Anne Bishop - Belladonna

The man and woman came out of nowhere, breaking into their circle. The woman stumbled against the pots, knocking over the belladonna before breaking through the other side of the circle. The sailors and dockworkers caught the two strangers and steadied them, but the damage was done. Whatever “magic” had been made by the chant and the circle had been destroyed.

“You!” Merrill said, giving in to the slash of anger that wanted to drive the dagger of failure into someone else’s heart.

But the black-haired woman just stared at the wall of water coming toward the island, then turned her icy green eyes on Merrill.

“What is this place?” she demanded.

“Guardians and Guides,” the man said as he looked at the black wave. “We can’t stay here, Glorianna.”

“We can’t leave yet,” the woman, Glorianna, replied. Those eyes fixed on Shaela. “What is this place?”

“The White Isle,” Shaela replied.

“An island? This is an island?”

Shaela nodded.

“Glorianna,” the man said.

The woman shook her head. As she held up her clenched hand, Merrill caught a glimpse of something silver.

“This is a Place of Light, Yoshani,” Glorianna said.

“And that is a killer wave that will drown this island and everyone on it.”

Glorianna shook her head again. “No, that is the Eater of the World. I recognize the resonance of It.”

Merrill gasped. How did this woman know? How could she speak with such certainty? Like the man, her speech declared her a foreigner, someone who came from a country far beyond Elandar. But there was something familiar about her, something…

It’s like being around Caitlin Marie. Only…more so.

A shiver went through Merrill as the woman stared at the sea, then turned and looked inland as if she could see beyond buildings and hills right to Lighthaven.

“This place is mine and not mine,” Glorianna said quietly, turning back to look at the sea. “Resonances are tangled up in a way I don’t understand, but that other resonance isn’t strong enough to keep me from holding on to this landscape—at least for a little while. I can try to save or I can try to destroy. If I try to destroy and fail, I will save nothing.” She stared at the black wall of water, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Ephemera, hear me.”

She was there! The True Enemy was there, on the island! It would smash her, drown her, destroy her! In this form, It was part of the sea. She could not cage It, could not stop It.

The black wave swelled even higher, moved even faster.

Glorianna watched the unnatural wave bearing down on the island. If there had been time, she would have considered each of her landscapes in turn to see if there were any borders that could be made that would connect this landscape to other pieces of the world. But there wasn’t time. Besides, something wasn’t right here. Despite being a Place of Light, that tangle of resonances warned her that something wasn’t right.

They’re going to be alone, she thought. For a while, they’re going to be alone.

Couldn’t be helped.

“Ephemera, hear me.”

She felt the world changing to manifest her heart and will. But the change wasn’t smooth, wasn’t complete. Even in the moment when Ephemera altered the landscapes and the black wave disappeared, she knew the change wasn’t complete—because this newly made landscape didn’t quite resonate with her. The place itself felt secure enough; the currents of power were flowing as they should, although the Dark currents felt too thin to properly balance the hearts on this island.

Nothing to do about that, either, until she found the other Landscaper who controlled this island. Besides, now she wanted to solve her own puzzle.

“You’re safe,” she said, approaching the two older women. “The Eater of the World can’t reach you.”

They said nothing, but the three younger women all made a sign with their fingers. Yoshani responded by saying something under his breath that she suspected was a very bad word learned in his youth. Which confirmed that the sign was meant as an insult.

She took a step closer. They all took a step back.

Whatever wants me will also reject me. She felt the truth of it as she looked at the women.

One of the older women straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin—the movements of a leader reminding lesser beings that she was a leader.

“Your kind are not welcome on the White Isle,” the woman said.

An echo from the woman rippled through the Dark currents inside Glorianna. Pain. But not pain received; this was hurt inflicted. And when she thought about the hurt inflicted and listened to that heart, her eyes were drawn to the two pots—the heart’s hope and the belladonna, which was knocked over, its dirt partially spilled out on the wharf.

“Where did you get those plants?” Glorianna asked.

“That is not your concern, sorceress,” the woman said. “Go back to whatever shadow place you came from.”

Ignoring the woman, Glorianna crouched beside the spilled pot that held belladonna. Something there. She righted the pot, then scooped up as much of the spilled soil as she could without filling her hands with splinters from the wharf. As she pressed the soil around the plant’s stem, her fingers touched a spot at the base of the stem that tingled, resonated, was so full of a wanting it made her ache.

“Yoshani,” she said as she brushed the soil away from the stem, “can you see anything?”

He crouched beside her. As she tilted the pot, she saw something glint in the sunlight.

“There,” Yoshani said, pointing to the exact spot on the stem. “It looks like a hair was wrapped around the plant.”

A need so great even a hair carries its resonance.

More than that, the resonance in the hair matched the resonance on the island that was tangled with her own.

Handing the pot to Yoshani, she stood and faced the two older women. This time she focused on the one with the cloudy eye. “Where did you get those plants?” No answer. “Tell me now, or I will give you back to the Eater, and the Light will vanish from your part of the world.”

They looked at her in horror. Then the leader said, “You have such darkness in you that you would condemn the innocent?”

“You will never understand the currents of power that flow through me.” She opened her hand, revealing the silver cuff bracelet—and saw shock and recognition in the leader’s eyes. “And you are not innocent. But you got what you asked for.” Before the woman could move, Glorianna grabbed her hand and slapped the silver bracelet into it.

The woman stared at the bracelet. “Where did you get this?”

“In the future, be more careful what you ask for.” She paused. “Heart’s hope carried the need to be protected, and you are. You are no longer connected to the world. You will not be found by the Eater of the World—or anyone else.”

The cloudy-eyed woman frowned. “But the dream said heart’s hope lies within belladonna.”

“It does,” Glorianna replied. “ I am Belladonna.”

Ripples, murmurs. Ignoring the leader, she focused on the cloudy-eyed woman. “For the last time, where did the plants come from?”

“From a girl who lives in Raven’s Hill,” the cloudy-eyed woman replied. “She gave us the plants.”

“Where is Raven’s Hill?”

“On the eastern coast of Elandar.”

That told her nothing, but she would wait until she was back on her own island before trying to figure out where Elandar was in relation to any landscape she knew.

She picked up the pot of heart’s hope and handed it to the cloudy-eyed woman. “Tend this carefully. It’s the only anchor you have left to the world. If it’s destroyed, I don’t know if you’ll be able to touch the world again.”