He shrugged, pulling off his hat and wiping it across his brow. Dirt smeared on his forehead. “Beyond what I already have?” he asked and then smiled. “Not much else, I’m afraid. I’m still an apprentice. I have a stack of books with different plants and flowers I haven’t even started learning about. I grew up near the Svanth and never saw one.”
“Then how do you know of it?”
The gardener shrugged. “My grandfather used to speak of rare plants. A hobby of his, you might say.” He glanced around before meeting her eyes again. “Perhaps Master Nels could be of more assistance?”
Eris was surprised to know gardeners had to study as much as they did. Now that he’d said it, it made sense. Nels was expected to grow and care for anything brought to him.
“And where might I find Nels?” Eris had not seen him since this assistant interrupted them earlier in the garden.
The assistant gardener smiled, balling his hat in his hands. “Check the greenhouse. Last I knew, he was preparing the beds for new arrivals from Baylan. An exotic delivery, with canubells and divanis and…” He trailed off, as if realizing he had nearly started rambling. Pulling his hat back atop his head, his smile faltered for the first time. “Apologies, my lady. You don’t need some gardener telling you all about these things.” He tipped his head again and slid back a step, eager to disappear.
She hadn’t been in the greenhouse before, just wandered past it during her searches. She nodded to the gardener and started off.
He coughed and cleared his throat. Eris turned to see him pointing down a different path than she’d been taking. “Middle of the garden. Might be hot this time of day.” He eyed her up and down and then flushed. “My lady,” he stammered.
Eris suppressed a smile. Usually it was Ferisa or Desia who had boys looking. Even Jasi, for all her practicality and the fact that she would only be married off for just the right arrangement, had her share of suitors, though they were usually neighboring lords. “I suspect I will manage just fine. Besides, maybe I’ll just roll up my dress again.”
He had already seen her perched atop the wall, but the red rushing to his face nearly made her laugh again.
The gardener started to stammer something else, but Eris strode away in the direction he’d pointed, not looking back.
She followed the paths set between the large beds, their colors less vibrant in the fading light, almost as if they settled in to rest for the night. Some were damp, the soil smelling earthy and wet, as the long pipes running throughout the garden pumped water to them. A few had markers identifying what grew in the garden, but most did not.
Eris recognized the lilies and roses of the nearest bed, having tried to select varieties as her flower. According to Lira, they were not unique enough for her. As if Jasi’s perisal was unique in any way!
A clump of trees up ahead marked the middle of the garden. Once, the ancient flowering elms were all that occupied the palace lawns. That was before the gardens, before Lira. In the half dozen years or more since she’d come to the palace, the gardens had grown into something substantial. The beauty was undeniable, but not the only reason her mother pushed to continue expanding the garden each year. The queen prized the arrangements Lira made with the flowers.
A flash of bright sunlight bounced off glass behind the nearest elm. The greenhouse.
She never came to the heart of the garden, always staying away from the elms. No real flowers grew around the trees. The greenhouse was small and squat, large panes of glass set into frames to let light in. Peering inside, rows of boxed beds like the one she had pulled off the wall lined tables and the floor. Small spaces between the boxes allowed access. Tiny buds emerged from some of the beds, just the early beginnings of new strains of flowers. Most were empty, little more than empty beds of dirt.
She didn’t see Nels inside.
Curious, Eris worked her way around the greenhouse until she found a small wooden door and pulled it open. The heat and humidity hit her first. She nearly staggered back but remembered what the assistant gardener said and pressed forward, determined not to let him be right.
Sweat immediately began running down her back. Much longer in the greenhouse, and her dress would be soaked. Eris smiled; she could just imagine her mother’s horror if she saw her standing in the greenhouse, sweat streaming off of her. Nothing ladylike about that.
She peered at the nearest bed. The barest, topmost of a green bud erupted from the damp dirt. A small sign next to the plant marked it as widow bloom. A strange name for a flower, but many had strange names.
Eris reached down, curious.
“Don’t touch that.”
She stood up quickly and turned. Nels watched her, a strange expression on his face. Sweat glistened on his dirt-stained cheeks.
“Master Nels. One of your assistants suggested I might find you here.” With the way he looked at her, as if not at all pleased she’d invaded his greenhouse, she decided on formality. “Might I ask you a question about—”
He shook his head, cutting her off as he grabbed her by the arm and shuffled her from the greenhouse. Eris didn’t even have time to be surprised at the way he treated her. Once back outside, the change in temperature came as a welcome relief.
Nels let go of her arm, and she pulled it away. A smudge of dirt remained where he had gripped her sleeve. She would have to wash it out before one of the servants reported it to her mother. No use getting Nels in trouble.
“Greenhouse has to be the right temperature, or they will all fail,” he said. “You go bustling through there, tripping over the beds, killing off all the seedlings—might as well start over.” He was gruffer and more annoyed than usual. Nothing like he had been the last time she had seen him. Now he seemed truly angered by her presence.
“I didn’t know,” she answered.
“Need to be careful with your ignorance, my lady.”
