Bridge of Dreams (51 page)

Lee nodded. “One I should have thought of in the first place. You. Glorianna
made this island, and you can find her through the heart music. Instead of trying to reach Vision, let’s find Glorianna.”

“I thought we couldn’t reach the part of Vision where she’d gone,” the Apothecary said.

“We couldn’t have gone with her using the way she crossed over, but the island should be able to impose itself over that place,” Lee said. “Even if it’s not prudent to leave the island, we should be able to spot enough landmarks to shift position to a part of the city that’s nearby.”

“Glorianna I can find,” Michael said. He pulled his tin whistle out of an inner coat pocket and began to play.

“What should we do?” the Knife asked quietly.

“Nothing,” Lee replied as he felt the island begin to resonate with the music.
Follow the music. Lead us to Glorianna Belladonna.

The island lifted, as if riding a gentle swell. Then the sensation faded.

“We’re here,” he said as he headed for the start of the path. But when he reached the two trees he used as his entrance, he hesitated, not trusting his diminished eyesight to show him the truth of their location. “Michael?”

“Sand,” Michael said grimly. “Not rust colored, but there’s nothing but sand.”

“And a tall hedge creating a wall around the sand,” Sebastian said, holding on to a tree and leaning out. “Any idea where we are?”

“None at all,” Lee said.

Danyal stepped up to the break in the stone wall and stared at the sand surrounded by a tall hedge.

“Well,” Glorianna said cheerfully, “you are now the caretaker of a couple acres of playground.”

“Playground?”

yes yes yes

“I do not understand,” Farzeen said as he stepped up beside them.

“Some strong heart wishes went out into the world,” she replied. “And this was the world’s answer.”

“Sand?” Danyal tried not to sound skeptical, but…sand?

“If this was the entrance of a place for the heart, what would you want the people entering to see first?” she asked.

So many possible answers, but the first thing he pictured felt right and true. “There was a plant at the Asylum. It just appeared one day. Lee called it heart’s hope. People made a point of walking along that path every day because seeing the plant made them feel better. If I could, I would have one of those plants on the right-hand side of the entrance to lift the spirits of everyone who entered this place.”

Sand squirmed. It wiggled. Farzeen gasped. Danyal stared.

“Not that close,” Glorianna said. She stepped onto the sand and pointed. “Over here so it won’t be harmed when the hearts put a proper doorway in the wall.”

The sand quieted, then began squirming in the spot she’d pointed to.

Moments later, a small plant pushed out of the sand—a delicate thing with one tiny bud.

Glorianna looked at Danyal and smiled. “Heart’s hope.”

He swallowed hard. “It needs good soil. Rich soil.”

The sand around the heart’s hope changed to soil.

Glorianna tipped her head. “Strength makes stone. Let’s make some of the stone that comes from the part of the world that made Voice-guide.”

Stones formed around the heart’s hope, piling up as the soil around and beneath the plant rose until the plant was growing on a raised bed. More stones, bigger stones, rose out of the sand behind the bed, reminding him of the mountains that backed the northern community where he grew up. The crevices that formed between the stones filled with soil.

“Would any of the flowers that grow around your home village thrive in this part of the city?” she asked him.

Before Danyal could admit he didn’t know, young plants pushed out of the soil in the crevices.

“Oh, those are lovely,” Glorianna said. “Voice-guide, you will learn their names.”

“Of course.” Danyal glanced at Farzeen. The old man’s face held wonder and a touch of fear. To see someone change the world so radically
would make anyone wary. To understand that the power also had a dark side that could just as easily destroy…

Glorianna Belladonna was the earthquake that had come to shake the Shamans’ understanding of their world.

“Glorianna, what is this place?” he asked.

“A very large playground,” she replied. “Apparently, you felt you needed one this big.”

“I? But I…” He caught the warning look in her eyes and gestured toward the heart’s hope. “This is lovely.”

more more more

“Not today,” Glorianna said firmly.

Danyal felt the currents of the world circling around them. Sentient in its way. Like a child in its way, craving guidance, craving someone who could help it shape its ever-changing self. He thought of his grandniece and the fun of being a doting uncle—and gave in to the desire to create a little mischief.

