by Anne Bishop
“Yes, it was solid. Now it’s acting like the White Isle did when we first tried to approach. Sebastian could hear the men talking but couldn’t see them, couldn’t actually cross over.”
“But Tryadnea is your landscape,” Lee protested.
“I think there’s a power struggle going on in Tryadnea that we aren’t privy to, so maybe not everyone wants Tryadnea to be one of my landscapes,” Glorianna said. “Maybe there are some who want that land to remain barren. What I do know is that Zhahar is at the center of this.”
“Zhahar wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her homeland,” Lee said. “And she certainly wouldn’t want to strip her people of the first chance they’ve had in years of making a solid connection to another part of the world.”
“She’s the tool, Lee,” she said softly.
He swore quietly but with considerable heat. Then he removed the soft-brimmed hat and scrubbed one hand over his head. “Zhahar has decided that she doesn’t have feelings for me, isn’t going to have feelings for me, that it was all a moment’s madness between a Handler and an inmate, with the romantic notions all on my side.” He shrugged.
She didn’t need to see the hurt in his eyes; she felt it in his heart.
“Do you believe that?” Michael asked.
“Lee, what would happen if Tryadnea broke away from the Den and went adrift again?” Glorianna asked. “What would happen if you made a one-shot bridge that got Morragen back home and Zhahar didn’t go back?”
He shook his head. “I’d make a one-shot bridge for her too. I wouldn’t leave her stranded here, Glorianna. I’m churned up right now, but I’m not that selfish.”
“No,” she said with a smile. “You’re not. But if Zhahar didn’t go back?”
“She doesn’t like it here.”
“This isn’t the only place, Lee.”
“When you’re cut off from your own people, you can pick and choose the customs you want to keep.” Michael said. “Is that what you’re thinking?”
Glorianna nodded. “And you can get away from a kind of heart poison that lives inside too many of your people.” She looked at her brother. “The heart has no secrets, Bridge. Zhahar can lie to her mother. She can lie to you. She can even lie to herself. But she can’t lie to a Guide of the Heart, not when she’s standing in my landscapes. The romantic notions aren’t all on your side. I don’t know if that helps or hurts, but I can tell you that much.” And Zhahar will have to tell you the rest—if she chooses.
“What am I supposed to do?” Lee asked.
“Same thing we’ve always done—fix what we can and hope it’s enough.”
Michael picked up the rolled blanket. “Then let’s see what we can do with these.”
Opportunities and choices, Glorianna thought as the four of them walked back to Nadia’s house. It took courage to follow the heart.
It was time to find out who had that courage.
Chapter 26
As they walked to Nadia’s house, Lee’s thoughts were racing fast and hard. He understood the danger of conflicting heart wishes. Ephemera manifested the heart, for good or ill. It didn’t distinguish between a wish that would benefit people from a wish that would do harm. And while the Landscapers could keep the world from manifesting every idle wish that came from the hearts of all the people, even they couldn’t stop a true heart wish—or prevent all the changes that heart wish would create.
If there was anyone who could minimize the damage being done right now, it was Glorianna Belladonna. But first, he had his own fences to mend. Since he was walking beside Sebastian, that was a good place to start.
“I’m sorry about the bird.”
Sebastian shook his head and smiled. “Bop would have learned about butter sooner or later.”
Maybe. “It will give you practice spelling out words.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Just what I need. The bird teaching the baby to spell.”
Lee grinned, but the grin faded when they reached the gate in the wall. He lengthened his stride to reach Glorianna before she walked into the house. “Can we talk before we all talk?”
She studied him, then looked at Michael. Nodding, the Magician carried the blanket into the house.
“I know you have to tell them the border is unstable,” he said.
“Yes, I do,” she agreed.
“Could you brush over why it’s unstable?” He wished he could see better, wished he could read whatever was in her face.
Finally, she asked, “Why?”
