Bridge of Dreams

Chapter 25

Keeping his eyes closed, Lee shifted onto his back, put one hand behind his head, and listened to familiar sounds that seemed new: the querying chirps and mutters of a keet who was interested in breakfast, followed by a woman’s voice saying quietly but firmly, “Shh. Lee’s still sleeping.” Added to that, the murmurs of a male voice; Sebastian, talking to Lynnea in the kitchen. Probably discussing if they were going to have breakfast here or go over to Nadia’s house early enough to eat there.

When Sebastian’s cottage had been in the Den’s landscape, Lee had bunked on the couch anytime he came to visit, as at home in his cousin’s cottage as he was in his mother’s house. But everything was different now. Sebastian’s cottage was in the daylight landscape of Aurora and just a few minutes’ walk from his own cottage and Nadia’s house. Sebastian was married, was the Den’s Justice Maker, and was going to be a father in a few months. Those were significant changes for an incubus who had thought he was the Den’s best badass.

Everything began changing when Lynnea stumbled into the Den, altering Sebastian’s life. So maybe it hadn’t been Michael coming into their lives that had started the restless itch that had grown inside him over the past few months. Maybe it had been Sebastian changing that had tilted everything just enough that he’d looked at his own life and had wanted more. He just hadn’t known what the more might be. Now he had seen a different kind of life, different possibilities.

But would it be possible to bridge his old life with those new possibilities? Or would the old prove too strong and smother the new? Only one way to find out.

Pushing back the sheet and summer blanket, Lee stood up and scrubbed his fingers over his hair. Then he put on the dark glasses to protect his eyes from the day’s light and made his way to the kitchen to join Sebastian and Lynnea.

Danyal sat at the big wooden table in Nadia’s kitchen, watching her cook a mound of food for breakfast. He had offered to help, but apparently she had her own system when it came to preparing a big meal for an extended family, and he wasn’t part of that system.

It hadn’t escaped his notice that Caitlin had been expected to help. He wasn’t sure if that was a comment about gender or an expectation of family versus guest.

It made him curious about whether Yoshani was considered family or guest.

Grumbling male voices approached the outer screen door. Then Sebastian entered the kitchen, followed by Lee.

Nadia glanced over her shoulder. “Have you had breakfast?”

“He did and caused a ruckus,” Sebastian growled. “Lynnea will be along as soon as things quiet down at home.”

“You’re turning this into a drama,” Lee snapped. “And I didn’t have breakfast.”

Sebastian turned, standing toe-to-toe with his cousin. “Damn it, Lee! You ate the bird’s toast.”

Danyal stared at the two men, sure he’d misheard.

“He gets a corner of a piece. I ate the rest of it. So what?”

“He didn’t know he just got a corner!” Sebastian replied hotly. “And he still wouldn’t know if you hadn’t torn off the corner in front of him instead of cutting it at the counter. And he wouldn’t have known he doesn’t get what the other people get on their toast if you hadn’t stood there slathering butter and jelly on your part of it and talking about it while you did it.”

“Daylight, Sebastian! He’s just a keet. He’s not that smart.”

“He’s smart enough to have figured out the thing he hasn’t been getting is called butter, which is a word he didn’t know yesterday and was trying to say by the time we left.”

Danyal considered the absurdity of two grown men arguing about the diet of a small bird, and had every intention of inserting himself into the argument. Then he saw Nadia turn away from the stove at the same moment Sparky, one of Nadia’s keets, flew over to the inner screened door that separated the kitchen from the keets’ room.

Sparky chirped and whistled and said, “Pazzeh bacon. Gimme kiss!”

Danyal choked, trying not to laugh.

Lee and Sebastian turned toward that door and said, “Not now, Sparky!”

Jeb walked into the kitchen and sniffed. “Is something burning?”

“Cunchy!” Sparky said.

“Their breakfast,” Nadia said darkly.

Jeb looked at Sebastian and Lee. Then he shook his head and sighed. Nadia turned back to the stove, removing the overcrisped bacon from the pan and setting it on a plate to drain.

Glorianna and Michael entered the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” Glorianna asked.

“Glorianna, keep an eye on the stove and the timer,” Nadia said. “The sweet rolls are almost done, and they won’t be edible at all if they burn.”

Lee and Sebastian flinched when Nadia walked past them and out of the kitchen. She returned a few moments later and handed each of them a large pail.

“Stones and weeds,” she said. “When those pails are full, you can come in and have breakfast with the rest of us.”

“Mother,” Lee began, “I don’t think I can—”

“Try.”

Lee and Sebastian trudged out the kitchen door, passing Lynnea and Yoshani on their way in.

Michael leaned over Danyal’s shoulder and whispered, “What started this?”

“Lee ate the bird’s toast,” Danyal whispered back.

