Bridge of Dreams

by Anne Bishop

  He wouldn’t mention Lee’s sister to the Council yet, but the Eater of the World and Warrior of Light? Yes, he would write to Farzeen and ask if any such beings were mentioned in the Shamans’ myths. He would do it now and send the messenger out at first light.

  And he would hope that nothing else changed in the dark hours.

  Tap tap. Tap tap.

  “Lee, wait!”

  He ignored Zhahar, since her tone sounded a bit too much like a command, and he wasn’t interested in anyone giving him orders. Not right now.

  “By the Mother’s third eye, will you wait?”

  She grabbed his loose-weave shirt and hauled back with enough strength to pop a few stitches in the seams. He would have shoved forward, trying to break a hold he suspected had more than a little Zeela added to it, but a quick stir of air brought the sound of leaves close to his face.

  Zhahar got a firm grip on his left arm. “Let me take you back to the residence.”

  “If I’d wanted to go back to the residence, I would have gone to the residence,” he snapped. “I need to walk. I need to think.”

  He felt her hesitation. “If we walk, will you talk to me? Or at least think out loud, so I have some idea what’s going on?”

  “You can’t trust anything a madman says.” And even though he participated in this particular ruse, he was getting damn tired of it.

  “You maneuvered Sholeh into telling you too much, but Zeela and I didn’t try that hard to stop her. And it wasn’t a madman we trusted with a secret that could destroy our people,” she said, her voice low and rough.

  That statement startled him enough that he took a step back in response to her tug on his arm. “Destroy your people? How?”

  “Do you think we’re wanted? Accepted? We’re adrift in the world. Our land, our people.”

  Lee stood perfectly still but felt as if everything was swirling around him.

  Whatever you give to the world comes back to you.

  Opportunities and choices.

  Heart wishes.

  He didn’t want to see Glorianna, and now he was blind.

  He wanted to get away from the places held by his mother and sister, and now he was in a city he’d never heard of.

  But the enemy was already here, working to alter the landscapes that made up the city of Vision.

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll talk. You listen. Don’t say anything about your people. Lead us away from the buildings, but if you smell stinkweed, take the straightest route back to the residence.”

  “This way.”

  He wasn’t sure where they were going and was certain he wouldn’t find his way back by himself.

  “Talk,” she said quietly.

  “In other pieces of Ephemera, if you travel to a place you don’t belong, you feel so uneasy you leave. Where I come from, you can’t reach a landscape, dark or light, that doesn’t resonate with your own heart. How do people reach this city, Zhahar?”

  “Reach it? Ships travel upriver from the sea. There are roads, so people come on horseback or in carriages. Although it’s been said that not everyone can find the city.” She paused, then asked, “Did you see the signs when you arrived?”

  “No. What do they say?”

  “As you cross the boundary into the city, there is a sign that says ‘Ask your heart its destination.’ Then you end up crossing a bridge or going under an arch and there is another sign that says ‘Welcome to Vision. You can find only what you can see.’ Is that what you wanted to know?”

  “When the landscape that held Wizard City was taken out of the world, there were Dark Guides and wizards traveling in other parts of Ephemera. If Heart’s Justice had exposed all of the Dark Guides for what they are, they can’t pass for human anymore. But the wizards, being descended from the Dark Guides but not pureblood, still wear a human face. If someone suddenly takes your stronghold, what do you do? You run fast and far. Get on a ship and hope it takes you somewhere. Cross a resonating bridge and focus on reaching a part of the world your adversary hasn’t touched. One way or another, a Dark Guide and some of the wizards ended up here in Vision.”

  “But the Shamans…”

  “Can’t see an enemy they don’t know exists,” Lee said. “They didn’t even realize something was wrong until bits of the city changed and are now out of their reach. Now they can’t see what’s happening in those places or what’s causing the change.”

  “This way,” Zhahar said, leading him toward the right. “There’s a—”

  “No bridges,” Lee said sharply.

