Belladonna

Chapter Nineteen

For the second time in an hour, Glorianna stepped off Lee’s island. But this time she stood on a beach that wasn’t hers in a place that wasn’t anywhere she knew.

Not a comfortable place. Not a landscape that held a companionable resonance like she felt when she visited one of her mother’s landscapes. She couldn’t have reached this village by crossing a bridge. Her heart wouldn’t have recognized this place.

Which made no sense since this was Caitlin’s home landscape, and the girl’s resonance fit in just fine with hers and Nadia’s.

Caitlin doesn’t belong here either, Glorianna thought as the currents of power lapped around her like the waves lapped the beach. She’s a dissonance and…someone else is the bedrock. Someone’s heart anchors Raven’s Hill against the influence of a Landscaper.

She felt Caitlin come up beside her, heard Michael and Lee step off the island, but didn’t turn her head to look at any of them. How did one explain the delicate and courageous act of relinquishing a landscape to someone who hadn’t known there were landscapes until a few days ago? And it would have to be done with care since the Eater of the World already had some hold on this village.

Guardians of the Light and Guides of the Heart, show me the right path for what needs to be done.

The currents of power shifted around her, flowed through her, set things—

Wait!

—in motion.

Glorianna stood frozen, scarcely daring to breathe. She had been offering up that small prayer since she was a little girl. She had never been answered like this. Not like this. She had been thinking about Caitlin, but Ephemera had answered a different meaning to that prayer because here, in this place, it could.

Opportunities and choices. She would help Caitlin find her place in the world. In doing so, she would find the Guardians and Guides who could show her how to defeat the Eater of the World.

All she needed was the courage to follow the path.

“I’m grateful for the loan of the coat,” Caitlin said.

“Should have brought gloves,” Glorianna replied, shoving her hands in her pockets. She felt off balance, so she said nothing more, just turned to watch Lee light the two lanterns he kept on the island.

Caitlin rubbed her own hands briskly. “When the wind comes from the north, it does have a wicked bite.”

“That’s the breath of the ice beast,” Michael said, smiling. “He blows on the sea to create floes of ice so he can float down to the world of men and snatch a pretty maid to take back to his lair to be his wife.”

“Or to be his dinner if the maid doesn’t prove to be an interesting companion,” Caitlin added.

Glorianna shivered. A year ago, their words would have done no harm. Now…“Don’t tell that story to strangers.”

Lee swore softly. He, at least, understood. But Michael shook his head and said, “It’s just a story.”

“A year ago, it was just a story. Now there is something out there that can pluck the image of the ice beast out of a person’s mind and make it real. Change a story into truth. That’s what the Eater of the World does. It takes your fears and makes them real—until all that’s left in the world are the things you fear.”

She watched Caitlin’s and Michael’s expressions change as the import of her words took root. Caitlin looked unnerved, but Michael…For some reason, being reminded that stories could be more than stories had been a blow to his heart.

“Shall we go?” she asked.

“Here,” Lee said, handing a lantern to Michael. “Is it usually dark?”

“We got here ahead of the dawn,” Michael replied, looking at the sky. “Sun’s not up yet.”

“Ah.”

Lee had asked one question; Michael had answered another. This village was teetering on the edge of becoming a dark landscape, slipping over at times but always being pulled back toward the Light.

“But the sun was up when we left Aurora,” Caitlin protested.

“We’re in a different part of the world now,” Glorianna said. She touched Caitlin’s sleeve to get the girl’s attention. “Currents of Light and Dark flow through this place, although the Dark currents are a little stronger. Maybe because of things that have happened here recently.”

“Like boys setting fire to a cottage?” Caitlin muttered.

“Yes.” Glorianna studied Caitlin. What had she been doing by the time she was eighteen? What had she known by that age that this girl didn’t even begin to realize? “Can you feel their resonance? Can you feel the currents of Dark and Light?”

“I don’t know,” Caitlin whispered. “I’m standing next to you, and I feel…something…but I don’t know. I don’t think I’m allowed to do this.”

The girl has been stumbling through her life because there wasn’t anyone who could help her identify the sensations flowing all around her. She could have done so much harm if someone else’s heart hadn’t struggled to keep the village as balanced as it is.

“Take my hand.” She offered her hand to Caitlin. “I’ll show you the way my mother showed me.”

When you were learning to walk, Glorianna, you held my hand to keep your balance. Hold my hand again to learn another way of walking.

Caitlin gasped and tried to pull away.

