The connection surged. Warmth flooded through her. As she did, she reached the end of the connection where it stopped. Terran.
He was not far from her. Connected as she was, she could tell where to find him, but why had she not been able to sense him through the branches of the trees? Could the priestesses shield him from her?
Darkness floated over him, it swirled around him.
Eris pushed energy from herself through the bond, drawing it through as if it were a sapling she pulled from the earth. As she did, something changed. The darkness faded, and then snapped, disappearing.
The bond strengthened, and she felt Terran clearly.
Eris didn’t know what she did, but she knew she could find him. That would be enough.
Chapter 86
Grasses fell dormant, as if withdrawing from the darkness that passed over them. Eris ran across the open plains, still able to sense Terran, but vaguely, as if he faded from her. Could he be injured?
She still felt nothing else that told her where the priestesses headed. She didn’t need to. The trail of damaged grasses led across the border of Saffra and toward her trees.
How had Eris missed them? But this way didn’t lead through the passes. They must have another way of traveling, different than what the soldiers had required to pass through when they attacked along the border. Would her new grove of Svanth trees be able to keep them back, or would they sneak past as they somehow managed to sneak through without the roots alerting her?
Evening came by the time she caught up to them.
They moved quickly—more quickly than they should have managed without magi enhancement—and paused at the edge of the trees. The svanth trees stretching high overhead caught the lingering light, leaves turning shades of orange and yellow as they rippled in the wind. For a moment, Eris thought they might be stopped by the trees, that somehow they would manage to keep Ferisa and the others from crossing over into Errasn, but then they started forward.
Pain sliced through her, cold and angry.
Eris stumbled, catching herself before she tripped completely. Her hands scraped across the earth, catching dirt. A loose stone sliced at her palm. She barely noticed. She crouched on her knees, looking at the trees, understanding slowly working through her.
Iron.
Without thinking about it clearly, she pushed through the roots, reaching the svanth tree and delving toward the damage. A wide gash worked along the trunk, cutting through both tree and teary star vine, slowly starting to sever the connection to the rest of the other trees. Eris pushed energy through the roots and halted the injury.
For a moment, it worked.
Then the next strike came. And the next. Each blow hacked at the trunk, sinking deeper than any sword or axe should be able to manage, but the iron augmented by the strength of the soldiers chopped through it. The huge svanth groaned as it began to fall, branches creaking like a scream as it crashed toward the ground.
Eris could do nothing but watch. Seeing her tree fall pained her more than she could explain. She had placed part of her in the tree, used part of her energy as she drew power into the seed, feeding it and the sapling as they grew. Had it not been for her, these trees would never have existed here. The desolation would have spread, leaving the land barren.
And now her sister would take that from her.
She started forward, running toward them. Even as she did, she knew she wouldn’t be fast enough. When they struck the next tree, she stumbled again, falling against the ground. The pain burned her, almost as if she wore the iron chains again.
Her head throbbed. She could think of nothing but saving the tree, but doing so would expend energy she might need to rescue Terran and Shadow. Until she knew what Ferisa intended, she could not waste any energy.
So she sat, leaning on hands and knees on the ground, feeling as each blow struck the bark. The tree fought against the attack, but it was a futile attempt. There was nothing it could do against the cold, sharp iron.
How many would fall?
Eris waited, terrified to move, afraid to reveal herself, but equally afraid if she did nothing, more of her garden would perish.
Instead, she delved, pressing into the earth, reaching through the roots of the trees. There, she felt their connection to the distant Svanth. The others remained strong, twisting with the memory of her planting. She sent what reassurance she could, not knowing if it would matter.
Night had fallen before the attack ended. By the time they were done, five svanth trees had fallen as they pushed through Eris’s barrier. Each one weakened the protections she built along the border. Had she been stronger—or a more skilled keeper—she might have known how to push even the priestesses back as the Svanth managed to push back the magi. But she didn’t have the knowledge or the time to learn. In this, as in everything she had done since becoming keeper, she continued to fumble along, learning what she could. It never seemed to be enough. Had she taken the time to ask, to give the necessary time, she would be better prepared, but as in everything she’d ever done, she was too stubborn.
She stopped at the first fallen tree and ran her hand along its trunk. Thick vines that worked up the side of the trunk had already begun wilting. A few teary star flowers blooming along the vine curled at the edges, as if the iron had damaged them directly. Leaves scattered across the ground, most already browning.
She touched the ragged stump with her eyes closed, wishing there was more she could have done. The stump pulsed with the damaged energy, the barrier that once had prevented the magi from pressing into Errasn so quickly removed. What had changed? Why had they managed to destroy these trees when the magi could not?
The only answer Eris had was Shadow.
He was the guardian. From what he had said, he was here in this world more fully than other guardians. Doing so risked him falling more completely than other guardians as well. With the wreath of Saffra flowers—the wreath of darkness they forced him to wear—could it be his protection failed?
If so, what did that mean for the Svanth?
