The Lost Garden: The Complete Series

by D. K. Holmberg

  Chapter 81

  Eris crouched in the shadows of two stone buildings as she studied the gate, watching the women passing through. Most were dressed similar to her in long wraps that left their arms and legs exposed. A few had darker colored wraps, and there was one woman who entered wearing what looked to be a long, dark gown made of a shimmering material. She strode through the square and disappeared into the building in the middle of the square.

  “I’m going to have to enter alone,” she said, looking to Terran. She knew it would upset him, but there was nothing she could do about that. If she were to learn about the flower—if she intended to find her sister—she had to enter the building. And no men entered.

  Terran shook his head, looking past her toward the iron fence surrounding the square. “You’ll be helpless. You can’t go there alone.”

  “And you can’t go in. You have to see that.”

  He held her hand tightly, as if afraid to let her go. “There has to be another way, Eris. Something that doesn’t require you walking into danger like this.”

  She smiled. How many times had she walked into danger in the time they’d known each other? Too many. But each time, he had been a constant, the one person who came with her, willing to make the journey alongside her. This time he could not.

  “I’ll be fine. Besides, look at how many people are coming and going.”

  “I only see women entering,” he said.

  “All I intend is to find what I can about the flower. See if it’s there.”

  “You intend to find your sister. Don’t think you can deceive me, Eris. I know you too well.”

  Sometimes she thought he did know her too well. He was the only person who really did know her. She took his hand in both of hers and looked up at him. “I won’t do anything foolish. I will return to you.”

  A pained and conflicted look twisted his eyes. “Eris—”

  She leaned toward him and kissed him. “Wait for me here.” She turned to Shadow, barely able to make him out where he stood along the buildings. At least here, he had more form, more shape. She hoped that hiding himself like this didn’t drain him too much. And she hoped they would be able to leave Saffra soon. The lack of anything growing around her left an ache in her chest. “Keep him safe,” she whispered to Shadow.

  He growled softly in response.

  Eris took a deep breath and separated herself from Terran. She swallowed the frightened lump in her throat as she strode toward the gate. Passing through iron would be the first test. It couldn’t be coincidental.

  At the gate, she had to wait for another woman as she squeezed through. The opening was narrow, not meant for someone with wide hips, and the woman’s clothing caught.

  “Withdraw upon yourself.”

  Shadow’s voice slipped through her mind briefly. Guidance. Rare that he would offer suggestions, especially ones like this that seemed particularly cryptic.

  The woman in front of her pushed through, leaving Eris standing at the iron gate. Patterns shifted in the iron, reminding her of broad petals of flowers. She sniffed at the irony and took a step forward. For a moment, she was held in place, as if she couldn’t move. Pain worked through her, paralyzing her.

  “Withdraw.” Shadow’s voice came more distantly, this time reminding her of when he had been tainted.

  What could he mean asking her to withdraw upon herself?

  The iron pressed on her, holding her. Much longer, and she would attract notice. If she turned away, she would attract even more.

  Eris took a deep breath. Could she withdraw? Could she pull the energy within herself? Doing so would be different than what she normally did, but hadn’t she done it before when she saved Shadow? The trees had taught her to delve through their roots, to stretch herself out and away, but when she needed to heal him, she had pulled energy inside herself.

  She focused inward, forcing her energy back within her. As she did, the resistance from the iron withdrew. Eris pushed harder, sending more and more of her energy deep within, delving through herself. As she did, the connection between her and Shadow solidified like a branch, like a bridge between her. But it wasn’t the only connection. There was another. She found one between her and Terran, different than what she shared with Shadow but no less real. Others, smaller and thinner, were there as well. She didn’t have the time to understand what those were.

  With another breath, she pushed again, delving even deeper, pressing all the energy she could summon into a tight ball, sealing it within her as she had once sealed the darkness around the svanth tree.

  And then she slipped through the gate.

  She held her energy in place, unwilling to release it. Holding it like that felt unnatural, but she would do it if it meant finding Ferisa.

  Inside the square, she paused to look around. More iron had been worked into the stones beneath her, creating a massive swirling pattern that looked much like what she’d passed through. Iron mixed into the stones of the building itself, creating a pattern she couldn’t see. Whatever this place was, it was meant to keep back keepers.

  She followed the other women walking toward the building. A wide stair led into an arched entry. Painted stone swirled with additional colors, masking the iron within it. Eris hesitated. Could this be the priestesses, or was there another explanation?

  A bell gonged nearby. The women remaining on the steps hurried forward, surging into the building. Eris followed closely, doing what she could to blend in with them, to hide herself among the women. Most had skin darker than hers, but with her dark hair she fit in better than one of her sisters would have. She smiled tightly to herself. That was how she could find Ferisa.

  Atop the steps, a massive door opened before her. Strips of iron ran along each side, like sentries guarding the door. Eris focused on holding her energy tightly within herself, walling it off. It became easier the longer she was here. She felt a hint of resistance at the door but managed to push through it, sliding past.

