The night passed in a blur as she ran. Energy pulled from the surrounding grasses and trees buoyed her, filling her with energy so that she nearly glowed. Eris didn’t question what or how it happened, simply letting it fill her.
The sun began to rise, spreading like a smear of grey across the distance. The Svanth Forest.
Her forest.
She might not be the keeper of the forest, but the teary star was hers. Whatever else, she knew she’d bonded with the flower. She would learn how to be the keeper needed.
Eris would give Lira no choice. She would teach what she needed. And Lira needed to know about Ferisa and the priestesses. More than any other, that was reason enough for her to return.
And then Terran was still in the city. Did he worry about her?
So she had to return to Eliara. This time, she knew the risk to her.
And once she reached Eliara, she would get Lira to teach her enough to push back the magi.
If only she made it in time.
Chapter 47
As soon as she entered the Svanth Forest, Eris knew something was wrong.
Along the northern fringe, the trees spruces and maples grew. The massive svanths only grew toward the center, not along the periphery. She passed between a pair of maple saplings that she sensed had mites crawling all over them, burrowing into the leaves. She shivered.
The air was different. Bitter and almost warm, nothing like the soft earthy scent she had grown accustomed to during her months in the forest. Eris didn’t know what had changed, but something had.
She paused long enough to send a surge of energy through the trees to push back the mites. When the trees were older, they would naturally resist infection like that, but they were still young and susceptible to rot. It was something she should have done long ago, when she felt the hint of this at the edge of the forest, but she’d been too busy trying to delve the roots and learn what she could from the forest to do anything to help these trees.
With the surge of energy, the trees pushed back the mites. Energy flowed through them, filling their leaves. The trees seemed to sigh and then stretch.
Eris nodded, pleased with the response. But if she wasn’t a keeper of trees, should she even be attempting to heal the them? Did the forest resent the intrusion?
More questions for Lira, if she would ever answer.
Being within the trees, the awareness of everything around her returned, filling her. She knew where the squirrels jumped from branch to branch, carrying nuts and burying them for the coming winter. Birds perched on trees, gently bending the small branches before they took off. A herd of hogs crashed through brush too far from her to hear, though she sensed their location easily. A tree lion prowled over the hogs, waiting and watching.
But the sense of the other creature was missing.
Eris had grown so accustomed to feeling its strange presence prowling the woods that she practically ignored it. As much as it bothered Terran, she recognized from her connection to the forest that it wouldn’t harm her so long as she stayed out of its hunting path. Only now she no longer sensed it.
What did it mean that it was gone? Did it have anything to do with the change in the way the forest felt?
She hurried through the forest. She needed to return to Eliara, but before she did, she needed to reach the heart of the forest. If she could delve the roots—at least reach along the path of the teary star vine—maybe she could learn something that might help.
Fatigue washed over her. She’d borrowed from the grasses as she’d made her way south, but now that she reached the forest, she had little energy remaining. And the forest wouldn’t lend her any. Eris stumbled through the trees making more noise than usual and scaring away the life that had been nearby. At least the trees didn’t work to keep her from the heart.
Eventually, she recognized trees around her, though didn’t really need to. The forest granted her enough recognition so that she knew where she was.
When she reached the heart, she collapsed, falling forward with exhaustion.
She lay looking up at the svanth trees, at the teary star vines curling around them, and struggled to keep her eyes open. She needed time to delve into the forest, to learn what she needed. To discover what she was to do. Instead, she drifted to sleep.
* * *
Eris blinked against the bright light overhead. It took a moment to register that something was off. She had been in the heart of the Svanth, but light never reached the floor there. Now, shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy. A small breeze blew through the upper branches, bending them slightly. Birds chirped deeper in the forest.
She sat up, fearing she’d somehow traveled again.
The trees were familiar svanth trees, but not the ones she expected in the Svanth Forest. These were younger, tall, and still impressive, but not the towering old growth she was accustomed to seeing.
The sense of the forest still filled her.
Eris frowned and looked around. The trees felt the same. Only to her eyes did they appear different.
Something moved across the forest, drawing her attention.
Eris turned. A tall man of a muscular build approached. He had a familiar face, rugged and handsome. Black hair was cut close. He wore a thick shirt of green wool and simple black trousers. A long-bladed knife hung at his side. He smiled when he saw her.
“Mistress,” he said in greeting.
Eris nodded. “You have returned earlier than expected, Heath.”
The words were not her own.
A part of Eris suddenly understood. A vision, much like the one she’d experienced her first night in the forest. She had no control over it then, either.
“And you have been busy. I see new growth around the fringes, and the trees here reach even higher than before.”
She sighed. “If only I could grow trees such as these, but that is not my gift.”
Heath frowned. “You are the keeper.”
She smiled sadly. “But not the Keeper. There is a difference, I think.”
“I don’t understand. Did the trees not call you to serve? Did you not bond to this place?”
