by Anne Bishop
Morragen stared at Zhahar, then focused all her formidable presence on Lee.
“The connection between Tryadnea and Vision has broken,” he said.
“I know that,” Morragen said.
Under that voice, Zhahar heard Medusah speaking the same words with the same controlled fury—and realized, when Lee stiffened, that he heard that second voice too.
“Yes, you know that.” Lee nodded. “But one—or more—of you have also sent a heart wish through the currents of the world, and that heart wish was strong enough to create a tentative connection to another part of Ephemera. If you act now, I think you can send a message to the person who can connect your homeland to another landscape. But if you do this and she answers, you have to accept that her heart will be the bedrock of your homeland.”
“Do you think we haven’t heard such promises before?” Morragen snarled. “‘Give us your gold, your jewels, your livestock, your crops, your bodies, or whatever else is wanted in order to be accepted.’ The one-faces take and take and never accept, never give anything in return. And now you want the rest?”
“I don’t want anything,” Lee said quietly.
“Nothing?” Morragen sneered.
“Well, yes, there is something. But, frankly, it’s none of your business, even if you are Zhahar’s mother.”
=By the triple stars! Did he really say that? To Morragen?= Zeela sounded shocked, but not anywhere near as shocked as Zhahar felt. Of course, she hadn’t told him about the taboos surrounding any involvement with a man of single aspect, so he had no way of knowing how badly he had rocked the Tryad just now.
::Could have been worse,:: Sholeh said. ::He could have said it to Medusah.::
For the first time in memory, none of her mothers’ aspects seemed able to respond.
“I can assist you in sending a call for help through the currents of the world,” Lee said. “The rest you’ll have to discuss with her.”
“With who?” Morragen and Medusah asked.
Zhahar felt a shiver run through her a moment before Lee said, “With Belladonna.”
Silence. Then Morragen looked at Zhahar. “Do you trust him? Do all of you trust his words?”
“Yes,” they replied. “We trust him.”
Morragen gave the at-rest signal, and all her warriors lowered their weapons. Then she looked at Lee. “What do we do?”
“Want this with everything in you, and say these words: ‘heart’s hope lies within Belladonna.’”
“Should Morragen be the only one saying these words?” Zhahar asked.
Lee shook his head. “The more voices, the more hearts, the stronger the wish will flow in the currents and the faster it will be heard.”
“If we do this, how soon before we have an answer?” Morragen asked.
“I think there is already an access point to Tryadnea in her garden.” Lee waved off questions before they could be asked. “What is important to you right now is that if you truly want her to help, Belladonna can reach us simply by taking a step from her garden to here.”
Morragen studied him for a moment, then nodded. “We will try this.”
::What if Belladonna doesn’t answer?:: Sholeh said.
*She’s his sister,* Zhahar replied. *She’ll answer.*
Turning slightly, Lee looked at the Apothecary, the Knife, and Kobrah. “Since you aren’t from this land, I think it’s best if you three don’t participate. Might tangle things up in the currents.”
The two men nodded. Kobrah said nothing.
“Heart’s hope lies within Belladonna,” Lee said, raising his voice.
Morragen Medusah a Zephyra raised their voices. “Heart’s hope lies within Belladonna.”
The next time, Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar added their voices. After that, one by one, the Tryad warriors joined the chant.
Two people appeared out of nowhere—a black-haired woman with green eyes so cold and deadly even Morragen flinched, and a dark-haired man with sharp green eyes who rubbed his thumb against his finger pads in a way that made Zhahar think of someone striking flint against stone to start a fire.
Was that what he was doing?
“I am Belladonna,” the woman said. Her eyes were focused on Morragen, who had turned to face her.
“I am Morragen Medusah a Zephyra.”
The man’s eyes roamed over the rest of them, assessing them in a way that had Zeela pushing to come into view. Then those eyes passed over her and settled on Lee.
“Hey-a,” he said.
Belladonna looked away from Morragen.