The comment sounded like an insult. “I just came to ask what you know about a flower.” She would find out what he knew, and then leave him alone. Something clearly bothered Nels today.
He glanced at the greenhouse, and then looked around the garden, shifting on his feet. “I am sorry, my lady. It is just that too many of my flowers have been failing lately. Those which should grow well are weak. Those that are difficult to grow do not even bud. In all my years…” He shook his head, letting out a sigh. “I don’t know why the garden suddenly struggles.”
“I’m sorry, Master Nels. I don’t want to disrupt your work.” If she did, she would hear of it from her mother. Probably Lira as well. “I didn’t know the garden struggled. The flowers still look so beautiful.”
“The established flowers continue to grow well. Only the newer flowers don’t grow as they should, if they make it here at all. Those from the north especially.” He shook his head, his brow furrowed. “My lady, I shouldn’t take my irritation out on you. I know you simply enjoy looking.”
She didn’t bother correcting him. She’d tried doing more than just look but had failed for as many months as she had been wandering the garden.
“You said you seek a flower?” he asked, steering her away from the greenhouse.
“A particular one.” She pulled the flower from her pocket, cradling it carefully in her palm. “Your assistant called it a teary star and said it was from the Svanth Forest.”
Nels eyed the flower carefully. He reached for it. “Where did you find it?”
Eris pulled it back, and he dropped his hand slowly. There was something about the way the master gardener looked at the flower that left her wondering if he would return it to her. Always Nels tolerated her intrusion into his space—accommodating even—but the suspicion in his eyes was new.
“Why?”
Nels shook his head. “Was it Terran you spoke to?”
She shrugged. She hadn’t gotten the assistant gardener’s name and felt a moment of shame she hadn’t bothered to ask.
“Long hair pulled back? Muscular?”
She nodded. It was what Lira would call a simplistic description.
“No teary stars here. Never heard of them growing outside the Svanth.” He looked up at her. “You said you found it in the garden?”
She straightened her back and tried to look every bit as royal as her mother managed so effortlessly. Eris was afraid she only ended up looking as foolish as Jasi. “Along the wall. There are several of those beds placed along ledges.” She pointed into the greenhouse toward where the boxes lay upon tables.
Nels frowned. “Along the ledge?” he asked.
Eris nodded.
“You must be mistaken, my lady. The beds along the wall only contain simple vines. Decorative greenery only designed to crawl along the wall and hide the stone. There are no flowers. And certainly not this one. Besides, as you may have seen, most of the flowers the mistress prefers do not tolerate the shade anyway.”
“I did not realize Lira cared which flowers you grew.”
Nels frowned. “Of course she does. Have you not noticed she has a particular taste?”
Eris did not admit she had not, looking at the flower again. Of course, now that she thought of it, there were particular colors more prevalent within the garden. “Is there something wrong with this flower?” She carefully placed the flower back into the pocket sewn into her dress.
“It appears to be quite healthy,” Nels said. “Like I said, as far as I know, teary stars have not been grown outside of the Svanth Forest. If someone has managed to grow one, I would very much like to study it.”
Eris decided to try a different tact. “How does it take on the color?” She already thought she knew the answer but wanted to see if what she suspected was the same as what Nels told her.
His brow raised briefly. “Unusual, that. From what I know, the vine grows as thin tendrils, shoots grow together into a braid.”
She nodded, remembering seeing up close as she had nearly fallen off the wall how the vine grew. One of the more unusual features of the flower. The description matched what she’d seen, making it likely this was a teary star.
Nels motioned toward the flower. “It appears each shoot is responsible for only one of the petals.”
“Are there other flowers like this one?”
“My lady,” Nels said. His expression changed, softening. An almost concerned look came into his eye. “I receive seeds and shoots from all over the realm. Most I manage to grow into the flowers you see here, even cross them with others, creating new flowers never before seen. All of this I do for your mother and the mistress.” He paused and nodded toward the flower. “I’ve never successfully managed to grow anything from the Svanth. Often they start out well enough, shoots of green and the occasional bud, but I’ve never managed to keep anything alive long enough to grow anything useful.”
“But if what your assistant says is true, then this is from the Svanth Forest.” She again pulled the flower out of her pocket.
She glanced down at the petals, fearful it had already begun to wilt. She needed to spend more time with it before the color drained from the petals and it dried out. How else would she learn what she needed? How else would she ever catch up to her sisters?
Nels nodded. “And possibly it is. But as I said, it should not be here. Few enough have even heard of a teary star let alone seen one flowering.”
Eris didn’t understand. “It was growing in one of your beds!”
“Teary star is a strange flower, my lady. Growing in the heart of the Svanth, it blooms only every seven years. Even were I to have one of the vines, many seasons would have to pass before one would flower.” He shook his head. “Besides, there is something different about the soil at the heart of the Svanth I can’t replicate. I can’t believe that flower grew here.”
Eris looked from the flower to the long, painted, wooden flowerbed boxes in the greenhouse and realized something. “Are all the boxes like those?” She pointed through the glass of the greenhouse.
