Bridge of Dreams e-3

by Anne Bishop

  “A building or buildings that could provide housing for two or three dozen people at a time,” Lee said. “Fifty people at the most. And a separate building for the staff—suites of rooms or apartments that would give them a home rather than just a room. And private residences for Danyal and me. With a screened porch. I did like sitting out on that screened porch.”

  “The little temple,” Danyal continued. “And a building that could provide space for work and study.”

  “You would also need a reference library. Would you not?” Yoshani asked quietly. “And someone to do research for you and provide the information you need to shape pieces of the world in the playground?”

  “Yes,” Danyal said. He closed his eyes for a moment to picture it better. A swimming hole would be lovely. Maybe not on the grounds itself, since that might be too dangerous for the more emotionally fragile…students. Not inmates. No, these would be students who came to the school to prepare for the next part of their journey.

  “The Apothecary could share a building with Meddik Benham. Then a person wouldn’t have to walk far for a tonic after getting some stitches,” Lee said.

  “No more than an hour’s ride from the bazaar and The Temples,” Danyal said, looking in the direction of the archway between The Temples and the bazaar. “That would make the school about a day’s journey from any part of Vision.”

  “And not as hot as the southern part of the city,” Lee added.

  “Definitely not as hot,” Danyal agreed.

  “Grounds that would include flower gardens and a kitchen garden that everyone would help plant, tend, and harvest. And we’d need enough room for that two-acre playground,” Lee said.

  Danyal didn’t want to think about what they would find at the playground when they returned. He didn’t know if the world was ignoring the rest of itself or if it was responding placidly to people’s hearts and feelings everywhere else, saving its energy for the place where it could make things without restraint. It was treating the little temple like a toy, moving it around to different parts of the playground and creating a variety of trees and vegetation around it, like a child putting different outfits on a doll. Apparently, Glorianna had set some limits, because Ephemera wasn’t allowed to bring into the playground anything from a dark landscape unless she was with it to help shape the making.

  Ephemera’s playground. His training ground.

  “So,” Yoshani said. “For men who thought you knew little, you actually know a great deal about the physical shape of your heart wishes. Lee, why don’t you call your little island, and we’ll see if there is a place in Vision that comes close to what you and Danyal desire.”

  The place was run-down and in need of all kinds of repair, but it had residential buildings that would work for the students, and others that could be fixed up for the staff. There were even two large cottages connected by what must have once been a screened patio. Another building could serve as infirmary and the Apothecary’s shop, and the second floor had separate living quarters that shared a kitchen. There was a barn large enough to house a handful of horses and a couple of dairy cows—if anyone wanted dairy cows. One of the stalls held an assortment of discarded tools and equipment. They found an old bicycle and a pump for the tires. Between them they got the tires pumped up and the bicycle wiped clean enough to ride. Then Yoshani headed down the lane to find out where they were.

  Danyal walked out of the barn and looked around again.

  “It could work, couldn’t it?” he asked Lee.

  “It could work,” Lee agreed. He adjusted the brim of his hat to shade his eyes a little more. “With your connection to the world and my abilities as a Bridge, we could help people find what their hearts need to see.”

  Danyal hesitated. “Before I was given the assignment of Asylum Keeper, I had been promised a year’s leave to rest and travel and decide if Vision was still my piece in the world.”

  “And now?”

  He sighed. “I saw glimpses of life beyond my city. I would like to see more. But this work is more important.”

  “No reason why you can’t do the work and also do some traveling,” Lee said, smiling. “Spending an evening in the Den can be as simple as crossing over a bridge. And anyone who works here would benefit from having a few days in Sanctuary each season.”

  Danyal studied the other man. Madman and teacher. Now the companion and partner he had also hoped to find?

  They resumed exploration of the buildings until Yoshani returned with the news that they were less than a mile from a small community that was an hour’s ride from the heart of Vision.

  After Yoshani returned the bicycle to the shed and joined them, Danyal looked at Lee. “Well. Shall we return to the Shamans’ compound and discuss this with our Guide?”

  “Yes, I think we should,” Lee replied. “And if Jeb is able to come to Vision, I’d like him to take a look at these buildings. He can tell us what will have to be done and how to get started.”

  They stepped onto the island and returned to the Shamans’ compound. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking—describing the place they had found to the Shaman Council. Jasper would have opposed creating such a place, but the man was noticeably absent. Glorianna, Sebastian, and Michael asked a lot of questions for which he had no answers, but Danyal heard no opposition to the idea itself. And Lee joined in, countering their questions with questions of his own, making it clear that as a group they were used to hashing out physical boundaries that could turn fluid with a wish. By the time they were done, they had a crude map of the buildings and some thoughts about the land that would be part of the property.

  We’re going to do this, Danyal thought. We’re going to do this, and whether we succeed or fail, the city will change because of it.

  When they separated to wash up for the evening meal, Glorianna signaled for him to linger.

  “Funny thing about landscapes,” she said when they were the only ones left. “Sometimes you cross a bridge and end up in a place unlike anything you’d seen before. New life. Fresh start. Can’t mistake the signs. But sometimes you cross a bridge and the world around you looks exactly the same. Except it isn’t. Same place, but a different landscape. New life. Fresh start. But it’s easy to miss the signs, easy to think you’re still where you were.”

