Anne Bishop - Belladonna

“Touch the world?”

“This island is all you have now. What can be harvested from the land and the sea within this landscape’s boundaries is all your people can reach—at least until I find the other…sorceress…whose heart resonates with this place.”

Glorianna stepped back and took the pot of belladonna from Yoshani. “Hold on to my arm. We need to leave now.”

“Agreed,” he said, looking around at the men who had remained at the wharves.

She focused her heart and will on her garden, on the beds that represented Sanctuary. The feeling of strength and peace and home filled her. “Now,” she whispered.

Together they took the step between here and there—and stood in her garden, looking down at a bowl-shaped stone filled with water.

Glorianna set the pot of belladonna next to the stone. She wasn’t sure the island was really one of her landscapes, but she would keep it safe for a little while.

“What now, Glorianna Dark and Wise?” Yoshani asked, striding to keep up with her as she headed for the part of the garden that would take her to Aurora.

“I need to talk to my mother and Lee—maybe Sebastian, too—and see if any of them have heard of Elandar or know how to reach Raven’s Hill. If the Eater followed the ship, It may know how to find the girl. We have to find her first.”

“Forgive me if the question sounds cold, but why is this girl so important?”

Glorianna stopped in front of the statue of a sitting woman that she’d taken from her mother’s garden to act as an anchor for Nadia’s landscapes. She kept her eyes on the statue as she felt the question flow through her.

Something is changing. Has already changed.

“Because, Honorable Yoshani, I think this girl is like me. There may be someone else out there who is like me.”

It smashed water on water out of frustration at being cheated of Its prey. It raged at the True Enemy’s cunning.

It could see the Place of Light, but as It got closer to the island, the land began to fade, becoming less substantial until It reached some invisible marker in the sea. At that point, the island vanished altogether.

Something had drawn the True Enemy to this place. Something…or someone.

Turning, It followed the ships fleeing south. If It couldn’t have the Place of Light, It could—and would—have the sorceress who had helped deprive It of Its prey.

We’re safe, Merrill thought as she stared at the calm sea. The Destroyer is gone; the dark-hearted sorceress is gone.

“Merrill.”

The world can’t touch us anymore. Isn’t that what she said? We won’t be tainted by the world anymore. But the Dark feelings are still here. The Dark still smears the Light. I am the leader. I will cast out the Dark. I can. I will. Somehow, I will.

“Merrill.”

She looked at Shaela and smiled. “We’re safe. From everything.” She looked at the pot. “We should throw that into the sea. We can’t take it with us. It would contaminate Lighthaven.”

Shaela shook her head. “Hope is the Light’s seed. We must keep it with us and tend it. We will need it in the days ahead.”

Merrill looked at the pot of heart’s hope that had come from Caitlin Marie and shuddered.

I will cast out the Dark. I can. I will. Somehow, I will.

“I’m not drunk,” Lee said as he bumped into Sebastian.

“Of course you’re not,” Sebastian agreed, steering them both along the path that led from Sebastian’s cottage to Lee’s.

“Because you kicked me out of the Den.”

“That’s what family is for—to help you stop being stupid.”

“That is not what family is for.”

“You’ll have to explain that to my wife. In point of fact, cousin, Lynnea was the one who decided you needed to go home and kicked you out of the Den. I’m just the messenger.”

Before Lee could say anything about women not minding their own business—which would have gotten him into trouble—his feet got adventurous and decided to make flat ground dip and roll.

Damn the daylight, weren’t all the chirpy-chattery critters supposed to get quiet when people walked through the woods? It seemed like they were all gathered just overhead and expressing their opinions at volumes little critters shouldn’t be able to reach. And he’d drunk just enough that all that noise was threatening to fill up his head and change into a mountain-sized headache. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he kept feeling like something was tugging him off balance—and it wasn’t the whiskey he’d tossed back while he’d raged about Landscapers and Bridges who were determined to believe the worst about Glorianna because considering anything else might require them to use their brains.

But Yoshani had been right. Sebastian’s anger when Lee had spewed out the things that had been said at that meeting in Sanctuary had been a cleansing fire reflecting his own feelings, and they had burned each other’s tempers down to a smoldering opinion that the surviving Landscapers and Bridges had as much understanding of the danger they were all facing as what came out of a horse’s ass, and—

He stumbled against Sebastian again and, this time, got a semi-friendly curse and shove.

Something pulled at the Bridge’s power in him, wanting him to answer, wanting him to…what?

He grabbed Sebastian’s shoulder for balance.

“Daylight, Lee! You didn’t drink that much.”

“No, I didn’t.” And he hadn’t felt more than a little sloppy and tired until they’d crossed the border between the Den and Aurora. The closer they got to the spot where the path that started behind Sebastian’s cottage branched and headed for his cottage or Nadia’s house, the more he felt like he was being bounced and rolled and couldn’t get a solid sense of where he was.

Then Sebastian was holding his shoulders in a bruising grip.

“Are you sick?” Sebastian asked, giving him a shake that wasn’t the least bit helpful. “Lee, what’s wrong?”

Good question. It was like everything was just a little out of focus, a little off balance. But still familiar, except…

“It’s not me; it’s Ephemera.” Lee turned and headed up the path, stumbling because this connection to Ephemera was producing a fever-dream sense of the world around him, as if he were almost seeing some other place while his feet were hitting the solid reality of Aurora.

Sebastian walked beside him, swearing sincerely and creatively while keeping a supporting hand on his shoulder. Then they reached the boulder that marked the branch in the path. Lee stopped, throwing an arm to the side to block Sebastian.

“Guardians and Guides,” Sebastian said. “Is that hair?”

A long tail of light brown hair tied with a blue ribbon lay next to the boulder.

They approached cautiously. Lee crouched to get a closer look, then held his hand above the hair.

“Careful,” Sebastian said, his voice sharp.

“Don’t be a collie,” Lee replied absently, waving off Sebastian’s caution while he focused on the hair. Finally he stood up and shook his head. “This is strange.”

“These days, strange is not good.”

“I don’t think there is any harm in this,” Lee said, rubbing the back of his neck. Damn it, he was getting the kind of headache that was going to climb up his neck and threaten to crack his skull. And he needed to think . “Besides, the magic in the hair is fading.”

“How can you tell?”

“The ground is firming up. Or my sense of it is coming back into focus.”

Sebastian pointed at the hair. “ That’s what was making you act so drunk?”