“Lee?” She pushed past Morragen and the warriors as Zhahar released Lee’s arm and stepped aside. “Lee!”
Belladonna let her pack slide to the ground as she threw herself into Lee’s arms. He grabbed her and swung her around. “Glorianna!”
Zhahar sucked in a breath. So did Morragen. The face hadn’t changed the way it did with the Tryad, but the difference between the woman who had appeared out of nowhere and the woman Lee now held in his arms was like seeing another aspect come into view. Everything about her felt as if she were someone else.
Glorianna cupped her hands around her brother’s face. “Oh, Lee. Your eyes.”
“It’s all right,” he said, wrapping his hands loosely around her wrists. “They’re getting better.”
“Let me see.” She reached up to remove his dark glasses, but he pulled his head back. “I need to see.”
Lee let her take the glasses. Reaching behind her, she said, “Hold these.”
Her companion took the dark glasses and tucked them into his shirt pocket.
Glorianna stared at Lee’s still-cloudy eyes—and her face changed as she gave him a hard shove that knocked him back a couple of steps.
“You ass!” she screamed.
“I could say the same about you,” Lee growled. “And if you want to have this out here and now, I’ll oblige you.”
“Oblige me? Oblige me?”
“But first you need to anchor this landscape to one of yours. Tryadnea is adrift in the world and won’t survive long without a connection.”
“It’s connected to the Den,” Glorianna shouted. “A border formed as soon as Sebastian and I crossed over. Which you would have realized if you were using your brain these days to do more than try to look up your ass!”
Lee took the two steps that separated them, his hands clenching into fists. “At least I haven’t been acting like some pouty, prissy prig girl!”
“Idiot!”
“Moron!”
“I’m not the one who let wizards take me to an unknown landscape!”
“And I’m not the one who locked myself into a landscape with the Eater of the World!”
Glorianna balled her hand and looked like she was going for a roundhouse punch.
Zhahar leaped forward to help Lee but was hauled back by the man who had come with Glorianna.
“No no no no no,” he said, pulling her away. “This fight is long overdue, and you do not want to get in the middle of it. Trust me.”
As Glorianna threw the punch, the ground all around her and Lee changed into knee-deep mud. She slipped and landed face-first. Lee, who had jerked back out of reach, fell on his ass. Snarling at each other, they made it upright as far as their knees before they started slinging mud.
“In one of the landscapes, mud slinging is a time-honored tradition for settling some kinds of disputes,” the dark-haired man said as he released Zhahar. “Give them a few minutes. We’ll all be better off for it.” He gave her a smile that said he really enjoyed women. “I’m Sebastian. Are you Zhahar?”
“Yes.”
He looked around, puzzled. “Where are your sisters?”
It was petty to want to unnerve this man because he stopped her from helping Lee, especially since Lee didn’t look like he needed help, but she did it anyway. One by one, the aspects of Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar came into view.
“We,” Sholeh said.
“Are,” Zeela said.
> “Here,” Zhahar finished.
Sebastian stared at her. “Guardians and Guides.” Then he let out a wickedly delighted laugh. “Oh, do I have questions, but—” He glanced at Morragen. “I think they should wait for a more appropriate time.”
“Like when my mothers aren’t close enough to hear them?” Zhahar asked sweetly.
Another glance at Morragen. “That too,” Sebastian agreed.
“Did not!” Glorianna shouted.
“Did too!” Lee shouted back as he slung a handful of mud at his sister.
Sebastian gave them a considering look, then shook his head. “They’re still in the ‘nyah, nyah’ stage of the fight, but that usually doesn’t last long.”
“How can you tell?” Zhahar asked.
“I’ve been watching them do this since we were children,” Sebastian replied. “They don’t fight with each other very often, so when they do it’s always the same pattern. Although the mud wallow is new—and wasn’t, I think, something either of them asked Ephemera to make.” Turning away from the mud wallow, he looked Morragen in the eye—something very few people would dare to do. “So. Being the Den’s Justice Maker, I have to ask: why do you think Ephemera wanted to connect your land to a dark landscape like the Den of Iniquity?”