Eris nodded. “The bond is there. It grants me awareness, but it is incomplete, I think.” She shrugged. “I still haven’t learned the secrets of the first keeper.”
Heath nodded. “All say she was skilled.”
“More skilled than I, I’m afraid.”
Heath’s eyes widened. “But you are the greatest keeper of our generation!”
“And yet, only a generation. Think of what my life means to the forest. The trees were here when I was born, and they will be here when I am gone. To the trees, I am but one generation of many.” She smiled and sighed as she looked around the forest. “I am only here to serve, to offer what I may, and grow my garden as best as I can.” She took a step toward the svanth tree and touched the bark. Barbs pierced her hand as they did each time she touched. So different than any other svanth she knew, if only she learned the secret, she might be able to see the saplings along the edge grow. Instead, she planted elms and maples, feeding their life force as they took root, mingling their lives with the life of the forest.
“Many wish you would come out of the forest, Mistress. You could lead the keepers, teach what you have learned—”
She shook her head. “I haven’t learned enough yet to share. There are secrets hidden here; I sense that clearly. Only when I learn the secrets of the first keeper will I leave my garden. Until then, there is simply too much to learn.”
If only she knew how. The forest granted awareness to her, a great sense of the life surging around her, but nothing more. She had but to close her eyes and she recognized where even the smallest insect crawled along the trunks. And the forest itself—other than the towering svanth trees—listened to her, trusted her with its safety, bending to her willingly. Gaining that trust had taken time, but she’d been diligent in her plantings, careful to help grow the forest. The saplings grew quickly, fed by the str
ength the rest of the forest lent, and she guided. All but the svanth.
She would learn the secret.
More than that secret, she sensed a deep well of power hidden beneath the trees. That power fed these trees, but she couldn’t understand how or for what purpose. The first keeper would have known—that must be the reason she planted here in the first place—and weaved an explanation into the roots, but one she hadn’t managed to read.
“Mistress…you know I will do as you instruct.”
She smiled. “Heath, you have been everything I hoped for in a gardener.”
“Only a gardener?”
He took a step toward her, and she was aware of his scent, the earthiness of the gardeners. Heath slipped his arms around her, and she ached, missing his touch since he’d left her weeks ago. His mouth cupped hers, and she welcomed it, kissing him back with all the strength she possessed.
When he pulled back, she smiled. “Never only a gardener,” she whispered.
Heath touched her hair, smoothing it back, as he laid her onto the ground.
Eris shifted, uncomfortable in the dream, and then slipped back into sleep.
The trees were taller. Not as tall as they would become, but impressive nonetheless. She sighed, inhaling the fragrance of the forest, a mixture of the sweet and bitter of the teary star, finally blooming again, as it mingled with the woody odor of the bark and the crispness of fallen leaves. The sun pierced the upper leaves, and light reflected off the surface, twisting toward the forest floor, streaming through motes of dust and hovering insects.
“Mistress.”
Heath spoke with a hint of sadness, and she turned.
“Would you come from the forest, Mistress? I cannot continue like this.”
She shook her head. “I still haven’t learned what I came here to learn.”
He sighed and nodded. Silver streaked at his temples, and his eyes wore the years as tension twisting at the corners, leaving weathered lines. Once muscular and hale, he no longer strained against the jacket he wore. His back carried an arch to it, as if he’d been straining against some great weight.
“Will more time change what you can learn?”
“I can sense it, Heath. It is there…almost as if I can touch it. I can’t go before I know.”
“The others need you. With the war to the south…”
She shook her head. “The others have never needed me. And the war is a temporary thing. Nothing they cannot handle.”
He took a step toward her, touching her lightly on the arm. His hand was still strong, and her skin tingled beneath his touch. How long had it been since she’d let him touch her like that? How long had it been since she’d devoted every waking moment trying to learn the secrets she knew were hidden in the depths of the forest, the secret to that hidden store of power?
“I need you,” he breathed. “I have always needed you.”
She tried to turn away, but he wouldn’t let her. He pulled her into him, crushing her against his chest, and she rested her head there, breathing in his familiar scent.
“You are the only one who’s ever said that,” she whispered against him.
He shook his head. “The others need you, too. They need your guidance, your wisdom, and your strength. They know they must prepare, but do not understand why.”
“And you think I know why they must prepare?”
He pushed away from her and looked down at her face, his hands gripping her shoulders. “I have seen your face as you reach through the roots. There is something there that bothers you. Why won’t you share, let me take some of the burden off you?”
She did turn away then, hiding her face from him as tears streamed from her eyes. How to explain what she’d seen written in the roots like a prophecy? How to tell him that she’d seen the destruction of the keepers? Or that there was nothing she could do?
How to tell him the forest itself might be to blame?
“It is my burden, Heath. I am the keeper.”
