Imryll looked around, eyes taking in the flowers blooming in the garden. “You told the truth, didn’t you? Darkness comes.”
Eris took her hand and pulled her to the edge of the garden. With Imryll here, it might turn the tide of the attack. They might be strong enough.
“Darkness always comes,” Eris answered. “As a keeper of light, you should have known that.”
“It’s been so long,” she began. “And I lost so much. I didn’t know what I could do. I didn’t think there was anything I could—”
She turned. Trees along the edge of the garden twisted and bent, but not by Eris’s command. Imryll controlled them. Imryll ran toward the trees, her wolf guardian running after her.
Eris frowned. “Shadow?”
Her guardian growled. “They come,” he answered.
“When?”
His golden eyes glowed as he turned to her. “Now.”
Eris touched Terran’s arm. He would want to attack, but with his flagging strength, he wouldn’t be able to do much. “Can you find Lira and Rochelle? Warn them of the attack. They will need to know.”
Terran frowned at her. “And what are you going to do? Where will you be?”
She looked toward Imryll. “I will be here,” she promised.
Terran nodded once and started off, loping back toward the center of the garden. Eris wondered if this was the last night she would ever see him.
Eris turned to Shadow. “How far out?” she asked, but as she did, she reached along the roots and could sense them. They were almost to the garden.
Terran wouldn’t have time to warn the others, not without help.
Eris darted after Imryll, racing toward the trees. As she did, she commanded them to hold the magi if they could. Some would fall. Eris knew that, but the price was necessary.
The trees groaned in response, branches creaking.
She drew energy from the flowers of the garden, pulling it through the garden and toward the trees, sending it whipping after the moving branches, hoping to hide her coming.
Shadow trailed along after her. “You could fail, keeper.”
She nodded. “I understand. But if I do nothing, I already failed. Are you—” she hated asking but she needed to know “—are you strong enough for this, Shadow?”
“Like you, I do what is necessary.”
She didn’t ask the question she wanted answered: Could she save Ferisa? Shadow wouldn’t know. Rochelle thought her lost. Eris wondered if she could use her connection to her as she had with Shadow and Terran. If she couldn’t, was she willing to lose her sister to save everything else? It was a choice that once seemed impossible.
“The others are different than you,” Shadow said, answering her unasked question.
She shouldn’t be surprised that he knew what she thought, but still was.
“You work with both trees and flowers. It is possible you can save her.”
Eris glanced at him and nodded. Possible. That was better than what she suspected.
She caught up to Imryll as she fended off a wave of magi. The trees swung like clubs, moving and striking the magi with branches twisting impossibly. Magi cried out as they were attacked. For a moment, Eris thought she and Imryll alone might manage to stop the Conclave.
Iron struck a tree.
Imryll dropped as if she was struck. Eris felt it too but pushed it out by withdrawing. Imryll had not learned that trick. She crawled on the ground and screamed. Her guardian looked at Eris, eyes begging her to watch over her.
“Go,” Eris urged.
Shadow and the wolf guardian streaked through the trees. They attacked in a flurry of snarls and shouts. Eris was thankful she didn’t have to witness it. She had seen enough bloodshed when attacked by the magi along the border.
Finally, the sounds died. Shadow returned to her, unharmed. Imryll’s wolf guardian limped toward her. Without waiting for permission, Eris sent a healing flow of energy through the wolf, borrowing from the trees and grasses around them. He howled softly as she did.
“How many?” she asked Shadow.
He snorted and shook his head. “Seven. None were her.”
With a dawning understanding, she realized the purpose of this attack. This hadn’t been the main attack. The magi had wanted to draw her out, away from the gardens. Had Imryll not been with her, it might have taken her longer to stop these magi. Had Imryll not been with her, these magi might have been enough to stop her.
“We need to hurry,” she said, pulling Imryll to her feet.
The keeper looked around as she stood, as if half expecting the trees to have been destroyed. “What happened?”