“Tch.” Michael shook his head. “He should know better.”

Zhahar, Medusah, Kobrah, and the two shadowmen followed Teaser up the Den’s main street.

“Teaser?” Zhahar raised her voice enough to be heard.

The incubus turned around to face her.

How did he manage that cocky swagger while walking backward? “I thought it was dangerous for the Tryad to go over these bridges.”

“Not crossing over on a bridge,” Teaser replied. “Glorianna’s figured out how to get you all to Aurora without using one. That’s why we’re meeting her in the field beyond the street.”

“What’s she going to do?”

“Don’t know.” He turned and kept walking.

“He seems unconcerned,” Medusah said, her eyes scanning the street and the alleyways.

*You should be the one in view,* Zhahar told Zeela.

=Right now, you make better bait,= Zeela replied.

Kobrah bristled and gave Medusah a hard look. “Teaser’s nice.”

“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” Medusah replied. “But he has no stake in what happens to any of us or our lands.”

“Maybe he has that much confidence in Glorianna’s abilities,” Zhahar said. If thoughts and words truly carried so much weight in this part of the world, she was determined to send out positive thoughts about Glorianna.

She felt her mothers’ gaze, knew each of them had taken a look at her to reach their own conclusions.

::Mother won’t let anything happen to us,:: Sholeh said.

She wouldn’t want to let anything happen to them, but Morragen Medusah a Zephyra was the leader of the Tryad and had to uphold the laws and taboos their people lived by when it came to dealing with people of single aspect.

Allone was a reminder of why she didn’t want to go back to Tryadnea, but it was no longer safe to be around Lee. Having a man of single aspect as a lover was considered distasteful, but satisfying physical needs while on assignment in a one-face land was understood to some extent. Having feelings for such a man? That was taboo, and she was afraid her feelings were too apparent.

“Hey-a,” Teaser called as he hurried toward Michael.

“A good morning to you all,” Michael said, smiling. The smile dimmed for a moment when he looked at Zhahar and Medusah, then returned to its previous brightness.

Teaser stopped and cocked his head. “Isn’t that Lee’s island?”

“It’s the island that used to resonate with him,” Michael said. “Now it resonates with Glorianna, if not in quite the same way.”

::Island?:: Sholeh said. ::Shouldn’t it be called a grove, since those are the only trees in this field?::

Glorianna appeared at the edge of a path between two trees. A path, Zhahar noticed, that didn’t extend past those trees.

“There is a temporary border between the island and the field so you can cross from one to the other,” Glorianna said.

When the shadowmen gave Teaser a questioning look, he stepped up beside Glorianna, then walked past. The Apothecary and the Knife followed him.

Kobrah grabbed Zhahar’s hand, so they stepped up to the path together. As soon as both her feet were on the path, Zhahar heard the patter of raindrops on leaves—and squinted at the sudden daylight.

“Make room for your mother and Michael,” Glorianna said. “Hurry up, Magician. It’s starting to rain.”

Confused, Zhahar moved up the path a few steps.

=How can it be raining here when it wasn’t raining a few steps away?= Zeela asked.

::Glorianna said this was a border, so we must be someplace that isn’t the Den,:: Sholeh said, sounding excited. ::Zhahar, can I take a look?::

At what? Zhahar wondered as Sholeh came into view for a minute and looked up at the branches that formed an openwork canopy.

As soon as Medusah and Michael walked onto the island, Glorianna said, “Ephemera.”

Still looking up at the trees, Zhahar came back into view and didn’t think anything had changed until Medusah asked sharply, “Why is there water where the field used to be?”

“This island is located in the middle of a stream,” Glorianna replied. “We’re in Sanctuary for the moment.”

“This place,” Zephyra whispered, coming into view. “This is a heart-healing place.”

Glorianna gave her a curious look. “Yes, it is. Does your land have a place like this? A Place of Light?”

A great sadness filled Zephyra’s face before her aspect waned. Medusah came back into view and said, “Not anymore.”

Nodding, Glorianna closed her eyes. A moment later, the stream was gone. Beyond the path was a different daylight and another field—and no rain.

“Teaser, you and Michael go first, since I know you resonate with Aurora,” Glorianna said.

Teaser winked at Kobrah and stepped off the island.

“Is something on your mind, Zhahar?” Medusah asked as Glorianna had Kobrah come to the edge of the path.

Lee. Finding a place where love isn’t paid for by death. Getting away from the Tryad and Tryadnea before it’s too late. “No,” she lied. “Nothing.”

Lee walked beside Yoshani, self-conscious about the dark glasses and hat, and more aware of what he wasn’t seeing because he knew his mother’s land so well.

“Daylight,” he muttered when they crossed the footbridge that separated Nadia’s personal gardens from open land and the walled garden that held her landscapes. “Why did Glorianna set the island so far from the house?”

