“Here.”
She found him lying nearly twenty feet away. The ground around him cushioned his blow, but the sharp grasses had slashed at his jacket, tearing the fabric. His hands and face trickled blood where the blades had attacked, making him look as if he had just survived some great battle.
“Can you stand?” she asked. Moving seemed to make her hearing seem better, the ringing fading slowly.
“I think—” he started. “Eris!”
She felt the surge of energy just as he said her name, instinctively knowing what was coming. Thunder followed, the explosion loud in her ears, shaking her. Her breathing became heavy. In that instant, she knew lightning came straight for them.
Without thinking, she raised one hand to the sky while touching the other to the ground. The earth thrummed against her hand, matching the residual ringing in her ears. She pulled on the energy she felt and pushed back against the sky.
Sharp blades of the grass squeezed in her fist and she closed her eyes, waiting for certain death. Lightning crashed down as a shock running through her body.
And then the energy fizzled around her, exploding in a blue light visible through closed eyelids.
Eris opened her eyes. The grasses near where she knelt had been singed and pressed flat in a circle around her. Otherwise, there was no other sign of damage.
Terran looked up at her. “That last one came straight for me.”
“What happened?”
He frowned. “You don’t know?”
Eris shook her head. She had acted on instinct, something compelling her to draw through the power of the ground.
“You pushed the lightning away.” Terran shoved himself off the ground with a grunt. Once on his feet, he tottered slightly as if he might fall. “Still wonder whether you can be a keeper?”
Without thinking about what she had been doing, Eris had managed to use the power of the plains, to call upon the stored energy to protect them. How could she doubt what she was? Whatever had happened in the forest had forged a connection in her, letting her draw on the power of the trees. Whether it was the dream or the stored memories buried in the roots of the forest, she could not deny it.
Somehow she could access the power just as Lira did.
“We need to get moving,” she said. Now was not the time to question what she was, what she could do. They needed to get away from the magi. And then they could try to free Lira.
Terran took a step and nearly collapsed. He winced, grabbing his leg. “My ankle.”
Both knew they didn’t have time to waste. Already, the storm regained strength. Wind whipped around them and thunder rumbled. Rain spitting from the clouds stung her face.
There would be another attack soon. Or worse, the magi would reach them. Eris didn’t think her fledgling knowledge would be of much use then.
She knelt next to Terran and pulled up the leg of his pants. He wore heavy boots, but the leather was cracked and wet, staining through to his pants. Not just wet, she realized, noting the stickiness. Blood.
Working carefully, she removed his boot and sock. Terran bit back a soft cry as she pulled the boot from his foot. Terran’s ankle was bent at an awkward angle. A piece of bone stuck out, piercing the skin. Blood dribbled from the wound. Eris knew what this type of injury meant. She had seen some of her father’s men come home with broken bones of this type. Most lost the limb.
“How bad?” Terran asked.
She shook her head. “Broken.”
Thunder rolled again, distant but moving closer, the loud explosions shaking her each time. Lightning flickered in the sky, but no additional streaks shot toward them. Would she be able to deflect another blast? She had no idea what she’d done to stop the first. Touching the ground had pulled energy through her. If they could reach the protection of the trees, she suspected they would be safe. But with his ankle as it was, she doubted they would reach the trees before the magi reached them.
Terran bent around her and looked down at his foot. He let out a soft slow breath and closed his eyes. Through the pain on his face, she saw flickering emotions. Finally, he opened his eyes. “Leave me here. Get to the forest. You’ll be safe there.”
She shook her head. “No, Terran, we will both reach the forest.”
Thunder punctuated her words. Terran glanced up at the sky, but somehow Eris knew they weren’t attacked—at least not yet. The last time energy built before the strike. She would know when the magi struck.
“You need to reach safety. Find a way to rescue the mistress. She will know what to do.”
“It’s not just about Lira.”
“What then?”
Eris didn’t know. The magi wanted to destroy the forest, but it was more than that. Power. “The Conclave plans to take the throne.”
They needed to free Lira to ensure her family was protected. Without Lira, they would be helpless against the Conclave.
“That’s why you must leave me here. It doesn’t matter if they capture me. I can’t help the magi penetrate the protections of the forest. But you can. As a keeper—even untrained as you are—”
Terran stopped himself. “You must have great potential to be able to protect us as you have, but if the magi capture you and discover what you can do…” He shook his head. “You’ll be as helpless as Lira. Probably more so. You’re right. You need to find a way to free her. She’s the only one who will know how to stop the magi.”
“I can’t just leave you here,” Eris said. If only there was something to splint his leg, hold it steady so that he could stand and try to walk, but out on the plain there was nothing but the painful needlegrass.
She looked over toward the forest. The dark edge of the trees seemed both tantalizingly close and far away at the same time. Even uninjured, she didn’t think they could reach the trees in time.
“You know you must,” he said.
