Page 77 of The Poison Season

“Of course.”

“There’s one other thing.” He pulled another book out from his back pocket. “The poetry book.”

“I thought you hated that thing,” she said with a smile.

“I do, but what can I say? I had a lot of time to kill. Anyhow, I found an inscription in it. I know this sounds strange, but I think it’s to your mother.”

Leelo took the book from his hands. “It is,” she said. “I’ll explain as we walk. Come on, it’s a hike to the cave, and we don’t have much time.”

The sun was hot on their heads and shoulders, and Jaren was quickly drenched in sweat from the exertion of hiking after weeks spent cooped up in the cabin. They had to move slower than Leelo could alone to avoid being seen, since Jaren wasn’t nearly as quiet as she was.

As they walked, Leelo recounted her conversation with Fiona from the previous night. No wonder she hadn’t slept, Jaren thought. She’d had her entire world upended in one day.

“After I told her about you,” Leelo went on, her tone changing, “she confessed something about the lake. Something I wasn’t supposed to know until my year as Watcher was over.”

Jaren remembered how he’d asked Lupin about Lake Luma, but she hadn’t known the answer. “Is it about the poison?”

Leelo stopped, dropping her voice to a whisper. “You remember I said there’s a pond in the grotto? I saw water lilies growing there. They’re part of the spring ceremony, but I didn’t give them any thought beyond that.”

“That’s what you all were releasing into the water that day, when I saw you by the shore?”

“Yes. They’re supposed to represent the new Watchers. That was all I knew. But my mother said that during the end of our year as Watchers, there’s a different ceremony, a secret one. A council member brings a cage with her, containing a mouse or a chipmunk, whatever they can find.” She swallowed, clearly disturbed by what she was about to say. “Then the council member drops the poor creature into the pond. Mama said it was reduced instantly to bones, then nothing.”

“So the lilies have something to do with the poison.”

Leelo’s blue eyes filled with tears. “Yes.”

“But you put the lilies into the lake every spring.”

She blinked and the tears spilled over her lashes, streaking down her pale face. “Yes.”

It was fortunate neither of them knew what to say, because in the ensuing silence they heard something coming through the underbrush. Leelo grabbed Jaren’s hand, dragging him down behind a rock. It was a man in a cart pulled by a shaggy pony. Fortunately, he didn’t hear their breathing over the sound of the cart, and he disappeared into the trees a few moments later.

Leelo stayed kneeling where she was, swiping her tears away with the back of her hand. He wanted to comfort her, but she was trying her best to compose herself. “I already knew that Lake Luma wasn’t full of poison when my ancestors came. That was how they made it across in the first place. But the poison doesn’t come from the Forest, like we were told. It comes fromus.”

“Saints,” Jaren breathed. “How?”

“They were brought from the mainland by one of our people, a botanist. She planted and cultivated the lilies in the cave, then moved them to the lake every subsequent spring. And we’ve continued it every year since.”

Leelo’s voice was laced with disgust, and Jaren could understand why. She had just learned that something she had perceived as special was part of an elaborate lie, one only revealed to her when it was too late. “And this was all to protect your people from outsiders.”

She nodded.

“But it also kept you...”

“Trapped,” Leelo finished, her voiced ragged.

Jaren helped Leelo to her feet and pulled her into his arms finally. “I’m sorry, Leelo. That must have been so difficult to hear.”

She sighed deeply against him. “I think I understand why they did it. I just don’t understand all the lies. Instead of honoring our ancestors’ traumatic pasts with the truth, they’ve wrapped everything in flowers and ribbons, until my entire generation forgot why we’re here.”

“They make rules to protect us,” Jaren said, thinking of all the times his parents had warned him not to wander. “They just don’t realize we’d be far more apt to listen if we knew what they were protecting us from.”

Leelo tilted her face up to him. “Would we, though?” She smiled, the light returning to her eyes. “Even if my mother had told me about Nigel before, I’d have saved you. I’d save you every time, Jaren Kask.”

To Jaren’s relief, Fiona and Isola were already waiting when they arrived. They wouldn’t move the boat until dusk, to give themselves the added advantage of darkness, but they would still have to go carefully. There were Watchers on duty, and it was entirely possible they’d be patrolling the beach Jaren needed to launch from. Leelo had spoken with Isola that morning, and she had agreed to provide a distraction, if it came to that.

He studied Leelo’s mother surreptitiously, trying to find some trace of her daughter in her, but they were as different as spring and autumn. Fiona was not old by any means, but she looked so faded and brittle compared to Leelo. Once again, he had the feeling that Leelo was special, even here. Maybe it was simply because he loved her, but in the slanting late-afternoon light, she looked ethereal.

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