“I don’t know,” Yoshani said mildly. “Perhaps she and Nadia felt that was the best place.”

“It’s not like…” Lee trailed off as he paid attention to the resonances of two landscapes. He lengthened his stride as much as he dared, reaching Glorianna just as Zhahar stepped up between two trees.

“I’d like each of you to come into view and hold until I tell you to change,” Glorianna said.

Lee clamped his teeth to hold back the questions he wanted to ask. Now wasn’t the time to interrupt Glorianna’s attention.

He couldn’t tell colors as colors yet, but the difference between Zeela’s dark hair and Zhahar’s light brown was something he could distinguish, and he could make out a little more detail in their faces.

“Interesting,” Glorianna said quietly.

“What?” he asked.

“Zhahar and Sholeh resonate with Aurora. Zeela does not.”

“Does that mean Zeela shouldn’t come into view while we’re here?”

Glorianna shook her head. “I don’t think Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar could cross a stationary bridge and reach Aurora if Zeela’s aspect was in view, but once they reached this landscape, any of the sisters could be here. It just wouldn’t hold the same interest for each of them. Same as in the Den last night. Sholeh or Zeela could cross over using a bridge, but Zhahar wouldn’t be able to reach the Den that way.” She wagged her fingers. “Zhahar, you can step off the island so I can see the aspects of Morragen Medusah a Zephyra.”

Zhahar stepped off the island and went over to join Kobrah instead of moving to stand by Lee.

Was she self-conscious because her mothers were here, or did that choice signal something more?

He expected Zephyra to resonate with his mother’s landscape. It surprised him that Morragen was the other aspect that resonated with Aurora, since she reminded him more of Zeela. But that could mean Medusah was the darkest aspect of that Tryad—and, most likely, the most dangerous.

Morragen stepped off the island. A moment later, he heard all their visitors gasp as the island disappeared and they were standing in open land near a walled garden.

In the silence that followed, while they absorbed what they had seen, he absorbed what he had just felt. He was close enough to see his sister’s face. Close enough to make out her expression.

“You swapped land in order to shift the island to Aurora?” he asked, sure he had to be wrong.

“Yes,” Glorianna replied. “Doing that created a temporary border.”

“Guardians and Guides! Why didn’t you impose the island over the landscape? If you’re exchanging equal ground, you’re risking something crossing into Sanctuary that shouldn’t be there!”

“You could impose the island over other landscapes. It doesn’t respond that way for me.”

“Daylight, Glorianna! What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking this was a practical way of moving several people without losing one of them. Besides,” she added sharply, “I was exchanging ground with one of my landscapes and one of Mother’s. Very little risk.”

“But a lot of risk if you’re shifting to someplace unknown,” he shot back.

“Which I didn’t do.”

No, she hadn’t. He felt a little foolish for arguing about it, and wasn’t sure why he was arguing, except that the island had been his and he felt a deep affection for it.

And yet he had let it go, along with so many other things that had held a piece of his heart.

“Is there any breakfast left?” Teaser asked.

“Aye, there is,” Michael replied. “Shall we go up to the house?”

Lee walked over to Zhahar. “Want to give me a hand up to the house?”

An odd hesitation before she said, “Of course.”

She offered her arm. Instead, he took her hand and started walking, not pretending that he needed any help.

“Did you sleep all right?” he asked. “When you spend enough time in the Den, you learn to sleep through all the ordinary noises—or don’t try to sleep until the Den settles down for a few hours. After Sebastian’s cottage shifted to Aurora, we finally realized the businesses in the Den closed down when most of the guests left, which was around dawn in the daylight landscapes that were in the same part of the world.” He laughed softly. “Whatever part that is.”

“It was fine,” she said stiffly. “I appreciate your cousin letting Kobrah and me use his room.”

“Huh.” Keeping a firm grip on her hand, he led her away from the kitchen door so they wouldn’t be underfoot of the people wanting to go inside and get some breakfast. “The words say one thing; the tone says something else. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.”

He bent his head, intending to give her a light kiss to remind her that she wasn’t alone here. She had acted as his guide when he was fumbling his way around the Asylum; now he could help her adjust to the landscapes that were Tryadnea’s neighbors. But when she turned her head to avoid his kiss, he released her hand and took a step back.

“Yeah,” he said with some bite in his voice. “Not a damn thing is wrong.”

She looked past him, and he wondered who was supposed to be the audience for this little show.

“It’s not appropriate for us to be intimate,” she said, sounding too much like a Handler for his liking.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not appropriate,” she insisted.

“Why?” His chest muscles tightened, squeezing his heart. He stared at her until his eyes burned from the effort to see her more clearly. Except he didn’t think it was his eyes that needed clarity.

