Bridge of Dreams

by Anne Bishop

  But a pureblood incubus could do plenty of damage even if the woman lived. And he wondered what being two-faced meant to a people who normally had three.

  “Who has met an incubus here?” he asked.

  Zhahar hesitated, then said, “Kobrah. I think there have been two others—two inmates, a man and woman.”

  “Are they all right?”

  “The woman was getting better for a while. But I didn’t know the dream lover she talked about was a demon, was something real trying to get to her. When I told Shaman Danyal the dreams had helped her, I didn’t know they came from a demon. And when Kobrah told me about her friend, I didn’t know he was a demon.”

  She paced a few steps away from him, then back, her agitation growing. In another minute, she might rush back to Danyal and stir everyone up. And that would have everyone looking too hard for someone who wasn’t completely human.

  Had it occurred to her that he and Danyal were also people in the not-completely-human column?

  “Slow down,” Lee said. “Zhahar, slow down. Not all dark landscapes are bad places, and not all demons are bad either. They’re like any other people. Have the people who connected with the incubi or succubi said anything about them?”

  “The man kept insisting that he had to cross over, had to meet his lover in the flesh. He became violent when he ran across one of the footbridges on the grounds and nothing happened. He’s been in isolation ever since.”

  “If she gets as much pleasure in tormenting a man as she does from sex, being in isolation won’t help, since the succubus can still reach him. What about the woman?”

  “She was improving until the previous Keeper ordered her to be heavily sedated at night so she couldn’t dream. She’s failing now. The Shaman rescinded the order, but the dreams didn’t come back.”

  “The incubus moved on,” Lee said quietly. “He couldn’t reach her anymore, so he moved on.” He waited a beat. “What about Kobrah? I had the impression she hates men.”

  “Yes, she hates men. Something happened to her before she came here. I don’t know what it was, but a man named Chayne did it.”

  “And yet she’s drawn an incubus to her?”

  “Her… friend… comes to her in dreams. They take walks in the moonlight. Hold hands. That sort of thing. He doesn’t push to have sex.”

  “Wait a minute. Wait.” Lee took off the dark glasses. She wasn’t more than a dark blob, but he didn’t want any kind of barrier between them. “Kobrah is Teaser’s friend?”

  He saw her body blob jerk. “You know Teaser?”

  “I’ve known him for years. He lives in the Den of Iniquity.”

  “That place is real?”

  “Sure. My cousin Sebastian lives there.” He hesitated, then decided it was better to tell her now. “You read Sholeh’s report, didn’t you? Well, Sebastian is an incubus and he’s also a wizard, but he’s a Justice Maker—the good kind of wizard. So I’ve grown up knowing some incubi, which is why I’m a good kisser. Just a point of information.”

  The body blob got shorter.

  “You feeling all right?” he asked.

  “Dizzy.”

  Translation: she was bent over, probably with her hands on her knees.

  Then he caught a whiff of stinkweed. Someone Ephemera didn’t like—or didn’t like around him—was approaching.

  “You can’t believe anything a madman says,” Lee said quietly, urgently. “You do remember that?”

  Zhahar straightened slowly. “You made all this up?”

  “I didn’t say that.” He kept his voice low. “We need to go now, Sholeh. We need to go back to the residence now.” He slipped the dark glasses on and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her resonance change from Zhahar to Sholeh. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Sholeh said. “I guess I had too much sun. I need a drink of water and a little time to sit in the shade.”

  “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  “Here.” She brushed her arm against his. He cupped his hand around her elbow and let her take them back to the inmates’ residence at a pace too brisk for the heat.

  She didn’t greet anyone, didn’t speak to anyone, and the smell of stinkweed faded. Which meant whoever had been approaching had slipped out of sight.

  “How different do you and Zhahar look?” he asked quietly.

  “She has brown hair and blue eyes. I have auburn hair and green eyes. Zeela has dark brown hair and eyes. We look different.”

