Page 105 - Fourth Wing

weapon in the growing arsenal that nine nights of sneaking out has given

me. This was exactly the reason I brought the book of poisons with me.
Challenges start next week, and I need every possible advantage.

Spotting the boulder I’ve used as a landmark for the past five years, I

count the trees on the riverbank. “One, two, three,” I whisper, spotting the
exact oak I’ll need. Its branches spread wide and high, some even daring to

reach out over the river. Lucky for me, the lowest is easily climbable, even

more so with the grass oddly trampled underneath.
A twinge of pain shoots up through my shoulder as I slip my right arm

out of the sling and begin to climb by moonlight and memory. The pain

quickly fades to an ache, just like it has every evening while Rhiannon has
been kicking my ass on the mat. Hopefully tomorrow Nolon will let me out

of the annoying sling for good.
The fonilee vine looks deceptively like ivy as it winds up the trunk, but

I’ve scaled this particular tree enough times to know this is the one. I’ve

just never had to climb the damn thing in a cloak before. It’s a pain in my
ass. The fabric catches on almost every branch as I move upward, slowly

and steadily, climbing past the wide branch where I used to spend hours
reading.

“Shit!” My foot slips on the bark and my heart stutters for a heartbeat

while my feet find better holds. This would be so much easier during the
day, but I can’t risk being caught.

Bark scrapes my palms as I climb higher. The tips of the vine leaves are

white at this height, barely visible in the mottled moonlight through the
canopy, but I grin as I find exactly what I’ve been searching for.

“There you are.” The purple berries are a gorgeous, unripe lavender.

Perfect. Digging my fingernails into the branch above me, I manage to keep
from wobbling long enough to retrieve an empty vial in my satchel and

uncork it with my teeth. Then I pluck just enough berries off the vine to fill
the glass and shove the stopper back in. Between these, the mushrooms I’ve