“Don’t be afraid of it,” Glorianna said quietly, tightening her grip on Caitlin’s hand. “That’s the world you’re feeling. Ephemera flows through the heart, manifests the heart. Your heart. A Landscaper is the bedrock, the sieve through which all other hearts flow. Who she is becomes the resonance of a place.” Usually, she amended silently.

“But I can’t be good all the time. I can’t!”

“No, you can’t. There are shadows in every garden, Caitlin Marie. There is darkness in every heart. Even the Places of Light have slim currents of Dark flowing through them. No heart is purely one thing or another.” She felt a tremor of relief go through the girl at the same time that she thought, There is an answer in those words.

Places of Light needed some Dark, and dark landscapes still needed a thread of Light. Why did the dark landscapes need the Light? That question had teased her when she had stood before the walls of Wizard City and unleashed Heart’s Justice on the Dark Guides. It teased her now.

The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.

And wasn’t it inconvenient that, having warned Michael against telling stories, she would have to persuade him to tell her the story about the Warrior of Light?

Be patient, a gentle, ageless voice whispered. When the time is right, he will tell you.

“Lee,” Michael said, “since you’ve got one lantern and I’ve got the other, why don’t you give Caitlin Marie a hand up the beach? The path leading up to the village is just a bit of a ways over there.”

Before Glorianna could tell him they could see well enough, Caitlin looked back at her brother. Grinning, she pulled away from Glorianna, linked an arm with Lee, and said, “Come on, then. I’ll show you the path and we’ll let the lollygaggers catch up when they can.”

“Lollywhat?” Glorianna said. Then a hand closed over hers. Bigger. Warm. A little work-roughened.

“Something I’ve wondered about Lee,” Michael said, smiling at her. “Is he your older brother?”

“Younger.”

“Younger?” He sounded surprised. “But we’re of an age.”

“Which makes you twenty-eight or-nine. I’m thirty-one.” A couple of years shouldn’t make any difference at this stage of their lives, especially since it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d been the one who was older. But she could still remember when those couple of years between her and Lee made a big difference.

“Ah. An older woman.”

The laughter in his voice, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, made her feel foolish—and that made her defensive.

“Yes,” she snapped. “Older. I’ll be gray-haired and wrinkly in a few years.”

“But now you’re a woman ripe with the juice of life.”

Her breath caught, her heart stumbled, and those juices warmed, ready to flow.

“Are you going to be showing me that trick of feeling the currents?” Michael held up their linked hands.

“It’s not your landscape.” Wasn’t Caitlin’s either in the purest sense, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Ah. Well, you could still say you were trying to show me. Or you could tell your brother we’re holding hands because you like the looks of me and you were wondering when I’m going to kiss you again.”

Looking into her eyes, he lifted her hand and kissed her fingers—and an odd little thrill tickled her belly and stirred those juices.

“I have not been wondering about that,” she sputtered, glad the lantern light would hide the blush caused by the lie.

“I have.”

His smile changed. The humor in it faded, replaced by some quality she couldn’t name—or wasn’t sure she wanted to name. Because it was more than lust or desire.

A sharp whistle made them both look up the beach to where Caitlin was ineffectually tugging on Lee’s sleeve and Lee, may the Guardians bless him, was just standing there, staring back at them, not having lost the timing required to be a perfectly annoying younger brother.

“So what are you going to tell him, Glorianna Belladonna?” Michael asked as Lee began walking back toward them. “Are you going to tell your little brother that you were helping me learn about the currents—or that you were thinking of trying me on as a lover?”

Her body hummed. Her brain went blank.

And his words resonated through her like a promise—and yet felt oddly hollow.

He gave her hand a friendly squeeze and walked up the beach, passing Lee.

“Glorianna?” Lee said as soon as he reached her, his voice sharp with concern. “What’s wrong?”

She looked at her brother and blurted out the answer. “He wants to kiss me again.”

She could hear her heartbeats in the silence that hung between them. Then Lee said, “You just figured that out? When we were in the Den last night, the man was wrapped around you snug enough to have Sebastian muttering, so it’s not surprising he wants to kiss you again. At least, it’s not surprising to the rest of us.”

How was she supposed to figure that out? Sure, they’d had fun in the Den last night, but since then she’d been a bit preoccupied thinking about other things—although knowing her behavior had caused her cousin the incubus to mutter was rather gratifying. But Michael being younger than her was reason enough to put thoughts of kisses—and lovers—aside. Even if he wasn’t so much younger that it should make any difference.

But there had been something bittersweet in the resonance of his flirting just now, something that hadn’t been there last night in the Den. As if his feelings had changed in some way, but he didn’t want anyone to know they had changed. Didn’t even want to admit to himself that they had changed.

She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

“Glorianna?”

She held up a hand to signal Lee to wait.

