Then she turned to her mother. The healers hadn’t moved her. She looked comfortable, her breathing easier and her color returning, but still she slept. Eris touched her arm and leaned down to kiss her. What she wouldn’t give to speak to her before she left, especially now that she knew her mother had not given up on her—had pushed Lira to work with her.
And then she turned away. She had work to do.
* * *
Terran found her in the garden not much later. A smile split his lips, the same lopsided smile he’d always used to wear when they’d first met. He wore his heavy green jacket, now replaced with one without all the stitching and repairs. A wide-bladed knife hung from his waist, and a bow slung over his shoulder along with a quiver of arrows.
“You know what I plan?”
He laughed. “Not until I saw what you did yesterday.”
“You spoke to my father?”
His smile faltered. “I did. How did you know?”
“He told me.”
Terran nodded.
“What did you talk about?”
He shrugged. “The kingdom. His responsibility. How much it meant to him that you healed your mother.”
Eris frowned. “That is all?”
Terran winked at her. “There might have been something else.”
Part of her wanted to punch him, but she refrained. “Aren’t you the one who made a point of telling me how we’re partners in this? Would partners keep things from each other?”
“If it bothers you, he might,” he said, teasing her more.
Terran turned and started through the garden. Eris hurried after him and grabbed his hand when she caught up to him.
“Are we walking or riding?” he asked.
Eris shook her head. “We can walk faster.”
It no longer seemed strange to say that, but part of her gift as keeper meant that she could walk with great speed if she fed off the life around her. She would have to do so carefully, not wanting to waste any more energy than necessary before they reached the border, but they could travel more quickly that way. Terran moved just as easily as she, though she hadn’t learned the trick of it yet.
“I suspect you would ride faster if you tried,” Terran said.
Eris thought about where they were going and what they might encounter. “I think it’s best if we walk.”
Terran nodded.
They made their way through the city, bypassing the huge iron gates by going through the servants’ door again. Eris shivered as they passed near the heavy bars, wondering why she should fear iron. It was a question she’d forgotten to ask Lira. They hurried from the city and quickly moved south, not bothering to follow any particular road.
Neither spoke much.
Eris had rarely gone south of the city. If not for the delving, she wouldn’t have known what to expect. The landscape shifted quickly from the steady rolling hills found around Eliara as it gradually flattened. Tall, dry grasses grew here, nothing like needlegrass, though this was said to all be part of the Verilain Plains. Eris recognized the difference, sensing the break between the dense needlegrass and these softer grasses. They bent away from her the same, springing back as they passed, masking her and Terran’s progress.
They stopped for lunch near a small stream. Terran drank from a water skin he’d brought before passing it over to her. When they drank enough, he refilled it. She bit off some of the bread she’d taken and passed it to him.
“How long will we be here?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. As long as it takes.”
“Does Lira know?” He wiped an arm across his brow and looked back toward Eliara.
“She knows.”
“She didn’t want to come with us?” He seemed surprised.
“There is something else she needed to do.”
He frowned for a moment and then nodded. “Your sister?”
“Lira thinks she might know something about a sect of the church responsible. She promised she would keep my family safe.”
“While you work to keep the kingdom safe?”
Eris nodded.
Terran chewed thoughtfully on the bread. “You think to use the svanth trees to connect to the forest?”
It still surprised her how intuitive he was. “I think that’s how I healed my mother. If I have any hope of pushing back the Conclave, I will need the power stored within the forest.”
He laughed softly. “I think there’s supposed to be an easier way than planting a tree.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to plant a tree this far south,” she admitted. She pulled one of the teary star clippings from her pocket. A small flower bloomed on it. Eris inhaled, smelling its fragrance. “Lira gave me the idea. The flower is my connection to the forest, I think, much like her garden in Eliara connects her to her larger garden in the Svanth.”
Terran considered the flower and nodded. “What are you planning to do?”
She shook her head. “I…I haven’t worked it out fully.”
Terran laughed. “Good thing you’ll have help.”
“Help?”
He nodded behind them, and she turned. A long column of soldiers on horseback streamed across the nearest hillock, following the road they had crossed. The banner waving at the front carried the king’s crest. With her mother still weak, she didn’t expect her father to ride south.
That meant Jacen.
* * *
They met the soldiers shortly afterward.
Eris counted at least a thousand troops. Seeing them in careful lines, led by her brother, filled her with hope. And also fear. There was little the soldiers would be able to do against the magi. Sending another company of men south risked the safety of Eliara and the rest of Errasn, leaving them vulnerable to attack from the north.
Jacen looked down from his saddle, seemingly unsurprised to see her. He wore full armor with his helm strapped to the seat behind him. A longsword hung off his saddle and, like Terran, he carried a bow.
“Father said I would find you moving south,” he said. “I did not expect you to have come so far.”
Eris wouldn’t explain to Jacen how her abilities worked. He was too practical minded to understand. “I had not known you’d returned.”
“Briefly. I came for reinforcements.”
