She pushed against it, taking the strength she needed from the trees. The trees gave it to her freely. Eris borrowed more, taking from the garden, the grasses, from the fields surrounding the palace, and used all it all to push against the illness.
For a moment, she thought she might succeed.
Her mother’s breathing quickened with a soft gasp, but then it faded.
Eris opened her eyes. Tears fell, running down her cheeks and dripping onto her mother’s skin, absorbing quickly there.
If only Eris had more strength. Or even her flower.
But she had a cutting. Would that make a difference?
Without considering whether it was a good idea, Eris moved to the center of the elms and dug a small hole.
“Eris?”
She ignored Terran, burrowing enough dirt to set the small svanth seed deep within. She wanted this to start deep, to establish strong roots. Let the svanth tree rise from the center of the garden. Maybe if the teary star grew here, Eris would be able to summon enough energy to help.
And if not, then the tree would rise as a memory of her mother.
“What are you doing?”
The voice didn’t sound like Terran’s, but she heard the question distantly and ignored it.
Heaping the dirt back atop the svanth seed, she pulled the energy from the elms and sent it toward the seed. It was the same as she’d done while on the Verilain Plains, but there, she’d used the energy of the plains to feed the seed. This time, she drew from everything. The elms, the garden, the grasses. Even life outside the palace. She pulled as much as she could, sending it through the svanth seed.
The svanth seed exploded from its shell.
The sapling pressed from the soil. As it did, Eris pulled the teary star vine from her pocket. She focused energy through the teary star and the svanth sapling, not splitting it as she had before. She pushed as much energy as she could draw, not caring that she took from Lira and not mindful of how it might take from the elms. The energy came easily, as if freely given.
The svanth rose quickly, drawn out of the ground by the life lent to it. The teary star vine twisted around its trunk, twining its way along. Deep within the earth, the roots of the two plants mingled as they grew and dove deeper. Eris continued to draw energy, feeding herself and the svanth, until the tree rose above her head, and then higher still, first to the peak of the palace and then higher, reaching the same height as the elms.
And then Eris shifted.
She pulled energy from the svanth and the teary star, pressed through the new connection in the roots, toward a distant thrumming of power. She drew on this, not knowing what it was, and funneled this toward her mother.
The energy washed over her, practically spilling from her pores.
Her mother gasped.
In that moment, Eris touched the sickness.
Like the miniscule organisms climbing through the trees along the border of the forest, much like the mites crawling along the leaves, the sickness worked through her mother.
This was not a natural illness.
Oily and dark, it reminded her of what the magi had done on the border with Saffra. Eris could no more leave her mother poisoned this way then she could have left the burned clearing in the Verilain Plains.
Eris pressed the energy she drew against the darkness in her mother.
With that much power, the sickness receded and then faded. For a moment, it fought back, trying to push against her, but Eris drew more, she demanded more from the svanth she had planted, and the tree listened and lent her what she needed.
Then the sickness disappeared completely, burned from her mother.
As it did, Eris fell to her knees, collapsing at the base of the massive tree she had planted. She sent one last cleansing surge of energy out, washing over Eliara.
She looked over at Terran. He stood watching, his eyes wide. Next to him were her sisters, Jasi and Desia. They looked from Eris to their mother.
Lira stood behind them.
She shook her head slightly as she watched Eris, lips pursed together in a thin line. Her hair was pulled behind her head in a tight bun, but strands fell loose around her face, as if she’d been caught in the middle of fixing it. She wore a long-sleeved dress of shimmery purple fabric worked with streaks of black through it.
Lira stepped forward. “What have you done?” Her voice came out in a whisper.
Eris blinked and pushed off the trunk of the svanth tree to stand. She kept one hand along the trunk, the barbs pulled back so as not to puncture her skin. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. “I did what I could,” she said. “I think it might be enough. You’ll have to check and see. Maybe get the healers; I think she’ll need nourishment.” Even where she stood, Eris could tell her mother still faded like a flower in a drought.
Lira looked over at Eris’s mother, her eyes narrowing for a moment as she did. There was a surge of energy, subtle and slight, and then Lira turned her attention back to her.
“She is healed.”
Eris nodded.
“But you have spent all the energy of this garden to do it. Now nothing stands between the Conclave and Errasn.”
Chapter 51
Eris sat on a wooden bench along the edge of the elms. The svanth tree she’d planted and fed rose high overhead, already stretching higher than the elms. Eris wondered if it would overwhelm the other trees or if they would manage to exist together. It hadn’t been her intent to crowd out the elms; they had stood for decades, the last remnant of a once peaceful glen of trees that had grown within the palace yard.
How had she managed to grow the svanth so tall? She didn’t fully understand what she’d done, remembering only how she’d borrowed the energy around her to feed the svanth. Much like what she’d done in the Verilain Plains. With the tree growing—with the teary star climbing along its trunk—a deep connection bloomed around her, different than she’d felt from Lira’s garden.
The garden.
She sighed as she looked around. The flowers nearest her wilted slightly, as if they’d been kept too long in the dark. All around her, the flowers were the same. In time, she suspected they would rebound, surging with renewed energy, but it would take time.