Distractions. Lures that tugged a person away from the path she needed to follow. Or signposts that confirmed the way. Were these thoughts about kisses and age a signpost warning her to turn away from a man who could easily distract her, or a lure nudging her away from a person who could help her fight the Eater? She didn’t fit into this landscape, and the Dark currents were working on her in ways they couldn’t in her pieces of the world.

She opened her eyes and looked at Lee. “Do you trust the Magician?”

“If you’re asking if I think he’ll act responsibly with regard to the world, then, yes, I trust him. Do I trust him with my sister?” Lee patted her cheek. “Not a chance.”

Should have known better than to ask a brother.

But the answer felt right and steadied her.

She tugged the lantern out of Lee’s hand. “I’ll go with Caitlin to take a look at her garden. You’re going with the Magician.”

“I don’t think that’s what he had in mind.”

Michael watched Caitlin and Glorianna head in the direction of the hill that would take them to Darling’s Garden, then turned to look at his remaining companion. “Tell me again how I ended up with you?”

“You make my sister nervous,” Lee replied.

He snorted. “That one has more brass than an orchestra and more nerve than a sore tooth. So I sincerely doubt I make her nervous. Her brother, on the other hand…”

Lee just grinned, and that made him like the man even more, despite the feeling that neither Lee nor Sebastian was pleased by his interest in Glorianna. But she was a grown woman, and what she did with a man behind closed doors was none of their business, was it? Not that he’d say that to Lee. Or Sebastian.

So he sighed for show and said, “Come along, then. We’ll go to the harbor and see what news is to be had, then find out where my aunt Brighid has been staying.”

He struck out for the harbor, settling into the easy stride that covered ground but let him keep the pace for miles. A couple of minutes later, his conscience pricked him. He’d wanted to discomfort Lee, but he didn’t want the man pulling a muscle in the effort to keep up.

But when he started to suggest they slow down, Lee just looked at him and smiled. That’s when Michael realized the other man had settled into the same rhythm.

“Travel on your feet a lot, do you?” Michael asked.

Lee nodded. “A fair amount. Depends on how far I’m traveling and where.” He stopped suddenly and pressed the palm of one hand against his forehead.

“Is your head troubling you?” He hadn’t noticed Lee indulging to excess last night, but drink took men differently.

“Something is,” Lee muttered.

Now Michael focused on the man—and on the music inside the man. A good tune, solid and steady. Reminded him of his friend Nathan. But there were sharp riffs now that hadn’t been there last night. As if the song that was Raven’s Hill was working on Lee.

“Maybe you should go back to your little island.”

Lee lowered his hand and shook his head. “I’m all right.”

No, you’re not. If something about Raven’s Hill was so troubling to Lee, what might it be doing to Glorianna?

“It’s not much farther.” With luck, he’d catch Nathan before the workday started. Whenever he felt ragged during a visit home, a few hours with Nathan settled him again. Maybe the same would be true for Lee.

They both lengthened their strides, moving with purpose until the harbor was in sight. Then Michael stopped sharply enough that Lee took several more steps before realizing something was wrong.

“That’s Kenneday’s ship,” Michael said, pointing. “I came up with him before things…happened. He should have set sail by now.” Unless the ship no longer had a captain. Kenneday had been standing near him when that monster rose out of the water. “Come on.”

They ran the rest of the way, travel packs bouncing against their shoulders. When they neared the water, Michael veered toward a tavern that was favored by captains and merchants who wanted a drink and a meal while conducting business. Even now, with the sun barely lifted above the horizon, the tavern was open for business and filled with customers.

And there he found Kenneday, sitting alone at a table, looking ashen and years older.

Michael strode up to the table. Upon seeing him, Kenneday cried out and stood up so fast the chair toppled.

“Ah, Michael, have you come back to haunt me? I swear by all I hold dear, there was nothing I could have done to save you. When that…thing…disappeared, I took out a boat to look for you. I did look. But I’ll understand if your soul feels a need to plague me.”

Michael looked at Garvey, who was working behind the bar—and was staring at him out of a face wrung clean of color. “Can we have a pot of strong tea over here?” He waited for the nod before turning back to Kenneday and putting some sting in his voice. “You’ve told me more than once that a captain who loses himself in drink risks losing his ship. And I know you’re a man with a fair share of courage, so I know you aren’t holding your ship, crew, and cargo in the harbor because some beasty rose out of the deep.”

Kenneday’s hand curled into a fist. “If you weren’t a dead man, I’d blacken your eye for using that tone of voice with me.”

“Does he always think people are ghosts, or does this happen only when he’s drunk?” Lee asked.

