Belladonna

said.
    "He has a way," Lee said. "Bridge between Aurora and Darling's Harbor will get him back to Elandar. A ship will get him to his own landscapes."
    "I'd like something that didn't take as much time since I'll be going with him."
    Lee jumped up. "Has the thought of getting sex made you completely crazy?"
    "Lee." Nadia's voice cracked through the room like whiplash.
    "I, too, must protest," Yoshani said. "That comment was uncalled for — and unjust."
    Teaser looked around the table. "Why can't they have sex here?"
    Sebastian growled.
    "Oh," Teaser said. "Yeah, being crisped by wizards' lightning would spoil the fun."
    Protests and grumbles rolled around the table in a wave. Glorianna didn't hear any of them. She kept her eyes on Lee's.
    The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup.
    He'd been with her when Caitlin said those words. He'd felt the response of Ephemera's currents to those words.
    He knows, Glorianna thought. Sex is just the excuse he's using to try and push Michael away from all of us.
    "Life's journey, Bridge," she said.
    "I know." He sat down and pressed his palms against his forehead. "I know."
    She felt the weight of Nadia's stare and turned her head to meet her mother's dark eyes.
    "I think you have some explaining to do, daughter," Nadia said quietly.
    Glorianna hesitated, then nodded. "Privately."
    "Very well." Nadia swept her eyes over all of them, lingering just a moment longer on Sebastian and Lee, as if warning them to behave. "Michael. You visit villages, yes? What are their names?"
    He didn't turn his head, but his eyes shifted in Sebastian's direction before he answered. "Kendall, I which is a seaport.
    Dunberry, but that's not a safe place anymore."
    "Why not?" Nadia asked. "It is yours, is it not?"
    "Was mine, but something happened there. The song changed, and now it's not safe to enter the village."
    Sebastian swore quietly.
    Ignoring that for the moment, Glorianna concentrated on Michael. "Why didn't you do something to change the song back to what it was?"
    "Two boys disappeared and a young woman was murdered. They're looking for someone to blame. I can't go back."
    "They're your people," Nadia said. "That landscape is your responsibility."
    "The Eater of the World must have touched that landscape and poisoned the hearts of those people," Glorianna said. "You have to fix it."
    "I can't go back to the village," Michael said with strained patience.
    "Tch."
    Glorianna glanced at her mother, and saw Nadia's lips twitch as they both realized they'd made the same sound of annoyance.
    "If nothing else, you'll need to go with him to Dunberry and show him what's to be done," Nadia said.
    "Agreed," Glorianna replied. "But it was a place called Foggy Downs that the Magician asked me to see."
    Sebastian swore again.
    She saw Michael wince and shift his weight as if he'd like to put some distance between himself and her cousin but didn't quite dare.
    "It takes a couple of days to get from Dunberry to Foggy Downs," Michael said.
    "No, it doesn't," Sebastian said, staring at the plate in front of him. "Not from the waterhorses' landscape."
    Glorianna sat back. "So what aren't the two of you telling the rest of us?" When they didn't answer, she added, "I can send a command through the currents of power so that every time it rains you end up stepping in a puddle and getting your feet soaked."
    Sebastian gave her a puzzled — and sulky — look. Michael huffed out a breath and said, "Ah, now, Glorianna. That's an unkind bit of ill-wishing."
    "You can do that?" Teaser asked, looking at Michael.
    "I've never done that particular thing," Michael muttered. Then added reluctantly, "Well, not often anyway."
    "The point is, gentlemen, we understand each other," Glorianna said. Then she waited.
    "There's a bridge outside of Dunberry," Michael said. "Most times if you cross it, you'll keep going up the road to Kendall.
    But sometimes when you cross the bridge, there is no road, just open country, and soon enough a pretty black horse will come trotting up to greet you. There have been enough fools who have thrown a leg over one of those pretty horses. A few have gotten no more than a dunking and found their way home. Most end up drowned. Some are never found or seen again."
    "Koltak mentioned those places," Sebastian said. "Dunberry. Foggy Downs."
    "Koltak?" Michael asked. "He was someone from here who crossed over to Elandar?"
    "My father. Wizard Koltak." Sebastian spat out the words as if they were