by Anne Bishop
“Do you?” He gathered up a few more stones, then shifted slightly to reach another part of the bed.
“Yes, Lee, I do.” She hesitated. “The gong. It was an access point, but you wouldn’t have wanted to see the landscape I would have found.”
A dark landscape, no doubt. Maybe even a piece of the landscape that trapped the Eater of the World? No, that wasn’t likely unless a piece of Vision had already been part of that landscape. But if there was a dark landscape in Vision now that could resonate with Belladonna…
“Has Michael said anything about me?” Lee asked abruptly. “About what he hears in me?”
“You’re a bit out of tune with the Den and Aurora. Have some sharp notes you didn’t have before. You’ve been to a part of Ephemera the rest of us haven’t seen, so that’s not a surprise to us and shouldn’t be a surprise to you.”
“But what he’s hearing is me? He’s sure of that?”
“What else would he be hearing?”
“Wizards. A Dark Guide.”
She eased back to sit on her heels, so he did the same.
“They hurt me, Glorianna. They got inside my head and…hurt me. They wanted to use me to get to you, and when the words and whispers didn’t work, they used the drugs and eyedrops.” He swallowed hard. “They kept saying that if I tried to get back, they would be close by and would come back with me. To get to you, the person who had revealed what they are. What if all of this was a way to reach your landscapes, to reach you?”
“They let you heal, let a Shaman keep them away from you, in the hope you might lead them back here?”
“Listen to me. It worked, didn’t it? I’m here.”
“You’re here because the Shaman who was protecting you disappeared and was almost killed, and you had the good sense not to stay where the wizards could find you. You got back here because you met Zhahar and realized the significance of that triangle of grass that had appeared in my garden. You brought people with you who have made me wonder some things about the city of Vision, but what you didn’t bring were any wizards. And I would know if there was a Dark Guide in my landscapes.”
The relief produced by her words made him dizzy, but he had to push. “How would you know?”
“Ephemera?” Glorianna said sweetly. “How would you tell me if a wizard besides Sebastian was nearby?”
Moments later, Lee scrambled away from the flower bed and landed on his ass. “Daylight!”
“How easily do you think wizards and Dark Guides are going to be able to hide if stinkweed and turd plants announce their presence?” Glorianna asked.
“Make those things go away,” he gasped. He waited. “Did you make them go away?”
“Yes, but that odor certainly lingers. We should work in another part of the garden.”
They picked up their pails, dumped them in the barrows Nadia was using as holding places, and moved upwind.
“That stink isn’t going to blow in the house, is it?” Lee asked. He didn’t want to think about how his mother would respond to that.
“Give me some credit,” Glorianna muttered.
Not too many stones or weeds in that part of the garden. Of course, he and Sebastian had cleared this patch a few hours ago.
“That young Bridge needs a teacher,” she said.
“Maybe some of the instructors at the school survived.” Not likely, but there were some fully trained Bridges who hadn’t been at the school when the Eater attacked.
“Do you think any of those instructors would work with a Tryad?”
“Why wouldn’t…” He stopped. Considered. “They would see a demon and not a unique species of human.”
“Opportunities and choices,” she said quietly. “What opportunities and choices are you considering, Lee?”
He stopped working and said just as quietly, “At the Asylum, I was a different kind of Bridge. Some of those people weren’t mentally ill; they were just in the wrong place. As much as crossing a bridge in our part of Ephemera can be a risk, as much as we don’t always like the landscape where we end up, we know our hearts brought us to that place. I helped a few people in the Asylum cross over to another landscape. I’d like to help more and work more directly with the people crossing over. And, yes, I would like to help that young Bridge learn to use his gift. And I’d like to do it in a place that wasn’t so damn hot.”
“Something to think about,” Glorianna said. She stood up. “It’s time to talk to Danyal. If Zhahar wanders this way, have her help you with the stones.”
Alone, Lee continued clearing out the stones made from anger—and wondered if he was also clearing out the ground inside himself.
Danyal took a dozen long, slow steps down the path leading away from Nadia’s house. The ground was damp, but it hadn’t rained enough to turn the path muddy. A very confined storm.
He turned and walked back toward the house, feeling the muscles in his burned hip stretch and slowly warm up with the movement. He stopped, rolled his shoulders to warm and stretch those muscles, then turned and repeated the steps—and tried to ignore the fierce itching that had started this morning beneath the skin that was peeling.
The third time he turned back toward the house, Glorianna stood at the end of the path, watching him.
Beautiful woman. Powerful woman. Dangerous woman.
“I’m trying to decide what you’re doing,” Glorianna said.
“I can walk only for so long before the hip hurts and I need to sit,” he replied. “I can sit for only so long before the muscles need to work. I’ve already walked from Lee’s cottage to your mother’s house today, so I didn’t want to walk far.” And he’d thought the paths in the woods would be too muddy for him to walk far.
“You could have paced the length of the yard.”
“I mean no offense, Glorianna, but your mother’s house felt too crowded.”
