“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding,” he noted, pointing toward the streak of maroon on the wood of the flowerbed.
Eris shook her head. “It’s nothing. An old injury. I must have scraped my hand as I was looking at the flowers.” She glanced to see what flowers she’d stopped in front of.
Pink langines and purple brightnams. Perfect, she decided.
“They are lovely,” he said, sweeping off his hat and tilting his head slightly as if just remembering to bow before her. “Some might find them a bit bland.”
Eris looked at him, meeting his soft brown eyes, and furrowed her brow as she stared. His eyes widened, and he bowed more deeply.
“I meant no disrespect, my lady,” he started.
Eris could tell from his tone that he was trying not to smile. It made it very hard for her to hold onto her stern expression.
“Only that from what I’ve seen draw your attention in the past, it seems you don’t care for the bland and the common.”
“And what do you know of what I’ve looked at in the past?” she demanded.
The assistant gardener stood. Traces of his lopsided smile still tilted his mouth. “Only that you seem to be drawn mostly to more interesting flowers. Especially like the one you showed me the other day…”
Eris thought about it for a moment. “What happened to the flower bed?” The question had been plaguing her since she first showed Nels the teary star. Did it have something to do with Lira? Had she hidden it from her because she didn’t want to teach her?
“The flower bed, my lady?”
“The one I was holding when you were staring up my skirts as I climbed down the ladder?”
He tried to avert his gaze, but just like the first time he was too late. His face flushed a bright red. “I don’t remember any flower bed, my lady.”
Eris sighed, shaking her head. Likely as not, he had been so focused on getting her down from the wall he had not minded she carried something with her. She remembered placing the box along the wall, thinking one of the gardeners would simply replace it atop its ledge. She didn’t know who was more surprised when she found that it was missing. Nels seemed distressed that she played some kind of joke on him, pointing to the hopis vine growing along the wall. Eris was simply shocked the box with the teary star had gone missing.
Now, she had nothing but the slowly drying flower to remember. Much longer, and she would be left with nothing.
“Do you help care for the flowerbeds along the wall?” she asked.
He nodded quickly. At least chastising him seemed to remind him she was a princess, even if she didn’t always act like Jasi.
“Do all the beds contain hopis vine?”
“Hopis,” he said, correcting her pronunciation, saying the word more like ‘hope’.
As she glared at him, she realized she acted more like Jasi than she intended. All she wanted was to get information, not make him cower from her. She softened her gaze.
The gardener shrugged, twisting his hat in his hands much like Nels did. The green jacket he wore today seemed a better fit than the one she’d seen on him the day they first met. Dirt still stained his face, smeared further across his brow as he wiped his arm across his head.
“Hopis,” she repeated. “Do they all grow hopis vines?”
He shrugged. “I think most of them do. Master Nels only wanted decorative plants along the walls, and the hopis can creep along the stone.”
“Aren’t all of these plants decorative?”
The gardener’s face changed, losing some of the softness. “Are they?” he asked. “This many flowers seems more than simple decoration. They are quite beautiful, of course, but the master of flowers had a specific pattern she wanted Master Nels to achieve. It seems more than simple decoration.”
Eris thought about what she had overheard. Adrick had accused Lira of storing power in the garden. That must be how she did it, but Eris had never heard of such a thing.
“Is that not what you are learning? My lady?” he added hastily.
Eris had learned nothing. And maybe it was for the best. Especially if what her sisters were learning could be used against the kingdom.
Suddenly, Lira’s annoyance at the arrangement with Saffra made more sense. If Lira worked on behalf of the north, did she try and sway her sisters, too? Now that Jasi was soon to leave, would she do the same to her?
He watched her carefully. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Eris shook her head. “No offense. I don’t truly know what I’m learning.” She laughed. “How to wander the garden. How not to choose flowers. How to get stuck on the wall.”
He smiled. “There aren’t many who wander the garden quite so well as you. I don’t know about how you choose flowers, but from what I’ve seen, you have interesting taste. And about the wall…” His face bloomed red again, and he looked away. He managed to get himself under control fairly rapidly and looked back at her. “Is there a particular reason you ask about the hopis?”
“They are not all hopis,” she said, shaking her head.
The assistant gardener watched her for a moment. “Well, it is a large garden. Certainly the largest I have ever seen. It is entirely possible there are places along the wall where other plants can thrive.”
Thinking of what she’d read in the library, she asked, “Are there many plants that thrive in the shade?”
He looked around, cupping his hand over his eyes as he looked over the garden. “Most of the garden is in direct sunlight. The flowers Master Nels and the Master of Flowers choose prefer bright sunlight.” He looked back down to her, wiping his arm across his forehead. “Though there are some strains preferring the shade and shadows we keep along the perimeter of the wall.”
“Any others from Svanth?” She started toward the wall, hoping he would follow.
“Others?”
She shook her head slightly. She had not imagined the teary star vine. The flower she kept carefully protected in her pocket was proof of that. “Any from the Svanth Forest?” she asked. If Lira was some sort of flower mage, was she using the garden here? Maybe that was why Lira refused to teach her—she didn’t know if Eris could be trusted yet. But what did that say about her sisters? Her mother?
