by Anne Bishop
She scared him now in ways she never had before, and he didn’t know what to do about that.
Aurora, then. Or maybe the Den. Sebastian would let him use the room the Justice Maker still kept at the bordello and wouldn’t be inclined to fuss over him.
First he would check out the other bridge. It wasn’t in his notebook, so it wasn’t a bridge he had made. Which meant another Bridge had created a means of reaching Nadia’s landscapes, and anyone who could reach Nadia’s landscapes had the potential of reaching Glorianna’s.
He coughed again and felt the congestion in his chest break. He bent over and spat out phlegm. When he straightened, he had to wait for the dizziness to pass.
He’d been pushing too hard. Too little food, too little rest. Feeling too stubborn to return home after getting soaked during a storm last week. The urgency to check all the bridges that connected to his family’s landscapes was of his own making, an excuse to avoid the very people his diligence helped protect. He kept pushing himself because he was angry with Michael and Glorianna and even with Sebastian, and his own feelings resonating through Ephemera’s currents of power had come back to bite him in the ass—or in the chest—when a summer shower had turned into a cold storm.
“One more bridge,” he said, his voice crackling. He turned toward the spot where he’d left his little island imposed over this landscape and wondered if it would be there. It drifted every time he left it to inspect a bridge. Never far, but the certainty of the island never being more than a step away when he needed it had been a safety line when he worked alone in the dark landscapes.
He didn’t have that certainty anymore. He could make a one-shot bridge out of a small stone and get home if he found himself in a dangerous situation, but that wasn’t the same.
He felt the island’s resonance and knew he was almost beside it. As his fingers brushed against one of the trees, someone hailed him. He lowered his hand and turned, still only a step away from safety.
“Guardians and Guides,” the young man said as he hurried up to Lee. “Are you a Bridge? I haven’t seen another of us since the School.…” He trailed off.
“Since the Eater of the World destroyed the Landscapers’ and Bridges’ Schools.” Lee studied the stranger. Maybe old enough to have finished his training. “I’m Lee.” No reason to hide it or deny it.
“I’m Mason, but mostly I go by Mace. I guess you escaped too?”
“I wasn’t at the School when the Eater attacked.”
“Me neither,” Mace said. “I was working with one of the instructors, and the resonance of the bridge just changed to resonate with a dark landscape. My instructor thought I’d done something, so after he stabilized the bridge, he crossed over to make sure it still connected the landscapes it was supposed to, which included access back to the School. As soon as he stepped off the bridge and disappeared into another landscape, I started across.” Mace swallowed hard. “I think I heard him scream. I think I did. Next thing I remember is running until I came to another bridge. I ran across that one.”
“Where did you end up?” Lee asked.
“Not sure. Wasn’t anyplace I knew. I’ve been wandering since then. Finally reached this landscape a couple of days ago.” Mace looked around. “First place I’ve been in a while that looks close to home.”
Why don’t I believe him? Lee thought. What is it about his story that doesn’t feel true? “So you’ve been wandering. I know parts of this landscape fairly well. You must have been on the other side of that rise. I would have seen you sooner otherwise. Why didn’t you head for the other bridge? It would have been closer.”
Mace shrugged. He continued to look around, but there was less innocence in his eyes now. “I was hoping to find a village or even a farmhouse.” His eyes widened. “Guardians. Do you think this is one of Belladonna’s landscapes?”
False note in the voice. Calculation in the eyes.
“You’re not even close,” Lee lied, turning his voice into a slap. “Can’t you feel the difference between a dark landscape and a daylight one?”
Mace hunched his shoulders and looked embarrassed. “Sure, I can. It’s just…Well, wouldn’t you want to see Belladonna?”
“I’ve seen her.” Remembering the pure malevolence that sometimes filled his sister’s eyes since her return from the landscape that caged the Eater of the World, Lee shuddered. “Trust me. You don’t want to.”
“I think I do,” Mace said. “I’ve never seen a Dark Guide.…”
“She’s not a Dark Guide!” Lee snapped. Turning away from the footbridge that could bring Mace to one of Glorianna’s landscapes, Lee headed for the other bridge.
Like the Guardians of the Light and the Guides of the Heart who, long ago, were created as a response to human hearts crying out for help and guidance, the Dark Guides had been manifested by Ephemera in response to the darkness that dwells within the human heart. Glorianna wasn’t just a Landscaper; she was a true Guide of the Heart. Even if Belladonna reveled in dark emotions, she was still one half of Glorianna Belladonna and couldn’t change into a Dark Guide. Nothing and no one could change into a Dark Guide. Not even the wizards who were descended from them but weren’t purebloods.
Are you sure? a sly voice whispered in his mind. Are you really sure? She’s done so many things the rest of you can’t do. Would you be afraid of her if you were sure?
“Do you mind if I walk along with you?” Mace asked, hurrying to catch up to him. “It’s been a while since I’ve had another Bridge to talk to.”
“Suit yourself,” Lee replied. “I’m going to check out that other bridge and see if I can determine who made it and what landscapes are connected by it.”
“You can do that? Tell who made a bridge?”
