Eris smiled. Other than in her dreams, she hadn’t seen one since finding it in the garden all those months ago. The last time she’d seen the teary star on a vine, she’d been forced to scale the palace wall. Terran had fetched a ladder for her to help her down.
She leaned toward the flower and inhaled deeply. The scent was as she remembered.
“What do you smell?”
Eris looked over to see Lira watching her with her hazel eyes. The question was the same one she’d asked when Eris first brought her the flower.
“It is complex,” Eris said. She noted the bitter overtones that reminded her of the thick vine of the flower itself, but it mixed with the softer texture of the bark of the svanth. “There are notes of the svanth seed. Thick and oily, but sweet as well. Much like I would expect the meat of the seed to taste.” She inhaled again, letting it fill her nostrils. “I smell hints of the elm and a mixture of other floral scents, too faint to make out. And then the crispness of a summer rain.” Eris breathed out. Inhaling the scent of the flower energized her. Had she been able to coax the teary stars to bloom all this time?
Lira leaned toward the flower and smelled. Her nose crinkled, and her brow furrowed. Thin lips pursed into a line. “I cannot appreciate all that complexity. I appreciate the earthy tones layered with a smoky texture. Perhaps an element of bay.” Lira closed her eyes and breathed in the scent from the flower again. “Your description of the seed is accurate, but without having you comment on it, I doubt I would have noted.” She smiled. “Much different than the last time you reported to me.”
“Maybe my nose has gotten better,” Eris suggested.
“I like to think you’ve gained experience.”
Eris touched the flower and pinched it off. She handed it to Lira. Lira took it gently, almost reverently. “What do you want with the teary star?”
Lira turned to her and took a deep breath, pushing the flower toward Eris. “I want to push back the Conclave.”
Eris held the flower, the power surging through it as she touched it, and wondered if the teary star was the key to her connection. Could she use the energy to halt the steady march of the Conclave?
Lira looked at her, her hazel eyes full of hope. It was then Eris realized Lira didn’t know how to stop the Conclave either.
Eris closed her eyes and pulled on the energy of the flower, letting it flow over her and fill her. For the first time, she thought she knew the secret to accessing some of the power stored within the Svanth forest.
Could Terran be right? Could she be a keeper of both flowers and trees?
It would explain why she could use the energy of Lira’s garden, but why had the svanth not responded when she tried drawing power? Except, as she thought about it, the Svanth had responded. Hadn’t that been the distant source of energy when healing her mother?
If the teary star was the secret, Eris would use it, draw energy through the flower, and do what she could to stop the magi.
Chapter 52
The svanth tree seemed to glow in the waning sunlight. Thick clouds swirled distantly and thunder rumbled. The garden waited expectantly, thirsty for rain after what Eris had done.
Her mother lay quietly, breathing steadily. Her skin no longer held the pale, waxy appearance. Now it looked nearly transparent, threaded with thin, blue veins. A sheen of moisture clung to her exposed arms and her brow. She had not yet opened her eyes.
Eris held onto a sliver of energy from the svanth, enough to send a delving into her mother to know she remained healed. She did not want to move until her mother awoke.
Her father sat next to her.
The sickness had taken its toll on him as well. His eyes were sunken, but more from lack of sleep. Wrinkles deepened along his cheeks and at the corners of his eyes. “Jasi tells me you did this.”
Eris looked over. He wore a navy jacket with heavy green embroidery. In spite of the regal dress, he looked ragged. A slender rivenswood cane rested next to him. He hadn’t used the cane the last time Eris saw him.
“I did what I could.”
“She will…” He swallowed and turned to face Eris. His eyes had a film upon them she hadn’t seen before. It cleared briefly as he blinked. “She will live?”
His voice sounded as if he didn’t believe it possible.
“What do the healers tell you?”
He took a deep breath. “They tell me she is stable. That her breathing has regulated. Something about her skin and the taste of her blood.” He shook his head. “None of it tells me what I want to know.”
“If she awakens, she can live.”
Eris thought it should have happened by now. Lira seemed troubled that she still hadn’t awoken but did not have the energy needed to learn why. Eris had taken too much.
Her father patted her hand. “Thank you.”
She swallowed. “I put Errasn in danger, Father. Doing this—” she pointed to the svanth tree “—took all that Lira used to keep us safe.”
He shook his head. “You don’t know that. For all we know, you saved us. Without your mother…” He didn’t finish and took a deep breath to steady himself. A moment passed, and he nodded slightly. He turned toward her, looking more like the father she remembered. “Jacen tells me there is someone I need to meet.”
Eris sniffed. “I will not ask permission for him.”
Her father laughed. “No? And if I forbid you?”
She shot him a look. “I might turn you into a tree.”
His laugh deepened. “Then I should give my blessing when I meet with him on the morrow?”
“Meet with him?”
Her father nodded. “He requested to meet. Jacen offered to take the appointment but thought I might find it entertaining.”
Eris closed her eyes and snorted. Terran had requested to meet with her father. She realized she wasn’t surprised.
