“There have been no others?”
Shadow blinked. “You ask questions as if I should understand the answers. Perhaps when I stood on the edge of darkness and light, I did. But being here in this place has changed me. I am here too strongly, I suspect.”
“Rochelle said the other guardians kept part of themselves in the shadows. Doing so protected them.”
“Many return to the shadows,” he agreed.
“Many? Not all?”
“Not all. Some do not return.”
“What does it mean if they don’t return?” she asked.
Shadow sighed. “It means the barrier weakens.”
“How many remain? How many guardians?”
Shadow growled. Frustration surged through the bond. “I do not know. Perhaps I did in that place.”
Eris nodded. But he was here too strongly. Could that be what the priestesses—or whatever they were—sought? Could they hope to bring an end to the guardians and remove the barrier?
Thinking of darkness overwhelming the light sent shivers working through her.
“What do you want to do?” Terran asked.
Eris shook her head. “Rochelle thinks Ferisa is too far gone, but I’m not convinced. If I can get her to see what she’s doing, if I can remind her of her family, I might be able to save her.”
“What if you can’t? If what you think is right—if your sister and the others seek to destroy those like Shadow, what will you do then?”
Eris sighed. She didn’t know enough to answer. And Shadow apparently couldn’t answer. If only Imryll had helped. Then she might be able to have more to work from.
“If not, then I will return to the gardens and see—”
Shadow growled, this time deep and menacing, different than the annoyed sound he made when he struggled to explain something to her. This was a threatening sound, low and painful.
As he did, Eris understood the reason.
She had been distracted, too focused on talking to Shadow, convinced they were safe in this place. They should have been safe. Had she paid any attention to everything around her, they would have been safe.
Iron moved through the tunnel.
Eris delved quickly, sending the message through the roots of the svanth tree to relax the roots and let the cave fall back into place, but the iron prevented her from succeeding. Whoever came through the tunnel knew they were facing a keeper.
Who else knew about this place? Rochelle. But why would Rochelle tell others about her garden? Why would she sacrifice her daughter?
Unless Rochelle had been caught.
“Terran!” she cried.
He frowned at her and leapt to his feet, sword coming unsheathed in a single motion.
Shadow slipped near the svanth tree. He paused and chewed at the fallen seeds. For a moment, Eris felt him draw energy from them. The trees did not connect to those within the Svanth Forest, their roots had not extended far enough to reach them yet, but power still worked there.
She followed his lead and drew power into herself and held it. With one hand on the svanth tree, she waited.
What came next happened in a blur.
A pair of soldiers sprinted from the tunnel. Eris barely had time to register the dark armor with strange-shaped helms and glowing stones worked across the forehead before they attacked.
Terran reacted more quickly than she could have imagined. All the time practicing the sword had improved his skill. Blessed with the enhanced speed of the gardeners, he matched the first soldier he faced blow for blow. For a moment, Eris thought he could hold them back, but then another pair of soldiers jumped from the tunnel.
“Shadow,” Eris sent the urgent request to him. “Help Terran!”
Shadow darted forward with a growl. He knocked one of the soldiers to the ground with a quick swipe of a massive paw. Eris didn’t see what happened next, but he yelped and jumped back, as if burned.
More soldiers came from the tunnel, nearly a dozen in all. The three still standing surrounded Terran. The remainder advanced on Shadow, swords of cold iron held out from them. Shadow slipped back and back, moving away from the soldiers.
“Keeper—”
It came as a growl. Eris pushed a surge of energy through the svanth, demanding it to press its roots up and out, to help Shadow, but she failed. Something prevented the tree from responding.
Eris delved quickly, trying to understand. As she did, she felt it. Iron pierced the roots of the tree, slicing easily through, like a knife through an apple, cleaving part of the roots free. What remained withered and receded, damaged and broken, unable to respond to her requests.
Another figure stepped from the tunnel.
Eris gasped as it lowered its hood to reveal long, golden hair. Blue eyes, so much like the rest of her family’s, looked over at her. A wreath of blood red flowers hung around her neck. Ferisa smiled at Eris darkly.
“Sister,” she said. “I thought it was you.”
Ferisa moved quickly toward Shadow. Soldiers enhanced with the magi stones circled him, preventing him from moving. He swung his head toward her, fear in his eyes. With a flick of her wrist, Ferisa took the wreath and slipped it around Shadow’s neck.
He snarled in pain.
It surged through the bond for a moment and then fell silent. The connection to him severed.
“Ferisa!” Eris snapped.
Her sister looked over at her. The expression in her eyes was unlike anything Eris had ever seen from her before. There was darkness and anger, nothing of the sweet Ferisa she once had known. Could Rochelle be right? Could Ferisa truly be gone?
If so, Eris had sacrificed everything to find out.
“Keeper,” Ferisa said. “Rochelle didn’t hide herself nearly as well as she thought. And when she pulled you from the ceremony…”
She stalked toward Eris, holding something in front of her. With a dawning horror, Eris realized they were cuffs of iron. Ferisa meant to bind her with iron.
“Why are you doing this, Ferisa? I’m your sister!”