“Drunk, is it?” Kenneday shouted. “I’m not so far down into the bottle as to be called a drunk!”

“Then listen,” Lee said. “If you throw a punch and hit Michael in the eye, he’ll throw a punch and lay you out on the floor, and then I’ll get dragged into it because these kinds of fights never end with two punches, and we’ll end up trying to explain to his sister and mine how we landed in the guardhouse for a fight that wasn’t our doing.”

“Are you another spirit, then?” Kenneday asked.

“I’m a Bridge, and I’m sober, and I’m very much among the living.”

And you’re getting more pissy by the minute, Michael thought—and wondered whether he should be more worried about Kenneday or Lee.

“So why don’t we all sit down and you can tell Michael why your ship is still in the harbor and why you think he’s dead,” Lee said.

“I saw him go down into that terrible darkness, didn’t I?” Kenneday collapsed into another chair at the table while Lee righted the toppled chair and Michael pulled out a third. “Saw that thing rise up out of the sea and him standing there, facing it. And then the air turned black and the sea turned the color of blood, and when we could see again, Michael and the creature were gone.”

The pot of tea and the cups rattled as Garvey put them on the table. “Your auntie will be pleased you’ve come back to the living.”

“I wasn’t—” Michael shook his head. They were going to believe what they chose to believe. “Nathan said Aunt Brighid had been taken to the doctor’s house after the fire. Is she still there?”

“She’s at the boardinghouse now on Trace Street,” Garvey replied. “Doctor looks in on her every day, even though she’s well enough not to be needing him. Grieving for you and Caitlin Marie, of course, so I’m guessing she’ll be pleased to see you.”

If the shock of seeing us doesn’t kill her. But another thought occurred to him, and he wondered if, in fact, Brighid would be glad to see them.

“As for why I’m still in the harbor,” Kenneday said, “I had cargo for the White Isle, so I went once I felt sure there was nothing to be done for you. But it’s gone, Michael. You can see it. Sure as I’m sitting here, you can see it. When you’re coming up on it, the island looks as solid and real as your own hand. But then it starts to fade away. The closer you get, the more it fades until you sail over water where land should be—and when you get far enough away, you can see it again, behind you. Can’t be reached, though. No ship can dock there. So I came back, with my holds still full, and I didn’t have the heart to go farther. Not just yet.”

“Is the cargo in your hold staples that will last or supplies that will rot?” Lee asked.

“Mostly staples,” Kenneday replied. “There are things that will go bad, but not just yet.”

“Before you shed your cargo at a loss, give it another day,” Lee said.

“You know what became of the White Isle?” Michael asked.

Lee sipped his tea and grimaced. Since Michael found nothing wrong with the tea, he assumed the beverage wasn’t to Lee’s taste.

“Belladonna altered the landscapes to keep the White Isle away from the Eater of the World,” Lee said. “But her resonance is tangled with another Landscaper’s. Maybe that’s why the island is visible at all. It shouldn’t be.”

Kenneday looked from one to the other in disbelief. “Are you saying a sorceress made the White Isle disappear?”

Silence suddenly filled the tables around them, then carried like a wave throughout the tavern. Everyone turned in their direction. Everyone waited for an answer.

And the song that was Raven’s Hill turned dark and jagged.

Without some help, we’re not going to get out of here alive, Michael thought as he studied the faces of the men around him—some he had known for most of his life.

Lee sat back in his chair, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small, smooth stone. “What does a sorceress do that a Magician doesn’t?”

Bad question. Beads of sweat popped out on Michael’s forehead.

“Are you a Magician then?” A man at the next table stood up and cracked his knuckles while he gave Lee a nasty grin.

“No, I’m not,” Lee said calmly, rubbing his thumb over the stone. “But I can tell you this. If the Magicians and sorceresses in your…country…walk away from you, you won’t survive a month. Because they not only protect you from Ephemera, they protect you from your own hearts. That thing you saw in the harbor killed most of the Landscapers and Bridges in my part of the world—and the world is going mad because of it. Before you blame someone else for your ill luck, consider this: Nothing comes to you that doesn’t live within your own heart. That is the way of the world.”

“You’re begging for a lesson,” the man snarled. As he took a step toward them, Lee threw the stone at him. The man caught it, an instinctive action…

…and disappeared.

Another wave of silence filled the tavern.

So fast, Michael thought. It happens so fast. “Where did he go?”

Lee pushed away from the table. Everyone in the tavern tensed—but no one dared move.

“I don’t know,” Lee said. “He crossed over to whatever landscape most reflected who he was at that moment.”

“So he’ll be able to come back?”