She laughed. “Shaman, right now, my mother’s house is too crowded.” Her green eyes studied him. “Let’s walk while you tell me about Vision.”
She fell into step beside him, walked the dozen steps, stopping exactly where he had, and turned.
“In the city of Vision, you can find only what you can see,” he said.
“Does that also mean you can see only what you want to find?”
He stumbled. There was no obstacle on the path, but he stumbled. “It’s the same thing.”
“Is it?”
“Are you saying the Shamans don’t want to find this evil that has come to our city?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be the ones looking.” She waved a hand dismissively. “That’s a conversation for another time. Tell me about your city. The Vision you know.”
“I wasn’t expecting the heat in the southern part of the city. Can’t say I like it much. I grew up in one of the northern communities, close to the mountains. Summers were hot there too, but there was also snow and crisp, invigorating air.”
???
“But not in the summertime,” Glorianna said.
“When I first arrived at the Asylum, there were days when the heat was so stifling, so oppressive, I’d wish—”
“Not. In the. Summertime,” she repeated firmly.
He blinked at her, a little hurt by her tone. Then he thought about what he’d said—and what he’d been about to say—and could guess what Nadia would say if it began snowing over her house.
“In the summertime, we cooled off by going to the swimming hole or sitting on a flat rock with our feet dangling in a stream. We enjoyed snow in the wintertime.”
!!!
He felt Ephemera’s currents of power swirl around him a moment longer before the world wandered off.
“Is it going to be like this from now on?” he asked as they resumed walking.
“Shamans are the voice of the world, are they not?” she replied. “But like most Landscapers in this part of Ephemera or Magicians in Elandar, most Shamans provide balance between the currents of Light and Dark—and it sounds like you have some of
the ill-wishing and luck-bringing ability mixed in. But you, Danyal, are Voice-guide. Something in you was willing to be more, to be a true voice for the world. So, yes, it’s always going to be like this now.”
“I don’t have any training for this.”
“Neither did Michael. He knew about the wild child, felt its presence, knew he could make things happen. But the response wasn’t as…direct…as it is now. So he’s learning too.”
“But he has you to teach him.” Feeling her hesitation, he added, “That’s not a way of asking if your commitment to Michael is as strong as it seems. I know it is. But I can’t help feeling a little envy that he doesn’t have to figure this out on his own.”
“And you do because…?”
“I have to go back.” Danyal sighed and stopped walking. “I don’t want to. I’ve found something here among your pieces of the world that my heart has been searching for. But I have to go back.”
“Doing one doesn’t mean you can’t have the other.”
“How do we destroy the Dark Guides, Glorianna?”
“How do you cleanse all dark feelings from the human heart?”
“We can’t.”
She nodded. “You can’t. Ephemera manifests what is in the heart. So it shaped the Guides in response to the cries of many hearts that recognized they needed someone to stand between them and the world. The Dark Guides were also shaped in response to a need. They have walked in the world for a very long time, Danyal. When I took a chance and performed Heart’s Justice outside the walls of Wizard City, I did it to save Sebastian. And I did it to take Wizard City out of the world. But in doing so, I stripped away the human mask from all the Dark Guides.”
“So it’s possible one of them arrived in Vision years ago?”
“It’s possible one crossed over a resonating bridge and found your city. Alone, he could have influenced hearts, helped those who fed the Dark currents. But his efforts were always balanced by the Shamans.”
“How do you know this Dark Guide is male?”
“Their females have no ability to wear a human mask. They’re feral breeders who had to be hidden from people,” she replied. “Wizards are always male, and the Dark Guides are the elite among the wizards.”
“I see,” he said softly.
“Now, with the Dark Guides exposed and the remaining wizards cut off from their stronghold—”
“They found a bit of rot within the city that matched their own. Because they wanted to find that rot, they found the city.”
“Most likely.” Glorianna sighed. “Danyal, your city has already changed. The Shamans have to change with it. You have to learn to see the enemy, because they can see you. You can hide pieces of your city, but you can’t hide the city. Another part of Ephemera is aware of you—a part that has people who understand how to connect two pieces of the world with a bridge. The wizards have found you. Now you have to decide what to do.”
Danyal shook his head, not in denial but in weary frustration. “I was sent to the Asylum because the Shaman Council consulted bone readers and fortune tellers and concluded that I had the best chance of finding what we needed. A madman and a teacher. A guide…” He hesitated. “And a monster. I found them, but I don’t see how that has changed anything.”
“It changed everything, Shaman. It altered your landscape.” Glorianna linked her arm through his. “Come on. Sebastian and I need to check Tryadnea’s border. Then we’ll all sit down and decide what is going to be done.”
Chapter 27
It wasn’t any aspect of Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar who came to help him clean up the stones in his mother’s garden. It was Morragen Medusah a Zephyra who knelt beside him, watched him for a moment, and then began picking out the same kind of stone.
“How did these get here if your mother doesn’t want them?” Zephyra asked.
“Strength makes stone,” Lee replied. “And anger makes stone.” He held one up before tossing it into the pail. “These stones were made by anger.”