That he was right did not make her feel better. If they were in the trees, they would be safer. More than that, Eris had felt the power of the forest. A part of her suspected she could even use that power if needed. But on the Verilain Plains?
“Was there a keeper here?” she asked.
A bright surge of light exploded in the sky. Thunder followed.
Eris glanced back. Lanterns bobbed above the grasses. They were still far enough away, but they moved closer. Soon they would reach them.
“Eris,” Terran urged. The tone in his voice was clear. “You need to get to the trees before the magi get much closer.”
“Was there?” she asked, ignoring him. The magi were still far enough away for her to get her answer. Eris looked around, eyes scanning the long grasses of the plains. Occasional copses of trees dotted the plains. The lightning made small shadows stretch atop the grasses. She felt things moving through the blades, the distant sense of life, but it was vague and not distinct, nothing like what she felt in the forest.
Terran sighed. “For something like this, there must have been a keeper.” He looked at her, his eyes pleading. “Please, Eris, leave me here.”
Eris wondered if the Verilain Plains had much the same power as the forest. It was certainly vast enough. Already she had managed to focus its energy to block the blast of lightning—could she use it for more?
She needed a better connection to the grasses than she had.
Eris took off her boots. Then she peeled off her socks. Her feet sunk into the hard ground.
Immediately she felt the connection, deeper and differently. Closing her eyes, she rested her hand flat on the ground. Her palm cupped one of the bent and damaged grasses. Damaged, but not dead. Life flowed through the blade of grass, connected to the ground where its roots stretched deep, spreading out, connecting to the other grasses and weaving together. Different but similar to what she felt within the forest. Not nearly as deep. There was no sense of permanence as in the forest—the grasses already prepared for the cold of winter and their dormancy—but there was strength here just as in the forest.
&nb
sp; Eris delved into the roots.
She did not know what it was that she did, only that she followed the stream of life she felt within the grass, tracing it into the ground and below, chasing the thin tendrils as they twisted from one blade of grass to the next. Where the forest seemed this vast power that was very much alive, its roots storing the memories of the keeper who had guided their growth, the grasses were more indistinct.
Would they allow her to use their power?
Eris felt the question go out from her and spread across and throughout the roots. A soft breeze fluttered her hair, and like a sigh, she thought she heard the answer.
With this deeper connection made, she could tell where the magi trampled through the grasses. Unlike in the forest, the awareness remained vague. She was too far away to do anything to stop them…but she could slow their progress.
Sending out the question, she waited for the response.
The wind kicked up, suddenly stronger, pulling the grasses upright around them. The rain blew harder and swirled around them. The grasses stood tall, pulled proud and strong around the magi, the blades of their leaves sharp and cutting, slicing through the clothing and flesh of the magi as they passed through. Blood dripped from hundreds of wounds, watering the ground, and the needlegrass of the plains seemed to sigh in contentment. Their progress was slowed to a crawl as they struggled against grasses now fighting their way.
And then the magi stopped.
Eris did not need to wait to know what would happen next.
Overhead, thunder began to rumble more steadily. Lightning flashed angrily in the sky. Streaks shot down but dissipated before reaching the ground, fizzling out with flashes of blue and orange light. Still the grasses stood tall, pushing against the magi.
Already the stored energy of the plains strained against the violence of the magi. How much longer could the grass withstand? How much power was stored within their shallow roots?
“What did you do?” Terran asked.
She shook her head. “Slowed them, I think.”
He smiled, the lopsided expression she had seen so often on his face in the garden returning. “Angered them is more likely.”
“I don’t know how long it will hold,” Eris admitted.
“Now they will know you are here.”
She shook her head. “Not me. Just that there is another keeper.”
Terran frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
“Adrick would not suspect it was me. He will think there is another keeper. It’s why they fear the north, I think.”
Terran nodded. “When the gardens were destroyed, my grandfather said many went north. The south was too dangerous. The Conclave had already claimed Saffra. But the north was free.”
“So, they’ll fear another keeper has come to help Lira. Maybe they’ll think it’s the same keeper for the Svanth Forest and blame it as his reason for failing before.”
“But there is not a keeper of the forest. There hasn’t been for years.”
“Would the Conclave know that?”
He shook his head. “I am not sure what they know about the keepers. You probably know more than I do about the magi.”
Eris looked across the plain toward the lanterns, wishing she was anywhere but standing stranded out on the open plains, the magi pressing toward her filled with their angry violence while Lira was trapped in iron shackles that she could not escape from.
“Why does iron prevent her from using her powers?” she asked Terran.
He shook his head. “Another question I can’t answer. I know little about the power of the keepers, Eris. I can tell you much about the gardeners, can list the names of gardeners who’ve lived over the last few hundred years, have learned names of plants I haven’t seen. But what the keepers do is different.”
Were she able to somehow help Lira, to free her from the irons, she wondered if together they might be able to do more than simply escape the magi. Out here upon the plains, so near the power of the forest, could they stop the conclave entirely?
