Like a lightning strike of her own, Eris sent this out, splitting the energy as she targeted the Saffra soldiers and their armor.
Stones exploded, and men screamed.
Eris paused long enough to stab a svanth seed into the ground. With the remaining energy Shadow lent her, she slammed it into the seed, filling it until it burst. The sapling erupted from the ground and shot upward.
She almost didn’t have enough time to plant the teary star vine.
The magi attacked.
Clouds blocked the sun, plunging the day into sudden darkness. The air grew hot and stale, burning her lungs with each breath. Thunder boomed, shaking through her bones. Lightning streaked from the sky. Eris barely managed to hold it off.
Shadow leapt away.
Somewhere nearby a magi shouted, “The keeper is here!”
“Access the Source, and she can do nothing!”
Eris shivered, suddenly fearful. The Source.
Could that be the distant power she sensed? The well of power feeding the svanth trees in the heart of the forest? If the magi reached it, her connection to the trees—the trees themselves—would fall. And she would fail.
She forced the teary star vine into the ground.
Terran plunged his hands near hers, scooping earth around the vine. “Let me. Save yourself.”
His hands wove the vine across and around the trunk of the tree. Eris was amazed to realize how quickly they moved. For the first time, the barbs ignored him, letting him swirl the vine up the tree.
Eris let him work. With Terran focused on the vine, she could push more energy into growing the tree. She drew from everything she sensed—the grasses, herself, Shadow, even Terran—as the roots streamed deeper and the tree shot toward the sky.
All she needed was the roots to connect, to link to the others and join the pattern. Then she could draw upon the others.
The ground exploded near her.
Had she not been so close to the svanth tree, she would have been thrown. Terran gripped the vine of the teary star, holding tight as the explosion washed over them. He screamed.
A thunderous roar erupted, splitting the air.
Eris prayed Shadow was unharmed. If anything happened to him, it would be her fault, especially if she had taken too much energy from him.
She clung to a branch. The connection let her press more energy into the tree. The svanth rose beneath her, pushing her into the sky with it as it grew.
Roots pressed out beneath the tree, spreading beneath the plains, reaching toward the other trees. And deeper.
A little more time. All Eris needed was a little more time for the roots to connect to the others she’d planted so she could pull on the power of the trees.
Lightning struck the top of the tree.
It was close—much closer than any of the other lightning strikes.
She had to shift her focus and sent a surge of energy up the tree and out the budding leaves. The lightning fizzled and failed. Another followed, and another. Too many in a row.
Her strength sagged.
She needed the roots to connect.
Gripping the branch, she pushed as much of herself into the tree as she could. She held tightly, but the tree jerked upward and threw her from the branch. The ground knocked the breath out of her. Lights swirled around her eyes, like the colors of the sunrise. Eris could almost make out the pattern there.
The ground rippled around her.
The hairs on her arms stood on end as lightning streaked toward her. She had failed.
And then the bond formed.
It thundered through her, filling her with more energy than was stored in the dozen or so trees she’d planted, more than the small groves of trees dotted across the plains could provide.
This filled her and overflowed out of her, the stores of a much greater garden.
The pattern it formed filled her mind, no longer a question. How had she missed what she created as she planted the trees?
Each grove of trees, connected together, bound by a svanth tree. This, the last, forming the pattern. The shape of the teary star flower.
Eris delved deeply, connected by the new svanth tree. Terran hung in the tree, cradled in a bundle of vines. Shadow leapt through the magi, attacking, an injury leaving one leg useless. He still moved in a blur. When he landed, Eris pushed power through him, filling him with it. It was the power of the plains, but it was more than that. Power greater than she should be able to reach filled her.
The power of the Svanth.
Shadow’s roar filled the air.
Eris stood. Wind swirled around her. She sent it up, scattering the darkness the magi summoned. Sunlight pierced through them with a bright ray. Eris basked in it a moment, filling herself with a warmth so different than what she felt near the desolation.
She knew what she needed to do. She must protect the land—her people—from the magi. As she had told Shadow, she had claimed them.
A deep breath, and she moved toward the magi.
The connection to the Svanth told her where they were. Someone screamed nearby; Shadow’s work. A magi sent the earth rumbling but she settled it with a wave of energy, the roots of the tree catching it. Swirling wind sent the magi south, away from her.
Chanting began, the awful sound somewhere nearby.
The building pressure of their spell pressed the wind from her lungs. Through the bond, she summoned Shadow. She sensed him pause and then leap in the direction of the chanting. It died suddenly.
A flurry of lightning attacks streaked toward her.
Eris drew through the trees, connected somehow to the Svanth and deeper, and waved the spidering fingers of electricity away.
She advanced further. Magi surrounded her. They were a blight on the grasses, their simple presence tainting where they stood. A gust of wind swirled around her, summoned to lift them away.
The wind protected her but failed to throw the magi.
She stopped. “Shadow!”