Ferisa shook her head. “We are blood, but we are not sisters,” she said, snapping the first of the cuffs onto Eris’s wrist.
Eris didn’t bother to resist. It would get her nothing. Terran was trapped. Shadow captured. And now iron encircled her.
Chapter 84
Eris leaned away from the svanth tree, unwilling to press the iron cuffs against it and damage it further. A pair of soldiers stood looking down at her, keeping her from moving far. Terran lay in a heap near her. Had she not been able to see his chest rising and falling, she would think him dead. A large lump formed on his forehead where one of the soldiers had struck him, knocking him unconscious.
She feared for Shadow the most.
The great guardian wheezed next to the large, squat svanth tree. The Saffra veratrum wreath hung around his neck, holding him in place as strongly as the iron cuffs held her. Golden eyes blinked weakly and looked at her, pain clear in them. Without the bond, she couldn’t feel his pain.
Ferisa crouched next to Shadow, touching his fur, peeling back his lips, looking at his legs, making her seem as well trained to examine him as Terran had been. Eris wondered when she had acquired the skill.
“Why are you doing this, Ferisa?”
Her sister ignored her and continued prodding Shadow. She pressed deep on his stomach and jerked her hand back. Spots of blood appeared on her palm where the barbs in his fur must have caught her.
Finally, Ferisa stood. She looked at four of the soldiers and motioned toward Shadow. “Carry him.”
With a nod, they moved quickly, grabbing Shadow with mailed hands, lifting him as if he weighed nothing. Did the magi stones enhance their strength, too? If so, the Errasn soldiers had been lucky to survive the attack.
“Please,” Eris begged. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Ferisa ignored her and motioned to Terran. “We will take him as well. He can be trained.”
Another pair of sol
diers lifted Terran, one on each end, and pulled him away. Eris followed him until he disappeared in the mouth of the tunnel. The others soldiers looked to Ferisa. She nodded, and they turned and followed the others out.
That left only Ferisa and Eris.
Ferisa knelt in front of her. Blue eyes that once had been gentle and welcoming now looked hard and piercing. A grim smile crossed her face. “You probably wonder if I will bring you as well.”
Eris had hoped they would. With enough time—and help from Terran—she thought she might be able to come up with a way to escape. Then she could help Shadow.
“I think it is better for you to remain here, keeper. I will not kill you. Consider that my concession to our shared bloodline. But you will not escape this place.”
Ferisa stood and started toward the tunnel. A slender knife of iron slipped from a sheath hidden beneath her cloak and gleamed in the late day sun.
“Wait—”
Ferisa paused.
Eris would not have another chance to try and compel her sister. What she said now would have to matter. Could she have the same effect Desia had on her? Could she help Ferisa see the person she had been?
“Desia wants you to return home. Jasi needs you. With Jacen gone—”
“I know about Jacen. And they will understand soon enough.”
“Why? What are going to do?”
Ferisa smiled. “You did it for us, Eris. You summoned the keepers. Now we can finish what the Conclave started for her years ago.”
“For who?”
Ferisa snorted. “Even the High Seat of the Conclave listens when the Mistress of Dark commands.” She turned and started forward again.
“Why do this? You were to serve the Sacred Mother. What you do now…”
Ferisa looked back. Her eyes flashed harder than before. “She showed me how I can serve, what my visions meant. How I could find power. I didn’t have to be the fourth daughter. Like you, I could be more.”
She ducked into the tunnel and disappeared, leaving Eris chained in iron, sitting alone in Rochelle’s garden.
A deep rumbling came, and the tunnel entrance caved, falling in on itself. Eris watched as stone and dust billowed out. Now, with the chains on her wrists making her unable to reach for the energy of the trees, she was trapped.
She sagged forward. How could Ferisa have done this to her? Could she really have been wrong about her? Could she really have failed to see how much her sister had changed?
She lay on the ground, the svanth tree pressing against her, and sobbed.
Leaves wilted overhead. Some fell, dropping to the ground around her. Seeds loosened and rained down around her. She didn’t bother covering herself.
Tears streamed from her, washing into the ground. Terran was lost. Shadow was lost. All because she’d thought she could save her sister. Iron chains held her, preventing her from reaching the energy of the trees. If only she understood how iron worked, she might be able to free herself, but she hadn’t had the time to learn.
Maybe Desia was right when she said Eris had become too arrogant with her new power. She might have saved her mother, but she hadn’t been able to save Jacen. And she couldn’t save Ferisa. The darkness would prevail.
She looked around. The garden would provide her with food and water, but she could not escape. Without accessing her ability, she couldn’t climb through the tunnel. With the sheer walls, she wouldn’t be able to climb out of the garden.
* * *
Night fell, filling the garden with shadows. Eris tried prying her wrists apart, but the iron held. The squat svanth tree suffered from the damage Ferisa had done to its roots. Its leaves curled and browned, and its branches sagged, slowly lowering toward the ground. In an act of cruelty, Ferisa had taken this from her, too.
She knelt at the edge of the lake and leaned toward it, drinking from the clear water. The last time she had been here, she had felt at peace. The remnants of Terran’s fire remained, as did the memory, but she had the growing suspicion she would never see him again.
