“Do what?”
“Change your face. It was subtle, but I was sure her face didn’t look the same when she was talking to you as it did when I first opened the door.” She shrugged. “Maybe it was a trick of the light.”
“And maybe it wasn’t.” Uneasy again, he stepped back. “There are stories—old stories—about the incubi and succubi, about how they lure men and women by appearing to be a friend or lover.” Hand in hand with those stories were the ones about incubi and succubi providing such intense pleasure the sex was lethal.
“Do you know me?” he demanded suddenly. “Can you feel me?”
“If you’re asking if I could tell the difference between you and someone wearing your face, then, yes, I know you. I would always know you, Sebastian. Even if the face was the same, that other person couldn’t be you.”
He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed that answer until he felt the tension drain out of him. Weary now, he rubbed his hands over his face. “I brought some food. Let’s eat. Then we’ll consider what comes next.”
While they shared the food in companionable silence, Sebastian chewed on one thought: Why were these newcomers so interested in him?
Chapter Fourteen
Koltak rapped on the door, then barely waited for an acknowledgment before rushing into the room.
“You sent for me, Harland?” he asked.
Harland turned away from the window. “The council has received news. It is terrible—and terrifying.”
A chill went through Koltak, but he just waited, saying nothing.
“Belladonna has shown her true nature. She attacked the Landscapers’ School, Koltak. She killed all of the Landscapers and Bridges who were at the school, leaving Ephemera’s landscapes vulnerable to her malevolence.”
Koltak staggered to a chair and sank into it. “How is that possible?”
“Her power has turned vicious, and she’s far stronger than any of us imagined.” Harland moved away from the window. “Already the dark feelings in human hearts are forming a veil over some of the landscapes.”
“But…what will killing the other Landscapers gain her? She can’t control a landscape if she doesn’t resonate with it.”
“What she can’t control will be torn apart by the storm of human emotions,” Harland replied. “Unless we stop her, Ephemera will become an insane world that will destroy everything humans have built. Music, literature, cultured society. All lost. Crushed by the desperate need to survive in a world that keeps changing so fast there will be no chance to survive in those landscapes. And what is left will belong to Belladonna and will be a dark place full of terrors.” He paused. “There is evidence that she’s pulled some of the darkest landscapes back into the world. You know the ones I mean.”
Koltak struggled for any coherent thought like a drowning man flailing to grab hold of anything that will keep him from going under. “Nadia. What about Nadia? Surely she’s not trying to protect—”
“We will try to reach Nadia. Right now, we cannot confirm that she and her son, Lee, are still living—or if they, too, were victims of the rogue Landscaper’s viciousness.” Harland looked at Koltak with an expression of harsh sympathy. “Belladonna must be destroyed.”
“But we can’t find her!”
“We must find her,” Harland said. “Since we don’t know what happened to her mother and brother, there’s only one person left who might be able to draw Belladonna to Wizard City, where the council will be able to gather its full strength and destroy her. There’s only one person left, Koltak, and you’re the only person who can reach him.”
Stunned, Koltak stared at Harland. “Sebastian? What do you expect Sebastian to do against Belladonna?”
Harland smiled a terrible smile. “Nothing.”
“You don’t have to stay,” Lynnea said. “I’m just going to sit here for a while.”
“Uh-huh,” Teaser replied, following her to a table at the back of Philo’s courtyard. “Sebastian told me to stay with you.” He flashed a cocky grin. “Besides, you won’t tell me what you’ve got in the box.”
Lynnea sighed. She should have told him what was in the box the first time he’d asked. But she’d felt so flustered and guilty about doing something idle that her denials that the box held anything important had only sharpened the incubus’s curiosity.
Setting the box on the table, she chose the seat that put her back to the courtyard’s wall and let her watch the courtyard and the street beyond. Let her watch for Sebastian’s return.
Philo came up to the table. “What’ll you have?”
“Ale for me,” Teaser replied. He looked inquiringly at Lynnea.
“I’ll find something for the lady,” Philo said when she hesitated. He tipped his head to one side. “What’s in the box?”
“She won’t tell anyone,” Teaser said.
Lynnea huffed. “It’s just a game a friend of Sebastian’s auntie made.” She opened the box and carefully poured out the pieces of thin wood. “It’s called a puzzle. See? There’s a picture painted on one side. You put all the pieces together in the correct way, and you get to see the picture.”
Teaser picked up a piece and studied it. “It’s got bumps sticking out of it on two sides and round bites taken out of the other two.”
“That’s part of the puzzle. The bumps of one piece fit into the openings of another.”
“Oh, I know that game.”
“Mind who you’re talking to,” Philo said sharply.
“What?” Teaser looked at Lynnea. “Oh. Right.”
Lynnea kept her eyes on the puzzle pieces she was turning over so that the painted side was on top. “If I’m going to live in the Den, there’s no reason why everyone should avoid talking about…sex stuff…when I’m around.”
Loooong pause.
“I’ll see what’s in the kitchen,” Philo said, hurrying away from the table.
Feeling like an outsider, and resenting it, Lynnea concentrated on righting all the pieces so she could begin putting the puzzle together, aware that Teaser seemed to be concentrating equally hard.
