Fortunately, they were too absorbed in their conversation to notice him. He exhaled as quietly as he could and slid out of the tree, doing his best to avoid scraping his damaged leg. He had no idea if the poison would work the way it had on the rose, traveling throughout the entire flower until it was dead. If that was the case, then hiding wasn’t going to do him any good. But there was still a chance he might live, and if it meant getting back to his father and sisters, then he had to try.

When the pain and exhaustion proved too overwhelming, Jaren crawled through an opening in some dense hedges and sat down. He hoped he was hidden here. He needed water desperately, but he had no idea where there was a safe source on the island, so that would have to wait.

Gingerly, he peeled his trousers away from his damaged skin. The fact that he’d only been splashed on one leg was a miracle in itself. He took a deep breath, bit his lip, and looked down. It was worse than he’d feared. The poison had burned straight into his shin in several places, through the skin, muscle, and sinew, down to the bone. Fortunately, the bone itself appeared intact, although he’d have felt a lot better if he could have rinsed the wound with clean water, or better yet, alcohol. But he didn’t have anything with him, not even a waterskin.

He tore off the part of his trousers that had been soaked, just in case any more poison made its way through the fabric. He used a strip of tunic to bind the wound, although the bleeding seemed to have stopped on its own. Lars had said that when Maggie’s father died, it was because he had literally walked into the water on foot, drawn by the song coming from the island. He had been so entranced that he hadn’t even flinched as the poison began to burn off his flesh, and he had ignored the screams and shouts from his friends on the shoreline. They had never recovered any of his body.

Jaren felt a stab of guilt for laughing at the idea of magic. He owed Maggie an apology, if he ever made it out of here alive.

He didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he heard someone coming through the undergrowth. He sat up, feeling feverish and disoriented, the pain in his leg excruciating. He peeked through the bushes and saw something pale flash in the trees. He took a deep breath and willed his heartbeat to slow, though it pounded so loudly in his own ears he was sure he’d be discovered.