He didn’t try to dissemble or evade. Not with her. “Opportunities and choices. Zhahar and her sisters were one of six Tryad who went into the city of Vision to anchor Tryadnea to another place. The other five failed, and I think the discovery of what they were was a big reason they failed.”
“And gave Vision’s citizens someone to blame for the bad things that were happening,” Glorianna said. Then she tipped her head. “Lee? How did anyone know the Tryad were Tryad? I had the impression they were very careful to keep their nature a secret.”
“Zhahar was revealed fairly quickly.”
“By a Shaman and a Bridge. Unless they changed aspects in front of someone, who else besides someone like you or Danyal would sense the difference?”
He thought about that and understood where she was going. “Someone told on them. Someone pointed out the stranger and whispered in the right ear.”
“Someone with enough bitterness in her heart to want the rest of the Tryad to suffer.”
Lee pulled off the hat. “Guardians and Guides, Glorianna. How are we supposed to prove that to anyone?”
“We can’t. And it’s not our place to try. The Tryad have to choose whom to follow. We can’t make that choice for them.”
No, they couldn’t make that choice. But that didn’t mean there weren’t choices they could make.
He brushed his fingertips down Glorianna’s arm. “One heart can change a landscape. As a Guide, you know that.”
“Yes, I do. So be careful what opportunities you create and what choices you make, brother.” She tugged him toward the kitchen door.
“What does that mean?”
“That means you would be smart to get as much help as you can.”
“With what?”
“How do the Tryad have sex?”
Lee groaned. “Not really something I can ask.”
“I agree. But the answer will have a significant impact on the choices that are made. So let Teaser ask. He’s bursting to find out, so let him do it.”
“You think Zhahar is going to talk to Teaser?”
“No, I think Sholeh will talk to Teaser and tell him a whole lot about Tryad customs and traditions and history that will be helpful in understanding these people. All things Teaser wants to know about, since he looks at the Tryad and sees lots of potential new lovers.”
“Daylight,” Lee muttered.
“Zeela, on the other hand, will tell him the mechanics of Tryad sex, either for her own self-interest or because she’ll realize he’s going to pass the information on to you. Either way, you’ll know if that door is closed to you.”
He huffed out a breath. A year ago, Sebastian would have been a better choice to find out about the Tryad. Now he would still listen intently, but not to be a lover in dreams or flesh. Now he would consider whether Tryad sexual preferences would cause any trouble in the Den.
“How did Sebastian go from being the hot badass women drool over to being the prissy prig who enforces the rules?” he asked.
“Sebastian is still hot, women still drool when he walks by, and enforcing his own rules is hardly being a prissy prig,” Glorianna said primly as she opened the kitchen door. “And since you look enough alike, if you wore your pants tighter, women would drool over you too.”
He choked. She laughed and walked into the house, leaving him sputtering.
Danyal watched everyone gather around the kitchen table. Storms and bright water. Heat lightning. Thorn trees and breat
htaking Light. He couldn’t get a feel for the other people crowding into the room. Their hearts were all submerged by the intensity of feeling in Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar, Sebastian, and Glorianna Belladonna.
Tension tightened his muscles, making his burned shoulder and hip ache as he began to understand that only specific people were being given a place at the table. Zhahar and Morragen sat beside each other, with Nadia on Zhahar’s left. Sebastian and Glorianna sat across from them, with Lee on Glorianna’s right. Michael sat at one end of the table, and he had been given the seat at the other end. Yoshani, Teaser, Kobrah, Caitlin Marie, Lynnea, Jeb, the Apothecary, and the Knife filled up the kitchen.
“There’s a problem,” Glorianna said. “The border between Tryadnea and the Den has faded to the point where no one can cross over.”
“You said it was stable,” Morragen said. “I’m here, away from my people, because you said it was stable.”
“It was. Tryadnea is still connected to the Den, but it can’t be reached by using that border. At least one person made a heart wish so powerful it broke down a border between two compatible landscapes held by the same Landscaper. Held by me.”