  Inside, she found herself in a massive room. The ceiling arched high overhead. Lanterns hung on the walls, glowing with an orange light. Music played distantly, a haunting and dissonant sound. Eris scanned the women but everyone looked much like her. They walked slowly toward the front of the room.

  As she approached, she saw it was some kind of altar. More iron adorned it, massive patterns coalescing into a twisted shape. It took her a few moments to realize the shape was that of the Saffra veratrum.

  Eris tensed. Could this be where the veratrum came from? Could this be the source of the taint?

  Women stood in rows, staring toward the altar. A voice began chanting, speaking in a language she didn’t recognize. The women next to her chanted along, raising arms in time to the incantation. Eris tried to follow, but lagged. The chanting continued to build, rising to a crescendo, before falling off to nothing.

  Silence stifled the great room.

  One woman stood at the front of the altar, dark chestnut hair pulled tight behind her head. Dark and angry eyes blazed as she peered around the room. Her lips pressed tightly together, and her head tipped to the side as if daring someone to speak.

  A hooded woman stepped to the front of the alter carrying a wreath of Saffra roses. She held the wreath out before placing it around her neck. She slid the hood back, and Eris nearly gasped.

  Ferisa.

  She had found her sister.

  Ferisa stood and began the ritual again. This time, everyone around her picked up the chanting, calling it louder and louder. Eris couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything to hide her shock.

  The sound halted again. Ferisa pulled the wreath from around her neck and turned to the iron altar. There she set the wreath around the shaped Saffra veratrum.

  As it settled, Eris felt a hum of power.

  She shivered.

  Around her, women sighed. The chanting shifted, changing to a singsong style. Some women dropped to their knees. Others touched their foreheads. Some started moving toward the
altar. Ferisa stood before them, leading the ceremony.

  Eris remained frozen in place. She wouldn’t be able to take her sister from here, not like this, and not with this many people here. She wasn’t even certain Ferisa would listen were she to try. She was too far gone.

  What had she thought coming here? Could she really have believed her sister would simply have come along with her? She had chosen the priestesses and they had chosen her. Now, Ferisa was something different, whatever this was.

  Eris turned, trying to slip unnoticed through the women. The overpowering desire to be gone from this place worked through her. Now that she knew Ferisa was here, she could wait outside the gates, try to catch her and speak to her, help her see the need to turn away from the dark. But doing that required Eris to get away.

  Something caught her arm before she reached the aisle.

  She spun. A dark-haired woman with part of her wrap swirled around her face held her arm. Dark brown eyes stared at her, fixing her with a hard expression.

  Eris swallowed and tried to pull away, but the woman held her firmly.

  “Come,” she hissed.

  She pulled Eris down the line of women, away from the central aisle, away from the door leading back into the square. Away from Terran and Shadow.

  Eris almost lost control of the energy she held tightly within her. For a moment, that control slipped. As it did, the pressure of the iron working through the stone pushed on her, tearing through her. Eris tensed and focused on delving through herself, ignoring the connection she felt stretching toward Ferisa standing at the altar. All she could think of was holding onto her energy, pressing it down, saving it for when she needed to use it to escape.

  The woman pressed something on the wall. A narrow door slid open. She pulled Eris along with her, receding into the darkness. As the door closed behind them, panic worked through Eris.

  She had been caught. And she wouldn’t see Terran again.

  Chapter 82

  The woman led her through the darkness. No lanterns or anything lit the way. She held onto Eris’s arm, squeezing with enough force that Eris suspected she’d bruise. It wouldn’t matter if she didn’t get away.

  “Where are you taking me?” Eris asked.

  “Quiet,” the woman hissed.

  Iron infused the walls on either side of her. Losing focus—even for a moment—would be painful. What would have happened had Shadow not suggested she withdraw on herself? Likely, she wouldn’t have made it into the courtyard in the first place. Part of her wished now that she hadn’t. She knew Ferisa lived and where to find her, but she’d been captured. Terran and Shadow wouldn’t know what happened. Or could they? Could she send a message to Shadow? Delving herself had given her insight to the connection she shared with Shadow. Could she use that connection and reach him? Could she send warning?

  As they walked, she focused on the connection between her and Shadow, the branch she could practically see as she delved. She grabbed onto the connection and started to push a sliver of awareness along it when the woman squeezed her arm.

  “Don’t.”

  Eris blinked. Had she known what Eris was doing?

  How could that be possible?

  The woman stopped and touched something on the wall. Another door opened with a soft gust of air, and she pulled Eris through. On the other side, she pressed another spot on the wall, and the door slid back into place. Thankfully, in here, Eris felt no iron infusing the walls.

  They stood in a small room. A single lantern glowed near the corner. A long desk stretched across one part of the room. Books stacked atop it, some with dark covers that looked familiar. A fire danced in a small hearth in the corner, unnecessary with the heat.

  Eris jerked her arm again. This time the woman released her.

  “What do you want with me?” Eris asked.

  The woman grunted. “You should not have come.”

  Eris took a deep breath. She was beginning to think the same thing.

  “How did you manage to come through the gate?” the woman asked.

  Eris shook her head. “The same as any other.”

  “No keeper can come through the gate.”

