The rest of the anger seeped from Eris with Lira’s words. The wind suddenly died, returning to a soft breeze blowing against her back, still pressing against where the magi had tried to burn through the plains. Huge swaths of charred grasses remained, a reminder of what the magi had nearly accomplished.
Eris still felt the connection to the forest, could still call upon the energy stored there, though the connection was different than what she had managed with the grasses of the plains. The grasses seemed to welcome her commands, willingly served as she demanded, only withdrawing when the heat and flames from the magi threatened to overwhelm. The forest was different; Eris could tell demands would not work. A more subtle touch was needed, and though she had been allowed to use the energy to confront the magi, there was no guarantee such requests would be answered the next time.
Freeing herself from the ground, Eris stepped toward Lira, the grasses cushioning her feet. She knelt next to her and took her hands. Iron shackles held her wrists. A single long pin locked each side, and Eris pulled it loose, freeing Lira from the chains.
Lira looked up at her, a haunted look on her face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Eris asked.
Lira sighed, letting her breath out in a soft whisper that sent the grasses around them fluttering. “Would you have believed?” Lira asked. “Would you have truly understood had I told you?”
“You meant me to find out like this? I spent weeks wondering if you were a traitor!” Eris looked around at the plains spreading out around her, at the distant forest. Blackness met her eyes. The scent of char and smoke filled her nose and mouth.
Lira shook her head sadly. “Not like this,” she whispered. She took a deep steadying breath. “I sensed great potential in you very early, but different than any I had ever encountered. I could not unlock it. That has never been my gift. Were there still others…” She trailed off, a note of sadness creeping into her voice. “But there is only me. The others have scattered, leaving this land unprotected, the gardens destroyed. And you untrained.”
She squeezed Eris’s hand. “I am sorry I did not know how to teach you. Once, there would have been keepers for you to learn from who understood your particular skills. Mine differ from yours.” She coughed. “That is why I had you search for your flower. Finding one’s flower helps to know what type of keeper you can be.”
“And the teary star?” Eris asked.
Lira shook her head. “Unusual. I placed the vine in the garden thinking only to test it. It came with me after I planted my garden years before.” She swallowed. “I’ve never known a keeper to pair with that particular flower. It’s why you were drawn to the forest. Why you were able to use its energy. Had it not been for you, the magi would have destroyed this last great garden. Then nothing would have stopped them from taking Errasn.”
“It’s not the last,” Eris said.
Lira frowned. “Once there were dozens of gardens. The great Gardens of Elaysia. Each as different as their keepers. Now only the Svanth Forest remains.”
“Not just the Svanth,” Eris said. She did not know much about the great gardens, but what she felt upon the plain was clear. “The Verilain Plains are just as much a garden as the Svanth Forest. Different, but nearly as powerful. Without the power stored in the plains, I doubt I would have been able to withstand the magi attack.”
Lira looked around her. She touched the earth, making a shallow mark, and pushed out a soft breath, little more than a sigh, worked into the wind. She leaned forward, hand touching the ground, lightly gripping one of the blades of grass. A pained expression was written on her face.
“How did I not see this?” she said softly. “How is it you learned?”
Eris shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered. “Just like in the forest, I found I could trace along the roots. Where the forest is deep and massive, the plains are shallow but expansive.” She shrugged, unable to answer it any better than that.
Lira smiled slightly, brushing a strand of loose chestnut hair away from her head, leaving a patch of burned scalp visible. She shifted to her knees and pushed up from the ground, wiping her hands across what remained of her dress. “You speak of chasing the roots. An unusual gift, even in a keeper. Perhaps that is why I could not help you when I first recognized your gift.”
Eris shifted her feet. “I thought you didn’t want to teach me. That I was too much trouble for you. Nothing like my sisters.”
Lira laughed a rich and full laugh. “You might be trouble, Eris Taeresin, but it was not that I didn’t want to teach you, only that I couldn’t help you make the first connection. You had to do so on your own.” She held Eris’s eyes. “I had hoped you would discover your own power more easily. Only then did I think I could I teach. It is…unfortunate…the magi chose now to attack.”
Eris breathed out a soft laugh, relief that Lira had not avoided trying to teach her filling her. Distantly, she felt the pull of the forest, a quiet understanding that much of what she wanted to know could be found in the story woven into the roots of the trees.
“Can you walk?”
Lira took a few tentative steps. She wobbled, but remained upright. “I think so.”
Eris guided her forward. The needlegrass bent away from her without her even needing to be asked. Lira watched without comment for a moment.
“You don’t wish to return to the palace?” Lira asked.
“There’s something we need to do.”
She imagined Terran lying in the field, just waiting, hoping she would return, pain overwhelming him. Hopefully infection had not set in yet and he could still be saved.
Eris sensed where Terran rested in the long grasses and started toward him.
As much as she wanted to hurry, Lira moved slowly, gingerly walking through the grasses as if afraid they might slice through her flesh. Probably they had, Eris realized. She was surprised to realize she no longer feared the grasses attacking her. She sensed…respect…from the grass, drawing away so as not to injure her as she passed.
