by Anne Bishop
“But…you have those stones, that magic. You can get away without the wagon.”
“Yeah, I can go anytime. I could make one-shot bridges that would get Nik, Denys, Kobrah, Benham, even the Apothecary here away from the Asylum. There’s no telling where they would end up, but most likely it would be away from this part of the city—maybe even away from this part of the world.” Lee pressed his lips together for a moment. “But I don’t know what crossing a bridge would do to you and your sisters, Zhahar. I don’t know if you could survive crossing over. I do know that if you want to save your people, we have to run now, because I’m not leaving without you, and every minute we delay is a minute the wizards have to get closer to stopping us.”
Zhahar stared at him. Zeela’s major strength was the body. Sholeh drank in knowledge. Her strength was the heart, and her heart had been drawn to this man from the first time she saw him.
“We’ll go with you,” she said.
A fleeting smile. A lessening of tension in his shoulders, telling her how relieved he was by her answer. Then his hand closed around her wrist for a moment, warm contact before he let her go.
“I’m sorry,” Lee said. “We’re going to have to travel light.”
She nodded, then wasn’t sure he truly saw the movement. “I know. Come on, Kobrah.”
::You didn’t tell him that as soon as we return home, the last link holding Tryadnea to Vision will break,:: Sholeh said as they ran to their room. ::We’ll be adrift again.::
*We can’t stay,* Zhahar said as she hauled out the big traveling bag and began stuffing it with clothes and whatever else came to her hand.
=Don’t forget the Three Faces and the Third Eye,= Zeela said.
Zhahar pulled open the top drawer of the dresser and wrapped the two wooden objects in underclothes before putting them in the bag.
::We could stay,:: Sholeh insisted. ::We’ve made some friends here. I like Lee, but he doesn’t understand why we have to stay.::
=Zhahar is the reason the wizards lost control of Lee,= Zeela snapped. =They’ll want to hurt her for that, and that lightning they wield most likely would kill all of us. And then Tryadnea will be adrift, and whatever connection Lee thinks he can help us make will be lost.=
Sholeh began to cry and withdrew from them.
*She’s scared,* Zhahar said as she continued to pack. *We all are.*
=It’s not just the wizards we should fear.=
*You mean that Dark Guide?*
=No. You know who I mean. But he stayed for you, Zhahar. He can see well enough now to get around without help. He could have disappeared like Vito and the others. But he stayed. For you. No matter what happens in the days ahead, that’s something all of us have to remember.=
“We could use more food, more water,” the Apothecary said. “If we want to stay ahead of the wizards and their master, we’ll need to travel through part of the night. The longer we can delay stopping for provisions, the harder we’ll be to track.”
“I’ll get the food and water,” Denys said.
“I’d best find Meddik Benham and tell him what’s happened,” Nik said.
“But keep it quiet,” Lee told them. “The fewer people who know about this, the safer we’ll all be. And tell Meddik Benham I’ll need to talk with him too.”
They both nodded and hurried off.
“Do you need help to reach your room?” the Apothecary asked.
“No, I can see well enough. The drops that are healing my eyes. Those are from you?”
“Yes. The things that did you harm also came from my shop.”
Lee almost reconsidered traveling with this man. Almost. What helped him decide was the feeling that the Dark and Light in the man were almost equally balanced, and maybe like the Shamans, the shadowmen would benefit from a larger view of the world—and the people who touched Ephemera.
And maybe, in that moment before he decided, he recognized a truth about himself and his own connection to the Dark currents.
“You said you can remain unseen,” he said.
“In stillness and in shadow,” the Apothecary replied. “Not while in motion. I can’t hide the wagon while we travel.”
“But you could hide it now?”
“For what purpose?”
“To avoid someone tampering with a wheel or the harness.”
“You think the lightning men have allies in the Asylum?”
“I know they have one.”
“Then I’ll stay here.”
“I won’t be long.”
