Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

She looked at him over her shoulder. “Travel lightly.”

Slipping out the door, she strode up the street, straining to hear anything, everything. Knives and brass knuckles weren’t going to keep them safe against an enemy who controlled lightning.

*Whoever killed those men can’t connect you to the Asylum,* Zhahar said.

=Not yet anyway.=

::What should we do?:: Sholeh asked.

*Give the eyedrops and glasses to Shaman Danyal tonight,* Zhahar said.

Zeela didn’t like feeling so uneasy, but she was their Tryad’s defender for a reason. =We aren’t going home tonight. Women aren’t safe after dark anymore in our part of the city. Zhahar, you need to figure out some excuse to stay at the Asylum tonight.=

*We don’t have any clean clothes.*

=Shaman Danyal will have to give us time to go home and get some in the morning, because we’re not going tonight.=

::You’re afraid of that lightning,:: Sholeh said. ::I am too.::

Zeela growled and lengthened her stride. Not enough people out, even now when she was away from the shadow streets.

*I’ll think of a reason,* Zhahar said quietly.

Zeela didn’t say anything. She didn’t breathe easy until they were in Shaman Danyal’s office, handing over the eyedrops and glasses—and telling him everything the Apothecary had said.

Danyal watched Lee from a distance, letting Zhahar and Kobrah deal with the man. They helped him at meals and led him to the toilet and bathing room. They walked him to the temple, where he struck the gongs and released a little more of the sorrow in his heart. The rest of the time he spent on the screened porch, sitting quietly, which gave Zhahar time to tend to the other inmates in her care.

As a Shaman, Danyal walked the grounds of the Asylum, much as he’d walked the streets of Vision in the years before he’d been assigned to the Temple of Sorrow. And he walked around the porch thrice a day, making his presence a balance between the world and the troubled hearts confined to this place, and making himself available to anyone, inmate or staff, who wanted to talk.

This time he stopped when he came abreast of the woven lounge chair Lee occupied.

“You look content,” Danyal said quietly. Lee’s eyes were closed. Zhahar had been putting the eyedrops in morning and evening, but it was too soon to expect any change in the cloudiness. Still, he would like to see the man’s eyes.

And he was curious what Lee might have seen in his own eyes.

“I am content,” Lee replied with a smile. “There is shade, a breeze, a comfortable chair, water to drink, and I have nothing to do.”

“Would you like something to do?”

Lee laughed. “Daylight, no. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had the luxury of doing nothing for this many days?”

“How long has it been?” Danyal asked, lacing his voice with amusement.

“Since I finished my training at the Bridges’ School and started traveling to maintain the bridges needed to connect various landscapes. Even when I stayed over a day somewhere to rest, there was always the weight of duty.” Lee’s good humor faded. “But a blind man can’t wander through the landscapes on his own, so that duty isn’t mine anymore.”

And that’s both a relief and a sorrow for you , Danyal thought. “Come along. On your feet.”

Lee tensed. “Why?”

“We’re going to take a walk.”

“Why would anyone want to take a walk in this heat?”

Not hostile, but definitely the tone of a man who wasn’t used to taking orders—and was wary of obeying most of the ones he was given.

Danyal looked at the screened window above the chair where Lee sat.

“Because I would like to understand you better,” he said. “Because the room behind you is currently unoccupied and has a window that looks out onto the porch—and it gets the cooler night air. Because I could decide you are rational enough to be given that room and some privileges instead of being returned to an isolation cell after the evening meal.”

“Be lazy and stay in isolation or take a walk and get a real room.” Lee swung his legs off the lounge chair and got to his feet. “You drive a hard bargain, Shaman. You’re an amateur compared to my mother, but still, you drive a hard bargain.”

“Put on your glasses, then take my arm,” Danyal said. After Lee put on the dark glasses and wrapped a hand around Danyal’s upper arm, they headed toward one of the porch doors that opened onto the grounds. Danyal nodded to Nik, who unlocked the door and held it open for them. “Two steps down.”

They navigated the steps, then headed off on one of the paths toward the decorative water garden that was shaded by palm trees—a mystery whose sudden appearance had startled the groundskeepers and unsettled him.

“Waterfall?” Lee asked when they paused.

“A created one,” Danyal replied. “And a clever one. The cascade of water over a series of stone ledges produces a restful, pleasing sound. A small windmill drives the pump that circulates the water. It has a crank, so when there is no wind, it can be manually turned. There are plants in and around the water that the groundskeepers are not familiar with, as well as several gold and white fish with long, graceful tails.”

“Koi.”

“What?”

“The fish. They’re called koi. There’s a koi pond in”—Lee paused—“a place I used to visit. Is there a bench nearby?”

“There is.” Danyal studied Lee. “This was a stagnating reflecting pool surrounded by weeds during the tenure of the last Keeper. Despite our groundskeepers’ best efforts, the reflecting pool remained unpleasant and unclean. Two days ago, it disappeared, replaced by this waterfall and pond, and these unknown plants and fish. How would you explain that?”

“Either this was here all along and so overgrown no one realized what it was, or Ephemera made a swap in response to someone’s heart, and now some country home in some other landscape has a stagnating reflecting pool surrounded by weeds instead of a pretty water garden.”

“Or? I did hear the silence of a third possibility.”

Lee turned his head in Danyal’s direction. “Or you’re more than you say you are, and Ephemera made this because you wanted a pretty water garden for the people here.” He waited a beat, then added, “But I’d bet on the swap. You might be able to guide the world into shaping the waterfall, pond, and plants, and even bringing in the fish, but it couldn’t make the windmill and pump. People made those.”

Dumbfounded, Danyal just stared. “Are you saying the city stole this water garden for the Asylum?”

“No, I’m saying Ephemera stole it for the Asylum. It’s getting to be a fairly clever thief,” Lee finished in a mutter.

A moment later, Lee stepped away from him. “Daylight! Did you just fart?”

“I did not,” Danyal replied coldly. Then he clamped a hand over his mouth and nose.

“Ah, shit.” Lee grimaced. “Sorry. That one is on me.”

The smell intensified and seemed to be much closer. So close that Danyal’s eyes watered. He grabbed Lee’s arm and headed away from the water garden.

They went toward the main building, and the smell eased. Didn’t completely vanish, but it eased enough that Danyal could take a clean breath.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Stinkweed,” Lee replied. “It pops up when a person swears. Never saw the da— stuff until a few months ago, and I haven’t smelled it since I arrived in this city.”

“Then what…?” Danyal stopped and stared at the two men walking quickly to intercept them. “Could it also be a warning?”

Instead of answering, Lee tensed at the sound of hurried footsteps.