Eris shook her head. “There is much I still don’t understand.”
“You will.”
“When?”
Shadow sniffed. “When it is necessary.” He turned away, stalking along the trees and rubbing his back on the bark. As he did, he looked more like the tree lion than the strange figure she’d seen in the vision he’d granted her. There, he had seemed something different, greater.
Eris watched him, watched the lean lines of his body and noted how the illness still worked through him. He might be mostly recovered but some effects remained. She wondered how long the illness would stay with him. Would Shadow ever regain the strength he’d once had? What did it mean if he didn’t?
“I still think you should wait. If your message works—if the other keepers return—then there will be others able to help you with this,” Terran said.
Eris turned to him and smiled. “I don’t go into Saffra to attack the magi.” Doing so would not work anyway. That wasn’t the way her power worked. “I go for answers. We need to find out what the magi and the priestesses know of the Darkbinders.” Once she understood the reason for the desolation—the reason they attacked the gardens in the first place—then she might discover what could prevent it from happening again.
If there was anything she could do. She still wasn’t convinced there would be. After what she had seen through Shadow’s vision, she had to try.
She hesitated as she approached the border. Once she stepped over, she was outside the realm of her power. How safe would she be while in Saffra, if they even made it to Saffra safely in the first place? Reaching it meant crossing through the Loess River and moving beyond, past the Kernig Mountains.
The mountains towered in the distance, the highest peaks of any known land. Massive white-capped tops stretched impossibly high. No plants would grow there. Eris would have no power, nothing she could draw on other than what she brought along with her.
She shivered in spite of the heat.
“You don’t have to do this,” Terran reminded.
She looked over, her gaze catching on Shadow as she did. “Don’t I? And if I don’t, what will happen? Already they have attacked my home, my mother, and me. What next? What else will they try taking from me?”
Shadow growled softly as he often did. Eris suspected he tried speaking, but his catlike voice didn’t cooperate.
“Why Saffra?” Terran asked.
“Because this all started in Saffra. Everything that happened came from Saffra. The Conclave. The flower.”
“Not the priestesses,” Terran said.
“I’m not sure they aren’t in Saffra, too.”
She stared at the mountains. How would they find their way through? Without connection to any plants, she would be helpless. Her power depended on the life growing around her…unless she could bring some with her.
She stopped at the nearest svanth tree. It grew tall, blocking out the sunlight as it filled the sky. She rested her hand on its trunk, letting the power of the tree fill her. With a quick request, seeds rained down around her. Eris stuffed them into her pockets and motioned for Terran to do the same. He frowned but did as she asked. Shadow, strangely enough, began chewing the seeds he could find.
With another request, the teary star vine twisted from the tree, bending away so that she could take a small cutting. She took a dozen and handed them to Terran. She kept another dozen for herself and carefully placed them in her pocket.
Once satisfied, she started forward.
* * *
Heat swirled around them, practically a shimmering, visible thing.
Terran stopped them at the edge of the river, pausing long enough to drink and fill the canteens he’d brought with them. “I don’t know how much water we’ll find in Saffra,” he said as he filled them. “Or how long it will take to get through the passes.”
“There will be snow in the passes,” Eris said.
Terran nodded.
“You planned for this when we left Eliara?”
He shrugged. “I knew where you intended to go. I didn’t know if we would leave the gardens and head straight for Saffra, but I suspected it was possible. Better to be prepared. I don’t know how long it will take us to reach it.”
“Longer than usual, I suspect. If there isn’t anything for me to draw energy from, I won’t have any way of walking quickly.”
“There is always life, keeper,” Shadow said.
“Even in Saffra?” she asked.
He growled softly. “It is…weaker…there, but not absent.”
“Is that why the Darkbinders use the magi?” she asked.
Shadow snorted. “It is why the magi chose the land.”
Eris frowned. “But that means they have always served the Darkbinders.”
“Perhaps now, but not always.” He paused, and his tail swished. “There is power in the dark just as there is power in the light. Have you not noticed that they work with destruction rather than growth?”
Hearing Shadow say it made sense. “And the priestesses? What do they serve?”
A troubled sense came through the bond. He didn’t know. “That is unclear to me.”
“Why would they attack me? Why would they try to poison me? Why would they try to poison my mother?”
Shadow was silent.
Eris grunted in annoyance. “They had visions. I remember that from after the attack. Before you took me to safety. They said something about seeing too much light from me.”
“You are a keeper of light. And you had visions as well.”
Eris shook her head. Her visions came from the connection to the roots of the Svanth…didn’t they?
Shadow met her gaze. “You seek answers that I do not have. I have been away from this world for millennia. Within the space between darkness and light, I see little.”
“Millennia? You’ve been here before. You’ve been a guardian before?”
He didn’t answer.
“You’ve never been a guardian?”
He growled softly. “I am your guardian, keeper.”
