by Anne Bishop
“There’s truth in that,” Michael said.
Caitlin looked at Glorianna. “Maybe you could come back to Darling’s Harbor with me, and we could talk to Peg and some of the others about having a few of the Tryad living and working in the village.” She glanced nervously at Medusah. “Do any of your people have experience sailing or fishing? We have a lot of sailing and fishing.”
“We have lakes and rivers, but not big water,” Medusah replied.
“Doesn’t mean some youngsters wouldn’t be interested in learning a different skill,” Jeb said. “Have to figure out how to fairly divide the work time.”
Glorianna nodded. “Something that could be discussed, especially since it’s reasonable to assume that each sibling in a Tryad would have different interests.”
“Hate to say it, Auntie Nadia,” Sebastian said, “but the people in Aurora might be a bit too prissy prig to welcome people as unique as the Tryad.”
“They weren’t nice to me the last time I went shopping in the village,” Teaser said. Then he looked thoughtful. “But that might have been because the shopkeeper noticed the way his wife was smiling, and I’m pretty sure he’d never put that kind of smile on her face.”
Lee groaned. “Teaser.”
“What? I’m just saying.”
“Aurora isn’t the only possibility,” Glorianna said.
“I don’t think Dunberry has recovered enough from the deaths the Eater caused to be receptive, but Foggy Downs might be open to a few new residents,” Michael said.
“What is the point of this?” Medusah asked. “Your border is breaking, and we’ll be adrift again.”
“It has faded, which isn’t the same as breaking. Is breaking what you want?” Glorianna countered. “If Danyal is right and it’s about heart, our accepting you will never be enough. You also have to accept us, have to be willing to look at someone who isn’t like you and see more than someone who is a one-face. You have one young man who is a Bridge. With training, he would be able to connect Tryadnea with other parts of Ephemera. If there is one Tryad with that gift, there may be more. You may even have the equivalent of Landscapers among you—Tryad who maintain the balance of Light and Dark in Tryadnea. And you may have darker powers swimming in your bloodlines as well.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Medusah said.
“Yes,” Belladonna replied, “you do know.”
Medusah’s face tightened but she didn’t argue.
Silence. Danyal heard the ticking of a clock somewhere in the house.
“That’s it, then?” the Knife finally asked. “The border gets fixed and everything is the way it was?”
Danyal saw gentle sadness and understanding in Yoshani’s face when the holy man said, “The border will be fixed, but everything has changed. Hasn’t it, Glorianna Dark and Wise?”
“One heart can change a landscape,” Glorianna said softly. “And a heart can change and grow to the point where it no longer fits in a landscape. Sebastian and I will go back and repair the border when we’re finished here. But despite how well it’s marked, I don’t think you’ll find that border, Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar. I don’t know if you’ll ever find your way back to Tryadnea. So I’ll remind you of Heart’s Blessing. Let your heart travel lightly, because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape.”
“W-what does that mean?” Zhahar asked.
“It means Ephemera has responded to all the conflicting heart wishes—including yours,” Glorianna said gently. “You didn’t want to go back to your homeland. Now you can’t.”
Zephyra came into view, her eyes full of tears. “Why couldn’t you give us a chance to understand?”
Danyal wasn’t sure whom the question was meant for. He wasn’t sure Zephyra knew either.
Choking on a sob, Zhahar ran out of the room.
“I’ll go,” Lynnea said before hurrying after the other woman.
“What is Zhahar supposed to do, Glorianna?” Lee asked.
“Her life, her journey, her choice,” Glorianna replied.
“I got back.” Lee removed his glasses and carefully rubbed his eyes. “When I needed to, I was able to get back home.”
“But you don’t quite belong here anymore. And you’re not staying.” Glorianna squeezed his hand. “So let’s consider how to get you back to where you need to be.”
“What about me?” Danyal asked.
“Your life, your journey, your choice,” she said, looking into his eyes.
She was the guide and the monster the Shaman Council had hoped he would find—and it was time to make a choice. “What color are my eyes?”
Glorianna gave him a puzzled smile, but there was no hesitation before she said, “They’re blue, with a ring of gray, but whether they look more blue or gray depends on your mood. They’re like Michael’s eyes in that way.”
She saw the man as well as the Shaman, and the wonder of that opened a part of his heart he hadn’t known was closed.
“I would like to return here, because you all have so much to teach me,” Danyal said. “I would like to walk in Sanctuary again and spend time in the Den.” He laughed softly at the dismayed sounds coming from Teaser. “But I need to return to Vision. I need to tell the other Shamans what I’ve learned about the enemy who has come among us. And I…” He looked at Glorianna Belladonna, Guide of the Heart. “And I would like to talk to you. Privately.”
Glorianna shifted in her chair until she could see the Apothecary and the Knife. “And you?”
“If the shadowmen don’t find a way to eliminate this enemy, we’ll be pushed out of our own city,” the Knife said. “So I want to go back.”
The Apothecary nodded. “I could do some good with fresh-picked plants, but I need to be able to get home to do that good.”
Glorianna nodded, then turned to Lee. “What did you bring?”
Standing up, Lee opened the blanket. “You’ve been able to make access points out of a stone bowl or a brick, so I thought these might work as an access point to Vision.”
Nadia, Michael, and Caitlin looked at the gongs and chimes and shook their heads.
Glorianna stared at the gongs, then pushed her chair away from the table. “No. They’re not an access point. Not for me.”
“Lee, where did you get those?” Danyal asked.
“Glorianna?” Yoshani said with a hint of alarm that brought Michael to his feet.