“Is he good to you?”
The gentle way he asked the question took her aback. She nodded. “Very good.”
“And he knows what you are? What you can do?”
Eris nodded. “He is my gardener.”
He frowned. “Like Master Nels?”
Eris laughed nervously. “Like Master Nels. But not.”
Her father took a deep breath and sighed. “A gardener. My daughter wishes to be with a gardener.” He turned to her and smiled. “I admit that you have always vexed me, Eris. Your mother and I wanted nothing but happiness for all of you, but I worried most about you. I thank the Sacred Mother you found something that brings you joy.”
As he stood, Eris grabbed his hand. “Thank you, Father.”
He leaned and kissed her on the forehead. “Let me have time with her alone. Get some rest. I can see you need it. You have done more than enough for her today.”
Eris stood and started away but paused at the edge of the elms ringing the heart of the garden. She looked back at her father, now holding her mother’s hand. He sobbed quietly.
“Father?”
He stood taller but didn’t turn.
“I will do what I can to stop the Conclave.”
“I know you will, Eris. I know you will.”
* * *
Eris stood outside Lira’s room, hand raised to knock, when the door opened. Lira wore a thin, silky dress of pale green. Her hair fell about her shoulders. She clutched a glass of wine in her hand, and red stained her lips.
“You should be resting,” Lira said.
Eris nodded. “There is something I need to speak with you about.”
She waited, wondering if Lira would invite her in or send her away. When she’d been Lira’s student, Eris had rarely been allowed into Lira’s room.
Lira stepped to the side and nodded. “Come in, keeper.”
Eris took a deep breath and stepped into Lira’s room.
It looked different than the last time she’d been here. Then Lira had been so consumed with keeping her mother alive and doing what she could to slow the Conclave that she’d practically aband
oned her quarters. Now, the dust had been cleared, and the window hung open. A soft evening breeze gusted in, rustling papers on the desk. Arrangements of cut flowers looked bold and bright, nothing like the wilted and fading flowers in the garden. Eris hadn’t borrowed their energy as she’d healed her mother.
Lira motioned to a pair of chairs angled toward the window. Eris didn’t remember seeing them the last time she’d been here. Had Lira brought them to her room, expecting Eris to come with questions?
After Eris settled into the chair, she took a deep breath, trying to organize her thoughts. She needed to explain to Lira what had happened to her, but needed to do it in a way where Lira would offer her opinion. “You haven’t asked why I left Eliara.”
Lira turned from staring at one of her arrangements and met Eris’s gaze. “I did not think it mattered. You are a keeper. Even if there is anything I can teach you, you may go as you please.”
“Or what happened while I was gone.”
Lira watched her, waiting.
“I met a keeper of trees.”
“There have never been many keepers of trees.”
“She called herself Imryll. She tends a forest to the north. After I met her, I did not think I could be a keeper of trees.”
“Imryll?” Lira said the name and a puzzled look came across her face. She shook her head, shaking away another question. “I think Terran is right, by the way. You are different than either.”
Different. Always so different. But if she hadn’t been different, would she have saved her mother?
“How did you find her?”
Eris shook her head. “I don’t know. I nearly died. When I awoke, I was in her forest.”
Lira sat up straighter in her chair.
“Ferisa came to me with one of the priestesses. I didn’t understand what she wanted at first. Ferisa said that she knew I was a keeper. She told me of visions she had. And then…” She took a deep breath. “And then stabbed me.” Eris patted her stomach where the knife had plunged through. She still didn’t know what had happened or how she’d survived. Imryll had only said the Guardian intervened, whatever that meant. She hadn’t offered anything more before forcing Eris from the forest. Eris didn’t know if Lira would know anything either.
“Ferisa?” Lira asked. She turned to the arrangements set out on the tables.
There was a subtle drawing of energy. The flowers faded slightly, the leaves curling at the ends as Lira drew from the cut flowers. She did nothing to interrupt what Lira did.
“She is gone,” Lira whispered.
Eris nodded. She suspected the same. When she’d been in the garden, part of the energy she’d used had gone into sending out the final surge. With it, she’d noted that Ferisa had gone. Other priestesses remained, but not the one with Ferisa when she’d attacked her.
“Why would she attack me?”
Lira took a deep breath and looked around the room, her eyes lingering on a shelf near the back wall. “I hadn’t considered that as a possibility until you said the infection felt unnatural. And even then I didn’t think it likely.” She looked over at Eris and shook her head. “I was too close to see it before. Could that be why we struggled to cure her?”
“What possibility?”
Lira sighed. “There is a sect of priestesses within the church who claim they foretell the future. Few outside the church know of it, and even within, it is considered a dark path to follow.”
Eris tensed, thinking of the first keeper. The first keeper of the Svanth had seen glimpses of the future. It was why she had worked the story of the keepers into the roots of the svanth trees. It was the reason she had worked so hard to grow the svanth trees in the first place. “How is it you know of it?”
“Because keepers once shared the same gift.”