Lee strode toward the residence, squinting despite the dark glasses. He should pick up a hat somewhere. The brim would give his eyes extra protection.
“Lee!” Teeko called. “What’s going on?”
Lee just raised a hand and kept going. When he reached his room, he stripped the pillowcase off the pillow and stuffed his spare set of clothes into it. The eyedrops went into the middle of the clothes, protected on all sides. He wasn’t sure how much of his eyesight would be restored, but he didn’t want to lose whatever chance he had of regaining as much as possible.
Something to ask the Apothecary once they were on the road.
He slipped four of the smooth stones into his pocket and put the rest in the pillowcase. Finally, he picked up his long cane and left the room, meeting up with Nik on his way to the wagon.
“Denys has the food and water,” Nik said. “Meddik Benham is waiting for you by the wagon.”
“Kobrah and Zhahar?”
“They brought their bags to the wagon. Zhahar dashed back into the building to use the toilet.” Nik shrugged. “She didn’t say that, but…”
After hiding the truth about herself and her sisters, living in such close quarters with other people wasn’t going to be easy for Zhahar. He understood her wanting to empty herself as much as possible before getting into the wagon.
“You have your eyedrops?” Nik asked as they reached the wagon.
Lee lifted the pillowcase. “Tucked in here. The bottle should be all right as long as nothing is dropped on the case.”
“Give it to me. I’ll stow it while you talk to Meddik Benham.”
He handed the pillowcase to Nik.
“You have any idea where Danyal might be?” Benham asked.
He shook his head. “It sounds like Ephemera turned a pocket watch into a bridge that connects to another place. If he survived the lightning, Danyal will end up in a landscape that resonates with his heart—or a place that would provide the potential for him to find what he wanted the most at that moment. But where that might be isn’t something anyone else can know.”
“You think these wizards are going to come here?”
“I’m sure they’ll come, so this is what you need to do: contact the city guards. Tell them some threats have been made against the Asylum and you need their help guarding the inmates from harm. Will they respond to that?”
“They will,” Benham confirmed.
“Send a message to the Shamans. Whoever is in charge. Tell them Danyal is missing and that a witness saw him being attacked before he disappeared. Tell them an inmate escaped with the help of a Handler, and that you have informed Pugnos and Styks of my disappearance. Be sure to name them. Send the same message to whoever oversees all the Asylums in the city. Get those messages out as fast as you can. When the wizards come—and they will—tell my ‘uncles’ everything, including the part about mentioning them in the letters.”
“You think that will stop them from hurting anyone?” Nik asked, sounding doubtful.
“In my part of the world, the wizards hid in plain sight for generations, using their ability to influence people’s minds to help them eliminate the Landscapers who would have been their strongest adversaries. They aren’t going to want too many people in Vision to know what they are. Not yet. So if Meddik Benham jumps in as soon as they arrive and tells them about Danyal’s disappearance and my escape, I think they’ll play their role of concerned relatives and leave the rest of you a
lone.” Lee hesitated. “I can make people disappear by using a stone filled with my particular kind of magic. The stone becomes what we call a resonating bridge. I can give a stone to each of you to use as a way to escape if the wizards do attack.”
All three men shook their heads, which didn’t surprise him.
“We’re not leaving the people who need us,” Benham said quietly.
“I didn’t think you would,” Lee replied.
“So you are a colleague of Danyal’s? We’ve all wondered.”
“I come from a distant land, so I don’t have the same abilities as the Shamans, but there is a lot of common ground between Danyal’s training and mine.”
“Thought so.”
Lee frowned as he looked back at the building. What was keeping Zhahar? If one of them needed to pee, did all of them need to pee separately? But if they shared the innards, wouldn’t one be able to do it for all of them? He’d had that impression when Zhahar had told him to stop Sholeh from eating spicy food while she and Zeela were recuperating.
He’d barely finished the thought when he heard a woman screaming his name.
“Let me go! Lee! Lee!”
