“Thetan! Crane!” Eden yelled, falling to her knees on the stone floor of the foyer. The poison had eaten its way up her arm and into her shoulder by the time she reached the Lakehouse. All she could do was clutch futilely at the limb with her other hand. Gods, it was worse than uncomfortable, and barely moveable.

Despite the darkness and the quiet, the Lakehouse burst into organized chaos within moments. Thetan stepped out of his shadowy study first, but Eden wasn’t surprised. Their master hardly ever slept, only ever meditated. Crane was next to appear, coming up from the stone staircase to the right of where Eden was kneeling. The twins crashed noisily out of their room on the second floor and peered over the railing at her. They didn’t even bother to put shirts on.

“Oh-ho man!” Calamity shouted in glee, “You fucked up, didn’t you Eden? I can’t believe my eyes! I’ve waited so long to see this!”

“Quiet!” Thetan snapped at him, and even the loud-mouth twin knew better than to say any more.

“Eden,” Crane started softly, folding herself gracefully down onto a knee. She smelled of gentle jasmine. “You are hurt?”

Eden didn’t know whether to say yes or no in the presence of Thetan, so she just extended the poisoned hand towards Crane. The healer had to pry her fingers open for her. She couldn’t feel her hand anymore.

“Poison,” Eden gritted out. “I cut myself on the palace’s garden gate while I was climbing over.”

“Why was there poison on that?” Calm murmured from the stairs.

“Good question.”

Thetan came forward. “Eden, where is Roselle?”

The Loon closed her eyes, and bit back the guilt that flooded through her. “Back at the palace with the king. I’m sorry. I couldn’t stay. I—”

Her master cut her off by turning to the twins. “Go to the palace immediately. See that she is safe.”

Eden’s heart sank. Punished. She needed to be punished. It was a true failure – needing another member to step in for her. To do her job.

The boys hopped over the railing without another word, grabbed their cloaks – switched to the black side – and vanished into the night.

Crane inspected her hand with a practiced eye. Sniffed the wound. Asked, “How do you feel?”

“Numb,” Eden replied. “My hand, arm and shoulder feel numb.”

“Not meant to kill you then…” Crane said, flashing her an encouraging smile. “Just meant to stiffen you up. Is there any other feeling?”

“It feels cold.”

The Crane nodded and stood, drawing the sash of her silken night robe more securely around her. While Thetan was certainly the oldest, Cricket the strongest, Crane was by far the tallest in the house. Perhaps the tallest woman in the city. Eden knew Rosie was not-so-secretly displeased by that fact, and the fact that Crane’s beauty was nothing to sneeze at. If she didn’t have such a talent for botany, she could have been a formidable seductress.

There was just one problem: Crane didn’t have a devious bone in her body. She had no kill drive. She was a healer through and through.

Crane went to the cupboards and began rummaging through them. The Lakehouse didn’t have much of a kitchen; the grill they used to cook was embedded into the dinner table. Even still, her actions confused Eden. Her workshop was downstairs. That’s where all her medicinal herbs were kept. Her ointments and bandages. Everything she needed to—

Something splashed onto Eden’s hand, and her eyes whipped back up to Crane. The tanned woman stood nonchalantly; picking at her nails with one hand and dumping a bottle of what smelled suspiciously like vinegar onto Eden’s wound with the other. Instantaneously the stiffness was gone from her body, leaving only the mild stinging of the wound across her palm.

Eden flexed her fingers and pushed herself up. “Thank you.”

Crane inclined her head and popped the cork back into the now nearly empty bottle. “Any time, hun.”

“Bandage her hand,” Thetan said to Crane, turning away from them and waving over his shoulder. “Then I expect you in my study, Eden, for a full report.”

The Loon and the Crane exchanged silent looks, and there was nothing but pity in the healer’s beautiful brown eyes.

*****

“Jade…” Eden whispered. She was perched on a stone table jutting out from the wall, patiently waiting while the healer gathered the supplies and disinfectant. “I need your help with something.”

Crane turned from her shelves. The bottles and containers didn’t make any sense to Eden, but Crane was always very organized. Methodical. Everything had its place.

Even the moss and ivy that clung and clutched onto everything in the room. When she was thirteen and Crane was twenty, she had asked the healer why she allowed the greenery into her work space. It seemed – at the time – to be sheer laziness on Crane’s part. But the answer the healer gave was quite different.

“We can learn much more about healing from nature than we ever can from humans.”

From then on, even though she spent the least amount of time needing Crane’s attention, she always enjoyed the woman’s nursery and presence.

“I will help you in whatever way I can, Loon.”

Eden never doubted it. “I smelled something in the palace kitchen.”

Jade raised her brows but didn’t speak. She couldn’t. They weren’t allowed to ask about details of another member’s mission. Not until Thetan deemed the details safe. Eden didn’t wonder what Crane’s expression said though. She knew.

What was she doing in the palace kitchen?

“It seemed… very familiar. I think I might have smelled it here – perhaps in your storage closet.”

Crane pulled up her stool and began gently wiping at Eden’s hand with cool water and a cloth. There was no warm water at this time of night. The grill had been fired-down.

“What did it smell like? Can you remember?”

“Sweet,” Eden said. She looked down at her hand. Even the meager pain of the cut was quickly subsiding now. “Sickly sweet.”

“Well there are many things that smell sweet, but not usually herbs. Manufactured poisons have the most noticeable scent. The sweetness is used to disguise them.”

“Please… no more poisons tonight,” Eden grumbled.

It was very dark in the room, only a little moonlight squeezed through the tiny, barred window above the shelves but Eden made out a faint smile on Jade’s face, as if the woman was smiling to herself.

“Of all the poisons, I know of many that are sickly sweet. I could grab a few from my stock and let you inspect them yourself, if you wish.”

“Please.”

Crane finished tying off her bandage and glided away down the next flight of stairs to the storage room to gather the vials. Eden could easily hear the clinking of the small bottles as the healer rummaged through them. The Lakehouse was relatively small. Practical. You knew where everyone was when you were inside. The ground floor consisted simply of the foyer and main room where the members ate, and Thetan’s study. The downstairs belonged to Crane and Cricket – her healing room and storage closet, and his training room.

The twins shared a room on the upper floor, and she and Rosie shared the attic since it was the only place that could fit all her clothes.

Well, at least there would be one less dress now, Eden thought grimly.

Crane returned with three bottles pinned between her slender fingers. Being the healer that she was, Crane did not allow her to stick her nose right into each bottle. Instead, she spent a minute lecturing her on the importance of wafting the scent towards herself. Eden complied, hiding her mild amusement until the smell of the last bottle had her straightening.

“This is it,” she announced, fanning a little more into her face just to be sure. “Can you tell me what this is?”

“That is brambell berry,” Crane said.

“Is it poisonous?”

“If ingested in copious amounts. A small amount will induce fever, stomach aches and fatigue.”

Eden thought back to the huge pot she had discovered the smell lingering in. “And a large amount?”

Crane shook her head, blinking. “Numerous harmful effects. Likely death. They are essentially poison berries. Meant for birds – not humans.”

Eden bit at her lip, and handed the bottle back to the healer. “I hope Rosie didn’t drink any of that fruit punch.”

“I’m curious as to why this was being served at the palace,” Jade hummed, tapping down the stairs to return the bottles to their places. Eden caught the question in the statement, but didn’t comment. This was about as close to sharing mission information that the members could get – a hint of direction.

A hint of help.

Who was this poison meant for?