Anne Bishop - Belladonna

“This will be easier for you if you close your eyes,” he said.

What would be easier? But she closed her eyes. He moved away from her, but not so far that he released his hold on her arm.

“Imagine stepping over a log,” he said. “Lift one foot up and over.”

“We’re too close to the edge,” Caitlin protested. “If I take a step, I’ll be out of the circle.”

“You’ll be all right,” he said. “Take the step.”

Wasn’t much choice, so she took the step.

Her breath caught. Not sand beneath that foot. Firmer ground. Where…?

“Now the other foot,” the man said. “Now is not the time to daydream or dally.”

“Where did you hear that saying?” Caitlin muttered as she obeyed him. For a younger man, he suddenly sounded like a querulous uncle. Or how she’d imagined a querulous uncle would sound.

“From my mother. I heard it often at one point in my life.”

She smiled—and had the strange feeling that she’d almost fallen but had recovered her balance.

“Open your eyes. Give me the bowl.”

She opened her eyes, but she hugged the bowl to her chest as she looked around. Trees and dappled sunlight. The cool air of autumn. But to her left was the circle of sand from the Raven’s Hill beach and beyond that the rust-colored sand that belonged to a nightmare. “How…?”

“We’ll discuss it later. Right now…” He pulled the bowl out of her hands, then gave her the hoe handle. “Undo this access point to the beach before the bonelovers find a way to cross over. If they manage to get through to your beach, they’ll have access to everything it connects to, including your village.”

“How do I do this? I don’t know how to do this!”

He stared at her. “You really don’t know what you’ve done, do you? You don’t know what you are.”

Sorceress.

“Ask Ephemera to take your beach back where it came from. Tell Ephemera to leave nothing connected to the Eater’s landscape—not so much as a shell or grain of sand.”

She hesitated.

The man lifted the bowl. “The sand and shell are enough to create an anchor point. You can get back home.”

If I knew how this worked. “I can’t be talking to the world while you’re watching.”

“I’ll go up the path a ways. But we need to get away from this landscape as soon as you’re done.” He touched her arm lightly. “Don’t step off the island.”

As if she needed the warning.

The moment he was out of sight, she wished she could still see him. Pretending to be brave was easier when she wasn’t alone.

Just get it done, she thought as she knelt at the edge of the island. He sounds like he sees this sort of thing all the time. Why would he see this sort of thing all the time?

She shook her head and put her mind to the task. He was right; there was no time for anything except getting away from this place.

By the time there was no trace of the circle she had made, she was sweating and panting—and fighting panic as she watched a bonelover move toward the island.

“I wasn’t sure you could do it,” the man said, coming up behind her.

“You certainly sounded like you expected me to do it,” Caitlin replied testily.

“That doesn’t mean I was sure you could. Better close your eyes again.”

The bonelover was moving toward them, heading right for the path she knelt on.

She squeezed her eyes closed…

…and heard a roaring. And beneath it, closer, the lap of water.

She opened her eyes and threw her body back from the edge, knocking into the man and almost sending him tumbling.

“Easy,” he said, grabbing her to steady them both.

“Lady of Light, have mercy.” A wall of water, curved like a horseshoe, coming down from the land high above to meet the river.

“Haven’t you ever seen a waterfall?” the man asked.

“Not like that.” Even though their little bit of land was a safe distance away, the sheer sound of it made her tremble. Closer to them was another falls, its water breaking halfway down on a tumble of boulders as big as houses.

“They’re called the Guardian Falls,” the man said, crouching beside her. “The river has several names, depending on which landscape you’re in. Some call it the Wish River; others call it the River of Prayers.” He paused and looked at her. “What do people call you?”

“Caitlin Marie. And you?”

“Lee.” He rose and moved to the edge of the island, and raised a hand in greeting as a boat sailed past.

Seeing the men on the boat return the greeting, Caitlin scrambled to her feet. “They can see us! Why can they see us?”

“Because I want them to see us. The island resonates too closely with the river. Even if the people couldn’t see it, the boats on the river would still run into it. So the people here can see it until I shift it back to the place where it actually exists.”

“You don’t seem to be drunk, so you must be daft because most of what you say makes no sense.”

“It makes sense,” Lee said. “In this part of the world, it makes sense.” He leaned against the trunk of a tree and studied her. “Caitlin Marie, I don’t know the customs of your people, so I hope you won’t take this in a way it isn’t meant.”

“Take what?” she asked, suddenly too aware that she was alone with a man she didn’t know on a small bit of land she couldn’t leave.

He smiled. “I think it’s best if I take you home to meet my mother.”

“Sentinel Stones,” the Heart of the Bog said, pointing to the two massive stones that rose out of the bog on either side of the “trail.”

“I never thought I’d see the likes of them out here,” Michael said quietly, awed and uneasy. He’d seen Sentinel Stones before. They were always placed outside a village in a field beside a main road. Easy enough to reach, but set back far enough that going to them would be intentional.

There was power in the Sentinel Stones, and some strange magic in the air between them. People disappeared when they walked between the stones. Sometimes they came back with wild tales of seeing different countries or of suddenly finding themselves walking the streets of a town on the other side of Elandar; more often they were never seen again.

“No,” Michael said, stopping when he realized the Heart of the Bog intended to walk between the stones. “We can’t go there.”

“That is the border,” the Heart of the Bog replied, turning back to face him. “There is no other way to reach the other landscape from here.” Its yellow eyes studied him. “You afraid, Magician?”

“Yes.” No point blunting the truth.

The Heart of the Bog was silent for a moment. Then, “You must pass between the Sentinel Stones to find the Justice Maker. He is the next step in your journey. If you do not find him, you will not find her.”

Damn the darkness. “People disappear when they walk between Sentinel Stones.”

“That is the purpose of the Stones. But these mark a border and only go to one place.”

That is the purpose of the Stones. Lady of Light, did anyone besides the Merry Makers know this?

Michael swallowed hard, trying to push his heart back down his throat. You don’t have many choices, lad. You can’t stay here, and it seems a walk between the Stones is your only way out. The world has turned strange, and a great evil is out there, somewhere. And Caitlin Marie is out there, somewhere.

“What do I have to do?” Michael asked.

“Hum a note that sounds like what you seek,” the Heart of the Bog replied.

He thought about the woman who stirred him in dreams in ways other women had never done and who was somehow connected to this dark piece of the world. He took a deep breath and hummed the note.