“It wasn’t appropriate when we were at the Asylum,” he said slowly. “Any kind of physical relationship with an inmate could have been viewed as a misuse of your authority. I understood that. But I’m not an inmate anymore, Zhahar, and I’m not going to be again.” When she didn’t say anything, he looked toward the people going into the house. A group was still at the back of the lawn, looking at something, but among those watching them while heading into the house for breakfast was Morragen Medusah a Zephyra.

“Being a Handler wasn’t the reason you retreated as much as you encouraged, was it?” he asked softly, his heart getting squeezed a little harder. “That was the excuse. Something kept pulling us toward each other, maybe even before we actually met. And now there’s something in the way. What is it? Your mothers? Or just the prejudice your people feel for anyone who isn’t Tryad?”

“It’s more than prejudice,” she said, not trying to hide her own bitterness. “It’s taboo to get involved with a man of single aspect. The penalties are harsh, Lee, and I can’t take the chance of being accused of having feelings for you.”

He stepped away from her. “If you knew you couldn’t love me, if you knew there were reasons why you wouldn’t allow this to ripen past a few kisses, you should have told me. You should have given me a choice about whether I wanted those kisses when there couldn’t be anything more.”

“Would you have wanted them?” she asked, challenging.

“Not from you.” She looked shocked, so he added, “I would, and have, accepted those restrictions from other women because I couldn’t give them anything more than a passing affection. But I feel more than passing affection for you, so I would have preferred to have nothing than just a taste of what I can’t have.” Heading for the gate in the stone wall that separated his mother’s personal land from the woodland that they all considered a joint concern, he said over his shoulder, “You should get something to eat. It’s going to be a long day.”

He’d gotten through the gate and had taken a dozen steps down the path when Teaser caught up to him.

“Where are you going?” Teaser asked.

“Don’t know.” Not far, since he had no intention of straying off the path that ran between his cottage and Nadia’s house.

“Why are you going?”

“Because I got my heart bruised just now, and I don’t want to face Zhahar and her mothers while I sit at my mother’s table. I’m not feeling that polite.”

“Ah.” They walked in silence for a minute. Then Teaser asked, “What about Sholeh and Zeela? You could ask one of them to come into view during the meal if you don’t want to deal with Zhahar. They like you.”

“I like them too, but I don’t want to have sex with them.”

“Well, daylight, Lee. I wasn’t talking about having sex with them—or anyone else—in front of everyone. Especially at your mother’s table. Or on the table. Because it’s Nadia’s, and that wouldn’t be proper.” A pause. “Would it be proper? Do you think she and—”

“No,” Lee snapped, refusing to think about Nadia and Jeb doing anything that intimate. “I wasn’t talking about having sex in front of anyone. But I was interested in having sex with Zhahar, until she made it clear just now that her interest in me never ran that deep.” Couldn’t run that deep, which wasn’t the same thing. What kind of penalties was she talking about?

“So you want to have sex with Zhahar but not with Sholeh and Zeela.”

“That’s right.” Or was last night.

“Can you have sex with one of them and not the others?” Teaser asked thoughtfully.

Lee stopped walking. It figured that an incubus would be too curious about Tryad sexuality not to keep circling around the question. “I don’t know. Maybe not. I had the impression they can give each other some measure of privacy, but since they share a physical core…” The idea of finding himself in bed with Zeela didn’t have any appeal, but waking up and finding himself beside Sholeh? That would feel too much like finding himself with Caitlin Marie, who was Michael’s younger sister and family now. “Maybe it is a case of all or none. But if that’s true, Zhahar should have told me.”

Teaser cocked his head. “Could she? We had the impression her being Tryad was a big secret.”

“It was,” Lee conceded. “Talking about the details of intimacy would be hard enough under any circumstances, and it isn’t something she would have done when she was still trying to hide what she was. But after I knew she was Tryad, she should have told me if we couldn’t be lovers instead of letting me believe it was possible. Somehow. I would have been disappointed, but I would have respected her choice.”

“Even if she wasn’t the one making the choice?”

Lee sighed. “You’re spending too much time with Yoshani. Or Danyal. Or both.”

Teaser grinned. “Or maybe, since we’re talking about sex, I’m the best-qualified person to talk to.”

A rather terrifying thought—which made it oddly comforting.

“How would you feel about going back to the house and slipping a plate of food out to me?” Lee asked.

“Where are you going to be?”

He turned and started walking back to Nadia’s house. “In the garden. It’s a good place to brood.”

Carrying a full plate and two mugs, Danyal walked to the bench in the garden. Lee looked up, then huffed out a breath and smiled.

“I wondered who would bring the plate,” Lee said. “Didn’t expect it to be you.”

