Anne Bishop - Sebastian

“I can see that,” Sebastian said.

“Then you must come with me to Wizard City and talk to the council.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’ll tell you everything I can about the deaths here in the Den. I’ll tell you everything I saw at the Landscapers’ School. But I won’t go to Wizard City. I won’t.” His voice sharpened when Koltak began to protest. “There’s no reason for me to go and every reason to stay. I gave my word I’d protect the Den.”

“Then protect it!” Koltak pressed the heels of his hands against his temples, as if trying to squeeze out the right words. “Don’t you realize what’s going to happen to Ephemera without the Landscapers?”

“The landscapes will be vulnerable. The Eater will be able to alter—”

“You fool! It’s worse than that.” Koltak clenched his hands and banged them on the table. “Without the Landscapers, there is nothing that stands between Ephemera and the human heart. The dark landscapes will only add to the madness. Picture it, Sebastian. A baby cries and the family’s well changes to salt water—undrinkable. Two girls, who consider themselves rivals, run into each other in front of a sweetshop and argue—and boulders suddenly push up through the street, stranding wagons and carriages that can’t get through, possibly even hurting people. Ephemera manifests feelings. It always has. The Landscapers are the only ones able to restrain the manifestations.”

Sebastian sat back, stunned. Was that what Glorianna had meant when she’d said he was an anchor? That his feelings for the Den, his affection for the place, kept it in balance? But not just his feelings. Her feelings, too. Glorianna Belladonna resonated through the Den.

But something wasn’t quite right about what Koltak was saying. If the Den had a person as its anchor, wouldn’t other places have anchors as well? After all, the Landscapers’ signature resonances might set the “flavor” of their particular landscapes, but they couldn’t be everywhere all the time.

And why did his head suddenly feel stuffy, as if something were pushing at him from inside his skull? Could wishing for a head cold actually produce one? If that was the case, he was going to think healthy thoughts from now on.

“You think you’re safe here,” Koltak said. “And maybe you are for a while. But if the rest of Ephemera becomes unstable, how long will this place last? The turmoil will break through—and will pull everyone down with it.”

“How…” Sebastian poured more wine and gulped it down, trying to clear his throat, hoping to clear his head. “How am I supposed to help you stop that?”

“We’re trying to find any of the Landscapers who are still out there, trying to get word to them to avoid going back to the school. We knew something had happened at the school, something bad, but we couldn’t find out what it was. Every wizard who had gone to investigate didn’t come back. We’re fighting blind, Sebastian. Some of the bridges have been broken, leaving us with no access to a number of landscapes. Leaving us with no way to reach or help the people who may be struggling to survive. The council wanted to talk to you because you could tell us about the deaths that had taken place here, give us some idea of what was coming out of those hidden, dark landscapes. But you’ve also seen the school. You’re the only one who has. You’re the only one who can tell us what we’re facing. You must come with me!”

“No.” Sebastian rubbed his forehead. Koltak was making sense. Why was he being so stubborn? Going with Koltak to report what he’d seen was the right thing to do. Wasn’t it?

Koltak sighed. “I volunteered to try to find you. To make up for not having listened when you came to me for help. If another wizard had come here instead, telling you all the things I’ve just told you, would you have been willing to do what is right? You call yourself a Justice Maker. Does your justice—and mercy—begin and end with the streets of this place? I wasn’t a good father. I know that. But what I did or didn’t do in the past doesn’t matter now. Can’t matter now. Saving Ephemera is all that matters, and in that, I think, we’re brothers on the same side of a war.”

Truth rang through Koltak’s words, resonated inside Sebastian. But something in him still resisted. If he’d been playing cards with Koltak, he would have walked away from the table long before now, following gut instinct that the man was somehow a cheat. He just couldn’t figure out why he kept feeling the truth was somehow a lie.

But there was something Koltak hadn’t considered: Anything he learned from the wizards he would pass on to Nadia, Glorianna, and Lee.

“Where did you cross over?” he asked.

“A plank bridge within sight of Wizard City. Crossed over to a dark landscape. Demons in the guise of horses.”

“I know the place.” He’d crossed that same bridge when he’d gotten out of Wizard City. Obviously Lee hadn’t found every bridge that could provide access between Wizard City and any of Belladonna’s landscapes.

“All right,” Sebastian said. “I’ll go with you. At least as far as the bridge. I’ll decide if I’m going on to Wizard City at that point.” He frowned. There was something about Ephemera, something he should remember. But the thought kept dancing just out of reach. “I’ll find you a place to sleep for a few hours, then—”

“There’s no time!” Desperation rang in Koltak’s voice. “It took days to find you. Who knows what’s happened in the other landscapes while I’ve been searching for you.”

There it was again. That feeling that something wasn’t right. “You spent days wandering through the waterhorses’ landscape?”

“I crossed over bridges, hoping one of them would lead to you. Ended up in places called Dunberry and Foggy Downs and the like in some other part of the world.”

He’d never heard of those places. “And you left Wizard City on foot? With no supplies?”

“There was an…attack,” Koltak replied. “The horse was killed. I escaped. Finally found my way here after that.”

If he had a little more time, maybe he could figure out what was bothering him about all this. “You need to rest.”

“I’ll rest when the task is done. When I’ve done what I can to make Ephemera safe again.”

The quiet dignity in Koltak’s voice lanced Sebastian’s heart, turning aside all doubts.

“I need to go back to the bordello to pack a few things. Leave some instructions,” Sebastian said.

Koltak pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. “I’ll go with you, if you have no objections.”

Sebastian just nodded. “Wait here a minute.”

He caught Lynnea just as she entered the courtyard with another order.

“Sebastian, who is that man? Teaser said he’s a wizard, that he’s not a good man.”

He’s my father. And I don’t think he is a good man. “I have to leave for a couple of days. Three at the most. Bad things are happening in the other landscapes. The wizards—the other Justice Makers—have asked for my help. I have to go, Lynnea.”

Worry filled her eyes.

Sebastian brushed a finger down her cheek. “You stay safe, all right? Ask one of the bull demons to escort you back to the bordello if Teaser isn’t around.”

“I will.”

“Miss me a little?”

“I already do.”

He stepped aside to let her deliver the food on her tray. Then he found Teaser.

“Did that wizard whore scoop out half your brains and fill your head with sand?” Teaser said before Sebastian finished telling him why he was leaving.

That was pretty much how his head felt, but he didn’t tell Teaser that. “I’m doing what’s right.”