Anne Bishop - Sebastian

Pity stirred in her, and she wondered if there was something—anything—she could do rather than leave him in this place.

Then the wizard saw her and struggled to sit up.

“Glorianna,” Lee said in a low voice. “Just back up. I’m right behind you, on the island. Get out of there before that bastard has a chance to do anything.”

She took two steps back, then stopped. “I have to finish this. If I don’t, all the risks we took will be for nothing.”

“Glorianna.”

She reached inside herself for all the power she had left—and altered the landscape, taking the piece of Ephemera that held Wizard City out of the world.

So exhausted she could barely stand, Glorianna backed up another step closer to Lee and the island. Almost there. Almost.

“You bitch!” the wizard screamed. “What did you do to the council?”

“I gave them Heart’s Justice,” she replied, although her voice was so weak, she doubted he could hear her.

Fury twisted his face. He raised his hand.

She stared at him, knowing what was about to happen but too drained to move.

Then Lee grabbed her and hauled her onto the island just as the wizard’s lightning struck the ground where she’d stood a moment before.

“That was too close,” he said, sounding scared and furious.

“I know.” Her voice sounded funny, far away. “Lee?”

Then everything faded away.

There are weeds in every garden.

—The Book of Lessons

What is considered a weed in one garden

is a vital plant in another.

—Belladonna

S till scared and furious.

That was Glorianna’s first thought when she opened her eyes and found herself staring into Lee’s face. “What happened?”

“You fainted. Don’t ever do that again.”

“I didn’t like it much either,” she grumbled. He looked mad enough to punch her, but the moment she tried to sit up, he was there, helping her. Then she found herself pressed against his chest, his arms around her while he rocked them both.

He’s shaking. “Lee,” she said, wrapping her arms around him.

“Scared me, Glorianna. When I saw that bastard wizard raise his hand, I wasn’t sure I could reach you before…” He swallowed hard. “It scared me.”

“Me too.” But listening to his heart slowing to its normal, steady beat combined with the sound of water trickling in the fountain began to pull her under. “Lee?”

“Hmm?”

“So tired. Can we yell at each other later?”

He didn’t answer for so long, she started to drift off. Then, “Okay. We’ll yell later. Just sit here while I shift the island back to Sanctuary. I was feeling a bit too unnerved to do it before.”

He got up and left the sheltered center of the island.

She knew the moment he made the shift—not because anything about the island changed, but because of the resonance of the land around it.

Strong currents of Light flowed through the landscape, along with thin threads of the Dark.

Glorianna struggled to keep her eyes open, struggled to keep her mind working. The currents of power in Sanctuary and Wizard City were exact opposites. One current dominated the landscape, but threads of the other still existed, were still necessary. She knew why she nurtured those threads in Sanctuary. What did the wizards gain by nurturing those threads of Light?

Once she understood that, she might be able to figure out how to face the Eater of the World…and survive. But for now…

She felt herself being tugged, shifted. Then Lee kissed her forehead, and said, “Just rest now, Glorianna. Get some sleep.”

Panting and sweating—and hoping that Sebastian had ended up in the foulest landscape that existed in this world—Koltak hobbled up the stairs closest to Harland’s chambers. Harland had to be here. Harland had to be all right, despite that bitch’s attempt to use Heart’s Justice as an attack on the council.

It had been agony to get himself into the pony cart and drive back into the city. What had happened to the guards and drivers who had come out with the council? And where was the council?

Reaching the top of the stairs, Koltak stopped to rest.

Order had to be restored—and quickly. He’d driven through streets swarming with angry, confused people who realized something had happened to them, but not what had happened to them. At least in the upper levels of the city, there was a more orderly confusion, mainly butlers and housekeepers standing outside shouting the names of missing servants. Not that any of those servants would respond.

Heart’s Justice.

Koltak shuddered. Who would have thought, even in the wildest moment, that a Landscaper could be powerful enough to send Heart’s Justice sweeping through an entire city?

Powerful. But not invincible. He’d been able to fight back, had been able to hold on to where he was instead of being swept away to another landscape. If he could resist her, then surely Harland and the rest of the council had been able to do the same.

Koltak resettled the crutches, but he didn’t move as a thought filled him. Of course most of the council had withstood Belladonna’s attack, but maybe there would now be a vacancy that needed to be filled by a wizard who had stood against Belladonna and fought back?

Excitement had him moving down the corridor with as much speed as he could manage. When he reached Harland’s door, he flung it open and went inside, relieved to see the tall wizard standing at the window, wearing rumpled, grass-stained robes.

“Harland! I—”

What turned away from the window was—and wasn’t—Harland. Human shaped…but not human. Terrifying and yet compelling.

Koltak’s heart thudded in his chest. He knew what he was looking at. He just couldn’t believe it.

Fury blazed from Harland’s eyes. “It wasn’t time yet to show our true faces. It wasn’t time! ”

“Dark Guide,” Koltak whispered, knowing the moment he said it that even that much recognition had been a mistake.

Harland moved toward him, smiling. “We hid well, did we not? Justice Makers. Champions of the Light. The ones willing to shoulder the burden of deciding who was unworthy of living in the daylight landscapes. By stripping a heart of all hope, by twisting happy memories into something painful, by preparing that heart before calling on a Landscaper to perform Heart’s Justice…We couldn’t reach the Eater of the World, but with the Landscapers’ unwitting help, we were able to use It to rid ourselves of people who would have gotten in our way.” His smile widened, turned savage. “Why do you look so shocked, Koltak? You always wanted to know the inner secrets of the council. Now I’m telling you.”

Koltak couldn’t move. This was wrong. All wrong.

“We hid well,” Harland said. “So well that when we finally brought ourselves to their notice, the Landscapers and Bridges accepted us as allies. Over time we poisoned their minds, blinded them so they couldn’t recognize the truth about the ones whose power was different from theirs. Generation after generation, they helped us eliminate the true Guides of the Heart, preparing Ephemera for the day when we could take control of the world.” His mouth twisted into a snarl. “ We failed only once. And thanks to your brother, that one is more powerful than all the others before her.”

“Peter?” Koltak stammered. “What does Peter have to do with this?”

“By mating Dark power with Light, he helped create a child who has both! No one else could have revealed us for what we are! No one else could be a real threat to the Eater of the World.”