Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

Then he screamed as Ephemera pulled them all into a whirlwind as it tried to find a place that resonated with all their conflicting hearts.

Glorianna sat on the bench near the koi pond and breathed in the peace of Sanctuary. She had shaped this place to protect some of Ephemera’s Places of Light. She had also wanted to help the people who tended those places reach one another, learn from one another. Sanctuary was beautiful, and there were many small spots that gave more than they took from her. But out of all of those small pieces, the koi pond was her favorite.

Was it because the koi’s world, with water that glistened in the sunlight and yet was partially shadowed by the plants, so clearly illustrated the simple lesson that there had to be Dark and Light in all landscapes? Even here, in a Place of Light, there were threads of Dark power that flowed in unity with the thick currents of Light. A piece of the world that belonged on one side of the scale of Dark and Light still needed a touch of the other side to stay in balance within itself.

That was also true for a person, although finding that balance again after it was destroyed in a human heart was much harder.

Or was she often drawn to the koi pond when she was tired or troubled because, like the koi, the whole of a Landscaper’s world was bound within walls?

Landscapers were women who acted as the bedrock for pieces of Ephemera and the sieve through which the world manifested all the wants and dreams and wishes, for good or ill, that came from all the hearts that lived in those places. In her part of the world, those women had built walled gardens where they kept access points to landscapes that could be as close as the next village or as far away as part of a distant land. They tended that ground, watering and weeding, turning the soil, and through those simple tasks they remained aware of those places in between the times when they used their access points to cross over to those pieces of the world and interact with the place and the people.

There were seven levels of Landscapers. Some could do no more than act as a sieve that kept the world from manifesting every person’s wishes and feelings. Others were stronger and could, by their presence, provide opportunities that would help a person take another step toward a true heart wish—the kind of wish that changed lives.

There were seven levels of Landscapers. And then there was Glorianna Belladonna, who was a Guide of the Heart—a descendant of the Guides who had originally defeated and caged the Eater of the World.

And like those first Guides, she learned that there were all kinds of cages.

Everyone lives within the walls built by their own hearts , she thought. But most people aren’t aware of that, so they’re also not aware of the boundaries—or that some things, no matter how much they are loved, can drift out of reach.

“Should I be offended that the koi receive a visit from you before I do?” a male voice asked, the sound like warm silk over skin.

Smiling, she shifted on the bench to make room for him. “Honorable Yoshani.”

He sat beside her, returning her smile but saying nothing.

“That pond makes up the koi’s world,” Glorianna said. “Do you think they know there is something beyond the sunny parts and the parts shadowed by water plants?”

“They know that when the shadow of the heron falls across their world, they must hide or be eaten. Just as they know the people who sit on this bench bring them food,” Yoshani replied. “Why are you are wondering about the koi?”

“I was actually thinking about how a Landscaper’s life is contained within the walls of her own garden.” And how a heart can become caged by duty , she added silently.

Yoshani looked thoughtful, then shook his head. “Your work is contained within the garden, but not all of your life. You spend time in some of your mother’s landscapes—the village where you grew up resonates with her, not you. You travel with Michael to some of his landscapes, and you visit Caitlin Marie in Darling’s Harbor. That is not a constricted life.”

No, it isn’t , she agreed silently. But it’s not my life I’m really wondering about.

“What are you thinking, Glorianna Dark and Wise?”

Nothing she wanted to share yet, so she said, “Glorianna is not much of either anymore. And Belladonna…”

“Do you still feel split asunder?”

“I am split asunder.” She looked into the dark eyes that held so much warmth and listened to a heart she knew well. “Were you asked to watch over me while Michael checks his landscapes?”

Michael had created a simple garden within her garden so that he could travel quickly to the parts of Elandar that were in his keeping. Before he met her and learned more about his own heritage and connection to Ephemera, he used to spend weeks on the road, traveling from one place to the next.

Yoshani smiled. “Yes, and I’m glad to have the opportunity. The last time I was asked to watch over you, the experience changed my life. Perhaps it will again.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t wish for such a thing.”

He took her hand. She flinched at the touch, then chose to accept it. Michael’s touch, whether it was casual or in the heat of lovemaking, felt natural. So did her cousin Sebastian’s touch. Maybe because they were the ones whose hearts had found a way to reach hers. But with everyone else, even her mother, Nadia, there was still a moment when dark feelings wanted to rise in response to a touch—because where she had been, in that landscape she had created, anything that could touch would most likely also kill.

“Michael wouldn’t say why he didn’t want you to be alone on your island. Will you tell me?”

She studied the holy man who had been her friend since she was fifteen years old, who had helped her shape this part of Sanctuary into a place where people could come to find peace and renew their spirits. He had crossed over to an unknown landscape with her when the hearts living there had called out so strongly she had to respond. He was a trusted counselor to many who visited Sanctuary. And he was the person she trusted to be a guide for a Guide of the Heart.

“A landscape is calling to me,” she said, watching the koi. “A dark landscape.” She felt the sudden tension in his body, but he said nothing, so she could give him more words. “Its access point appeared in my garden a few weeks ago.”

“In the same way Lighthaven first came to your attention?” he asked, referring to a Place of Light she had saved from the Eater of the World.

“Yes.” Ephemera had brought a bowl-shaped stone and a silver cuff bracelet from Lighthaven to act as an access point she could use to cross over. Taking that step between here and there had begun her connections to the White Isle—and to Michael and his sister Caitlin Marie, a gifted young Landscaper who had been condemned as a sorceress because no one in her village had understood her power. “But for this landscape, Ephemera has brought a triangle of grass as an access point. It calls to me, but there isn’t enough of a connection yet for me to cross over.”

“So you wait to see if the connection grows or fades, yes?” Yoshani asked. “You’ve done this before.”

“I’ve done this before,” she agreed.

“Then why is it different now?”

She turned her head and looked at him. Her fingers tightened on his, giving him no escape.

“Because,” Belladonna said, “Michael is afraid I’ll disappear into a dark landscape and not come back.”

She looked into Yoshani’s eyes. They held alarm now. His heart hammered; she could feel his pulse through his fingers.

“Say it,” he said quietly.

“I want to call Ephemera.” Her voice was malevolent and dreamy. “I want to call Ephemera and have it wrap you in vines as thick as tree limbs. Wrap you in vines full of thorns that will pierce your skin so you hang over the koi pond like a succulent, bloody fruit. I could have done that there. I did that there. There was nothing I couldn’t do when I was there. ”