As she looked into the water, her reflection shone back. Her dark hair was longer than she realized and hung around her shoulders in waves. Her dark eyes had changed, making them look older and harder. Much like Rochelle’s.
She leaned back. What had happened with Rochelle? Now that Ferisa knew about her, what had they done?
She sighed and shook her head. What did it matter? She was trapped. There was nothing she could do; no way she could escape.
And she feared for her parents, for Jasi and Desia. Ferisa said they would understand soon enough. What did that mean for them? Would she attack them? Could she really betray her entire family?
Once, Eris would have found the idea impossible. Not sweet Ferisa. But like the rest of the family, the girl she had known had changed. Hadn’t she changed just as much? She was no longer the person she’d been when she first left the palace on a ride with Jacen. Neither was Jasi or Desia.
And maybe Ferisa had made her own choice. Could it be that she chose to go with the Darkbinders? If so, was there anything Eris could even say that would bring her back to the girl she knew, or was that girl gone forever?
She slumped on the shore of the small lake. Everything ached. Her feet hurt from the walk from Errasn, a pain that hadn’t been eased by drawing energy from the trees. Her skin burned from the sun. And the constant pressure of the iron left her mind irritated.
Without intending to, she withdrew inside herself.
At first, she pulled back, receding from the pain. As she did, she became aware of the connections she could no longer sense. They were still there—the connections between her and Terran and her and Shadow were still present. Only the awareness of them had been taken from her.
Eris receded further, drawing away from the iron pressing upon her wrists. To do so, she had to withdraw her energy, to drag it back inside herself as she had in the temple. Fatigue made it difficult, but what choice did she have if she wanted the pain to disappear? At least she had a way to remove the pain. Shadow wouldn’t even have that. With the Saffra veratrum wreath wrapped around him, he would be constantly threatened by whatever Ferisa intended.
Buried within her, she felt the source of her own energy. Too tired to fight, she delved deeper within herself than she had ever done before.
Resistance met her attempts at delving, but she pushed on, thankful for the sense of anything other than pain. She reached deep within herself, drawing deeper. Power emanated there, different than what she sensed as she delved through the trees. Eris felt it and wrapped herself within it.
As she did, there was something else—something more.
Eris reached for it, pulling it around her. The sensation was different than what she experienced while reaching through trees or flowers. Swirling around her, it pulsated, pressing against her with strange intensity. At first she didn’t know what she sensed, but then she recognized how it pushed against the iron cuffs she wore.
Could the power within her be used against the iron? Could she free herself?
She pulled on this—pulled on that deep source of power—and focused it before pressing it out and against the resistance where it contacted the iron. It came slowly, like crawling through mud, but it came. She pushed harder, drawing on more of that deep well of power she felt.
She had done something like this before. When she planted a svanth along the border to save Terran, she had drawn on herself, but this was different. This was simple resistance.
With another focus of will, she forced out even more.
The cuffs snapped, breaking free.
Power spread around her in a torrent of awareness.
Eris fell forward, overwhelmed by the sudden sensations all around her. The svanth trees and flowers and elms, everything filled her. She breathed them in, drawing strength from them into herself, and sighed.
She stood. Her legs wobbled with the effort, but she hurried toward the squat svanth tree Ferisa had damaged. Resting
her hand on it, she trailed fingers along the bark, letting them work up the teary star vine. The supporting vine had been uninjured. Ferisa severed the roots of the svanth, but left the teary star intact. Had she not, the tree might not have a chance, but could Eris save it?
Delving through the teary star, she held her focus on the vine rather than the svanth tree. Working along the roots of the teary star, she felt where the iron had pierced the roots of the svanth. With a soft command, she sent the teary star sliding around to create a bandage that covered the injury. Then she pressed through the life coming from the vine, drawing it back to the svanth.
It crawled through the svanth tree, working through the damaged roots and spreading up the trunk to the branches and out to the leaves. Power surged through the tree. Eris pulled on it and called on it to heal itself, to direct new roots if needed, to pull what it needed from the deep earth.
She leaned back. The svanth tree was not fully healed, but it was a start. It would not fall.
Looking to the dark sky, she leaned against the trunk. Freed, but still trapped. This tree wouldn’t be able to free her from the garden for some time. There would not be strength enough to raise the tunnel.
Watching the sky reminded her of the darkness Shadow had shown her. But that wasn’t quite right. Stars dotted the night sky, and a sliver of moon shone, giving some light for her to see. Shadow had said the darkness would overwhelm the light, but she wondered if that were true. Could the light shine even in the darkness?
She pushed off the ground. Resting did nothing to help Terran and Shadow. It did nothing to help her family. They were just as much at risk as the others, if not more so. They had no idea what Ferisa might do.
To help, she needed to get free.
She strode through the garden. Flowers pulled at her senses. In the darkness, one pulled more strongly than others, drawing her toward it. She stopped and leaned to smell the flowers, a small cluster of pale pink beran lilies. She had seen flowers like this before, but never in the palace and never quite so many. They were delicate flowers, and from what Terran had told her, difficult to grow except in Elaysia.
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