Terran frowned. “You need someone to teach you.”
Eris shook her head. “I’m not sure Lira plans to teach me. Or if the messages in the flowers are even Lira’s design.”
“You asked Master Nels for help finding a flower. I remember you asking me for help learning about the teary star. The Sacred Mother knows you even harassed poor old Master Billiken until he found you books to read through.”
“I didn’t harass him!”
“No? Didn’t you tell me you climbed the ladder in the library and pulled books from the shelves? I’m sure that didn’t throw him into a fit at all. After all, Master Billiken loves it when people come into his library and start undoing all his carefully done work.”
“I only did that once.”
Terran laughed and sat next to her on the bench, scooting her over. She resisted at first—if he was going to tease, he could stand for all she cared—but he was persistent. Besides, she liked the way he leaned against her and the warm reassurance of his body.
He took her hand and rested his head against the wall, sighing. “You’ve been sitting here how long?”
“Less than an hour.”
“I don’t know enough about the flowers to help you. That’s always been a keeper’s role.”
“Not always. Lira taught Jasi and Desia…” She trailed off, perking up on the bench. Maybe her sisters could help her somehow. They might not have Lira’s knowledge, but they’d been sitting through her classes. How much had they learned in the time? Enough to puzzle through the messages she’d found? Would it be enough to craft a response?
“See? Maybe I can help you.”
“You haven’t done anything.”
Terran grinned. “That’s your opinion. I like to think I guided you to the right answer.”
As he laughed again, she leaned away from him. It didn’t matter how nice it felt to have him so close. “I’m not sure my sisters will know enough anyway. If I can’t read the messages in the flowers, why would they be able to do so?”
“It doesn’t hurt to ask. Besides, you’ve barely seen them since we returned.”
“I saw Jasi.”
Terran frowned. “Not Princess Desia or Ferisa?”
“You don’t have to call them that.”
“Aren’t those their names?”
Eris thought about punching him. “Are you going to start calling me Princess Eris?”
His face turned mock serious. “If that’s what you want, my lady.”
She stepped into her slippers and stood. The disconnect from the garden left her feeling hollow.
“Where are you going?” Terran asked, grinning at her.
She put her hands on her hips as she looked back at him. “I’m going to find my sisters. And then maybe I’ll send Jacen to find you.”
She didn’t have to look back to know the smile had slipped from Terran’s face.
* * *
The great hall seemed particularly empty when Eris found Jasi and Desia. They sat together, leaning toward each other and whispering unintelligibly. Desia looked over when Eris entered. Jasi made a point not to.
Eris stood in front of them, hands clasped behind her back. After the conversation she’d had with Jasi, Eris wasn’t certain they would help.
“I heard you’d returned.”
Desia wore her hair down and in curls. Eyes the color of the sky fixed Eris with a hard stare, a reminder of the way their mother always looked at her. Like with their mother, Eris sensed the disappointment hiding behind her eyes.
“Has Jasi told you?”
Desia glanced at Jasi. “She told me enough. I’m not certain whether to believe what I’ve heard. Once I find Lira, I will ask her.”
Eris suppressed a smile. Jasi had not taken her at her word either, though Jasi had also been captured by the magi with her.
“She teaches you, still?”
Desia’s mouth twisted. “And why would she not? Because we weren’t born to this flower magic like you? I seem to remember you not having any particular talent for it.”
Eris bit back the retort that came to mind. Arguing with Desia wouldn’t do anything to get them to help her. As much as she hated it, she needed their help if she was to decipher the message Lira had worked into the flowers.
“That’s not what I meant.”
She took a deep breath and wiped her hands along her dress. The silky fabric was much nicer than what she’d worn the last few months; the only dresses Terran had managed to acquire for her were heavy cotton. They were warm during cool nights, but not as smooth as what she’d been accustomed to wearing within the palace.
Jasi looked from Eris to Desia. “Mother would not want us to argue.”
Desia shot Jasi a hard glare. “Mother is in no condition to tell us what she wants.”
Jasi looked up at Eris, a question plain in her eyes. Eris breathed out a sigh and shook her head. Desia seemed angrier than she remembered, but how could Eris blame her? Everything had changed for her, and the life she wanted was now so far away.
“There is nothing I can do. I…sense…the sickness, but don’t know enough to help.” Eris swallowed. “That’s why I returned, Desia, to learn from Lira. Only I need your help for that.”
Desia looked to Jasi and frowned. “Why would you need our help?”
“Because I think Lira wants me to get your help.”
“Is that what she told you?”
Eris shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to Lira much since my return.”
Desia shrugged. “Then I don’t want to help.”
“Desia!” Jasi breathed. “If it could help Mother…”
Desia looked up at Eris and considered her for a moment. “You think anything Eris can do will help Mother? After she left us for all this time? You might not have seen it, but I saw how hurt Mother was when Eris didn’t return. Lira didn’t say much about why she was gone, only that she was safe.” She shook her head again. “Eris has already left Errasn.”
