Page 6 of The Poison Season

Sage nodded. “It’s Pieter Thomason. He was in Isola’s house. He must have come across the ice and hidden all winter. Isola’s mother chased him into the woods.”

Ketty sucked in a breath. “Poor Rosalie. This will be a lasting shame on her family.”

Leelo had never heard of an incantu returning to Endla, and she wondered how this differed from an outsider trespassing. But unlike her aunt, Leelo wasn’t thinking of Rosalie. She was thinking of Isola and, more importantly, Pieter.

Ketty shook her head, muttering to herself. “Best get Fiona. She’s upstairs resting.”

“I’m awake.” Leelo’s mother came down the stairs on unsteady legs, leaning heavily on the wooden banister. She had been weak and tired often lately, though she promised she was fine. Leelo had helped her with the weaving and embroidery before she became a Watcher, but now Fiona had to do all that work herself. “Pieter Thomason, you say?”

Leelo took her mother’s arm and helped her into a chair by the fire. “We can stay here, if you’re not feeling well enough.”

“Everyone has to attend,” Ketty said. “You know that.”

“Mama?” Leelo crouched down next to her mother. “I don’t mind staying.”

“I don’t think I have the strength for it,” Fiona said to Ketty.

“Exactly why you should come, sister. The singing will help bolster you.”

Fiona frowned and rubbed her temples. “My head is pounding. I’ll try to follow, but you should go ahead, Leelo.” Her mother’s voice was soft with compassion, though she looked troubled. “That poor boy. And his parents. I wonder if they know.”

Leelo bit at the jagged edge of a fingernail. Her mother understood how much Leelo hated the drownings, but she had missed the last one, when a man who claimed to be lost in a snowstorm was found by a pair of Watchers on their first day of duty. He had been given the same choice as everyone else, and Leelo had been surprised when he chose the Forest. In the winter, there was at least a chance of making it across the ice. But the Forest would no sooner tolerate an outsider than a dog would a flea. The man had been crushed by a falling tree within minutes of his release.

Leelo’s repeated absence would be noticed. Besides, drownings were important to Endla. They were a reminder of how precious this place was and how vital it was they protect it at all costs. Only the incantu were spared from these occasions, as they weren’t considered true Endlans.

Despite the food and shelter the Wandering Forest provided, outsiders believed it was evil, as Aunt Ketty had explained a hundred times.That’s how outsiders are. If they don’t understand something, like the Forest, they have to destroy it. Anything that doesn’t function the way they decide it should doesn’t deserve to live in their eyes.

That was why all the other Wandering Forests had been chopped down or burned by outsiders and why it was so vital no harm should come to Endla. Pieter wasn’t an outsider, of course, and he likely had no intention of harming the Wandering Forest. But if he could come across the frozen lake so easily and remain hidden, what was to stop an outsider from doing the same?

“All right, Mama,” Leelo said finally. “We’ll be back soon.” With a pit forming in her stomach, she donned her muddy boots and trudged back into the woods with her aunt and cousin.

Sage linked her arm through Leelo’s, and she could feel Sage’s—she didn’t want to sayexcitement, though that was what it felt like—buzzing inside of her. “I know you hate it, Lo. But it’s necessary. He can’t stay here. You must understand that by now.”

“I do,” Leelo said because it was easier than arguing with Sage. But surely Pieter didn’thaveto die. She thought of him stumbling out of Isola’s cottage half-naked, how vulnerable humans were when it came to the violence of nature. A flash of memory—the way the roots of her family tree had so eagerly absorbed the blood sacrifice—made the wound on her hand pulse with pain. She had seen birds fly into trees and never fly out again, had even watched an entire deer disappear into a sinkhole once. She knew all too well what the Forest was capable of.

As they reached the water’s edge, Leelo saw that a crowd had gathered near the shore, spread out in a half-moon shape. Sage pushed her way through to the front, dragging Leelo along with her.

Pieter stood with his heels nearly touching the water, brandishing a stick as though it could protect him. He bared his teeth, reminding Leelo of a badger she’d once caught in a snare. She didn’t know if an incantu was given the same choice as an outsider, but it seemed Pieter had chosen for himself.

“Stay back!” he shouted, waving the stick at a woman who had come close to jeer at him. “I mean it.”

“Pieter, please!” Isola was screaming again, but her mother and two other islanders restrained her. “Stay with me!”

“Hush,” her mother said, trying to calm her daughter. “You know that’s impossible.”

Pieter glanced behind him. There were a few small ice floes left. The nearest was only a couple meters offshore, but there was no way to reach it without touching the water. Leelo scanned the crowd for Pieter’s parents and found them standing stoically near the end of the line of islanders. Aside from a few tears on his mother’s cheeks, you would never know their son was about to die.Why didn’t they do something?Leelo wondered. How could they just stand there and let this happen?

Suddenly, Pieter spun and hurtled through the shallows, somehow reaching the nearest ice floe. He stood there, his legs spread in a wide stance for balance, searching frantically for his next move. The islanders watched as he made a leap, landing half on the ice and half off.

“Look!” someone shouted. A group of outsiders had gathered on the far shore.

“Hurry, Pieter,” one of them called. “You can make it!”

Pieter was almost halfway across the lake, but the ice was even more sparse on the far side. There was no way he could reach it without swimming. The outsiders were hauling a boat through the mud toward the water, but they seemed hesitant to risk it. Leelo couldn’t blame them.

“Help!” Pieter screamed as the ice beneath him cracked. One moment he was standing, and the next he was gone with only a small splash and a strangled cry.

“Pieter!” For one moment, Isola burst free, but the others managed to grab her again before she reached the water. It was clear to Leelo she would have gone in if they hadn’t stopped her.

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