The Book of Trials || ONC 2019

Chapter Nine

I couldn't breath. "Poison?"

The innkeeper nodded, disbelieving of his own words, then returned to digging through shelves, shoving bottles and vases and glasses to the floor. They shattered loudly. Was he looking for medicine?

"What kind of poison?" Atlas asked, his face drained of color.

"I don't know," the innkeeper shouted.

"Come on." I pulled Atlas by the arm, my mind racing and my limbs struggling to keep up. I fumbled up to the open door of a room similar to ours and saw a figure hunched over a pot, moaning and hugging herself. Next to her were two others curled up on the ground doing much the same thing. The smell was horrible.

A little boy pushed past us into the room and dropped to a crouch next to one of the victims. I approached him, but he hardly paid me any heed.

"Do you know what the symptoms are?" I asked him softly, my heart thumping against my ribcage. It was worth a shot.

The boy glanced up at me with scared eyes and shook his head. He couldn't have been any older than thirteen.

"Will you let me see them?"

He sniffed, then nodded and scooted a few feet backward to let me through to the woman he was cradling. I stifled a sob and glanced back at Atlas, then I crouched next to the poor woman and whispered that it would be alright, even though I was quite sure of the opposite.

Her skin was red and swollen, her eyes sunken and her hands shaking so hard the rest of her body convulsed. She had dried vomit clinging to her tunic and in her hair, which hung in messy locks around her face.

She didn't even look up at me. I didn't think she was physically capable of it. Her breaths became labored suddenly and the boy thrust forward a bowl as she emptied the contents of her stomach. Atlas groaned from the doorway and I held my breath, pulling the lady's hair away from her face. This was horrible. Was it intentional? How could it be? I didn't think anyone was sadistic enough to cause this much pain to so many people.

So did the poison have a natural cause?

Eventually, I was forced to let my breath go, and instantly a wave of nausea hit me from the putrid smell. I wobbled a little bit in my place next to the woman, then something clicked in my subconscious and I lost my balance, stumbling backward onto the bottom of my nightgown and shaking my head profusely, my hands falling away from the woman.

It couldn't be...

I shot to my feet and ran from the room, brushing past Atlas and racing up the staircase to our room. My bare feet barely touched the steps beneath them before they were onto the next. I hardly noticed when I slammed my shoulder into a corner and pushed off the wall to the door. I couldn't move fast enough.

Lefeli yelped in surprise when I burst in panting, but she quickly recovered and offered help, though with what I didn't know. Evyne had been moved to the bed, where she lay with her hand on her forehead.

"Arsenic," I spat. "Everyone's been poisoned by arsenic and we have to find the source before the situation worsens."

Atlas crashed up against the doorframe, his eyes frantic and his breathing even more so. "Bloody death, chickadee, don't run so fast!"

"Don't talk like your sister," I retorted, my lip twitching at the name, and spun past him again. "We have to find out how these people got arsenic poisoning."

"What?" He followed behind me, his voice breathy between gasps.

"Arsenic smells like garlic, and I was up and close enough to know how much that woman smelled of garlic." I crinkled my nose as I crossed the last steps. "I hate your questions. Stop asking them."