This time Nik and Denys were ahead of him. The sun was too bright, making his eyes burn and tear—making it hard to see who was struggling.
Then Nik snapped, “Damn it, Teeko. What are you doing?”
“What I have to,” Teeko said, sounding frantic. “You think I want to work in this place forever? I’ve got plans, and there’s a big reward for keeping him here until they come to fetch him. Sent one of the boys off with a message. They’ll be here soon. Hand over Lee, and you can have this freak.”
“He hit Zhahar,” Sholeh screamed as she struggled futilely in Teeko’s grasp. “She’s not answering!”
Guardians and Guides. Teeko had seen Zhahar shift into Sholeh. No wonder the man sounded frantic.
Lee pulled a stone from his pocket, then shoved between Nik and Denys, moving far enough ahead of them that he wouldn’t hit them. Teeko’s plan had been simple: knock out Zhahar to delay their leaving until the wizards arrived and scooped up their troublesome “nephew.” Would have worked if Zhahar hadn’t been a Tryad.
Zhahar was hurt and Sholeh was scared past thinking. And Zeela? Had Sholeh come into view because she was the only one who wasn’t injured?
Zhahar’s pain. Sholeh’s fear.
Anger filled him, swelling the Dark currents that flowed through the Asylum. Then those Dark currents filled him in turn as his power flowed into the stone to create a resonating bridge.
“Let her go, Teeko,” Lee said, his voice rough with the swelling rage.
“As soon as Nik and Denys put you in a jacket, I’ll let the freak go.”
“We’re not a freak,” Sholeh sobbed.
“He’s only holding her by one wrist,” Nik said out of the corner of his mouth. “We could take him.”
That’s when Teeko yanked Sholeh closer and revealed the short-bladed knife in his other hand. “You come at me, I’ll cut her. I’ll cut her bad!”
“Let her go, Teeko,” Lee said. The stone throbbed in his hand, all power and anger. Ephemera, give him what he deserves.
Problem was, if Teeko was still holding Sholeh when Lee hit him with the stone, she’d be pulled into that landscape with him.
“She’s got a scar on her left arm,” Denys whispered. “What’s going on?”
Was Zeela starting to come into view?
“Is that what they offered you, Teeko? Gold and precious jewels in exchange for someone’s life?” Lee asked.
“I’ll be a rich man!” Teeko yelled.
“If that’s all it takes to buy you, I can match that and more. Here’s a lump of gold as down payment.” As he cocked his arm, he yelled, “Zeela!” and threw the one-shot bridge at Teeko.
He couldn’t see well enough to be sure it was Zeela in view until she punched Teeko. Not a hard blow, but enough to startle him into releasing her.
Zeela twisted away from Teeko and fell on her hands and knees.
Teeko caught the stone—and disappeared.
Silence, except for Nik’s and Denys’s rough breathing.
Lee rushed over to the fallen woman and yelled, “Get Benham over here!”
“Already here,” Benham said. He stopped several paces away, then approached warily.
“Zeela?” Lee asked, resting a hand between her shoulder blades.
“I’m all right,” Zeela said, not sounding all right.
“Need to check those stitches,” Benham said. “Make sure she didn’t pull anything.”
“Zhahar needs to come into view,” Zeela said. “He hit her on the head. Don’t know how bad.”
“We’ll check you first,” Lee said firmly. When Benham did nothing, Lee looked at the man. What did the people here see now when they looked at him? “I have no quarrel with you.”
“What about them?”
“They come from a race called the Tryad. Short version is, three siblings share a body but are still individuals.”
“I could have done more for them if Danyal had been a little more forthcoming about their ‘spiritual practices,’” Benham grumbled as he knelt beside Zeela and pulled up her tunic enough to look at her ribs. “No fresh blood on the dressing. I don’t think she took any damage from that fall.”
“Didn’t,” Zeela said. “If I’m going to be seeing my mothers in a couple of days, I wouldn’t lie about how a wound is healing. Now…”
Lee felt the difference, the slight change in muscle tone, the scent of a different woman.
