Bridge of Dreams (47 page)

When there was no response, he rose. “May your heart travel lightly, because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape. Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar wasn’t happy in Vision. They were surviving, and I think if
they had allowed Danyal to know what they were, they would have had an easier time of it.”

“One person’s acceptance doesn’t mean acceptance by everyone,” she said.

“Depends on the person.” He carried the pail over to the barrow and emptied it.

When he set it down, Zephyra called out, “There are still more stones among the flowers.”

“I know, but they aren’t mine to clear,” he replied. Then he walked away.

Glorianna tapped Sebastian’s shoulder. He signaled the demon cycle to slow down before he turned his head toward her.

“Let me off at the end of the street,” she said.

“Any particular reason?”

“Several. One being that I need some time to think.”

“But you are going to be sharing these thoughts, aren’t you?”

She heard the tension in his voice, felt the resonance of it in his heart. The last time she’d gone off alone, she hadn’t expected to find her way back to friends and family. Even so, she waited until they reached the end of the Den’s main street.

“I’m going to Sanctuary,” she said. “I’d like you to ask Michael, Yoshani, and Danyal to meet me there. Tell Danyal to bring the wind chimes.”

He studied her. “Tell those three? No one else?”

“No one else.”

“Why?”

“I can’t explain it yet. I’m not sure yet.”

“Yes, you are. You may not want to explain it, but you know why you’re going to Sanctuary.”

She kissed his cheek. “Opportunities and choices. What happens to the city of Vision is going to depend on opportunities and choices.”

“What about the border?”

“It’s solid. Checking on it was an excuse to get away from the house. Morragen wants to get back to her people, and she needs to get back. She
has an enemy there. Maybe more than one. Escort her to the border and watch her cross over.”

“Travel lightly, Glorianna,” he said.

Smiling, she walked away from him. Then she took the step between here and there—and breathed in the Light of Sanctuary.

She walked past the guesthouse and glanced toward the small island that split a stream—the island that had resonated with Lee. Michael’s aunt Brighid led a couple of people toward the guesthouse. The older woman smiled at Glorianna and raised a hand in greeting, but continued on.

Glorianna wandered over the grounds a few minutes more, then settled on the bench in front of a pond and watched the koi, letting the water and the movement of those graceful flashes of gold wash away troubling thoughts.

“Ephemera, hear me,” she whispered.

???

Closing her eyes, she recalled the sound of that wind chime. The sound of Light.

not yours

“I know. It’s the Place of Light that resonates with Voice-guide.”

yes

“Can I visit there, like I visit the Music’s landscapes?”

She felt Ephemera’s currents of power gently flowing around her and beyond her. She waited until the world returned with an answer.

visit

So she could help Danyal return home. And she could help him explain to the other Shamans what had happened to their city. She could do that much. The rest would be up to Danyal—and Lee.

She was thinking of going to the guesthouse for a glass of water and something to eat when Michael, Danyal, and Yoshani hurried toward her. Each carried a wrapped bundle and had a daypack slung over one shoulder.

“Hey-a,” she said, smiling as she linked her arm through Michael’s. “We have some things to discuss.”

I’m not ready to leave this place or these people
, Danyal thought as he watched Glorianna unwrap each wind chime and lift it to hear the chime sing. Michael and Yoshani smiled in response to the sound of each chime in turn, a sign that their hearts were touched by the joy that flowed out with the sound. But Glorianna looked more and more puzzled.

“Is there something about the sound that bothers you, Glorianna Dark and Wise?” Yoshani asked.

She pointed to each wind chime. “Restful. Peaceful. Joyful. But not an access point.”

Danyal felt an odd relief, swiftly followed by shame. The Shamans needed the knowledge he could bring back to them. The people in the city needed whatever help he could bring with him. Would he ever forgive himself if something happened to Kanzi, Nalah, or the baby because he did something that delayed his return?

“But it
was
an access point, yes?” Michael asked. “Back in Aurora?”

Glorianna handed Michael one of the chimes. “You ring them.” After he set each one to chiming, she shook her head. “Yoshani?” She shook her head again after he rang each chime. “Danyal?”

He began with the one that had the brightest sound and ended with the one he had picked up in her mother’s house, the one he thought would help her heart remember joy.

Glorianna nodded and pointed to each of the chimes. “Restful. Peaceful. Place of Light. It’s not just the wind chime. We have those here in Sanctuary, and plenty of people hang them around their homes. It’s a wind chime made in Vision in the hands of a Shaman.” She gave Danyal a sharp look. “Or perhaps in the hands of a particular Shaman. These other wind chimes are just chimes—pretty sounds that lift the spirit. But
that
one is an access point.”

“How can that be?” Danyal protested. “I’ve walked the Asylum grounds with this one many times and nothing unusual happened.”

“Perhaps unusual things happened all around you,” Glorianna replied gently, “but there was no one who recognized their significance. Or maybe it was your resonance combined with Lee’s that demanded a new way to express heart wishes.”

Voice-guide maker

Danyal jerked, setting the chime ringing again.

“Maker,” Glorianna said, nodding.

“I can use this to travel to other places?” he asked.

“I’m thinking that chime takes you back to the place it came from,” Michael said.