“And now?” Eris asked. “What happened to the magi?”
Lira turned and looked south. “They have gone, but not for good. The High Seat, at least, will have survived. Possibly the others. They will retreat to Saffra, rebuild their strength.”
Eris wondered what would happen when the magi attacked again. “What of me?”
Lira shook her head. “I will teach you what I can, but I am afraid not much that I know will be of use to you.”
“But you can use the power of the Svanth Forest as well!”
“Not the forest,” Lira said. “Different, I think, than you.” She looked toward the west. The sun was just starting to rise, orange light crept along the horizon, the darkness of the night fading. All traces of the dark clouds the magi brought with them had scattered. “When the magi learned of the true strength of the gardens, they attacked, destroying what had once provided a layer of protection. And when my garden was destroyed, part of me went with it,” she began, her voice soft. “The surviving keepers departed. Most went north. Only I remained, retreating into the forest, planting a new garden on the fringe where enough sunlight still came through the canopy to help my flowers grow. This garden was different than the one I lost, but over time just as powerful.”
“I don’t understand how that is different,” Eris said.
Lira smiled. “Think of your connection to the forest, Eris. Mine is a connection to the flowers I planted, a particular garden within the forest, one the forest allows to grow. Yours is…”
Eris nodded, understanding finally coming. “Mine is the entire forest.” And she realized she could feel the small garden Lira planted. Compared to the rest of the forest, the garden was tiny. “How is it that I can do this?”
“That is for you to learn,” Lira said.
Eris thought for a moment. Is that what she wanted for herself? Did she want to become a keeper? “Did you find Jasi?”
Lira nodded. “It’s how they caught me. I left the pa
lace after their initial attack. There wasn’t much left for me to work with…Nels will have it repaired quickly, but I needed a better connection.” Her eyes went distant as she looked toward the forest. “I found Jasi. Your brother, too. He was injured but will live. He took her back to the palace. They’re safe now.”
Eris sighed, relieved. Safe—at least until the magi attacked again. And now that she’d seen what the Conclave would do for power, she had no doubt the magi would try again. Jasi would ensure their father listened. And she felt relieved Jacen lived. But how had he gotten free from the magi?
Unless…
She shook away the thought. There was no way Jacen was involved in this.
“Are my sisters keepers as well?” she asked after a while.
Lira shook her head. “They don’t have the skill. They have some eye for arrangements, and there is a certain power in that. In time, they might learn to communicate using messages written in the flowers themselves, a language long guarded by the keepers and gardeners. But they will never be keepers.”
Eris closed her eyes, letting her sense of Terran lying unmoving draw her forward. For so long she had thought herself different from her sisters—and she was. She didn’t have the same interest in sewing and dancing and gossip as her sisters. But for the first time, she felt good about that difference.
“What if I choose not to use this ability? What if I don’t want to be a keeper?”
Lira only nodded, as if understanding. “Being a keeper is a difficult burden. The Conclave seeks to destroy us, fearing what we can do in their quest for power. Those keepers who remain have hidden. Like them, you may choose to ignore your abilities. As you have never developed them fully, I suspect in time they will wither. With them, so will a part of you.” Lira turned to her, a focused expression on her face. “Or you can embrace this part of yourself, know that you are part of something greater, use your abilities to protect the realm and your people.”
“Is that what you do?”
Lira sighed softly. “Not at first. At first all I wanted was revenge.” She nodded. “Yes, revenge. When my garden was lost, so too was my paired flower. No more will rivenswood bloom. Wood from which the very throne your father sits upon is now lost forever. I still feel its loss strongly.”
“I thought your flower was parisander.”
“A poor substitute, but it is all that I have.”
“You said ‘at first’.”
Lira nodded. “As the palace garden grew, as Nels helped me replace what I had lost, I began to see the beauty of the flowers once again. In time, I no longer sought revenge, but to help protect Errasn from the magi. I don’t know the motives of the Conclave, but it is not for peace.”
“They want the throne,” Eris said. But it was more than that, she suspected. They wanted to destroy everything that grew, turn Errasn into a desert like Saffra.
“And had you not stopped them, they might have gained it.”
“What now?” Eris asked.
“The Conclave isn’t defeated. But they know there is another keeper. One powerful enough to overwhelm five of their magi, including one of their greatest. They will not attack soon.”
“But they will attack again.”
Lira nodded slowly. “That is their nature.”
Eris thought about what she would do. She could return home and become the princess her father wanted. That meant marrying and becoming more like Jasi. Or she could embrace her difference, accept that she was born to be a keeper.
For so long she had not known her place in the world. Not firstborn, destined to be king like Jacen. Not desirable like Jasi and Desia, destined to unite the realm. And unlike Ferisa, she did not have the necessary faith to serve the Sacred Mother.
Before she had time to say more, they came upon Terran lying on the ground. A mound of grasses pressed down atop him, hiding him from view. Yet Eris felt him lying there, barely moving but breathing still. With a silent command, she told the grasses to move, and in less than a breath, they spread apart, splaying wide on a soft gust of wind.
