“Are those strawberries?” Lana’s eyes were wide as saucers as she stared at the shrubs.
I crouched down beside one of the plants and viewed the berries. They did indeed look like strawberries, but a faint blue ring tinged the upper portion where the stem grew. “It’s a sloughberry. I recognize it from the photos in the textbook Anama showed us.”
Another pang ripped through my chest.
“Sloughberry is safe for mortal consumption,” Moric said slowly.
“In small quantities, yes. I’m just not surehowsmall, though.”
Lana groaned. “I’m starving, but the only thing that could make this situation worse than it already is would be diarrhea.”
I didn’t disagree. Maybe one would be fine, but that would not fill us anyway.
“I’ll take my chances with hunger.” Lana plopped down at the base of an oak tree, resting her head against its thick trunk.
“Me too.” Moric shook his head at the sloughberries, taking a seat beside Lana.
I still stood, hands planted on my hips despite the quavering of my thighs. My feet had gone numb in my boots long ago, so at least I didn’t have that pain to contend with. “Are we really just going to sit here and wait for something to come pick us off?” Paranoia scratched at my brain.
“It’s daytime.” Lana yawned. “We’ll rest for an hour max, and then we’ll carry on to the caves. We’ve been heading northeast for a good while now. We’ll reach the caves before nightfall.”
I gnawed on my lower lip.
“Sit, Lirah,” Moric commanded. “Nothing is chasing us. I’ll take first watch. At any sign of trouble, we’ll run.”
Nothing that weknew ofwas chasing us.
I gave him a hesitant look before finally yielding. Sitting after nearly twenty-four hours of intermittently walking and running through the forest with zero sleep or food was so blissful I nearly cried out in relief. I sank against the base of a mossy trunk, my head nestling into a crevice of soft soil and bark, not caring which insects crawled beneath, and closed my eyes.
A sharp crackle jerked me awake. My eyes snapped open, and I blinked furiously as I rose to my elbows. I stared around, wildly searching for danger and finding nothing immediately threatening.
Lana lay fast asleep. Moric – who was supposed to have woken me for my shift – snored softly. I glanced up at the sky, swearing beneath my breath. It was night. We had slept the entire day.
I crouched before Lana and Moric, shaking their shoulders gently.
Moric jolted, so startled he smacked his head against the tree trunk. “Ow!”
Lana woke more gracefully. Her eyes were wide and alert as she looked around.
“It’s okay,” I assured them. “We just overslept.”
“Is it nightfall?” Lana’s eyes shuttered in despair. “We should have listened to you earlier.”
I shook my head. “You were right to rest. I feel slightly better.”
It was an exaggeration. My stomach still ached something fierce and my legs felt stiffer than ever, but at least I no longer felt like I would collapse at any second.
“Moric?” I asked, peering at him. “You’re awfully quiet. What’s wrong?”
Moric’s gaze was fixed on his leg. On the thin gash the arrow-tailed lancer had inflicted on his thigh. It had now turned a sickly shade of green.
“Can you move it?” I asked quietly, my tone not betraying the absolute horror clutching my heart.
Moric tested the limb, drawing back his knee and straightening it. “It twinges a bit, but yeah, I can move it. The color is… alarming.”
“The arrow must contain some form of slow-acting poison.” Because it had definitely not looked like this last night. Just how slow the poison was, I did not know. And I really did not want to sit around waiting to find out.
Lana pushed to her feet and extended a hand to help Moric up. I slid an arm beneath his shoulders, propping him against me as he stood. The brunt of his weight was nearly enough to send me to the ground, but I dug my feet in the soil, my muscles screaming in protest.