She leaned forward, meeting Lira’s eyes. “What does that have to do with me? Why would Ferisa stab me?”
Lira studied her for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know. It depends on what they saw. If what they saw of you clashed with the direction they wanted the church to take, they would take whatever measure needed.”
Whatever measure needed. The words seemed to hum in her head. “Including poisoning Mother?” The idea frightened her. The priestesses had full access throughout the palace. They would have no difficulty reaching her mother, especially if Ferisa were with them.
But why her mother? Why Eris and not Lira?
What vision did they have about her mother and Eris but not Lira?
Lira started to stand. “We need to find your father…your sisters…”
Eris reached over and touched her on the arm. “The last thing I did after healing my mother was send a healing wave throughout the city.”
Lira hesitated. “That’s what I felt, then.”
Eris nodded. “I had to know others weren’t infected. We need to check that others weren’t poisoned as well, but none were as sick as Mother or we would have known.” She turned to Lira, coming to a decision. “We need to learn why Ferisa and the church would do this.”
Lira nodded. “I never thought to consider the church. The magi and the Conclave certainly, but I paid no mind to the church.”
“That’s why I must be the one to stop the Conclave.”
Lira shook her head. “You aren’t strong enough. Even with both of us, I don’t think we’re strong enough.”
Eris nodded. “Not to destroy the Conclave. I don’t have the strength for that.” Not yet, though Eris was beginning to wonder if there might be a way. “But to slow them? To push them back from our borders and bring peace? I might be strong enough for that.” She held Lira’s gaze. “But I can’t go thinking Eliara—my family—might be in danger. Will you stay, learn what you can of why the church would poison my mother? Why Ferisa would try to kill me?”
Lira considered the question before breaking the gaze and turning to look out the window. “You surprise me, Eris Taeresin. You have always been stubborn and independent, but now you seem to have learned how to ask for help.”
“Someone made it clear to me that I can’t do it on my own.”
A smile crept across Lira’s face. “He will come with you?”
“I don’t think he will stay behind, were I to ask.”
“You walk into danger, you know this?”
Eris nodded.
“It will be different than when the magi attacked near the Svanth. They had not prepared for you, and there were but a few magi. Now the entire focus of the Conclave is upon Errasn. Once they sense what you do, you will be targeted.”
“I know.”
And she would be all alone, other than Terran, no one else to aid her.
Eris swallowed and pushed back the fear threatening to rise within her.
Lira turned toward her and reached one hand over the edge of her chair toward Eris. Eris took it as a surge of energy washed through her.
“Then go. Know I will do all I can to keep Eliara safe while you’re gone.”
Chapter 53
Eris awoke early the next morning. Dreams plagued her as she slept, keeping her from sleeping soundly. In some, she awoke after a blast of fire struck her, burning away her connection to the trees. In others, she awoke after watching Terran burn. Those were harder for her. The last dream had been the worst. In that dream, Ferisa had come to her, at first apologizing for what she’d done before stabbing her again.
She dressed in a plain green gown—the same as when she first returned to Eliara—and pulled on the heavy cloak given to her by Imryll. For some reason, it felt right to wear that cloak. The pockets held two small svanth seeds each, but nothing else.
After stopping in the kitchen for a small loaf of fresh bread, she made her way back to the garden.
The svanth tree glistened in the morning light from rain overnight. The garden around her surged with renewed life and energy. Not as much as it would in another few days, but no longer did the leaves curl and the petals look faded. Within a week, the tra
ces of what Eris had done would be gone.
But Errasn wouldn’t have that much time.
The pair of guards near the rim of trees nodded to her.
Eris stopped at the edge of the elms and slipped out of the shoes she wore. These were heavier than the slippers she’d worn during her time in the Svanth, but she chose them intentionally. She didn’t know what she might encounter between here and the border. If there was anything like the singed and burned landscape like within the Verilain Plains, she wanted a thicker barrier between her and what the magi had done. But they still came off quickly and easily.
Once inside the rim of trees, she paused and delved, chasing the roots as they wound beneath the palace. Eris used this connection to trace the grasses, following the connection as far she could, pressing south, through rolling hills that opened into flatlands, the grasses there so different than the Verilain Plains. Flowers and trees covered the ground, but none were plentiful.
And then everything ended.
Eris winced, pulling back from her connection. The magi pushed farther forward than she had expected, pressing deep into Errasn, destroying everything as they came.
How could she hope to push the magi back? What did she think she could do?
All she had to do was hold the magi back, keep them from pressing deeper into Errasn. If she could manage that much…then what? She didn’t have the strength to stop the magi altogether.
She shivered. She had to try. If she didn’t, the magi would continue to press forward until they reached Eliara and beyond, eventually marching through the Verilain Plains and onward to the Svanth. Where would their destruction end?
She sighed, turned to the svanth tree, and ran her hand along the bark. She sent a surge of a request through the tree, and a handful of seeds dropped from above. She pocketed these. Another request, this to the teary star vine, and she pulled cuttings from the vine. If her plan were to work, she would need some of them.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 42