Belladonna

  But she hadn’t taken it with her, had turned away from even that much comfort. Had turned away from even that much of a reminder of him.

  The perk pot still held koffee, so he heated that up instead of making the tea he would have preferred.

  He didn’t have an appetite, and lost most of his interest in food when he realized she hadn’t taken any of that with her either, but he ate one of the eggs she had hard-boiled yesterday, then took his cup of koffee and a thick slice of bread and butter out with him. He didn’t look at the walled garden, didn’t even consider going in. Not yet. Instead, he went to the new bed that held his heart’s hope and the belladonna.

  “Wild child,” he called softly. “Ephemera, can you hear me?”

  It heard him, but he sensed a resistance, almost as if it feared what he might ask of it. Did the world know what she intended to do?

  “Listen to me, wild child. Don’t let her Light scatter. Find a place for it where it can be cherished and kept safe.”

  Ephemera didn’t understand. Not yet.

  Door of Locks. Stories and spirits and keys. He’d chosen a lock, based on dreams of a black-haired woman he’d fallen in love with before he’d truly seen her face or heard her voice—or known her heart. But she, as Guide and spirit, had used that key in his heart to open the door and show him a life he couldn’t have imagined. Because he hadn’t known the possibility of being accepted for what he was had existed.

  He ate the bread and drank the koffee. He washed the dishes and the perk pot. He repacked his clothes into the big pack, then took them out and put them in the smaller travel pack. A change of clothes, a canteen, and his whistle were all he needed right now. He slipped one of the one-shot bridges Lee had made for him into his coat pocket. The others, wrapped in scraps of cloth and stored in a drawstring pouch, he tucked into the pack.

  Give me enough time, Magician, she had said. I couldn’t bear it if someone else was caught when I altered the landscapes.

  He waited while the minutes crawled by. When the sun had risen high enough that he could be reasonably sure that the folks in Aurora would be up and about, once he actually got there, he picked up the travel pack and left the house.

  As he followed the path that would lead him to the river, he slipped his hand in his pocket, wrapped his fingers around the one-shot bridge—and crossed over to the Den of Iniquity.

  An abandoned garden. A small plot of ground compared to what she had ended up creating on the Island in the Mist, but it had been hers once, and there was just enough of her resonance left for her to take the step between here and there, to cross over to this enclosed piece of ground.

  Safety first. It would all be for nothing if the Eater’s creatures killed her before she finished her task. Afterward…Maybe it would be a blessing afterward.

  Sixteen years ago, the Dark Guides had tried to seal her in by poisoning her mind. If they had succeeded, she would have altered the landscapes to create a smothering cage, and never would have realized she had been the instrument they had used to destroy her, never would have realized it was her power and not theirs that had chained her to a barren existence.

  Now she was going to do what the Dark Guides had failed to do. Now she was going to do much more than they had intended to do.

  Much more.

  “Ephemera,” Glorianna Belladonna said softly, “hear me.”

  The Eater of the World, in the form of an elegantly dressed, middle-aged gentleman, stepped onto the rust-colored sand that spilled out of the back of a smelly alley. Its mouth fell open in astonishment. Its eyes widened in shock.

  A dissonance in Its landscapes! New, strange flavors of Dark—and delicious ripples of Light that winked out. Then It felt Ephemera manifest a will, obey a heart. It felt the ripples of that command in the currents of power that flowed through the world. Then It felt…

  It looked down at the sand beneath Its feet. “No,” It whispered. “The bonelovers are mine. That landscape is mine.”

  But some sly, dark heart had slipped into Its landscapes and stolen the bonelovers’ landscape by altering the resonance just enough to shut It out. Something had shut It out of a landscape It had made.

  Thief!

  It staggered back a step, braced a hand against a dirty wall.