Eris leaned forward and forced Desia to meet her gaze. They were so different, like her and Jasi, but shared the same stubborn streak. Perhaps that was why, even more than with Jasi, Eris had never really been close to Desia. “Lira knows where I’ve been. And Mother knows where I’ve been. If you will not help me learn what I need, then—”
Desia pushed to stand. “Then what? You’ll use this flower magic on me? Maybe then I’ll believe it works!”
With that, she turned and stormed from the great hall, leaving Eris and Jasi staring after her. The door closed with a solid thud.
Jasi took a shaky breath and looked up at Eris. “I’m sorry, Eris. Since Mother’s been ill…it’s been hard on us. All of us, but Desia the most. I think part of her was disappointed I returned. And then after what happened with Mother…” She sighed. “She’ll come around, I’m certain.”
Eris glanced back at the door and wondered. Desia had more anger than she’d remembered. And Jasi seemed to have less. So much had changed in the time she’d been away. She thought of Jacen, how different he seemed, the darkness in his eyes, the anger that matched what Desia seemed to have. Had Ferisa changed as well?
“You said you needed help?”
Eris blinked and turned back to Jasi, nodding. After all the years she’d spent antagonizing her sister, strange that it would be Jasi who would help her. But they’d shared an experience, the time spent trying to escape the magi as they raced through the Svanth forest. A bond had formed; Eris had felt it then. Thankfully, Jasi still did.
“The flowers,” she began. “Lira has taught you to read messages in the flowers?”
Jasi nodded. “I thought you said you’d learned the same.”
“Some. Not enough, apparently.”
Jasi frowned. “What do you mean?”
Eris took a seat on the long bench across from Jasi and rested her arms on the table. Sitting here like this brought back memories of when she’d been younger, forced to sit and eat peacefully with her sisters, a
task that never quite happened as well as their mother and her handmaidens wished. Even then, Eris had instigated trouble. And then she was sent back to her rooms to eat alone.
Maybe she was meant to be alone.
Eris looked over to the door again; back only a few days, already she created trouble with her sisters. Had Jacen seemed bothered by her return or was that only her imagination?
“I found an arrangement in the hall the other day,” she said. “A collection of thistlebuds, thulis, dyrans, and camogines. A few vipeslars.”
Jasi nodded. “Such an arrangement would be quite lovely. I imagine the dyrans and camogines complement each other quite well.” Her lips curled in a frown. “I’m not sure about the vipeslars. Not much use in such an arrangement.”
Eris decided not to disagree. In that arrangement, the vipeslars were the crucial piece for the message. At least, that had been what she’d thought. But what if she’d been wrong and there was a different message in the flowers?
“Can you think of a message that might be written with such flowers?”
Jasi tilted her head, her golden hair spilling onto her shoulder. Even with her lips pursed and eyes narrowed, she carried a regal air about her. What would she have thought of Eris had she seen her during her time in the forest, sweating and covered with dirt and leaves? What must Terran have thought, for that matter?
“There are a few messages that could be written with such flowers. Can you describe to me what you saw?”
“I will do better than that.”
Jasi looked at her, waiting.
“Let me show you the arrangements, and you can tell me what you think.”
Eris didn’t know with certainty, but she thought Jasi had an almost eager gleam to her eyes.
Chapter 39
They stood in front of the ceramic vase that was now empty. A few petals lay strewn about the floor, but nothing that gave any clue to the message. Eris looked up and down the hall, wondering if there might be another.
“Are you certain it was here?”
Eris nodded. She’d come from her room searching for Lira and had stopped when she came across the flowers. That had only been the day before, but more than enough time for Lira to move the flowers, especially if she knew Eris had already seen them. And maybe that was all part of a test.
But how would Lira have known Eris already saw the flowers?
The answer was obvious. Eris had used the energy of the flowers, had touched the flowers to sense where they’d come from. Of course Lira would know that she’d been here.
“Lira must have moved them.”
Jasi shook her head. “Lira leaves any arrangement she makes for many days.”
From what she’d seen of how Lira used the garden, the flowers placed about the palace helped focus her energy and create the protections around the palace. This arrangement might not have been for the same purpose.
“Maybe I saw it right before she changed it.”
Jasi’s expression told her that she didn’t think it likely. “You said there was another?”
Eris nodded and they hurried through the palace, stepping out the door into the garden. The sun hovered on the horizon, streaks of orange and reds mixing like celias and corinths in some massive arrangement made by the Sacred Mother. Not for the first time, she wished a message were written for Eris to read, to provide guidance on what she should do.
Terran knelt in one of the beds nearby and glanced over at her. His eyes met hers, and he nodded, pushing to stand. He hesitated before shuffling over to another box to begin work. Eris frowned at him.
Eris turned when Jasi laughed softly.
Amusement pulled her mouth into a smirk. “That’s your gardener?”
Eris frowned. “That’s Terran. Apparently he’s too busy to speak with us.” She said the last loud enough for him to hear.
“I can see why you’d run off with him.”