Eris shivered. Drawing from the remaining trees, she sealed off the injury to this one, holding it in place as she instructed the roots of nearby trees to wind around those of this stump, to work the memory of this tree into the story of their roots. If she survived, she would replace this tree, but that would be for another time. For now, she would bandage them and move on.
After doing what she could for the rest of the trees, she hurried forward into the dark. Now that she was back in Errasn, she could pull from the energy of the plains. The Verilain Plains stretched almost all the way to the border, though only part of it was needlegrass.
The priestesses left damaged grasses in their wake as they moved across the plains, a trail of Saffra veratrum petals dropped across the ground. The ground itself wilted and receded. Eris no longer had to focus on finding them—they obscured themselves from her anyway—as the trail across plains told her all that she needed to know about where they went.
She did not have time to stop the spread. It moved slowly, but she felt the poisoning working through the roots, darkness drawing through it. The roots here were too shallow to endanger anything else—and probably the reason the tainting worked so quickly. In planting a svanth near the center, she had claimed them and given Shadow protection over them. Now, the Verilain Plains would fall.
Another thing she would have to restore.
Eris hurried into the dark. The waning moon was now little more than a sliver in the sky. The stars looked duller here, as though a fog filtered their light. Perhaps clouds, though the day had been clear.
She drew on the energy all around her, summoning what she could from the plains as she made her way across, borrowing what little remained. Around midnight, she reached the soldiers.
They paused near a thin stream burbling across the plains. Farther to the south, it led into the Loess River before dumping into the sea. Nearly a dozen soldiers stood along the bank. There was no
sign of the priestesses.
Where was Ferisa? Were Terran and Shadow here, or had the priestesses taken them somewhere else?
She cursed herself for not thinking to check the bond, trusting that she could follow them by the trail they left. What if she lost them? What if Ferisa took the priestesses in a different direction, pulling Terran and Shadow along with them, leaving the soldiers to attack her garden?
Eris crept low, calling to the grasses to obscure her.
They swished over her, hiding her from the night. She crawled along, moving more slowly than she wanted. As she did, she reached through the roots and asked one more thing of them before they failed: hold the soldiers in place. A sigh of wind came as response.
She reached the stream. Water trickled over the rocky bed. A few small trees rose along the stream, nothing like in the forests, but enough for her to reach through and pull energy from them. She wrapped herself in the energy as she crawled forward.
The soldiers stood at attention. None spoke.
A figure lay on the ground, unmoving. Terran.
Eris saw no sign of Shadow.
She suppressed a scared sigh and used the roots of the plains to try and reach up and through Terran, but failed. The energy of the plains waned, and something prevented her from detecting him.
She searched for signs of the Saffra flower or anything else that might explain what kept her from helping him, but found nothing. His breaths came slowly.
The soldiers hadn’t noticed her, but they didn’t move either. How much longer would they stay here?
She couldn’t delay. This might be her best chance to help Terran.
But how? The magi prevented her from reaching him through the roots, but was there another way? Could her connection to him help?
She would need to act quickly if she were to try.
Eris released the energy she borrowed from the plains, letting it spill back into the grasses, and withdrew upon herself, delving until she reached the connections she recognized. The one between her and Terran was strongest and closest.
But this close, she recognized darkness in the connection, like in her dream. It threatened to spill over into her. The energy bound within Eris resisted, but she sensed it growing stronger. How much longer before it began to affect her? How much longer until she began to sense the darkness?
She pushed through the connection.
This was different than when she delved the roots of the trees or the grasses, different even than when she had delved her mother, using the power of the svanth tree to heal her.
She released the energy with a sigh, sliding it along the bond, pushing back the dark, almost like the sun rising in the morning. It resisted, but she had done this before when she’d healed Shadow. And this was Terran. Eris pushed, pressing it back, pressing part of her through Terran, forcing out the darkness.
With a loud crack, she felt it leave him.
The soldiers turned.
She was discovered.
Eris drew upon the trees, upon the grasses, filling herself with energy, and stood.
Fully revealed, she looked to the soldiers and focused on the stones on their helms. The magi stones, infused with dark power, gave them enhanced speed and strength. When the Errasn soldiers had fought Saffra, these stones had gifted them with nearly enough power to defeat her father’s army. Had Eris not recognized it, they might have succeeded.
But then, she had help. Terran had his bow. Jacen used his sword. Eris had done nothing.
Could she now?
She fixed the stones in her mind. Hers was not a destructive power, but a power of healing. If she focused on the way the magi magic destroyed the stones, could she reverse the effects?
Energy released from her like a dozen arrows, each streaking toward the magi stones on the soldier’s helms. It crashed into them with a thunderous snap. Most of the men fell, each grabbing their head.
One did not.
He looked at Eris with a dark smile. A wicked curved sword whispered from its sheath, and he advanced on her.
She darted back, pulling from the energy of the plains. They were weakened, drained by the effort it had taken to destroy the magi stones and the taint emanating from the veratrum petals.
The soldier moved after her, still enhanced.
He had a hidden magi stone.
