Belladonna (9 page)

Bang, bang, bang.
"Glorianna?"

Muffling a shriek that would announce her abrupt return to the present — and give Lee the satisfaction of knowing he'd startled her — Glorianna pressed her hand against her chest to push her jumping heart back into place. There was nothing quite like a brother when it came to shattering a sensual fantasy. She hoped to return the favor someday.

Annoyed with herself for procrastinating and annoyed with him, since he wouldn't have been banging on her bedroom door if they weren't already late and that meant he
knew
she was procrastinating, she hurried across the room and opened the door.

All her annoyance disappeared, because all she could do was stare.

He was wearing his best black trousers and jacket, with a white shirt, a patterned green silk vest, and a black necktie. He'd worn those clothes for the weddings — Sebastian and Lynnea, and then, a week later, their mother and Jeb. Except for those two occasions, she couldn't remember the last time he had dressed so well.

"My handsome brother," she said, intending a light compliment. But seeing him standing there, polished up because he was as nervous about this meeting as she, was a sharp reminder that his life would have been so much easier if she hadn't been his sister.

Or if he had refused to acknowledge her after she had been declared rogue.

So she couldn't keep her voice light, couldn't wave aside how much his loyalty had meant to her over the past sixteen years.

"Don't get maudlin," Lee said, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the room.

"I am
not
getting maudlin," she snapped, insulted because she was so close to feeling that way. "I was just trying to be pleasant."

"Uh-huh." He kept pulling her along, slowing down when they reached the stairs to give her a chance to lift her skirt so she wouldn't trip and send both of them tumbling.

"Will you stop pulling at me?" Glorianna snapped when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"No." He pulled her out of the house and around to the side. "We'll use my island to reach the rest of Sanctuary. It will take too long to use a boat. You spent so much time primping, we're late as it is." He gave her a calculating look. "Or did you get distracted by something else?"

Heat flooded her face, and Lee, being an odious sibling, laughed.

"Sebastian will be pleased that you like his gift," he said.

"I wasn't mooning over a painting," she replied, clenching her teeth.

"Did I say mooning? I
never
said mooning." He stopped at the edge of where his island rested over hers, visible since there was no reason to hide it.

Lee's little island was anchored in Sanctuary. She had originally created it as a private place for herself, but it had resonated with Lee from the moment he'd set foot on it, and the connection was so strong that he could impose the island over any other landscape. Unseen unless he chose otherwise, the island provided safe ground if he found himself in a dangerous landscape.

"So," he continued, "do you want to sit around with the other Landscapers indulging in sterile, suffocatingly polite talk or just ask Ephemera to conjure up a big mud wallow?"

"What?"
She stared at him. "Did you knot that necktie too tight? I don't think there's any blood getting to your brain."

"There's a custom in one of the landscapes — not one of yours but one I visited with another Bridge a couple of years ago.

When two people — usually women since men tend to deal with things in other ways — start hurling insults at each other, and the disturbance starts dragging other people in to take sides, the village leaders have the two women — people — escorted to a wallow at the edge of town that was created just for that purpose. The two ... contestants, let's call them ... are assisted into the wallow

—"

"Shoved, you mean."

Lee shrugged. "And they go at it. Every insult is accompanied by a handful of mud that is slung at the other contestant."

"Mudslinging in the literal sense."

He nodded. "So they scream and rant and rave and sling mud at each other until they're too tired to continue."

"Must be humiliating, to say things meant to be kept private."

"But they don't keep it private. They've been saying the same things to people behind the other person's back. This gets it all out in the open, and beyond showing everyone else how petty the argument truly is, it's also highly entertaining."

"Does it do any good?"

"Sometimes I think it really does clear things up between people who care about each other but stumbled somewhere along the way."

Glorianna cocked her head. "Like siblings?"

Lee grinned. "From what I gathered, some of them start a ruckus just to go play in the mud."

She laughed. "Too bad you didn't know about this custom when we were younger."

He laughed with her, then he turned serious. "You're not like other Landscapers, Glorianna Belladonna. You never were.

You're a heart-walker as well as a Landscaper. Never forget that."

Tears stung her eyes, and she didn't resist when he put his arms around her in a comforting hug.

"Do you ever wish that I had been like them?" she asked, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Sometimes," he replied quietly. "But only because of what it cost you to be different." He hesitated, then added, "I wouldn't change anything, Belladonna. I've worked with other Landscapers. Had to. And I'll tell you this, not as your brother but as a Bridge. There is no one else I would want leading this fight against the Eater of the World. There is no one else I would trust enough to follow."

She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. Not that she needed to see the truth; she could feel his heart.

"Let's go meet with the others."

With their hands linked, they stepped onto the island. Within moments, Lee had shifted them back to the part of Sanctuary where the island physically existed. A few minutes later, they entered the guest house and found the room Yoshani had reserved for this meeting.

The Landscapers and Bridges in the room didn't look bedraggled, exactly, but there was a dazed expression in all their eyes.

They had seen the end of their world as they knew it, and none of them were sure how to take the next step toward healing what had been savaged by the Eater of the World's attack on the Landscapers' and Bridges' schools.

Had the Guides of the Heart looked the same way?
Glorianna wondered.
When the battle was over and they looked around. At
their shattered world, had they, too, felt lost and uncertain?

Yoshani smiled when he saw them, but she felt the sadness resonating from his heart, felt the Dark currents of power that flowed through the room, fed by the five Landscapers and three Bridges who sat waiting. She didn't know any of the Bridges, and she didn't know the Third Level Landscaper or the three who wore First Level badges. But the oldest Landscaper had been an Instructor at the school during her brief time there.