Her looked at her with a helpless smile and shrugged. “I’m just an apprentice. I know there are flowers native to the Svanth region, but have not learned enough about them. Master Nels has tried to grow what few we have received, but has failed. Even if they sprout, they do not survive for long.”
It was the same thing Nels had told her. “Something about the soil,” she said.
But the gardener shook his head. “Not the soil. At least, not only the soil,” he started. “Several of our plants were transported in pots full of fresh Svanth soil, some even fully grown. Even they eventually fail.” He shook his head again. “No. There is something else.” He smiled ruefully. “Maybe they do not care for the weather or perhaps there is too much sun? I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t really know.”
Eris wondered about this as they neared the wall, wondering if Adrick had anything to do with the failure of plants native to Svanth being able to grow in the garden. What had he said? Something about attempting to poison the garden in the past?
She sighed. There was more going on than she understood.
Eris made her way to where long shadows stretched nearly a dozen paces from the wall. The air was cooler too, smelling more damp and earthy than it did farther from the wall. The heavy aromas off the flowers were more muted here, mixing more deeply with the earthen scent. The effect was pleasing.
Eris looked along the wall, staring at smooth stone set carefully together. Vines of the green hopis grew and stretched along the wall. Thin tendrils—creepers she thought Nels called them—worked their way up the stone. She wandered around the perimeter of the garden, occasionally reaching out a hand and touching the vines, as she paused to look at a flower or an arrangement.
; The colors of the flowers in the bed, particularly here along the outside of the garden, here where the shade held the longest, were bright. Each bed had flowers of a single color, but the beds alternated colors, slowly slipping from pink to purple to blue then orange. Eris had never quite noticed it before. The flowers in the center of the garden where the sun shone more brightly didn’t seem arranged quite the same way.
“Who set the pattern for these flowers?” she asked the gardener.
He had been following her, keeping a respectably distance behind her. When she paused, he moved to stand next to her and pulled at the sleeves of his green coat uncomfortably. “Master Nels is responsible for all the flowers of the garden.”
“But you mentioned he does so at the guidance of Lira?”
The gardener nodded. “The Mistress of Flowers makes suggestions. There are certain flowers she states grow better together or look better in particular arrangements. I don’t claim to have the same eye for detail she does, but I can’t deny her suggestions always grow better when placed where she recommends.” He scanned the nearest flowerbeds with an appraising eye. “I could almost imagine she would have made an excellent gardener were she so inclined. So many from Varden have that talent.”
Lira was from Varden? That didn’t seem right, did it?
More than that, Eris couldn’t imagine prim and proper Lira scrubbing along in the dirt, hands and face stained with soil like Nels and his gardeners so often appeared. Lira always looked so composed. There was an air of elegance about her that even Eris’ mother appreciated.
Thinking of Lira like that made it seem unlikely she could be working against the kingdom. It made no sense.
“I suppose to do what she does, she would need to know what grows well together,” Eris suggested.
She continued wandering around the outskirts of the garden. Hopis appeared to grow in each box as the gardener said. Intrigued by how Lira had arranged the color, she looked for a pattern to the rows of beds where various flowers grew, with all of the same color bunched together.
The path between the beds twisted and snaked, almost like a vine creeping along the ground. Occasionally, the path simply ended and she needed to turn back, looking for another path to follow.
There was a certain familiarity to the way the garden was arranged in the shadows near the palace wall, but Eris couldn’t place it. She hated that her sisters might be better equipped to identify the pattern, especially as they spent so much time studying arrangements and the hidden language of the flowers.
“Is there anything particular you would like to see, my lady?”
Wandering through the garden reminded her of the freedom she’d felt for the last few months. The freedom to simply exist, no demands on her time, certainly nothing like she had before her mother assigned her to work with Lira. Then her life had been more regimented, scheduled with all sorts of classes on how to be a proper lady. Everything changed when Lira assumed their lessons. Eris managed to ignore lessons on politics and sewing and dancing, focusing instead on Lira’s assignments. Eventually, even this time would be gone. She’d be expected to follow Jasi’s example.
The smell of the flowers soothed her. Birds chirped nearby, a reassuring sound. Around her were the carefree movements of bees darting from flower to flower, other insects crawling along stalks toward the petals. Eris enjoyed the sense of vibrancy, of life, all around her not bound to the confines of the palace and the restrictions placed upon her by birth.
There were other ways to learn, she decided. Things which could not be found in books, at least not easily. There would be time enough to sit gossiping with her sisters.
“I would like to see the most unusual flower you can think of,” she told the gardener.
He frowned for a moment, and the lopsided smile returned to his face. An eager light burned in his eyes. “There are many unusual flowers in this garden. It’s one of the benefits of having a master of flowers so well versed in the various strains.”
“Well?” she asked.
