The Lost Garden: The Complete Series

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Do you think one of the keepers from Elaysia did this?” Terran asked.

  Eris studied the flowers. Nearest to her was a patch of calyips and anosems. They grew wide and vibrant, so similar to those at the palace garden, almost as if tended. Another patch of flowers was nothing but purple lilies, their soft petals giving a sweet fragrance to the air. The pattern that had been so clear from above now looked like nothing more than chance, as if this were some random field of flowers.

  “Why would they have chosen to come here?” Eris wondered. “Most of the keepers scattered north, away from the Conclave. Whoever did this risked coming closer to the magi, closer even than Lira risked.” She shook her head. “And then there’s the question of whether they knew of this place or if they came upon it by chance.”

  Terran made his way to the calyips. He knelt and breathed in the scent of the flowers, eyes fluttering closed as he did. “They are well tended.”

  “Recently?” she asked.

  He stood and shrugged. “I can’t tell.”

  Eris made her way across the garden. She paused at a cluster of perisals, some striped, others solid, and leaned in, smiling as she thought of her sister. Moving on, she saw dyrans mixed in with hyanlillies. The usually long, slender petals of the dyrans opened wide here, spread out to catch sunlight. Thick blue veins ran along the petals of the hyanlillies. Further along, she found golden ulsens and bright orange celias. At each one, she stopped and sniffed, enjoying the scent of the flowers after so long wandering among the rocks.

  Standing here in this garden recharged her. Without intending to, she drew upon the energy stored here, pulling it within herself and using it to replace what she’d spent while making her way up the mountain. Through the bond she shared with Shadow, she sensed contentment from him and suspected he did something similar.

  Eris stopped at the stream and dipped her hands to drink. The water was icy cold—likely runoff from snow high up in the mountains—and tasted clear and crisp. A few silver fish darted beneath the surface. Terran stabbed at them with his sword, spiking two long fish and smiling.

  “Better than stale bread and jerky,” he said.

  While he searched for dry wood to make a fire, she used her short knife to clean the fish. Time spent with him in the forest had taught her how to care for herself. They ate meat rarely—usually choosing berries or other edible plants from the forest—but Terran had taught her how to skin hares and clean fish. She found the work calming.

  When he returned, he carried with him a bundle of dry branches. He stacked them near the edge of the lake and used his flint to make quick work of starting a fire. When the fire was ready, he took the fish from her and started roasting them on large, flat rocks he pulled from the lake.

  It was the first Eris had felt content in a long time.

  If only every day could be like this. She could grow accustomed to working alongside Terran, cooking with him, hunting with him, simply living with him. Such a life would be welcome.

  Instead, they continued to be pulled in different directions. First with her mother and then with the magi. Now with the Darkbinders. They might never find a peaceful life. Even if they did, from what she saw in the visions, that life together would be brief. Keepers lived long lives, but gardeners were not granted the same gifts, leaving keepers living alone far longer than they lived together. Thinking of a time without Terran sent her heart fluttering nearly as much as thinking of the darkness Shadow had shown her.

  He slipped his arm around her back as he came to sit by her. He smelled of sweat and earth and strength. Of Terran.

  She sighed and leaned her head against him.

  “This place is lovely,” he said.

  Eris nodded. “Almost perfect.”

  Terran laughed. “You would have more trees, I think.”

  She shrugged. “The elms are nice.”

  “But they aren’t your svanth trees.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “They aren’t my svanth trees.”

  They sat in silence for a moment. He worked the fish on the rocks, flipping them as they cooked. When they were ready, he handed one of the rocks to her. They picked at the meat in silence. She sighed contentedly, letting her eyes fall closed as she leaned against him.

  “When this is over, maybe you can craft us a place like Imryll’s,” Terran said.

  Eris nodded. “Maybe. I’m afraid I’ll need it to be bigger than Imryll’s. I’m thinking something along the lines of the palace. If made entirely of svanth trees, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Terran said nothing.

  Eris laughed. “I’m a princess, you know. I need to have things a certain way.”

  He laughed and leaned toward her to kiss her. She kissed him back, welcoming the quiet moment together. Shadow still prowled through the garden, studying everything around them, almost as if intentionally giving them time alone together.

  “I think, had I known Lira called me to work with a princess, I might not have come.”

  Eris opened her eyes and sat up. “You wouldn’t?”

  He shrugged, and a playful smile pulled on his mouth. “Imagine had it been Jasi? I’m not sure I would have been able to help as she wanted.”

  She laughed. “Before she was changed, you would have preferred Ferisa. She was always the pretty one.”

  He kissed her again. “I’m glad it was you.”

  She smiled and pressed against him.

  They sat next to the fire, Terran with his arm around her, and Eris with her head on his chest, for long moments. She began to drift, growing tired.

  A low growl jolted her awake.

  “Shadow?”

  Terran jumped to his feet. He had his sword unsheathed in the same motion.

  Eris stood and focused on the bond with Shadow. Through it, she knew where to find him. As far as she could tell, he was unharmed. Why had he growled?

  “What is it?” Terran asked.

