Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

“We won’t be able to get as far from the buildings as you wanted,” she said.

“Fine. Just…no bridges.”

They walked in silence for a minute or two. Then she said, “Bits of the city are changing?”

He nodded. “Because the Dark Guide and the wizards are nurturing the Dark currents, making it easier for people to get away with doing harm. And they can get into people’s minds and influence them or weaken them. They dim the Light.” He felt her shiver. “But when you connect with a place, you change its resonance just a little. The Dark Guides and wizards are from my part of the world. When they came here, they left a trail of sorts. Because there is a similarity in their powers, the next ones to cross over were the incubi and succubi, traveling through the twilight of waking dreams. Demons who have never been in this city before. Then I was attacked by wizards and I made a choice: to get the enemy away from my family, especially my mother and sister. I don’t think I brought those wizards to Vision. I think they were able to focus their will on the resonating bridges I made and bring me with them because they already had a little piece of the city under their control. I was captured and blinded and drugged to sound and act insane.”

“They didn’t want anyone to believe what you said about them,” Zhahar said.

“That’s part of it,” he agreed. “But they weren’t paying attention to the nature of Ephemera. If they had, they wouldn’t have brought their own enemy to the city.”

“But what can you do?”

He heard the hesitation in her voice. She didn’t want to hurt him or remind him that finding his room, the porch chair, and the toilet were huge accomplishments for him right now.

Guardians of the Light and Guides of the Heart…No , Lee thought. He didn’t need to ask for help from all the Guardians and Guides. Just one.

“Why are you here, Zhahar? Why did you come to Vision?”

“We can’t talk about this,” Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar whispered.

“We have to,” he insisted. “Did you cross over a border or a bridge at some point and find yourself here, away from your people?”

She shook her head. “When our leader sensed we were close to another piece of Ephemera, she cast out lines of power that provided a connection between Tryadnea and Vision. In order to keep that connection, some Tryad have to live in the city, providing a kind of living anchor that holds Tryadnea in place. Six Tryad came here. I’m the only one left. If I fail, the last connection between Vision and Tryadnea will break, and my homeland will be adrift again.”

Maybe not , he thought. Maybe you need to let go of this connection in order to make a more permanent one. “All right. Here is something you and your sisters need to think about. Heart wishes are powerful, and Ephemera does listen.”

What you give to the world comes back to you.

Opportunities and choices.

Heart’s hope lies within Belladonna.

Was that still true?

“Where is Vito?” he asked.

“In isolation. We’re afraid…” Zhahar’s hand clamped on his arm. “There is concern that he’ll try to harm himself.”

“I need to see him, talk to him. We need to do it now.”

“They won’t let anyone see him now. That will get him stirred up all evening, and if he’s stirred up…”

“Tomorrow morning, then. As soon as possible. You can help me slip into the room so I can talk to him before too many people are up and around to notice.”

“Why?”

Lee took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Because it’s time for me to go back to work.”

Zhahar’s hands shook as she rolled up trousers, tunics, and underclothes as tightly as she could, packing as much as she could into the large cloth traveling bag. The bag had shoulder straps, and that would help, but it would be as much as she could carry. Maybe more than she could carry in their present condition.

*How are you?* she asked. The bruise along her ribs was black and spongy in a way that told her there was blood under the skin. Which meant the knife slash Zeela had taken was still bleeding.

=Hurting,= Zeela replied. Then she added reluctantly, =I’m going to need someone to sew me up.=

::Leave the books,:: Sholeh said when Zhahar reached for them. ::I’m not strong enough to carry what we’re taking, and the weight of the clothes is going to hurt both of you.::

*We agreed that we could each take something personal,* Zhahar said, although, after packing Zeela’s weapons, she chose to leave her own trinkets behind. *We don’t know if our things will still be here when we’re able to come back.* Or if any of them would want to come back for a few possessions. If Zeela was attacked and wounded two doors from their rooms, Sholeh wouldn’t be able to come into view at all on this street anymore.

::I’m changing the agreement,:: Sholeh said. ::Books are heavy. We take clothes, shoes, toiletries. Only enough to get us by. Don’t argue, Zhahar! If you can’t make it back to the Asylum, there’s no place we can find help for Zeela.::

Painful truth. But Zhahar’s hand hovered over Sholeh’s precious books a moment longer before she turned away.

They had bandaged the wound as best they could, but it was serious enough to weaken all of them. Zeela couldn’t carry the traveling bag. Neither could Sholeh, who could drag it if she had to, but that would tell the men who had turned into predators that she wasn’t strong enough to defend herself against them. And maybe those men were only after dark-haired women, which is what they were shouting when they attacked, but if that wasn’t true, Sholeh wouldn’t stand a chance.

*I’m sorry about the books, Sholeh.*

::If something happens to us, we lose more than books,:: Sholeh replied. ::There isn’t much of Tryadnea left that isn’t desert. If we lose this connection, we’ll lose more arable land, and our people won’t survive long if that happens.::

*I know.*

Zhahar packed everything she could into the bag, knowing its weight would stagger her for the few blocks between their room and the omnibus stop. Despite that, and ignoring Sholeh’s mutters, she took their largest market sack and filled it with as much of their food as possible. Their money she hid in the traveler’s pouch around her waist, keeping in her trouser pocket just enough for the omnibus fare.

Zhahar took a last look around. Despite their best efforts to fit in and belong, the connection between Vision and Tryadnea had slipped during the past few months and was now somewhere in the northeastern end of the city. How much longer would it hold?

And what had Lee meant by heart wishes?

She had burned their mother’s letters so that no one would know about the Tryad—and so that no one would know where the last connection between the lands was located.

Nothing more to do except leave while she had the strength to reach the Asylum.

Settling the straps on her shoulders, Zhahar tried to stifle the moan as she felt the pull of the bag’s weight. If Zeela didn’t get help soon, they would be faced with the terrible choice of letting one sister die in order to save the other two.

Clenching her teeth, Zhahar left their rooms and stepped out into the gray light that held the promise of dawn.

“Lee?”

Lee opened his eyes to gray light that held dark shapes. He pushed up and rolled off the narrow bed as someone turned the handle on his door.

“Lee? It’s Sholeh.”

Swearing softly, he stepped toward the door, hands in front of him to protect his face if she pushed open the door.

“Hold on,” he said. He found the edge of the door and pulled it open. “What are you doing here?”