“We lift our voices to the Light.
We lift our faces to the Light.
We give our spirits to the Light,
To shine in us forever.”
“You don’t sing those songs anymore?” Glorianna asked.
Brighid shrugged. She set the dough in a bowl and covered it with a cloth to let it rise. “Tried for a while when I first went to live in Raven’s Hill. But it made me sad to sing them there, so I stopped. At Lighthaven, even if you were alone when it was time to call that part of the day, you knew other voices were rising with yours, saying the same words. Even if you couldn’t hear them, you knew. There was comfort in that, peace in that.”
“You can sing them here,” Glorianna said.
“They aren’t a tradition here.”
“If you don’t share them, how can another heart embrace them?”
Brighid looked at her for a long moment, then said, “A Guide of the Heart even for a Guardian of the Light?”
Glorianna smiled. “Why not?”
Brighid walked over to the counter. “Would you be wanting some of this koffee, or has Michael enlightened your palate with a good cup of tea?”
Tears stung her eyes. Emotions stormed through her. Just hearing his name rubbed her heart raw.
“Ah, now. You’ve not had a parting of the ways, have you?” Brighid pulled up another chair, sat down, and took Glorianna’s hands in hers.
Not yet, she thought. Not quite yet.
“He’s a good man, Glorianna,” Brighid said, her voice filled with earnest conviction. “I couldn’t see it when I lived in Raven’s Hill, and I’m sorry for that. I’m not saying there isn’t a bit of Dark in him, because there is. Has to be with him being a Magician. But he has a good heart.”
“I don’t want to love him,” Glorianna whispered. “I think I do, am almost sure I do. But I don’t want to.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because there has to be a parting of the ways.”
“You don’t think he could fit into your life?”
“He could, yes.” He already fit so well it was as if he’d always been there. And yet everything was new with him, and there was so much they didn’t know about each other, about how it might be with each other.
She didn’t want to talk about Michael—didn’t want to think about Michael. So she pulled her hands out of Brighid’s and wiped away the tear that had dared spill over. “I know why the Places of Light need currents of Dark. Why do dark landscapes need currents of Light?”
“For hope,” Brighid said with such certainty Glorianna just stared at her. “Even a dark heart hopes its plans will succeed, that it will be the victor in the struggle against its adversaries. More than any other reason, that is why the Places of Light exist. Love, laughter, kindness, compassion. These feelings will take root in a heart on their own. But it is hope that flows through the currents of Light. Because without hope, those other seeds will never find fertile ground.”
“There are people who have no hope but are still able to love, to offer kindness and compassion.”
“A heart that stands deep in the Light can give those. And when it does, what is the seed that is planted in other hearts called?”
“Hope,” Glorianna whispered. “The seed is called hope.”
“Glorianna…”
She shook her head. Pushed her chair back. “I have to go.” She pulled a folded, wax-sealed paper from her pocket. “Would you see that Yoshani gets that?” She waited for Brighid’s nod, then hurried to the kitchen door. As she reached for the knob, she paused and looked back. “Travel lightly, Brighid.”
She hurried away from the guesthouse. There was only one person she wanted to see. Then she wanted the rest of the day to herself. With Michael.
Surely one day wasn’t too much to ask. Not when she was about to sacrifice the rest of her life.
Brighid stood at the kitchen window for a long time. Still too dark to see outside, but that didn’t matter.
A parting of the ways. Why? There was a spark between Glorianna and Michael. She’d seen that for herself when they’d all sailed to the White Isle. If there was more interest on Michael’s side and wariness on Glorianna’s, well, so be it. A woman was entitled to be wary about where she gave her heart, wasn’t she? And with the bridges these folks knew how to make, neither of them would have to sacrifice their pieces…of the…world…
She stared at her reflection in the window.
She’d forgotten. Or hadn’t wanted to remember. A riddle. An answer. And a story about love—and sacrifice.
She went back to her work, doing her share to provide food for the guests and residents of this house in Sanctuary. But even as her hands performed familiar tasks, nothing was quite the same. Would never be the same again.
Travel lightly, Brighid.
Advice and blessing from a Guide of the Heart. She would heed that advice, honor that blessing. And when the sky began to lighten, she would walk out to the koi pond and, for the first time in many years, lift her voice in celebration of the dawn.
“Is there a reason you’re here at this hour, emptying my pantry?” Nadia asked, pushing her sleep-mussed hair away from her face as she eyed the supplies spread out on the kitchen table.
“Just need a few things,” Glorianna muttered as she packed a couple of items into one of the two market baskets. “Michael will be awake soon and I didn’t think about getting supplies on the way back to the island.”
Nadia tightened the belt of the robe she’d thrown on over her nightgown. “You could always just bring him around for breakfast and then do some marketing on your own.”
Too many people. Too many distractions.
“Glorianna?”
“I want a day with the Magician. Alone. On the island,” Glorianna said softly.
“Well, that’s fine, but that’s no reason to be taking all my eggs.”
“I know how to stop the Eater of the World. I know what to do.”
“Glorianna?”
The sharpness in Nadia’s voice warned her that her mother had heard what was under the words.
She raised her head and met Nadia’s eyes. “I know what to do.”
“Then we’ll talk about it. All of us. Jeb can fetch Lee and Sebas—”
“No.” She couldn’t have all of them around her. Not today. Maybe that was selfish—it was certainly unfair—but she couldn’t face all of them. And she couldn’t stand the thought that her last feelings for all of them would carry the resonance of an argument.
She walked around the table and put her arms around Nadia. Felt her mother’s arms tighten around her in response.
“He’ll be angry and he won’t want to do it, so lean hard on Lee to make the new bridges that will be needed. And don’t turn your heart away from the Magician. It’s not his fault. Opportunities and choices, Mother. He provided the opportunity, but the choice is mine.”
“Glorianna.”
She heard the tears.
“I love you,” Glorianna whispered. “When you think of me, remember that. I love you.”
They finished packing the baskets in a silence that held too many things that were said without words.
Then Glorianna walked out of her mother’s house, walked into the dawn’s light, and took the step between here and there.
Glorianna had called it virgin ground. He remembered that much now that his brain started thinking again. She just hadn’t explained the significance of virgin ground, which was going on the list of things he intended to discuss with her.
“You’ve had a busy time, haven’t you?”
Michael whirled around and saw Glorianna standing nearby, holding two market baskets. Since he didn’t think the Places of Light had markets, that meant she’d gone somewhere besides where she said she was going. And that was another something to discuss. They were going to have a plentiful amount to discuss, and to his way of thinking, that discussion would be held at full volume. The fact that she seemed amused by what she was looking at wasn’t doing anything for him either.