Give me enough time, Magician, she had said. I couldn’t bear it if someone else was caught when I altered the landscapes.
He waited while the minutes crawled by. When the sun had risen high enough that he could be reasonably sure that the folks in Aurora would be up and about, once he actually got there, he picked up the travel pack and left the house.
As he followed the path that would lead him to the river, he slipped his hand in his pocket, wrapped his fingers around the one-shot bridge—and crossed over to the Den of Iniquity.
An abandoned garden. A small plot of ground compared to what she had ended up creating on the Island in the Mist, but it had been hers once, and there was just enough of her resonance left for her to take the step between here and there, to cross over to this enclosed piece of ground.
Safety first. It would all be for nothing if the Eater’s creatures killed her before she finished her task. Afterward…Maybe it would be a blessing afterward.
Sixteen years ago, the Dark Guides had tried to seal her in by poisoning her mind. If they had succeeded, she would have altered the landscapes to create a smothering cage, and never would have realized she had been the instrument they had used to destroy her, never would have realized it was her power and not theirs that had chained her to a barren existence.
Now she was going to do what the Dark Guides had failed to do. Now she was going to do much more than they had intended to do.
Much more.
“Ephemera,” Glorianna Belladonna said softly, “hear me.”
The Eater of the World, in the form of an elegantly dressed, middle-aged gentleman, stepped onto the rust-colored sand that spilled out of the back of a smelly alley. Its mouth fell open in astonishment. Its eyes widened in shock.
A dissonance in Its landscapes! New, strange flavors of Dark—and delicious ripples of Light that winked out. Then It felt Ephemera manifest a will, obey a heart. It felt the ripples of that command in the currents of power that flowed through the world. Then It felt…
It looked down at the sand beneath Its feet. “No,” It whispered. “The bonelovers are mine. That landscape is mine.”
But some sly, dark heart had slipped into Its landscapes and stolen the bonelovers’ landscape by altering the resonance just enough to shut It out. Something had shut It out of a landscape It had made.
Thief!
It staggered back a step, braced a hand against a dirty wall.
She walks in the gardens, a voice, harsh yet oddly melodious, whispered through the currents of the world. She walks in the gardens, stealing all your work, all your creations. All your puny little creations. Boo, hoo. Boo, hoo. Poor little Eater, not brave enough to do anything but hide. She already controls the Light. Where will you go, little Eater, when she rules the Dark?
Ragged breaths as the body trembled. Fear and rage as It considered the message in those whispers.
The True Enemy had come to the Landscapers’ School. Was in the Landscapers’ School, taking Its dark landscapes and making them her own.
Not fair! Not fair!
Coward, the voice whispered. Even the Dark Guides have come to play.
It wasn’t a coward. It wasn’t afraid. It was the Eater of the World. It was feared. Even the world feared It.
Laughter whispered through the currents of the world. Cruel, mocking laughter.
We’re connected with the world again, another voice whispered through the currents. We’re connected to the school!
It remembered that voice. Harland. The head of the Wizards’ Council. The leader of the Dark Guides.
Our own magic wasn’t enough to seal her in, Harland’s voice whispered. And we didn’t know the bitch could use Heart’s Justice the way she did. But we canuse the creatures the Eater has at the school. Use them up to wear her down. And then…DESTROY HER!
Laughter whispered through the currents of the world. Cruel, mocking laughter.
Were there ripples of fear beneath that laughter?
She wasn’t as strong as she wanted them all to believe. Had never been as strong as she wanted them to believe. She was on Its ground, where It had slaughtered so many of her kind.
It would have her. In the end, It would have her. Its creatures would attack her body. The Dark Guides would attack her mind. The Light inside her would beckon all the dark things.
In the end, It would have her. It would peel off her skin. It would crack open her bones like the shell of a nut and pick out all the delicious meat. It would feast on her screams and her cries and her misery. And then, when the True Enemy was nothing more than scattered garbage, It would break open another shell—and feast on the Places of Light.
It stepped back onto the sand, forcing the resonance of Its darkness upon the landscape that held Its first creation. Forced Ephemera to accept Its dominance, Its resonance, until the bonelovers’ landscape once more belonged to It. Then It changed to Its natural form, a rippling shadow beneath the skin of the world, and flowed as fast as It could to the access point that would take It to the school.
It was coming.
Fear shivered through her, but Glorianna kept at her task of shifting the resonance of the currents of Light that flowed through the school—and through the dark landscapes that belonged to the Eater of the World. She’d set the trap and had sent the bait flowing out into the currents of the world.
Borders and boundaries. She had brought Wizard City back into the world, and that landscape was now connected by a border with the gate that had opened to the Bridges’ part of the school. If the Dark Guides tried to come after her, they would have to cross more ground, take more risks against the Eater’s creatures.
The cage was almost closed. The Eater had touched less of the world than she had expected. Not surprising, now that she considered it. There were hundreds of landscapes held in the walled gardens at the school. The surviving Landscapers would reclaim their pieces of the world and take on the responsibility of being the bedrock for others. Ephemera would survive.
The landscapes she was leaving behind would be cared for.
It’s not a feather bed, but the nights are cold this time of year, and the sleeping bag will keep you warm.
She’d left it behind. Had to leave it behind, along with everything else Michael had wanted to give her.
Because kindness would kill her.
As she pushed the image of Michael’s face out of her mind, another face took its place. Dark eyes that held deep pools of wisdom. A hand holding out a white stone.
That day, when Yoshani had told her about the magic of his people in using the jar of sorrows, he had offered her a white stone as a way to cleanse her heart and let go of the hurts of the past. She had refused his offer, had refused that kindness because she had known, on some level, that she would need those kernels of remembered pain.
For this place. For this task.
Yes. She would need her sorrows.
She looked at the sky, at the daylight growing stronger.
The Eater of the World was coming. When It was inside the school, she would lock the last door, seal the last gate.
Then there would be just one more thing left to do.
The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.
Hold them off a little longer, Magician. Just a little longer. After that, it will be too late—and they’ll be safe.