by Anne Bishop
“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 risks, 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 yo
u 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 closed, 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?
He wouldn’t mention Lee’s sister to the Council yet, but the Eater of the World and Warrior of Light? Yes, he would write to Farzeen and ask if any such beings were mentioned in the Shamans’ myths. He would do it now and send the messenger out at first light.
And he would hope that nothing else changed in the dark hours.
Tap tap. Tap tap.
“Lee, wait!”
He ignored Zhahar, since her tone sounded a bit too much like a command, and he wasn’t interested in anyone giving him orders. Not right now.
“By the Mother’s third eye, will you wait?”
She grabbed his loose-weave shirt and hauled back with enough strength to pop a few stitches in the seams. He would have shoved forward, trying to break a hold he suspected had more than a little Zeela added to it, but a quick stir of air brought the sound of leaves close to his face.
Zhahar got a firm grip on his left arm. “Let me take you back to the residence.”
“If I’d wanted to go back to the residence, I would have gone to the residence,” he snapped. “I need to walk. I need to think.”
He felt her hesitation. “If we walk, will you talk to me? Or at least think out loud, so I have some idea what’s going on?”
“You can’t trust anything a madman says.” And even though he participated in this particular ruse, he was getting damn tired of it.
“You maneuvered Sholeh into telling you too much, but Zeela and I didn’t try that hard to stop her. And it wasn’t a madman we trusted with a secret that could destroy our people,” she said, her voice low and rough.
That statement startled him enough that he took a step back in response to her tug on his arm. “Destroy your people? How?”
“Do you think we’re wanted? Accepted? We’re adrift in the world. Our land, our people.”
Lee stood perfectly still but felt as if everything was swirling around him.
Whatever you give to the world comes back to you.
Opportunities and choices.
Heart wishes.
He didn’t want to see Glorianna, and now he was blind.
He wanted to get away from the places held by his mother and sister, and now he was in a city he’d never heard of.
But the enemy was already here, working to alter the landscapes that made up the city of Vision.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll talk. You listen. Don’t say anything about your people. Lead us away from the buildings, but if you smell stinkweed, take the straightest route back to the residence.”
“This way.”
He wasn’t sure where they were going and was certain he wouldn’t find his way back by himself.
“Talk,” she said quietly.
“In other pieces of Ephemera, if you
travel to a place you don’t belong, you feel so uneasy you leave. Where I come from, you can’t reach a landscape, dark or light, that doesn’t resonate with your own heart. How do people reach this city, Zhahar?”
“Reach it? Ships travel upriver from the sea. There are roads, so people come on horseback or in carriages. Although it’s been said that not everyone can find the city.” She paused, then asked, “Did you see the signs when you arrived?”
“No. What do they say?”
“As you cross the boundary into the city, there is a sign that says ‘Ask your heart its destination.’ Then you end up crossing a bridge or going under an arch and there is another sign that says ‘Welcome to Vision. You can find only what you can see.’ Is that what you wanted to know?”
“When the landscape that held Wizard City was taken out of the world, there were Dark Guides and wizards traveling in other parts of Ephemera. If Heart’s Justice had exposed all of the Dark Guides for what they are, they can’t pass for human anymore. But the wizards, being descended from the Dark Guides but not pureblood, still wear a human face. If someone suddenly takes your stronghold, what do you do? You run fast and far. Get on a ship and hope it takes you somewhere. Cross a resonating bridge and focus on reaching a part of the world your adversary hasn’t touched. One way or another, a Dark Guide and some of the wizards ended up here in Vision.”
“But the Shamans…”
“Can’t see an enemy they don’t know exists,” Lee said. “They didn’t even realize something was wrong until bits of the city changed and are now out of their reach. Now they can’t see what’s happening in those places or what’s causing the change.”
“This way,” Zhahar said, leading him toward the right. “There’s a—”
“No bridges,” Lee said sharply.
She stopped, and he could feel her eyes on him. “How did you know there was a bridge?”
“I can feel it.” He could also feel that it wanted to change into more than simple wood. It wanted to resonate. It would pull at him, at his power, if he tried to cross it. Which told him how many hearts didn’t belong in this place. “No bridges, Zhahar.” Especially with her. What would happen to someone with three resonances if she tried to cross a resonating bridge? He didn’t want to find out. Not if there was another choice.