Dark eyes twisted as he blinked, somehow catching the light of the moon. He raised his sword, and she caught sight of a thick ring on his finger.
She hadn’t missed a magi stone. She’d missed one of the magi.
Lightning danced in the sky as he summoned his magic. “A keeper. She was right that you would come.”
Eris back away, but the magi moved quickly. He held his sword before him. Raw iron glimmered strangely in the light. Eris frowned. Not only iron, but iron infused with the Saffra veratrum. Now she understood why they had managed to so quickly bring down her trees.
“Who said I would come?”
The magi laughed, leaning close. “You will know soon enough.”
He swung the flat of his sword toward her.
Eris drew upon the plains, stretching deeper, farther, and pulling from the distant svanth trees along the border. She commanded the grasses to contain the magi and hold him in place.
With a sweep of his sword, he stopped them.
The magi laughed. “Power. She said you would have power. Now I understand why the High Seat follows her command.”
“Who?” Eris said again.
The magi stalked toward her, again swinging his sword.
Eris dropped to the ground and rolled. As she did, she thrust one hand into the ground, stuffing a svanth seed in as she went. With a surge of power, she fed the seed. It burst from the ground, branches writhing and twisting toward the magi.
He stared at it a moment and then swung his sword, chopping through the fledgling tree with one blow. Another dark laugh came from him, and he stepped past the felled tree. “Interesting. But still not enough. Perhaps she was right. Taking the creature has weakened you.”
“Who?” Eris shouted.
The magi smiled. His sword came up.
And then he crumpled to the ground, the curved sword falling from his hand.
Terran stood behind the magi, a massive stone in his hands. Fatigue washed over his face, but relief smoothed his features. He dropped the rock and kicked the magi’s sword out of the way as he stepped past the magi and swept Eris into a tight embrace, kissing her deeply as he did.
She kissed him back, thankful he still lived.
“How did you find me?” he asked as he released her. He kept his hands on her waist, as if afraid to let her go entirely.
Eris pressed her palms against his rough face, squeezing his cheeks. “I thought you might be dead,” she whispered. “When I couldn’t find you, I thought they might have killed you.”
He shook his head and held out his hand. A large red stone, a ruby or something similar, lay in fragments. He held them up and peered at each fragment before tossing them toward the stream where they splashed down. “They thought to turn me. That—” he said, motioning toward the stone “—they placed on my chest.” He pulled his shirt up. A deep gouge worked into his chest, the skin around it blackened and graying. The edges had already begun to heal, pulling together. “I think, had you not come, I would have turned. With that stone in place, I couldn’t think on my own. Darkness burned through me. They carried me, but they wouldn’t have needed to for much longer. I would have been willing to go wherever they asked.”
“What did they want from you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Where is Shadow?” She wanted to ask about her sister, but finding Shadow was what mattered right now. If they couldn’t find him, Eris feared what would happen to her forest, to her garden.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head again. He scrubbed one hand through his hair and sighed. “The last thing I remember was leaving Saffra. I remember li
ttle after that. Heat and cold. Motion and stopping. Water.” He shivered. “And the growing desire to serve the darkness. I don’t want to experience that again.”
Eris pulled him toward her. “I have to find Shadow. You can stay, tend to the trees along the border and the grasses here. They’ve been damaged and will need a gardener.”
He surveyed the darkness, peering past her toward the distant line of trees. Could he sense them as she did? Did his ability as gardener grant him that skill?
He shook his head. “You will need a gardener, but not there. Whatever you did will hold for now.”
“You feel it?”
Terran smiled. “I always feel it,” he said. “I am your gardener.”
“And the plains?”
“There is nothing I can do.”
Eris might be able to heal them, but she didn’t have the time. She had to reach Shadow.
Terran leaned toward the magi. Peeling away strips of fabric, he bound the magi’s arms and legs, then stuffed the remainder into his mouth as a gag.
“Should keep him from any more spells,” he said.
“You think we should leave him?”
He nodded. “I will not kill him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Eris tried to understand and failed. The magi had threatened Terran—her gardener, the man she loved—did he really deserve to live? And Shadow was lost because of the magi. He couldn’t—he shouldn’t—be left alive.
Terran must have seen the conflicting emotions play out on her face. “I am a gardener, Eris. I will do what I need to in order to protect you, my keeper, but I’m no murderer.”
Eris studied the magi. “Only your keeper?”
Terran shot her a look that told her now wasn’t the time. “I wish there was another way to hold him.”
She glanced at the tree the magi had sliced through, an idea coming to her. “Maybe there is.”
She reached through the roots of the plains, stretching toward the svanth trees at the border. With that connection, she sent a request for energy and drew it through the roots, pulling it into the sapling. Eris broke off a section of her vine necklace and wound that around the base of the tree. With the power coming from the distant forest, the vine surged, growing suddenly thick and strong as it worked along the tree. The tree healed, growing around and past the injury the iron sword caused, and stretched into the darkness, pushing back the taint caused by the veratrum petals. Maybe it could keep the plains from being lost entirely.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 68