Can’t you? Too many questions about this man and none of the right answers. “Sometimes I can recognize the resonance of a Bridge I know.” And he wondered if that unknown bridge would resonate with Mace.
“That’s interesting,” Mace said.
Lee started coughing again. He wished he hadn’t responded to that hail, wished he’d stepped onto the island and gone back to Sanctuary, or at least been standing on safe ground while he observed the man. Now that he’d spoken to Mace, he didn’t want to leave the other Bridge alone in one of Nadia’s landscapes.
“You don’t sound good,” Mace said. “You sure you’re up to more walking?”
Lee struggled to draw in the air he needed without starting another coughing fit. “Do you see a village or farmhouse where I could ask for shelter?”
“No.”
“Then I’m going on to the next bridge to see if it will lead to a place where I can stay for a few days.”
“What if we cross over into one of Belladonna’s landscapes?”
“We hope whoever finds us doesn’t want to eat us.”
Mace didn’t say another thing all the way to the next bridge.
Lee saw the men clustered around a small fire near the bridge and slowed down. The other reason he wanted to buy some time before getting closer was walking beside him.
While the majority of people weren’t sensitive enough to Ephemera to notice such things, a landscape did hold the signature resonance of the Landscaper who kept it balanced, and a bridge held the signature resonance of the Bridge who created it. He was close enough to that other bridge now to be certain that it connected to a landscape he didn’t know—and that Mace had been the one who created it.
Did the other man cross my path by chance? Lee wondered. Or had it been Mace’s intention all along to get me close to this bridge and these men? He wasn’t carrying a pack because he’d left it on the island. Mace wasn’t carrying anything either, and if the man had been wandering as he’d said, he should have picked up a water skin and some kind of pack that would fit a change of clothes and a day’s worth of food.
Unless Mace had left his gear at a camp.
“Maybe they’ll share their fire and a bit of food,” Mace said, raising a hand i
n greeting.
“Don’t call attention to yourself,” Lee said as he slipped a hand into his trouser pocket. “Don’t you remember any of your training? Those are rough-looking men. I didn’t get the impression you knew much about this landscape, so we don’t have anything between us worth stealing and no information to trade.”
“Don’t you know this landscape?” Mace asked.
“Like I said, I know parts of it, but not this area,” he lied. His fingers curled around three smooth stones in his pocket. Infusing the power of a Bridge into the stones, he could create one-shot bridges that would take a person to a specific landscape—if the person resonated with that landscape. Or he could make resonating bridges from the one-shots, which would send a person to one of the landscapes that resonated with that person’s heart.
Something about the way those men stood up and watched him and Mace made Lee wonder how they had been able to reach one of Nadia’s daylight landscapes in the first place.
He took a step to the side, putting a little distance between himself and Mace as he rubbed the stones and began turning them into resonating bridges.
“What’s wrong? They might be able to help us.” Mace’s face held an expression of hurt puzzlement.
The expression was perfect. Too bad it didn’t match the look in Mace’s eyes.
“Help us do what?” Lee asked. Holding the stones, he pulled his hand out of his pocket. His other hand reached back for his island. For a moment, his fingers brushed against the bark of one of the trees that grew near the path. Then he felt nothing.
Come on, he thought as he shifted another step away from Mace, who now watched him with predatory interest. Come on. Why aren’t you there?
The men were moving toward them, and two of them…Oh, he’d seen enough of them in his life to recognize that resonance.
“You bastard,” Lee said softly. “You’re working for the wizards? Don’t you know what they are, who most of them serve?”
“They’re going to save Ephemera,” Mace said. “We’re going to save Ephemera. And you’re going to help us.”
Lee glanced at the men approaching too fast. Guardians and Guides! Why couldn’t he find the island? All he needed to do was stay free long enough to take that step. Then he would be out of reach and could shift the island back to Sanctuary. But the island kept fading, as if it couldn’t be here long enough to hold him.
“What did they offer you?” he asked, stalling for time.
“I’m going to be the wizards’ personal Bridge,” Mace said. “They know about places you haven’t imagined, but I’ve seen those places. I’m going to be the most important person in the world. After the wizards, of course.”
“What about the Dark Guides?” Lee took another step back. “Don’t you think they’re important?”
“Belladonna is the only Dark Guide,” Mace said earnestly. “And once she’s destroyed…” He shrugged and gave Lee a happy-child smile.
He’s insane, Lee thought. Or else he’s controlled enough to be a danger to everyone Glorianna tried to protect from the wizards and the Dark Guides. If he finds a way to help those bastards reach Sanctuary and the Places of Light…
The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup. What Glorianna had become in the dark landscape she had created to hold the Eater of the World had changed her. He couldn’t accept the woman who came back because she had made that terrible place from the darkest parts of her own heart—and he still saw that darkness when he looked into Belladonna’s eyes. But she was still his sister, and he still loved her, and this he could do for her and their mother.
Guardians of the Light and Guides of the Heart, keep my family safe.
Clenching the three stones that just needed to connect with another person to become active, resonating bridges, Lee held out his other hand to Mace and said urgently, “Take my hand. The magic that will take us to one of Belladonna’s landscapes lasts only a moment.”