“Maybe one more
little
thing?” he said, smiling at Glorianna in the same way he intended to smile at Nalah someday.

Glorianna tried hard to give him an intimidating stare, but her lips kept twitching with the effort not to return the smile. “A
little
thing.”

“A path of grass.” He spread his arms to indicate the width.

He felt the sand change beneath his feet, then saw a ribbon of green race across the sand at a speed that took his breath away. When it reached the halfway point, the grass stopped. Little clumps of violets popped up—and a gold pocket watch wiggled out of the ground to lie on top of the grass at his feet.

Glorianna stared at the watch, then at the point where the grass ended. “Michael?” She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Michael!”

Michael suddenly appeared on the sand, turned toward her voice, and waved. “Glorianna!”

“Michael!” She ran down that ribbon of grass as Michael hurried to meet her.

Danyal took a couple of steps to follow her, then stopped and looked at Farzeen.

The old man smiled, but there was still a touch of fear in those eyes. “You have brought us a way of seeing that will change our piece of the world, Danyal.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Farzeen shook his head. “You did what we asked of you, but I don’t think any of us understood what that was going to mean to Vision or its people.” He smiled again and added gently, “Go, Danyal. She is your mentor now.”

As Danyal headed for Glorianna and Michael, Lee and Sebastian appeared on the sand out of thin air. Moments later, Kobrah and the two shadowmen appeared.

A single heart could change a landscape. What would his city look like when all the changes were done?

Lee stepped away from the others and raised a hand in greeting. “Hey-a, Danyal.”

“Lee. You found a way back. One of your bridges?”

“The island. It’s mine again. And I didn’t find Vision so much as I found Glorianna.”

“Ah.”

He looked around. “What is all the sand for?”

“It’s a playground.”

“Big playground.”

“So I was told.”

Something in Danyal’s tone—part challenge, part bewilderment—made Lee think about the word. “Playground? As in a playground for Ephemera?”

play with Voice-guide and Lee-heart

He heard that. He thought hearing Ephemera on the island was a fluke, but he heard that. And…
Lee-heart?
Guardians and Guides.

“Why did you ask for something so big?” Lee asked Danyal. “Why ask for it in the first place?” Although, after Vito’s reaction to that grotto vineyard, hadn’t he wondered about using something like the playground Glorianna
had on her island to help hearts that didn’t know what home was supposed to look like?

He might not be able to see well enough to know the color of Danyal’s eyes, but Lee deciphered the expression in them just fine. And
that
look in
those
eyes could strip off skin.

“Some strong heart wishes went out into the currents of the world, and this was the world’s answer,” Danyal said.

He winced, since that answer sounded more like Glorianna than Danyal. “Ah. Hmm. Well, it couldn’t have been just me thinking along these lines.”

Danyal sighed. “No, it wasn’t just you. But now there are many decisions to be made and—”

A staggering variety of plants sprang up around them, some with flowers as big as dinner plates and others that spread out over the ground and were covered with delicate color.

The Apothecary ran up to them. He clamped his hands on either side of his head and practically danced in place as he stared at the plants.

“They weren’t here a minute ago,” he said. “You can
make
the plants? Just make them here?”

“No one is making anything else today,” Glorianna said firmly as she and Michael walked up to them.

!!!

“No,” she said.

The flowers sank into the sand. Lee thought the Apothecary was going to break down and cry. And he thought of the work a Landscaper put into her walled garden in order to keep her pieces of the world in balance. This part of the world was already sufficiently out of balance. The people living here didn’t need him adding to the potential chaos.

Apparently Danyal reached the same conclusion, because the Shaman said, “You are wise, Guide of the Heart. Lee and I are your apprentices now and will benefit from your experience and guidance while we learn to speak to the world.”

“When did I become an apprentice?” Lee asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“Five minutes ago,” Danyal replied just as quietly.