Benham sucked in a breath. “That’s the damnedest thing.” He gave Lee a sour look before gently examining Zhahar’s head. “Got a good-size bump there, but I’m not feeling more than that. Didn’t hit her hard enough to crack her skull. She was probably dazed by the blow and disoriented enough to scare someone.”
“Can she travel?”
“I’m right here,” Zhahar grumbled.
“Getting rattled in a wagon won’t make her feel good, but I can’t see it doing her—them?—harm,” Benham said. “And you’re traveling with an Apothecary. Next best thing to a Meddik.”
“Then we’ve got to go.” Lee picked up Zhahar, grunting at the weight. From the physical contact he’d had with her, he hadn’t expected her to be this heavy.
As he walked back to the wagon, he only half listened to Benham’s telling Nik to get some ice, aware that Denys kept pace with him.
“I’m not going to drop her,” Lee panted.
“Didn’t say you would,” Denys replied. “But you should let me get her into the wagon. I’m used to handling bodies, and if you bang her head against the doorframe, you’ll have Kobrah chewing on you.”
Couldn’t argue with the truth of that, so he handed Zhahar to Denys when they reached the wagon.
“Looks like we don’t have as much time as we’d hoped,” the Apothecary said as he watched Nik hand Kobrah a filled ice bag.
“Not much time at all,” Lee agreed. “We need to go north, but Zhahar will have to tell us exactly where we’re headed.”
“Plenty of roads lead to the heart of Vision, and it’s not odd to see an Apothecary’s wagon headed that way. I come this way at least once each season to buy ingredients at the bazaar I can’t find anywhere else in the city.” The Apothecary huffed out a breath. “You should stay in the wagon with the sisters. The other one can sit on the driving seat with me.”
“All right.” He thought for a moment. “You’re not disturbed about them being a Tryad?”
“You and the Shaman knew they came from a different race of people. It didn’t bother either of you, so there’s no reason to let it bother me.” The Apothecary gave him a long look. “The one who threatened the sisters. Where did he go?”
“To a place that resonates with the darkest part of his heart,” Lee replied.
“To the darkest part of his heart? Or the darkest part of yours?”
Denys stepped out of
the wagon. Lee started to step up, then stopped, tilting his head to catch the sound.
Wind chimes and gongs.
Would they be enough to create an access point? Maybe not for most Landscapers, but Glorianna had created access points to landscapes from a single brick or a stone that held the resonance of the place. If he brought gongs and chimes that carried the Dark and Light resonances of the Asylum, would that be enough for Glorianna to get them back here?
“Fetch three of the wind chimes and three of the gongs,” he said. “Doesn’t matter which ones.”
Kobrah poked her head out of the wagon and started to protest, then looked at him and said nothing while Nik and Denys hurried to the temple and returned with the gongs and wind chimes. They handed them up to Kobrah, who began fussing about where to put them.
“Guardians and Guides,” Lee snapped. “Just store the damn things and get down from there. You’re riding on the seat with the Apothecary.”
A silence. Then a flurry of sound before Kobrah rushed out of the wagon and muttered, “Maybe you’re a Chayne after all.”
Lee looked at Benham, Denys, and Nik. “Travel lightly.” Then he stepped inside the wagon, closed the door, and sat on the floor beside the narrow bunk where Zhahar lay.
The wagon began moving. Not with the speed Lee would have liked, but the window behind the driver’s seat was open partway for air, and he could hear all the other carts and carriages around them as soon as they left the Asylum. No one would be moving quickly during the busiest time of the day, but another wagon plodding along with the rest would be less noticed than a wagon in a hurry.
As he kept watch over Zhahar and coaxed Sholeh and Zeela to come into view for a few minutes, just to be sure they were all right, he thought about the Apothecary’s question. The one who threatened the sisters. Where did he go? To the darkest part of his heart or the darkest part of yours?
They were good questions. Too bad he didn’t have answers.