“Iron.”
Imryll shook her head. “Iron alone should not have that affect.”
“When they infuse it with their power, it can. Come. We need to get back to the garden. This wasn’t the real attack.”
Imryll looked to her guardian. Something passed between them. “Thank you for healing him.”
“You would have done the same,” Eris said as she pulled Imryll along with her.
She snorted. “I wouldn’t have had the strength. Healing one of the guardians is not easily done.”
Eris considered the times she had healed Shadow. The first had been when injured along the border. It had taken significant strength for her to manage. And then when tainted by the Saffra flower—a test, she now suspected—it had taken nearly everything she could summon in order to heal him.
“The magi wanted to get us away from the garden,” Eris said. “That’s where the real attack will take place.”
“They gardens were destroyed. How many keepers responded to your summons?”
“Nearly twenty. I’m not sure it will be enough.”
As she ran, she pressed through the trees, reaching through the roots and searching for the svanth trees growing in a rim around the edge of the garden. They stood powerful and tall, connected distantly to those in the Svanth Forest. The trees growing along the edge of the garden were different, twisted and not nearly as tall, but they pulled strength from the depths—from the Source—and Eris drew upon it now.
At the garden, she saw the line of magi. She saw no sign of the priestesses, no sign of Ferisa.
They stood in a single line. Each carried a box and pulled from it, dropping what they withdrew upon the ground. A dark chant lifted into the air, filling the growing night. Lightning crackled overhead, streaks shooting toward the garden before fizzling out. The garden repelled the magi for now.
“What are they doing?” Imryll asked.
Eris shook her head. “They have a flower of darkness. With it, they can destroy this garden. Maybe all gardens.”
She started toward the magi, recognizing what they did. Through the connection she shared with the trees and with the newly planted garden, she felt it. Darkness scattered around the edge of the garden, working to separate Elaysia from its connection to the Svanth, much like the petals that destroyed the Verilain Plains.
And it could work. Already Eris sensed the connection fading, diminishing from what it had been. She pulled on through the trees, reaching toward the source and drawing strength to the trees. It bolstered the trees, pushing against the destruction the magi sought to level around them.
The chanting faltered.
“They know we’re here,” Eris said.
“They know you’re here,” Imryll said. “I’ve hidden for so long they forgot about me. I think it is time to change that.”
Imryll stepped forward. As she did, a surge of energy snapped through the svanth trees, nothing like Eris had ever experienced. It sent branches bending and swaying. The lowest branches struck the line of magi closest to the trees, sweeping them off their feet and into the air. With another flick of the branches, the magi were knocked back, flung away.
Her guardian streaked away, racing toward the trees.
Shadow paused and looked to Eris. “This is about more than stopping the magi.”
She nodded. If
she could save Ferisa, she would. “They need to be stopped, but it is about more than stopping the magi.”
“You think you can save her?”
Eris shook her head. How could she know whether Ferisa could be saved? How long had the darkness worked through her? Had it been too long? Could she come back from it now that she let it twist her as it had? Or was there no coming back?
They reached the edge of the svanth trees. Gardeners stood frantically working flowers into the soil. Lira guided them, motioning how to arrange the plants so they focused and augmented the flows of energy working through here.
Rochelle stood in the shadows of the svanth tree, staring at the magi. The dark magic they worked wasn’t able to penetrate the trees—not yet—and Imryll continued her attack, using the branches of the trees to assault the magi.
“This is not all of them,” Rochelle said as Eris approached.
Eris shook her head. “There were another seven who attacked us earlier.”
Rochelle arched a brow. “And where are they now?”
Shadow growled. “They are gone, keeper.”
Rochelle nodded and turned to look over the attacking magi. Their chanting still rose above the night. Power built, a sensation Eris could feel washing over her. The Saffra veratrum petals they dropped on the ground burned and destroyed everything they touched.