A sick, nasty expression flickered across Lee’s face, like a note that was out of tune and out of tempo. “Depends on whether or not he can survive what lives within his own heart.”

Michael rose to his feet. “How can you be so callous with a man’s life?”

“Callous?” Lee let out a harsh bark of laughter. The nastiness gave way to something darker and more honest—and more painful. “He comes at us, wanting to shed blood, with everything in him resonating a pleasure for inflicting pain, and you think I’m callous? Don’t stand there and tell me you couldn’t feel it. Not when you were that close to him. And the truth is, if he really belonged here, nothing would have happened when he caught that stone. Nothing, Michael. That’s how the world works. And if he didn’t belong here but wanted to stay, something would pull him away from this place, no matter how hard he tried to hold on. That, too, is the way of the world.”

“All right, fine,” Michael said, just wanting to get them out of there before the other men began to consider the odds.

“No, it is not all right!” Lee shouted. “My sister is going to die trying to save Ephemera from the Eater of the World. So is yours. So are you. You’re Ephemera’s defense against It, so you are going to die, Michael. And then they are going to die.” He swept his hand out to indicate the men in the tavern. “There is nothing they can do to fight something that was formed out of the darkness that lives in human hearts. They can gather armies to fight this thing, but without the sorceresses and Magicians that they hold in such contempt, their own fear will kill them. Their own despair will consume them. Their own doubts will devour their families. Do you know what is out there, Magician? Do you want to know what the Eater’s landscapes hold?”

No, he didn’t.

“The bonelovers look like ants, but they’re as long as your forearm. They’re called bonelovers because that’s all that’s left of anyone who stumbles into their wasteland. The trap spiders are big enough to pull a full-grown man into their lairs. The wind runners are as big as dogs and have jaws powerful enough to crush bone. The death rollers—”

“Stop it,” Michael said. “Stop it now. That’s enough.”

“—are like the crocodileans, which are native creatures that live in the rivers of warmer landscapes. But the death rollers are bigger, meaner—they are crocodileans swelled by human fear. That’s what is out there, Michael. That’s what is going to sink its teeth into your villages and your people. You think these are stories. I’ve lived with the truth of it all my life. I trained in the school where the Eater had been caged. I felt Its presence under all the currents of Light that flowed through the school. But all those currents of Light, all those hearts…” Lee’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I knew a lot of the people who were slaughtered when the Eater destroyed the school. And in the days to come, most of you will stand at a memorial stone and grieve for lost comrades or loved ones.”

“We have graveyards here,” Michael said softly.

Lee wiped his eyes and gave Michael a smile that was painfully sad. “Magician, most times there won’t be anything left to bury.”

He saw Kenneday shudder, and he thought about the fishermen who now haunted a stretch of sea. And he thought about what it would be like for men to take out the boats in order to feed their families if most of the sea was haunted with the dead, and there were only pockets of safe water left.

“Are you saying there’s a war coming?” a voice asked.

Michael looked toward the door. Nathan stood there—and the dark, jagged notes that had filled the tavern faded away, replaced by a rhythm that was as strong and steady as a heartbeat.

“It’s already started,” Lee replied wearily. “And it’s already reached your shores.”

Kenneday stared at the table for a long moment, then looked at Michael and Lee before nodding sharply. “I’ve got a duty to my ship and my crew, so I can’t be putting aside all my cargo runs. But she’s a good ship, and they’re good men. I’ll put them all at your disposal whenever I can to haul cargo or passengers. Whatever you need.” He stood up and looked around the room. “I sailed through the haunted water, and I was glad to have Michael on board.”

“Ill-wisher,” someone muttered.

“That’s enough,” Nathan said sharply, coming into the room. He tipped his head toward Lee. “I don’t know this man, but I heard what he said. And I’m wondering if we haven’t misunderstood some things about sorceresses and Magicians—and the world—for a long time now. So I for one am willing to offer a hand in friendship.” He held out a hand to Lee, who clasped it.

There was no actual sound in the room, but Michael could hear a dissonance shifting into the harmony of a different tune.

Something has changed.

He looked at Lee, who sank into a chair at the table, and he thought about the woman climbing the hill with his little sister.

Neither Glorianna nor Lee understood the world as he knew it—but they understood it in ways he’d never even dreamed.

Who was this woman? Caitlin wondered as she watched Glorianna study the outer walls of Darling’s Garden. What kind of person talked about resonances, dissonances, and currents of power flowing through the world?

And what kind of power flowed through Glorianna Belladonna that she could change the physical world simply by asking it to change?

“Ephemera, hear me,” Glorianna had said.

