Eris saw no sign of the magi.
“All of this is supposed to be Errasn,” she said.
Terran nodded.
“Father thought the Loess would keep Saffra from advancing, but Saffra seems to have found a way across.” Few bridges crossed the Loess, and those that did should have been easily guarded. Either her father’s men had been forced back, or Saffra had come up with another way across.
“What now?”
Eris looked toward the east. The landscape looked much the same, blackened and burned away. Toward the west looked no different. How was she to stop it?
How had Lira held it off as long as she had?
Guilt settled through her at how selfish she’d been in healing her mother. Had she not spent the energy stored in Lira’s garden, she might have held off the magi a little longer. Now, nothing slowed them.
Seeing the desolation made it somehow more real, more bleak. Even had Lira come, Eris doubted it would have made a difference. A dozen keepers wouldn’t be able to make a difference.
And yet…if she did nothing, hope was lost. This close to the desolation, she felt it more strongly. With every passing moment, the grasses along the hills receded, burned away by whatever dark spell the magi wrought, steady and relentless. With enough time—days rather than weeks—the desolation would reach Eliara. Lira might be able to hold it off for a while, but the garden would eventually fail and fall into the same desolation as here.
She could practically see it in her mind.
Then it would move farther north. Through the Verilain Plains and onward until it reached the Svanth Forest. The forest would resist, but it could only fight for so long. Then it would fall, the memories of the first keeper falling with it, as the desolation spread north into Varden, eventually reaching Imryll and her forest. Nothing would remain to slow the Conclave.
“I have to stop this,” she finally answered.
Next to her, Terran nodded.
Chapter 55
Jacen and his soldiers arrived later that evening. He frowned at Eris when he saw her already waiting for him and waved his men past. Sweat shone along his brow, and his helm rested on his saddle. A large water skin hung from his neck, and he took a long swallow.
“You knew it was like this,” Eris said when he pulled up.
Jacen nodded. “It wasn’t this bad at first. The Loess held them back.”
“How did they cross?”
He shook his head. “Don’t know. We destroyed the bridges, but they still managed to find a way. The Loess is too wide to cross without bridge or boat.”
“Could they have dammed it?”
Jacen flashed a dark smile. “It flows out of the mountains before draining into the Dalish. No way to dam that much water.”
Eris turned to look at Terran. He stood next to her, scanning the caravan of soldiers. He looked troubled, and his jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
“How many men remain?” Eris asked.
Jacen shook his head. “I don’t claim to know about your ability, Eris, but do you think you suddenly have the key to defeating Saffra and its seemingly endless supply of troops?”
Eris took a calming breath. “You bring one thousand men to the battlefront. I simply wanted to know how many men were still here.”
Jacen studied Terran as he nodded. “There were nearly ten thousand when I left. And I wouldn’t have left had not Tholen come to tell me how near death Mother was. Even that wouldn’t have been enough, but we needed reinforcements.” He shook his head. “I left Tholen in charge of the men.”
Eris found it strange to hear Jacen say that he left Tholen in charge of the men. So much had changed in the months she’d been away, but Jacen perhaps most of all. He carried a confidence he hadn’t before, an aura of purpose and command, but it mixed with the blanket of anger he wrapped himself in. If he could not shed the anger, he would never manage to rule peacefully when their father was gone.
“How many men does Saffra have?” Terran asked.
Jacen glanced from Eris to Terran. With his deep green jacket and long-bladed knife tucked into his belt, he looked every bit the soldier as Jacen, only of a different type. No longer the gentle gardener, Terran had changed as well.
Jacen looked as if he debated answering. Then he shook his head. “It changes. They constantly have soldiers coming over the Kernig Mountains, but they move quickly through the passes, and our scouts think they lose nearly as many men as they send. And it’s not the soldiers we fear.” He fixed Eris with a firm look. “I’m hoping you can help with that.”
She sighed. “I will do what I can.”
Jacen nodded and spurred his horse forward to rejoin his men.
Terran watched the line of soldiers as it wound toward the east. “Why does this battle draw out so long?” he asked. “Your brother has plenty of men—well-trained ones at that. If it were all about the magi, they should have scattered the soldiers by now.”
“Lira had been holding them off.”
Terran turned and looked at her. “Her reach can’t stretch that far. Her garden has limits.” He shook his head. “No…there is something here that I’m missing.”
“We should go,” Eris said. “Find a place to camp before night falls.”
He flashed a smile, but she shook her head.
“I think we’ll need to stay near the soldiers tonight. If there’s an attack…”
Terran nodded. “I know.” He sighed and turned to her, sliding his hands onto her hips and pulling her close. “I wish there was something more I could do.”
“I’m afraid there’s going to be more than either of us can do before this is over.”
* * *
She should have known something was wrong before they even topped the hill. Though the air was still, the grasses seemed to hold their breath, waiting for what would come next. As they followed Jacen, shouts and the sound of metal against metal greeted them.
