Belladonna

was a wanderer who, it was said, could charm the birds into changing their songs into gold so he could have a few coins for his pocket. I never saw such a thing happen with the birds, but I'm thinking that, before my mother came along, more than one lady slipped a few coins in his pocket as a farewell present. And to be fair, he was a hard worker who could turn his hand to just about any kind of labor and was usually cheerful about it."
    "He was a Magician?"
    "He was. But he had an easy way about him, so people weren't eager to tar him with that particular brush. Anyway, he had two older brothers who took to the road to make their fortunes. They came back to visit their parents and kin a couple of times in the beginning, then were never heard from again."
    He glanced at her to see how she was reacting to his story so far, but, like him, she kept her eyes on the sea and just nodded to indicate she understood.
    "So my father, Devyn, went out on the road like his older brothers, needing more than he could find in the village where he'd been born. Sometimes things were good, sometimes they weren't, but he settled into a route that kept his feet moving and his heart happy, and for a few years he wandered from place to place with no ties because, as much as he traveled, he never seemed able to get back to the village where most of his kin lived."
    "Maybe he couldn't," Glorianna said. "Often when a person crosses over to another landscape it's because they need to take the next step of their life journey. Sometimes that means adding something more to the life they've known — and sometimes it means not going back to the places and people they had known,"
    "Maybe," Michael said softly, thinking of how he would have felt if he'd never managed to get back to Raven's Hill to spend time with Aunt Brighid and Caitlin Marie. "Maybe." Would that have been a comfort to the family Devyn had left behind, to know that his not coming back might have been a decision made by the world and not the man himself? And which family are you thinking of, my lad? "So one year he ended up in a village that he'd never visited before and saw a pretty girl who captured his heart. Maureen had fire in her eyes and a voice, when she sang, that could make you weep with gratitude just for hearing it. She had an older sister who had gone to the White Isle to become a Sister oflight, but unlike Brighid, the White Isle didn't call to Maureen.
    She wasn't a wicked girl, just restless and a little wild because of it. Then she met Devyn, who offered her a wedding ring and a way to get out of the village that was smothering her.
    "For a while, things went well between them. There was Maureen's pleasure in seeing new places, even ones that made her feel as restless and edgy as her home village. There was Devyn's pleasure in showing his pretty wife those places that lifted his heart. And there was the pleasure they shared in the marriage bed.
    "There were places where things went well for them. Money came easy enough, and when it didn't come easy, there was still enough to get by. And there were places where things began to sour after a day or two. And people would look at my mother and mutter about an ill-wisher being among them. So Maureen and Devyn would pack up and move on."
    "She created dissonance without intending to, and then when blamed, probably fed the Dark currents with her own unhappiness. And Devyn, being unhappy about the troubles, wasn't able to balance things out." Glorianna shook her head. There was pity in her eyes. "She was a Landscaper who was unaware of her heritage. Mother and I speculated that there had to be other Landscapers beyond the landscapes that were held within the gardens at the Landscapers' school. The world would be too unstable without them. But we never considered what it would be like for those people to be so connected to Ephemera and not understand why some places would feel right and some wouldn't." She hesitated, and Michael heard her whisper, "Just heart's rain. It will pass, changing nothing."
    As she said the words, clouds formed in what had been a clear sky.
    "Your mother never found her landscapes, did she?" Glorianna asked, her eyes swimming with tears,
    "No, I don't think she did." He stopped, needing a moment to regain control before going on with the story. "They first went to Raven's Hill when she was heavy with me. Devyn's mother's cousin lived there. That branch of the family had once lived in a grand house