Sadness nearly overwhelmed her, so she withdrew. She might not survive, but Shadow could.
Eris had now withdrawn inwardly enough times that she managed it rapidly. She pulled energy within her, drawing in the power that she’d been pushing out. As she did, she pulled the energy the priestesses worked within her as well.
She pressed it through her connection to Shadow.
Her guardian stirred as the energy she summoned crossed their connection. Terran reached him at the same time, tearing the wreath of Saffra veratrums from around his neck with a deep and angry scream.
Shadow lunged to his feet.
With a snarl, he snapped at one of the priestesses, catching her on the arm. He tossed his great head once, and the arm pulled free. The priestess crumpled with a barely stifled scream.
Shadow jumped. As he did, Eris could tell he didn’t have the strength he needed. With a swipe of one paw, he caught another priestesses across the head, knocking her down.
Only Ferisa remained.
Shadow turned toward her.
“No!” Eris shouted.
Ferisa frowned. Lightning streaked toward Eris.
Eris couldn’t stop it. She didn’t have the strength.
Something hit her, knocking her to the ground. Eris rolled and saw Terran lying atop her. His eyes were open ,and sadness filled them; he knew what was coming.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
The lightning struck.
And dissipated as it did, hitting the protections Eris had placed around Terran. His back arched from the force, but the lightning itself—and the fire that came with it—faded.
Eris pushed to her knees, looking to Ferisa. But she was gone. Shadow crouched where she had stood. Golden eyes hung heavy. The darkness that had twisted through him had receded. It had not left completely. Eris pushed through their connection, sending the energy she had stored out from her, chasing the darkness from her guardian.
“Where did she go?” Eris asked.
Shadow growled. His voice sounded weak and thready. “She is gone.”
“Gone?” she repeated. Exhaustion washed over her, leaving her barely able to hold her head upright. “Did you—”
“No,” Shadow answered. “She will return. There will be others.”
Eris nodded. She had seen them. In her dream vision, she had seen them—dozens of magi and priestesses of the dark, more than she could count, all coming toward Errasn. Now they knew her barrier wouldn’t stop them. She had Shadow returned to her, but he remained weakened. He wouldn’t be able to stop the magi this time. And Eris wouldn’t be able to stop all of them on her own.
She needed help. She needed the Gardens of Elaysia not just restored, but made stronger. If not, she feared the Svanth would fall. And then the magi would reach the Source, and the darkness would overwhelm them.
Chapter 88
Dawn broke as they reached the outskirts of the newly planted gardens.
Eris stood, reaching through the roots of the svanth trees she’d planted to understand what had happened here. She recognized flowers and grasses and life, colorful and bright, and each so different than the others.
She couldn’t believe how much had already changed. Lira had stayed behind as promised. Her garden grew along the edges, borrowing from aspects of her shade plants as well as some of the flowers that grew in full sun. Lira had arranged the flowers in rows that spiraled out, working from the base of one of the svanth trees and radiating away. Eris didn’t recognize the pattern, but she felt the pull of the plants, even as new as they were. They drew upon the svanth, connecting to it.
Eris smiled. Did Lira know what she had done?
Other keepers had returned. All throughout the gardens, the evidence of the keepers bloomed. Some were little more than a cluster of flowers, nothing more than happenstance. Others were bold and bright, orange and reds and yellows calling to the early morning sun. None had the same strength of pattern that she saw in Lira’s garden. As the gardens had been before, none of the gardens linked together.
Nothing had changed. The keepers remained together, but independent when they could be so much more. She had seen what they could be. When she closed her eyes, she could see it in her mind, in the dream vision she had.
“You’ve returned.”
Lira stood behind her, eyes weary. Her chestnut hair hung loose, and she wore a simple gown, nothing like the ornate and elaborate gowns she wore in the palace. Dirt clung to her arms and cheeks. In spite of that, she appeared content. The tension Eris always saw in her was gone.
Eris wished she had some way of showing Lira the garden she saw in her mind. She might not be able to guide the keepers, but Lira could. She was one of the few who continued to fight against the magi even when the others had scattered. Lira understood what remained at stake.
“The magi,” she began.
Lira stared past her, to where Terran carried Shadow slung over his shoulder like some creature he’d hunted. It reminded Eris of when she had asked Terran to hunt Shadow before she knew what he was, before she knew he worked against the magi.
“What happened?” Lira asked.
“The priestesses. They are keepers of dark. They are the Darkbinders. And they work with the magi. They control the magi.”
Lira sucked in a breath, tilting her head. “That is why I couldn’t find your sister. Have you—”
Eris’s eyes narrowed. She needed to get the rest out. “And Rochelle. Rochelle worked against them, trying to stop them. I think she’s…” She shook her head. Could Rochelle already be gone? But what other answer was there for the attack? “Ferisa attacked me again, this time nearly killing Shadow. The magi tried turning Terran.”
Lira studied her garden, her eyes changing, sadness pulling the corners of them. “They come for the gardens again, don’t they?”
“They do. They are a few days out still. They need to recover from their last attack. We could stop them—”
“But your barrier!”