"Hey-a," Yoshani said softly.

One of the Bridges looked over and saw them. For a moment, his eyes remained blank. Then anger filled him as he leaped to his feet and pointed. "What are
they
doing here?"

"They are the ones you have come to see," Yoshani said.

"Not them," the oldest Landscaper said. "Not
her."

"There are things you need to know," Glorianna said, moving further into the room. "Things you can do to protect your Landscapes if you just —"

"You did this!" the Third Level Landscaper screamed. "The wizards should have destroyed you when they had the chance!"

"Glorianna didn't release the Eater of the World, and she didn't destroy the school!" Lee shouted. "She's never done anything to any of you! The Dark Guides poisoned your minds and hearts against her, but she's the only one who can help you now."

"We don't need
her
help," the oldest Landscaper said, her whole body shaking with anger as she got to her feet. "She was declared rogue for a reason, and we've finally seen Belladonna's true face."

"Do you really see it?" Glorianna asked. "Can you calm your own hearts for just a moment to really see me for who and what I am?" She held out a hand and focused on the oldest Landscaper. "You don't need the garden at the school to connect with your landscapes. They resonate within you. You
can
reach them. If the landscapes you came from are secure, you can build another garden to help you protect the places in your keeping. And the Bridges can connect the landscapes the five of you hold. I need your help in fighting the Eater of the World."

"Our help?" the oldest Landscaper said. She laughed bitterly. "If anyone unleashed these horrors on the landscapes, it is
you.

You dare to come here to Sanctuary? This is sacred ground, a Place of Light. You sully it with the mere presence of your filthy heart!"

"Enough!" Yoshani shouted.

No,
Glorianna thought.
It is not enough.

The Dark currents inside her swelled with an anger that was black and undiluted. She stepped away from Lee. But before she said the words that were straining to break free, she sent out a command.

Ephemera, hear me. The anger in this room is nothing more than wind, a storm that cleanses and is gone. This anger
manifests nothing, changes nothing.

But it would change everything.

"I am not like you," Glorianna said, the fierce anger that flowed through her making her voice rough. "I have
never
been like you, because I am a direct descendant of the Guides of the Heart who walked this world long ago. I am like
them,
and I am connected to the world in ways you cannot imagine. But I also have the bloodlines of the Dark Guides flowing through my veins, so I command the Light
and
the Dark. I am not human. Not like you. I am Belladonna. You have never wanted any part of me.

Now I want no part of you." She raised a hand and pointed at the Landscapers and Bridges. "Ephemera, hear me! Know these hearts. Any place that resonates with me is closed to them for all time. They may leave this landscape of their own choosing, but if they do not leave, send them to the landscape that resonates with their hearts. This I command."

She turned and walked to the door. Then she paused and looked back at them. "The Eater of the World is free among the landscapes. If you don't hold on to your pieces of the world with all the Light in your hearts, It will destroy you and everything in your care."

She walked out of the room, walked out of the guest house. Then she ran from the pain that threatened to cripple her.

But even as she ran, she knew no one, not even Glorianna Belladonna, could run fast enough or far enough to escape the pain that lived in her own heart.

Yoshani stepped in front of Lee. "It is done," he said, keeping his voice low so that only Lee would hear. "There is no need to say more. Go away for a few hours. Go see your cousin."

Lee's green eyes were filled with icy anger. "My sister needs me."

"There is too much anger in your heart, my friend. You cannot help her. Let your feelings spill on someone who can drink them in and not be hurt by them. Sometimes anger needs an echo before it can be washed away. Go. I will look after Glorianna."

Lee glared at the Landscapers and Bridges, but he left the room.

Yoshani closed his eyes and tried to calm the turmoil in his own heart.

Opportunities and choices. It was a saying Glorianna often used to explain how the world worked to fulfill true heart wishes.

He had seen the Light side of that saying, but until today, he had never seen the tragic side of it when the choices might cost so much.

He turned to face the eight people in the room.

"I am sorry," he said, "but you can no longer stay in Sanctuary."

He gave them a few moments to deny and protest his words, then he raised a hand to command silence. "You cannot stay."

"But we came here looking for help, looking for answers to what was happening in the landscapes — and what happened at the school," one of Bridges protested. "You said we might find the answer here."

"The answer stood before you, and you would not see. You chose to turn away from her, and now she has chosen to turn away from you."

The oldest Landscaper stared at him in disbelief. "Belladonna?
She
was the answer? She's a rogue!"

"And that is all you see," Yoshani said sadly. "For you, she is nothing more than a word that evil used to shroud your hearts.

So now you do not resonate with the currents of power that flow through Sanctuary, and you cannot stay here."

"But
she
can?" one of the Bridges shouted.

"Sanctuary is one of Belladonna's landscapes," Yoshani replied quietly. "She altered Ephemera in order to bring the Places of Light together so that we might learn from each other, draw strength from each other."

They just looked at him, too stunned to speak.

The youngest Landscaper wrapped her arms around herself "The school is gone. We can't go back to our gardens. How are we supposed to take care of Ephemera if we're all alone?"

"You are not alone," Yoshani said, looking at each of them in turn. "You have each other. So you find a place where you can build again, begin again."
And hope the Eater of the World does not find you again.
"Come. I will escort you to the bridge that, I believe, will still be able to take you back to your landscapes."