Sebastian

by Anne Bishop

  That was pretty much how his head felt, but he didn’t tell Teaser that. “I’m doing what’s right.”

  “For them, maybe.”

  “Teaser.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “I have to go.”

  “Why? We don’t deal with those landscapes anyway.”

  Frustration filled Sebastian. He hadn’t expected Teaser to get scrappy about this. “Are you sure we don’t deal with them? Are you sure we can survive if those other landscapes are destroyed? I’m not sure.”

  Teaser looked away.

  “I’m going to leave a message for Lee, telling him about the bridge and the places Koltak was able to reach through the waterhorses’ landscape. I’ll leave it in your room. If he shows up before I get back, you make sure he gets the message. And look after Lynnea.”

  “We’ll look after each other, I guess. Kind of like family.”

  Looking at Teaser’s wistful smile, Sebastian felt a shimmer of rightness go through him. “We are family.”

  Pleased and embarrassed, Teaser tipped his head toward the dining room door. “That one is impatient.”

  How long had Koltak been standing at the door, watching him?

  “Sebastian?” Teaser said. “Travel lightly.”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” As he walked away from Teaser and passed the doorway, he said to Koltak, “Let’s go.”

  Watching Sebastian was like seeing his brother, Peter, again. The same indefinable quality that drew people to him, made them listen. The same combination of charm and steel. Peter Justice Maker. Never Peter, Wizard Third Level, or Wizard Peter. It had never been about being Somebody—not for Peter. It had always been about justice.

  But believing in justice hadn’t prevented Peter from disappearing into the landscapes, never to return.

  Of course, no one in Wizard City had known darling Peter had sired two children with a Landscaper. So maybe his disappearance had been a kind of justice—the punishment for having done the forbidden.

  Koltak pushed the thoughts away as Sebastian finished a discussion with some kind of demons that were a combination of flesh and a thick bicycle without wheels.

  “The demon cycles will take us as far as the bridge that crosses over to Wizard City,” Sebastian said when he returned to the corner where Koltak waited. “After that, Guardians and Guides willing, we’ll find someone to give us a ride.”

  We. Sebastian had said we. The mind control was working.

  To save Ephemera, Koltak chanted silently. For the good of Ephemera.

  They went down a side street and entered a building halfway down the block.

  Plush. Well-kept. He’d seen places like this in the cities of many landscapes—he had needs like any other man—but the only times he’d been in a place that looked this expensive was when a well-to-do family paid for the room and the woman in return for a favor. All very discreetly, of course.

  Sebastian paused at the foot of the stairs, as if something was troubling him. Koltak resumed his silent chant. To save Ephemera. For the good of Ephemera.

  The room on the third floor was large enough to have a separate sitting area and didn’t shout “whore.” It would seem Sebastian had done well for himself.

  The room felt masculine, but there were touches of femininity.

  “You live with a woman?” Koltak asked, wondering how an incubus did business with a female in residence.

  “None of your business,” Sebastian snapped, pulling a pack out of the bottom of the wardrobe.

  “No, it’s not.” He saw the hesitation again. The boy had always had a will of steel. For the good of Ephemera. To save Ephemera.

  Two changes of underwear went into the pack. Two shirts.

  Then Sebastian went through a door, closing it behind him. A moment later Koltak heard the bang and grumble of old water pipes.

  Not sure how long Sebastian would be occupied, Koltak scanned the room as he reached into the inner pocket of his robe and withdrew the folded, sealed paper that contained Ephemera’s salvation. He’d worried that he wouldn’t find a good place to leave the document—a place where he could be certain it would be found, but not too quickly. Sebastian had conveniently solved the problem for him by having a female living with him.

  The water pipes stopped grumbling.

  Koltak tucked the paper between the seat cushion and the arm of one of the sitting room chairs, leaving enough of it visible to catch the eye.

  “Ready?” Koltak asked when Sebastian walked back into the room, shifting slightly to hide the chair and keep Sebastian from noticing the paper.