“They’re trying to separate the garden from the Svanth,” Eris said. When Rochelle frowned, she went on. “The svanth trees I planted. They connect to the distant Svanth Forest. All svanth trees I’ve planted ultimately connect. It’s how the Svanth is so powerful. It’s how this garden was reestablished so quickly.”
A crack of lightning came from behind them, away from the magi. Rochelle and Eris both spun, turning to see what happened. In the bright after-effects of the lightning, trees burned on the opposite side of the garden. Someone screamed.
“They come,” Shadow growled.
Rochelle looked down at Eris’s guardian. “Who comes?”
“The Darkbinders.”
He started forward, disappearing into the night.
Eris pulled Rochelle around to face the magi attack. “You need to help Imryll. Lira works with the gardeners and the keepers here to maintain the connection. They can’t attack the magi. But you can.”
Rochelle’s eyes widened. “I can’t—”
Eris jerked on her arm. “You’re a keeper of light. One of flowers, and one of trees. You and Imryll are the only ones who can.”
“You’re a keeper of light, too.”
Eris looked toward where Shadow had disappeared. “I am. I am a keeper of trees and flowers. I am the reason they attack us here.” She shook her head as she looked at Rochelle. “I think this is what I am meant to do.”
Eris released Rochelle’s arm and started after Shadow. She paused long enough to look back. Rochelle stood for a moment, staring toward the trees, then her back stiffened and she ran forward.
Eris hoped they would be enough.
She found Shadow prowling back and forth along the edge of trees on the opposite side of the garden. The hackles on his back stood on end as he walked. Golden eyes stared at the trees.
“What is it?” she whispered.
She needn’t have bothered. A voice called out of the darkness.
“Eris Taeresin. Keeper of trees and flowers, guardian of the light. Come forth.”
It was not Ferisa, but the voice had a soft lilting quality that reminded her of Lira.
Shadow stopped next to her. A low growl emanated from him, and he sniffed the air. “There is something amiss here, keeper.”
Eris felt it as well. She didn’t know what she felt—or why she should feel it—but she recognized what Shadow sensed.
The void in the trees had returned. This was different than what she sensed with the magi, and she understood now why that was the case. She sensed the priestesses—the Darkbinders.
“How many?” she asked Shadow.
His ears twitched. “Five. But there is something else—”
He didn’t get the chance to finish. A soft voice called out shakily through the darkness, piercing through her.
“Eris?”
Eris stiffened. It was Desia. But how would Desia be here?
Would Ferisa really do that to her sister?
Eris knew she would. Already she had attempted to trap her in Rochelle’s garden. She had attempted to destroy Shadow and to injure Terran. Why wouldn’t she claim her sisters?
“Release her, Ferisa. This doesn’t have to involve her.”
A figure stepped forward, nearly to the edge of the tree. Darkness swirled around them.
Eris pressed a flow of energy through the tree, and the teary star flowers began glowing with a soft light, revealing Ferisa. Desia knelt next to her, hands bound in front of her. Her gown was torn, and dirt smeared across it, reminding Eris of when the magi had abducted herself and Jasi long ago. Much had changed for Eris since then, but Desia looked just as scared as Jasi had then.
Ferisa laughed softly. “You involved her, Eris. You could have ignored the magi, you could have stayed in your garden, but you chose to come to Saffra.”
“I came searching for answers. I came looking for my sister.”
Ferisa snorted. “Your sister? Is that what we are? Even when you still believed that, you never thought of me as much of a sister. Not like Desia.” She jerked on Desia’s hair, and she fell forward.
Desia caught herself and pushed to her side. She rolled and looked over at Eris. “I’m so sorry, Eris. I shouldn’t have asked you to find her. I didn’t realize she had changed so much—”
Ferisa cut her off by kicking her in the stomach.
Desia bent forward, drawing herself in as she sobbed softly.
“Where is Jasi?” Eris demanded. If Ferisa had taken Desia, why wouldn’t she have come for Jasi as well?