As it was, little energy remained stored in the garden.
Eris turned toward the sun and closed her eyes. Had she made a mistake in healing her mother? When she’d seen her again, languishing without Lira’s healing, she’d thought of nothing else than saving her. It was the same as she’d felt while in the forest, the same sense of urgency to cleanse the dying tree of the rot working through it. This time, she wondered if she’d been mistaken.
But how could she have done nothing for her mother?
A hand brushed her shoulder. Eris looked up, expecting to see Terran, but he’d left her to her silence. Through her connection to the garden, she felt him looming nearby, watching her from the shadows.
Jasi looked at her. Desia stood next to her.
“Thank you for what you did for Mother.”
Surprisingly, it was Desia who spoke.
Eris shifted where she sat to better see her sisters. “I did what I had to. I didn’t mean to put Errasn at risk.”
Jasi nodded.
Desia squeezed her shoulder. “Mother will live?”
Eris looked over to where she rested. Lira moved around her, hurrying from one place to another, directing the healers as she did. Their mother hadn’t woken yet, but her breathing came easier, steadier, and the waxy quality to her skin had faded.
“She needs to eat. And drink. But she will live.”
Desia looked as if she wanted to say something more before she nodded once and turned away, hurrying back to their mother.
Jasi breathed out a sigh and settled onto the bench. For a moment, she simply sat, staring with her eyes fixed straight ahead. Soft sobs came from her, and Eris looked over, touching her sister on her hand.
Jasi looked at her, tears staining her face. Her golden ha
ir flowed around her shoulders and redlined her otherwise blue eyes. She looked much like their mother. “How is it you can do this?”
Eris shook her head. “Do what?”
Jasi nodded toward the tree. “That. I’ve seen Lira’s arrangements, and Mother told me what she could do, but that?” She turned and fixed Eris with an unreadable expression. “That isn’t anything like what Mother described. Even Lira couldn’t do anything to save her. But here you plant and force a tree to grow and then heal her.”
“Not a tree,” Eris countered. “Mostly the vine. The teary star is my flower. That’s the one I chose after my months wandering the garden.”
As she said it, Eris realized it wasn’t quite right. She had forced the tree to grow, merging the teary star vine with the growing svanth tree. But if she wasn’t a keeper of trees, how had she managed it?
Jasi took her hand and smiled at her. “Thank you for being different, Eris.”
Eris swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. “Different. Always so different.” She said it mostly to herself, but Jasi squeezed her hand harder, pulling Eris’s attention to her.
“Yes, different. And if you hadn’t been different, Mother would have died.”
Eris took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “And now that I’ve helped Mother, we’re all in danger. I used too much. Now Lira can’t hold off the Conclave.”
Jasi chewed her lip as she considered. “Could you?”
“I thought I could.” That had been when she thought herself a keeper of trees, a keeper with a garden to draw from.
“What changed?”
Eris shrugged. “I don’t know that anything changed. Well, maybe my understanding about all this changed.”
Jasi laughed until it turned into a cough as she squeezed Eris’ hand. Her fingers were cold and slightly rough. “It doesn’t seem like there are too many limitations from what I can see.”
Jasi squeezed again and stood. She wiped her hands along her pale yellow dress and made her way over to their mother. Eris watched as she joined Desia. Both of her sisters leaned over their mother, speaking softly to one another as they did. Eris wished she could share the same connection to her sisters.
“You were reckless.”
She looked up to see Lira standing next to her. Her face was flat, though her pursed lips spoke of the disappointment she had with what Eris had done.
“I…I’m sorry, Lira.”
Lira opened her mouth as if to say something before sighing and closing it again. She took a seat next to Eris. “I have never seen a keeper wield so much power. That…was impressive. Do you know what you did?”
Eris shook her head. Caught up in the moment, she’d pulled on the energy stored in the trees, drawing as much as she could from everything around her. It wasn’t until she sensed the distant source of energy that she’d been able to make any difference for her mother.
“I don’t really know. I planted the tree, but what I did after that…” She shook her head. “I wish I understood all this better. I wish I knew how to make arrangements of power. Even reading the messages in the flowers would be a start.” She looked up at Lira. “I’m willing to learn, Lira. I need to learn. Can you teach me?” She asked the question tentatively, afraid of how Lira might answer.
“Eris—”
Her heart sunk as Lira said her name.
“There are many things I can teach you,” she continued.
Eris’s heart quickened.
“Things like learning how to appreciate certain arrangements or how to create messages. But you are a keeper of trees. If nothing else, this has proven it.”
She took a steadying breath. “But I’m not. I met a keeper of trees.”
Lira arched a brow.
“My abilities are nothing like hers. The trees bow to her, moving at her will. What I do…” She looked over at Lira. “I bonded a teary star,” she explained. “A flower. I’m a keeper of flowers, not of trees. That’s why the trees don’t listen to me.”
Lira surprised her. She laughed.