  She stopped, and he could feel her eyes on him. “How did you know there was a bridge?”

  “I can feel it.” He could also feel that it wanted to change into more than simple wood. It wanted to resonate. It would pull at him, at his power, if he tried to cross it. Which told him how many hearts didn’t belong in this place. “No bridges, Zhahar.” Especially with her. What would happen to someone with three resonances if she tried to cross a resonating bridge? He didn’t want to find out. Not if there was another choice.

  “We won’t be able to get as far from the buildings as you wanted,” she said.

  “Fine. Just…no bridges.”

  They walked in silence for a minute or two. Then she said, “Bits of the city are changing?”

  He nodded. “Because the Dark Guide and the wizards are nurturing the Dark currents, making it easier for people to get away with doing harm. And they can get into people’s minds and influence them or weaken them. They dim the Light.” He felt her shiver. “But when you connect with a place, you change its resonance just a little. The Dark Guides and wizards are from my part of the world. When they came here, they left a trail of sorts. Because there is a similarity in their powers, the next ones to cross over were the incubi and succubi, traveling through the twilight of waking dreams. Demons who have never been in this city before. Then I was attacked by wizards and I made a choice: to get the enemy away from my family, especially my mother and sister. I don’t think I brought those wizards to Vision. I think they were able to focus their will on the resonating bridges I made and bring me with them because they already had a little piece of the city under their control. I was captured and blinded and drugged to sound and act insane.”

  “They didn’t want anyone to believe what you said about them,” Zhahar said.

  “That’s part of it,” he agreed. “But they weren’t paying attention to the nature of Ephemera. If they had, they wouldn’t have brought their own enemy to the city.”

  “But what can you do?”

  He heard the hesitation in her voice. She didn’t want to hurt him or remind him that finding his room, the porch chair, and the toilet were huge accomplishments for him right now.

  Guardians of the Light and Guides of the Heart…No, Lee thought. He didn’t need to ask for help from all the Guardians and Guides. Just one.

  “Why are you here, Zhahar? Why did you come to Vision?”

  “We can’t talk about this,” Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar whispered.

  “We have to,” he insisted. “Did you cross over a border or a bridge at some point and find yourself here, away from your people?”

  She shook her head. “When our leader sensed we were close to another piece of Ephemera, she cast out lines of power that provided a connection between Tryadnea and Vision. In order to keep that connection, some Tryad have to live in the city, providing a kind of living anchor that holds Tryadnea in place. Six Tryad came here. I’m the only one left. If I fail, the last connection between Vision and Tryadnea will break, and my homeland will be adrift again.”

  Maybe not, he thought. Maybe you need to let go of this connection in order to make a more permanent one. “All right. Here is something you and your sisters need to think about. Heart wishes are powerful, and Ephemera does listen.”

  What you give to the world comes back to you.

  Opportunities and choices.

  Heart’s hope lies within Belladonna.

&n
bsp; Was that still true?

  “Where is Vito?” he asked.

  “In isolation. We’re afraid…” Zhahar’s hand clamped on his arm. “There is concern that he’ll try to harm himself.”

  “I need to see him, talk to him. We need to do it now.”

  “They won’t let anyone see him now. That will get him stirred up all evening, and if he’s stirred up…”

  “Tomorrow morning, then. As soon as possible. You can help me slip into the room so I can talk to him before too many people are up and around to notice.”

  “Why?”

  Lee took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Because it’s time for me to go back to work.”

  Chapter 16

  Zhahar’s hands shook as she rolled up trousers, tunics, and underclothes as tightly as she could, packing as much as she could into the large cloth traveling bag. The bag had shoulder straps, and that would help, but it would be as much as she could carry. Maybe more than she could carry in their present condition.

  *How are you?* she asked. The bruise along her ribs was black and spongy in a way that told her there was blood under the skin. Which meant the knife slash Zeela had taken was still bleeding.