“I did not run off with him.”
Jasi laughed again. “Finally I’ve found something you’re sensitive about.”
Eris turned away and stared at Terran. He seemed to make a point of ignoring her, working with his back to her. If he were to remain her gardener, he would have to get comfortable around her family. That wasn’t the only reason, but the only one she’d let herself think about for now. Once she had a better understanding of what she needed to do as keeper—about what it meant to be keeper—then could she let herself consider the rest.
“Is this the other arrangement you saw?”
Eris turned. Jasi stood in front of a large vase. The flowers were the same as she’d seen before—hyanlillies and ulsens of green and yellow with the red orchids mixed within—but there seemed to be a different shape to the arrangement. Eris couldn’t be certain, but had the message changed since she’d been here before?
Why would Lira do that?
“I think so. They’re the same flowers, at least.”
Jasi stood in front of it and studied the flowers. She tipped her head from one side to another, as if moving would help her see something standing still would not. Eris took a stance next to her and looked at the arrangement. It was different, though subtly so.
“I think…yes. There is a message here but it makes no sense.”
“What do you see?”
As she asked, she recognized the message herself. Follow the Path.
“Follow. Path. There is something else, but I’m not exactly sure what it says.” She turned to Eris. “Are you certain you can’t ask Lira? She would be the best person to help decipher something like this. Especially if it’s important.”
“I don’t think that’s what she expects of me. She wants me to discover on my own.”
Jasi set her hands on her hips. “Discover on your own? And how is asking me you discovering what you need to know? Do you want to get me in trouble with Lira?”
“I don’t think she cares if I ask for help as long as it’s not from her. When I was looking for my flower, she didn’t mind Master Nels helping me. And then once I’d found it, she didn’t seem to care that I asked Master Billiken for his aid searching through his books. I spent far too long reading through books trying to find something that would help me understand the flower I’d chosen.”
And it wasn’t until she’d gone to the Svanth Forest that she really understood. Even then, she hadn’t learned all that she needed. There was still so much for her to understand, but no one willing to teach.
“She made you search through the library?” Jasi asked. “With old Master Billiken? That must have been horrid!”
Eris shrugged. The library hadn’t been so bad, but he hadn’t had anything she needed. The Feliran books were gone, likely taken by Lira. Maybe Eris should have taken the book she’d found in Lira’s rooms. Then she might have been able to work through the message in the flowers on her own.
“The library wasn’t—”
“Master Billiken must have hated having you come disrupt his day. He’s always been so dour when I was forced to go to the library. Thankfully, that wasn’t often. Most of the time, I just sent one of my handmaidens to fetch what I needed. Lira never made me spend time researching my flower, though much is known about the perisal…”
Eris turned away from her sister’s rambling. Something she’d said triggered a thought. Master Billiken hadn’t minded when she’d visited, but he had been preoccupied. The magi asked him to collect books for them, though with everything that had happened since then, Eris couldn’t think of what those books might have been.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Jasi grabbed her sleeve and pulled her around. Eris was so startled by the sudden contact that she didn’t bother resisting.
“Really, Eris, you come to me asking for help but then you can’t even be bothered to listen to the help! I don’t know why I even bothered. Maybe Desia is right.”
Eris shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jasi. Something you said reminded me of the magi.”
A wa
sh of anxiety clouded Jasi’s face. “What about the magi? Do you know something more than what Jacen brings back to us?”
“And what does Jacen bring back?”
“Only how the magi aid Saffra and attack from the border. They use their destructive magic, throwing lightning and fire at Father’s men. We’ve been lucky so far—fires haven’t spread too far across our lands, but I know Father fears that won’t last long.”
Lira’s work. With her focus split between keeping their mother alive and protecting the borders, it was amazing she managed to make time to put messages into flower arrangements. When Lira failed, the border would fall, and the magi would be able to come across unimpeded.
She shook off the thought. Worrying about the borders would have to come later. When she had more skill as keeper, she would be able to help there. For now, she needed to focus on learning whatever she could from Lira. Then she could begin to explore what other ways she could help. Maybe then she could help her mother.
Only…would it be in time?
Eris sighed. Whatever the sickness consuming her mother, she couldn’t help her until she knew enough to understand more of the intricacies of her abilities.
Follow the Path.
The message Eris could read, but not the one that had been here before. Maybe Lira knew she hadn’t been able to read the first message and made it simpler. Did that make it less likely Lira would teach her? Or was there a different reason for the altered message?
“How has she taught you to read the messages in the flowers?” Eris asked.
Jasi had been saying something but Eris hadn’t been listening. When interrupted, Jasi frowned at her. “What was that?”
“What does Lira use to teach? Are you learning from books, or does she work with you individually?”
“Individually? Lira doesn’t have time for that. She’s given us books to work through. She said they were many of the same ones she’d used when she was first learning the language of flowers.”
Eris’s heart hummed a little faster. Could she have books by Feliran? Hadn’t Jasi implied that before? “What kind of books?”
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