The Poison Season(84)
There, through the trees. He could just make out the glint of moonlight on water. He was almost there. A few more yards, and he would be on the beach.
Suddenly, a shadow stepped out of the trees, blocking his path. He couldn’t make out much in the darkness, though he was relieved it wasn’t one of the burly men who had held him prisoner. He skidded to a stop, wishing he had some weapon—any weapon—to defend himself.
The person stepped forward, and as the moonlight slanted across her face, he felt his breath leave him in a rush.
“I knew you would come straight here, coward that you are,” Sage said. “And now I get to be the one who kills you.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Leelo sat with her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the sound of the Hunters by humming a lullaby to herself. Her mother had fallen asleep beside her, but she woke with a sudden start, wincing in pain.
“Mama?” Leelo peered into her mother’s face. “What’s the matter? Are you ill again?”
Fiona took a sip of the water Leelo offered her and shook her head. “I’ve been ill for a long time, darling.”
Leelo tried to ignore the distant singing, but it was almost impossible. Worst of all, her own throat ached to join in. She reached for the cup of tea Ketty had prepared for Fiona before she left to soothe the pain.
“No!” Fiona’s hand shot out so fast it knocked the cup over, sloshing liquid all over the table.
For a moment, they both sat staring at each other, catching their breath.
“Saints, Mama. What was that about?” Leelo rose to fetch a towel and began to blot up the tea, but as she leaned closer, she was hit with a scent that was unfamiliar until yesterday. The same scent that filled the cave where the boat was kept. Where the lilies were grown.
Her eyes darted to Fiona’s. “Mama? What’s in this tea?”
Fiona must have seen the realization on Leelo’s face, because she only closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh.
“Answer me. Why does your tea smell like the lilies?”
When Fiona opened her eyes, they were wet with tears. “It’s my medicine.”
Leelo was trying to understand what her mother was saying, but she was too distracted by the distant singing to make sense of it. “What medicine?”
Fiona leaned back in her chair. “You know that poisonous plants can have medicinal uses as well as fatal ones.”
Leelo nodded. “We use autumn crocus to treat gout. And the foxglove leaves for your heart troubles. What does that have to do with anything.”
“After your father died, I became ill. I couldn’t sleep. I wouldn’t eat. Your aunt nursed me back to health. The lilies, if highly diluted in water, can treat several ailments, including depression.
“After a time, I began to heal. But I refused to sing again, not even at the funeral. It wasn’t like not eating. That was a choice. But singing was different. I simply couldn’t do the thing that had once brought me so much joy. Not after what I’d done.”
Leelo wasn’t sure if singing had ever brought her joy. It had simply been a part of her, like the breath in her lungs and the blood in her veins. Giving it up didn’t feel like an option.
“Ketty used to chide me at every festival. ‘Sing, or you’ll get ill again. Sing, or you’re going to die.’ But the more I refused, the angrier she got. And then I took a turn for the worse.”
“Did you know she was making you sick?” Leelo asked, her fury rising.
“No. Not at first. I believed her when she said it was because I wouldn’t sing. But then one day I saw her making my tea. And I knew then she was using too much of the extract of lily. Enough to cross the line from medicine to poison.”
Mama was the one who had warned Leelo of that very thing. Every time she prepared a tea or a tincture, Leelo had to check her calculations three times. “Then why did you keep drinking it?” Leelo demanded. “How could you do that to yourself? To Tate, and to me?”
“Because she threatened to tell you what I’d done. She threatened to tell everyone. And I suppose it was because some part of me believed I deserved it. I thought it was the punishment I had earned by betraying my family, and Endla.”
Hot tears pricked at the corners of Leelo’s eyes. “That’s nonsense. Not helping Nigel would have been the true betrayal, because you would have been betraying yourself.” There had never been a choice, for either of them, because when it came down to it, they were good people. They wouldn’t willingly allow anyone to suffer. Unlike Ketty, who for years had been killing her only sister.
“I know that now,” Fiona said softly. “I’m sorry. I should have fought harder, for your sake.”
Leelo shook her head and rose. “I forgive you, Mama. But I have a choice. I have to fight for Jaren.”
Her mother tried to grab her arm as she walked to the door. “You can’t! Sage is out there!”
But Leelo was already standing in the open doorway, and there was no sign of her cousin. “She must have gone to join the Hunt,” she murmured, feeling more betrayed than ever. Like her mother, Sage was loyal to the island even more than her own family. Like Ketty, Sage probably thought she was doing Leelo a favor.
“Maybe he’s safe,” she said. “If the singing didn’t work before, perhaps it won’t now, either.”