  =Hurting,= Zeela replied. Then she added reluctantly, =I’m going to need someone to sew me up.=

  ::Leave the books,:: Sholeh said when Zhahar reached for them. ::I’m not strong enough to carry what we’re taking, and the weight of the clothes is going to hurt both of you.::

  *We agreed that we could each take something personal,* Zhahar said, although, after packing Zeela’s weapons, she chose to leave her own trinkets behind. *We don’t know if our things will still be here when we’re able to come back.* Or if any of them would want to come back for a few possessions. If Zeela was attacked and wounded two doors from their rooms, Sholeh wouldn’t be able to come into view at all on this street anymore.

  ::I’m changing the agreement,:: Sholeh said. ::Books are heavy. We take clothes, shoes, toiletries. Only enough to get us by. Don’t argue, Zhahar! If you can’t make it back to the Asylum, there’s no place we can find help for Zeela.::

  Painful truth. But Zhahar’s hand hovered over Sholeh’s precious books a moment longer before she turned away.

  They had bandaged the wound as best they could, but it was serious enough to weaken all of them. Zeela couldn’t carry the traveling bag. Neither could Sholeh, who could drag it if she had to, but that would tell the men who had turned into predators that she wasn’t strong enough to defend herself against them. And maybe those men were only after dark-haired women, which is what they were shouting when they attacked, but if that wasn’t true, Sholeh wouldn’t stand a chance.

  *I’m sorry about the books, Sholeh.*

  ::If something happens to us, we lose more than books,:: Sholeh replied. ::There isn’t much of Tryadnea left that isn’t desert. If we lose this connection, we’ll lose more arable land, and our people won’t survive long if that happens.::

  *I know.*

  Zhahar packed everything she could into the bag, knowing its weight would stagger her for the few blocks between their room and the omnibus stop. Despite that, and ignoring Sholeh’s mutters, she took their largest market sack and filled it with as much of their food as possible. Their money she hid in the traveler’s pouch around her waist, keeping in her trouser pocket just enough for the omnibus fare.

  Zhahar took a last look around. Despite their best efforts to fit in and belong, the connection between Vision and Tryadnea had slipped during the past few months and was now somewhere in the northeastern end of the city. How much longer would it hold?

  And what had Lee meant by heart wishes?

  She had burned their mother’s letters so that no one would know about the Tryad—and so that no one would know where the last connection between the lands was located.

  Nothing more to do except leave while she had the strength to reach the Asylum.

  Settling the straps on her shoulders, Zhahar tried to stifle the moan as she felt the pull of the bag’s weight. If Zeela didn’t get help soon, they would be faced with the terrible choice of letting one sister die in order to save the other two.

  Clenching her teeth, Zhahar left their rooms and stepped out into the gray light that held the promise of dawn.

  “Lee?”

  Lee opened his eyes to gray light that held dark shapes. He pushed up and rolled off the narrow bed as someone turned the handle on his door.

  “Lee? It’s Sholeh.”

  Swearing softly, he stepped toward the door, hands in front of him to protect his face if she pushed open the door.

  “Hold on,” he said. He found the edge of the door and pulled it open. “What are you doing here?”

  She didn’t answer. Probably couldn’t, since she was puffing while dragging something into his little room.

  “Daylight,” he muttered. Finding her shoulder, he held her still while his other hand traveled down her arm to the soft bag. “What have you got in here? A body?”

  “Clothes. Shoes. Our things. Zeela was attacked outside our rooms. We were afraid to stay there. She’s hurt.”

  He found a strap and hauled the bag farther into the room—and Sholeh with it. Then he closed the door.

  There were too many questions he wanted to ask, but he heard her breathy efforts not to cry. “Where is Zhahar?”

  “She needs to rest, so I’m in view now. Sh-she’s hurt too. Not cut like Zeela, but the wound is showing through on her too.”

  Lee’s heart jumped. The wound was showing through? “How badly is Zeela hurt?”

  “Bad. A knife slice along the ribs. It’s still bleeding.”

