Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

At the last moment, just as he felt the island begin to resonate in a way that indicated it was about to shift, he hesitated—and the island remained within the Shaman’s compound.

“Are we going to the Asylum to stop Danyal from doing whatever he intended to do?”

“No,” Belladonna replied. Then Glorianna added, “We’re going to help him with what comes after whatever choice he made.”

The dead had been left out, exposed to heat, insects, and carrion eaters.

Inmates, Helpers, Handlers, Asylum guards and city guards, shadowmen from the assassins’ guild. Whoever had entered the grounds didn’t make it out again. But they weren’t alone. There were plenty of men among the dead who looked like hired Clubs, so despite their damn lightning, the fight hadn’t been completely in the wizards’ favor.

The inmates’ residence and the building where he and Benham had living quarters had been burned to the ground. The two-room temple was gone. Just gone. Danyal didn’t try to enter any of the buildings that were still standing. He wandered the paths, alone among the dead.

When he finally stopped walking, he took a position in front of the burned residence, no longer a man. Not even a Shaman. Now he was merely the forge that would shape the weapon.

No caution now. No timidity about what he was going to do.

Danyal raised his arms shoulder high, his palms turned skyward.

“Ephemera,” he said in a voice that carried a thousand storms. “The men who did this, who violated the trust of the damaged hearts who lived here. The men who darkened this place with pain and blood. Bring them to me. Bring all of them to me. ”

His fury, burning so hot and fierce, must have scared the world, because the ground beyond him changed, and as a two-story house appeared, it tipped and settled awkwardly, one corner of its foundation missing. Moments later, a brothel appeared, its sign swinging madly as the ground under it turned to mud from the water spilling out of broken pipes. Moments after that, he heard a man’s vicious cursing as an outdoor privy appeared in the reflecting pool that now had more things fouling it than stagnant water.

While he waited, Danyal pictured the next step and thought, This. When I tell you, make this.

Ephemera didn’t answer.

The wizards Pugnos and Styks came out of the house first. A few Clubs came out of the brothel, and one from the privy. More wizards came out of the house—a dozen in all. Then the Dark Guide stepped out of the house. No hood to hide the inhuman face. Not anymore.

“Ah, so you did survive,” the Dark Guide said, smiling. “And now you’ve returned. Have you come to avenge the feeble, Shaman?”

“Yes,” Danyal replied, lowering his arms.

“Alone? Against us?”

He saw Pugnos and Styks rub their thumbs against their first two fingers, so he didn’t bother to answer. He just snarled, “ Now .”

Thorn trees with sinuous limbs erupted out of the ground. The wizards didn’t have time to raise a hand against him before limbs coiled around them and lifted them off the ground. Long thorns pierced clothing and flesh, digging deeper as the coils tightened.

The Clubs thrashed and screamed. The wizards and Dark Guide unleashed their lightning against the trees. The trees screamed and the ends of the limbs sprouted bulbous pods that split open to reveal hundreds of sharp needles.

The pods hovered for a moment. Then they snapped closed over the heads of every man except the Dark Guide. Wizards and Clubs thrashed and screamed as the pods released digestive juices and began consuming the flesh on the faces of their prey.

“Shaman!” the Dark Guide howled. “Do you think you’ll be rid of us? You’ll never hide your city from all of us. Not ever again!”

“I know,” Danyal said. “Your kind may be able to find us, you may be able to enter our city, but you won’t make this place your own. We know you now.”

The Dark Guide smiled a terrible smile and said gently, “As long as you walk in this city, there will be dark places where malevolent hearts can hide.”

“But not your heart,” Danyal whispered as a pod split above the Dark Guide’s head.

Glorianna stood between the trees that marked the island’s path and tried to study the land beyond.

“You used to be better at this,” she finally said. “I don’t think we’re even close to the Asylum.”

Lee shouldered her to one side. “Well, daylight, Glorianna. It’s the middle of the damn night. Even if my eyesight was perfect, I still couldn’t see where we are. And it’s not like we want to set a lantern out there to see what might get curious about us.” He cocked his head, listening. “And I don’t think I’m that far off. The Asylum grounds had different areas.”

“So the vegetables we landed in on your first try…?”

“Could have been the home farm. They grow what they can, and it gives some of the inmates work and keeps them active.”

“And this?”

“Does that sound like a brook or stream to you?”

“Definitely water,” Glorianna agreed. “Could be a stream.”

“There was a stream at the farthest edge of where borderline inmates were allowed to walk without close supervision. There was a footbridge. I avoided it because I was afraid the bridge would respond to me and change into one that provided access to other landscapes.” Lee blew out a breath. “Ephemera is bringing the island as close as we can get to the buildings, isn’t it?”

“As close as you can get,” Glorianna said quietly.

He couldn’t see her in the dark, but he reached out and touched her hair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means we’re probably close to that bridge, so I’ll take one of the shielded lanterns and walk the rest of the way to the grounds around the buildings.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, you don’t go in alone this time.”

She linked her fingers with his. “I’m not going in to save the world this time, or even this city. I’m going in as a Guide of the Heart. To help Danyal. I don’t know if I’ll be coming back to the island with him or without him, but I’ll be coming back.”

“Do you promise?” Not a small question, because Glorianna Belladonna wouldn’t make a promise if there was any doubt in her mind that she could keep it.

“I promise.”

“Do we have any time?”

“A little.”

“Then I want one other promise.” His fingers tightened on hers, and it took effort to relax his hold instead of squeezing harder, holding on harder. “The Tryad have a way of merging aspects. Medusah has the ability to do that to someone.”

Glorianna nodded. “Yes, Zephyra mentioned it. She thought the Tryad’s magic might be able to put the Light and Dark halves of my heart back together so that I’ll always be Glorianna Belladonna instead of Glorianna or Belladonna.”

“Don’t do it.” He hadn’t meant to sound so harsh or so demanding.

She pulled her hands away from his. “I thought you, of all the family, would be anxious for me to try this.”

“A few months ago, I probably would have been—and I would have been wrong to want it. Was wrong to want it. You cast out the Light in your heart in order to trap the Eater of the World and the creatures and landscapes It made. You were split for months. And I’ve realized only recently that you are merging those two sides of your heart, using Michael’s music to weave them together. It will take time, and maybe there will always be distinct aspects that people will recognize as Belladonna or Glorianna, because they’ll feel that you’re standing more in the Dark or the Light. But you’re healing in your own way and in your own time, and when you’re done, you’ll be whole again.”