Sebastian

possibilities could change the pattern that might bring those heart wishes and the catalyst together. Right now she needed to think about the alley and a landscape that had been taken out of the world long ago and shouldn't be able to touch the rest of Ephemera. And she needed to think about a possibility she didn't want to consider.
    Sighing, Glorianna rubbed her hands over her face.
    Only one way to find out. After she got some rest, she would go to the Landscapers' School and look at the forbidden garden, just to reassure herself that the Eater of the World was still contained behind a stone wall.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Four

 

     
     

     
    "Hoo-whee! You lucky I came along," William Farmer said.
    "Yeah," Sebastian muttered. "Lucky."
    "Don't usually pick up strangers this close to a bridge. Can't never tell what might be crossing over from another place. But you look like a regular fella."
    The farmer spent a minute making various noises at the two horses pulling the wagon, which didn't seem to have any effect on the animals. It certainly didn't increase their speed.
    Travel lightly . Sebastian closed his eyes and tried to feel grateful that the farmer had offered him a ride.
    Even if he'd followed the cart path that had led from the bridge, he could have spent days trying to reach Wizard City, getting detained one way or another over and over again. His reluctance to get anywhere near the wizards was at odds with the knowledge that it was what he needed to do. But Ephemera responded to the heart, not the head, so the landscape would have provided obstacles to keep him from reaching the city, turning the journey into a battle of wills—his against Ephemera. He still would have reached the city eventually, but the people he'd left behind in the Den didn't have time for eventually.
    So when he'd reached the spot where the cart path joined the main road at the same moment the wagon was passing by, he'd accepted William Farmer's offer of a ride for what it was—a sign that the journey would go smoothly if he didn't turn away from the gifts that were offered.
    No one ever said gifts like this came without a price.
    But, he thought with a sour glance at the farmer, if he had to listen to the man hoo-whee all the way to Wizard City, the price of this particular gift was a bit steep.

    "You really going up to Wizard City to talk to a wizard?" William asked. 1 am.
    "Hoo-whee! Don't know as I'd want to do that. They's not like regular folks. Don't matter that they's the Justice Makers. Got that magic in them that makes them different. Wouldn't want to be jawing with the likes of them."
    Sebastian looked sideways at William. "Have you ever seen a wizard?"
    "Seen 'em, sure. They prowl the marketplaces in the city from time to time just like everybody else. But never talked to one—and hope I never do."
    Something—a change in inflection, a shift in the way William held himself—made Sebastian look at the man more closely.
    "Why do you do that?" he asked, curious.
    "Do what?"
    "Talk like that. You're not a hayseed."
    "What makes you think I'm not?" William sounded indignant.
    Sebastian smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile. "You try too hard. The hayseeds I've run across always give themselves away, but they try to talk better than they do at home. You roll in the words like a…" He couldn't think of anything to compare it to that wouldn't be an insult.
    "Like a pig in muck," William said.
    Sebastian tipped his head. "All right." He paused, then added, "You may be a farmer, but you're not a hayseed."
    William was silent for the first time since he'd picked up Sebastian. Finally he said, "Are you going to rob me?"
    "I'm not a thief," Sebastian snapped. "Besides, robbing you after you gave me a ride"— Wouldn't be a kindness —"would be wrong." He studied the farmer in the dusky light. The clothes were sufficiently worn-out to be a practical choice if a man was going to spend a day traveling along muddy or dusty roads—or they could have been the best clothes the man owned. As soon as he'd heard William speak, he'd assumed the latter. And any would-be thief, after listening to William for a minute, would figure there was nothing easy to steal and either endure the chatter for the length of the journey or escape at the first crossroads that offered an excuse to leave.
    All in all, it provided a camouflage against potential predators that didn't change the resonance of the man's nature, like a rabbit whose fur