put his hand on his stomach. “Like a bad bout of indigestion.”
“Thanks, I feel all warm inside.” He bumped Loren with his shoulder. “So now that Sepp’s still alive, what does that mean?”
Loren met my gaze. What indeed?
“It depends on Cellina,” I said. “If she likes being in charge, she’ll leave Tohon frozen. If she truly loves him...”
“She’ll come after Avry,” Loren said. “She’s the only one who can heal Tohon.”
Not exactly. Danny’s healing magic had awoken during his adventure with Kerrick in the north. But not many people knew about him. Yet another worry flared. Had Tohon told Cellina about his experiments with the Death Lily toxin? The people who survived being poisoned with the toxin all developed healing powers. Tohon had been injecting it into children, hoping to make healers. Danny and Zila had lived through it, but I’d rescued them. If Tohon had kept it secret, all should be well.
If not... I considered. Danny remained with the northern tribes and Zila stayed with Kerrick’s brother, Izak. Both were in Alga Realm, safe on the other side of the Nine Mountains for now.
“But Avry won’t heal Tohon,” Quain said. “Right? You agreed with Kerrick’s decision to kill Sepp.”
“Right. I won’t.”
“And we all know you can’t be threatened, bullied, coerced, or bribed to heal someone you don’t want to.” Loren smiled.
Quain rubbed his neck. “Yeah, we learned that lesson the hard way.”
“I’d say Kerrick had the most learning to do. Fun times.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to call them fun. However, those days when we’d been all together had been...nice, despite the danger. And now... Grief and sadness filled me. Would I lose everyone I loved before this war ended?
We lapsed into silence. The farther we moved away from the infirmary cave, the greater the chance of encountering an enemy patrol. The night insects buzzed and chirped.
When the sun rose, we stopped for a quick breakfast and continued. In the daylight, the monkeys searched for any signs that Kerrick had passed this way.
“Would he even leave a trail?” I asked.
“If he was too sick to do his tree mojo, he might have broken some branches,” Quain said.
And I still hadn’t felt a ripple of his magic. Which meant he was either unconscious, already inside a Lily, or dead. I leaned against a tree’s trunk for a moment as a wave of misery swept through me. No. Not until I had proof.
Pushing away those dire thoughts, I straightened. “I’ll meet you guys there. You’re slowing me down.” I sprinted down the trail.
They picked up their pace and we reached the Lily cluster a few hours after dawn.
“There’s no sign Kerrick came this way,” Quain said, examining the ground.
I shot him a nasty look.
Loren punched him in the arm. Hard.
“What?”
Ignoring them, I pulled off my cloak and knapsack, setting them down. I moved closer and studied the six Lilys. The cluster grew among the trees. Giant white man-size flowers topped thick green stalks. Thorny vines jumbled below and the scent of honey and lemons filled the air. Get too close to a Death Lily and either the petals snatched you or the vines ensnared you and pulled you in. Once trapped, you couldn’t escape even if armed with a sharp knife. The thick and fibrous petals and leaves resisted punctures and tears.
Death Lilys moved fast for a plant, hissing a warning a second before they grabbed their victims. Once you were caught, it pricked you with two barbs and injected its toxin. One of three things happened next. You die, and it feeds off your flesh, spitting your bones out when it’s finished. Or you don’t die, it spits you out, and you suffer horribly, dying later. Then there are the very few who don’t die at all and become healers. Like me.
On the opposite side, Peace Lilys wouldn’t capture a person or bother anyone. As far as I know, Flea and I were the only people they’d taken. And here was another irony—Tohon used Peace Lily serum to create his dead soldiers. The serum preserved the dead body in a fake life so they didn’t decompose. His magic did the rest, but I still hadn’t figured out how.
“Stay away from that one.” I pointed to the Lily farthest southwest. “That’s the Death Lily.”
“How can you tell?” Quain asked. “They all look the same.”
“Death Lilys have a faint odor of anise when you get closer, and Peace Lilys smell like vanilla. If you smell anise, then you’re within range of its vines.”
“Oh, so anise will be the last thing you smell before you’re plant food. Good to know.” Quain backed up a step.
“Now what?” Loren asked.
“I’ll see if any will open for me.” When I had returned to the Peace Lily that held Flea’s body, it had bent down and deposited him onto the ground. Perhaps one of these would drop Kerrick. Every fiber of my being hoped so.
Please be here.
I approached the closest and waited. Please be here.
Nothing happened. Not a twitch of a vine nor a rustle of a petal.
After a few minutes, I moved to the next. Please be here.
And the next. Please.
And the next. Be.
And the last. Here!
The Peace Lilys ignored me. “Please?” I said to it, hoping it would take me and explain as one had after it had refused my sister. I’d gotten the impression that the Peace Lilys were all one being with each flower an extension of it, like fingers. Same with the Death Lilys, but with another being at its core.
Still nothing.
Loren gestured to the flowers. “What’s going on?”
Crushing disappointment and grief, but no need to state the obvious. “I’ll see if I can find out.” I walked over to the Death Lily.
“Uh, Avry,” Quain said. “Are you sure that’s a good—”
A loud hissing drowned out the rest of his words. In a flash, white petals surrounded me, blocking all light and noise. In the darkness, two barbs pricked my upper arms and the toxin flowed into me like a soothing elixir. Escaping my pain-filled body, my consciousness floated free and I connected with the thoughts and contented feelings of the Lily.
Welcome back. A surge of pride. More? Thinking I wanted its toxin sacks, it showed me a mental picture of another cluster of Lilys nearby.
No, thank you. I formed a picture of Kerrick in my mind. Seen him?
A flood of images hit me. Kerrick running through the woods, hunting, walking with Belen, Flea,