  Based on his physical contact with each of them, he agreed. Sholeh: thinner and nervier. Zeela: more muscle and physical strength—and that scar on her left arm as well as the tattoo that was a sign of her people. Zhahar: between the two, and a figure he suspected had a bit more softness and curve than her sisters. At least, that was his impression from the times when she’d assisted him. He wanted a chance to put his hands on her and find out.

  “You think someone was coming?” Sholeh whispered.

  “I know someone was coming. But I don’t think he got close enough to see us.”

  “That’s good,” she murmured. “That’s good. We’ve gotten careless. Can’t afford…Oh!”

  “What?” He swayed a little to balance the abrupt halt.

  “The waterfall and pond are gone. And the fish. That smelly reflecting pool is back.”

  Lee sighed. “You’re not used to things being so…fluid?”

  “Are you?”

  He sighed again. “Tell Danyal that he and I need to talk.”

  “All right.” She started walking again. He hoped they were heading for shade and water.

  “Don’t worry about Kobrah. She’ll be fine with Teaser.”

  “Why are you sure of that?”

  He laughed softly. “Because if he gets out of line, my mother will whack him with a wooden spoon.”

  He heard male voices. The Handlers Nik and Denys. Good resonances that belonged in this landscape.

  “Thank you for the walk, Sholeh,” he said.

  “I was glad to help,” she replied. “I hope we can talk again.”

  Lee grinned. “Just ask your sister to arrange it.”

  She walked away without saying another word.

  Nik and Denys let him find his own way up the stairs, but he felt them stand ready to help if he stumbled.

  “Sholeh mentioned that the pond changed to a pool?” Lee put enough doubt in his voice to make the statement a question. After all, something like that changing would be unsettling for a man who couldn’t see.

  “It changed,” Nik said grimly. “Not even the Shaman knows how or why.”

  Not a good answer. “Anything else change?”

  “Those stone walls with the vines are gone. Had to wrap Vito in restraints when he saw the place was gone. He’s been wailing ever since.”

  “Anything else?” Lee asked.

  A hesitation, as if they were deciding whether they were answering an inmate or a fellow Handler.

  “Nothing significant,” Denys finally said. “Just that weird treasure hunt.”

  “Treasure hunt?”

  “Yeah. These old pocket watches keep showing up in the flower beds. And Teeko found a piece of a sundial this morning. Somebody must be slipping out at night and burying them around the plantings.”

  “I guess it provides a bit of interest,” he said. “And like you said, it’s weird but harmless.”

  Counting the steps from the door, Lee tapped his way to the lounge chair that was under the window in his room. Kobrah appeared a few minutes later with a large glass of water.

  He sat alone, letting his mind drift as it picked up the pieces of information he’d been given and put them down again, shifting things around until they formed a different pattern.

  Message received, Magician.

  Was this some kind of heart lesson, that it was Michael who had found a way to locate him, to let him know his family was trying to reach him?

  Message received. But until I can figure out the r
isks, I won’t be sending a reply.

  Danyal waited until dusk to have Lee brought to him at the reflecting pool. Teeko and the other groundskeepers had drained the stagnant water—or most of it. Tomorrow they would clean out the rest. Again. Then what?

  A reflecting pool gets replaced by the waterfall and pond. That disappears and the reflecting pool returns. Then that mysterious place Vito was so excited about vanished. If Danyal hadn’t seen the place for himself, he would have said it was a delusion of a troubled mind.

  In the city of Vision, you can find only what you can see. But nothing like this had happened in the city before.

  Ever? some part of him asked. We’ve accepted the nature of this city without ever asking why it is the way it is. We’ve accepted it as a reflection of the rest of Ephemera. But if we’ve accepted for so long without looking, what don’t the Shamans see? And why does everything keep pointing to this blind man having some of the answers?

  He watched Lee tap his way toward him, with Kobrah keeping pace. When Lee reached him, Danyal thanked Kobrah—a gentle dismissal.

