Anne Bishop - Sebastian

Koltak winced at the reminder. He’d resented being excluded from the wizards chosen for the task because of his “family connections.” Afterward, he’d been grateful that he wasn’t among the wizards disgraced by their failure to seal that garden.

“But…” He looked around to confirm that they were the only ones on the top of the tower. Still, he lowered his voice. “What about the shadow?”

Harland nodded. “A warning, certainly, that something dark and dangerous has grown powerful enough to threaten Ephemera’s landscapes.” He paused. “For fifteen years, the council has feared this day would come, but we had hoped she would never become strong enough for this warning to appear. It would seem our hopes were in vain.”

Koltak whispered, “Belladonna.”

“Yes,” Harland said. “Belladonna. An enemy who could destroy everything we have protected—unless she is destroyed first.”

“She has eluded us for fifteen years! Most wizards can’t even cross over into any landscape under her control, even in the company of a Bridge. How are we supposed to find someone we haven’t even seen in fifteen years?”

“I don’t know,” Harland said bitterly. “But we must find a way.” He reached out and gripped Koltak’s shoulder. “Tell no one about the shadow. Say nothing about what you have seen. I must meditate on this warning before discussing it with the rest of the council. We do not want to spread alarm among the students and younger wizards.”

Will you even mention me when you speak with the council? “I understand.”

Harland released Koltak and headed for the door that led to the stairs that curved along the inside wall of the tower. Then he paused and looked back. “The apprentice you sent to fetch me. Did he see the shadow?”

Koltak shook his head. “But he’s clever enough to realize I wouldn’t have sent him to fetch you at this hour if there wasn’t a reason.”

“Is he trustworthy?”

Koltak hesitated, then shook his head again. “He has a braggart’s tongue and a fool’s lack of discretion. He had just enough potential to be admitted for formal training, but even after three years, he can barely undo a simple barrier.” Something Sebastian had been able to do with no training at all. He buried that thought. The power had lain dormant all these years. Sebastian had no reason to believe he had that kind of power. Unless something happened that gave the council a reason to demand testing, no one would ever know his offspring was anything more than an incubus.

“I see,” Harland said. He studied Koltak. “Why were you up here this morning?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I came up here to think.”

Harland stared at him for a long time. “Fortuitous.”

“Yes.”

After the tower door closed behind Harland, Koltak turned back to look at the land. Sunlight and natural shadows obscured the warning.

At least the warning had been seen and understood. And the wizards would not fail again. They would find a way to contain—or eliminate—Belladonna before she destroyed Ephemera.

Busy busy busy. Humans were always so busy. The Dark currents flowed through so many hearts in this city, but there were enough threads of Light to keep some of the best prey from abandoning this place. Even though It was eager to contact the minds with the darkest resonance, It couldn’t resist stretching out Its mental tentacles through the lower part of the city to play with some of the hearts nurtured by those threads of Light.

Yes, It whispered to one of those hearts. Yes, the butcher has cheated you, put his thumb on the scale to charge you the full price for less meat. But you are nothing, nobody, insignificant. No one will believe you if you accuse him—and if you do accuse him, he will not sell you meat anymore, and your family will go hungry.

It felt the Light in that heart dim, replaced with the despair that often overtook such hearts when the truth was skewed a little. There would be less kindness in that heart today, and the ripples of unhappiness would be felt by every person the woman encountered. Those hearts would also be dimmed a little. And the threads of Light in the city would become a little weaker, making the Dark more powerful.

It played with Its prey as Its tentacles brushed the minds and hearts of the humans in the marketplace.

Then It brushed against a section of the city where the Dark and Light were woven together in such a way that the currents formed a barrier It couldn’t breach. The Dark currents didn’t quite resonate with the rest of the city, but the barrier hid the resonance of whatever power controlled that portion.

Tantalized and uneasy, It withdrew from that part of the city and stretched Its mental tentacles toward the two minds It had felt earlier that morning. One mind was barricaded behind walls of self-discipline, but the other was so distracted, slipping inside that mind was as easy as slipping into a dream.

Koltak stared out his sitting room window.

Harland had been so certain that Belladonna and her unnatural power was the reason for the warning. But…

A shadow is the warning.

Belladonna was an enemy to wizards and Landscapers alike, and certainly a danger to Ephemera, but only for the past fifteen years. Wizards had been keeping watch for generations. The tower was the oldest structure in Wizard City, had been built on this hill so that whoever stood at the top could see all of the surrounding countryside. Could keep watch.

For what? his mind whispered.

Not Belladonna, despite what Harland believed. Wizards had disposed of her kind of Landscaper before. They would find a way to dispose of her, too. No, he didn’t believe she and those like her in previous generations were the reason the wizards kept watch year after year after year.

Then why?

Koltak rubbed his forehead, remembering the feverish glitter in Harland’s eyes that revealed some strong emotion the man was otherwise able to control. And yet…

It wasn’t like Harland to dismiss the other possibility of danger. And they all knew there was another possibility. Every wizard who had walked around the Landscapers’ School had felt that core of evil hidden by all the currents of Light that flowed through the school. Every person who lived in Ephemera’s shattered landscapes knew the story about how the Guardians of Light and Guides of the Heart had found a way to cage the Eater of the World and the creatures It had shaped. The magic had been powerful, had been meant to last forever. The Guardians and Guides had disappeared in the making of that cage. Not destroyed, but no longer able to walk in the world. People believed they still existed, still listened to the heart’s deepest wishes and worked through the currents of power to make those wishes real.

But it was the Landscapers who controlled Ephemera now, keeping the landscapes stable despite the flood of emotions that poured out of human hearts. And somewhere in the maze of gardens and buildings at the school were walls even older than the tower.

Why had Harland refused to consider the possibility?

This possibility must have a name, his mind whispered. You’re not afraid to speak the name, are you?

No, he wasn’t afraid, and he wasn’t afraid to look at a truth Harland didn’t want to consider. There was only one reason for keeping watch all these years: to see the warning in time to defend themselves if the Eater of the World returned.

Koltak turned away from the window, then rummaged through his desk for a headache powder. It wasn’t surprising he felt a little strange after a sleepless night and the events of this morning.