Eris started running, but Terran grabbed her arm.
“You can’t go running into battle. Even a keeper can take an arrow to the chest. I don’t think your abilities would be of much use then.”
She glared at him, but he shook his head.
“Let me take the lead here.”
“You’re not a soldier either.”
He snorted. “No, but I’ve been hunting. And you’re not the only one with gifts.”
As they reached the top of the hill, Terran waved at her to drop to the ground. He crouched, lowering himself to the level of the grasses, only his head visible.
Eris dropped to her knees and sent a command to the grasses to obscure her.
Then she looked down.
She’d read about war before and heard old Tholen tell stories about when Errasn battled with Varden, but what she saw before her was nothing like the stories.
The Errasn camp lay in disarray. Tents had fallen and were trampled. Fires burned wildly, quickly catching the already dry grasses alight. The air stunk of char and death. Men collided with each other atop horseback. Sword clanged against sword. Blood spattered everywhere, staining the grasses a deep red.
How had Saffra attacked so suddenly?
She delved into the grasses, searching for signs of the magi but found none.
This was a standard battle.
The fires created a separation between the Errasn troops but seemed not to affect those from Saffra. Saffra soldiers moved ruthlessly. Most were mounted atop sleek black and gray horses that moved more quickly than any Eris had ever seen. Their dark armor had strange-shaped helms worked with stones across the forehead. Even the horses had armor, all with the same strange stones. The horses darted forward before retreating, attacking in groups and splitting the unprepared Errasn troops.
Errasn soldiers were being slaughtered.
Jacen rode tall atop his horse toward the battle, leading his men toward the Saffra soldiers. As she watched, his men formed into lines and crashed into the Saffra riders.
Terran ta
pped her leg.
She turned and he motioned at her.
Eris dropped to the ground. At some point during the attack, she had stood to observe.
“What was that?” he whispered.
“Stupidity.”
Terran laughed softly. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
She shook her head. “The battle? Me neither.”
“No. The horses. I think the magi did something with them.”
“What do you mean?”
Terran raised a finger and pulled the bow from his back. After nocking an arrow, he sighted. “I’m not sure, but watch the black stallion closest to us.”
Eris followed the direction he pointed. A tall, black stallion flicked between a pair of soldiers, its rider slashing out with a wicked curved sword. Blood sprayed from the men, and they fell from the saddle. The horse moved with an almost ethereal speed. Even the well-trained Errasn soldiers struggled to fight it.
Terran loosed the arrow.
It flew straight, striking the horse in the middle of the ruby stone on the side of its armored helm.
The horse staggered, the helm protecting it, but the stone exploded.
All of a sudden, the horse slowed. It was as if Terran had severed a tendon. The Saffra rider was thrown, and Errasn troops converged, quickly dropping him.
“We need to let Jacen know.”
Eris started forward, barely crouching as she ran toward the battle.
Terran ran after, shouting at her, but she ignored him.
With a silent command, she demanded the grasses protect her. An invisible barrier slid around her.
And then she reached chaos.
Horses and riders streamed around her, somehow sliding past without striking her. Jacen battled a pair of Saffra riders. She hesitated long enough to marvel at her brother’s skill. Maybe her father had been right to trust him to lead the troops. Old Tholen wouldn’t have been able to fend off two enhanced Saffra soldiers.
As she neared, an arrow exploded the stone of one of the riders attacking Jacen.
Terran stood at the edge of the camp, another arrow nocked. By the time she turned, it struck the other horse. The two men Jacen had battled were both down, trampled by Jacen’s dappled stallion.
“Jacen!”
He turned and looked at her with an incredulous expression. “Eris? You shouldn’t be here! Go with your man and wait until this is over.”
She shook her head. “The stones. Target the stones on the armor.” She didn’t know which would help more—striking the stones the horses carried or the soldiers.
His face clouded. “What about the stones?” Too much space separated them, and he had to shout.
Another horse crashed toward him. Terran loosed another arrow, this one striking the helm of the rider. He must have had the same question. The stone exploded, and the rider dropped his sword, sagging from the saddle.
“The magi!” she shouted.
Jacen looked from her to the fallen soldiers. Understanding spread across his face with a widening of his eyes.
He kicked his horse forward, speeding through the line of his troops. “Target the stones in the helms. Horse or rider!” he shouted.
Eris turned, holding onto her connection to the grasses, keeping the silent command for protection as she did, until she reached Terran.
He crouched in the thick grasses, his quiver empty. “That was foolish,” he said.
“He had to know.”
“Might there not have been a better way to tell him?”
Eris sniffed. “If you know of one, I’ll hear it.”
The battle started to swing in favor of Errasn. Their numbers and the focus on attacking the stones turned the tide, but not quickly enough. Too many men—her father’s men, men of Errasn—still fell. And Jacen rode in the midst of it. If she did nothing, he might fall as well.