Caitlin stood beside her, trying not to look at the burned husk of the cottage that had been her family’s home. In front of them, the rust-colored sand had swallowed even more of the meadow.

“This sand does not belong here,” Glorianna said. “This landscape is not welcome here.”

Listen to her, Caitlin thought as fiercely as she could. Please, listen to her.

A quiver along her skin, as if the air had asked a question. Glorianna watched her, waiting.

Feeling self-conscious and foolish, Caitlin stared at the sand and said, “This is my place. The sand that comes from that dark…landscape…does not belong here. It is not welcome here. I do not want that sand to touch what is mine.”

Something rippled through the land, then flowed through her, making her feel as if she were being lifted up to ride a wave in the sea. And then she watched the land change right before her eyes, and within moments, bare earth replaced the sand.

Filled with a blend of delight and disbelief, along with a helping of fear, Caitlin laughed nervously. “Isn’t Ephemera going to fill in the bare spots?”

“Yes,” Glorianna said. “The meadow will reseed itself, as it does every year.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

“I know. But there is a difference between being playful and being careless with what you ask of the world.”

“This garden is loved,” Glorianna said, brushing her fingers over the stones.

“I tend it as best I can,” Caitlin said, pleased that she sounded modest—and puzzled that Glorianna could tell what she’d done to the garden when they hadn’t gotten inside yet.

“You repaired the mortar?” Glorianna asked.

“What?” Now that it was pointed out, she could see signs of recent work.

“Maybe Lee’s ability to impose one landscape over another isn’t unique after all,” Glorianna said. Then she smiled at Caitlin. “The garden doesn’t actually exist on this hill. It’s here because you need it to be. But it is grounded somewhere else—and it is loved there, Caitlin.”

“Then…it’s not mine?” It hurt to consider it. The garden had been her friend most of her life.

“Of course it’s yours. It wouldn’t be here if it didn’t resonate with you.”

“Then what are you saying?”

Something in the air between them. Something in Glorianna’s eyes. Compassion? Knowledge? Caitlin couldn’t put a name to it, but she understood with unshakable certainty that whatever happened in the next minute would change her life—and would change the world.

“I think you should find out where this garden is rooted. Where you’re rooted. It isn’t here, Caitlin Marie. I’m not even sure this is one of your landscapes. This village and the surrounding land should be one of the pieces of the world that is in your keeping, but something isn’t right here. And I don’t think this is really home.”

“No,” Caitlin whispered. “It’s not. We never quite fit in Raven’s Hill.” A different place where the other girls wouldn’t see her as a sorceress and the boys wouldn’t think of her as the new village whore? “How do I find this place?”

“Let’s take a look inside the garden.”

Michael was the only person who had seen her garden—and Michael hadn’t understood. This was different, exciting, strange, terrifying.

“At this time of year, it’s not at its best,” Caitlin said, twisting her fingers as Glorianna studied each bed.

“No, it’s not,” Glorianna said absently. “You’ll have to work on that. You want balance reflected through the seasons, just as you want a balance between the currents of Light and Dark. This.” She stopped in front of a stone. “This came from the White Isle.”

Caitlin gaped for a moment. “How can you tell?”

“I can feel the island’s resonance in the stone.” Glorianna studied the stone a moment longer, then looked at Caitlin. “Why did you put it here in the garden?”

Flustered, Caitlin felt her face burn. “My aunt Brighid used to tell me about the White Isle and about Lighthaven, which is the heart of the island. For a while she thought I might be accepted into training there, but…”

“You don’t belong to Lighthaven,” Glorianna said with such careless certainty it took a long moment before Caitlin felt the pain of that statement. Then Glorianna looked at her and she had the same light-headed feeling that the world was changing right under her feet. “Lighthaven may hold the Light, and it may provide you with a place to rest and renew the spirit, but I think you’ll find the heart of the White Isle in a different place.”

My place. The yearning that swept through her was so fierce, she felt as if she could ride that sensation to another place. Another life.

“No no no,” Glorianna snapped, grabbing her and giving her a hard shake. “You haven’t been trained yet to take the step between here and there. And since none of us knows where this garden actually stands, we’d have no way to find you.”

Grounded. Jammed back into her skin. Shoved back into this village that deadened her heart.

“You should have let me go,” Caitlin whispered.

“Not yet,” Glorianna whispered back. Then she stepped away and said briskly, “Let’s take a look at the rest.”

“Not much left of it, is there?” Lee said, shielding his eyes as he studied the remains of the cottage.

“No, not much left,” Michael said. The winter clothes he’d be needing soon. The books he’d carefully selected and scrimped to buy so that he could share them with Aunt Brighid and Caitlin. The little treasures he’d accumulated over the years and couldn’t carry with him. All gone. His life, his boyhood, all burned away.