“Will not stop them. Not any longer.”
The Verilain Plains had fallen to mere petals of the Saffra veratrum. What would these gardens be against the full flower? The gardens here were barely anything, little more than saplings. As Eris delved, she could tell how little energy this place stored. Not enough. Not nearly enough.
And seeing her trees fall? That had devastated her in a visceral way.
“How?” Lira asked.
Eris glanced over at Terran. He smoothed his hands over Shadow’s fur, running fingers along his bones and checking under his paws. She considered reminding him that he would not find anything wrong with Shadow. What they had done—what Ferisa had done—worked deeper within him. The darkness that settled over Shadow threatened him in a way no physical injury could. They might not have been able to kill him, but that seemed the point.
“They have weakened the guardian. With him injured, there is little that stands between the Darkbinders succeeding.”
“Why? Why would they attack this place twice? What do they hope to gain?”
“The darkness,” Eris said. “They can’t destroy the Svanth until the gardens are gone. I don’t think Adrick really understood that when he attacked the last time. They were controlled, led by another. And they’ve learned. Now they’ve destroyed the Verilain Plains, and they will come for the gardens again.”
“The gardens wouldn’t even stop the magi, Eris. They couldn’t stop an attack the last time, and now there’s nothing here that could repel them. We haven’t had the time to establish them fully.”
“No. And what has been established is not effective.”
Lira laughed. “You who has been a keeper barely a year knows what makes an effective garden?” She pointed toward her garden, waving at the parisanders. “See the parisanders? They are not as strong as my rivenswood, but they suffice. The circular pattern dictates which way the energy is drawn and where it can be directed. I added listhansis—” she pointed to a row of long, blue
petals that surrounded the parisanders “—which augments that energy. A splash of corinth and the dahlias draw it more boldly. And in this garden, I have used teraspals around the base of the tree you planted.” She shrugged. “They seemed appropriate and augmented the pattern even more.”
Eris suppressed a laugh. Lira hadn’t even known the teraspals were found throughout the Svanth Forest. And here Eris thought Lira had known, that she had planted them intentionally. “I recognize the effect of your pattern, Lira,” she began.
She realized the need to be somewhat delicate with Lira so as not to offend her, but they didn’t have time for her to waste trying to convince her of what she had seen. She needed Lira to understand. She needed Lira to help convince the others. If Lira didn’t think her skilled enough to listen to, why would the other keepers bother listening to her either?
“And I sense how the flowers draw energy from the svanth tree. I hadn’t thought of such an arrangement,” she admitted, “but now that I see it, it makes sense. The others could do something similar, and there could be great power in this garden.”
Lira studied the teraspals ringing the base of the svanth tree. Her mouth tightened as she considered her arrangement, as if seeing it for the first time. “The teraspals pull from the tree. This is why the dahlias grow as they do.” She said it as if only now realizing.
Eris nodded.
Lira crossed her arms over her chest. “You recognized that in the brief time you’ve been here?”
“I recognized that before I even reached the gardens,” Eris said. “I can feel the energy you have created here, the way it pulls on the energy of the svanth tree. There can be much more power here, if only the patterns aligned.”
Lira squinted at one of the distant gardens and rubbed a hand on her cheek. “They could each use the shade plants to pull from the trees. That must be how my garden in the Svanth draws as much as it does.”
Eris didn’t bother correcting her. The garden in the svanth was shaped differently, the pattern evolving on its own over time. Now it had become less a flower garden and more a mix. It was why Eris could use it so easily.
“That will help, but it is not the pattern I mean.”
Lira looked at her, brow furrowed. “Not the pattern? If you are so confident you know best, then what other pattern could these keepers create that would be more effective?”
Eris stepped toward Lira. This was the opening she needed, and she only hoped what she attempted would work. “Let me show you.”
She touched the svanth tree with one hand and drew energy from it. This resonated through Lira’s garden, but the energy remained isolated. She pushed across the plains, reaching for the other gardens, pulling their energy toward her, using the connection of the svanth roots to anchor her. As she drew it in, she pushed it toward Lira, giving her a hint of what she implied.
Lira gasped. “You draw so much? How is that much energy concentrated here?”
“You could draw the same.”
Lira shook her head. “You’re using the trees, aren’t you? I cannot access the energy stored in the trees. I can’t even draw from the grasses as you can. Seeing you working with the Verilain Plains was my first clue I wouldn’t be able to help you.”
“Not only the trees,” Eris said. “But even with the flowers, there is much strength to be drawn, if it can be coordinated. The keepers have never been good at coordinating, never have worked together to draw more.” She thought of the connections she saw when she withdrew into herself. Without those connections, Terran and Shadow would have been lost. “The keepers are connected. They must be connected.”
Lira laughed. “And you think to know what the keepers were like? The gardens have been gone nearly your entire life, Eris Taeresin.”
Eris smiled tightly. “The gardens may be gone, but the memory of them remains. I have seen the memory. I have traced the roots of this place and know what once had been here. Each garden isolated. Each keeper alone. That is why the Conclave defeated you when they came before.”