“Perhaps because we’re demons,” Morragen replied coldly.
Sebastian tipped his head. “Nope. I can see why the prissy prigs in the human landscapes would slap that label on you, but while you may be unusual, you’re not a demon race.”
Morragen looked surprised—and curious. “How would you know?”
“First, I’ve seen my share of demons. And second, being an incubus, I am from a demon race.” Sebastian smiled. “Having three lovely faces makes you interesting, but it doesn’t make you a demon.”
“You’re a sex demon?” Zhahar’s voice had a bit of a squeal from Sholeh.
“Yes. No. Sort of. I am an incubus, so I am a sex demon, but I retired from that line of work when I got married. Now I’m the Den’s Justice Maker.” He gave Morragen a “women are wonderful” smile. “You have questions, but”—he listened for a moment to the voices behind him—“all the intriguing questions will have to wait.”
“I didn’t want this for you!” Glorianna’s voice broke. “Not this, Lee. Never this.”
“I never thought you did.” Lee’s voice broke too.
They knelt there, covered in mud, barely moving to avoid falling down.
“You didn’t want to see, but that doesn’t mean I wanted you to be blind,” she cried.
“What are you talking about?”
“You! That last time in the garden. Y-you didn’t want to see me, couldn’t accept what I am now, and I was angry and hurt, but I also knew…” She slipped in the mud.
Lee grabbed for her—and went down with her.
“Knew what, Glorianna?” he asked when they got to their knees again.
“It was time for you to go.” She began to cry. “The heart has no secrets, Lee, and yours was telling me it was time for you to go, to cross over to someplace that wasn’t mine because you needed to be away from what was mine. So that day, when you left the garden, I asked Ephemera to give you the opportunity to find a place that resonated with your heart but not mine. So that you could go and make your own life. Without me. But I didn’t want you hurt. I didn’t want that. Neither part of me wanted that.”
He gathered her in his arms and held her tight. “This wasn’t your doing. It was my choice. Another Bridge got a couple of wizards into one of Mother’s landscapes. They were a mile from a bridge that could have taken them to you. I couldn’t risk that. And not just for you, Glorianna. I couldn’t risk them finding a way to reach the Places of Light. I didn’t expect this to happen either when I threw those resonating bridges into a pileup of bodies. I didn’t expect to end up in a city unlike anything I’d seen before, and I didn’t expect to be held captive. But neither of those things was your fault!”
“You hate me.” Her voice cracked with the pain in those words.
“I don’t hate you. I—” Lee released her and moved back, putting a little distance between them. His voice rang with anger. “I could have reached you, Glorianna. I could have gotten my island into that landscape and reached you, except the damn Magician started that fight and broke my arm, and then it was too late. But I could have reached you, and I’ve only just realized in the past few hours why I could have gotten into a landscape that dark.”
“You could have reached me in that landscape,” she agreed. “Because you’re my brother, you could have reached me. But even using your island to get in, you couldn’t have gotten out—and you wouldn’t have survived. So Michael did what I asked him to do. He kept you safe. The others as well, but mostly you because you could have reached Belladonna, but you wouldn’t have survived. Not with her. Not in that landscape.”
Crying, they hugged each other.
Zhahar felt tears well up and spill over. She looked at Morragen and was surprised by the tears in those eyes. Just as Zeela was the warrior of the a Zhahar Tryad, Morragen was the warrior of the a Zephyra Tryad—and like Zeela, Morragen rarely cried.
“She was a single aspect?” Morragen whispered.
“Yes,” Zhahar replied.
Sebastian cleared his throat. “She split her heart between the Light and the Dark in order to save the world. Right now she’s Glorianna and Belladonna—and she’s trying to learn how to be Glorianna Belladonna again.”
Zephyra came into view. “Perhaps we have some knowledge that would help—at least in terms of learning how to live with two aspects.”
“I guess you would know all about being separate and together.” Sebastian lifted his chin toward the mud wallow as Glorianna and Lee climbed out. “You have a couple of big washtubs or an outdoor trough?”