  “Is there something I should know about?” Danyal asked quietly.

  “Any number of things,” Lee replied, sounding distracted. “You asking about anything in particular?”

  “I asked Zhahar to escort you to me. Why was Kobrah your guide?”

  “If that’s your way of asking if I did something inappropriate with Sholeh, I did not. But I suspect Zhahar and her sister are currently engaged in a lively discussion because of a couple of things that were said.” Lee wrinkled his nose. “I wonder if this used to be Sorrow’s Ground.”

  Danyal felt a prickle along his spine. “What?”

  “Something I’ve wondered, Shaman. All that sorrow that’s released in your little temple. Where does it go? Most villages have a dark place—a piece of land that has sinkholes or that looks fine but won’t grow crops. A place where the Dark currents are swollen with all the bad feelings. It’s often called Sorrow’s Ground. At first I thought it might be the whole Asylum, that this place was a dumping ground for the rest of the city and people were sent here as punishment.”

  “They’re sent here to have a chance to heal,” Danyal snapped. Then he caught himself. Was that true because that’s what he wanted the Asylum to be—a place for these people to heal? When he raised his voice to the world, wasn’t he hoping to bring something that would change the emotionally barren earth of this place?

  He looked at Lee and the prickle along his spine grew stronger. “Several months ago, something arrived in Vision and…stained…a piece of the city. Turned a shadow street so dark the Shaman who tended that part of the city could no longer find that street. Then other shadow streets were lost from the Shamans’ sight, and some bright places began to have pools of shadow.”

  And every letter he received from his nephew Kanzi, assuring him that Nalah and the baby were well, eased his heart. So did the assurance that the strangeness he’d felt at that one bridge hadn’t crept into the village.

  “So this stain happened before any of the inmates—or Kobrah—began having vivid dreams?”

  “Erotic dreams, don’t you mean?”

  “Not in Kobrah’s case, if what she told Zhahar is true.”

  “Yes, the stain was reported first, the streets lost to our sight. I wasn’t here when those dreams were first reported by the Handlers, but I’ve checked the files of all the inmates. Only two of them and Kobrah have had such dreams.”

  “Any other kinds of dreams?” Lee asked. “Someone whispering in the dark? Whispering inside your own head?”

  “Mice in the walls,” Danyal replied quietly. “Mice in the walls, scratching to get in. Always scratching. But the walls are strong.”

  Lee shifted his body closer to Danyal. “You?”

  “Yes. Perhaps others, but I’ve felt what you described. Tell me about your sister.”

  Lee jerked.

  Danyal felt a measure of surprise too. They had been speaking of something of grim importance to the whole city. But now that the words were spoken, they felt right.

  “Why?” Lee asked warily.

  “You grieve for her. I don’t think she is the only sorrow that is released when you are in the temple, but she is the sorrow you named. What happened to her, Lee?”

  “Who is asking? You? Or the mice in the walls?”

  “I—” Danyal stopped. Thought. Why had he asked about Lee’s sister at that moment? “I’m not sure.”

  Silence. Then Lee said, “The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.”

  The words pulled Danyal into a current that was Light and Dark, hot and cold, that pressed him under before letting him go.

  He breathed in deeply, as if to assure himself that it was air he took in. Then he released it slowly. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s a story from the country of Elandar. I’ll tell you my version of it.

  “Once upon a time,” Lee began, “the Dark Guides shaped a terrible creature called the Eater of the World. It was made from the dark feelings that live in the human heart, and Its purpose was to change the world into a terrible place where fear ruled and hope could not survive. It wanted to snuff out the Light in the world. A war was fought. The Guides of the Heart rallied and broke the world into pieces in their effort to contain the Eater. Broke it more and more until they trapped the Eater in one piece—and caged It and the landscapes It had shaped and the creatures It had made. Unable to return to the places they had called home, the Guides remained in that landscape, hiding the cage from the Dark Guides. They learned how to reconnect some of the pieces of Ephemera, and some of them and the children borne to them became Landscapers who kept the currents of Light and Dark balanced in the pieces of the world that resonated with them. And some of them became Bridges who had the power to connect the broken pieces, allowing people to cross over from one place to another.”

