I hurried forward with the athame, not entirely sure of my strategy, save that it would likely end in some dryad ass kicking. “Get away from them!” I yelled, hoping either silver or a pissed-off woman would scare them. “Leave them alone!”
The dryads scattered like a flock of birds, offering no resistance and disappearing into the trees with more merry laughter. After what Astakana had insinuated about men, I had thought there might be a fight ahead of us, as though the dryads would be busy slitting throats. All the men seemed to be alive, though, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We’d made it in time. Jasmine and Keeli soon joined me, also looking relieved.
“Well, that could have been a lot worse,” I said, putting the athame away. “I didn’t realize this would be the danger we’d face from the Mimosa residents.”
None of the men responded. None of them even looked my way. I’d assumed that, like us, they would come back to themselves once the dryads’ druglike presence was gone. Yet, all of the guys were staring off into space with dopey looks on their faces, oblivious to us and the world.
“What’s wrong with them?” asked Jasmine.
“Not sure,” I said. I hurried over to Rurik and shook his shoulder. “Hey. Wake up. Walk it off, okay?” He said and did nothing. Frustrated, I attempted to rouse the others and received similar results. Astakana’s words came back to me: We bring peace and joy and leave happy memories—at least for women. With men, we leave nothing at all.
I stared around in disbelief, clueless what to do. The men were still alive, but for all intents and purposes right now, they were dead to the world.
Chapter 16
“This is stupid,” said Jasmine. Her usual condescension was tinged with a hint of uncertainty. “You’re just not trying hard enough.” She stormed over to Pagiel. A dryad had been giving him a shirtless massage, and he lay sprawled where she’d left him. Jasmine grabbed his arm and pulled him to a sitting position. She leaned close to his ear. “Hey! Wake up!” After a little awkward struggling, she actually managed to get him to his feet. To my astonishment, he not only remained standing but also took a few steps forward.
I gaped. Jasmine had been right. I hadn’t tried hard enough. Except, Pagiel soon came to a stop. He stood where he was, still gazing off with that blank expression that saw nothing of the world. He was like a sleepwalker. Jasmine’s brief grin of triumph crumpled, and she looked at me beseechingly.
“Eugenie?”
There it was again, the idea I could fix anything. I sighed and studied our men, searching for some clue that might undo this. Noting the flowers and flower oil, I momentarily hoped removing them would do the trick. But not everyone had flower exposure. There was just something intoxicating and deadly about the dryads’ presence that created this enchantment. I’d certainly experienced it.
Out of answers, I summoned Volusian. He appeared in the shade of a magnolia tree and took in the scene at a glance.
“My mistress has been visited by dryads.”
I nearly sagged in relief. Identification had to be a good sign. “Do you know how to fix this? Can we bring them back?”
“I would think my mistress would appreciate the peace and quiet,” he said.
“Volusian! Answer the damned questions!”
His eyes narrowed—in thought or irritation, I couldn’t say. “I don’t know, mistress. Many men don’t recover from dryad magic. There are ways to combat it, but they don’t always work. Dryad victims usually starve to death or wander off of cliffs.”
“Geez,” said Jasmine. “They must really hate men.”
“What do we have to do?” I asked Volusian.
“You can start by placing mistletoe berries under their tongues. A single one will do,” he said.
I frowned. “I’m sketchy on my botany ... but isn’t mistletoe poisonous?”
“Not always fatally so,” Volusian replied. “Especially in such a minute amount. At most, they will get fantastically ill, but that hardly seems worse than their present condition.”
“‘Fantastically ill.’ What a great image,” I said. “Then what? They’re cured?”
“No. Mistletoe simply weakens the dryads’ magic—but it cannot break it. To fully pull them out of the spell, you must give them a reason to come back. The dryads weave an enchantment of perfect contentment. Most don’t want to leave that.”
I thought back to our waterside slumber party. I wouldn’t exactly say I’d been perfectly content, but I had been charmed enough by simple hairstyling to obliviously waste part of the day. If we’d felt that way from just a brush of dryad magic, what would the full force of it do?
“So ... when you say give them a reason, do you mean talk to them? Can they even hear us?” I glanced at the blank gazes around me. “It sure doesn’t seem that way.”
“If what you have to say is meaningful enough to them, they will hear it. That and the mistletoe may be able to free them of the enchantment. Much depends on the individual’s will. The weak rarely escape.”
I didn’t like the implications. “Well, this is a pretty strong group. If anyone can break free, they can. So ... we need mistletoe and a pep talk.”
Keeli stepped toward Volusian and crossed her arms. “Spirit, what kind of mistletoe is required? White?”
“That would work best,” he confirmed.
Whoa. I hadn’t even known there were multiple types. I only knew about the kind you kissed under at Christmas, which was usually plastic in my experience. “You know plants?” I asked Keeli.
“Enough to get by,” she said. “And enough to know that we’re not likely to find white mistletoe in this climate.”
“It grows in the Yew Land,” said Volusian. “And we are very close.”
“How close?” I asked, a bit startled by this news.
“Five miles down the road perhaps. At least, that’s what I observed earlier. The road may have shifted.”
“Your Majesty,” said Keeli eagerly. “Allow me to ride on ahead and find the mistletoe. I know what it looks like.”
I shook my head. “You can’t ride into enemy territory alone.”
“Yet we can’t leave them alone either.” She gestured to our slack-jawed men. “I won’t raise notice if I slip in alone.”
I considered. We needed to get the mistletoe, but she was right that we couldn’t leave the men alone. Who knew what else might come along in this land? I weighed everyone’s abilities and then came up with the best division of labor I could.
“Jasmine will go with you,” I said. “Volusian and I will stay here with the guys and try to talk some sense into them.” No matter her brave words, I couldn’t send Keeli alone, nor could I leave Jasmine alone on defense. This seemed the best option. “But I, uh, might need your help first to move them.”
Much like Pagiel, the rest of the men could be coaxed to their feet and made to walk, so long as someone was there every step of the way. We ended up taking them back to the lagoon since it was relatively sheltered and not near the road. We brought the horses and supplies next, and I was surprised to find myself sweating when all was done, thanks to the heat. It was a welcome change after the blight. Keeli and Jasmine mounted their horses and prepared to go.
“Be careful,” I warned.
“We will,” said Jasmine. She eyed the men, whom we had sat down in an almost artful arrangement near the water’s edge. “You know, this would be the perfect time to kill Kiyo.”
“What?” I exclaimed.
She shrugged. “Just throwing it out there. You know he’s going to keep being a pain in the ass. Toss him in the lake and claim he wandered in there and drowned. No one would know, and we wouldn’t tell.” Keeli nodded emphatically.
“Sorry,” I said. It was a bit alarming that I could understand their reasoning—but there was no way I could go there. “Believe me, I wish I could get rid of him. But doing it to him in this state would be as bad as what he tried to do to me.”