Eris frowned. “You needed to come yourself?”
He shrugged. “I needed to speak to Father to convince him to release the men. This is all he would commit. Not enough to destroy Saffra and their damn magi. Not nearly enough.”
His tone told her what he thought of the men. Disappointment touched with anger.
“So now you return to the border.”
He nodded. “We had to fall back from Saffra. The magi keep blasting at us, destroying as many of their men as ours. I don’t know how far we’ve retreated.” His voice rose as he spoke of the magi, and a hot flush washed across his cheeks. “Now my little sister travels south as well. What do you think to do?”
She looked up and down his line of soldiers. Could she save them? Could she save Errasn? Eris—princess of Errasn—could not, but that wasn’t who she was, not any longer. Eris, keeper of the Svanth Forest, might be able to protect them.
Except Eris didn’t belong to only Errasn. Perhaps that was the reason she felt so strongly about pushing back the magi. If the Conclave wasn’t stopped now, they would continue forward, marching north through Eliara and into Varden, moving until everything was destroyed. She could practically see the destruction in her mind.
“I intend to stop the magi,” she said. She would destroy the Conclave if she could, but doing so might require more energy than she could access.
Jacen studied her for a long moment. “Father told me about you. About your ability. I didn’t know what to think at first. I mean, you’re my sister! How could you be some sort of flower mage?”
Eris smiled. “I once called Lira a flower mage. Now I understand how wrong that title is.”
“Y
ou deny you’re like her?”
She shook her head. “I don’t deny that I’m a keeper.”
Jacen glanced back toward Eliara. “I returned yesterday to find a tree growing in the courtyard, a tree that hadn’t been there only a week before, rising high above the others.” He looked down and met her eyes. “And I heard what you did for Mother, how you used your flower magic to save her. Will she really live?”
“If she awakens and eats, she will live.” Eris would like to have thanked her mother just once.
Jacen shook his head. “I’ve seen what the magi are capable of doing firsthand. The destruction they throw around. Seeing that—seeing life—gives me hope.” He fixed her with his blue eyes, eyes that had once been gentle and happy but were now hard and filled with anger. For a moment that anger faded. “You have always been strong, Eris. I never gave you the credit you deserve. I can’t say that I understand what you can do, but my men and I will fight with you if you’ll help us destroy the magi. I will burn them the way they’ve burned so many of our men.”
The hatred in his voice startled her. Would she end up like him? Was there anything she could do to help ease his anger? She wished she could bring back the brother she remembered, the brother with the easy smile and lighthearted laugh. The man before her was hard and filled with anger.
“I will do what I must.”
Jacen studied her a moment longer and then nodded.
As the soldiers continued on, she turned to Terran rather than watching them pass. He looked at her and then pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms. Neither spoke as she sobbed against him.
Chapter 54
Jacen pushed the soldiers hard throughout the day. Eris and Terran followed behind, letting the soldiers lead the way. If they encountered Saffra troops, it would be better to have Errasn men to back them. Eris kept a distance from them, though; the constant hoofbeats hammering over the ground became jarring, building up tension within her. They didn’t camp until late that evening.
“Do we rest?” Terran asked as the soldiers made camp.
Eris ran her hand over a handful of the grasses and closed her eyes. She delved through the grasses, pressing out and south, searching for what she feared she would find. The desolation, the emptiness, was closer now. Another day, and they would reach it.
And then what?
She hadn’t thought about what she would do once they reached Saffra. But not even Saffra any longer, was it? The magi had pushed past the border and slowly destroyed the fringes of Errasn. Each day meant less of her homeland existed. Each day meant the magi claimed more.
But she didn’t dare face the magi exhausted. She had little enough control over her abilities the way it was. She could use the roots, trace them as she sensed the destruction, but more than that wasn’t as predictable as what Lira wielded. Maybe it would have been better for Lira to come.
She let her eyes open, severing the connection to the plains. “I fear waiting, but if we continue on tonight…”
Terran nodded. “Then we camp for the night as well. Tomorrow we push forward.”
She let him make the arrangements. Terran quickly cleared a small patch of ground and gathered a few dried branches for a fire. The air was warmer here than it was in the north, but as night came on, a chill still came to the air. Eris felt thankful for the cloak Imryll had given her. It had been comfortable during the warmer stretches of the day and kept her warm with the coming night.
Once settled, Terran tore off a few strips of salted jerky and handed them to her. She took them and chewed, glad he planned ahead. She’d grabbed only bread while Terran managed to bring meat and water and weapons.
He sat next to her and slipped an arm around her. Eris snuggled in against him and rested her head on his shoulder. She breathed slowly, enjoying the quiet crackling of the flame and the scent of the fire and how it mixed with Terran’s scent. If only they could remain like this.
“I don’t know if I can do what needs to be done,” she admitted.
He laughed softly. “I think you’re better prepared than you know.”
“What if I’m not? What if we—” She couldn’t say the words she feared. The idea of losing Terran frightened her more than losing herself.
