When crushed, the petals of thestalireleased a deadly poison capable of felling a small animal in mere minutes. For humans, it could take a full day or more. The moment an islander learned to crawl, they learned to identify the flower and knew to avoid it. There were only a few people on the island capable of distilling it down into a liquid poison without also killing themselves and whispered rumors said that Viyeri, the former king of Canjir, had used that poison to ascend to the throne for the short time he’d held it.
The cure for the poison had been found by pure luck hundreds of years ago and kept secret among his people. Eiri had learned it from his old friend Laire. The leaves of the flower could be boiled down into a tea that, when administered, could counteract the poison.
The only trace the toxin left behind was the scent of flowers on the victim’s breath.
As a mage who controlled water, Eiri knew he could draw out the poison. He’d never tried, but he’d been curious enough as a teenager to learn the theory after Laire developed a talent for toxins. The consistency of the poison differed from thethicker flow of blood through a person’s body, and he’d learned to tell the difference.
Steeling himself, Eiri dug as deeply as he could, but the pool of his magic remained dry. He simply had nothing left.
Fighting against the weights dragging him down, Eiri pried his hand off the bed and stroked Syrus’ cheek just once before coming to rest there.
“Come back to me, Syrus. Please. Please don’t leave me.”
His throat burned with the effort of speaking, and it felt like he’d swallowed shattered shards of glass, but he had to try. It was too late for them. He’d failed in the one thing he’d so desperately wanted to do, and all he had left was the hope that he could at least see Syrus open his eyes before the poison took him. He was weak and exhausted, but Eiri wasn’t a fool. The use of a distinctly Canjiri poison told him exactly what the plan was. They would execute him for this, and he couldn’t run anymore. These would be the last moments the two of them ever had together.
Seconds passed, then a full minute, and Eiri’s hope dwindled when Syrus remained unconscious. His head still rested on Syrus’ chest, and he could hear his breathing become labored as the poison attacked his body again.
“Eiri, please.” Ellis choked out the words on a sob. In his despair, Eiri had nearly forgotten about the other person here with him.
“He’s been poisoned.” Eiri forced himself to sit up despite the exhaustion dragging at him. This was Syrus’ only chance.
“What? How? How do we fix it? What did you just do with that water? What’s goingon, Eiri?”
Think. He needed to focus. There were precious few people who could get access to the poison created by thestaliflowers, and only two people he knew of on the mainland.One of those people was Eiri himself, and it hadn’t been him, which just left…
“Kien. Kien poisoned him.” It made too much sense. The council hadn’t sent Kien to protect him, after all. They’d sent him to keep Eiri in line and protect the alliance. When he started to deviate, to form a real attachment to Syrus, he’d put whatever plan was happening in danger.
“Kien? I’ll go get Xan and Marsen. They can find him and force him to fix this!” Ellis was already on his feet, but Eiri grabbed his hand to stop him before he could step away.
“We don’t need him, just his things. He’d be a fool to travel withstaliif he didn’t have the antidote readily available. Go get the others and search his room. It should be there.” It had to be, or Syrus was as good as dead.
“What if someone comes and finds you here with him? They’ll kill you.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take if we can save him. Go.”
Ellis hesitated, desperately scanning his brother’s face for any sign of life and seeing nothing. He nodded once, then ran back down the stairs, leaving Eiri and Syrus alone.
Without Ellis to keep up a strong front for, Eiri let himself fall forward onto the bed again. He lay with his head resting on his husband’s chest, listening to the wet rattle of fluid slowly filling his lungs again. Overhead, the clouds finally broke open, dumping a torrent of rain over the city.
Exhaustion crept into his bones, dragging his eyelids down. He was so fuckingtired.
Just as he started to give in to the darkness pulling him down, a faint groan vibrated Syrus’ chest, and Eiri fought back to consciousness in time to see the other man grimace in pain, his dark eyes slitting open.
Eiri’s hand still gripped Syrus’ and he saw the momentSyrus felt it. He blinked, waking a little more and looking down at Eiri lying on his chest.
“Eiri? What happened?”
The words were nearly incomprehensible. Syrus sounded even worse than Eiri, his throat likely dry from well over a day without water and rough from the side effects of the poison.
Speaking was nigh on impossible when his own body fought him, trying to fall into the dubious respite of unconsciousness, but Eiri’s stubbornness was legendary for a reason. He fought it, keeping his eyes locked on Syrus to remind himself just why he had to stay alert just a few moments longer.
“Poison,” he rasped out. “Someone poisoned you.Stali.”
Syrus was quiet as he processed that, and it looked like he was fighting to stay conscious just as hard as Eiri was.
“You too?” he finally asked. Eiri felt a broad hand come to rest on his back, Syrus’ thumb brushing his neck.
He shook his head once. “Tried to fix it. I need the water.” His words slurred together, and Syrus’ face went blurry in front of him, his eyes closing without his consent.
