister forget it.

No, Leelo thought as she adjusted her pillow for the hundredth time. She wouldn’t let Sage hold this one mistake over her for the rest of her life. She would simply have to solve this problem all on her own.

When Leelo woke in the morning, she was stiff from shivering. She rolled over to find that Sage had stolen all the blankets.

With a sigh, she pulled them back to cover herself, but a second later, Sage yanked on them again, leaving Leelo more exposed than before.

So that’s how it is, Leelo thought. Sage was doing this on purpose, probably to punish her for missing her Watcher shift. Annoyed, she ripped the covers back over herself, starting a far-too-intense-for-early-morning bout of tug-of-war with Sage.

“Sage,” Leelo said through gritted teeth. “Just give...me...the...blanket!” Leelo pulled so hard she almost fell off the bed. “What’s the matter with you, anyway?”

“What’s the matter withme? What’s the matter with you!” Sage’s auburn hair was tangled from sleep, and her yellow-green eyes were so wide Leelo could see the whites all around.

“There’s nothing the matter with me, except for the fact that I’m freezing because you’re hogging the blanket!”

“Girls!”

They both turned to the door without releasing their fistfuls of quilt. Aunt Ketty stood with her hands on her hips, watching them with disgust. “What in the name of all that is sacred has gotten into the two of you?”

Leelo and Sage began yelling to defend themselves at the same moment.

“Enough!” Ketty shouted. “Leelo, your mother is trying to rest. And, Sage,yourmother is trying to start breakfast. Whatever has happened between the two of you, work it out. Your shift starts in half an hour, and no one wants to listen to you bicker.”

As Ketty stormed out, Leelo scrambled out of bed and yanked on her tunic and trousers, her back turned on her cousin.

A second later, a pillow hit her square between the shoulder blades.

Leelo whirled, her own braid whipping her in the face. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

Sage stared at her, chest heaving in rage, her hazel eyes filled with tears. “And I can’t believe you missed our shift yesterday!”

Leelo had to close her eyes to keep from rolling them. “I said I was sorry. Mama was ill. Why are you so upset?”

“I woke up and you were justgone. I...” As Sage trailed off, her tears spilled over. Leelo couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her cousin cry. “I thought you’d left.”

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