I gripped my skirts as tears pricked my eyes. Another death in a sea of bitter loss. Would this man be on my list next week, or the week after?

  "Surely something can be done," I said, tears streaming down my face.

  "This nation is ill," the man said, standing. "Poisoned by tragedy for decades."

  "Surely you can purify the land!"

  "There is a way you can help. But it is not something I can ask."

  The man rested a hand on my shoulder, a sad smile I had seen so many times on his face.

  "I will do it," I said, standing. "I cannot let this continue. Death happens to all things, but illnesses must be treated when possible."

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  "You will likely die," the man said. "If you do not, your life will be long and bound to this garden, as I am."

  I looked up into the man's sad eyes, the loss and loneliness clear as their blue color.

  I thought about the lists of names that sat on my desk every week. The streets and buildings in ruins. The black carriage that roamed the city, collecting the dead. The crimes of desperate people struggling to survive. Ten long years of war and starvation. The man who stood before me, poisoned by the dark magic

  "I will do it," I said, my voice firm. "Bind me to this garden. Use me to save this land."

  "Even if the result is your death? Even though this may not work, or may only work for a short time?"

  I thought about my mother as she withered away from illness. My father, killed in war. How many more would lose their parents? How many parents would lose their children?

  I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest. "I am your apprentice, Guardian. Use me as you see fit."