“You have to do what’s needed. You can’t sit back and wait while the Conclave destroys everything you know, not if you’re the Eris I know.”
She let her eyes fall closed as she smiled to herself. Once, it had been so hard for him to say her name. He’d been too concerned about her station and the fact that she was princess. So much had changed for her—for both of them—that Eris no longer even considered herself a princess. Now, when Terran said her name, there was no hesitation, only affection.
Eris let herself drift, slowly delving into the grasses around her. As she did, an unsettled sense nagged at her, as if the grasses recognized the presence of the magi, almost as if understanding what would happen if they came. She tried pushing out reassurance but didn’t know if it worked or mattered.
Connected as she was, she felt Terran move toward her. His mouth found hers, and she kissed back. They leaned back into the grasses, losing themselves together.
Eris tried not to think that it might be the last time.
* * *
She awoke to orange and red spreading across the horizon as the sun slowly climbed. The bright colors swirled together, looking nothing like any flower she knew. Still there seemed a distinct pattern she could almost discern.
Terran had already awoken. He cleared and buried the remains of the fire. His face looked lean and hard in the morning light, but he smiled when he saw she was awake. “I wish I had more to offer you to eat.”
She smiled and pulled the rest of the bread she’d taken yesterday morning. “We have this.”
“I could have hunted last night. Or at least set a trap. Plenty of hares out here.”
“I preferred the way the night went.” She flushed as she said it, uncertain how he would respond, but she turned to face him, meeting his eyes. “Last night was…” She couldn’t finish. She wouldn’t change anything about the night, a night so long in coming. And with facing the magi, she didn’t know if they would be able to share another night. He was her gardener and she was his keeper.
Now she felt connected to him in a way she hadn’t before. Would he feel the same?
He touched her face and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. Terran kissed her lightly on the lips. “Me too.”
He helped her to her feet, and she slipped back into her cloak. It had served as a blanket for them during the night, but they’d kept each other warm enough.
In the distance, her brother’s soldiers already began moving, horses starting toward the south with steady precision. Metal gleamed in the sunlight, making them seem to glow. The banner at the front barely moved. From here, the thousand troops seemed so small, not enough to do much of anything against the Conclave.
Terran took her hand and squeezed. They watched the sunrise for a few moments, enjoying the peace that came with the new day. Finally, Eris took a deep breath and turned south, pulling him with her.
They moved quickly and outpaced the soldiers. After meeting with Jacen the day before, she had no interest in walking alongside them. She would do what she could to protect them, but she feared the anger in Jacen would seep into her.
By midday, the desolation drew near.
Eris had no other word for it. What she felt resembled the charred remains she’d found in the Verilain Plains, only spread over a much greater distance. The ground changed where the magi burned it, practically refusing to let anything grow.
Would her connection to the Svanth allow her to halt the spread of the desolation?
She didn’t know. Sealing off even the small area in the Verilain Plains had taken huge amounts of energy. What this would require might be more than she could summon.
But she had to try.
Terran squeezed her hand, seeming to sense her unease
.
* * *
The edge of Errasn appeared before them late in the afternoon.
It wasn’t where the border should have been. The Loess River served as the traditional border of Errasn with Saffra, but even that wasn’t entirely accurate. A wide swath of unclaimed land stretched from the Loess to the Kernig Mountains. Beyond that lay Saffra.
Eris knew little of Saffra. What little she knew came from books and her earliest lectures on geography. If only she’d paid more attention then, she might understand why Saffra worked with the Conclave.
She remembered Saffra to be an arid place, one where the sun shone hot and bright and little rain fell. The Kernig Mountains seemed to break any clouds attempting to make their way south, pushing rain into Errasn but keeping the other side of the mountains dry. Rocky shores were said to line the Dalish Sea, so different than the sandy beaches found in cities like Nasin and Asna.
“It’s warmer here than I expected,” Terran said.
Eris nodded. Heat shimmered in the still air. Thankfully, the cloak kept her comfortable and cool. “This is unnatural.”
“What is?”
“All of it. I’ve never come this far south, but it’s not supposed to be hot. None of Errasn is hot, not like this.”
Touching the grasses, she sensed how they faded under the heat. Even if the magi didn’t push farther, the change in climate would be enough to alter the natural landscape of Errasn. How much longer before the grasses died altogether? And then what? Would the Loess dry up, turning all of this into desert?
She sighed. Halting the magi advance was all she could hope to accomplish, but it still might not be enough.
They crested a slow rise. In the distance, the ground became hillier, the southern hills rolling toward the Kernig Mountains. Water glinted distantly. Eris suspect that to be the Loess, though didn’t know with certainty. Brown and dying grasses stretched toward the river, ending abruptly in places where it had been left charred and burning. Movement along the distant char was likely Saffra soldiers. Brown and black tents stood up from the ground. Flashes of color, mostly deep red and purple, moved, but otherwise, everything looked bleak.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 43