Somehow, there seemed to be a sense of concern from him as he said it. Shadow held things from her, but Eris still didn’t know if he did so because he did not have the answers or because he didn’t have a way of explaining it to her. Or worse, did he hold things from her because he didn’t think she should know?
* * *
After crossing the river, they moved quickly across the dry and hilly ground. Eris stopped every so often to plant a svanth tree. Now a line of saplings trailed them, like a path for her to return home. The farther she went, the deeper she had to send the roots of the trees, questing as they did for hidden stores of water. This might announce her as keeper, but if she did nothing, she might not have the power she needed as they neared Saffra.
Shadow remained silent as he followed them. Even Terran followed silently.
The Kernig Mountains loomed ever closer. Eris stretched through the roots of the dry grass atop the plains, running along them as she searched for the pass they needed to cross through the mountains. She remembered how Saffra had sent men through the passes, continual waves of them, unmindful of how many were lost. Would they find their remains or would time have claimed them?
The grasses guided her, but after a while, she could stretch along them no further. Whether it was a limitation to her ability or the grasses simply ending, she didn’t know. Either way, they would reach the end of her awareness soon. She wondered if they would have to climb much into the mountains of if there was a way for them to work around them.
It was late in the day when they reached the start of the mountains.
Shadow started into them, moving easily. Terran followed her guardian, climbing around massive rocks and showing her openings. Within an hour, Eris began to feel the effects of the climb.
Life on the rocks was sparse. There were a few scrub plants, mostly stunted and twisted shrubs, but a few pines tried working their way along the rocks, especially the h
igher they climbed. No flowers were found, almost as if they had been sought and intentionally destroyed. Possibly, she decided, they had.
Terran looked back at her occasionally, eyes worked with worry. She smiled at him and waved him on, trying to put forth a strong front, all while fearing what would happen if she wasn’t able to keep up. They would wait for her, she knew, but if the rocks alone managed to slow her, what would happen when they reached Saffra itself?
After a while, Shadow stopped at a flat area. A pair of pines and a scraggly looking birch grew in a small clump, clinging to the rock. He leaned against the trees and let his eyes drop shut. A contented sound, almost like a purr, came from his throat. Eris smiled.
Terran scouted ahead before returning. “We should stop here for the night,” he suggested. “There’s not much beyond here, and you’re getting tired.”
Eris considered arguing, but Terran was right. She was getting tired. It felt different than when she expended herself too much working with the energy of the trees. This was a tiredness that washed over her, starting deep within her muscles and spreading out. Since learning of her abilities, she hadn’t felt so physically tired.
“If we keep along this path—”
Terran nodded. “I think this leads through the mountains.”
Eris touched the trees, delving through them briefly. They were nothing like the trees she was familiar with. Their roots dipped into the rock, moving through it, but could only grow so far. Instead, they spread out, running along the ground at a more shallow level, more like the grasses of the Verilain Plains. Attempting to plant a svanth tree here would do no good. They would not grow in such rocky soil. She was surprised the others could. And if she couldn’t plant her svanth trees, she would be separated from her forest completely.
The idea scared her.
Terran touched her hand. “Rest. Use what you can here,” he said, motioning to the trees, “and we’ll try again tomorrow.”
She rested her head on his chest for a moment, savoring the closeness, before moving toward the pines and settling against them. She drew on their energy, pulling from them enough to feel more alert, and then drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 78
They had climbed for nearly two days before the path started to lead them back down. Fatigue still plagued her, more than she’d known in months, but Eris had begun to get a handle on it. The rocks had not changed, nor had the climb become any easier, but she used a steady stream of energy from trees they passed, pulling it in and storing it until she needed to use it to keep moving. In this way, she moved more quickly than before.
She suspected Shadow did something similar, though she couldn’t prove it. He prowled ahead of them, still having a sickly look that hadn’t completely faded, but he moved without difficulty over the rocks. Terran helped as she made her way along, holding her hand and guiding her around more difficult climbs. It became increasingly clear that she slowed them. If they were to reach Saffra, she would have to move more quickly.
It was nearly midday when she caught a glimpse of green.
She stopped and took a swig of water from the canteen, holding it in her mouth and rinsing before handing it back to Terran. She looked again, certain she’d been mistaken, but nothing changed. Whatever she saw came to the west of where they headed. The path led them south toward Saffra.
“What’s down there?” she asked, pointing.
Terran stared, squinting, before shaking his head. “I don’t see anything.”
Shadow stood at the edge of the rocks, looking down. He growled softly.
“You see it, too?” she asked.
“The climb would be too dangerous,” Shadow said.
Eris stared at the stretch of green before her. It might be dangerous, but it might also be necessary. “You don’t think you can make it?”
Shadow grunted. “I don’t think you can make it.”
“And Terran?”
Shadow turned his head and looked at Terran. “He has proven capable.”