If Mace had been in his right mind, the words would have made no sense. But he held out his hand without hesitation or question. Grabbing Mace’s hand, Lee ran toward the men, his chest and lungs burning.
I reject all that is Belladonna. I deny all that is Glorianna. I have no place in her landscapes. I do not belong to any place that resonates with her. I WANT NO PART OF HER!
A moment of pure anger, of truth unfettered by a lifetime of love.
Lee felt something snap inside him, felt the change in the resonance of his own heart. Felt the pain of losing something he had counted on existing forever.
He slammed into the other men, knocking two of them down and yanking Mace off his feet to add to the tangle. The other men fell on him, and the two wizards were grabbing and yelling, “Don’t kill him!”
Ephemera, take me to the landscape farthest from this place. And take these hearts with me.
He wasn’t a Landscaper and had no reason to believe Ephemera would listen to him the way it listened to Glorianna or Michael. But as the wizards grabbed him, Lee opened his hand, and the three stones that were now resonating bridges fell into the tangle of bodies and limbs.
Then he screamed as Ephemera pulled them all into a whirlwind as it tried to find a place that resonated with all their conflicting hearts.
Glorianna sat on the bench near the koi pond and breathed in the peace of Sanctuary. She had shaped this place to protect some of Ephemera’s Places of Light. She had also wanted to help the people who tended those places reach one another, learn from one another. Sanctuary was beautiful, and there were many small spots that gave more than they took from her. But out of all of those small pieces, the koi pond was her favorite.
Was it because the koi’s world, with water that glistened in the sunlight and yet was partially shadowed by the plants, so clearly illustrated the simple lesson that there had to be Dark and Light in all landscapes? Even here, in a Place of Light, there were threads of Dark power that flowed in unity with the thick currents of Light. A piece of the world that belonged on one side of the scale of Dark and Light still needed a touch of the other side to stay in balance within itself.
That was also true for a person, although finding that balance again after it was destroyed in a human heart was much harder.
Or was she often drawn to the koi pond when she was tired or troubled because, like the koi, the whole of a Landscaper’s world was bound within walls?
Landscapers were women who acted as the bedrock for pieces of Ephemera and the sieve through which the world manifested all the wants and dreams and wishes, for good or ill, that came from all the hearts that lived in those places. In her part of the world, those women had built walled gardens where they kept access points to landscapes that could be as close as the next village or as far away as part of a distant land. They tended that ground, watering and weeding, turning the soil, and through those simple tasks they remained aware of those places in between the times when they used their access points to cross over to those pieces of the world and interact with the place and the people.
There were seven levels of Landscapers. Some could do no more than act as a sieve that kept the world from manifesting every person’s wishes and feelings. Others were stronger and could, by their presence, provide opportunities that would help a person take another step toward a true heart wish—the kind of wish that changed lives.
There were seven levels of Landscapers. And then there was Glorianna Belladonna, who was a Guide of the Heart—a descendant of the Guides who had originally defeated and caged the Eater of the World.
And like those first Guides, she learned that there were all kinds of cages.
Everyone lives within the walls built by their own hearts, she thought. But most people aren’t aware of that, so they’re also not aware of the boundaries—or that some things, no matter how much they are loved, can drift out of reach.
“Should I be offended that the koi receive a visit from you before I do?” a male voice asked, the sound like warm silk over skin.
Smiling, she shifted on the bench to make room for him. “Honorable Yoshani.”
He sat beside her, returning her smile but saying nothing.
“That pond makes up the koi’s world,” Glorianna said. “Do you think they know there is something beyond the sunny parts and the parts shadowed by water plants?”
“They know that when the shadow of the heron falls across their world, they must hide or be eaten. Just as they know the people who sit on this bench bring them food,” Yoshani replied. “Why are you are wondering about the koi?”
“I was actually thinking about how a Landscaper’s life is contained within the walls of her own garden.” And how a heart can become caged by duty, she added silently.
Yoshani looked thoughtful, then shook his head. “Your work is contained within the garden, but not all of your life. You spend time in some of your mother’s landscapes—the village where you grew up resonates with her, not you. You travel with Michael to some of his landscapes, and you visit Caitlin Marie in Darling’s Harbor. That is not a constricted life.”
No, it isn’t, she agreed silently. But it’s not my life I’m really wondering about.
“What are you thinking, Glorianna Dark and Wise?”
Nothing she wanted to share yet, so she said, “Glorianna is not much of either anymore. And Belladonna…”
“Do you still feel split asunder?”
“I am split asunder.” She looked into the dark eyes that held so much warmth and listened to a heart she knew well. “Were you asked to watch over me while Michael checks his landscapes?”
Michael had created a simple garden within her garden so that he could travel quickly to the parts of Elandar that were in his keeping. Before he met her and learned more about his own heritage and connection to Ephemera, he used to spend weeks on the road, traveling from one place to the next.
Yoshani smiled. “Yes, and I’m glad to have the opportunity. The last time I was asked to watch over you, the experience changed my life. Perhaps it will again.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t wish for such a thing.”