Belladonna (33 page)

"You're damn right you wouldn't be sharing a bed with her. No matter how grown-up she thinks she is, the girl is just eighteen and an innocent."

Lee rolled over on his side and propped himself up on one elbow. "My sister is thirty-one and, in some ways, just as innocent."

"Nooo," Michael said, shaking his head in denial. "You aren't telling me a woman as lovely as Glorianna has never been pleasured by a man."

"I won't tell you she's never had sex, and I hope it gave her pleasure ..."

"But?" Michael prodded when Lee seemed to sink into his own thoughts.

"None of them would have had enough heart to reach her island."

Lee's words filled him with hope and scared him right down to the bone. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be Glorianna's first love, but he kept thinking he wanted to be her lifetime's love. Because he was certain she was
his
lifetime's love.

If you do what you must, you won't have a lifetime with her.

Lee rolled onto his back. After a long moment of silence, he said, "So how old were you?"

"What?"

"If you're thinking Caitlin is too young at eighteen, how old were you when you were initiated into the pleasures of sex?"

Recognizing Lee's effort to lighten the mood, Michael said, "Are we talking brag or lie?"

Lee closed his eyes and smiled. "Whichever provides the best story."

"I
've never seen a landscape do that," Glorianna said. As Kenneday's ship sailed closer to the White Isle, she watched the island fade like a mirage in the early morning light.

"It's not a comfort to hear you say that, Glorianna," Michael scolded. "Couldn't you tweak the truth a bit and say it doesn't happen often?"

She pulled her scarf up to cover the bottom half of her face, both to hide her smile and to warm up skin that was chilled by the brisk sea air. Then she pushed the scarf back down long enough to say, "It doesn't happen often."

Michael looked at the now-empty sea beyond the bow of the ship, then looked back at her. "I'm thinking there's not much sincerity in that answer."

This time she laughed out loud. "Half the time I'm not sure if you're teasing or really mean what you say. You're a hard man to please, Magician."

"Not so. I don't ask for much, I'm grateful for what I'm given, and I'm willing to give a great deal in return."

Glorianna looked away, glad for the cold air that soothed her suddenly burning checks. The man wasn't talking about enjoying each other for a few nights of sex. And yet, there was always that bittersweet resonance in his words. "You barely know me."

And she barely knew him.

The heart has no secrets, Glorianna Belladonna. Not even yours. That's why he scares you. If you let him, he'll slip into your
life
—
and you'll slip into his
—
as if you had always been there for each other. As if there had always been love's shining light
welcoming you home.

"I can hear the music in you," Michael said quietly. "It's a glorious song, as heartbreaking as it is beautiful, so full of sorrow and joy. A man could listen to that tune for a lifetime and not grow tired of it."

"I don't know what you're saying."

He took a step closer, his body now sheltering hers from the wind. "You know exactly what I'm saying, and it scares you. If it's any comfort, it scares me too. Maybe it should. Love is not a small thing. It can change a life."

"It can change the world," she whispered.

"Maybe it can." For a moment, he looked troubled by her words. Then he stepped back and smiled. "Well. I'd best let you gather your thoughts. Kenneday said he'd hold this course so you could see the White Isle vanish and reappear, but he's fidgeting like an old maid with the effort not to ask you when you're going to do your magic, and your brother is giving me a look that makes me want to punch him in the face or buy him a drink, I'm not sure which."

"What have you got against Lee?" Glorianna demanded, feeling her temper ruffle in automatic defense of her brother.

"I've got nothing against the man," Michael replied "In fact, I like him. But being your brother, he feels honor bound to be a pebble in my shoe."

Before she could decide where the tease ended and truth began, Michael walked away and Lee came toward her, carrying the White Isle stone she and Caitlin had removed from the Garden before they set sail out of Raven's Hill yesterday morning.

"I don't want this place" Caitlin had said when they paused at the bottom of the hill behind the cottage. "If as you say, this place
is tied to me in some way, I want to be shed of it."

"Caitlin," Glorianna said in quiet warning, feeling Ephemera gathering itself to manifest the girl's will. "You lived here."

"And wanted to leave the way Michael did. We survived here.
Had to, because it was all we had. That's not the same as belong
to a place."

No, Glorianna thought, it isn't the same.

"I don't care if I'm supposed to be the guardian or Landscaper or sorceress or whatever you choose to call it," Caitlin said
defiantly. "I don't want the dead feeling that fills my heart when I think of Raven's Hill. I don't want this place. Let someone else be
its caretaker."

The words had no sooner left Caitlin's mouth when Glorianna felt Ephemera change the resonance of the world around them,
Caitlin gasped and stared at her in fearful wonder.

"You did this'' Glorianna said. "Not me."

A heartfelt choice. Even though it had not been done with care and had been spurred by dark feelings, Caitlin's rejection would
not leave the village floundering. Which was as clear a message any that the girl had not been the right person to hold this
landscape.

Now that Caitlin's heart was no longer interfering, Glorianna could feel the heart that acted as the anchor for Raven's Hill.

Solid. Steady
.
It would need the help of a Landscaper to strengthen the bedrock that would protect Ephemera from the chaos that
lived in the human heart, but... Not me, Glorianna thought as she and Caitlin made their way to the harbor. There was an appeal to
the solid steadiness of that anchoring heart that made her uneasy. There was temptation in its resonance. Not because there was a
dark intent toward her, but because it was comfortable and could turn her away from the path she needed to follow
—
and the man
who was part of that journey.

"I've never seen a landscape do that," Lee said, staring at the open, empty sea.

"We're not supposed to be that truthful," Glorianna replied.