  She walks in the gardens, a voice, harsh yet oddly melodious, whispered through the currents of the world. She walks in the gardens, stealing all your work, all your creations. All your puny little creations. Boo, hoo. Boo, hoo. Poor little Eater, not brave enough to do anything but hide. She already controls the Light. Where will you go, little Eater, when she rules the Dark?

  Ragged breaths as the body trembled. Fear and rage as It considered the message in those whispers.

  The True Enemy had come to the Landscapers’ School. Was in the Landscapers’ School, taking Its dark landscapes and making them her own.

  Not fair! Not fair!

  Coward, the voice whispered. Even the Dark Guides have come to play.

  It wasn’t a coward. It wasn’t afraid. It was the Eater of the World. It was feared. Even the world feared It.

  Laughter whispered through the currents of the world. Cruel, mocking laughter.

  We’re connected with the world again, another voice whispered through the currents. We’re connected to the school!

  It remembered that voice. Harland. The head of the Wizards’ Council. The leader of the Dark Guides.

  Our own magic wasn’t enough to seal her in, Harland’s voice whispered. And we didn’t know the bitch could use Heart’s Justice the way she did. But we canuse the creatures the Eater has at the school. Use them up to wear her down. And then…DESTROY HER!

  Laughter whispered through the currents of the world. Cruel, mocking laughter.

  Were there ripples of fear beneath that laughter?

  She wasn’t as strong as she wanted them all to believe. Had never been as strong as she wanted them to believe. She was on Its ground, where It had slaughtered so many of her kind.

  It would have her. In the end, It would have her. Its creatures would attack her body. The Dark Guides would attack her mind. The Light inside her would beckon all the dark things.

  In the end, It would have her. It would peel off her skin. It would crack open her bones like the shell of a nut and pick out all the delicious meat. It would feast on her screams and her cries and her misery. And then, when the True Enemy was nothing more than scattered garbage, It would break open another shell—and feast on the Places of Light.

  It stepped back onto the sand, forcing the resonance of Its darkness upon the landscape that held Its first creation. Forced Ephemera to accept Its dominance, Its resonance, until the bonelovers’ landscape once more belonged to It. Then It changed to Its natural form, a rippling shadow beneath the skin of the world, and flowed as fast as It could to the access point that would take It to the school.

  It was coming.

  Fear shivered through her, but Glorianna kept at her task of shifting the resonance of the currents of Light that flowed through the school—and through the dark landscapes that belonged to the Eater of the World. She’d set the trap and had sent the bait flowing out into the currents of the world.

  Borders and boundaries. She had brought Wizard City back into the world, and that landscape was now connected by a border with the gate that had opened to the Bridges’ part of the school. If the Dark Guides tried to come after her, they would have to cross more ground, take more risks against the Eater’s creatures.

  The cage was almost closed. The Eater had touched less of the world than she had expected. Not surprising, now that she considered it. There were hundreds of landscapes held in the walled gardens at the school. The surviving Landscapers would reclaim their pieces of the world and take on the responsibility of being the bedrock for others. Ephemera would survive.

  The landscapes she was leaving behind would be cared for.

  It’s not a feather bed, but the nights are cold this time of year, an
d the sleeping bag will keep you warm.

  She’d left it behind. Had to leave it behind, along with everything else Michael had wanted to give her.

  Because kindness would kill her.

  As she pushed the image of Michael’s face out of her mind, another face took its place. Dark eyes that held deep pools of wisdom. A hand holding out a white stone.

  That day, when Yoshani had told her about the magic of his people in using the jar of sorrows, he had offered her a white stone as a way to cleanse her heart and let go of the hurts of the past. She had refused his offer, had refused that kindness because she had known, on some level, that she would need those kernels of remembered pain.

  For this place. For this task.

  Yes. She would need her sorrows.

  She looked at the sky, at the daylight growing stronger.

  The Eater of the World was coming. When It was inside the school, she would lock the last door, seal the last gate.

  Then there would be just one more thing left to do.

  The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.

