Bridge of Dreams

Chapter 18

Danyal folded the letter, set it in the desk drawer with his other private papers, and locked the drawer. Then he closed his eyes and let the pain flow through him.

Shamans murdered. The bazaar closed. Crops ruined.

Had he done too little to find the answers the Shamans needed to deal with this enemy that was creeping through the city? Lee hadn’t been as much help as he’d hoped. Oh, the man answered any question he asked, but had he been asking the right questions? Or was Lee acting like a Shaman and waiting for Danyal’s heart to come into alignment so that he could see?

“I see well enough,” he muttered as he left his office.

He spotted Lee coming out of the Handlers’ dining hall with Sholeh, who seemed happy and animated—and then cringed at whatever she saw in his face. Even Nik and Denys took a step back as he approached.

“What…?” Lee began.

Danyal grabbed his arm. “Walk with me.”

“I promised to tell Sholeh about demon cycles before Zhahar started work.”

“Walk with me.”

After a couple of stumbling steps, Lee found his stride. Danyal took them outside and kept moving swiftly until they were halfway to the temple. Then he slowed and released Lee’s arm.

“If you were trying to prove that Shamans aren’t always patient and kind, I’d say you made your point,” Lee grumbled. “And since I’m pretty sure you scared Sholeh, you should count yourself lucky that Zeela is still recovering from that knife wound.”

“Your banter isn’t appreciated today,” Danyal snapped.

Lee stopped walking. “What’s different about today?”

Danyal turned to face him. “Two Shamans were murdered at the bazaar that borders The Temples.”

“I’m sorry,” Lee said. “Were they friends of yours?”

Grief burned in his chest. “They were two of the people who provide voice and balance to this part of the world. Does it matter if I knew them?”

“No, it doesn’t. After I completed my training, I didn’t have much contact with other Bridges, but when the Eater of the World attacked the school and killed so many, I felt the loss.”

“These carriers of darkness came from your part of the world,” Danyal said, striving to make a statement but hearing the accusation.

“The wizards or the Dark Guide found a way to this city before I got here,” Lee replied hotly. “You will not lay that blame on me.”

“You know how to defeat them.”

“Daylight, man! We didn’t even know what they really were until a year ago. Do I know how to defeat them? Yes. Raise an army, hunt them down, and kill them before they kill all of you—if you can.”

Danyal’s voice rose to a shout. “We can’t find them!”

Lee drew in a breath as if he was going to return the shout. Then he breathed out and looked away. “You really have no one who can walk in the dark places?”

“In the shadow places, yes, but the nature of Vision applies to the Shamans as well as other folk. These dark places the wizards have made are like nothing we’ve seen, so we can’t find them. And there is only so much of the city we can keep from their sight.”

Lee sighed. “I’m not a Landscaper, Danyal. I can’t assess the power you have well enough to know if you could remake parts of this city and take them beyond the reach of the rest of the world.”

“If ships stop finding our ports, if travelers no longer find any of the roads, we’ll disappear from the world. The Shaman Council sent me here because they believed I was their best hope of finding help or at least an answer to how we can help ourselves.”

“What you give to the world comes back to you,” Lee said quietly.

He laughed bitterly. “And I haven’t given enough?”

“I didn’t say that.” Lee hesitated. “Here is the question your heart needs to answer: In order to save this city from the wizards, are you willing to deal with the monster that Evil fears?”

Danyal stared at Lee, unable to speak. Finally: “Would you?”

There was love—and pain—in Lee’s smile. “That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer these past few days. Excuse me, Shaman. Even with the glasses, the sun is bothering my eyes.”

“Yes. Of course.”

Danyal watched Lee walk back to the inmates’ residence.

Are you willing to deal with the monster that Evil fears? That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer these past few days.

His breath caught as he remembered the story Lee had told him about the Guide who became a monster in order to save the world.

Are you willing to deal with the monster that Evil fears?

In order to save Vision, was he willing to deal with Lee’s sister?

“Light duty,” Kobrah said.

Since her back was to the other woman, Zhahar rolled her eyes as she put on the Handler’s jacket. “I know. No lifting, no pulling, no dealing with any but the almost-normal inmates. Sit and rest ten minutes out of every hour. I know.”

Kobrah sniffed. “You didn’t mention eating a light meal every few hours to keep up your strength, or drinking enough water.”

