What what what?
And now the wild child was upset again.
He pointed to the ground in front of the new two-stone-high wall that formed a border around the virgin ground. If it could still be called virgin ground. “We need some stone there. A nice thick layer of pebbles, I’m thinking. In different colors.”
There. That should keep Ephemera busy for a while.
He watched the ground change with a speed that staggered him. And right before he closed his eyes to shut it all out, he saw Glorianna set the baskets on the ground, cross her arms, and tip her head to one side as she studied the addition to her garden.
A lesson to him. That’s what this was. If he ever had the luck to become a father, he would never ever give a flippant response to a child without considering the consequences of the child’s taking him at his word. No, he would never ever give a flippant response.
Especially when the wife was standing right there and could hear him.
He listened to Glorianna move over to the changed ground, heard her sift through the pebbles.
“Well,” she said. “I’m not good at identifying uncut stones, but I think you have some precious gems in here, along with a good haul of semiprecious stones.”
His eyes popped open. “Huh?”
She scooped up a handful of stones. “You asked for different colors. Here’s garnet and malachite. Lapis and citrine. Topaz. Oh, and here’s a lovely amethyst. And this might be an emerald.”
He crouched beside her. “I was just trying to distract the world, give it something safe to do.”
“And you did a fine job. We can pick through these later. If you take them to a gem dealer, you could get a good price for them.”
“I didn’t do this to line my pockets.”
Her free hand brushed his hair back, stroked his head. “Magician, how do you think we get by most of the time? Landscapers don’t get paid directly for what they do, so most gardens have a little ‘treasure spot’—a place where you can turn the earth and come up with the coins that were tossed in wish wells, or gold or silver nuggets—or gems—that come from Ephemera.”
So the story about a treasure hidden in Darling’s Garden wasn’t just a story. Did Caitlin know about having a treasure spot? “Is it always this easy?”
“Well, for most it’s not quite this simple. But the wild child is very responsive to you.”
Her lips touched his. Warmth rather than heat. Affection rather than lust. And yet the promise of heat was there, simmering between them.
Friend. Lover. Both.
“Show me what you’ve done,” Glorianna said. “Then let’s get some breakfast and put the rest of the food away.”
“Ah.” He cupped a hand under her elbow, helping her to her feet as he rose to his. “Didn’t know what I was doing. Still not sure what I did.”
“You made a garden, Magician.”
“I don’t know anything about tending posies.” And whether he was keen on it or not, he had a feeling he was about to learn.
“Then let’s see if you have any to tend.”
For a man who didn’t know what he was doing, he’d done well enough, Glorianna decided as she studied the newly made garden within her garden. All right, two rows of rectangles weren’t the most interesting configuration, but he wasn’t a Landscaper as such, so all he really needed was a basic garden that provided access points to his landscapes.
He had those. One rectangle was covered with fog over grass. Another looked like ordinary grass but she recognized the resonance of Dunberry. Another was cobblestones, but when she leaned in and sniffed the air, she smelled the sea. He confirmed Foggy Downs, Dunberry, and Kendall, along with three other places in Elandar that had made up his circuit of landscapes.
She pointed to the last two rectangles. “What are those?”
Michael shoved his hands in his pockets and mumbled, “Don’t know their songs.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He winced. “Don’t know those places. Never heard their songs before.”
She stared at him as she considered a possibility. “But you hear their songs now?”
He nodded warily.
“Can you play those songs?”
Another wary nod. Then he pulled his whistle out of an inside coat pocket, pointed to one rectangle, and began to play. After a minute, he pointed to the other rectangle and played a different tune.
Not Elandar. It took on a little of the flavor of that land because he was playing the tune, but those new landscapes weren’t in the part of the world he had known.
“Looks like Lee is going to have to create a couple of bridges,” Glorianna said.
Michael tucked the whistle back in his pocket. “Why?”
“A lot of Landscapers were lost when the Eater attacked the school. The bedrock in the landscapes they tended has been crumbling. Those landscapes have been crumbling, becoming mired in the manifestation of emotions without any guidance. But Ephemera wants guidance, and landscapes, like people, change. Some landscapes that were mine when I was sixteen were no longer mine when I was twenty-six. I let them go so that someone else would respond to their resonance. You opened yourself to the world, Magician, and Ephemera found two other places that need your music.”
He paled. “But…where? Am I adding another day or two on the circuit to get to these places or…” A little more color drained out of his face. “They aren’t in Elandar, are they?”
“No, they aren’t in Elandar.”
“Then how…” He put it together, piece by piece. “Bridges. You said Lee would need to create bridges.”
She nodded. “I recognize the tunes. At least, a similarity between what I’ve heard and what you just played. Lee could tell you better than I, but I think these new landscapes of yours are close to places Mother or I hold. Stationary bridges would let people cross over between the landscapes.”
“If those places had been connected to the school, won’t the Eater find Its way here?”
“No,” she said softly. “Different bedrock now, different resonance. The access point that was at the school no longer matches that place. But if the Eater has established any of Its dark landscapes in those places, you’ll have to deal with them, eliminate them. Anything that isn’t part of your song doesn’t belong in your landscapes,” she added when he started to protest. “I—Nadia can teach you how to cross over to your landscapes, and you talk to Ephemera as easily as I do—better than anyone else I’ve known, including my mother—so asking it to take away what the Eater brought in won’t be a problem for you. But don’t go into those new landscapes alone the first few times. Have Nadia or Lee or Sebastian go with you. There are still wizards and Dark Guides roaming the landscapes. Not all of them were trapped in Wizard City. They could hurt you before you realized you were in danger. So take someone with you who can show you what you need to know.”
“You’ll show me,” he said. “You’ll teach me.”
You know better, Magician.
She wanted to throw herself into his arms and hold on, but if she allowed herself to feel weak, she wouldn’t find the courage to take the next step of the journey. So she looked at the grassy space behind Michael’s garden, and at the young tree, its branches bare of leaves now, that would provide shade in the summertime. Did she have any bulbs? Maybe she could plant a few crocuses around the tree. That would be a cheery welcome when he walked there in the early days of spring.
“It would be nice to have a chair or a bench there,” she said, tipping her chin to indicate the grassy space. “You could sit and play your music. Jeb could make you a bench.”
He gave her a Patient Look. “Aye. Well, as soon as I have a diamond I can spare, I’ll be seeing about a bench—and a birdbath as well, so the fluffy things can have a splash and twitter.”