  Now he swore in earnest. “Why didn’t you get to the infirmary and have whoever is on duty summon Meddik Benham?”

  “And say what?” she cried. “How can I explain Zeela being here without Zhahar or why I have our things? We trust you to know about us, but…”

  “I know how to keep family secrets,” he said. “Sit in the chair. Zeela needs to…” He hesitated, trying to remember her phrasing. “Zeela needs to come into view now.”

  He didn’t wait for her agreement. Feeling his way to the door, he opened it, winced a little at the soft light, then began moving down the hallway, fingertips brushing the wall on his left, traveling over other doors.

  The door at the end of the hallway opened.

  “Lee?” Nik’s normally friendly voice held a challenge and warning. “You’re not supposed to leave your room until first call.”

  “I need to see the Shaman, and you need to fetch the Meddik. Now.”

  “Look here—I know Shaman Danyal has been lenient with you, but…”

  “A woman is hurt and needs Meddik Benham. Fetch him now!”

  The hallway lit up so bright that Lee ducked his head to protect his eyes. A heartbeat later, thunder rattled the building.

  He braced a hand on the wall. “Guardians and Guides, that’s never happened before.” At least, not in response to his temper.

  “You go back to your room,” Nik said, sounding shaken. “I’ll fetch— Shaman!”

  “What happened?” Danyal asked, huffing a bit as if he’d run to the building from wherever he’d been.

  “I’ll explain,” Lee said. “Nik is going for the Meddik. Zeela is in my room. She’s been hurt.”

  “Tell Benham he’s needed here,” Danyal said.

  A moment after Nik dashed off, Lee felt Danyal approach—and wondered if he or the Shaman had caused that flash of lightning and the thunder that followed.

  “What’s Zeela doing in your room, Lee?” Danyal asked softly.

  “I won’t betray a trust,” Lee replied just as softly, “so I won’t tell you all you want to know. I understand some things about Zhahar and her sisters. I think that’s why they came to my room. Or that was as far as they could get.”

  “Zhahar and Sholeh are here too?”

  “Yes.” Would I trust this man enough to gamble with my own family? Would
I tell him enough to help him guess the rest? “Their full name is Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar.”

  Danyal jerked, then said, “Brooks full of bright water. Storms. A summer lake.”

  So Danyal had felt something when he was around the sisters.

  “Some of the spiritual practices of Zhahar’s people would be compromised if she were to stay in the infirmary,” Lee said. He wasn’t sure calling them spiritual practices was accurate, but that explanation would receive the least resistance when it came to changing the rules. “She can stay in my room.”

  “No, she cannot.”

  Lee huffed out a breath. “I’m not going to see anything I shouldn’t see, but I can offer some muscle, because I think they’ll need it. Kobrah can help. And I can sit on the porch under my window so I can hear if she needs help without being in the room all the time.” He could feel Danyal’s resistance. “Daylight, man! If Zeela can strip me down and bathe me, I can sit by the bed and watch over her.”

  “Zeela?”

  Lee shrugged. “It’s amazing how much people let you see when you can’t see.”

  Silence when they heard two people running.

  “She’s down in Lee’s room,” Danyal said.

  “Why didn’t someone have sense enough to bring her to the infirmary?” Benham growled as he trotted past them.

  Lee assumed the door he heard opening was his, especially when the Meddik’s footsteps stopped.

  “Get a stretcher!” Benham shouted. “Get it now!”

  Nik ran.

  Danyal’s hand closed on Lee’s arm, guiding him as they hurried back to his room.

  Based on the arrangements of dark blobs and gray light, Lee figured they were standing in the doorway of his room.

  “How is she?” Danyal asked.

  “She has a deep knife wound between two ribs,” Benham snapped. “How do you think she is? As soon as Nik returns with that stretcher, she’s going to the infirmary.”

  “Just need a little sewing up,” Zeela said, her voice slurred.

  “A couple of hours ago, you might have needed just a little sewing up,” Benham said. “Now…”

  “Benham,” Danyal said.