Morragen stared at Zhahar. “You would condemn our people in order to be with a man?”
“My son isn’t just some man,” Nadia warned, leaning on the table to see past Zhahar, who stared back at her mother, looking shocked and pale.
“I didn’t!” Zhahar said. “How could you think I would do that? I didn’t wish…” She glanced at Lee and didn’t continue.
Yes, you did, Danyal thought. But you had no reason to think your wishing could change anything. And yet Zhahar sounded sincere. Then he looked at Michael, who was watching her closely. Whatever the Magician was hearing in the heart music surprised him.
“Zhahar,” Lee said gently, “heart wishes can change a landscape, but this disruption of the border isn’t permanent. It can be fixed.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Zhahar cried.
A moment later, Zeela came into view, pushing the chair back as she stood up and glared at Morragen. “Zhahar didn’t make the heart wish to break Tryadnea away from the Den. I did.”
Morragen also stood. “Why would you condemn our people?”
“Why not?” Zeela snapped. “It’s not going to make any difference. No matter what we do or how hard we try, the connection will break in a few months, and nothing will have changed. We’ll be adrift again, feeling more bitter because we failed again, and you won’t be able to stop it any more than your mothers could.”
“That’s enough!” Morragen shouted.
“Our connection to the Den is going to break sooner or later, so why not let it break now? Then Zhahar will have a chance to love someone, which is more than you ever had. Do you think we were too young to understand the fights between you and the grandmothers? ‘Give him your body if you must do the base act, but never give him your heart.’”
Zephyra came into view for a moment, tears in her eyes. “Stop this. Zeela, please stop this.” She faded as Morragen appeared again.
“No, I won’t stop this!” Zeela shouted. Her hands clenched into fists as she faced her mother’s warrior aspect. “You three have already decided you don’t like the connection to the Den. You’re never going to like any of them because they’re one-faced. We could see it in your eyes last night. The disappointment that this place isn’t whatever it is you search for.”
Wondering what he had missed last night, Danyal glanced at the other people around the table, then at Yoshani—and realized he hadn’t missed anything. Which meant Zeela’s accusations might have been valid in the past but had no basis in the current truth. But he saw the way Glorianna, Lee, and Michael were studying her so intently, so he focused on her heart-core—and sat back, shocked.
Coating Zeela’s stormy core was a bog full of poisoned air.
Michael gave him a “Do you feel it?” look. When he tipped his head in a subtle nod, the Magician returned his attention back to Zeela.
“We want to build a life here, so we’re staying,” Zeela shouted. “You can go back to Tryadnea and drift away again.”
Morragen again. “How dare you!”
Zeela bared her teeth. “I dare because I’m a warrior, my sisters’ protector. Like you, Morragen.”
“And your own heart will break when you understand that it’s the part of your sisters you can’t protect.”
“At least one of us will try!”
“That’s enough,” Morragen and Medusah said coldly.
“The two of you can still silence Zhahar and Sholeh and bend them to your will,” Zeela said just as coldly. “But not me. Not anymore. I wish—”
Glorianna, Nadia, Michael, Lee, and Sebastian jumped to their feet and shouted, “No!”
Shaken, Danyal watched the other people in the room. Even the people who hadn’t reacted so vigorously seemed to be holding their breaths.
Glorianna stared at Morragen and Zeela, her green eyes filled with fury. “Ephemera, hear me. This storm is fierce but changes nothing.”
Within moments, the sky darkened and thunder rumbled loud enough to rattle the windows. Moments after that, rain pounded the ground.
“I left the cottage’s windows open!” Lynnea wailed before she, Caitlin, and Jeb hurried to shut the windows in the rest of the house, while Teaser and the Knife shut the kitchen’s windows and door.
“This storm changes nothing,” Belladonna said, extending her hand toward Nadia.
Nadia gripped her daughter’s hand and repeated, “This storm changes nothing.”