  “Let’s go.”

  When they reached the street and Koltak saw the two demons waiting for them, he balked. “No.”

  Sebastian adjusted the pack on his back, then swung a leg over the creature’s leather seat. “You’re the one insisting that we get there as soon as possible. The demon cycles are the fastest way to travel.”

  Reluctant but unable to think of how to refuse when he had been insisting they needed to reach Wizard City as quickly as possible, Koltak mounted the other demon cycle, setting his feet on the footrests the way Sebastian had done.

  “Hold on,” Sebastian said.

  Koltak’s hands ached from gripping the handlebars so hard. As the cycles moved sedately up the main street, he relaxed a little. They weren’t going any faster than a horse could walk. Why couldn’t they have used a natural beast instead of these creatures?

  “How many days do you think it will take to reach the bridge?” he asked.

  Sebastian looked at him, his expression hesitant and puzzled.

  Had to stop asking about time. The boy wasn’t stupid. Given enough time to consider the nature of Ephemera, Sebastian would come to the correct conclusion, which would be disastrous. Need to move quickly to save Ephemera. Need to find the bridge to protect Ephemera.

  Sebastian grinned wickedly. “It won’t take that long.”

  They moved sedately up the main street until they reached the dirt lane. Then…

  Koltak screamed as the demon cycles surged forward, whipping above the dirt lane at speeds a galloping horse couldn’t match or sustain. The cottage flashed by. Sebastian shouted, “Border ahead.”

  The cycles lifted like a horse jumping a fence. Koltak had no idea if it was necessary to cross the border from this side or if it was the demon’s perverse attempt to scare him into pissing himself.

  The ground he’d toiled to cross flowed under him, and the moon, almost full now, illuminated the land, giving it a strange beauty and peace he hadn’t noticed or felt in all the days he’d been trapped in this landscape.

  The demons rumbled and slowed down as they approached what looked like pale, barren earth that had a ring of boulders at the center of the fan-shaped area.

  “It’s sand,” Sebastian said. Leaning forward, he tapped the demon on the shoulder. “Get us a little closer, but go slow. Be careful.”

  The cycles edged up to within an arm’s length of the place.

  “We’ve gone the wrong way,” Koltak said. “I don’t remember seeing a place like this.”

  “No,” Sebastian said in an odd voice, raising a hand to point at something half-buried in the sand. “I think this is the right way. Look.”

  Koltak gasped when he realized he was looking at the severed horse’s head. “But…it wasn’t like this before.”

  “It’s been altered. I’m thinking if you cross the stones outlining the sand, you’ll end up in another landscape a long way from here.” Sebastian looked at Koltak, wariness in every line of his body. “What killed the horse?”

  “What does it matter?” Koltak replied, trying to hammer the fear back with righteous anger. She had done this. Must have done this. Had she altered an unprotected landscape into this wasteland? Were there towns out there, suddenly awash in sand?

  “What killed the horse?” Sebastian demanded.

  “Death rollers. There were death rollers in the pond.”


  Sebastian took a deep breath. Blew it out slowly. “Doesn’t look like they’re going to find any water where they are now. Come on. If this was the same pond, we’re not that far from the bridge. I couldn’t have walked more than a couple of hours before I met the waterhorse.” He paused, then added softly, “I wonder what happened to it.”

  For the good of Ephemera, Koltak chanted silently. To save Ephemera.

  They headed north. One hill looked like another, as far as Koltak was concerned, just as one stand of trees looked much the same as all the others, but Sebastian slowed at each stand of trees, circling each one to study it from every direction.

  “It’s this one,” Sebastian said. “After crossing the bridge and walking for a while, I turned south at a stand of trees. I think it’s this one.”

  Koltak bit his tongue to keep from saying something imprudent. He couldn’t risk saying anything that would jar Sebastian’s focused thought of reaching the bridge.

  They turned west, and in less time than Koltak would have thought possible, they reached a narrow creek.

  But not a bridge. No sign of the wood planks.

