Belladonna

sense, Glorianna said, "You're the anchor."
    Hushed anticipation. A feeling like a light breath blowing over the hairs of her arm.
    "You know," Peg said, her wrinkled face lighting with joy even though there was a hint of doubt in her voice.
    "Anchors help Landscapers keep the world balanced and sane," Glorianna said. "But most don't realize what they do for a place and its people."
    "We haven't forgotten our traditions," a gray-haired, middle-aged man said. "Not like some in the south."
    "Hush, Colin," Peg said. "We'll not speak ill of our neighbors — even if they act like two-headed goats mostof the time," she added in a barely audible mutter.
    Caitlin tried to stifle a laugh, which came out in a snort.
    "Do you need a handkerchief ?" Glorianna asked with a politeness that would have cowed even Aunt Brighid.
    "No," Caitlin said meekly.
    Peg looked at Glorianna — and smiled. "You're a strong one, aren't you?"

    "I understand how strong — and how fragile — the world can be," Glorianna replied.
    "Didn't get your name."
    "Glorianna Belladonna."
    Another hush. Uneasy shuffling of feet.
    "There's a pair of Sentinel Stones beyond the village," Peg said. "Some of our young go journeying. Some are meant for other places. Some return to Darling's Harbor. So we've heard of Belladonna."
    Glorianna said nothing, but there was now a chill in her green eyes that made Caitlin wish Michael would step up and do something, say something.
    Peg looked worried. "We've also heard stories that the Destroyer of Light has awakened."
    "Where I come from, we call It the Eater of the World," Glorianna said. "And, yes, It is loose in the world — and has already touched Elandar."
    Peg nodded. "Then it's glad I am to have seen the Warrior of Light with my own two eyes. And we're grateful that you were the one who brought the Seer back to us." She sniffed once, then squared her shoulders. "Now then ..."
    "Captain Kenneday!" Colin called out, raising a hand.
    "You'll not be doing business now!" Peg scolded.
    "And what better time to be doing it?" Colin demanded.
    Peg opened her mouth — and finally huffed out a breath. "Very well, then. You talk to the captain Kayne! You've got younger legs anyway. You show them a bit of the village on the way to the Seer's house."
    "There's a house?" Caitlin asked. Something made her glance at Glorianna and Lee — and she realized they had already known about these accommodations. "Sure there's a house," Peg said. "Old one burned a few years back. Just as well, I suppose. Meaning no disrespect, since she would have been kin to you, but the last one to tend the garden lived in the house from time to time. I was just a girl then, but I remember my mother talking to friends and saying how they had scrubbed that house from top to bottom and still couldn't get rid of the sour smell. It was like that woman's disposition had seeped into the wood and stone. The one that stands now has been tended but not lived in. We've been waiting, you see. We always knew one of Darling's girls would find her way home for good."
    "That was her name?" Caitlin asked, startled.
    "Sure it was her name," Peg said. "Darling by name, darling by nature. She was the Seer who first made the garden in order to tend her little bits of the world. Then she fell in love, but her man wasn't easy living here, so she went with him to live in his home village and added the place to the bits she tended. But she never quite came home again, even though we knew she still looked out for us. Her daughters and their line never quite came home either. Until now."
    Kayne stepped up to be properly introduced, and Caitlin heard Glorianna make the rest of the introductions. Heard Peg invite Brighid to ride with her in the pony cart. But those were just sounds rippling over the surface. There was a bell tolling in her head, and the sound rang out as "Raven's Hill, Raven's Hill, Raven's Hill."
    As the others got sorted out, she tugged on Glorianna's arm, and a look from Glorianna Belladonna was all it took for everyone else to give them some private space.
    "Raven's Hill is in the garden?" Caitlin asked, keeping her voice low.
    Sadness filled Glorianna's eyes, and the weight or that sadness dragged on Caitlin's heart.
    "It's there," Glorianna said reluctantly.
    She waited, and then realized Glorianna wasn't going to say anything else unless asked. "Where?"
    Glorianna hesitated. "Under the compost heap."
    She thought about how Raven's Hill had felt these