  Hold them off a little longer, Magician. Just a little longer. After that, it will be too late—and they’ll be safe.

  Teaser saw him first.

  Michael had a moment to feel grateful that Lee wasn’t at Philo’s place with the two incubi. That would buy her a little more time. Besides, he wasn’t looking forward to facing Glorianna’s brother.

  Then Sebastian turned around, and those sharp green eyes looked right at him. Right through him.

  He kept walking toward the courtyard. Sebastian stepped away from the tables and chairs, meeting him on the cobblestone street. They stopped just out of reach of each other.

  “Threat and promise is what you called me,” Michael said quietly. “I’ve made good on the threat, for the sake of the world.”

  “What have you done?” Sebastian asked, his voice rough with restrained, but rising, anger.

  “Told a story. Provided a key to a locked door.”

  “In clear words, Magician.”

  “I told Glorianna how to stop the Eater of the World. She’s gone to the Landscapers’ School.”

  Chapter Thirty

  They couldn’t reach Lee, who had used his little island to go to the Island in the Mist, and Michael thanked the Lady of Light for that blessing. The timing had been a little off. Just enough. Based on what Yoshani had told them, Lee must have gone to Glorianna’s island within minutes of Michael crossing over to the Den.

  So Lee was wasting time checking the house and the walled garden, while Glorianna…

  They were all at Nadia’s house now, waiting for Lee because his island was the best chance of reaching the landscape that held the school. Nadia couldn’t cross over from any of her landscapes. Yoshani and Teaser, as unlikely a pair to become friends as he’d ever seen, had tried, separately, to cross over to the school by using the resonating bridge near Nadia’s house. But the bridge no longer worked. At all.

  Ephemera was frightened. It wasn’t words he was picking up from the world, it was story-songs. Mood-songs. It was being asked to do things it didn’t want to do—was afraid to do. Asked by a heart it trusted. Commanded by a will so strong it couldn’t disobey.

  Hearts had no secrets from Glorianna Belladonna. She understood the people who loved her all too well.

  And they were all here now. Teaser and Yoshani. Lynnea and Sebastian. Nadia and Jeb. Even Caitlin Marie and his aunt Brighid.

  It felt like a deathbed vigil—the women talking in the kitchen while they made mountains of food no one wanted to eat; the men in another room, talking in hushed voices, trying to fill time with words while they all waited for the transportation that would take them to the site of the grave.

  Not enough room in the house. Not enough air in the house.

  He was outside, staring at a flower bed in Nadia’s personal garden, with no clear memory of how he’d gotten there. He didn’t turn around to see who had followed him out of the house. Didn’t have to. Even lowered by sorrow, the music of Yoshani’s heart was a clear song.

  “What brought you here this morning?” Michael asked.

  “Your aunt,” Yoshani replied. “All day yesterday, she had been quiet, thoughtful. Except when she would go to the koi pond and ‘sing the day’ as she called it. There was a radiance in the air around her in those moments, and what flowed through Sanctuary made a person want to weep and smile at the same time. This morning she gave me a letter Glorianna had left for me and said she needed to speak with Nadia. She asked me to come with her.”

  “And Caitlin Marie came this morning for her lesson.”

  “Yes. So you, too, have your family around you during a difficult time.” Yoshani paused. “This story you told Glorianna Dark and Wise. Would you tell it to me?”

  Michael shook his head. “Maybe sometime, but not now.”

  For a moment, he thought Yoshani would argue, but the man simply bowed his head.

  “It took courage to let her go, Michael the Magician,” Yoshani said gently.

  Before Michael could think of a reply, Lee hopped over a broken part of the wall. Looking toward the house, he hollered, “Hey-a, what’s going on? The resonating bridge near the house is gone, just gone, and I can’t find…”

  Lee saw him and stopped. Stared.

  Words had not been spoken yet, so Lee’s mind didn’t understand what his heart already knew.

  His expression turned grim. He took a step toward Michael.