  “Did I miss the signs?” he asked.

  She smiled. “No. You didn’t miss the signs.” She pressed her hand against his chest, over his heart. “But when you destroyed the wizards and Dark Guide the way you did, you altered your landscapes more than you intended, Danyal. So every day for the rest of your life, you will have to choose whether you heed the lure of the Dark or stand in the Light. Every single day.”

  “Every single day,” he repeated.

  As she lifted her hand and walked away, it occurred to him that the woman who was Guide to the World might not leave her brother’s future to chance. “Did you and Ephemera already find that place before Lee and I started looking?”

  Her laughter floating back to him was her only answer.

  Chapter 32

  Using the island, Lee brought Glorianna, Sebastian, Yoshani, and Michael back to Aurora. He shifted the island so that it rested near his mother’s walled garden.

  “I’ll have a quick word with Jeb and see when he can come back with you,” Michael said.

  “I need to have a quick chat with Teaser and Philo,” Sebastian said. “Make sure nothing in the Den needs my attention.”

  “Go home, Sebastian,” Glorianna said. “Go see your wife and make funny faces at her tummy.”

  Sebastian snorted, but Lee noticed his cousin didn’t deny making funny faces.

  The rest of them left the island, but when Lee tried to leave, Glorianna stepped in front of him.

  “No,” she said quietly.

  “I just want—”

  “No, Lee. Not until Zhahar is gone.”

  “I just want a minute.” Just want to tell her about the place in Vision.


  “You urged Zhahar to ask for Heart’s Justice instead of accepting the penalties her own people would have demanded.”

  “Harsh and unfair penalties,” he snapped.

  “And Heart’s Justice may end up being just as harsh,” she snapped back. “You have to let her go, Lee. You can’t have anything to do with where her heart takes her.”

  “Why not? Lynnea was there when Sebastian needed her. You were fine with that.”

  “Lynnea’s heart. Sebastian’s heart.”

  “My heart. Zhahar’s heart.”

  “Sholeh’s heart. Zeela’s heart. What about them? Did you consider how dangerous this will be for a Tryad?”

  He rocked back on his heels.

  Glorianna made a growling squeal that perfectly conveyed angry frustration. “Zhahar loves you. You love Zhahar. What about Sholeh and Zeela? Are you going to be three women’s lover? Do they want you as their lover? Isn’t that what the punishment of merging is designed to prevent? Jealousy between sisters caused by wanting the same man?”

  “Daylight, Glorianna! It’s not like that.” It wasn’t like that, but Glorianna’s words reminded him of why he had to walk away from Zhahar—and the Guide shouldn’t have needed to remind him.

  “Zhahar wanting to love you is what put her in this position,” Glorianna said gently. “Her sisters are at risk because of it. When I release Heart’s Justice, Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar’s hearts have to be united. Maybe they’ll each want a different aspect of something, but they all have to want the same thing. If they don’t…”

  “They would run the same risk as if they’d crossed a resonating bridge while quarreling with each other,” he finished.

  “If one of them is split from the other two, will she have a body? Or will she die?”

  Lee sagged against a tree. “Guardians of the Light and Guides of the Heart. This isn’t any better than what Medusah would have done to her.”

  “If her aspects are in conflict when Heart’s Justice is released, it won’t be any better,” Glorianna agreed. “In fact, it might be worse, because if the sisters get divided, they’ll never know if the others are dead or are surviving in some way in other landscapes.”

  He’d said he would let Zhahar go, would get out of her life. But some part of him must have hoped that he wouldn’t have to mean it. Now…

  “How did Michael let you go?” he asked.

  “You would have to ask him,” she replied.

  “What should I do?”

  She kissed his cheek. “Go back to Vision. Start setting up that school with Danyal. Help him deal with the playground and make up a list of rules.”

  Lee made a face. “Like ‘Don’t move the temple when someone is inside it’?”

  “That’s a good rule. Make sure the two of you enforce it.”

  He wasn’t sure how they were supposed to do that, but Glorianna wouldn’t be interested in excuses. “I suppose I should see about making a stationary bridge or two, since you’ll be traveling to the school a couple of times a week.”

  She hesitated. “For now, let’s plan to meet in Sanctuary. We can use the island to travel back to Vision.”

  “Yeah. Okay.” He tried to resist the words, but they wouldn’t be held back. “I guess I was ready to love someone, and it felt right with Zhahar. Maybe I couldn’t have handled the intimate details of living with someone as unique as her, but I wish we’d had a chance to try.”

  “I know.” She kissed his cheek again. “Travel lightly, Lee.”

  “Travel lightly, Glorianna Belladonna.”

  He waited a few minutes after she left, telling himself it was to be sure Michael wasn’t coming back with a message, or his mother didn’t want to have a quick chat.

  When he finally admitted that he wasn’t going to get a glimpse of any aspect of Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar, he sighed, hoping to ease the ache in his chest. Then he shifted the island to the city of Vision and the new life waiting for him there.