  The demon cycles drifted north, following the creek.

  “I see the planks!” Koltak said, his heart pounding with excitement. Almost there. Almost done. If Dalton didn’t fail him…

  Suddenly the cycles swung away from the creek, snarling viciously. They circled back, ending up north of the planks, facing the way they’d come.

  “Something was here,” Sebastian said quietly. “Something bad.” He looked at the two demons, who finally stopped snarling. “But I don’t think it’s there anymore.” He looked east—the direction that would take him back to the Den.

  No, Koltak thought. No. Not now. To save Ephemera. For the good of Ephemera.

  Sebastian leaned forward and whispered in the demon’s ear—and kept whispering until the demon bobbed its head in agreement. Then he swung off the cycle and adjusted his pack.

  Koltak hurried to do the same. Uneasiness rippled through him when the demon cycles didn’t go away, just moved off a couple of man-lengths from the bridge.

  “They’ll stay a little while, in case we need them,” Sebastian said. “If there’s something bad on the other side of the bridge, we need to get away from it fast.”

  It scraped at his pride, but he made his voice sound weary and weak. “Would you mind crossing first, Sebastian? If there is trouble, you’re younger and…more fit…to get back across the bridge.”

  Hesitation. Wariness.

  For the good of Ephemera. To save Ephemera.

  Sebastian moved toward the bridge, testing the ground with each step, keeping his eyes on the spot the demon cycles didn’t like. One foot on the wooden planks. Both feet. One step toward the other side of the bridge. Another step.

  Koltak hurried to the bridge, stepped on the planks. Sebastian was at the other end of the bridge. One more step and he’d cross over.

  He didn’t take that step. Just stood there.

  Koltak rushed across the bridge and gave Sebastian a hard shove, sending the younger man stumbling off the bridge.

  “Seize him!” Koltak shouted as he took the last step to bring him back to the landscape where all his ambitions would finally bear fruit.

  His heart filled with glee as he watched Sebastian trying to fight off two guards. A knee to the groin had one guard rolling away, retching. The other guard seemed more capable but wasn’t trying to do more than restrain Sebastian.

  “You lying bastard!” Sebastian shouted, almost shaking off the guard before Dalton and another guard could reach the bridge.

  In the light of the flickering torches that were planted on either side of the bridge, Koltak saw the intent in Sebastian’s eyes, but couldn’t move fast enough to prevent being struck.

  Lightning lashed out from Sebastian’s hand. It would have been a killing strike if the guard hadn’t hit Sebastian in the head, ruining his aim.

  Koltak felt the power rip through his left foot as Sebastian fell to the ground, stunned by the blow.

  “Truss him up before he can do any more damage,” Dalton snapped.

  One of the guards untied a rope hanging from his belt while the other stripped off Sebastian’s pack. Koltak waited until Sebastian’s hands were tied behind his back and his feet bound before taking a limping step toward his son.

  The pain was hideous, and he suspected he’d lost the toes on that foot. But he took another limping step forward, raised his hand…

  …and Dalton stepped in front of him.

  “No,” Dalton said. “You can’t strike down a defenseless man.”

  “He’ll be less trouble without his legs,” Koltak snarled.

  He saw the shock in Dalton’s eyes and knew he’d made an error. This guard captain wasn’t suitable for serving the power in Wizard City. But that was something Harland would rectify. For now, he needed Dalton and his men.

  “You’re right,” Koltak said. “I wasn’t thinking. A reaction to the pain.”

  Dalton nodded, but it was clear the man wasn’t convinced.

  “Tell me why,” Sebastian gasped.

  Dalton hesitated, then stepped aside.

  Koltak stared at his son. The blood smearing Sebastian’s hair and face gave him some satisfaction, but not enough. Not nearly enough.

  “I’m no use to you,” Sebastian said. “Why go through all the trouble to bring me here?”

  “But you are of use to us,” Koltak said. “You’re going to deliver the enemy into our hands. There was no way for us to reach Nadia or Lee, so you’re the only one she’d come here to save.”