He crushed his hat between his hands. “How unusual would you like me to get? I know many flowers. Master Nels gave me a stack of books.” He demonstrated with his hand how the stack would tower over his head. “And some of the flowers are quite strange.”
Eris couldn’t help herself and laughed. “As much as you can.”
His smile spread. “I am Terran, by the way. My lady,” he hurriedly added. He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly, seemingly annoyed that he continually forgot the honorarium.
Eris smiled. “Seeing as how you’ve seen more of me than most, you can call me Eris.”
Terran’s face flushed again, but he shrugged it off and waved her forward. “Come, my lady, be prepared to be impressed.”
Terran led her away from the wall, back into the brighter sunlight where the air changed as they passed out of the shadows, growing warmer and lighter. Eris glanced back, thinking she had missed something, a hint of Lira’s design just visible as she turned.
As she looked at the flowers, she lost whatever she might have recognized.
Terran waited for her, a curious expression on his tanned face, and smiled again when she started after him.
Chapter 8
Over the next week, Eris had mostly forgotten about the overheard conversation in the garden. If there was some power struggle between the magi and the mistress of flowers, Eris wanted no part of it. And Adrick already had the attention of her father while Lira clearly had her mother’s ear. It seemed to Eris that such a balance might be beneficial. And perhaps they might all leave her alone.
“You look distracted.”
Eris turned and saw Terran watching her. He wore his hat pulled down over his ears. Streaks of dirt stained his cheeks and shifted when he smiled, giving her that lopsided smile he always wore.
“Not distracted. Not like the others, at least.”
“Your sister?”
Eris nodded.
“The preparations seem to be going well enough,” Terran commented. “At least, Master Nels says so. Had we only the flowers from Baylan…”
“What happened?”
Terran shook his head as he took off his hat and wiped it across his face. This only served to smear the dirt deeper into his skin. “Not sure. Shipment damaged. None of the plants we’d been expecting made it. If not for the wedding planning, Master Nels would be much more irritable. At least with that he has to focus on providing the flowers the mistress requires.”
“Where’s Baylan?”
“Baylan is to the south and far east.”
“Near Saffra?” Eris asked.
Terran shook his head. “Saffra is fairly isolated. From what I know, it’s mostly desert. Baylan is not quite as far south and borders the sea.” He smiled. “I hear it rains most days there. The plants that grow there are said to be quite exotic.”
“But they didn’t make the journey.”
Terran shook his head. “Not intact.”
Eris started through the garden. Terran followed behind her, keeping a careful distance. She found she didn’t mind his company. He always made a point to remain proper with her, but only when he remembered. How much of that had to do with how he’d found her the first time they’d met? Probably not much. Terran didn’t seem to fit at the palace quite yet. Sort of like her.
“What do you have to show me today?” she asked him.
A wide smile crossed his face. “What do you want to see?”
“Impress me.”
He laughed. “I will do what I can, my lady.”
He grabbed her arm and started down a path Eris rarely traveled. She wondered how it must look for one of the gardeners to hold onto her wrist as if she were nothing more than a commoner, before deciding she didn’t care.
Terran stopped in front of long row of twisting yellow flowers with large central pistils pressing out and surrounded by stamens almost as large. She leaned forward and inhaled. The scent was sweet but not overwhelmingly s
o. The flowers were beautiful. She suspected Ferisa would enjoy them.
“What are they called?”
Terran touched the stem, his fingers working briefly through the dirt as he did. “These are golden ulsens. Found mostly along the rocky slopes of the Yisn Mountains. Master Nels had to carefully create soil for them. Few manage to get them to grow so successfully outside of the Yisn.”
The flowers all seemed to point away from the sun, which she found odd, angled so that they opened toward her and Terran. Perhaps that was part of how they grew. “They are lovely. But…”
“You’re not impressed.”
Eris shrugged. “They look like corinths.”
Terran frowned at her. “Corinths? Not at all. Just look at the way the petals curl at the ends with a hint of orange. The stems are much narrower than corinths. I mean, the only thing anything like corinths is the color.”
Eris started laughing and turned away just as a bright red flush came to Terran’s face.
“You weren’t serious,” he said.
Eris looked over her head and smiled. “Nope. Corinths are generally a lighter shade of yellow. They have hints of green striations along the petals as well. Even their sepals are longer, with serrations along the edge.”
Terran studied her for a moment. “I thought you said the mistress hadn’t invited you into her classes yet.”
“She hasn’t.” Eris forced away the irritation she felt at how Lira kept her away. Maybe it was a good thing she had. Whatever was happening between her and the magi, she wanted no part of it.
“If you say so.”
“What are you saying?”
Terran raised dirt stained hands as if to defend himself from her. “Only that you seem to know quite a bit about flowers for someone who hasn’t had any formal training. I don’t know that I’d have known about the serrations along the sepals if Master Nels asked.”
“If you waste enough time wandering through the garden, you begin picking things up,” she said. It wasn’t as if her time in the garden had been completely wasted. She really did study the different flowers while wandering. But that wasn’t the reason Lira had sent her to the gardens.
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