“Good to know.” He wasn’t sure he liked being considered an apprentice again, but it was a prudent decision. Maybe it was the loss of so many Landscapers in his part of the world that had made Ephemera more aggressive in manifesting thoughts and feelings. Or maybe need had awakened something dormant in people who already had some kind of link to the world. Either way, he was beginning to have an idea of just how careful Glorianna had always been when expressing idle thoughts and comments. “Is anyone else hungry? Shouldn’t it be time for the midday meal?”

“Closer to time for the evening meal,” Danyal said. “Shaman Farzeen, this is Lee. We met at the Asylum.”

He hadn’t noticed the old man moving toward them until Danyal spoke. He couldn’t read Farzeen’s expression, but he noticed the way Glorianna and Michael turned to study the Shaman.

“Danyal is correct,” Farzeen said. “We should return to the compound now, if the Guide has seen enough on this day.”

“I have,” Glorianna replied. “There isn’t enough room in the pony cart for all of us.”

“I can shift the island as long as someone can give me a clear idea of where I’m going,” Lee said.

“Island?” Farzeen asked.

Lee closed his eyes.
It’s safe to be seen in this place.

Farzeen gasped. “You have the Shamans’ gift of deciding what can and cannot be seen?”

“Only for that island.”

“And that piece of the world moves? Like a boat on a river with you acting as tiller?”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I guess it is.” He didn’t need Danyal’s nudge to know what he should do. “Would you like to travel on the island to return to the compound?”

“I would very much.”

“Perhaps Michael would ride back with Glorianna and me,” Danyal said. “It would give him an opportunity to see some of The Temples.”

“We’ll meet you at the compound,” Lee said.

As they walked the short distance to the island, Farzeen linked his arm with Lee’s.

“Danyal mentioned you in his letters to me and told me some of what was done to you by our common enemy,” the old Shaman said as he studied Lee’s face. “Your eyes are healing?”

“They are.”
In more ways than one.

“That is good.” Farzeen patted Lee’s arm. “That is good.”

Danyal wondered if he should tell Michael about the incident at the pavilion, but decided he would talk to Yoshani first, since the holy man knew the Magician far better than he did. So he kept his comments general as he explained the use of various buildings.

They drove into the Shamans’ compound. Instead of the usual peace and order, there was chaos as people dashed around.

“There’s Sebastian,” Glorianna said, sitting up straighter. “And Yoshani.”

“And Denys, one of the Handlers from the Asylum,” Danyal said. Recognizing the Handler, he began recognizing other people. Inmates. Helpers. “Stop here.” He tapped their driver on the shoulder. “Stop.”

Scrambling out of the pony cart, he hurried toward Denys and Yoshani, with Glorianna and Michael right behind them.

“Denys?” Danyal raised his voice to be heard over the shouting and weeping and querulous demands.

“Shaman Danyal!” Denys moved toward him, limping a little. “We made it, but I was just telling Yoshani that I didn’t know if Nik and Meddik Benham got out.”

“Got out?”

“The Asylum,” Yoshani said. “The wizards and the Dark Guide gathered men of dark hearts and attacked the Asylum.”

They worked to mend the injured and soothe the minds that couldn’t cope with the fear shaped by a savage attack. Kobrah settled into her role of
Helper and assisted Denys. The Apothecary offered to brew up some tonics that would sedate distraught minds and hearts, and whatever plants he needed, Glorianna and Ephemera provided. But what Danyal noticed was how often the inmates watched the men and women who wore the white robes of a Shaman, how often they looked at
him
for guidance, for the assurance that they were safe now. And he noticed how often the ones he’d considered borderline tried to catch Lee’s attention.

Several hours later, Helpers and inmates were all fed and settled down for the night, each one clutching a white stone that Yoshani assured them would absorb their fears and sorrows while they slept.

Finally, the Shaman Council, Lee’s people, the Knife, the Apothecary, and he sat down to a late meal of chopped dates and nuts mixed into balls of brown rice.

“They arrived shortly before Lee, Farzeen, and the others stepped off the island,” Yoshani said, tipping his head to indicate Denys.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Farzeen asked.

“Not much to tell,” Denys said, breaking up the rice ball on his plate but not eating any of it. “The two men who had claimed to be Lee’s uncles showed up less than an hour after Lee and Zhahar took off with Kobrah and the Apothecary.”