Nothing left of me here, he thought. Nothing left for me here. Except, hopefully, my father’s legacy.

Stepping around broken, burned timbers, Michael looked up at the one corner that still appeared to be fairly intact. But even if they hadn’t been touched by the fire itself, would the books have survived?

Only one way to find out.

“If we can steady a ladder up to that spot, I think I can get what I’m looking for,” Michael said.

“We can set a ladder up there right enough,” Nathan said, “but it won’t take much to have the rest of this place coming down on us.”

“It will hold long enough,” Michael said softly, pouring every drop of his luck-bringing into those words. A dark tune playing here. The same tune he’d heard during the years he’d lived in the cottage, with only a sprinkle of bright notes coming from Nathan. Just like always.

Lee met his eyes for a moment, then helped Nathan and Kenneday find the most solid spot for the ladder.

Oh, the wood was weak and trembled under his feet when he eased his way across what was left of the attic. A board cracked ominously as he pulled the box out of its special cupboard. Carrying the whole box would add too much weight to his own—and the image of Rory Calhoun impaled on stone suddenly filled his mind. Two boys were saved by the death of another. He didn’t want to repeat that particular tune by saving the books but dying in the process.

“Lee,” he called. “Come up the ladder so I can hand these over to you.” He opened the box and took the books out one at a time, stretching as far as he could and moving as little as possible to pass the books to Lee who, in turn, handed them down to Nathan and Kenneday.

“Careful,” Lee said as Michael finally eased his way back to the ladder.

Wood creaked and groaned as Michael started down. The wood supporting the top of the ladder suddenly broke, and he might have fallen among all the broken timbers if Lee and Nathan hadn’t been holding the ladder steady.

“Go,” Lee said, looking at Nathan. Kenneday was already outside, his arms full of books.

Nathan shook his head. “He said it would hold until we were safely away, so it will hold.”

As soon as Michael had both feet on the floor, Nathan took one end of the ladder and Lee took the other. He followed them out, and as he cleared what had been the threshold of the front door, the cottage gave out a sound of creaking, wailing, agonized groaning.

Lady’s mercy, Michael thought as the rest of the roof and attic flooring that had supported the box of books came crashing down.

“I told you it would hold long enough,” Nathan said to Lee. Then he looked at Michael. “What comes next?”

Michael shook his head and watched the two women walking toward them. Glorianna looked upset. Caitlin looked dazed, like she’d tumbled into a tree while running flat out. “I think what comes next is up to them.”

“Aunt Brighid,” Caitlin said, lightly brushing her fingers over her aunt’s hand. “Auntie, it’s me. Caitlin Marie.”

Not so bad, the doctor had said. The cuts and burns had not been significant, and Brighid was a strong woman.

It looked bad enough to her.

Then Brighid stirred, opened her eyes. “Caitlin?” Her hand shook as she raised it to touch Caitlin’s face. “Caitlin Marie? I saw you disappear. I saw…”

“I know,” Caitlin said hurriedly. “I know. But I found a way back. Michael, too. He’s here. See?” She half turned in the chair by the bed and looked up at her brother.

“Aunt Brighid,” Michael said.

“You came,” Brighid said. “You got my message?”

“Yes,” he replied.

Currents of power suddenly flowed through the room as the third person moved to a position at the end of the bed where she would be clearly visible.

Caitlin watched, helpless to understand what was happening while Brighid and Glorianna stared at each other.

“I am Belladonna.”

Brighid sucked in a breath and coughed it out, a rasping sound. “You’re a sorceress like Caitlin, aren’t you?”

“I’m a Landscaper, like Caitlin,” Glorianna replied. “We are the bedrock that protects Ephemera from the human heart.”

“Lady of Light,” Brighid whispered. “You…could show her who she’s meant to be?”

“I can show her.”

“There’s nothing for her here.”

Grief filled Glorianna’s eyes, and Caitlin wondered again what the woman had seen in her garden that had caused such distress.

“No,” Glorianna said, “there’s nothing for her here.”

“I’m sitting in the room,” Caitlin said, guilt that she had done something wrong making her testy. “And I’m old enough to do some deciding for myself.”

Glorianna’s eyes never left Brighid’s, but she smiled. “Then we’ll let your auntie get some rest while we discuss those decisions.”

That didn’t sound like she was going to be the one doing much deciding, but at least she’d have her say.

“I’ll be back a little later,” Caitlin said, smiling at her aunt. As she rose, she saw the undiluted sadness in Michael’s eyes before he made an effort to hide his feelings.

