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“You may have noticed the red grass. That was my doing. I’m a bit of an herbalist at heart.” She gestured overhead, and only then did Iseris really notice the many bunches of herbs and plants that hung on strings from beams around the room. “Which reminds me. I have an energy tonic for you. If you’ll trust me enough to take it.” Selis’s wry smile made Iseris wonder if Jav had argued about the same thing, or if the woman just read Iseris—correctly—as the not-so-trusting type.
“What’s in it?”
“A little of this, a little of that. Sage, peppermint, rosemary, and a few special ingredients you’ve likely never heard of before.”
Iseris hesitated a moment longer before nodding. “Tell us more about the grass.”
Selis spoke as she moved to the hearth and ladled from a small pot there, one of several. “It’s a hybrid I worked to create, combining other plants over time, until I was able to create one that most humans have a strong reaction to. It causes a fever, lessening of inhibitions, mild hallucinations in some, and, most importantly, lethargy. It’s not so different from your average fermented beverage, but its effects come from the pollen and plant dust that’s inhaled.”
“So… Alekur can’t make it through?” Iseris asked.
“How do you make it through, then?” Jav added. “It doesn’t seem to affect you.”
“Someone determined enough could make it through. If it weren’t for your wounds, you were managing pretty well. So I won’t say he can’t. But it will slow him down. I personally have worked my way up to having an immunity against the effects.” She smiled, holding out the drink. “But my fever grass has protected my little cottage here from most interlopers. Few are truly determined. No one is really looking for me. Not anymore, anyway. Instead, they’d prefer my cottage and I stay lost, I think. Now. Drink.”
“Why would they want you to stay lost?” she asked, before taking a sip. Herbal chaos assaulted her senses, too much to make sense of it all.
“Because I’m a keeper of ancient knowledge. And the truth. And because of the shrines.”
“Shrines?” Jav said.
She turned toward him. “You didn’t see the pillars on the hill to the north?”
“I was looking out for signs of the prince and his men.”
“An admirable excuse. But that’s enough talk for now. Iseris should rest.”
She couldn’t really argue. Her eyes were already drifting closed.
The next morning, Jav woke at the first rays of dawn. He sat up from the pile of furs he’d made his bed with near the fire and ran a hand over his face.
Iseris was still sleeping, her face peaceful and perfect in the pale dawn light. He watched her for a while. Her breathing was slow and steady, nothing abnormal. It made him nervous to fully trust Selis, but they’d had no choice by this point. As far as he could tell, Iseris was on the mend. Or at least resting well.
One arm was tossed over her head, the blankets tucked under her chin. Black curls sprawled across the pillow behind her. A warmth came over him when it occurred to him that as much as he’d always wished he could touch her hair, maybe someday he just might.
What would come next, though? Impossible to predict. He barely understood where they were, let alone their options. Attempting to predict Alekur’s next move would be utterly futile.
Coming this far had seemed impossible, too, though. He was starting to have a feeling that whatever was coming next might be something he couldn’t even begin to predict—or fathom. Maybe Nefrana had some special purpose for the two of them.
Or maybe he was right full of himself.
Selis was also still sleeping. He rose as quietly as he could, pulled his cloak over his shoulders, and slipped out. The first step to understanding their options would be to understand where they even were—and where they could go from here.
Selis’s cottage was positioned on a little hill, the gardens around it very beautiful and carefully tended even while dormant in the snow. He circled it once, ears open for signs of their pursuers, eyes searching the fresh snow on the hills for signs that anyone had made it through the grasses and found them. He saw nothing.
Selis hadn’t hinted at it exactly, but he suspected the grass was not just a plant she’d cultivated to produce the desired effect on humans, but one that she infused with magic too. How else could grass grow like that in the middle of a forest in the winter?
Here around her cottage, the land all looked fairly natural, though. Nothing red. He felt no strange effects, which was nice considering Alekur’s mead and the grass combined had been a double whammy on his system. Sleep had helped. Mostly.
Circling around again, he was surprised to find there was a small shrine to Nefrana on the northern hill behind the cottage. Here, the hills rose in fits and starts, higher than down near the city and palace. It wasn’t quite the mountains yet, but the tree-covered hillside went far up.
Yet at the small rise in the land above her cottage, a circle of white stone pillars stood. These must be the pillars she’d mentioned. Stone crowned the pillars in what looked like a wreath of wheat grasses, woven together—but carved from the stone.
He stood looking at them for a long time, his breath puffing in big clouds in the cold air. Why was this here? Who had made it? Who’d had such skill and yet hidden it away in the mountains rather than down in the city? Did the king and queen even know this was here? The temple? How could they not know?
And if they did know, that would mean the grass hadn’t always existed. That would make sense, as Selis said she’d created it. So there must have been a time before this was the Fevered Wood. When people had worshiped at this temple? Selis wasn’t that old. Plenty of priests would have been older or her contemporaries. How could they just forget about it?
Or stop mentioning it?