Finally Teaser said quietly, “You’re different. That’s why it feels all right to be a little bit naughty around you, but not bad, not…blatant.”
Pondering that, Lynnea fit two blue pieces together. Sky? Water? “Why?”
“Dunno, exactly. No one like you has ever come to the Den before.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say, so she nibbled on the food Philo brought to the table, focused on the puzzle—and waited for Sebastian.
Tired and hungry, Sebastian thanked the demon cycle for its assistance, then scanned Philo’s courtyard. He didn’t see Lynnea, but one of the people crowded around the table in the back would be able to tell him where she and Teaser had gone.
As he made his way to the back of the courtyard, he wondered if failure, in this case, equaled success. He hadn’t seen any sign of rust-colored sand, hadn’t spotted any pools of water that were located in places they didn’t belong. He’d made note of any physical bridges, but he hadn’t crossed over any of them—and wouldn’t until he’d talked to Lee and found out which of them his cousin had created.
At least he’d managed to find residents of some of the dark landscapes that bordered the Den and warn them about the creatures that might prey on them. They would spread the word among their own.
He’d done all he could do for now, so it was time to take something for himself. He needed to feel the warmth of her presence, feel the sound of her voice wash over his skin. Just needed to be with her. That, in itself, was a wonder to him. He wanted sex. Of course he did. But that wasn’t all he wanted, wasn’t all he needed.
She dreamed of him at night, and he found the lure of those dreams irresistible. But it was like being given a taste of a banquet, then having the door shut in his face before he could feast. Problem was, he had a nagging feeling that if he pushed the door open instead of waiting to be invited into her dreams, the very best of th
at banquet would disappear and he’d never quite know what he’d missed.
But those were thoughts for another time. Right now, a full belly held more appeal than a hot bed—which, for an incubus, was a sad state of affairs.
Finding Lynnea turned out to be easy. Getting to her was a different matter. As he pushed his way through the crowd gathered around the table, he heard Mr. Finch say, “They fit, and they’re both blue, but not the same blue. This one is sky, I think, and this one…water? Philo, can’t we have more light?”
He heard Lynnea say, “Teaser! You’re doing it wrong.”
And Teaser replying, “The pieces fit.”
Lynnea, sounding exasperated, “But they aren’t the right colors. They’re just a jumble.”
That was when he nudged himself into the space between Teaser’s chair and Mr. Finch’s and got a look at the table—and felt a jolt go through his body.
Then Teaser said, “All right, then. I’ll do it proper,” and reached out to break apart the puzzle pieces that fit but didn’t belong together.
Without thought, simply reacting to churning emotions, Sebastian reached out and clamped a hand around Teaser’s wrist. Ignoring the other incubus’s startled yelp, he stared at the table. Even Lynnea’s delighted greeting couldn’t pull his focus away from the scattered pieces of painted wood—especially the pieces that had been put together again.
“It’s Ephemera,” he said quietly. Everyone around him became silent, waiting. “It’s like Ephemera, in the old stories.” In that moment he was a child again, sitting at the kitchen table with Glorianna and Lee, listening to Aunt Nadia tell the story of why Ephemera was the way it was.
“The world was whole once.” Releasing Teaser’s wrist, he moved his hand above the table to indicate all the pieces of wood. “Different lands, different people, but all of it connected. Then the Eater of the World came along. It had the ability to reshape pieces of the world, making them more attuned to the dark feelings in the human heart. It could take a person’s deepest, darkest fears and use those feelings to change creatures that were part of the natural world into something terrible. Something that would then prey on humans.”
Sebastian picked up Teaser’s glass and drained the last inch of ale to ease the dryness in his throat. Setting the glass down on the table, he continued the story. “It roamed the world, and as people drowned in despair, the world changed to become a reflection of their hearts. Fertile land turned into deserts, and the people suffered even more.
“In a desperate act of love for Ephemera and its people, the Guides of the Heart shattered the world, then shattered those pieces into more pieces.” Sebastian separated the pieces of the puzzle Mr. Finch had put together, spreading them out just enough so they no longer touched. “Finally, those who stood for the Light contained the Eater of the World in one small piece. There they fought, Light against Dark, driving the Eater to the place they’d chosen for a trap. Furious, It drew all the landscapes It had created to that place so that the creatures It had created would help It fight.
“And that’s when the Guides sprang the trap. They poured their power into stone and created a cage that locked the Eater of the World inside Its own landscapes.
“Ephemera was saved, but it remained a world of shattered landscapes.”
“Why didn’t they put Ephemera back together?” Teaser asked.
Sebastian stared at the puzzle. He’d lived with the nature of Ephemera all his life, had felt the frustration, like everyone else, of finding a different landscape once and never being able to find it again, even when he walked the same path, crossed over the same bridge. Sometimes a person could be certain only of where he was—and sometimes there wasn’t even that much certainty.
“The Guardians of the Light closed themselves away from the human world and the Guides disappeared, no longer able to walk in this world,” he said. “The Landscapers and Bridges who came after them were able to stabilize Ephemera enough to stop it from manifesting every emotion, but they couldn’t put the world back together.”