She held on until they were in the hallway outside her aunt’s room before the feelings spewed out. “I don’t want her here. There’s a syrupy meanness in that room. They’re taking care of her right enough, but they’re glad she’s hurt. It’s her punishment for taking care of me and Michael all these years.” She glared at her brother. “You know that’s what they’re thinking.”

“Caitlin,” Michael said.

She wanted to shout, wanted to scream out the anger, but she kept her voice low. “You’ve been gone, Michael. These past twelve years, you’ve been gone. And you only stayed four years after Mother died. Then you were off having your adventures.”

“I was off trying to earn enough money to take care of the three of us,” Michael said heatedly, but he, too, kept his voice down.

“Let’s go to one of the rooms we’ve taken before continuing this discussion,” Glorianna said.

“There’s nothing more to discuss,” Caitlin snapped.

“Caitlin.”

She didn’t respond to Glorianna. She was too stunned by the way Michael suddenly paled.

“What did we do to the world?” he whispered.

“Somewhere around this village, a fine crop of rocks has sprung up,” Glorianna replied after a moment.

“What?” Caitlin asked, wondering why Michael looked ready to faint while Glorianna looked sympathetic but amused.

“Anger makes stone,” Glorianna said. “Something you can’t afford to forget. Now, would you like the rest of this to be discussed in private or would you rather go down to the parlor and put on a show so the people downstairs who are trying to eavesdrop won’t have to strain their ears?”

“What does sass make?” Caitlin muttered.

“Tart fruit.”

She wasn’t sure if Glorianna was teasing or not. Based on his expression, Michael wasn’t sure either, but the answer had brought some color back to his face. So she let herself be herded into one of the rooms they had rented while Michael knocked on the door of the other to fetch Lee.

Once the four of them were seated, Caitlin plucked up her courage to have her say. “Aunt Brighid doesn’t belong here. Michael has been on his own for a time now, and I’m old enough to make my own way. Besides, we’re going to have to start over in one place or another, and I don’t want it to be here.”

“Ah, Caitie,” Michael groaned. “Why did you never say things were so hard here?”

“It was all we had.”

He closed his eyes as if her words had hurt him.

“A piece at a time,” Glorianna said. “What do you want for your aunt?”

“She’s a Lady of Light,” Caitlin replied. “She should go back to the White Isle. I don’t think she’ll ever really heal if she stays here.”

“And you?” Glorianna asked.

“I want to find where my garden truly belongs. And I want to learn who I am. I want to learn to be Landscaper.”

“Aren’t you going to ask what I want?” Michael asked.

“No,” Glorianna replied quietly. “I feel your heart well enough.”

“So we go to the White Isle?” Lee asked.

“If you have a way of reaching it once we get there, I have a ship that can take us,” Michael said.

Glorianna nodded. “Then it’s settled.”

“Captain Kenneday and Nathan are having a meal downstairs,” Lee said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but my stomach says it’s mealtime.”

Since there was nothing more to be done, Caitlin followed the rest of them down to the dining room.

Michael stripped down to his drawers, then slipped into bed and stared at the ceiling. “Tell me again why I’m sharing a room—and a bed—with you?”

Lee tucked his hands under his head and grinned. “Because we could only afford two rooms, and the beds being what they are, you cut up stiff about sharing one with your sister. And as much as I like her, I didn’t want to share a bed with Caitlin Marie either.”

“You’re damn right you wouldn’t be sharing a bed with her. No matter how grown-up she thinks she is, the girl is just eighteen and an innocent.”

Lee rolled over on his side and propped himself up on one elbow. “My sister is thirty-one and, in some ways, just as innocent.”

“Nooo,” Michael said, shaking his head in denial. “You aren’t telling me a woman as lovely as Glorianna has never been pleasured by a man.”

“I won’t tell you she’s never had sex, and I hope it gave her pleasure….”

“But?” Michael prodded when Lee seemed to sink into his own thoughts.

“None of them would have had enough heart to reach her island.”

Lee’s words filled him with hope and scared him right down to the bone. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to be Glorianna’s first love, but he kept thinking he wanted to be her lifetime’s love. Because he was certain she was his lifetime’s love.

If you do what you must, you won’t have a lifetime with her.

Lee rolled onto his back. After a long moment of silence, he said, “So how old were you?”

“What?”

“If you’re thinking Caitlin is too young at eighteen, how old were you when you were initiated into the pleasures of sex?”

Recognizing Lee’s effort to lighten the mood, Michael said, “Are we talking brag or lie?”

Lee closed his eyes and smiled. “Whichever provides the best story.”