  Chapter 33

  Zhahar sat in the dining room of Nadia’s house, cupping a mug of peppermint tea. The day was pleasantly warm—perfect autumnal weather—but she felt cold inside. So cold. As if she would never thaw.

  ::I’m scared,:: Sholeh said.

  *So am I,* Zhahar replied.

  =We’re all scared,= Zeela added.

  ::What’s going to happen? Why won’t anyone tell us?::

  *No one is supposed to tell us about Heart’s Justice until Glorianna returns.* And why is that? Zhahar wondered. Lee had sounded urgent when he’d told her how to ask for it. Why hadn’t any of them noticed how he’d avoided telling her what it was or what it would do? Now no one would speak of it.

  The dining room door opened. Zephyra slipped inside the room and sat across from her.

  “Glorianna has returned,” Zephyra said quietly, urgently. “She’s talking to Nadia and will be here in another minute. Zhahar, ask to be released from this Heart’s Justice. Come back to Tryadnea with me.”

  “To be merged because I dared to love someone who wasn’t Tryad?” Zhahar asked bitterly. “Glorianna said we couldn’t get back to Tryadnea now, and we wouldn’t go back even if I could. Zeela wasn’t the only one who wished the border would break and leave us here. We all wanted it. Even Sholeh.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door open a crack—just enough for someone on the other side to hear what was being said.

  Let them listen.

  “That’s the trap, isn’t it?” she said. “In order to keep Tryadnea sufficiently connected to another piece of Ephemera, the ones sent into the one-face lands have to make an effort to live there, build a life there, until we’re exposed for what we are and have to run to avoid being locked up or killed. ‘Make friends,’ we’re told, ‘but don’t let them get too close. Find work, because that hooks you in a little deeper to that place. Be a good citizen but never forget your true loyalty.’”

  Zephyra looked devastated by her words, so Morragen came into view.

  “Hundreds before you have made the same sacrifice for our people and our land,” Morragen said. “Including me and my sisters.”

  The Morragen aspect had always intimidated her, just as the Medusah aspect had frightened her, but Zhahar was glad it was no longer Zephyra in view. It made it easier to hold on to a hard truth when she wasn’t speaking to the aspect whose heart was breaking right now.

  “You tell the Tryads who do this work that it is important work, valuable work, vital work.”

  “And it is.”

  “But you never tell them that making a real connection to a one-face land will change them, damage them. Because they will make friends, or begin to care about the people they work with, or fall in love. Tryadnea will no longer have their complete loyalty—until they are revealed for what they are. Until they are betrayed so they have to come home.”

  Betrayed. Yes, there was truth in that word.

  “You will not speak of this,” Morragen warned, her voice turned to ice.

  “The leader can’t be the betrayer. That would tear the Tryad apart. But someone else? Someone who is the living proof of what it costs to love outside our own kind? How many ears within the governing circle hear her whispers?”

  “Zhahar, don’t.” Zephyra came back into view, tears spilling down her face. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “Perhaps not,” Zhahar conceded. “Your mothers and Allone were rivals for the leadership of Tryadnea before she gave up her sisters in order to love a one-face man.”

  “Who left her as soon as it was done,” Zephyra said. “She became a one-face and was no longer considered for the leadership. But she was always on the fringes of the governing circle, always pointing out the dangers of getting too close to anyone who wasn’t Tryad.”

  ::Tell her,:: Sholeh urged.

  “When you get back to the capital city, you should go to the archives and check some of the family lines. There might be a reason Allone is as persuasive as she is.”

  Medusah came in
to view, but before she could respond, Glorianna walked into the room. Or was it Belladonna?

  Zhahar’s hands tightened around the mug. She couldn’t release it until Zeela loaned her the strength to let go.

  “Now,” Glorianna said as she took a seat at the head of the table. “Heart’s Justice.”

  Morragen came into view. “That isn’t necessary. The a Zhahar Tryad can return with us to Tryadnea.”

  “I thought I’d made it clear that their returning to Tryadnea was no longer possible,” Belladonna said with an icy sweetness that made Zhahar shiver. “No. Zhahar and her sisters asked for Heart’s Justice, and that is what they will have.”

  “As leader of the Tryad people, we must be the judge of that!” Morragen shouted.

  “Not this time. Minor wrongdoing and disputes between people are settled through common justice, and the decisions are made by magistrates,” Belladonna said. “Until we learned the nature of the wizards and where they came from, acts of violence were punished through Wizards’ Justice, and the penalty was usually death by wizards’ lightning. But when someone’s actions require more than common justice but don’t deserve death, a Landscaper is called to perform Heart’s Justice.” She looked at Zhahar. “Heart’s Justice will forge a direct link between you and Ephemera, and you will be sent to the darkest landscape that resonates with your heart. It will be done tomorrow, at sunrise.” Now she looked at Morragen. “You will return to Tryadnea now.”

  “No!” Zephyra pushed into view. “We’re going to stay and support our daughters!”

  “You don’t want the same thing they do. All you’ll do now is confuse their hearts. Wait for me outside.”

  “We are the leader of the Tryad,” Morragen Medusah a Zephyra said as they rose. “Who are you to speak to us that way?”