  Eris shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “The keeper?”

  She frowned. Had the keeper of this place returned, Shadow wouldn’t have growled, would he? What else would he have found?

  They ran. Eris led, using what she could tell of Shadow to find him. She reached through the flowers, unmindful of the fact that doing so might alert the keeper of this place. With the connection, she found Shadow on the other side of the valley.

  Drawing on the energy of the garden, she hurried toward him. Terran followed.

  With each step, she felt a growing concern. Shadow had not made another sound. Could he have been injured? Could the Darkbinders have done something to him? Had the binding of power around the darkness that healed him failed? Too many thoughts ran through her mind, and she had no answers.

  When they reached Shadow, they found him sitting on his haunches, staring at massive boulders stacked as if intentional. Streaks of green moss climbed along their shadowed edge. Strands of grass poked free, small fingers of life pressing through.

  “Shadow?” Eris asked as they approached.

  He swung his head toward her. “This was warded.”

  She frowned. “The rock?”

  Shadow growled again. “Not the rocks. There was an opening here. It collapsed as I tried to investigate.”

  “Collapsed? Are you hurt?”

  He looked at her with an amused expression. “No, keeper, I am unharmed.”

  “Then why did you growl?”

  “This opening,” Shadow started, “I think it led through the mountain.”

  Through the mountain. To Saffra.

  But why would there be a garden with access to Saffra?

  Eris touched the nearest rock and jerked her hand back, surprised to feel energy humming through it. The energy felt familiar, not dark and painful like the magi magic she had felt before. This felt almost like…

  “It’s from the flowers,” she said.

  Shadow sniffed. “Yes. The keeper here used the rocks to hide this garden.”
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  “But why?” Terran asked. “If you’re in the garden, you already know it exists.”

  Eris shook her head. “I suspect it would have triggered from the other side. To keep anyone from discovering it.” If that was true, she wanted more than anything to learn more about this keeper. If she knew she was close to Saffra—close enough that she had to provide protections around her garden—the garden could be no coincidence.

  “Can you move the rocks?” Terran asked.

  Shadow barked out a laugh. “You may try, gardener.”

  Terran frowned. He seemed to be more attuned to hearing Shadow the longer they traveled together. “So there’s no way out of here?”

  Shadow sniffed the air. “The only way is back how we came.”

  He looked up, gaze trailing toward the rocks.

  Eris followed and stared. She hadn’t realized how sheer the drop had been. Rock rose straight overhead before opening onto a flatter area. How had Shadow managed to get them down the rocks safely? How had Terran come down the rocks safely?

  “We can’t get out that way, can we Shadow?” she asked.

  Terran looked over.

  Shadow growled softly. “I might be able to make the climb, keeper, but not with you. And not with the gardener.”

  Unless they could move the rocks, they would be trapped here.

  Chapter 79

  Eris looked around the garden, staring at the flowers, trying to understand the meaning within the pattern. But she could not. Patterns were not her strength, not like traveling along the roots. Being able to understand patterns was Lira’s strength.

  “Shadow, see if you can find another way out of here,” she said.

  He looked at her and shook his head. “There is no other way. I have searched the entirety of this garden.”

  “We have to try. Maybe there’s another slope we can climb?” she suggested.

  Even as she did, she looked around her and realized there was not. The garden was set into a nearly sheer rock valley. That they’d reached it in the first place was likely more luck than anything. Shadow had been forced to jump the last forty or so feet down the rock wall; Eris couldn’t imagine how Terran had managed the same thing.

  “So we’re trapped?” she said.

  Shadow growled. “It would appear so.”

  Eris touched the rock again. There had to be something she could do, some way of moving the rock, but her ability didn’t work like that. It wouldn’t grant her strength, and she couldn’t destroy with it. Were she like the magi, she might be able to crush the rock, but doing so risked bringing down even more of the mountain atop them.

  “Can you do like you did when you brought me to Imryll the first time?” she asked. Somehow, Shadow had drawn her away from the palace and sent her to another.

  Shadow let out another growl. “That will not work.”

  “Why?”

  “The gardener would not be able to come.”

  Terran looked at her. “If you can escape, you need to do it. You can leave me here. There’s fish and water and berries. I’ll be fine. You can come back for me once you’ve done what you need to do in Saffra.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you. If you can’t go, I’m not going.”

  “But, Eris—”

  “No. There has to be another way.”

  She only had to figure out what it might be.

  Eris stepped away from the rock and moved back toward trees. Standing under the shade, away from the bright sun, helped her think. What could she do to get them out? Could she plant a tree and have it grow high enough for them to climb? She looked over at the rocks. The idea had some merit, but it would be dangerous, and there was no way to guarantee they would be able to reach the rocks anyway.

  But there might be another way using the svanth trees.

  She might not be able to destroy—not like the magi—but she could use the trees to grow.

  Eris stepped over to the fallen rocks and knelt alongside them. Energy hummed in them. She smiled grimly. If this worked, she would find the keeper and understand what she had done. How she had managed to ward the rocks. But first she had to get out.