Terran looked up at her. His face had gone pale and ashen. His mouth was dry, and he ran a tongue over his lips to wet them. A soft sheen of sweat covered his face. His body shook, whether in tremors or with chills, Eris knew neither was a good sign.
“You need to get…”
He trailed off when he saw Lira.
She looked at him with an expression of sadness. “I cannot heal him, Eris,” she whispered. “I am too far removed from my garden. What connection I have is weak.”
Eris could not look away from Terran. He tried to hide the terror on his face but failed.
“Terran—”
He shook his head. “You did what you could.”
But Eris knew she had not.
She knelt in front of him and again took his ankle between her hands. The skin was hot, burning against her. She resisted the urge to pull her hands away. Terran shook his head, but she ignored him.
Setting her feet in the dirt beneath her, she raced along the connection of twisting roots of the plains toward the stored energy of the forest. The energy stored in the grasses already returned even after all that she had done to use it. The grasses had been unable to do anything to help heal him, but the power stored in the Svanth Forest would not be limited.
As she reached the roots of the forest, she delved into them, pressing along the twisting pathways that raced toward the heart of the forest where the tall Svanth trees lived. An awareness of the trees filled her. Eris sent out a request. Help me.
Countless heartbeats seemed to pass as she waited.
The forest seemed to consider her request before finally releasing a surge of power through her. Eris was not sure what happened. Terran gasped.
Opening her eyes, his ankle was no longer swollen. Bone piercing his flesh had mended, the skin drawn closed as if never injured. The heat she felt in his ankle was gone. Even his color was better. He shivered, but it was nothing like before, more the tremor of someone awakening from a deep sleep.
She sent a message of thanks to the trees. A request came as an answer. Come.
Lira touched her on the arm, and Eris started, turning to face the Mistress of Flowers.
“We should return home. Your parents were safe when I left, but your father will need convincing.”
“Jasi will help. She saw what happened here.”
Eris looked over the plains, toward Eliara and the palace, where Jasi would need help recovering from what she’d been through. Likely Jacen, too. She turned to where the sun had started to creep over the top of the forest. Eris couldn’t return to the palace. Not yet. Returning meant she’d never learn what her difference meant, and she’d always wonder what could have been.
Lira looked at her then looked at the forest, and nodded. “You will return?”
“Eventually.” There was so much she could learn from the forest. Much it wanted to show her. That was part of the request. She didn’t understand the other parts but knew that, in time, she would learn.
“When you do, I will be ready to teach,” Lira said.
“I would like that.”
“Keep her safe?” Lira said, looking down at Terran.
He stood slowly, the color returning to his face. “I will.”
Eris spun, turning to Terran. “You will come with me?”
He shrugged, his lopsided smile returning. “I am a gardener.”
A wide smile turned her face, matching his. Eris wouldn’t have to be alone. Terran would come with her. More than that, she finally knew what she was meant to do. Different than her sisters, Eris now felt okay about those differences. She would never have been happy as some lord’s wife, used as a means to tie the kingdom to the north. But this?
She gazed toward the Svanth Forest as Terran took her hand. Her smile widened. The trees called her back, wanting to guide her, to teach her. This was what she was meant to do.
Eris turned to Terran. He watched her, expectan
tly. Finally, she spoke. “And I am a keeper.”
The Desolate Bond
Chapter 30
Eris Taeresin stood in the shade, massive svanth trees stretching high over her head. Thick vines curled around the trunks of the trees, their near invisible barbs sinking into the bark. The teary star flower—the flower she’d claimed as hers—last bloomed six years ago and would not bloom for another year, but its energy surged through the vines already. One hand wrapped around one of the thick vines, unafraid of the barbs, she delved through the roots of the forest and listened.
The roots had taught her much during the months she’d spent within the Svanth Forest, the only place she knew where both svanth trees and the teary star flower grew. She learned from the first keeper, from the lessons twisted into the roots as the trees grew, and felt the power locked within the great garden. From those lessons, she felt a pressing danger from the south. Already the Conclave regained strength.
But she needed to know more. Every day she spent twisting through the roots of the forest, searching for the answers to what she was from the lessons woven there by the first keeper. Eris caught glimpses, but nothing more.
“You can’t spend every day like this.”
Eris turned to see Terran standing behind her. His dark hair hung about his shoulders, not pulled back as he usually wore it. Deep brown eyes matched the serious expression on his face, and his lips pressed tightly together. Stitches held his dark green jacket together, each mark a reminder of where thorns from the forest had tried tearing it from him. He wore it now like a shield.
“I know it’s here, Terran.”
He shook his head. “I’m here. The trees and the flowers and the life around you are here.” He fixed her with a hard expression. “But you’re not here.”
She turned to him, trying to hide her surge of annoyance. “Where am I, then, if not here?”
“I don’t know. Lost somewhere.”
“I need to understand what I’m supposed to do. Why did the trees summon me here if not to learn?”
“And have you learned anything? Spending each day searching for answers—have the trees told you what you want?”
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 24