  And Sebastian was suddenly out the kitchen door, both distraction and threat. The Justice Maker flicked a glance at Michael, then focused on his cousin.

  “Lee,” Sebastian said. “We need to talk.”

  It tasted her fear in the currents that flowed through the school. It tasted her doubts. And It lapped at the Light as It flowed beneath the paths of the school, easily evading the silly traps the True Enemy had set to capture It.

  The Dark Guides had succeeded in trapping the True Enemy in a landscape where she could be destroyed! They had finally succeeded! She was tangled up in Its landscapes at the school, unable to cross over to any place that didn’t resonate with It. When she realized she was trapped, she had tried to change Its landscapes and make them hers, but It had been too strong, too powerful, and It had reclaimed what belonged to It. Now she was drawing in all the Light, trying to make a Place of Light, thinking that, somehow, she would be safe and beyond Its reach. How delicious! How wonderful! How tasty!

  It couldn’t wait to feast on the heart of Belladonna.

  She listened to the Dark Guides’ whispers, let their verbal rape wash through her heart, while building walls that would stand far longer than stone.

  And while she listened, while she waited for the right moment, she gathered the Light. She wasn’t able to destroy all the currents of Light completely, so she sucked them dry until the threads that were left were so weak and thin that they couldn’t support the smallest seed of hope.

  The Eater of the World was in the school. Was coming toward her.

  She altered the landscapes and closed the last door. Turned the key in the last lock. When she destroyed the key, there would be no getting out, no turning back. When she destroyed the key, she and the Dark Guides and the Eater of the World would be locked in this landscape forever.

  She closed her eyes, denying the tears that wanted to fall.

  “I am the Warrior of Light,” she whispered. “It’s time to drink from the Dark Cup.” Her voice broke. She paused to steady herself. Then she added, “Ephemera, hear me.”

  “Daylight!” Sebastian said as he stepped off Lee’s island. “Why does the school look like that? Why is it doing that?”

  Michael didn’t answer. Lee swore. Caitlin gasped.

  The school faded a little more, just as the White Isle had faded when Kenneday’s ship approached it. It wasn’t quite in the world anymore, but it wasn’t completely beyond reach yet.

  Michael watched as the rest o
f his companions stepped off of Lee’s little island. He listened to their music and assessed what he heard in each of their hearts.

  Wild child, he called. We need to do a bit of ill-wishing.

  She felt their resonance through the currents that flowed through the world. Sealing this cage hadn’t severed this landscape’s connection to the world quite enough. It wouldn’t be possible to get out, but it was still possible to get in.

  She couldn’t let that happen.

  Not your part of the task anymore, she thought. The Magician will look after the others.

  Despite the risk that one of them might figure out how to cross over and become trapped in this landscape, she gave herself a moment to picture each of them, and let her affection for each one flow through her.

  Caitlin and Brighid. They were finding their true places in the world, and their joy would feed the Light.

  Teaser. Cocky grin and swagger—and a vulnerability and yearning to be more that was being answered by his friendship with Lynnea.

  Lynnea, who bloomed into a strong woman with a loving heart a little more each day.

  Jeb, a man of earthy practicality who was still fumbling a bit as he tried to be a stepfather to grown children.

  Yoshani, who had loved her in ways and for reasons she hadn’t known until recently.

  Nadia, who had a mother’s courage and a Landscaper’s understanding of what it sometimes cost to take care of the world.

  Lee. Brother and friend—and partner in the care of Ephemera. She wished they could have had one more squabble over something that would make him smile in the years to come.

  Sebastian. Even more than her mother and brother, she was going to miss Sebastian because he had been the one closest to her heart.

  And Michael. He was just emerging from the tight cocoon of who he had been, was just making the transition into who he would become.

  For a moment, she let the memory of his arms around her take on physical weight. Comfort. And love. They could have had both, could have offered so much to the world—and each other.