Zhahar turned and looked at her Helper. She couldn’t tell if Kobrah was serious or teasing. “Anything else?”

::Could you ask Lee about the demon cycles?:: Sholeh said, sounding a little plaintive. ::I didn’t have a chance when I was in view earlier.::

*Not now,* Zhahar sighed.

::But…::

=Leave it be,= Zeela said. =Didn’t you hear the Shaman shouting when he took Lee for that walk? Give them both time to cool down.=

Sholeh withdrew, sulking.

=I’m not sure having Lee help her make up a journal of demons is the best idea.=

*It gives her something to do.*

::I heard that.::

“Zhahar?”

Forgot about you. She smiled at Kobrah. “Let’s get some work done.” Despite how much time they’d spent together in the past few days, she hadn’t really talked with the other woman. They were being very careful not to discuss anything Kobrah had seen while helping care for Zeela. “Is your friend still coming to visit?” she asked as they left her room.

“Yes, but he doesn’t stay long. He’s worried about a friend who went missing.”

Zhahar stutter-stepped. She’d forgotten that Kobrah’s dream friend knew Lee—and that Lee knew the dream friend. She hadn’t told Kobrah, hadn’t told anyone.

Should she?

She considered asking Lee, but when she found him sitting in his chair on the porch, he was brooding about something and clearly not in the mood for conversation. So after saying hello and wondering a bit wistfully if a man of single aspect really would consider doing more than flirting with a Tryad, she got on with her work and forgot about Kobrah’s friend.

Lee sat on the porch and felt the air suck the moisture from his skin. Guardians and Guides! If this place didn’t have the big screened porch, it would be unbearable. Too bad they weren’t allowed to sleep out here. If you had to endure this kind of heat at least part of the year, a big, screened room at the back of the house with woven chairs and a couple of cots for sleeping could be a comfortable way to live.

Maybe he could add on a screened porch to his cabin in Aurora. Jeb would help him build it, so it shouldn’t cost too much. Something to think about.

Something else to think about.

In the city of Vision, you can find only what you can see. From what he’d been able to piece together, that worked pretty well for these people and was just another way of living in the landscapes that resonated with your own heart. Yes, it worked pretty well for the people whose lives could be fulfilled by the landscapes held within the city. But what about the people whose hearts yearned for something beyond Vision? Sure, they could buy passage on a ship or one of the passenger coaches that made a circuit to other cities, but that method of finding a heart wish left too much to chance. Sholeh had been studying everything she could find about Vision, and nothing she’d told him indicated the city had the equivalent of resonating bridges like the ones that existed back home or the Sentinel Stones in Elandar that took a person to the place that matched his heart.

There was nothing here for people like Vito, who had become heart weary to the point of becoming mind-sick because he had no way of finding what his heart needed.

He hadn’t done anything that he wouldn’t have done back home. Of course, the timing could have been better. Having four inmates disappear—especially the ones who vanished from locked rooms—hadn’t done anything good for Danyal’s emotional balance. With a little more time, he was certain he could have convinced the Shaman of the value of giving people another way to find their place in the world. But now two of the Shamans had been murdered, and those deaths would feed the Dark currents in the city.

He didn’t have time. None of them had time to wait and see if all the problems would cross over a bridge or take a wrong turn and simply go away.

He had a stone in his pocket that he could make into a one-shot bridge that would take him back to the Den of Iniquity. He could be home in a minute. Or maybe, since Michael was the person looking for him, he could go to Dunberry or Foggy Downs, just in case Glorianna’s landscapes were out of reach. Or he could go to Darling’s Harbor, where Caitlin Marie now lived. There was a stationary bridge connecting Darling’s Harbor to Aurora. Caitlin could cross over and ask the family to meet him in Darling’s Harbor. He had options, and the “come home” messages Ephemera was leaving on the Magician’s behalf told him clear enough he didn’t have to leave his family behind, no matter where he’d gone.

If he made a one-shot bridge to Sanctuary and gave it to Danyal, it was likely the Shaman would reach that Place of Light. He was sure Danyal would benefit from talking with Yoshani.

The problem wasn’t leaving; the problem was how to get back. If two landscapes didn’t resonate with each other, a bridge couldn’t be made to connect them. Finding help wouldn’t matter if no one could get back here. He’d thought about it for days now and came to the same conclusion every time: he couldn’t count on returning.