Eris took a deep breath and nodded. “Then you will take me.”
“Take you?” Shadow asked.
She nodded and made her way over to him.
His ears twitched, swiveling around toward her before flattening. “You cannot think to ride me.”
She shrugged. “Why not?”
“I am no horse.”
Eris laughed. After days of silence, it felt good to speak and laugh. “No. You’re my guardian. So keep me safe.”
He growled again but didn’t resist as she swung a leg up over his neck. This close to him, she smelled the oily scent of his fur mixed with a bitter aroma that reminded her of the teary star. Beneath that was another scent, a sickly sort of odor. The darkness might be contained, but it still worked through Shadow.
“Eris?” Terran asked.
She gripped Shadow’s fur and turned to face him. “You can follow.”
“What if you fall? What if he falls?”
Shadow growled. “I will not fall, gardener.”
Terran met Shadow’s eyes. “You don’t even know what it is you see. It could be nothing but a small collection of trees. If you want to reach Saffra—”
“You know I want to reach Saffra, but there’s something down there. It’s not just that I see it, but I feel it, too. I don’t know how else to explain it to you.”
“And when you get there? What then?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Eris tapped Shadow on his flank with her heel. He growled again, and she laughed.
Muscles rippled beneath her as he started down. He moved with incredible agility, holding her easily as he bounded from rock to rock, practically leaping down the mountain. Eris clung to him, gripping tightly to his fur. Every so often, she glanced back. Terran made his way carefully but followed close behind. As Shadow had said, he was capable.
Wind whipped past her as they descended. The air had taken on a crisp bite as they climbed. They weren’t quite to the snow line, but it was visible. Had they continued on the path upward, they would likely have reached the snow within a day or two. But as they descended, heat returned to the air, billowing around her. It threatened to become stifling, but she breathed through it, slowly recognizing a fragrance.
Shadow led them on a winding path as he worked his way down the side of the mountain. Each leap took them what would have required a dozen steps for her. “We should have done this sooner.”
Shadow grunted. “This does not please me, keeper.”
“I didn’t want to please you. I wanted to move faster.”
They rounded the mountain, curving along the path Shadow took, when the expanse of green beneath them became clear.
Eris gasped.
A wide valley spread below her. Trees staggered along the edges, tall and proud, nothing like the scraggly growth found on the mountains. Colors abounded. Bright yellows and reds and pale blues and violets mixed together. From their vantage, she recognized a pattern to the colors, if not what it meant. Had she more time with the Feliran books, she might have known. Had Lira been along—she had a definite eye for patterns—she might have known.
A keeper had grown this garden. Could she still be here?
Shadow’s steps slowed. The path leveled out, and she felt his caution through the bond. Her guardian recognized what she had seen.
“Do you see anyone?” she asked.
Shadow shook his head. “Nothing. This place is well cultivated. Much power has been built into it.”
Eris sensed it as well. There was a drawing energy here, a focus, though she couldn’t tell from where the energy was drawn. She studied the garden, taking in the colors, and saw a stream leading down from the far side of the valley, filling into a tiny mountain lake.
Shadow leapt the nearly forty remaining feet to land in the garden. Eris jumped from his back and stood next to a tall elm, studying the garden. She hesitated delving. Doing so might alert the keeper that she was here. She want
ed to make certain they were safe before she alerted any keeper of their presence.
Terran finally reached her. She looked over at him. Sweat beaded his brow, and he took deep breaths but looked around intently. “This is skillfully done. There was a gardener here.”
Eris nodded.
“Do you sense anyone now?” he asked.
“Shadow hasn’t seen anyone.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She hesitated. “I didn’t want to announce our presence too soon.”
Terran surveyed the garden before turning his attention back to her. “Then use the trees, not the flowers.”
She cursed herself for not thinking of it. He was right.
With a soft surge through the elm, she delved.
It reminded her of the elms at the heart of the palace gardens. Once, they had been the only life there. That was before Lira had come, before she had started her palace garden at her mother’s request, turning the palace into a place of power. The elms still grew at the center of the courtyard, but her svanth now towered over them.
This elm stretched its roots deep beneath the ground. She traced them, following from tree to tree, searching for signs of another keeper. There was nothing.
Eris turned to Shadow. “The keeper is gone.”
Shadow considered her for a moment. “You are certain?”
She shrugged. “As certain as I can be. There is no one here.”
“That does not mean the keeper is truly gone,” Shadow said.
She knew it didn’t. Lira had a garden along the edge of the Svanth Forest. It didn’t require her presence to thrive, and she could use it, drawing her energy through it, focused by the garden at the palace. The two complemented each other. Would Lira do something similar as she reestablished the Gardens of Elaysia?
“It doesn’t,” Eris agreed.
Shadow loped off. He sniffed the air, the trees, even the water cascading down the mountain in a steady stream, before pausing to drink from the lake.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 61