“You don’t think I would have that much compassion?” Danyal asked as he handed over the plate.

“I figured you were the only man in the house besides Teaser who wouldn’t be looking for an excuse to come out here and yell at me.”

“Ah.” Danyal sat down and put one mug on the bench between them. “Well, you’re half right. I welcomed the excuse to come out here. But I didn’t come to yell; I came to listen.”

Lee ate some scrambled eggs and swore mildly when the bacon crumbled.

“Problem?” Danyal asked.

“Mother saved the overcooked bacon for me because I don’t like it this way. She’s a firm believer in letting people live with the consequences of their actions as a way of learning life’s lessons.” He was hungry, so he ate the bacon anyway. “You heard about this morning?”

“You, Sebastian, and the bird? I saw the second half of that drama—and have an itching regret that I missed the first half, which is not an appropriate feeling for a Shaman to have.”

“I stirred things up. I can claim I didn’t know what would happen, but I grew up in my mother’s house. I knew what would happen. I just don’t know why I did it.”

“You know,” Danyal replied, smiling.

“Shaman, I’m not sure I know much of anything right now.”

“Then I’ll tell you,” Danyal said. “The bird and the toast are symbols of the new life Sebastian is building. In order to have those things, he had to see the world differently, and that changed his life. So he values the bird, the toast, and the morning ritual. For you, they are symbols of what you left behind. Because you have a warm, generous family, it would be easy to go back to the life you had, fall back into the patterns and routines. You need something different, and you’re afraid you’ll go back to those patterns. So you pushed away the symbols and caused disruption so that you don’t fit quite so easily into the life you left behind.”

More than a spat with his cousin about a bird was causing the storm building in Lee’s heart-core. Wondering if the turbulence he felt in Zhahar had the same root, Danyal decided to probe gently.

Before he could shape his question, Lee set his fork on the plate, then lifted the mug of koffee.

“What about you?” Lee asked. “Will you fit back into the life you had in Vision before you crossed the bridge that brought you here?”

“No, I won’t.” Danyal saw Lee’s concern and smiled. “I don’t regret that. I hope there is a way to return to Vision and help the other Shamans deal with the wizards and the Dark Guide, but I have much to learn from the people I’ve met here, and, in learning it, I hope to discover the new shape of my own life.”

Lee set down the mug and resumed eating.

Danyal looked out at the garden, since it seemed rude to watch Lee eat. He regretted the darkness that now touched Vision, and he regretted the wounds on his shoulder and hip that were still healing, but he didn’t regret stumbling over that bridge and finding himself among these people. He was a Shaman, would always be a Shaman, but he had looked at Yoshani and the choices that holy man had made and had seen a truth about himself: he no longer wanted to be the kind of Shaman he had been. He wasn’t certain he could be the kind of Shaman he had been, even if he’d wanted to stay within those boundaries. His heart had been ready for change, had craved it. And here it was. Now he had to figure out how to make the most of it.

“By the way, the Apothecary thinks he’ll be able to make another mixture that will improve your sight more than the eyedrops you have now,” Danyal said.

Lee’s hand trembled, shaking the scrambled eggs off the fork. “I’m glad to hear it, but I thought there was a limit to what could be restored.”

“Before going up to the house, Glorianna had the world bring the sandbox to Nadia’s garden.”

“Ah.” Lee nodded. “I saw the gathering and wondered, but I was embroiled in my own concerns.”

“The Apothecary had found one of the plants last night in the Den. All the ingredients for this healing mixture are brought into the city by ships from other places, and many of the plants lose much of their potency by the time they are sold in the bazaar.”

Lee smiled. “The plants are here, aren’t they?”

“Nadia recognized some; Glorianna recognized others. I thought the Apothecary was going to weep when Caitlin Marie, pointing out a plant whose dried leaves are so expensive several shadowmen buy a bundle and split it, said the plant grew wild in the field behind her house. He thinks brewing the potion for the eyedrops from fresh-picked plants will double the healing power. If this potion does what he thinks it will, you might regain most of your sight.”

Lee set the plate on the bench. “May your heart travel lightly, because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape.” He paused. “Why did I end up being blinded in a city called Vision, Danyal? Why did you end up in the Den of Iniquity? As Sebastian is fond of saying, no one comes to the Den by mistake. By accident, yes, but not by mistake.”

He’d been wondering the same thing. “Isn’t it our task to find out?” He sighed. “Along with finding a way of returning to Vision.”

Lee straightened up slowly. “Heart music.”

Danyal frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Sorrow and joy.” Lee stood up. “I have to talk to Glorianna.”

No hesitation in Lee’s movements as he skirted the end of the bench and strode toward the house. No indication that anything interfered with his sight.

What interferes with my sight? Danyal wondered. And what has changed Zhahar from a calm summer lake to swift rapids?