Lira tensed and planted her hands on her hips. “The magi used their destructive magic on the gardens. That was why the gardens were destroyed before.”
“And they would not have succeeded had the keepers shared a purpose.”
“You speak of things that could not be. Each keeper has a flower of her own. You know this. You bonded to the teary star, and you know how it works. Can you imagine mixing a teary star with my parisander? Or the teary star with Daysan’s anosem?” She motioned to a woman with stooped back working through the soil in a nearby garden. She paused at times to look up and frown at Lira. Even from the distance, Eris could tell the hesitance she felt. She wasn’t certain she should have returned.
How many keepers would leave as soon as they heard the magi would return? How many would simply disappear, this time forever? Most of them, she suspected. And then?
Then the Svanth would fall. It could not hold out indefinitely, especially in the face of the darkness that came. Especially now that Shadow lay unmoving atop Terran’s shoulders.
“You think each garden should be unique, and perhaps they should be. As each flower is rare, maybe the gardens should remain that way as well. But you place the flowers into a pattern and draw strength from them. Each flower placed so that it draws strength from the others, creating a pattern that is greater than the individual. Can’t the same be said of the gardens? What if the gardens were worked together to pull even more strength than they would isolated?”
Lira leaned toward the nearest cluster of flowers and inhaled deeply. “The Council of Keepers always determined where each garden would grow. The newest keepers would take the place of those who had passed.” She paused and looked up. “I don’t know if there ever was much consideration for which gardens were placed alongside each other, only on the space required. A garden’s size was determined by the strength of her keeper.”
Eris wondered what size of garden she would have been allotted under Lira’s system. Would the council have found a way to confine her to a set space, or would she have been placed along the edges of Elaysia, given room to grow and overflow the confines of the gardens?
“There are messages woven into the roots of the Svanth Forest, but they don’t provide details. I’ve learned the keepers did not think it safe to start the Svanth Forest, upset that the first keeper left the gardens to attempt what she did. Where the Svanth now grows was once nothing but emptiness, much like Saffra today. The first keeper spent years understanding how to create the forest. Without her, nothing like the forest would exist.”
Nothing would oppose the magi, would fight back the darkness. The first keeper must have been a keeper of light, how else would she have known she needed to coax the svanth trees from the ground, to have the patience to work with the teary star vines to try and teach them to grow along the side of the trees, climbing so that together they grew stronger?
“Years later, when another keeper appeared, she sought to maintain the Svanth, to extend its borders, ignoring the cries from the council to return, knowing that what she did was important. And now, the Svanth is all that has stopped the magi. It is all that has stopped the destruction.”
Lira closed her eyes, her mouth pulling into a line as it did when she was annoyed. “You speak of these things as if I should understand, but you forget I lived through the magi attack. I have seen what they can do to our gardens, even when at full strength. And this—” she swept her hand around her, waving toward the fields that had once been the Gardens of Elaysia but now was little more than a field of grasses and scattered flowers “—this is nothing close to full strength. Trust me when I say I know what the magi are capable of doing.”
Eris sighed in annoyance. “You’re right. The gardens as they were could not hold back the magi. Which is why I think you need to try what I suggest. Use your knowledge, Lira, use what you know of the patterns to combine the gardens and create something greater than had been here before. What risk is
there in that?”
Lira shook her head, and her voice took on a distant tone. “The risk is the keepers leaving. Of the gardens never returning to what they had once been. The risk is losing everything again.” She looked over at Eris, her eyes drawn and tight, the expression on her face practically begging Eris not to ask her to help. “I don’t think I can handle that.”
Eris hadn’t been able to convince Imryll to help, but she knew Lira. “I know you want to see the magi stopped. I know you don’t want the magi to succeed this time. Perhaps it had once been for yourself. You came to Eliara to stop the magi but were drawn in by my mother. But now you need to do it for those you care about, and I know how much you care. I saw how far you were willing to go to help my mother, the lengths you go to help Jasi. You would even welcome Ferisa back, if she were to return.” She touched Lira’s shoulder. “You have a family now. People who have welcomed you when you were at your lowest. If the Darkbinders aren’t stopped, darkness will push across the border, and this time, nothing I can do will prevent them from reaching Eliara and destroying everyone we care about.”
Lira stared up at the sun for long moments. “Why do you think I can do this when I have failed every time I’ve tried to stop them?”
“You haven’t failed. You survived the first attack. You helped me survive the magi during the second attack. And you kept my mother alive until I learned enough to help when they thought to poison her. Why you?” She took Lira’s hand and turned the Mistress of Flowers to face her. “You’re the only one who could do this. The others will listen to you, but it’s more than that. You have the knowledge to create the patterns. You have studied the patterns more than anyone.” She laughed softly. “I think you’re the only one who could do this.”
Lira tore her eyes away from the sky and surveyed the remnants of the once great gardens. She shook her head slightly as she did, mouth pursed into a tight line, forehead crinkled. She said nothing for long moments. Slowly, the expression changed. Her brow softened. Her mouth opened slightly. Her head stopped shaking.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 70