  Cross over. Danyal sucked in a breath. Wasn’t that what the inmate had wanted to do? Cross over to find his dream lover?

  “Generations came and went,” Lee continued. “One day a special girl was born. Her father was a wizard and her mother was a Landscaper. Because of that, she had a connection to the Dark currents of the world as well as the Light. And because she came from a bloodline that was a secret protected by her mother’s family, she was not only a powerful Landscaper; she was also a true Guide of the Heart. She had a special connection to Ephemera, a connection so strong she could shape the world, make new places, rearrange pieces.”

  Danyal stared at the empty reflecting pool that had been a lovely water garden a couple of days ago.

  “One day the Eater of the World escaped Its cage. It attacked the school where Landscapers and Bridges were trained. It killed all the people It could find there and opened the school to Its creatures and Its landscapes. It hunted, and where It hunted, the Dark currents swelled and the Light was diminished.

  “Because the girl, who was now a grown woman, could control the Dark currents as well as the Light, she was the only one strong enough to stand against the Eater of the World. But she didn’t know how to stop it, how to fight it, until a man showed her his family’s secrets and told her about the Warrior of Light. So she made her plans and prepared for this battle to save the world. She went to the school and built a trap for the Eater. She gathered Its landscapes and Its creatures. She trapped most of the Dark Guides and many of the wizards in their lair. And she stood there as bait, waiting for the Eater of the World to destroy her.

  “But the Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup. When the Eater arrived to take back Its landscapes and creatures, she sprang her trap. She gathered up the Light and cast it out of the dark landscape she had made. She—” Lee’s voice broke. “In order to close that terrible place so that no one—no friend or family—could reach her and be trapped in that place with her, she cast out the Light in her heart. She ripped the Light out of her heart and threw it away—and the last lock on the trap c
losed, sealing her in with the Eater of the World. And because there was no Light in her, because she was only the dark feelings that live in the human heart, she was more dangerous and terrifying than the Eater or the Dark Guides. She became the monster that Evil feared.

  “Months passed. A Magician, the man who had told her how to defeat the Eater, found a way to reach her in that unreachable place. Because he also had a strong connection to Ephemera, he found a way to touch the Warrior’s heart, and he and Ephemera helped her leave that terrible place and come back to the people who loved her.

  “But a heart that was torn apart as hers was doesn’t mend, can’t be healed. Instead of returning as the person she had been, she was now two people, the Light and the Dark. And that is how she remains. The Warrior is all that is good in the human heart, and most of the time, that is who you see. But sometimes, when you look into her eyes, you will see the monster that Evil feared.”

  Lee let out a shuddering sigh. “That’s my version of the story about the Warrior of Light.”

  Danyal studied Lee. Bitterness. Grief. Sorrow. “That is a powerful story, and a tragic one.” He laid a hand lightly on Lee’s shoulder. “But you were going to tell me about your sister.”

  Lee stepped away from Danyal and said, “I just did.”

  Tap tap. Tap tap.

  Danyal let him go, but when he saw Zhahar standing outside the inmates’ residence, watching, he signaled her to go with Lee. Then he stared at the reflecting pool.

  The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.

  She became the monster that Evil feared.

  Lee being held captive—drugged and blinded—by men posing as his uncles.

  Voices whispering in dreams, scratching at his own mind, trying to influence him. Why?

  Lee’s version of a story. Not an evasion but a veiled answer.

  Danyal stood still, hardly daring to breathe as particular words resonated in his mind and heart.

  A Guide who became a monster. Lee’s sister was a Guide who became a monster.

  If Lee was the madman and teacher, was his sister the Guide and monster he was supposed to find?