  She took a svanth seed from her pocket. Drawing from the nearby elms, she punched into the ground, sending the seed as deep as she could. She pulled energy into it, and it split open, quickly shooting out of the ground.

  “Eris?” Terran asked.

  “You might want to step back,” she suggested.

  She took a teary star cutting and placed it alongside the svanth sapling. And then she added another. She didn’t know if it would work, but she needed to try.

  She drew as much as she could away from the elms growing in this garden, but they didn’t have enough energy for what she needed. She turned to the flowers, shifting the focus of the energy coming from the flowers and diverting it to her tree.

  The svanth tree continued to push up from the ground, quickly reaching high over her head. This time, rather than continuing to push energy into the budding tree to let it grow taller, she pressed the energy out and through the roots, sending them deeper and out. The roots pressed beneath the rock, fortified by the extra teary star vine, and continue to crawl forward, stretching out, weaving together.

  Eris guided the roots along the fallen rock, using the strange sense of energy that hummed within it as a guide. Had it not been for the warding the keeper had placed on the rock, she didn’t think she would have managed to follow it as easily.

  She continued to push. The roots stretched out and out, farther and farther away from the garden, always following along the energy. As she went, she realized she could draw energy from the rocks, and used that to pull the roots forward.

  And then the rock ended.

  Eris relaxed and leaned back.

  She looked up at the tree. It looked different than any svanth she had ever planted. Rather than reaching high overhead, this svanth grew fat and round, a great ball of branches cresting over her head. Roots stretched around her, many reaching and intertwining with the elms, but most questing out and along the fallen rock.

  “What did you do?” Terran asked.

  She shook her head. “Gave us a way out, I think.”

  Shadow looked at the tree. She noted approval coming through the bond.

  “It might work,” Shadow said.

  “What might work?” Terran asked. “I still can’t tell what you did here.”

  “Watch,” Eris suggested.

  She took a deep breath and prayed this would work as she planned. Something similar had worked for Imryll, but Eris wasn’t sure she had the same capacity for control. Not yet, at least.

  Summoning energy through the tree, borrowing from the elms and the flowers planted around the garden, she sent a single request. Rise.

  A slow rumbling built.

  Then rock began to crack. Terran grabbed her and tried to pull her back, but Eris refused to move. She needed to stay near the tree, to guide the roots as they lifted, framing the fallen tunnel.

  Rock heaved beneath her and groaned. She felt it through her feet, shaking her and threatening to toss her down. She fought against it, gripping tightly onto a branch of the teary star vine, letting it keep her standing.

  The roots moved, pressing up with incredible power, fed by the strength of the garden, by the strength of the newly planted svanth tree.

  And then it eased.

  An opening formed in the twisted roots that probed between the fallen rock outside the tunnel. Eris stepped over to it and peered in. She could see nothing but darkness. Had she some of Imryll’s ability, she might know how to coax the tree into glowing lanterns, but she did not.

  Shadow stood next to her and sniffed. “Danger resides on the other side of this.”

  “Saffra,” Eris agreed.

  “Not only Saffra,” Shadow said. He sniffed again. “We will need to move carefully.”

  She nodded. “We will. There is something I must do here first.”


  Shadow looked up at her, golden eyes puzzled, and then he growled softly.

  * * *

  Eris looked over the garden. Svanth trees rimmed the outer edge of the garden, stretching tall and running along the sheer rock. Eris had wound their roots together, twisting them so they could feed each other, and then sent fingers of roots toward the other svanths she’d planted. It would take days before they would join the others, even fed by the energy of this place, but they would not need her guidance.

  Terran crouched outside the tunnel framed by the squat svanth tree and looked through. “Wind blows through here,” he said.

  Eris had felt it when she first stepped up to the tunnel. The air felt hot and dry, nothing like the cool air of the garden. Saffra.

  “Are you ready?” she asked, looking to Shadow.

  Sitting at the base of the svanth and chewing at a pile of seeds, he looked up at her. “I will follow.”

  “Once we get into Saffra, you might have to hide.”

  He snorted. “I am the place between darkness and light.”

  Eris nodded. “You are Shadow.”

  He tipped his head, as if that explained everything. Eris trusted it would be enough.

  Touching the thick roots arching into a tunnel, she took a deep breath before starting in. The ground was uneven beneath her, and some loose rock threatened to trip her—the result of the roots jerking free. Terran walked behind her, his hand resting on her back. She welcomed his touch, thankful for the soft reassurance it provided. Already, she missed the quiet solitude they’d shared at the edge of the lake. She didn’t know when they would be able to find such time again.

  The tunnel worked straight through the rock. Roots overhead provided support. Occasional teary star flowers hung from the roots, as if the vines thought they should bloom. With a surge of inspiration, Eris pushed a hint of energy through the teary star flowers. They glowed softly, each multi-colored petal glowing with a different light.

  With the light, she could see how far they had to go. The tunnel seemed to stretch on indefinitely. How had the keeper managed to bore through this rock? It had taken Eris most of the energy within the garden to do it, and she could use the trees as well as the flowers.