“Like what?”
“Those.” She walked toward the greenhouse and moved as if to open the door.
Nels hurriedly stepped in front of her and blocked the door, a surge of protective annoyance flashing across his face she had seen earlier. “The narrow beds are all manufactured similarly. Allows ease of configuration. Their shape allows them to be set together within a larger bed if needed.”
“Or along the ledges in the wall.”
Nels tipped his head in acknowledgment.
Eris stepped back, and Nels relaxed, moving his foot away. The box the teary star grew in was different than the others, more crudely made. “Regardless of how the flower came to be on the wall, what can you tell me about it?”
“How it came to be on the wall is the better question, my lady. Not only should it not have grown, but it should not be flowering. Not unless it’s the seventh year of growth, possibly longer. I don’t know enough about the flower to say with much certainty. And I have certainly not had that vine growing here during that time.”
“What are you saying, Master Nels?”
He shook his head. “I am saying nothing, my lady. Only that I was not the one who grew the teary star. Someone else has cared for this plant.”
She didn’t ask how. Nels was responsible for the entire garden, and the vine had most definitely been growing in his garden, even if it had been along the wall. “Why would someone grow this flower without informing you?”
Nels took his hat and squeezed it between his dirty covered hands. A look of consternation darkened his face, wrinkling his brow. “My lady,” he continued. “Would you be so kind as to show me in which bed you found the teary star?”
Eris agreed. She led Nels quickly through the garden. The sun had fallen farther in the sky, leaving orange and red streaking overtop the wall. Clouds threatened overhead, growing thick and grey. Distantly, she thought she heard thunder. She stepped as quickly as possible, trading grace for speed, not wanting to get stuck out in the garden in a storm.
They reached the wall and the small ledges she’d climbed. The simple vines grew from the small boxes, only the tiniest of buds visible. “Here.”
Nels nodded at the white painted boxes. “Those are hopis vines. They will not flower, at least not well. They are decorative only.”
Eris glanced up the wall. At the top, where she had found the teary star, there was another white box. It appeared the same as the others lower down on the wall. Shoots of green draping over the edge did not twist and twine together. Not the teary star.
“Well…it was up there.”
Nels glanced from her to the ledge. “Might I ask how you reached the bed?”
Eris smiled. “You can ask.”
Nels frowned when she didn’t say anything more. “Those are also hopis.”
“I see that,” Eris said.
“My lady,” he began, “if this was your idea of humor, I will inform you I do not find it particularly funny. With the way the garden has struggled, I have many other uses for my time. There are sprouts I should be attending and seeds needing my care, especially since the shipment from Baylan—”
“It is not a trick,” Eris said, wandering down the wall to look for the narrow bed of teary star. Since she was out here again, she might as well harvest another flower to study.
She looked along the edge of the wall for the roughly made white bed she’d brought down when she climbed down the ladder. She’d left the box tucked up against the wall, thinking Nels or one of his assistant gardeners would return it to its ledge. Instead, they had placed something different.
Stranger still, was that the box was nowhere to be found. The teary star was gone.
Nels looked at her, waiting.
For once, Eris didn’t know quite what to say.
Chapter 5
Eris hurried through the palace hall. She passed white-clad servants all scurrying along, none paying her much attention. She rarely demanded attention from servants, certainly nothing like Jasi, but once in a while it might be nic
e to have them at least acknowledge her. Even Ferisa demanded more respect than Eris.
She clutched her long dress, keeping the pleats from trailing along the ground as she hurried toward the throne room. A summons from her father came rare enough that she didn’t want to keep him waiting. The timing made her a little anxious, especially after what she’d overheard a few days ago.
The last few days had been frustrating for her. In the week since she’d found her flower, she hadn’t learned anything more than what she already knew. Which was to say, nothing at all.
As she rounded the corner leading to the central part of the palace, a line of people waited outside the door. A more formal summons than she realized. Nearest her, Desia stood with her back to her. She wore a long dress of a pale yellow. Her golden hair twisted into layers held atop her head with a slender silver pin. She barely glanced over as Eris approached.
“You’re late.”
Eris suppressed a sigh as she looked at the people outside the door. Ferisa stood a few paces from them, looking radiant in her delicate yellow dress. Jasi must not have come yet, or perhaps she’d been allowed into the throne room. A few handmaidens waited alongside Desia and Ferisa.
“I only now received the summons.”
Desia sniffed. A row of pale yellow corinths were woven into her dress. The color seemed to make her glow, making her more lovely. “If you’d been in class—”
Eris glared at her. “If I’d been in class? You think I don’t want to be there with you?”
Desia turned and looked at her. Deep blue eyes so much like their mother’s frowned at her, the expression a mixture of disappointment and sadness. “You would rather waste your time wandering the garden. Don’t think the rest of us haven’t noticed. Lira might not say anything, but it’s time you hear what we think.”
“Did Jasi put you up to this?” Usually so soft-spoken, Desia wouldn’t say anything if Jasi hadn’t already mentioned it. Now it seemed they’d teamed up against her.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 4