I took one of the vines. “Okay, then. Let’s try this. Remember—just one berry. We want ‘fantastically ill,’ not dead.”

We went around and carefully placed a berry under each man’s tongue. It was a little gross but not much weirder than half the things I did on a daily basis. Part of me had kind of hoped for a miraculous transformation the instant the mistletoe was placed, but it was obvious this enchantment was still a ways from being broken.

“We should keep talking to them,” I told Jasmine and Keeli. “Do either of you know anything about Alistir? Like his personal life?”

“He’s in love,” said Keeli, expression softening. “With a girl back in the Oak Land. She loves him too, but her father doesn’t approve. That’s why he joined the king’s guard—to prove himself.”

“Movie quality,” I murmured. “Can you go talk to him? Remind him of all he’s got?”

She did, and Jasmine went on to Pagiel. I decided to repeat my pattern and start with Rurik again, hoping that Shaya and Davin would have more impact with the mistletoe. The other women and I rotated through the men, each hoping we might think of something that would be the key to unlocking this spell. Neither Keeli nor Jasmine would talk to Kiyo, however. That was all on me.

The sky was turning red when we finally called a dinner break. The three of us were exhausted mentally and physically. We’d lost a day here in the Mimosa Land, but that was nothing compared to the fact that none of our efforts had yielded any results. The men sat there, unchanged. There’d been no time to search for other food, so dinner was simply more fruit.

“I’ll call Volusian soon and see what else we should do,” I said, biting into a papaya. “Maybe we have to replenish the mistletoe or something.” It sounded lame, even to me, but I didn’t know what other options we had.

“I hope those dryads come back,” growled Jasmine. “After I make them fix all of this, I’m going to rip their hair out and wreck their pretty little bitch faces.” Jasmine had even gone as far to unravel some of her braids while riding to and from the Yew Land. They’d been bound tightly, though, and her haphazard efforts had left her hair looking pretty ratty. I appreciated the zealous initiative, though. Both Keeli and I had been too busy to bother with our hair.

“I doubt they’ll be back,” I said. “They did what they intended. Got revenge on men and took out strangers to their land at the same time.”