Not while Terran was injured.
She looked over to him, the way his face twisted in pain, and wished there was something she could do, something more than simply leaving him while she ran off to try and rescue Lira.
The magi struggled against the grasses, moving slowly but steadily toward them. Given enough time, the magi would reach them—would reach Terran—and without getting him up, there was little she could do to stop it. She felt them moving, having abandoned an attack on her for now, though the angry clouds overhead and the steady flashes of lightning told her they still tried.
Eris crouched next to Terran and took his broken ankle in her hands. If she could somehow do something…anything…they could move back toward the forest and figure out a way to reach Lira.
“What are you doing?” Terran asked.
He tried to pull away, but she held tightly to his injured foot. With the pain he must be feeling, he didn’t fight against her very hard.
“Relax,” she said.
“Eris—you don’t know what you’re doing. I said I don’t know much about the keepers, but I know there are limits to their powers. You need whatever power you can salvage to save the mistress. Save Lira.”
“I’m not going to let them have you.”
With one hand on his ankle and the other touching the ground beneath him, she reached for the connection she had felt before, the thread of life working through the blade of grass. When she touched it, she pushed down along it, reaching out her awareness to the vast expanse of the roots, before finally sending her request. Heal him.
Eris waited, hopeful. The plains had seemed to try and help when she sent her last request, but this time she felt nothing. Emptiness.
Had the energy of the plains been wasted already?
Again she tried, sending out a desperate request. Heal him.
There was no sense of energy, no healing surge. No answer.
Thunder rumbled again. Eris opened her eyes and looked over to Terran. “I’m sorry…”
Terran reached across his legs and took her hand. There was warmth in his hand, and he held hers gently. “You need to go. Do what you can to save Lira.” He swallowed, his deep brown eyes threatening to overwhelm her. “And if you can’t, promise me that you will run to the palace. Don’t do anything foolish.”
Eris glared at him.
Terran just squeezed her hand. “Thank you for trying.”
When he let go of her hand, it felt like a goodbye.
Eris stood, wiping a soft tear that came to her eyes. She took a deep breath, wanting to say something more to Terran, but there was nothing more she could say.
Leaving him here on the plains felt like a betrayal. Even if the magi did not find him, his ankle was injured and damaged enough that infection would set in. Without a healer—and possibly even with one—infection would likely to spread to his blood, leaving him just as dead as if the magi caught him.
“I’ll come back for you,” she said.
He nodded. The grim look on his face told her that he didn’t think she would reach him in time.
Eris started away from him, running toward the trees. Tears streamed from her eyes, anger starting to work through her at the fact that she was forced to leave him. Through the distant connection to the grasses, she sent another request. Protect him.
She thought she heard the grasses sigh in response.
Chapter 28
Eris hurried through the grasses. The tall needlegrass bent away from her, creating a pathway for her to move. It never opened up more than a few steps in front of her, keeping her concealed as she moved. She ran toward the trees. The power of the forest would be able to protect her from the magi. The magi feared it, knew there were protective enchantments in place to keep the forest—truly a garden no different than what Lira grew in the palace—safe. The Conclave had failed to break its barriers, but this time had a different plan. Eris could reach it, might even be able to use the power sto
red there, but it would do nothing to free Lira.
She stopped and looked around. Dark clouds smeared the sky. Lightning flickered within the clouds, and occasional streaks shot toward the grassy plains, falling short before they struck. Thunder rolled around her. Away from the forest, deeper in the plains, the small lanterns moved as tiny lights in the distance.
Thankfully, they moved away from where she had left Terran. Eris could felt his presence, knew where he lay, broken and injured on the plains, grasses pulled tight around him in a protective circle. At least she did not have to fear them finding him.
But Eris felt afraid for a different reason, one separate from what could still happen to Terran. When the magi reached the forest, they would be able to break through the barriers. With Lira captured, nothing would stop them from working their destructive magic. Then, the barrier that was the Svanth Forest, the one garden that had held the magi at bay when others failed, would fall.
Had Lira been more willing to teach her, she would already know what she needed to do to protect the forest.
How much of this could have been avoided had Lira simply explained to her what she was? Eris might not have been captured, she might have been able to help Lira protect the palace, had she known she had the potential to be a keeper.
And how long had Lira known? Long enough to summon Terran. He had been working in the gardens with Nels for…months? Could Lira have explained things to her, helped her reach her potential faster?
Eris could not shake the sense that Lira had not even wanted to teach her. She preferred sending her away, back into the garden to wander, always searching for flowers, to the point where Eris feared Lira was a traitor. And when Eris finally found one that seemed to suit her, Lira still had been unwilling to work with her.
Unlike her sisters. They had been allowed to learn from Lira. Were they keepers, or did she simply share her knowledge with them because the queen asked it of her?
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 22