Belladonna held out her other hand. Sebastian gripped it. Looking at Morragen, he said, “As the Den’s anchor, I want the border between Tryadnea and the Den to hold. I want the chance to get to know my new neighbors.”
The rain stopped just as Jeb, Lynnea, and Caitlin returned to the kitchen.
Teaser opened the kitchen door, stared out the screen for a moment, then muttered, “Daylight. Can flowers swim?”
“Best we deal with what’s outside later,” Jeb said.
“Sit down,” Belladonna said, her eyes still fixed on Morragen and Zeela.
Don’t do it, Danyal thought, watching Zeela while trying to get a sense of the depth of Belladonna’s anger. What he felt in that divided heart frightened him. If you bring this storm down on your people, you will never forgive yourself.
Morragen sat.
Lee said, “Please, Zeela. Do as she asks.”
Zeela sat.
Belladonna released Nadia’s hand. She tried to release Sebastian’s too, but he held on until she looked at him.
Heat lightning and thorn trees. But that connection was enough to add the thunder of clean water to the thorn trees.
When Glorianna sat down, the others did too.
“You don’t have to condemn your people to have something for yourself,” Glorianna told Zeela.
Danyal considered the little he knew about Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar—the private things he’d seen when he’d packed up her possessions after Zeela had been knifed, and the story Yoshani and Michael had put together that could explain what had happened to the Tryad long ago.
“It’s about heart, isn’t it?” he asked gently. “That’s why what you want you also fear. Because it’s about heart.”
“It usually is,” Sebastian replied, looking at Lynnea.
Medusah came into view. She stared at each of them in turn but said nothing.
“Then I was right about the missing piece of the story,” Michael said. “It’s not just about us being able to accept you. It’s about you having enough heart—enough courage—to accept us. If enough of you want a connection, hope for a connection to another piece of Ephemera, there are some of you who can take that hope and wind it into an anchor that will hold for a while. But that’s an anchor attached to a rope that frays a little more every day. In order to build a solid bridge between your people and another, you need heart.”
“Yes,” Glorianna said
softly, thoughtfully. “It’s not enough to be physically present in a place; you have to live in the place. Interact with people. Build a life.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to be an outsider,” Medusah said bitterly.
Caitlin let out a pained laugh. “Oh, some of us do. Some of us know all too well what it’s like to be different from everyone else around you.”
I wish I could bring her to the Temple of Sorrow, Danyal thought. I wish I could help her release some of that old pain.
But she surprised him by smiling at Glorianna. “Now I’m learning that it takes time for the heart to embrace being accepted. And it takes time to learn that something doesn’t have to be the way it’s been.” She ducked her head, as if shying away.
“What is it, Caitlin?” Nadia asked.
“It was just a thought,” she mumbled.
When she didn’t say anything else, Teaser gave her an elbow bump. “They’re waiting for the thought.”
She’s someone he likes but doesn’t think of sexually, which must be strange for him, Danyal thought. Someone he pesters and teases—and wouldn’t hesitate to defend. And that has changed him.
“Well, Sholeh and I were talking last night,” Caitlin said hesitantly.
Sholeh appeared long enough to frantically shake her head, but it was Zhahar who came into view, looking pale and sick.
“She explained about the connections Tryad made to hold Tryadnea to other landscapes, and that got me thinking about the journeys,” Caitlin continued. “Every person who lives in Darling’s Harbor takes a walk between the Sentinel Stones when they reach their majority. They spend weeks preparing for it, putting their gear together and making up a pack much like Michael used to carry for his wandering. Families celebrate, and there are both laughter and tears because no one knows if that person will ever come back. And then the people making the journey walk between the Stones to find out where they belong in the world.”
Lee almost bounced out of his chair.
“So I was thinking that maybe some of the Tryad’s troubles were caused because they weren’t connected with places that had people interested in meeting them. Lots of the people in Ephemera don’t meet many beyond their own.”