Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

“Guess so,” Denys said. “Had some warning, though. Not much, but enough to save some inmates.” He knuckled away a tear. “We saved some.”

“What kind of warning?” Danyal asked softly.

“Stinkweed and turd plants.” Denys’s face scrunched up even as he smiled. “Stuff began sprouting everywhere. The stink was so bad you couldn’t get away from it. That’s when Nik realized he hadn’t smelled any of that stinkweed lately except when those two uncles showed up, so it had to be a warning. Meddik Benham had taken some inmates to the little temple, because ringing the wind chimes made them calmer, so Nik ran to warn Meddik while I gathered the people who had been working in the gardens.

“I was out with a dozen inmates, close to the gate that opens onto that weedy park, when I saw those two men heading for the main building with a couple dozen men carrying clubs or knives.

“Our guards came out to challenge them and…” Denys took a sip of water. “Those men raised their hands, and the guards were struck by lightning. Killed that fast. Just…that fast. Then inmates were pouring out of the residence and running in all directions. Helpers and Handlers were being clubbed again and again even after they fell. The gate was there and I had the keys, so I made a choice to save those I could.

“Couple of the Clubs saw me as I was pushing the last inmate through the gate. Wasn’t time to lock it behind me, so I ran.” Denys shook his head slowly, as if he wasn’t sure what he’d seen and even less sure he’d be believed. “Wasn’t time to lock the gate, but when I looked back, the opening was filled with thorny vines that no one could cut through easily.

“Kept everyone together and moving as best I could, taking alleyways and the more winding streets. Got far enough from the Asylum to risk going back to the main road. Had some luck there, since I spotted some city guards close to the stop for the omnibus. I told them the Asylum was under attack and that I was heading for The Temples to inform the Shamans. One of the guards wrote a travel pass for me and the inmates, allowing us to use any conveyance at the city’s expense.

“Took the better part of two days to get here,” Denys finished with a sigh. “Don’t expect there will be much left of the Asylum.”

Or the people? Danyal wondered.

“No one feels easy about the Asylums,” the Knife said, “but the city guards wouldn’t back off and leave the people there under attack. And my guild keeps places on shadow streets all over the parts of the city that we can see. As soon as word reached them that the Asylum was under attack, they would have joined forces with the city guards. For this, they would.”

“Until the darkness filling the Asylum changed it so that the men coming to help could no longer see the place,” Danyal said.

“And those already inside that darkness would be facing wizards’ lightning as well as familiar weapons,” Sebastian said.

Michael looked at Glorianna. “If these wizards changed the feel of the place so much that no one can get in, can those ripe-bastard wizards get out without the help of someone like a Bridge or Landscaper?”

“I don’t know,” she replied.

Danyal heard the words and wondered if anyone else had heard the lie.

Anger burned in him, hot and fierce, until it consumed everything except itself.

Danyal slipped out of the building that housed visiting Shamans and other guests. Everyone else was asleep now, and in the deep hours of night, no one would notice his absence.

He understood now how the wizards and their hired weapons had changed shadow places into places too dark for the Shamans to see. They had spilled innocent blood, killed the young, the old, the ones who couldn’t defend themselves. One death creates a shadow. A dozen lives taken at the same time? Darkness.

Like shadows, darkness also came in many shades.

He put on his plain white robe. As a Shaman, he was the voice of the world.

The world had many voices.

Avalanche. Earthquake.

Danyal walked away from the buildings.

Hurricane. Tidal wave.

In the city of Vision, if you can find only what you can see, can you also see what you truly want to find , need to find?

“Ephemera,” he whispered. “It’s Voice-guide. I need your help.”

???

He closed his eyes and pictured the Asylum, pictured the open ground between the inmates’ residence and the reflecting pool. “I need to go back to the Asylum. I need to reach this place. Can you help me?”

He caught a whiff of stinkweed. “I know, but I have to go there.”

The smell got stronger. Danyal opened his eyes and saw a patch of sparse grass smeared with dark stains. He swallowed hard as he considered what he was about to embrace—and what he would have to leave behind.

Then he stepped onto the patch of sparse grass that was the temporary access point to the Asylum.

“Lee.” His name whispered, followed by a pause. “Lee!”

He could have—and would have—continued to ignore the whisper, but not the thump on the shoulder that followed.

“Daylight, Glorianna,” he muttered. “Why don’t you bother the Magician? You wouldn’t even have to get out of bed to do it.”

“He offered, but I need you,” she replied, giving his shoulder another thump.

Knowing a third thump from Glorianna would be hard enough to leave bruises, he propped himself up on one elbow. “What if I’d had company?”

“She could go back to sleep. You need to get up and come with me.”

“Where?”

“The Asylum.”

“That’s not a good idea. The wizards and Dark Guide might still be there.”

“If they aren’t there now, they will be.”

Some change in her voice told him he was no longer talking to Glorianna. “Why?”

“Voice of the world,” Belladonna said with a kind of dreamy viciousness that made Lee shiver. “Someone who speaks for the world touches the Dark as well as Light. In his fury over what happened at the Asylum, Danyal is reaching out to touch dark currents that shouldn’t be touched.”

“The Eater’s landscapes?”

“Belladonna’s landscape.”

Swearing, Lee flung the sheet aside and nudged her out of the way, glad he hadn’t stripped down completely when he dropped into bed earlier.

“Do you need help?” she asked.

He wasn’t sure if that was Belladonna or Glorianna asking, but the answer was the same. “At this point, I probably can find things in the dark better than you can.”

He could almost feel her annoyed shrug.

“All right, then. I’ll—” A thump.

“Glorianna?”

“I found the door.”

He shoved his feet into his shoes and rammed his arms into the short sleeves of a shirt. “Let’s go.”

“Glasses,” she said.

He patted the side table until he found the dark glasses. Slipping them into the shirt’s pocket, he joined her at the door.

They moved through the hallways quickly and quietly, not out of stealth but out of the habit of trying not to disturb other people.

Outside, Lee called to the island—and breathed a sigh of relief when he stretched out his hand and felt the familiar bark of one of the trees. Keeping one hand on the tree, he reached back with the other and stepped onto the island, bringing Glorianna with him.

“I’m not sure how to guide us to the Asylum,” he said. “My eyesight wasn’t good most of the time I was there.”

“Don’t see with your eyes, Bridge. See with your heart.”

He nodded to indicate he understood. Not the early days of his time at the Asylum, but those last few days when he walked the paths and had regained a measure of independence, when his Bridge’s gift had helped some inmates travel to the places their hearts called home.