Gathering the plate and mugs, he returned to the house.

“Glorianna,” Medusah said. “We need to speak with you about a potential danger.”

Glorianna led the a Zephyra Tryad into Nadia’s parlor. “A danger to the Den? From Tryadnea?” The darkness that was Belladonna pushed at her. Who better to deal with danger than the monster that Evil feared? But she held on to the Light in order to listen.

“Not a danger to your people,” Medusah said. “But a potential danger to Zhahar, and a reason for your people to think ill of us.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s possible that someone else from my homeland slipped across the border. Zhahar thought she’d seen Allone in the Den last night.”

A jagged song, Michael had said. She had sensed it as a heart that held too much darkness. A corrupt heart linked to a strong mind—a presence strong enough that even Sebastian had felt its sourness in the Den’s Dark currents.

“Allone is an aspect of a Tryad?” Glorianna asked.

Medusah shook her head. “She is what is left of a Tryad after the three were merged into one.”

Everything in Glorianna went still. “What exactly does that mean?”

“She chose the man who claimed to love her over her sisters, and by our customs, her sisters’ lives were the payment for that love.”

Glorianna held Michael’s hand as they followed Lee and Sebastian to the stable in the Den, where they had left the Apothecary’s wagon. At first Lee had insisted that he needed to talk to her; then he changed his mind and said there was something he had to show her.

Medusah hadn’t told her much about this merging that was the punishment for breaking Tryad taboos, but the woman had said enough for her to listen very carefully to the hearts around her—especially Lee’s and Zhahar’s.

“There are some grating notes in his music now,” Michael said quietly, lifting his chin to indicate Lee.

That wasn’t surprising. “Do you know why?” she asked.

The music Michael heard in people’s hearts was the way he recognized when someone didn’t fit into a place anymore. Whatever he could tell her would add to her own sense of what was building around them since last night.

“The music doesn’t tell me the why, but Lee puts me in mind of a man who’s pulling both ends of a rope. No matter which side wins, he still loses.”

He studied her, but she doubted he saw much. There wasn’t much moonlight, and Sebastian and Lee had the lanterns.

“What’s on your mind, darling?” Michael finally asked.

“The Wish River and what it looks like in the places where heart wishes are in conflict.” Wild. Raging. Water smashing against itself and breaking anything that it could pound against the rocks. Early last night—before the appearance of Allone?—several heart wishes had been flowing in the same direction. This morning? Wild, raging water with fierce undercurrents.

Glorianna stopped as soon as they drew even with the Den’s cobblestone main street.

Heart wishes in conflict, smashing against each other. Ephemera’s currents of power swirling around her. Enough fury to glut the Dark currents in the Den.

hurry hurry hurry

And a suspicion about the bloodlines of a Tryad who was no longer three.

“I need to check the border between the Den and Tryadnea, and I need Sebastian to go with me,” she said. “Can you stay here with Lee and find out what he wanted to show me?”

“I can. But shouldn’t I go with you?”

She shook her head. “I need you with Lee, and I need the wizard with me.”

Michael stared at her. Then he whistled sharply. Sebastian turned and headed back to them. Lee walked on a few more steps before he stopped and, after a noticeable pause, turned back to join them.

His heart is more sensitive to the Dark currents than it used to be, she thought. More sensitive—and more responsive to the darkness in other hearts. Like mine is.

When she explained that she needed to check the border, Lee said testily, “Can’t it wait a few minutes? Can’t you even give me that much time?”

They looked at him, and even he seemed confused by the words.

“Glorianna,” Lee began.

“You need to get away from the Den,” she said with the quiet conviction he had never questioned. “You need to get back to Aurora now.”

“Is someone whispering to you, Lee?” Sebastian asked.

Lee swayed. Michael grabbed his arm.

“Guardians and Guides,” Lee whispered.

“Nothing that invasive,” Glorianna said firmly. “But definitely something that doesn’t belong here.” She felt herself start to slide toward Belladonna’s darker state of mind. “Lee, please.”

She walked away from all of them. Had to.

Thorn trees with the succulent fruit of rotting bodies. Death rollers hiding in the only fresh water available. Trapspiders as big as dogs, waiting for the unwary. Vines that took root under the skin, spreading fast to anchor around bone so that they couldn’t be torn out. Growing out of the skin and spreading until they covered their prey—until their weight was too much to carry, and even a grown man finally buckled while the vines fed on him.

She would not bring those things to the Den. She wouldn’t. But there were times when she struggled from one minute to the next to make a choice that belonged to the Light.

Love, not sex, was the taboo between a Tryad and a one-faced man. If a Tryad could have an aspect that was a Bridge, there could be some among them who were sired by a wizard—or even a Dark Guide. Someone who fed the Dark currents and had some of the wizards’ ability to persuade others into making a truth out of lies could drain hope from a people—especially if there was another explanation for her bitterness and anger.