He ran toward her, but not in time. More magi joined the others, nearly two-dozen now in all. More than she could stand against.
Eris dropped to her knees. She pressed her feet as deep into the soil as she could, solidifying the connection.
The ground tried to ripple under her, a great tremor threatening to split the earth apart. It took all her effort to hold it together, leaving her with barely enough strength to stop the stacked lightning strikes coming.
If she failed here, the magi would access the Source. They would move openly toward Eliara. The Svanth would fall, and everything would fall behind it.
All because she wasn’t strong enough.
Eris closed her eyes, begging for more energy.
One hand reached overhead, pushing above her. The other gripped the ground.
Shadow appeared next to her. Resignation shone in his eyes. She wasn’t strong enough.
Eris was thankful she wasn’t alone for this.
When Terran appeared at her side, she nearly sobbed. She’d never been alone, not really.
And now they would all die together.
“I’m sorry I pulled you here.”
Shadow answered with a sorrowful growl. Terran grabbed her hand.
Eris pulled the last of the energy she could find, pressing it down to hold the earth together and up to shield them from the lightning. Already, she knew it wouldn’t be enough.
She tried pulling more, knowing the trees had no more to lend. If she could access the deeper stores, she might be able to push them back…
And then it was there, filling her, foreign and strange and feeling of oak and elm and pine, like that of Imryll’s forest garden, a sense somehow familiar.
Deeper than that, she felt the enormous energy, ancient and buried.
It terrified her as she pulled on it.
Shadow growled and streaked away.
Eris sent all of the energy rippling out of her in all directions. The lightning broke harmlessly over her head. The gro
und settled. Magi screamed, though she didn’t know if it was from what she’d done or from Shadow’s efforts.
And then everything fell silent.
As she collapsed to the ground, wind swirled around her. The connection to the trees was there, but weak.
Terran helped her, holding her as she fell.
Shadow appeared next to her. Blood stained his jaw and streaked down his flank. She reached out to touch him, and he made a low rumble deep in his chest.
“Are they gone?”
Shadow’s ears twitched, and his deep yellow eyes searched the land around them. “They are gone for now, keeper.”
Eris let out a long sigh and dropped her head to the ground. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she found a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 62
When Eris finally awoke, sunlight filled the sky. A cool breeze blew in from the north, refreshing and scented of earth and rain. She rested against the svanth tree, her back pressed against the rough barbs of the teary star vine. Terran held her head, running his fingers through her hair.
She blinked up at him. “You’re here,” she said.
“I wouldn’t leave you.”
Eris swallowed, thinking of the other keepers from her visions, the way the first keeper had lost Therin, living the last of her days without him. Or the next keeper, regretting the loss of Heath. More than anything, that seemed the legacy of the keepers.
“I…” She swallowed, unable to continue.
Terran touched her hair, running his hand along her face. “I know.”
Eris pushed herself up and looked around. “Where is Shadow?”
Even as she asked, she sensed him nearby.
Terran nodded toward the tree.
Eris looked up at the massive svanth now growing high overhead. Wide leaves spread out from thick branches, filtering the light. A dark shadow spread across a pair of upper branches. Shadow’s low growl rumbled softly, carrying to her ears.
“How long have I slept?”
Terran smiled, the lopsided smile she remembered returned. “Only a day.”
“And the magi?”
Terran’s face clouded briefly. “They are gone. Once he knew you were safe, Shadow followed them. I do not know what he found.”
Eris nodded. It was a question that could wait for later.
She sighed. Awareness filled her, much like within the Svanth Forest. She had no need to delve to learn what she needed.
Grasses pushed back against the desolation. The barrier made by the svanth trees would hold, pushing back whatever the magi had done. More work remained to complete the barrier, but there was no sense of urgency, not as before.
They had won.
It seemed impossible to believe. How had she managed to push back the magi by herself?
But she hadn’t, she realized. Without Terran, she wouldn’t have been strong enough to make the journey. Without Shadow, she wouldn’t have survived even the first attack. She couldn’t have done it by herself…and she didn’t have to.
Eris let out a long breath.
“What of the soldiers?”
She managed to stand. She was weak, but the awareness of the trees pressed on her, lending her strength. Eris drew from the trees to fortify herself. The svanth trees gave to her freely, buoyed by their deep connection to the Svanth Forest.
And something deeper. The Source. With more time, she would have to learn what that was and why the Conclave wanted it.
For now, she was content knowing her garden had grown, expanded by what she had done. Eris knew there would be consequences. Hopefully Lira would be able to answer and explain. If not, she would seek Imryll, especially now that she knew she’d borrowed from Imryll’s forest during the magi attack. Without that reservoir of strength, she would not have survived.
Terran took her hands. “I am sorry, Eris.”
He tried pulling her toward him, but she resisted. “What happened? Where’s Jacen?”
Terran glanced up at the svanth tree before leading her away.
Carnage spread out before her.
Men in maroon and silver armor lay dead and broken. Blood-stained faces and shattered limbs splattered about them. The stink nearly gagged her.