“But only you and whoever takes that step with you between here and there,” Glorianna added.

Danyal closed his eyes. His heart trembled.

Just tired
, he thought.
Just heart weary and tired.

“Shaman?” Glorianna said quietly.

Shaman. The title, not the man. He opened his eyes and replied, “Guide.”

Her smile told him she understood perfectly why he used her title too.

“It’s time to go,” she told him. Then she turned to Michael. “This may take a few days, but I’ll be back, Magician.”

“If you lose your way, just listen for the music.” Michael kissed her and stepped back.

“Should we take all the wind chimes?” Yoshani asked.

“Yes,” Glorianna replied. “These chimes belong to Vision.”

Two of the chimes were wrapped into a bundle Yoshani could easily carry. Danyal held the one that would take him home.

Glorianna linked one hand with Yoshani, then linked her other hand with his.

“Ephemera,” she called softly. “Hear me.”

When she squeezed his hand, Danyal set the chime to ringing. Within seconds, the ground in front of them filled with light, and he could smell the spice trees that grew in the Shamans’ compound.

“Now,” she whispered.

The three of them took a step. They took another step, and Danyal’s breath hitched as he stared at the building where the Shaman Council met and also mentored the older students.

Glorianna released his hand and smiled. “Welcome home.”

Lee turned his back to the kitchen door and windows, removed his dark glasses, and rubbed his eyes. As if
that
would change what he’d just heard. Putting the glasses back on, he looked at Michael. “She’s gone? Glorianna is
gone
?”

Michael nodded. “She left with Danyal and Yoshani. They’re going to the inner temples or whatever it’s called where the Shamans live.”

Lee’s hands curled into fists. “Guardians and Guides, man. Why didn’t you go with her?”

“I couldn’t.”

“No one but Yoshani and Danyal could go with her and reach Vision through that access point,” Sebastian said.

Hurried footsteps. Some coming toward the kitchen from outdoors; others from the front rooms of the house.

“Now what?” Nadia asked.

“Lee?” Zhahar said.

Tryad. One who is three. Three who are one.

“You and Sebastian are the other two sides of Glorianna’s triad now,” Lee shouted at Michael. “She shouldn’t be traveling without at least one of you.”

“She felt she was ready—” Michael began.

“I agree with Lee,” Sebastian interrupted as he hitched a hip on the kitchen table. “Glorianna has plenty of heart, but the Light isn’t all that good at self-defense. Maybe that will change over time, but that’s the truth of it now. And Belladonna can defend anything she pleases, but it’s not always easy for her to let go of that power over the landscapes. After all, she answered to no one in the place she created for the Eater of the World.”

“Which is exactly why one of you should be with her!” Lee roared.

“It wasn’t our choice,” Michael said tightly.

“Whether Glorianna has any help this time isn’t the Magician’s choice or mine,” Sebastian said. “It’s yours, Lee. That’s what Glorianna meant when she talked about opportunities and choices before she went to Sanctuary. If you think we need to be there, then figure out how we get there.”

“I—” Lee braced a hand on the table. There was a way. Or there used to be.

He walked out of the kitchen and across the lawn. He crossed the footbridge that was nothing more than a footbridge over the creek at the back of Nadia’s personal gardens. Then he closed his eyes and extended one hand and pictured the little island.

You were a piece of Ephemera that came from my sister’s heart. She gave you to me because you resonated with my heart. Currents of Dark and Light. They flow through Glorianna Belladonna and me. Different and the same. She is different. And she is the same. She is my sister. In the Dark, in the Light, she is still my sister. You are a piece of my sister’s heart that used to answer to me. I need you to answer again. Please hear me, Ephemera. Please.

Nothing.

He rocked forward—and his fingers brushed against the bark of a tree.

Hardly daring to believe—and knowing that he could lose everything if he
didn’t
believe—Lee pressed one hand against the tree as he shifted his feet and stretched out his other hand. When he touched the other tree that flanked the path on his island, he stepped between them and knew by the feel of the ground beneath his feet and the different scent to the air that he was on the island.

It was his again.

He slipped off the glasses, then put them back on and wished he’d brought the walking stick and the slouchy hat. The trees softened the light, making it too dark with the glasses, but his eyes were too sensitive without them. No matter. With one hand in front of him and one out to the side, he made his way to the center of the island where the fountain provided him with fresh water.

Lee drank, savoring the taste of water that came from Sanctuary.

“Lee?”

“Lee!”

He made his way back to the edge of the island. Michael and Sebastian were a few paces from him, searching for something they couldn’t see.

Watching them made him think of something Danyal said about Shamans being able to remove parts of Vision from sight. When he shifted his island, it existed in that other landscape on the bridge of his will, and
he
decided whether it was visible to the people in that other landscape.

It seemed his island had something in common with Vision after all.

“Lee!” All three voices of Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar.

She almost walked into him as he stepped off the island.

“Daylight!” Sebastian snapped as he strode toward Lee. “Are you
trying
to upset everyone?”

“No,” Lee replied, keeping his voice calm and quiet. “I didn’t intend to upset anyone. We can use the island to travel to Vision. We just have to figure out how to get to the part of the city we need.”