Everything is in motion, she thought. But I—and Belladonna—can help Zhahar choose which darkness is her fate.

When Glorianna paid attention to her surroundings again, she was almost to the other end of the Den’s main street, and Sebastian was walking beside her.

“You want to tell me what we’re walking toward?” he asked when they stepped from the cobblestone street to the dirt lane that led to the Merry Makers’ landscape as well as Tryadnea.

“A possible confrontation with a wizard’s offspring.”

He swore. “Does this person have the lightning?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt it. I think at least one aspect of the Morragen Medusah a Zephyra Tryad would have died by now if their enemy could command wizards’ lightning.”

“Guardians and Guides,” he muttered.

“Come on,” she said. “We need to check that border.”

They broke into a run, slowing down when they reached the stone markers. Those stones were unchanged, and, Glorianna noted with relief, the large triangles of stone that marked the actual border were in place. But the border itself didn’t feel quite right.

Sebastian caught her arm and pulled her back before she stepped between the stone triangles.

“Let me cross over,” he said. “Just in case there’s trouble in Tryadnea.”

“I’m not sure the trouble is in Tryadnea,” she replied. “But I do know that border doesn’t feel right. If you cross over, you may not be able to get back.”

“I have a one-shot bridge that will take me back to the Den, so I’ll get back here one way or another.”

“All right.” She didn’t like watching him walk up to that border, didn’t like watching him cross over to Tryadnea.

Except Sebastian didn’t cross over. He should have disappeared from sight, should have been standing in Tryadnea the moment he passed between the stones. But she could still see him, and that proved something wasn’t right.

Resonances. Tryadnea had wanted to belong to her, but now it was pulling away, resisting the connection. Why? Because the Den was a dark landscape? Or because the Den wasn’t dark enough? All right, the carnal carnival wasn’t the most convenient connection, but it was a connection to other parts of Ephemera. And what other people would be so accepting of a three-faced bitch who looked down at her brother and cousin?

The Tryad thought the Den wasn’t dark enough? She knew a place that would welcome the Tryad. That landscape was still within reach, was always within reach. It would be so easy to add Tryadnea to the landscapes in the Eater of the World’s domain. Bonelovers and trapspiders wouldn’t care how many faces the prey wore as long as the flesh was juicy. And the Eater would welcome the diversion of taking a few Tryad apart to learn how to become one and use their own shape to hunt them.

They didn’t want this little piece of her darkness? Then they could have…

Sebastian.

The cousin whose heart had saved her stood between the border stones, and even though he was little more than a dark shape, she knew he waited for her to decide if she was going to struggle back to the Light. He understood that struggle, which is why he didn’t take a sunrise for granted. And because he understood, she made the exhausting effort to be Glorianna instead of Belladonna.

She was about to tell him she was in control of herself when he pressed a finger to his lips, warning her to be quiet. He took a few steps away from the border, then moved off to his right. She followed him on her side. He moved cautiously, and she wondered what he sensed that she couldn’t.

Still moving cautiously, he retraced his steps and returned to her side of the border. Before she could ask any questions, he shook his head, took her arm, and walked halfway back to the lane that led to the Den.

“Why are you having so much trouble staying in balance?” he asked. “That’s the second time you slipped since we crossed over from Aurora. Do you need to go back to the Island in the Mist—or stay away from the dark landscapes?”

She considered the question, then shook her head. “I’ll be all right. What happened when you crossed the border?”

Sebastian studied her as best he could in starlight. “I could hear some of the men talking. Couldn’t see them, couldn’t see a fire or their camp, but I could hear them.”

“How did they sound?”

“Excited. Impressed by the way you came to their land. Hopeful that this time the connection will hold and they can be a part of the world again. And a couple of them were scared about what Morragen would say when they told her a woman slipped past them and went to the Den.”

“A woman called Allone?”

Sebastian nodded. “She returned before dawn and seemed pleased about something. Maybe an incubus gave her a tumble.”

I doubt that would have pleased her. But destroying someone else’s life certainly would.

“Is this because of me and Morragen snapping at each other yesterday when we were waiting for you?”

“You’re not the dissonance that disrupted the border,” she said.

“But someone is?”

“Oh yes. Someone is.” She studied the stone triangles. “Conflicting heart wishes, not only between separate people but within Morragen Medusah a Zephyra.” How much courage do you have? Will you sacrifice your daughter for your people?

Nothing she wanted to do about that border, since the Den was safer if Tryad couldn’t cross over, so she started walking back to the lane.

“What is your impression of our guests?” she asked.