But others still lived. Men wearing Errasn armor moved through the battlefield, taking what they could. Eris searched, looking for signs of her brother.
She found him surrounded by a half-dozen Saffra soldiers. He lay, eyes staring toward the sky, peace finally worked across his face.
A sob caught in her throat.
“I’m so sorry, Eris,” Terran said.
She took a shuddering breath and turned away. “He saved us. Without him…”
She didn’t want to consider what would have happened had Jacen’s men not forced the magi into an attack. What would have happened to her had the soldiers come across her while she expanded her garden?
At least Jacen had finally found peace.
“What will you do?” Terran asked.
She looked south, feeling the desolation still pressing against the barrier, but the barrier was incomplete. She needed to strengthen it before the magi returned.
Eris had been mistaken. She thought the magi only intended to destroy, but they had been after something. The desolation had a purpose, a dark one.
Through the connection to the new svanth trees were glimmers of the power they sought to claim, the same power buried deep beneath the Svanth. Had the magi managed to access it here, they could have destroyed the Svanth without ever stepping foot in it.
With everything she learned, she still knew so little about her abilities. The first keeper had not known everything, but she had the foresight to tap into something greater than a keeper of flowers would access. But it meant there was an older order, maybe something even more than the keepers. And the magi knew of it.
“Eris?” Terran asked.
She blinked, tearing her eyes away from the image in her mind. “I must finish what I started,” she began. “The magi have scattered for now, but the desolation pushes on without their help. We will finish the line of svanth trees and extend our garden as far as we can. And then I need to return to Eliara and speak with Lira.”
* * *
The palace looked different than the last time Eris had come.
It was more than the towering svanth tree rising at the center of the garden. The palace itself seemed changed. Or maybe it was her that had changed even more. Either way, she did not feel like she was coming home.
She walked ahead of the column of riders, making her way to the palace with only Terran at her side. Eris hadn’t wanted to be with the soldiers, not while they carried her brother’s body back with them.
It hadn’t taken long for Eris to catch up with the army. She’d spent the last two days continuing her plantings, and now a long row of svanth trees stood like sentinels near the edge of the desolation. The connection to them was strong—stronger even than her connection to the Svanth itself. She wondered if planting them herself made the difference, or if the trees dug more deeply into the ancient energy—the Source—she sensed there.
When that energy had filled her, she had felt afraid. It was vast and powerful and uncaring about who used it. Were the magi to connect to it…
She shook away the thought. For now, she’d kept the magi from reaching it.
“You don’t seem happy to return.”
Eris sighed and turned to Terran. She fingered one of the svanth seeds still in her pocket. After she returned to the palace, she intended to continue planting. If she was right, she might be able to push the desolation back toward Saffra, back beyond the border of Errasn. A nagging worry told her she needed to reclaim the Loess River.
“There is much to do,” she answered. And much more to learn, but Terran knew that. Worse, Eris had no idea where to start.
Shadow would help.
He ranged off away from her. He was her guardian, but he knew she was safe here.
“Your family wil
l need you,” Terran said.
She nodded. It was the reason she had returned.
They said little more as they passed through the outer city. Eris bypassed the huge iron gates—still closed, she noted—and made their way through the servants’ gate. Inside, the renewed energy of the garden washed over her, and she smiled.
The energy within the garden was different than the last time she had been here. Then, the flowers focused and funneled everything they could, storing it for Lira to access. The flowers still did that, but the svanth tree created another source of energy that mingled with the flowers. Rather than competing, they complemented each other. She wondered if Lira even felt it.
Eris made her way into the palace and toward the throne room.
Lira stopped her outside the room. She wore a flowing lavender dress made of a thick fabric. Her hair was rolled neatly atop her head, and her hazel eyes took in everything as she looked from Eris to Terran. Her lips pursed and then split into a smile. “You succeeded.”
Eris noted the surprise in her tone. “For now. Much darkness remains of what the magi did. I have begun the healing, but it will take time.”
“I feel…” Lira paused, as if searching for the right word. “Echoes of what you did.”
“I would like to show it to you.” A part of her still wanted Lira’s approval, even though there was little Lira could teach her that applied to what Eris did. She was simply a different kind of keeper.
Different. Always different.
Only this time, had she not been different, the magi would have succeeded.
“I would like that,” Lira said.
“We will need to prepare.”
Lira’s eyes narrowed. “For what?”
“For when the magi return. I won’t be able to do it alone.”
A moment of fear washed across Lira’s face before fading. “You think to rebuild the gardens.”
Eris hadn’t given it much thought, but standing here, seeing Lira and knowing how different her skills were, she had fleeting visions of the help she would need. “I think we must find the keepers. All of them.”
She still didn’t know who had left the messages in the flowers. Had it been Ferisa and the priestesses…or had there been someone else? Another keeper? One arrangement held flowers from the Svanth, but who else could reach them?
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 48