  “No.” Sebastian groaned. “No.”

  “Yes.” Koltak smiled. “So you see? I didn’t lie. By bringing Belladonna here, where we can destroy her, you will save Ephemera.”

  I do not know how things are done in other places in the world, but here in the landscapes there are three kinds of justice: common justice, Wizards’ Justice, and Heart’s Justice.

  Common justice is performed by law enforcers and the magistrates who hold court to settle minor wrongdoing and disputes that arise wherever people gather to live.

  Whenever violence has been done, a wizard is summoned to decide the penalty. Sometimes it is Wizards’ Justice—the lightning they can summon that, while inflicting agony, is a quick death.

  But sometimes the penalty requires something less, and more, than death, and the wizard will send word that a Landscaper is needed for Heart’s Justice.

  Nothing produces more fear—and more hope—than Heart’s Justice. The Landscaper forges a direct link between Ephemera and the accused, and that person is sent to the darkest landscape that resonates in his heart. It is an inescapable punishment, because no matter what landscape the person ends up in, he must live with the knowledge that this reflects who he is, and whatever hardships he endures in that place have come from his own heart.

  But there is also the hope that a person will learn from his past and change enough so that, one day, he’ll be able to cross over to another, gentler landscape.

  Most of the time, though, the person disappears into some desolate part of the world and is never seen again.

  —The Magistrate’s Book of Justice

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Lynnea closed the door, then leaned her forehead against it, not quite ready to face the empty room. She’d spent plenty of hours alone here, but it felt different this time—because Sebastian wasn’t just out and about somewhere in the Den. He was going to another landscape—the wizards’ landscape—traveling with a man who made her uneasy, even though she’d gotten only glimpses of him. There had been something about the wizard that made her glad the bull demons had wanted a second helping of omelets and had lingered at the table while the man had talked to Sebastian.

  Turning, she walked to the pale squares in the opposite wall. With the curtains open, the streetlights cut through the darkness enough for her to cross the room and light the oil
lamp on the table by the window instead of fumbling with the candle on the stand next to the door.

  Feeling sorry for herself because Sebastian had to go away for a couple of days was foolish and selfish. She had plenty to do. The bag Nadia had left for her contained skeins of yarn—so much softer and finer than the coarse wool Mam used to give her—and knitting needles in different sizes. She didn’t know if the Den had a particular celebration around the winter solstice, but most landscapes had some kind of festivities. So the blue skeins would be a scarf for Teaser and the green skeins would be a scarf for Sebastian. There were enough undyed skeins to make herself a shawl—maybe with bands of blue and green at the ends. And Teaser had offered to take her to one of the little music holes where the musicians were developing some style of music he swore was going to outrage the prissy prigs in the daylight landscapes—and make all the humans with heat and sass wild to hear it. Or they could both enjoy a frustrating hour of him trying to teach her to play cards.

  Since she’d lost the coin toss with Teaser over which of them would use the bathroom first, she could knit a few rows of the scarf she was making for him while waiting her turn. For a man who complained about how much time she spent in the bathroom, he certainly did his share of primping.

  She walked over to the bed to retrieve the yarn bag she kept tucked under it, then paused. She pulled back the covers and lifted her pillow. Sebastian sometimes left little sketches under her pillow—sometimes flowers as he remembered them or faces of the people who lived in the Den.

  Nothing there. Of course, there wouldn’t be. The wizard had been impatient to leave. Sebastian wouldn’t have stayed in the room any longer than was needed to pack a few things.

  She pulled out the yarn bag, turned toward the stuffed chairs that made up their sitting area—and saw something white sticking up between the cushion and the arm of the chair.

  Smiling, she dropped the bag and hurried over to the chair. Maybe this was like a treasure hunt. Mam hadn’t allowed her to attend parties where she might start thinking too much of herself, so she’d never participated in a treasure hunt, but she’d heard other girls talking about them. Would she start finding little sketches tucked here and there in the room?