Coleus

[ballet2nite.livejournal.com]

 

     I was rereading The Thief, and I came to the end of the battle at the side of the river and there is the Attolian Guard members dead and the Gift lost. I don't the book in my possession right now sorry I'm not sure what page it's on. And Gen says he saw a dead man soaked with water and blood I think is everywhere but one spot shaped like a coleus leaf. I saw on the Eugenides wiki, that the Eddisans call it the "Coward leaf". I the wondered what that little omen thing really meant. I thought it was a sign from the Eddisan gods, but then I remembered the man was Attolian. That made me think that the Eddisan gods were still watching over Attolia as you can see throughout the books.
     Then I thought fowards to the QoA, where Attolia remembers how she killed her first husband by poisoning him with the coleus leaves she had collected. I thought , "The coleus isn't poisonous, is it?". I have a Kong Coleus growing in the front yard. Granted, I never tried to eat it. Maybe that's why the deer never ate it, or maybe it was too close to the house. So I looked online, found the Poison Control Center's website, went under plants and learned that the coleus is indeed not poisonous. So how did Attolia's first bridegroom die? I thought maybe since the books are fantasy, there is a coleus plant that is poisonous. So please help, I'm confused.
This is not mine. I must say that they do better in the ground and in the shade. Little known fact, when there they bloom!