He nudged the puzzle pieces he’d separated until they were close together but still not fully connected. “Different landscapes resonated for each of them, so those were the ones each Landscaper took under her control and care, while the Bridges found a way to provide a link between the landscapes so that people weren’t trapped in one small piece of the world.”
Philo rubbed his chin. “It’s true that the landscapes held by a Landscaper have the same feel, for good or bad. If you get stuck in a place where your heart doesn’t feel easy, your life never feels easy, whether you become prosperous or not.”
Sebastian nodded. “And if you find the place where you belong, you can weather the hardships as well as the good times—because life will give you both.”
“What’s this, then?” Teaser waved a hand over his jumble of pieces. “You can’t have a jumble of landscapes like this.”
Sebastian felt that jolt again. “Yes, you can. Those are Belladonna’s landscapes.”
People had begun whispering among themselves, but that statement produced another wave of silence.
Seeing things Lee had said to him mirrored now in a simple human amusement, Sebastian placed his thumb on one of the dark pieces. “She brought some of Ephemera’s dark landscapes together”—he stretched his hand and rested a finger on the bright blue piece of sky—“and she brought together places of Light. In between are the landscapes that are a bit of both. Neither dark or light, just…human. The human landscapes stand between us, but the Den and Sanctuary are connected. Because of her. Which means we each have something to offer the world.” And if one is lost, the other won’t survive.
“Enough stories,” he said, easing between the people and the table to reach Lynnea. When she started to rise, he rested a hand on her shoulder. “No, sit. Finish the puzzle. I’d like to see it finished.”
“That’s enough now,” Philo said, making shooing motions at the crowd. “That’s enough. Find a chair for Sebastian so he can sit with his lady and have something to eat.”
A chair was found, the crowd dispersed to fill the other tables, and Philo brought him a bowl of stew and pieces of bread.
As he watched Lynnea, Teaser, and Mr. Finch put the puzzle together, Sebastian couldn’t shake the feeling that he was watching a promise being made—the promise that, someday, Ephemera would be whole again.
Chapter Fifteen
“That’s enough,” Glorianna said. As she reached for the papers her brother held, she noticed his hands trembled from exhaustion. “Lee, that’s enough.”
He pulled the papers toward him, his fingers tightening convulsively. “There are so many,” he muttered as he stared at the papers that held the careful notations of every bridge he’d created over the years, as well as the location of bridges other Bridges had formed that provided access to one of Glorianna’s or Nadia’s landscapes. “With the other landscapes unprotected, there are so many ways the Eater of the World can—”
“Enough.” She laid her hands over his. Doubt could form heavy chains around the mind, making each decision weigh so much, no decision, no action would be taken for fear it was the wrong one. She could see him bending from the responsibility he now carried. With the weight of doubt added to the burden, she worried he might break under the strain. “Did you or did you not break the stationary bridges between Sanctuary and the landscapes in this part of Ephemera?”
Lee nodded. “Except the ones that connect with landscapes controlled by you or Mother.”
“And did you not break the stationary bridges that would provide a way into Mother’s landscapes from Wizard City or the Landscapers’ School?” She waited for him to nod again. “And you broke the stationary bridges that would lead to the Den from any place but my landscapes.”
He flinched, which made her narrow her eyes.
“There’s the bridge in the woods by Mother’s house that crosses over from the Den to Aurora,” he said.
“That one stays. If something happens at home and Mother is blocked from reaching Sanctuary, I want her to be able to reach Sebastian.” She studied her brother. “What else?”
“I…connected one of Mother’s landscapes to the Den. There was a stationary bridge in that landscape that led to Wizard City. When I broke the connection between those two landscapes, I felt a…hole, an emptiness that needed to be filled, but none of the landscapes I would have normally connected with that one felt right, so I had to leave it. Then, when I went to the Den to change the resonating bridge into a stationary one…something in those two landscapes resonated so strongly with each other, my presence was enough of a conduit to make a connection. Took a fair amount of stubbornness on my part to hold them apart long enough to link them properly.”
“Then it was meant,” Glorianna said. Before he guessed her intention, she pulled the papers out of his hands, tapped them into a neat stack, and put them in the document box Jeb had made for Lee a few years ago. She took the box to the desk and set it in the bottom drawer. After locking the drawer, she slipped the key’s chain over her head and tucked it into her shirt.
This suite of rooms in the guesthouse at Sanctuary was the closest thing Lee had to a home of his own. Oh, he had a sitting room and bedroom in her house on the island, and his bedroom at their mother’s house, but that wasn’t the same as having his own place.
He was twenty-eight and had never had a sweetheart. Because of her. Not that he’d ever admit that, but she knew whatever liaisons he enjoyed were kept casual because he hadn’t trusted those women enough to expose his strong connection with his sister, the rogue Landscaper.
It made her sad. He should have a wife to come home to, children to play with. He wanted those things. She knew he did. After all, no heart held secrets from Glorianna Belladonna.
But sadness and doubt weren’t what he needed from her right now, so she held out her hand and said, “Let’s take a walk.”