Anne Bishop - Sebastian

The Eater of the World screamed in rage and fear. The True Enemy had taken the Dark Guides and their city out of the world, so far out of reach It couldn’t feel any resonance. Even when It had been caged, It had been able to feel the resonance of the Dark Guides. How could she control a place that held so much of their Dark power? How?

And how could she defeat the Dark Guides? There were so many of them in that city! If she was powerful enough to cage all of them…

It had to hide. It had to find a place far from these landscapes, a place where she wouldn’t look for It.

As It fled back to the school, It considered all the landscapes It could reach through the gardens. But she would know about those places.

The sea. It could hide in the sea. Hunt in the sea. Until It figured out a way to destroy the True Enemy.

It moved through the gardens, flowing beneath the paths that were now cracked and growing noxious weeds until It came to the garden where it had left the stones it had taken from a stream that was, and wasn’t, in the four-footed demons’ landscape.

It had recognized the resonance of a wizard, and the dark feelings in that heart had left the land around a bridge vulnerable to Its influence. So It had taken the stones to make an access point.

Now It flowed over those stones, into those stones…and out into the stream. For a moment It lay at the bottom of the stream, blacker than the darkest shadow. Then It flowed up the bank and under the land, sensing the currents of Light and Dark—and a power, a strength of will and heart that resonated with those currents. But it wasn’t her.

Rising to the surface, It changed shape.

A well-dressed, middle-aged man walked down the road toward the village of Dunberry.

“Daylight,” Teaser said, pushing back his chair.

“What is it?” Yoshani asked, looking around.

“Visitors. And not the kind we welcome around here.”

“Teaser—”

But he was already out of Philo’s courtyard and stepping into the street to block the two men riding toward him.

“Evening,” the older man said, reining in before his horse reached Teaser.

Teaser studied the two men. No badges, but he knew a guard’s jacket when he saw one. “Go back to where you came from.”

“Can’t. And wouldn’t want to if we could.” He looked around and gave Teaser a smile that was sad and hopeful. “Looks like a nice place.”

“This is the Den of Iniquity.”

“The…” Both men looked startled. The older one whistled softly. “One of Belladonna’s landscapes.”

Teaser bristled. The last thing anyone here needed was guards who were interested in Belladonna. “You’re not wel—”

A strong hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked at Yoshani, who was studying the guards.

“Heart’s Justice?” Yoshani asked softly.

The older man nodded. “I’m Addison. This is Henley.”

“Teaser,” Yoshani said, “if this is where they ended up, this is where they belong. At least at this stage of their journey.”

“They could be lying.”

“No heart can lie to Glorianna Belladonna.”

He felt stubborn. He felt scared. The hours since he’d brought Yoshani to the Den had been endless.

“All right,” he said. “We’ll find a place for you to stay until the Justice Maker gets back. When he does, he’ll decide if you stay or go.”

The guards looked uneasy. “You have a wizard here?”

“A Justice Maker. ”

“Gentlemen,” Yoshani said. “Why don’t you take a seat in the courtyard and have something to eat?”

While the guards tied up their horses and found seats in the courtyard, Teaser stared at the street, at the people going in and out of the taverns and gambling houses.

“He’ll come back,” he said, softly but fiercely. “Sebastian will come back.”

“And that, my friend, is why Belladonna wanted you here. Needed you here,” Yoshani said gently. “Because you believe he’ll come back. You believe it with all your heart.”

Teaser felt the truth of those words settle inside him. “Yeah. I guess I do.”

Glorianna woke up groaning. “I’m too old to sleep on the ground.”

“You’re not ancient; you’re thirty,” Lee replied. “And you’re not on the ground; you’re on a blanket.”

“Doesn’t make the ground any softer.” She pushed herself up. Her eyes felt gritty, her mouth tasted foul, and she was pretty sure she was the smell that made her nose wrinkle. But the other smell…Her eyes opened all the way. “Koffee?”

“And some food.” Lee tipped one hand toward the basket beside him. The other hand held a mug of koffee.

“Why didn’t you wake me so we could sleep in the guesthouse?” she grumbled, pushing her tangled hair off her face.

“I banged a stone against an empty pot long enough and loud enough to wake up everyone in the guesthouse. You didn’t even twitch. Had to roll you onto the blanket.” He set down his mug, got another from the basket, and filled it with koffee from a jug. “So stop whining.”

“I’m not whining.”

“Are too.”

“Am…not.” She stared at him. “Are you going to give me that koffee?”

“Are you going to keep whining?”

“I’m—Just give me that.”

Grinning, he handed her the mug, took a sip of his own, then dug into the basket and put out a plate of bread, cheese, and grapes.

They ate in companionable silence, listening to birdsong and the trickle of the fountain.

“So,” Lee said, dividing the rest of the koffee equally between them. “The Dark Guides are locked out of reach of the world.”

“There are others who weren’t in the city,” Glorianna said.

“But their true faces are revealed. They can no longer pretend to be humans with magic.”

“No, they can’t. But there are also wizards who have enough human blood that their appearance won’t change.”

“Then they have a choice, don’t they? With the others exposed as Dark Guides, they can choose to continue following the Dark currents nurtured by the Wizards’ Council or they can become Justice Makers in the true sense.”

She nodded. “The Landscapers who survived the attack on the school, if there are any, will have to make choices, too. I can help them, if they’ll let me. I’m not sure they will.”

“Can they help you?”

She shook her head. That’s something she already knew with certainty. “They don’t have inside them what is needed to fight the Eater of the World.”

“You can’t fight It alone, Glorianna.”

I don’t think that’s going to be a choice. “We’ll see.”

He hesitated, then asked softly, “What about Sebastian?”

“I know where to find Sebastian.” Then she added just as softly, “If he followed his heart.”

The sound of waves rolling into shore. A steady sound. Familiar. Comforting.

Sebastian rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. Dark. He hadn’t expected anything else. Not really. And yet, some small part of him, right before Heart’s Justice had swept him away, had hoped—

Lynnea!

His body jolted into a sitting position. He twisted to his left when he heard a soft groan. Patting the ground, he found her hand, her arm.

Shifting to his knees, he gently explored, his hands roaming over her body. No jagged pieces of bone. No wet spots that would indicate she was bleeding.

She groaned again, then said hesitantly, “Sebastian?”

“Lie still, sweetheart.” His hands went to her shoulders to hold her down. “Are you hurt? Is there any pain?” Her neck. What if she hurt her neck? “Can you move?”