“Zeela’s anger. And mine.”
“Yep. I guess most people in the world don’t make the connection between the feelings their hearts send out and their physical troubles, but when you live around a Landscaper, you learn fast—and you learn to fix what you can.”
“Our reservations about Zhahar being involved with a man of single aspect aren’t a judgment about you.”
“You mean if I were one aspect of a Tryad, I would be considered acceptable for a mate, but being a man of single aspect, I can’t be trusted?”
“We didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t use those words,” Lee agreed. “But that’s what you meant. What happens when Tryad mates with single aspect? Are the children Tryad? Triplets with individual bodies? One body with three personalities? A higher percentage of insanity? Are they ostracized for being different?”
“We never speak of this!”
He couldn’t tell their voices apart yet, but he knew he was now talking to Morragen or Medusah. Probably both. “Just wondering why you’re so opposed to Zhahar and me finding out if there can be anything between us.”
He thought for a moment. Wasn’t his business, but it kept bothering him that it had been Zeela who wanted to walk away from her people. “Did you know Zeela was wounded recently? Wounded badly enough that the injury was showing through on Zhahar?”
The woman beside him sucked in a breath. “She didn’t tell us. None of them told us.”
“Stabbed,” he said, before she asked. “In the side. The wound bled a lot, but the knife didn’t slice into any internal organs. She was just getting on her feet when Danyal disappeared and we made the decision to run from the wizards.”
“To get you away from the wizards.”
“I may have been the one the wizards wanted, but their lackey was holding a knife on Sholeh, not me.”
Tense silence.
“I could have left the Asylum, Morragen Medusah. I could have gotten to a landscape where any enemy coming with me wouldn’t have survived for long. But as I got to know Zhahar, I recognized the significance of the triangle of grass in my sister’s garden, and I understood how much it meant to Zhahar and her sisters to keep Tryadnea connected to another piece of Ephemera. I had the means of doing that, so we helped each other get home. You can think what you want about that.”
When there was no response, he rose. “May your heart travel lightly, because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape. Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar wasn’t happy in Vision. They were surviving, and I think if they had allowed Danyal to know what they were, they would have had an easier time of it.”
“One person’s acceptance doesn’t mean acceptance by everyone,” she said.
“Depends on the person.” He carried the pail over to the barrow and emptied it.
When he set it down, Zephyra called out, “There are still more stones among the flowers.”
“I know, but they aren’t mine to clear,” he replied. Then he walked away.
Glorianna tapped Sebastian’s shoulder. He signaled the demon cycle to slow down before he turned his head toward her.
“Let me off at the end of the street,” she said.
“Any particular reason?”
“Several. One being that I need some time to think.”
“But you are going to be sharing these thoughts, aren’t you?”
She heard the tension in his voice, felt the resonance of it in his heart. The last time she’d gone off alone, she hadn’t expected to find her way back to friends and family. Even so, she waited until they reached the end of the Den’s main street.
“I’m going to Sanctuary,” she said. “I’d like you to ask Michael, Yoshani, and Danyal to meet me there. Tell Danyal to bring the wind chimes.”
He studied her. “Tell those three? No one else?”
“No one else.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it yet. I’m not sure yet.”
“Yes, you are. You may not
want to explain it, but you know why you’re going to Sanctuary.”
She kissed his cheek. “Opportunities and choices. What happens to the city of Vision is going to depend on opportunities and choices.”
“What about the border?”
“It’s solid. Checking on it was an excuse to get away from the house. Morragen wants to get back to her people, and she needs to get back. She has an enemy there. Maybe more than one. Escort her to the border and watch her cross over.”
“Travel lightly, Glorianna,” he said.
Smiling, she walked away from him. Then she took the step between here and there—and breathed in the Light of Sanctuary.
She walked past the guesthouse and glanced toward the small island that split a stream—the island that had resonated with Lee. Michael’s aunt Brighid led a couple of people toward the guesthouse. The older woman smiled at Glorianna and raised a hand in greeting, but continued on.
Glorianna wandered over the grounds a few minutes more, then settled on the bench in front of a pond and watched the koi, letting the water and the movement of those graceful flashes of gold wash away troubling thoughts.
“Ephemera, hear me,” she whispered.
???
Closing her eyes, she recalled the sound of that wind chime. The sound of Light.
not yours
“I know. It’s the Place of Light that resonates with Voice-guide.”
yes
“Can I visit there, like I visit the Music’s landscapes?”
She felt Ephemera’s currents of power gently flowing around her and beyond her. She waited until the world returned with an answer.
visit
So she could help Danyal return home. And she could help him explain to the other Shamans what had happened to their city. She could do that much. The rest would be up to Danyal—and Lee.
She was thinking of going to the guesthouse for a glass of water and something to eat when Michael, Danyal, and Yoshani hurried toward her. Each carried a wrapped bundle and had a daypack slung over one shoulder.
“Hey-a,” she said, smiling as she linked her arm through Michael’s. “We have some things to discuss.”
