Sebastian

back.
    He seemed thoughtful, willing to bend to the idea that the horror that had caused the first Landscapers to break the world into pieces was once more free to unfurl Its full power and turn Ephemera into a nightmarish hunting ground. Then he shook his head, and his face firmed into stubborn lines. "There's enough uneasiness because of the incidents without—"
    "What incidents? When did they start?"
    "Three weeks ago, right after Lukene disappeared."
    Glorianna stared at him. "Lukene disappeared three weeks ago and no one checked the wall?"
    But he was staring back at her, as if finally seeing her. "Where's your badge, Landscaper? You're supposed to wear your badge when you visit the school."
    A stab of shame, the scrape of old memories, must have shown in her eyes.
    "You're—"

    She raised her hand in a sharp move to silence him. It wasn't safe to have anyone speak her name. Not here. Not now. "It doesn't matter who I am. Warn the Landscapers, Bridge, before it's too late."
    "And tell them what?"
    "That the Eater of the World is hunting in Ephemera."
    Something rippled under the land. Something dark and predatory.
    Did It have a lair at the school? It wouldn't want to keep Its pieces of the world in that old garden. Too much possibility that the Landscapers might be able to reestablish the boundaries, repair the wall, and trap It again. But because of Ephemera's nature, this was the only place that would give It access to all of the landscapes.
    At least, all of the landscapes that were anchored in the gardens at the school.
    The man facing her looked feverish. Ill. Ugly emotions swam in his eyes—and weren't quite banished by his true nature.
    "Get away from this path, away from that garden," she said, her voice low and urgent. "Warn the Landscapers."
    Another dark ripple. Closer this time.
    She had to get away from here. Now !
    Turning, she strode away from the archway, ignoring the shouts of the Bridge, who, for his own reasons, didn't follow her.
    At least, she hoped they were still his own reasons.
    Guardians and Guides, let the Bridge turn away from that garden and give the Landscapers her warning.
    Not that they'd believe a warning that came from Belladonna. She was a rogue, a "threat" to maintaining the landscapes that made up Ephemera.
    She wouldn't be surprised if they decided she was the cause of the "incidents." After all, an embittered Landscaper who had, somehow, escaped the wizards' justice would want to cause mischief and harm to those who could achieve what she had not—status among her own kind and an acknowledged place in the world.
    They had condemned her because she had made a patchwork out of some of the dark places in the world and shaped them around the Den of Iniquity.
    Did any of them realize she had also made a patchwork of the most powerful places of Light? Did any of them know she was the Landscaper whose power resonated through Sanctuary?
    She came to the circle of sand-colored bricks and walked toward the sundial at the center of the circle.
    The Landscapers and wizards had wondered all these years how she had escaped from a magically sealed garden. This was part of the answer.
    Students were taught that their walled gardens were their anchor points to the school. Every connection they established with one of Ephemera's landscapes was anchored within their individual gardens, so they could return to the school from any of those places without needing a bridge to cross over.

    The walled gardens were the Landscapers' anchors to the school. Students never questioned that teaching. Neither did the Instructors, since all of them had been students here as well.
    Having another anchor point between her garden and the classrooms had seemed a practical way to give herself a little more time to work without having to run all the way back to the school building to be on time for her classes. She'd chosen the sundial as the second anchor point simply because she liked the look of it, the warmth of its stone. And because it was a daily reminder that Dark and Light were together in an eternal dance, and where there was one, the other also dwelled.
    That day, fifteen years ago, when she'd discovered a solid stone wall where her garden's gate should have been, she'd assumed it was another part of the "test." She might have spent weeks without realizing the meaning of that solid wall if the Instructors had given her all of her books when they'd closed her in for the "test." So shed crossed the