The other thing he’d thought about was whether a Tryad could use any kind of bridge. Would the aspect in view be the deciding factor of where they could go, or would a place have to resonate with all three of them for them to safely cross over? What would happen to them on a resonating bridge that determined a person’s destination by matching what was held in that person’s heart?

Zhahar. So much passion waiting to be touched. He hadn’t forgotten Zeela’s comment about Zhahar wanting to rub skin with him. Oh, he hadn’t forgotten that at all. And he hadn’t dismissed that this woman had come into an unknown city, alone, to find help for her people. He understood that kind of commitment too.

He wanted to know her better, wanted to know her in ways an inmate couldn’t know a Handler. He might be given extra privileges—or had been until those four men disappeared—but he was still an inmate, and being intimate with him would cost Zhahar her job.

He wanted to see her and wasn’t sure he ever would. Not well enough. Not for all the fine details he’d like to know. But he would settle for not seeing her well over not seeing her at all.

If the island still answered to him, he could have brought Zhahar and Danyal with him. Even if they couldn’t step onto the landscape he’d chosen, his family could have gathered on the island to talk to them.

There was a possibility for Zhahar and her people: that triangle of grass that had appeared in Glorianna’s garden. A dark landscape that wasn’t quite dark, that almost had a border that connected it with the Den, but wouldn’t truly be connected until it became one of Glorianna’s—or Belladonna’s—landscapes.

A year ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated to bring these people and these lands to the attention of Glorianna Belladonna and ask her for help. But Glorianna Belladonna didn’t exist in the same way anymore. While he didn’t know which side of his sister would be drawn to Vision, he knew Zhahar’s homeland called to Belladonna, the monster. So it came down to one question: would bringing Vision and Zhahar’s homeland to Belladonna’s attention give these people the help they needed or destroy them?

Danyal left the Asylum and walked for hours, stopping every so often at a shop or a house to ask for a drink of water. Except for that brief contact, he spoke to no one.

He didn’t know how long he’d been walking or even quite where he was when he stopped to rest beneath a palm tree and realized he’d let grief lead him to physical imprudence.

Heat sick. He knew the symptoms. The day after he’d arrived at the Asylum, Benham had made sure he knew what to look for, in him and in Handlers, Helpers, and inmates.

“Shaman?”

He turned toward the voice, but it still took him a moment to see the man standing a few paces away from him.

Shadowman.

“Do you need help, Shaman?”

Yes, he needed help and…

Danyal looked in the opposite direction and spotted the bridge arching over a channel of water.

Cross the bridge, a voice whispered. You’ll find the answers you seek on the other side of the bridge.

Did he recognize that voice? Had it scratched at him in dreams?

When he turned back, the shadowman was standing right in front of him, holding a jug.

“Water?” the man asked.

“Who…?”

“I’m an Apothecary.”

“I don’t remember a bridge near the shadow streets,” Danyal said as he accepted the jug. He took some water, letting it ease the dryness in his mouth before swallowing.

“There isn’t one,” the Apothecary replied. “I closed up my shop. Decided it was time to do some traveling. My wagon is right over there.”

“Where are you going?” Danyal asked.

The Apothecary smiled grimly. “I don’t know. I just know I can’t be on that street anymore. Will you give me your blessing, Shaman?”

“May your heart travel lightly,” Danyal said, letting the words flow through his own heart to make them the voice of the world.

The Apothecary hesitated. “I’m not heading in any particular direction. Can I give you a ride back to the Asylum?”

What you seek is on the other side of the bridge, the whispering voice insisted. Hurry, before it’s gone.

Something in Danyal shivered. “How did you know I’m from the Asylum?”

“Saw you on the street a while back, but you didn’t see me. A couple of days after that, a woman came into my shop. Has a long scar on her left arm. Said she was there for the Shaman who was the Asylum’s Keeper.”

Danyal looked toward the bridge again and frowned. Was the land on the other side of the bridge fading? He handed the jug back to the Apothecary. “I would like a ride, but there is something I need to look at first. This will take only a few minutes.” Some instinct made him add, “The woman you saw is named Zeela. Her sister Zhahar works as a Handler.”

“I’ll get my horse and wagon and wait for you,” the Apothecary said.

A little breeze suddenly played with the hem of Danyal’s white robe. “Wait.” He said nothing more until he was sure he had the man’s full attention. “If anything…odd…happens around that bridge, I need you to go to the Asylum and report what you saw to a man named Lee. He has knowledge that is not common to our city, and everyone should listen to whatever he says.”

