Belladonna

the ground at any moment.
    You touched a boy! You've got the ickies!
    Lee's skip-step made her think of that taunt, which she'd heard, in one form or another, in so many villages — a taunt that seemed part of the rituals that transformed a girl into a young woman. Somewhere during those years, "icky" changed into
    "interesting," and after that, a girl's life was never quite the same. Of course, the boy's life was never quite the same either.
    The moment's amusement settled her enough to think rather than react.
    "Someone crossed over," Glorianna said, "but not in a customary way. And the Eater almost crossed over with that person."
    "Almost." Lee wasn't asking a question so much as demanding the answer he wanted to hear.
    Glorianna nodded. "Almost. The dissonance would be clanging through the currents of power if the Eater had come into one of my landscapes."
    "It had slipped in before. Made an anchor point small enough to escape your detection until you were almost on top of that piece of ground."
    "I know, but this is different. I don't think It was trying to enter my landscapes. I think ..." Glorianna frowned. "A battle of wills. Maybe the person wasn't trying to bring the Eater in. Maybe the person was trying to get away, but that wouldn't explain the feeling of Heart's Justice."
    "There is such a thing as spontaneous Heart's Justice," Lee said reluctantly.
    Glorianna just looked at him.
    "Bridges don't talk about it, but we know it happens. If two incompatible people cross a resonating bridge at the same time
    — especially if one person is trying to force the other to cross over to an ... unsuitable ... landscape — Ephemera sometimes responds with Heart's Justice, sending each person to a different landscape. In those cases, it seems that where the will is focused is equally important as what landscapes resonate with the person's heart."
    "You have a mother and a sister who are Landscapers, and you've never mentioned this."
    Lee shrugged, looking wary. "It's not talked about. It just seemed better if everyone believed Heart's Justice didn't happen unless a Landscaper initiated it." Then he gave her a look that wasn't brother to sister but Bridge to Landscaper. "Besides, doesn't a kind of Hearts Justice happen every time a person crosses a resonating bridge? When you cross one of those bridges, the landscape where you end up may be a place you've never seen before even if it does resonate with your heart."
    He had a point. And maybe it was one of those bits of knowledge that seemed so obvious it was assumed everyone knew about it. At least, all the Landscapers and Bridges who kept Ephemera balanced and connected as best they could.
    Lee stepped up beside her and studied the access points to the dark landscapes. "What are you sensing now?"
    "Nothing. I'm fairly sure whoever crossed over ended up in one of the dark landscapes, but that heart has vanished in the overall resonances."
    "A person who has died wouldn't leave a resonance, and if there was a fight with the Eater ..." Lee lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.
    "Even so, I'd better get a message to Sebastian in case any ... unusual strangers ... show up in the Den."
    "I can do that," Lee said. "You're not going to feel easy about leaving the garden for a while."
    She wrinkled her nose and smiled to acknowledge the truth of that.

    Lee gave her a one-armed hug. "Just remember to go back to the house and get something to eat. And bring a shawl or jacket back out with you. It's getting too cool at night to be outdoors without one."
    "Yes, Mother."
    "That's brother."
    "Sorry, I could have sworn the tone said mother even if the timbre of the voice was too deep."
    "If you tell me I'll make a great uncle, I will wrestle you to the ground and push your face in the mud."
    Glorianna blinked. Clearly this wasn't the time to offer an opinion about such things, even if she'd thought to say anything.
    She couldn't recall what she said to him in response, but it must have been satisfactory since he left, intending to stop by their mother's house on the way to the Den.
    "Well," she said to the garden as she deadheaded flowers on a few of the autumn plants. "Well, I'm sure he'd be a fine uncle as long as he doesn't depend on me to make him one." Which made her wonder why he'd even be chewing on the question.
    Which made her think of one reason why he would.
    Glorianna grinned. Sebastian a daddy?
    Then the grin shifted into a pout. Lynnea should have told her. Even