His hands remained on her shoulders for a moment before falling away. He loomed at her back, as if waiting for her to say more. When she didn’t, he started away.
“Will it take another generation for you to realize you need help?” he asked.
She turned. He stood at the edge of the towering svanth trees, keeping a respectful distance from the barbs that tore at his clothes when he went too near. She’d learned to weave carefully around the trees, moving so she didn’t bump against them. In time, she hoped to learn to caress the tree as she’d seen in the visions stored in the roots, but that was a lesson she spent little time on, not when there were other more important lessons stored here.
“Perhaps in another generation they will no longer ask,” she said.
Heath looked at her, his mouth frozen in a tight expression. She saw through it, read the disappointment touching his eyes, and hated what she needed to do. If only he understood. If only he could see what she saw, then he might understand why she stayed here. The story would come to her in time. Now more than ever she felt certain of that.
His head bowed slightly. “Is there time for that?”
She sighed. Heath understood the stakes and pressured her anyway. “It’s there, Heath. The answer is there. I only have to reach for it…”
He turned away and left her standing alone in the forest.
Eris shifted again, rising out of her sleep momentarily before drifting deeply again.
The forest hummed around her, a steady rise and fall, the chorus of insects chirping and birds singing mixing into the steady sounds of the forest. Trees rose overhead. For a moment, the shadows felt wrong, but then she remembered she’d moved away from the heart of the forest years ago. The svanth trees were not hers to grow; she understood that now. Any of the others would grow, nurtured by her touch, but not the svanth. They strained against her until she finally had to concede she was not meant to be their keeper.
What did that mean for her otherwise?
She still had not learned what she’d come to learn. The forest held secrets, some so complex she couldn’t imagine anyone ever knowing what the first keeper had known, the way she had foretold the future, predicting even her presence. When she’d seen that, she knew to move away from the heart. The trees had tolerated her, but she did not belong, not like the first keeper.
And she would not be the last. She had known for years her time was growing short. Heath stopped visiting until even he passed, now buried outside the forest. Without him, she’d lost touch with the other keepers, but they did not need her, not really. What did she know about flowers and arrangements? She understood the way the sun draped over the trees, the tallest straining for more light. She understood how the rains dripped through the leaves, coating the forest with blankets of moisture. She understood the relentless march of seasons, spring growth turning to the steadiness of summer and on to fall with all its bright colors. Even the quibbles of man were nothing against the pressures of time.
How many seasons had she been here now?
Too many to count.
How many without Heath? Without his steadying touch and words of wisdom?
She sighed, her breath coming out in a shudder. She might not survive this fall, but perhaps that was for the best. The forest demanded a new keeper, youth and strength that could push the boundaries in ways she could not. Perhaps the new keeper would better understand the stories held within the roots. Perhaps the new keeper would be able to change the future she finally glimpsed in the roots.
She paused, looking at a tiny shoot straining from the soil and glanced up. The light coming through overhead had been just enough for the sapling to take root. Any other place, and it would have failed. She smiled. Seeing such growth—such life—gave her hope.
Had only Heath managed to live long enough, he might have seen this, too.
Near the edge of the forest, a hint of disease crept toward the trees. With a surge of energy, she healed the trees. The forest sighed in response. She mi
ght not have mastered the svanth trees, but she still served the forest. Another keeper would come, greater than she, but not for many years. Until then, she would serve as best as she could.
The svanth trees didn’t need her anyway. Tapped into some greater strength, they pushed out with an energy she didn’t fully understand. And after all the years she’d lived beneath the trees, she no longer needed to understand. That wasn’t her role.
Her role was as a place mark. A keeper to tend this garden until the next keeper would come. One who would understand the deeper secrets hidden deep beneath the earth. A keeper who might be able to halt the darkness she glimpsed along the roots.
And, after all this time, perhaps that was all the answer she needed.
She sighed and turned back toward the heart of the forest, away from the edges, missing Heath as she did so many days since his passing. Soon enough they would be joined together again. Until then, she would serve as the forest needed.
She paused at another tree and diverted a flow of energy through it, strengthening it, pushing out the blight pressing up through the roots. This was her struggle. Without her, blight and disease might take over the forest, destroying the work of the first keeper.
The trees sighed again in response, pleased with her work.
She nodded and moved on.
Chapter 48
Eris awoke slowly, blinking against the tendrils of light shimmering through the leaves overhead. She stared at the trees, wondering if this was another dream—a vision like the others—before realizing that it was not. Cold air pressed against her skin. She pulled the green cloak borrowed from Imryll tight around her, but it was not enough. If only she had as much control as Imryll, she might be able to have the warmth of a fire as company.
Tucking her knees beneath her, she sat motionless. The forest moved around her, a gentle current of life. She didn’t have to close her eyes to understand, simply breathed it in, savoring the taste damp earth and leaves, and listened to the steady susurrus of insects in the trees.
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