“You expecting trouble?” the Apothecary asked sharply.

What you seek is on the other side of the bridge, the whispering voice insisted again.

“I don’t know,” Danyal replied. He walked toward the arched bridge. Walked across the bridge. Stopped before taking that last step.

The land looked…strange. Barren. Sticky.

Sticky webs and treacherous bogs.

Hurry, the voice whispered.

He was heat sick. What was he really hearing?

???

A puff of air in his face, bringing the scent of stinkweed and turd plants. Combined with the heat, the smell was enough to make him gag.

If he took the last step, was there someone on the other side of the bridge who had the answers to what was happening in Vision?

!!!

One foot on the ground now while the other remained on the bridge.

Seeing the glint of something poking out of the dirt at the edge of the bridge, Danyal took that last step, bent down, and picked up the gold pocket watch. When he straightened up…

Five of them. Two burly men holding clubs. The two wizards, Pugnos and Styks, who claimed to be Lee’s uncles.

The last one wasn’t human. Danyal couldn’t hold on to the details of the face to see it, except to know it was dark-skinned, had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

Mouth full of worms. Sweets filled with poison. The slow death of a city.

Dark Guide.

“You shouldn’t have interfered, Shaman,” the Dark Guide said. “You shouldn’t have hidden the Bridge from us by hiding the Asylum. You have become more than an inconvenience, so you will disappear.”

The voice sounded like claws slicing through his flesh.

Danyal swallowed hard and eased one foot back until his heel rested on the bridge. He needed help. He needed a way to escape.

this way

The pocket watch began to tingle. His hand tightened over it as he eased his foot back a little farther.

Pugnos and Styks rubbed their right thumbs over the pads of their first two fingers—and smiled viciously.

The Shamans had no understanding of these wizards, no way to fight this thing. He had to get back to the Asylum so that Lee could help him find the people who did understand.

Before all the Shamans died.

Before Vision disappeared.

this way

The pocket watch felt warmer.

“Do you think you can outrun wizards’ lightning?” the Dark Guide asked, laughing. “Try.”

Let my heart guide me to what I seek. Danyal sent that wish into the world with all the strength he had.

The pocket watch tingled so hard it buzzed against his palm.

Danyal spun around and ran back across the bridge.

He saw the Apothecary standing next to the horse and traveling wagon. As his foot touched the apex of the bridge, something struck his right shoulder and hip, burning through his robe and clothes, burning through skin and into muscle.

He stumbled, staggered, and almost fell as he adjusted to the footing of the cobblestone street in front of him.

Night instead of afternoon sun, and a refreshing crispness in the air that heralded a change of seasons. Cobblestone street instead of packed earth. Colored lights on poles gave the place a festive look, but…

Something out of nightmare stepped out of one of the buildings—a cross between a man and a bull. Danyal lurched away from it and gasped at the pain in his shoulder and hip.

He kept moving down the street, and with every step the tingling in the pocket watch faded a little more.

He reached a place that had a courtyard with tables and erotic statues. Suddenly a dark-haired man stepped out into the street a few paces in front of Danyal. Another man, this one with light brown hair, stepped out beside the first. A third, a blond, moved in front of a woman.

The dark-haired man rubbed his right thumb against finger pads. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“I seek…help,” Danyal said.

“There’s some grand music in him,” the brown-haired man said quietly.

“That doesn’t explain what he’s doing here,” the dark-haired man replied.

“Bridge,” Danyal gasped. Hard to think past the pain. Hard to breathe past the pain. “And…this.” He opened his hand.

“Lady’s mercy,” the brown-haired man said. “I asked the wild child to take the pocket watches to Lee.”

The dark-haired man moved close enough for Danyal to see the sharp green eyes. “You know Lee?”

“Y-yes. As…y…lum.” His legs began to buckle. If he asked, would they give him water? “H-heat sick.”

Another male voice, probably the blond, said, “Daylight, Sebastian! He’s been hit by lightning!”

Sounds. Voices. Movement. Everything coated in thick syrup. Hands taking away his clothes. Hands gently touching him. The relief of cool water drawing the heat from his skin. Feeling ice-cold and shivering uncontrollably while he burned.

Sounds. Voices. Movement. Then music, so familiar and nothing he’d heard before, wrapped around him, and everything else went away.