"Any ideas about why it did that?"

Glorianna looked toward the stern. How far would they need to go before the island began to reappear? Would they have to sail for hours to cross the same amount of water as the length of the island? "A couple. One is that, since my resonance and Caitlin's are tangled on the White Isle, it didn't shift completely when I altered the landscapes to protect the Place of Light from the Eater."

"What is the other idea?"

Glorianna kept her attention focused on the island. "A conflict of wills and heart wishes." She thought that over and frowned.

"Actually, it's not so different from your island and mine."

"More like yours," Lee said, nodding. "A place that can't be reached unless you truly need to reach it and your heart resonates with it. But your island doesn't hold a town's worth of people hostage. They need to be connected with some part of the world, Glorianna."

"I know. But the first task is to find a way to reach the island and get Brighid to Lighthaven." Half turning, she called, "Caitlin.

We need you up here."

"Do we?" Lee asked quietly as Caitlin hurried to join them.

"She's connected with this island. She should be part of anything that's done here. And we're going to need a bridge. I can cross over without one, but the ship can't."

"All right, I'll —"

A malevolence in the water up ahead. A knot of Dark currents that felt unnatural in a way she understood intuitively but couldn't explain.

Spinning around and almost knocking Caitlin to the deck, she screamed, "Turn around! Turn away!
Now!
"

For one frozen moment, Kenneday stared at her. Then orders were shouted and men scrambled. Sails luffed before catching the wind again. Then the ship was turning away from the Dark water.

Glorianna sank to the deck and closed her eyes to block out the visible world and focus on the feel of that part of Ephemera, but something powerful washed over her as the ship brushed the edge of that undiluted darkness, and the world, like the island faded away.

Moments later, she floated on a cushion of warmth and solid strength. Protected. Cherished. And she could hear music, lovely music, with a beat that was steady as a heart. But it was faint, so she moved toward the sound, trying to hear it better.

"That's right, darling," a voice said close to her ear. "That's right. Come back to us now. Your brother doesn't want to be turning gray-haired with worry at so young an age — and neither do I."

"I like your voice," she said, not interested in his confusing talk about men turning gray. She didn't really care what he said; she just wanted to hear that lovely music in his voice.

"Open your eyes for me, darling, and I'll talk all you want."

She obediently opened her eyes and discovered she was braced between Michael's thighs and held firmly against his chest.

Turning her head a little gave her a dear view of Lee's white face.

"You promised you wouldn't faint again," Lee said accusingly.

"I didn't faint," she grumbled.

"Did a good imitation of it," Michael muttered.

"Then what did you do?" Lee asked, grabbing her land in a bone-pinching grip.

"I —" What
did
happen? "Did we get clear of those Dark currents?" she asked, trying to free her hand from Lee's grip so she could grab his hand in turn.

She didn't think he could get paler, but Lee paled.

"Yes, we turned away before we caught more than the edge," he said. "Although I think you scared Kenneday and the crew out of half their wits when you started screaming."

"I wasn't screaming."

"Trust me, darling," Michael said. "Before you didn't faint, you were definitely screaming."

"Just caught me by surprise is all."

"Then remind me not to give you any surprises."

That didn't seem fair, but now that she was regaining her emotional balance, the puzzle of why she had reacted that way to those Dark currents commanded her attention.

She needed help getting to her feet, which embarrassed her enough to snap at Michael and Lee. Then she caught sight of Caitlin, clinging to the railing, with a sailor hovering nearby looking as though he dearly hoped he wouldn't need to be helpful.

"What's wrong with Caitlin?"

"Suddenly couldn't hold her breakfast," Michael said. "Have to confess, I was feeling a bit queasy myself for a bit, but I figured it was from you giving me such a scare."

Lee looked from one to the other. "Three Landscapers, to one degree or another. Three reactions to a knot of Dark currents.

You feel them all the time. Why was this different?"

Formal training. Glorianna looked into Lee's eyes and felt relief that there was someone else here who understood the world as she did — and who knew enough to ask the question.

"Can we approach that spot more slowly?" she asked.

"Why would you want to be doing that?" Michael said.

"Because that spot is not natural. I think that's why we all reacted to it. So if the Eater of the World didn't create it, I'd like to figure out what did."

Michael sighed. "I'll talk to Kenneday. Although, with the excitement you've given him, I don't know if his offer of a ship is going to hold beyond this voyage.

As soon as they were the only ones at the bow, Lee said, "What are you expecting to find, Glorianna?"

"Maybe nothing," she replied. "Maybe more than one answer." She shivered. She'd felt warm enough before, but now, without the comfort of Michael's sheltering presence, she couldn't seem to hold off the cold as well.

Caitlin made her way over to them, looking green arid shaky. Before she could say anything, Michael returned. Kenneday was clearly unhappy about returning to water that had produced such a reaction, but he turned the ship back toward that spot, running with fewer sails to cut their speed.

"Tell the captain to stay to the right of those Dark currents," Glorianna said.

"How is he supposed to tell?" Michael asked. "It's not like the water is a different color."

Ephemera, hear me.

"Lady of Light," Michael whispered a minute later at the same time some of the sailors began shouting and pointing.

Some kind of seaweed now filled a large patch of the sea, defining the knot of Dark currents. Glorianna held on to the rail and opened herself to those currents. Prepared this time for the strength of it, she recognized it for what it was. It sickened her and saddened her. And excited her.

There was something awful and seductive about that patch of water with its undulating seaweed, something compelling in its malevolence. And the lure to join that water, to feel the embrace of those seaweed limbs as desire became an anchor that would pull her under was almost overwhelming.