  Eris froze. The woman knew what she was. Were Terran and Shadow injured? Would she know about them, or would they manage to remain safe? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The woman laughed and turned to face her. Eris tensed, fearing what she might do. She watched, waiting for a weapon, anything, but the woman only lowered the veil wrapped around her mouth.

  Eris gasped. “Rochelle?”

  Her aunt—her mother—looked at her with concern in her eyes. She looked the same as Eris remembered—the same warm brown eyes, the same dark hair, so much like Eris’s own, and the same warmth radiating from her. Rochelle looked little different than the last time Eris had seen her. Then, they had sat together on a bench in the palace garden. It had been nearly ten years ago, long enough that Eris should have forgotten how Rochelle looked, and she remembered the somber way Rochelle had talked, telling her how she would be gone for a while.

  She hadn’t known it then, but that had been the last time she had seen Rochelle before now, the last time she had seen her mother.

  “You should not have come here, Eris. This is no place for a keeper.”

  Dozens of questions raced through her mind. Why was Rochelle here? What did Ferisa do with the flowers? How did Rochelle know she’d come?

  Another, one she’d refused to ask, drifted forward as well. Who was her father?

  All of her questions were ignored. Hurt from learning that Rochelle was her mother surged through it, overpowering any other question she wanted to ask. “Why did you leave me?”

  Rochelle looked at her, unblinking. Her face softened slightly, and she shook her head. “I did not leave you.”

  Eris shook her head. “You did. You left me with…with…” She didn’t know how to finish. How could she argue with a woman willing to leave her daughter?

  Rochelle finished for her. “I left you with a family.”

  Eris didn’t know what to say. There wasn’t anything she could say. Rochelle was right—she had left her with a family. Had she not, would Eris feel so strongly about returning Ferisa to Eliara? Would she feel the hurt from losing Jacen? Would she have struggled to do what she could to heal her mother?

  “Why are you here?” Eris asked. “Why have you been gone from Errasn for so long?”

  Rochelle moved around the desk and leaned forward on it. “Errasn was never my home. And the answer to your first question will take a long time.”

  “You said no keeper could come through the gate,” Eris said. “But you’re here. And you’re a keeper.”

  Rochelle shook her head. “It’s complicated.”

  “No. It’s not. How are you here? Are you helping them?”

  Rochelle frowned. “Them?”

  Eris nodded, pointing back toward the iron-infused tunnel they had come down, toward the altar where her sister had stood chanting. “Them. All of this. The Darkbinders.” Eris didn’t know exactly who Ferisa was with any longer. What she had seen—the chanting, the flowers, the iron—was no ritual of the Sacred Mother.

  Rochelle tensed. “How do you know of them?”

  Eris snorted. “Because I’m apparently meant to stop them.”

  Rochelle let out a shaky breath and sank into the chair. “You’re a keeper of light.” She sighed. “Of course you are. How else would you manage to walk these halls? How else would you have reached here in the first place?”

  Eris frowned. “But you’re a keeper, too. That means…”

  Rochelle looked up at her and nodded. “I’m also a keeper of light. Why do you think I couldn’t keep you? Had I been able to recede into my garden, to hide like the keepers in Elaysia, there is no reason I couldn’t have kept you with me. But what I do—what I must do—was too dangerous for a child.”

  Eris thought of how Imryll hid. She stayed with the forest, h
iding in her garden, refusing to come forth even after Eris had told her about the Darkbinders. Could not Rochelle have done the same?

  But if she had, what would she have risked? Didn’t Eris venture from her garden knowing there were risks?

  Did that mean she would never have the peace and solitude Imryll found? Would she never have the quiet of the forest home, the chance to sit with Terran and enjoy the sounds of the night, the quiet they had shared while sitting before the lake? Did that mean Eris would never know the joy of having a child of her own?

  She sighed. And if it did, would she change anything? She was a keeper. She would do what was needed, even if it meant she could never have the life she wanted.

  “How many are there?” Eris asked.

  Rochelle shook her head. “Not enough. Not nearly enough.”

  Eris knew of Imryll and now Rochelle. There had to be others, didn’t there? And if not, then what? What would that mean if only a few keepers of the light remained?

  She sighed, studying Rochelle. “That was your garden we found, isn’t it?”

  She frowned. “You discovered the garden?”

  “It’s the only way we managed to reach Saffra.”

  “You shouldn’t have been able to cross through. The way was warded. Did it fail?”

  Eris shook her head. “It didn’t fail. And I’m sorry I had to modify your garden.”

  Rochelle frowned. “Modify? You shouldn’t have been able to enter the garden let alone modify it.”

  Eris shrugged. “Maybe because I’m your daughter.”

  “That has nothing to do with a keeper’s powers,” Rochelle said. “I was careful with it. This close to Saffra, I didn’t dare leave it so anyone could reach. The only way in is through the tunnel. And the tunnel is—was—warded.”

  “We came from above.”

  “We?”

  “Terran. My gardener,” she explained in a hurry.

  Rochelle smiled. “Your gardener. He is here?”

  Eris nodded. “He is here.”

  “And your guardian?”