“You think the trees don’t listen? And that’s why you aren’t a keeper of trees?” She shook her head. “I know little about how your ability compares to what I can do. Keepers like you were rare even when the Gardens existed. But the control over your ability is different.” She smiled and turned to Eris. “Perhaps I should have explained that to you, but I thought you worked it out on your own. Flowers are transient. Some sprout every year and so set down roots, but many do not. They leave seeds, little more than memories of themselves, to grow and bloom the next season. It is different with trees. Trees reach deep into the earth, spreading their roots. You have already told me how you can read those roots. That is not a gift I possess. Few ever have. It is a trait of keepers like you. With something permanent, you must earn its trust before you can command it, if you ever can command the trees.”
Eris shook her head, thinking to what Imryll had said. “But my flower…”
Lira smiled. “I do not see a flower. I see a beautiful tree growing at the heart of my garden. A tree you placed there and grew.”
Eris looked at the svanth tree growing. Of all the plants throughout the garden, it was the only one pulsing with life. The others waited, wilted, needing sun and rain before they would be strong again. Even the elms were weakened, though not as much as the flowers. Eris sensed none of the plants resented what she had done.
But how could she be a keeper of trees? Imryll was right; she had chosen a flower to bond. “How is it that I can use the energy of your garden?” Eris asked.
Lira shook her head. “That troubles me as well. As far as I know, you shouldn’t be able to. The keepers of trees had a different set of skills than keepers of flowers. They could command great power, but they did not work with subtle strokes. That was the domain of keepers of flowers.” She nodded toward where Eris’s mother lay. “But I have seen—and felt—you manage both. The power you pulled was unlike anything I could imagine, even when Elaysia existed. But you worked it with fine skill. A keeper of trees would have destroyed your mother wielding such power. Or so I thought.”
“Has there ever been a keeper of both?”
Eris turned at Terran’s voice. He stood behind her and rested a hand on her shoulder. She took his hand.
Lira looked from Eris to Terran. One brow arched slightly, and a hint of a smile pulled at her lips. “Only the Sacred Mother knows what is possible, Terran.”
Eris looked up at him. “Why do you ask?”
“You’re the one who gave me the idea. You’ve talked about the teary star. I think Mistress Lira assumed you would be a keeper of flowers when you chose that flower.”
He looked at Lira, and she nodded.
“But then you reached the Svanth. I don’t know exactly what happened, but something was awakened in you while you were there. When I found you, I knew you were a keeper, but something was off. You didn’t act as I expected either. And then you spoke of your connection to the forest.”
Lira nodded again. “Only a keeper of trees would bind to a forest. The Council of Keepers would know more, but they have scattered, destroyed along with the Gardens.”
“I didn’t bind to the forest,” Eris said. Imryll had made that clear when she’d met with her and tried teaching her. “I bonded to the teary star. A flower.”
Terran nodded. “But it’s more than that, isn’t it? You learned the secret of the teary star. You told me how the vine grows with the svanth tree, strengthening them both.” He winked at her as he said it, his lips tightening as he clearly fought against a grin. “And now that I’ve seen it in person—seen how the vine and tree grow together—I think your gift is different than even Mistress Lira knew.”
Lira looked from Eris to the svanth tree. “It would make sense. But I don’t know that there has ever been a keeper of both flowers and trees.”
“Not only flowers and trees, though, is it?” Terran asked.
Eris shook her head. “I
can use the energy of the Verilain Plains as well.”
Lira nodded. “You said that, but have you done so recently? Since staying within the forest?”
“When I was making my way back to Eliara, I found a patch of ground the magi had burned when they last attacked. Nothing grew there. The grasses seemed as if they pulled away. It was like the area would continue to grow, becoming barren.” Eris shivered just thinking about it.
“What did you do?”
She looked over at the svanth tree. “There is now a svanth tree growing there. I coaxed the roots to circle the entire area, as if to wall it off. Maybe in time life will return.”
Lira’s eyes looked blank, as if she stared at nothing. Suddenly, she blinked, clarity returning to them. “Did it work?”
“I don’t know. I think it might with enough time. I didn’t pull as much energy as I did growing this.”
Eris had a flash of understanding. She’d had to pull more with the tree here. Without the tree growing as tall as it was, she never would have been able to heal her mother. She’d needed it to connect to the distant source of power—likely the Svanth she realized—and only then could she help her mother.
Something about the way Lira looked gave Eris pause. “What is it?”
Lira shook her head and stood from the bench.
Eris followed her. Lira hurried to the svanth tree and studied it. One hand lightly touched the thick trunk where the brownish-green teary star vine worked around the smooth bark of the svanth. She winced when the barbs caught her hand. A small bud on one of the tendrils caught her attention and she looked over at Eris.
“Can you make it bloom?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”
Lira nodded toward the tree. “Would you?”
Eris glanced at Terran, who only shrugged. Then she turned back to the tree and laid her hand on it. Barbs twisted away, flattening so as not to catch her hand. She ran her palm along the vine, delving into the teary star and the svanth. Once she had a connection, she sent a request for it to bloom.
Thin streamers of vine quickly responded, flowing away from the vine and curling together. Within moments, a thick bud formed and then bloomed into a multi-colored teary star flower.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 41