Chapter Ten: Veneno Powder

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and looked around the room. After I remembered where I was, not to mention why I was there, I realized that there was a small pile of neatly-folded clothes sitting at the edge of my bed, on top of which was a hand-written note.

“Emily—there is more clothing in the bureau directly ahead of your bed if you want them, but here are some jean shorts and a t-shirt for today,” the note read. “Please take advantage of them, as I’m sure that your own clothes are quite dirty. I am in the kitchen, which is right across from the study, preparing breakfast. Please come down when you are dressed; you’re all half-starved I’m sure.” It was signed, as I knew it would be, “Doctor Kingston.”

I sighed and pulled on the clothes, not the slightest bit self-conscious that Kaliyan was only 3 feet away; we’d grown up best friends, so she wouldn’t mind. Then I headed down the hallway, pretty sure that I’d forgotten where the study was.

My nose knew where the kitchen was, though—where the smell of bacon, eggs, sausage, and waffles was coming from—and soon I was walking through a door and into the kitchen, where Dr. Kingston and Felix were seated at a large table; Skylar was curled up in the corner, an empty plate in front of him.

Then I sat down, and smiled when Felix handed me a heaping plate of waffles and bacon—the whole thing appeared to steam, the scent wafting over and making my mouth water in anticipation.

Between the first bite and the last one, I don’t remember a thing besides that it tasted more amazing than anything I’d ever eaten before, probably helped by the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything but bananas and jerky for the past week or so.

Seconds after I’d licked my plate clean, Kaliyan stumbled into the room, clad in a pair of jean shorts and fitted celadon t-shirt that closely matched my own. “Hey,” she mumbled in greeting, her sleepy face quickly brightening at the sight—and smell—of a delicious breakfast.

I quickly loaded up a plate for her, amassed with eggs, bacon, and waffles, which she took and instantly devoured without so much as breathing. “God, that was good,” she breathed, sounding satisfied, just as Dr. Kingston cleared his throat.

“May I have your attention, please,” he called. All heads swiveled to face him as he continued, “As you all should know, I am an expert on lycanthropes and werewolves, as well as multiple other so-called ‘mythological’ species and beings. This is why I live in this secluded Amazonian spot: to preserve my materials. You wouldn’t believe how many lycans there are in America.”

Well, I would, Skylar piped up. Over half of them are my family.

Dr. Kingston smiled. “Yes, Skylar, I would expect you to. It’s peculiar, you see, the genes of a lycan; over half of them do seem to be closely related, which is extremely rare in a species…”

“What’d Skylar say?” Kaliyan asked me in a whisper, having leaned over towards me from her seat a few feet away. “I seriously can’t hear him. Isn’t that weird? I mean, I’m the telepathic one, and he’s using telepathy to communicate, so how come I can’t hear him and everyone else can?”

As I opened my mouth to answer, I noticed that Dr. Kingston had stopped talking and was looking at Kaliyan with an expression that was perplexed, dismayed, and convinced, all in one—mostly dismayed, however, which made my heart sink a little. “Doctor?” I prompted.

The doctor paused for a moment, then asked, “Well, judging from your little speech there, miss—” he pointed at Kaliyan, “—I believe that one or all of you has been infected by veneno powder, which is a supposedly mythical powder that makes an, ah, ‘gifted’ person unable to use their abilities. It works slowly, though, so your abilities would fade with time.”

I blinked. “That’s exactly what’s been happening. Kaliyan can’t hear Skylar when he sends thoughts to her—she’s telepathic—and I haven’t been able to see into the future since we got here. And, of course, Skylar’s gotten stuck in wolf form…”

“Is it curable?” Kaliyan asked; she sounded—and looked—a little panicked.

Dr. Kingston sighed. “Yes,” he said, “but…”

After a few seconds’ worth of waiting, Felix cocked his head to the side, and asked, “But what, Doctor? Nothing could be bad news if there’s a cure.” We all nodded our agreement, but Dr. Kingston shook his head wearily and sipped his coffee.

“The antidote for veneno powder is extremely rare, and is in fact part of the fruit that the powder itself comes from,” the doctor said slowly. “The only place that the fruit, fittingly called veneno, grows is already owned…and this man means it when he says that trespassers will be shot.”

All four of us gulped at the same time. “Well, could we buy some from him, or something?” Kaliyan suggested sensibly.

The doctor shook his head. “No, as I said, the veneno are extremely rare, and the man who owns the land is very protective of his plants…I suppose you could say that he treats them as if they were his own children. However, there is one way that—”

“Wait a second, if there’s only one place in the world that grows these things,” I interrupted, “then we already know who contaminated us, right?”

Dr. Kingston sighed. “No, the other person may have—”

“Where is this place?” Kaliyan asked. “We could find the guy who owns it and interrogate him, maybe get him to hand over the antidote to the powder—”

Felix nodded eagerly and started in on the interrupting streak. “The least we could do is get his motive out of him; maybe he—”

“Silence!” roared Dr. Kingston. We all quieted at once. “Look, as I’ve been trying to tell you, there is one way that you could possibly gain access to the veneno plants. This man is quite wealthy, therefore has workers, and perhaps you could disguise yourselves.”

Skylar raised his head. What about me? Do I not get to come with?

“Well, I suppose that one of the others could be blind. Emily,” he suggested, looking me, “would you like to have a guide dog for a little while?”

Kaliyan frowned, and asked, before I could answer, “Won’t he know who his workers are? He wouldn’t recognize us.”

“Good observation,” Dr. Kingston replied. “Well, I suppose that…it’s definitely not foolproof, but maybe you could go onto his property on the premise of signing up for a job there…” His eyes suddenly lit up. “And Skylar could, as your guide dog, act out for some reason and ‘run off.’ You follow him, acting sight-impaired—perhaps you’re not blind, but just can’t see very well…”

I nodded, catching on. “And, while supposedly catching up to my ‘guide dog,’ I get some veneno plants and stick them in his guide-dog-bag thing,” I added. “Perfect!”

“Wow, yeah! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” Kaliyan piped up.

Felix just nodded silently, looking thoughtful, and Skylar was grinning up at us. I’d love to play the part of a disobedient dog, he said slowly, after his grin had faded a little, but aren’t guide dogs supposed to, first off, be really well-trained, and secondly, be dogs instead of wolves?

“That’s true,” Dr. Kingston said, “but you would just be a rather large husky, and even well-trained dogs act out sometimes.”

And so our plan was ready.