“After this is over, I will go to her next. After what you told me, I wanted Desia to see this herself. She will share with the others her folly. Eris, the keeper of trees and flowers, will be the reason the keepers fall.”
Shadow’s low growl turned into a snarl.
Eris ignored Ferisa and turned to him. “What is it?”
His golden eyes turned to her. “A distraction. Careful.”
Lightning snapped overhead, and the ground rumbled. Energy built in the air, more powerful than anything she had ever felt from the magi. Behind her, someone screamed. Eris didn’t dare turn.
Eris reached deep through the roots, pulling at the distant Source beneath the heart of the Svanth, and pushed energy through the trees, fortifying them. The priestesses’ dark power struck the barrier Eris formed and pushed down with more force than she had drawn. Eris had to reach deeper, draw more through the trees and the Source, but even that would not be enough, not with another attack and not against the darkness.
Ferisa pushed Desia with her foot. She looked up and past Eris, her eyes narrowing. “Don’t fight this, Eris, or Desia will suffer.”
She leaned forward and lowered something onto Desia. With the faint light from the teary star flowers glowing in the night, Eris saw a single Saffra veratrum. Ferisa pressed this against her sister, her hand lingering.
Desia convulsed as if kicked again.
Eris took a step toward Ferisa. Shadow darted in front of her. “You cannot, keeper. You cannot save her like that.”
“I can’t save her from here. I’m not strong enough.”
Shadow growled at her. “And yet you managed to save your gardener. You managed to save me.”
Eris froze in place. Would it work the same with Desia?
With Ferisa?
Eris had to try. Doing so would take all the strength she could draw but would require her to work so differently than when she held off the magi. It would require her to use the connections she made, the friendships she’d forged, even those she loved.
But would she have enough strength to do it?
An explosio
n came from behind her.
Ferisa jerked her head around. Four other figures emerged out of the darkness and stood alongside her.
Eris didn’t have much time.
She withdrew.
As quickly as she could, she pulled all the energy she had been pressing out from her back, drawing it toward a deep and shining well of power inside her. The sense of light and strength reminded her of the Source.
The connection to Desia was there, but twisted and dark. Eris surged through it, burning through the darkness. Desia gasped, and the darkness faded until nothing remained. A loud crack split the night.
“The others have failed.”
Eris heard the words distantly. For a moment she thought it was Lira, but it came from the other side of the trees near where Ferisa stood with the other priestesses. The Darkbinders.
“They were always meant to fail,” said the lilting voice. “I used the Conclave for that purpose. And this one is not strong enough to stop us. We nearly had her before.”
Ferisa stepped back, joining the others. “You must lead, Feliran.”
Eris almost lost her connection. Feliran?
Could it be that a keeper had become a Darkbinder?
But it made sense. She had thought to turn the magi, but instead, she had been turned. Like Ferisa now, darkness must twist inside of her.
Their power and energy built to a roaring crescendo, pressing upon Eris. Shadow growled. From across the garden, the other guardian howled.
She didn’t have time to pull from the Source and press against them, not as quickly as their power built, but could she stop them another way?
The other keepers had succeeded. Now Eris had to do her part.
She pulled even more energy from everything around her, drawing it from the svanth trees circling the garden, from the garden itself—now patterned in such a way that it focused power toward the center—and even deeper, reaching toward the distant Svanth trees and beyond.
All this she drew within her, filling the well of power.
Connections bloomed around her.
Shadow and Terran were strongest, each so different than the other. She borrowed from them, hoping they would understand. She sensed Lira and Rochelle as smaller branches but pulled through them as well, using their abilities as keeper to draw even more strength. The other keepers—even Imryll and her guardian—came as a narrow connection, barely more than a twig, but she reached through them as well, drawing even more power, using their connection to the garden, to everything, to fill her.
The Lost Garden: The Complete Series Page 73