She dipped her hand into the pocket of her cloak and pulled out the teary star flower. With the energy around her from the grasses, she hoped she could reach through the flower with enough power to shatter the stones.
“Doing this will let the magi know you’re here,” Terran said.
Eris looked at him and nodded. “They would learn soon enough. We need to do what we can to help the men.”
Terran fell silent.
Eris pulled on the energy of the flower. While in the garden in Eliara, she had the sense of great power at the cusp of her awareness. She remembered how the energy stored in the forest responded when she needed it to heal her mother, and hoped to draw on that now.
But she felt nothing.
The energy of the grasses filled her, and Eris sensed that she could use it, but more than that—drawing on the energy from the distant Svanth—she could not. The teary star held some energy, but what it possessed was small in comparison to even that of the dying grasses around her.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. For her to be able to do anything to stop the magi, she needed to access the forest. Without that, with only the grasses to aid her, she wouldn’t have nearly enough to force them back. The Verilain Plains, as expansive and alive as it was, had barely held out while she had attacked a few magi. The grasses here would not hold up against the entirety of the Conclave.
“I can’t—”
She didn’t get the chance to finish.
A rider wearing the maroon helm and armor of Saffra appeared next to her, sword flashing toward Terran.
Without thinking, Eris sent a surge of energy toward the stones on his helm.
They exploded, and he dropped from the saddle. His horse stomped on his chest as it started away, leaving the man dying with soft gurgling sounds.
Something shifted then.
Eris felt it around her, almost like the sun shining hot on stone.
The magi knew she was here.
Chapter 56
Before thinking more about it, Eris demanded the grasses send a surge of energy to the stones on the helms of all the Saffra soldiers.
The grasses resisted for a moment. She sensed how they already fought against the heat and the desolation the magi pushed upon them. Eris delved deeper and drew harder.
The stones cracked with a loud explosion.
Men shouted as they fell. Eris didn’t bother to watch.
Heat pressed on her, hotter than before.
“What is it?” Terran asked.
Eris shook her head. “The magi. I feel them.”
“Can you use it to learn where they are?”
She frowned. Could she use it?
Delving again through the roots of the grasses, she pressed out in a wide circle. She expected the magi to be to the south, probably past where the ground changed to char and the desolation marched forward. If they were there, Eris wouldn’t have any way of sensing them. Where the grasses stopped—where the roots stopped—so did her ability to discover anything.
At first, she didn’t sense anything other than the soldiers.
The heat pressed on her. As it did, she recognized it had a focus.
Eris used this and followed it, tracking it north and to the west. Behind her.
If the magi were upon the plains, she should have sensed them before. How had she not?
She shifted the direction she delved, tracing through the grasses as she listened toward the north. Once there, she felt a disturbance. More than that, she couldn’t tell.
As she began to withdraw from the connection, there was something else, something unexpected.
The creature from the svanth forest prowled near the magi.
Eris severed the connection quickly.
“You found them.”
She swallowed. When the creature had been gone from the Svanth, she hadn’t given it much thought. The trees had tolerated its presence and it had never attacked them, but what did it mean that it appeared here now?
“I found them. But there is something else, Terran.”
He frowned.
As s
he told him about the creature, her breath caught with another concern. Could it be working with the magi? Could the creature have been sent to the Svanth to watch her all this time?
“Now will you let me hunt it?” he asked.
She shivered at the thought of the creature. She’d never seen it—only caught flashes of it, barely more than streaks of darkness. Something that stealthy would be dangerous, even to her. But she couldn’t fend off the magi if that creature attacked. Whatever it was. For that, she needed Terran.
“Now you can hunt it.”
* * *
They hurried across the plains, leading away from the fading battle. Now that she’d destroyed the stones, the number of men at Jacen’s command should be enough for him to fend them off. That was his fight.
But the magi were her battle.
Eris ignored the fact that she didn’t have enough power at her disposal. What was stored in the plains—in the grasses and clumps of flowers and trees scattered around here—would have to be enough. If it wasn’t…then she would have tried. And the Sacred Mother protect Eliara as the magi continued north.
Eris kept herself low as they approached where she’d felt the magi.
A small copse of trees—mostly oaks with a few elms mixed in—blocked her view, but they were like a taint upon the trees. Steady chanting rose from within. The leaves started falling, curling to brown and dropping. Much longer, and the trees would be gone.
Eris couldn’t let the magi take anything more. “Go. Find the creature. This is my fight.”
Terran nodded and started off, keeping himself low as he did.
Eris made her way down the hill, watching the trees. Near the base of the hill, she lay on the ground and pushed her feet into the soil, delving as she did.
Already the connection began to fade. As it did, Eris realized what the magi did, why they started with the trees.
Pulling on the energy around her, she pushed back, at first feeding the trees, pressing energy through their roots and up and out the limbs into the leaves.
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