Lee set one of the gongs upright and reached for its mallet. “Maybe you need to hear it in order to—”
“No!” Danyal shouted. Springing to his feet, he rushed around the table, sucking in a breath at the sudden pain in his hip. He grabbed Lee’s wrist so hard the other man dropped the mallet. “Where did you get these?”
“From the temple at the Asylum,” Lee replied. “They were the only things I could think of that were easy to carry and might resonate with Vision.”
Danyal released Lee’s wrist. Then he laid the gong down on the blanket, careful to prevent it from making any sound. “My fault. I’ve been trying to understand you, Lee, and understand how you connect with the world. It’s not our way to share Shaman training with someone who isn’t a Shaman.”
All the color drained out of Lee’s face. “What would have happened if I struck the gong here?”
“These gongs release sorrow,” Danyal said quietly. “And there are people in this room who carry a great deal of sorrow. You could have opened a door in some hearts that I don’t have enough skill to close. In a temple meant for such things, I could do it. But not here.”
Sebastian swore. Michael looked grim.
Lee immediately looked at his sister. “Glorianna.”
She reached out, almost touching the gong. “Even the Eater of the World had no secrets from Belladonna,” she whispered. “At the end, just before I followed the music and found my way back to the Island in the Mist, I left a heart’s hope plant for It. A tiny thread of Light.” She looked up at Lee. “That landscape isn’t closed anymore.
Hard to find, even harder to reach, but it isn’t closed.”
“Lady of Light, have mercy on us,” Michael said as he went to Glorianna and placed his hands on her shoulders.
Danyal felt the thorn trees wrapping around the house, felt the teasing prick of thorns against his skin. Not really there. Not yet.
He waved a hand over the gongs. “These are not a good choice for you.” Ignoring the hot ache in shoulder and hip, he leaned over the table and held a hand over each wind chime. He picked up the largest of the three, the one that would have the deepest tones. “But this…” He moved his hand to make the chime ring. “This is joy.”
He felt a change in the rest of the people in the room, but he kept his eyes on Glorianna. The Light within her made her skin glow.
“Where did this come from?” she asked.
“Until they are brought to The Temples, the chimes, like the gongs, are ordinary,” Danyal replied. “But the Shamans breathe a measure of their gift into them in order to serve a specific purpose.”
“Temples,” she said, staring at the wind chime. “But there is also a Place of Light.”
“A portion of The Temples is—or was—open to all who sought comfort or guidance. The rest is the Shamans’ piece of the city. Within that is the piece where the masters live. It is removed from the rest of the city, but not unaware of it.”
“A Place of Light,” Yoshani said.
“And the access point for you, Danyal,” Glorianna said.
“What about the others?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Do you agree, Magician?”
Michael hesitated. “If you’re saying the sound of that chime is your way of reaching Vision, then you, Danyal, and Yoshani are the only ones whose music is in tune with the place.”
“Does that mean the Shaman can get back but we can’t?” the Knife asked.
“It means we found one connection between here and there,” Glorianna replied. “It’s more than we had an hour ago.” She stood up and stepped away from the table. “I need some air. Shaman? Come find me in an hour.” She pushed the screen door open and walked out.
“With all that rain, she’ll be ankle deep in mud before she takes three steps,” the Apothecary said.
A beat of silence. Then Lee said, “No, she won’t.”
Lee found Glorianna working in the flower beds farthest from the house.
“By rights, Zeela should be the one out here pulling weeds,” he said.
“Would Zeela know which plants are weeds?” Glorianna asked.
After a moment’s thought, he shook his head. “I don’t think any of that Tryad knows much about plants, except what they think is pretty.” He knelt beside his sister, immediately soaking the knees of his trousers. “Give me the other pail. I can’t see well enough to tell the weeds from Mother’s plantings, but I can clean up the stones.”
Glorianna handed him the pail, then went back to pulling weeds.
“I’ve been acting like an ass since I got back,” he said.
“A bit. Sebastian and Teaser figure it’s because of the girl. Since they’re incubi, it isn’t surprising they would focus on the female. Mother thinks it’s because you’re scared.”
“What about you? What do you think?”
“I’ve been thinking of Michael’s mother and how, because the boundaries between landscapes aren’t clearly defined in Elandar, she could be in a place where she didn’t really belong. I’ve been thinking of how that must feel.” She stopped working, studied him for a moment, then returned to the weeding. “If you were certain you were just visiting, that being here was temporary, you wouldn’t need to push to make sure you didn’t belong.”
“I’m not trying to get away from all of you,” Lee said.
She laughed quietly. “Yes, you are. And you should.”
“Are those words coming from my sister or a Guide of the Heart?”
She hesitated, then said, “Not your sister.”
Not his sister. Nothing he said right now would surprise her, so he spoke the truth. “I can’t do what I used to do. I can’t travel to check on the bridges connecting landscapes the way I used to. I can’t see well enough to travel alone—and even if I could, I’m tired of that life.”
“I agree,” Glorianna said. “You should be traveling with a companion whenever you need or want to travel.”
“What kind of companion are we talking about?” Would Zhahar be interested in traveling through the parts of Ephemera he knew? Would her sisters object to traveling?
Glorianna made a humming sound and bumped his arm. “Shift over.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“A Guide wouldn’t answer such a question, and as your sister, I’m disappointed that you can’t figure that one out for yourself.”
“You’re starting to sound like Sebastian and Teaser.”
“Then you don’t want to know how much speculation Caitlin and Lynnea have indulged in about you and Zhahar.”
Lee sighed. If he had a choice, he’d take incubi curiosity over inquisitive female relatives any day. Except Glorianna.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” he said after they’d worked in silence for a few minutes. “Using the gongs in the temple helped me, so I didn’t think they would hurt you.”
“I know.”
“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 mak
e 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.
