The Hidden Mark

Hiding Place

There is an art to poison not often discussed, and that is timing. Only a master can properly dose and administer for effective onset. One must take into account the mass of the individual as well as the method of delivery.

-Effective Uses of Wild and Cultivated Herbs by Captain Lawrence Medina

"Damn it" The peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by female voice in a cloak, stumbling in the waist-high grass growing between the river and the oaks I was crouched in.

Watching the cloaked figure move closer to my tree, I slowly slip quietly higher into the dense set of branches so they can't see me. I can hear her muttering, "One, two, three," before stopping under my oak tree and looking up.

"Violet?" I call out to her, "What the fuck are you doing out after curfew?"

She jumps two feet in the air looking around for me, "Aelin? Where are you?"

I carefully creep out from my hiding spot, just enough for her to see me, without moving to much so she wouldn't notice I had been hurt. Once she sees me, she slips her right arm out of the sling and starts to climb using the moonlight. Her face is obviously in pain, but it quickly fades as she continues up, just like every other time she has climbed this tree in our childhood after Nolon mended her. Hopefully tomorrow Nolon will let her out of the sling for good. I watch as the cloak she is wearing catches on most of the branches while climbing slowly and steadily.

"Shit!" Voilet calls out. I watch as her foot slips on the bark and my heart stutters for a heartbeat as she takes a moment to find her feet a better hold. Bark scrapes my back painfully as I move down to meet her at the poisonous berries.

"There you are." Violet comments as she digs her fingernails into the branch above us, while i keep her stable long enough for her to retrieve an empty vial and uncork it with her teeth. She then plucks just enough berries off the vine to fill the glass and shove the stopper back in.

"Are you talking about me or the berries, Vi?" I joke, knowing she didn't think she would see me again today.

"Oh hush up Aelin. What are you doing out here anyway?" Violet teases back.

"You know me, I just needed to get some time away from all the people who would kill me in my sleep if I gave them the chance," I shrug it off and stick out my tongue at her. "Did you only need the berries or are you collecting for the whole year, poisoner?"

Violet makes an uncomfortable, flushed face, "Well... I may have picked up some of the mushrooms down by the river and a few other things along the way..."

I shake my head at her, "Who do you plan on poisoning Vi?"

Violet starts to get uncomfortable and starts to slowly climb back down the tree without answering when I notice some movement and stop her. We move above the berries back into the thicker foliage as two new figures in black cloaks - clearly, I missed the memo about tonight's disguise choice - walk under the protection of the tree. The smaller one, with the limp, leans back against the lowest limb, removing her hood to reveal a half-shaven head of pink hair that we know all too well...

Imogen, the one who almost ripped Violets arm off earlier today. The one who's leg I broke after, that explains the limp at least.

My stomach tightens, then knots as the second rider slips off his own hood to show the most beautiful and deadly man, I have ever had the misfortune of meeting.

Xaden Riorson.

Oh shit.

There is maybe fifteen feet between us and nothing - and no one - out here to stop him from killing us. I look to Violet and see the fear in her eyes and notice the white knuckles she has from gripping the branch above us so hard.