Avengard: The Fall of Senvia

Chapter 6 - Foul Herbs and Neglected Mistletoe

"Eskir!" I raced to his side and shook him. The blood had left his face, leaving it far too pale. His breath shook with each rasp, and his skin was cold. His hair was scattered across his face and the floor in an absolute mess created as he tossed and turned in his unconsciousness. He was still alive, but faintly.

I didn't even know what had happened. If only I had stayed awake instead of falling asleep with Ana, I might have heard something, I might have stopped this. But there was no time to think about the what-ifs right now.

Lucian came up behind me, eyes wide at the busted-down door. "Xera!" he said. "I realise you're leaving, but I still have an inn to run! If you wanted to express disappointment with my management style, you could have just cussed me out!"

"Lucian," I said, ignoring him, "I need water, rue, holly, and lovage. Now!"

He froze, staring at Eskir laying in front of me. "Wha—"

"I think he's been poisoned," I said. "I need those herbs. I can make antidotes with them."

"What kind of poison?"

"I don't know, but I can treat most things with those herbs."

"We don't have any holly," he said, his face whitening. "Berries are too toxic. Children don't know."

"Mistletoe, then! There's an oak tree fifty paces south of the tavern, a mass of mistletoe's growing up in the branches." Mistletoe was a parasitic plant, and I'd meant to remove it from the tree. It was poisonous as well, with stunning white berries, and children did love to wander and climb. Most knew what plants to avoid where they lived, but this was the inn at the crossroads. Everyone here was a traveller, and would not necessarily recognise the native foliage.

"Now!" I yelled at him, spurring him after a few more moments of hesitation into a sprint downstairs. I knew he kept rue and lovage. He used rue for poultice and lovage for seasonal soups. But they wouldn't be enough without holly. Even mistletoe likely wouldn't do enough. The only magic I had was my ring, Stoneguard, and it was useless against poison. It was just a weapon.

Lucian was only gone for a few minutes, but Eskir's breathing had shallowed by the time he returned. His arms were covered in scratches from his climb and his lungs breathless from the run. When could Eskir have been poisoned, if it was killing him this quickly?

"I have it!" he shouted, handing me the plant. "As much as I could carry."

"I still need the rue and lovage! And water!"

He ran off, and I pressed the bark of the mistletoe into the floor. Normally, I would have ground it into a pulp, but I had no time to be delicate. I clasped my hands around as much of it as I could and pulsed my ring against the bough, more gently than I had against the door, but enough to crush it. The berries had all fallen off with the winter behind us, but the pulp of the leaves coloured the bark on their own. When Lucian returned with the rest of what I needed, I mixed the mistletoe with water and pressed it down on Eskir's throat, wrapping it all the way around as best I could.

"What are you—"

"Never mind, just hand me the lovage."

He passed it to me, and I stuffed it down his throat. This had to work. Eskir was a total stranger, and he was the key to the answers I had only dreamed could exist.

"What in the hell is all of that going to do but choke him?"

"It's magic," I said.

"You don't have any magic!" he cried out. "You told me yourself! All you've got is that ring!"