“Why?” Zephyra asked.
He looked scandalized. “Do you want to let those two into your house to get cleaned up?”
Morragen Medusah a Zephyra stared at Lee and Glorianna. “By the triple stars. I—”
“Don’t feel obliged because of some misguided sense of hospitality,” Sebastian said cheerfully. “Even my auntie, who is their mother, wouldn’t let those two, looking like that, anywhere near the house.”
::Let me ask,:: Sholeh said.
Giving in, Zhahar’s aspect waned so that Sholeh could come into view.
“If the world made the mud, couldn’t it make water for them to wash in?” Sholeh asked Sebastian.
He studied her. “Which one are you?”
“I’m Sholeh.”
Now he grinned. “That’s not a bad idea.” Turning toward his cousins, he said, “Hey-a, Glorianna. If you don’t want to be chiseling mud out of your hair, Sholeh thinks you and Ephemera should call up some fast-moving water that will clean you off before you start to harden.”
“Sholeh thinks that, does she?” Glorianna asked.
“I didn’t say that!” Sholeh squealed. “I didn’t!”
“Not in those words, but that’s what she meant,” Sebastian said.
Zeela pushed her way into view—and noticed Medusah had done the same.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Zeela snarled.
“Priming the pump,” Sebastian replied. His eyes gave her a fast—and thorough—look. “You’re Zeela?”
She held out her left arm, drawing his attention to the scar. “I won that fight.”
“Good for you.” He looked at his cousins. “You two still thinking about this?” He turned back to Zeela. “If your sister Zhahar is…whatever she’s doing…with Lee, you and Sholeh will have to get used to the rest of us. Might as well start now, when the odds are even.”
What did that mean?
“Ephemera, hear me,” Glorianna said.
A moment later, they all stumbled back a few steps as the mud wallow changed into a part of a river.
Sebastian pursed his lips as Glorianna and Lee turned to look at him. “I said fast-movin
g water. I didn’t say anything about rapids. Neither did Sholeh. I’m not going to guess what Zeela’s thinking.”
“Nobody has to guess what Zeela’s thinking, since she looks ready to punch you,” Glorianna said. “Lucky for you, you’re so damn charming.”
“He’s not that charming,” Zeela muttered.
*Zeela!* Zhahar shouted.
Sebastian burst out laughing. Then he looked at Medusah. “Do you have any rope?”
Following Glorianna’s instructions, Ephemera obligingly made some adjustments to produce a waist-high pool up against the bank and below a short waterfall, a spot of relative calm compared to the rapids roaring around it. With ropes tied securely around their waists, Glorianna and Lee slipped into the pool, while Morragen and Zeela secured the ropes to stone pillars that had risen on the bank.
While Glorianna and Lee let the water pound the mud off them, Zeela assessed the people around her. For all his light words and distractions, Sebastian watched everything that concerned his cousins, as aware of the people around them as she was. The Knife, the Apothecary, and Kobrah, as well as her mother’s warriors, were hanging back enough to be considered spectators rather than participants. As for her mother’s Tryad…
*What do you think?* Zhahar asked.
=I can’t tell if they’re stunned or angry,= Zeela replied.
::Are we safe now?:: Sholeh asked.
Good question. One she thought the Tryad’s leader would like answered very soon.
“Could someone give us a hand?” Lee asked tartly.
Sebastian helped Zeela haul Lee out of the pool and up the bank while the Knife stepped forward to help Morragen pull up Glorianna.
After freeing them from the ropes, everyone stepped back while Glorianna bent to one side and wrung water out of her long hair.
Lee scrubbed his fingers over his head. “Well, that was invigorating.”
Holding out the dark glasses, Sebastian said, “What did you do to your hair? You look like a sheared sheep.”
“It was hot.” Lee took the glasses and put them on. “Short hair was practical. And what do you know about sheep anyway?”
“They rattle less than cows when the demon cycles eat them.”
