The Desolate Bond (The Lost Garden Book 2) by D.K. Holmberg

Author:D.K. Holmberg [Holmberg, D.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2014-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

They sat again at the table. The hearth crackled behind them, giving light and a strange warmth. Eris still didn’t fully understand how it was possible without injuring the trees. Had she known how to manage a fire, the cool nights she’d spent in the forest would have passed with more comfort.

“How do you make the fire?” she asked.

The woman glanced at her. In answer, power surged through the trees, as if the forest itself pushed back the effect of the flames.

Could she do the same? Would the trees answer her, or would they ignore as they always had before?

As Eris looked around the hut, she marveled at the way the trees wove together. Branches from high overhead bent toward them, creating a cozy roof and trapping the warmth from the hearth. Small windows crafted out of curved branches opened along each wall. The hut was another trick Eris wished she had learned. With something like this, she would have been able to stay out of the rain, though the high canopy of the svanth trees kept them mostly dry.

Imryll sat across from her, another mug of tea cupped in her hands. She’d slipped her cloak off and hung it along a knobby branch. Eris preferred to keep hers on, pushing back the growing chill of the night. At least Imryll had a long-sleeved blouse made of stout wool and thick breeches to keep her warmth. Other than the cloak, Eris had only the thin slip she wore when Ferisa attacked her.

“You seem troubled.”

Eris nodded to Imryll and took a sip of her tea. “I see what you manage, how the forest bends before you, and wish I could manage such control.”

Imryll snorted. “I have sensed how you work. You think to force it. You cannot force the trees to bend any more than the wind can force them. You might rustle the leaves or even sway the branches, but more than that?” She shook her head. “None are strong enough to force the trees to bend unless they wish it themselves.”

Eris didn’t fully understand what Imryll said. Eris already knew she couldn’t force the trees to do what she wanted, but that was just the problem. Asking didn’t work either. But how did Imryll manage to coax from the trees what she wanted done? What was her secret?

“I don’t try to force anything,” she said. “But when I ask, most of the time nothing happens either.”

Imryll slapped the table with her palm. “Ask? You think asking is how you get the trees to listen!” She laughed, the sound throaty and coming out as a cackle. “Trees don’t respect you when you ask. They know who’s the stoutest, who reaches for the most sunlight. You have to be that one for the trees to listen.”

Eris frowned. “You’re saying I have to prove to the trees I’m the stoutest?” She had no idea what that even meant. Even less how she would accomplish it.

Imryll nodded. “Only yours is harder than what I have.

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