“Which ones?” Sebastian countered. “Danyal is solid. He’s intrigued by the Den, but he could have just as easily ended up stumbling into Aurora, and the result would be the same—he’s looking to change, and you, Aunt Nadia, and Michael are the ones who can show him different possibilities. Probably you and Michael. I gather Danyal is more like you two than like Auntie.”

“I agree with that. Go on.”

“Kobrah has seen some dark places. She wouldn’t find the Den on her own, though. Too carnal for her.”

“She wouldn’t find Aurora on her own either,” Glorianna said. “The currents of Light are too strong to resonate with her as she is now. The fact that she’s working at the Asylum is a measure of where her heart is.”

“Didn’t get much of a feel for Morragen Medusah a Zephyra, except that I’d like all her visits to be short ones,” Sebastian said. “But her daughters?” He blew out a breath. “Zeela could settle into the Den without a second thought. She’s tough and physical—and probably knows more about men and sex than the other two combined. Sholeh reminds me of Lynnea when she first came to the Den—a little stunned, but determined to grab at a chance to have an adventure before someone takes away that chance.”

“She’s also physically more fragile than the other two,” Glorianna said. “Which makes me wonder if all the Tryad have one weaker sibling.”

“You think there’s truth in that story Yoshani and Michael patched together last night?”

“Something to think about. So we’re down to Zhahar.”

“Doesn’t fit in the Den.”

“Where else doesn’t she fit?” Glorianna asked softly. But that wasn’t a question either of them could answer. At least, not yet.

A demon cycle gave them a ride to the stationary bridge that led to Aurora. When they crossed over, they found Lee and Michael waiting for them outside Sebastian’s cottage.

Glorianna glanced at the rolled blanket at Michael’s feet but didn’t ask about it.

“Lee might have an access point to Vision,” Michael said, “but we weren’t sure where to set it up to test that possibility.”

“Vision will have to wait,” Glorianna said as she stepped in front of Lee. “What were you and Zhahar arguing about at Mother’s house?”

“It’s private,” he replied.

There was a snap of temper in his voice, but under that snap was hurt.

“It may be personal,” she countered, “but it’s no longer private. Lee, the border between the Den and Tryadnea has faded to the point where no one can cross over.”

He reached up and pulled off the dark glasses. “What are you talking about? That border was solid.”

“Yes, it was solid. Now it’s acting like the White Isle did when we first tried to approach. Sebastian could hear the men talking but couldn’t see them, couldn’t actually cross over.”

“But Tryadnea is your landscape,” Lee protested.

“I think there’s a power struggle going on in Tryadnea that we aren’t privy to, so maybe not everyone wants Tryadnea to be one of my landscapes,” Glorianna said. “Maybe there are some who want that land to remain barren. What I do know is that Zhahar is at the center of this.”

“Zhahar wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her homeland,” Lee said. “And she certainly wouldn’t want to strip her people of the first chance they’ve had in years of making a solid connection to another part of the world.”

“She’s the tool, Lee,” she said softly.

He swore quietly but with considerable heat. Then he removed the soft-brimmed hat and scrubbed one hand over his head. “Zhahar has decided that she doesn’t have feelings for me, isn’t going to have feelings for me, that it was all a moment’s madness between a Handler and an inmate, with the romantic notions all on my side.” He shrugged.

She didn’t need to see the hurt in his eyes; she felt it in his heart.

“Do you believe that?” Michael asked.

“Lee, what would happen if Tryadnea broke away from the Den and went adrift again?” Glorianna asked. “What would happen if you made a one-shot bridge that got Morragen back home and Zhahar didn’t go back?”

He shook his head. “I’d make a one-shot bridge for her too. I wouldn’t leave her stranded here, Glorianna. I’m churned up right now, but I’m not that selfish.”

“No,” she said with a smile. “You’re not. But if Zhahar didn’t go back?”

“She doesn’t like it here.”

“This isn’t the only place, Lee.”

“When you’re cut off from your own people, you can pick and choose the customs you want to keep.” Michael said. “Is that what you’re thinking?”

Glorianna nodded. “And you can get away from a kind of heart poison that lives inside too many of your people.” She looked at her brother. “The heart has no secrets, Bridge. Zhahar can lie to her mother. She can lie to you. She can even lie to herself. But she can’t lie to a Guide of the Heart, not when she’s standing in my landscapes. The romantic notions aren’t all on your side. I don’t know if that helps or hurts, but I can tell you that much.” And Zhahar will have to tell you the rest—if she chooses.

“What am I supposed to do?” Lee asked.

“Same thing we’ve always done—fix what we can and hope it’s enough.”

Michael picked up the rolled blanket. “Then let’s see what we can do with these.”

Opportunities and choices, Glorianna thought as the four of them walked back to Nadia’s house. It took courage to follow the heart.

It was time to find out who had that courage.