Sebastian

boundary between here and there, stepping from her garden to the sundial in the space of a heartbeat.
    But she hadn't gone back to her room at the student lodgings. Instead she'd walked back to her garden to look at the gate from the outside in order to figure out why it had become solid stone so she could change it back and pass that part of her "test."
    That was when she'd found the wizards' seal on the wrought-iron gate and realized the solid stone existed only for someone inside the garden. That was when her trust in those who were supposed to be wise enough to make decisions about other people's lives turned to ash swept away by the sharp winds of anger and hurt… and fear.
    She lost her innocence that day, and in losing it, began the next stage of the life journey that would make her as dangerous as the wizards and Instructors had feared.
    Glorianna shook her head. This wasn't the time or place for dark memories, especially if the Eater of the World was hiding somewhere in the gardens. It would be drawn to the resonance dark memories produced in the heart, and she wasn't ready to fight It. Didn't know if she could fight It.
    She brushed her fingers over the sundial as she walked past it, keeping her mind focused on where she needed to be. In that moment, between one step and the next, the ground beneath her changed from sand-colored bricks to an overgrown path in the abandoned garden.
    A pang of sorrow pierced her, making her stop and look around.
    The garden should have been lovely, should have been tended and nurtured. It should have been hers.
    You've no time for this. Get what you came for and he gone.
    Clenching her hands to resist the temptation to free some of the flowers that were still struggling to grow despite the smothering tangle of weeds, she walked to the center where the small fountain, the garden's focal point, still burbled, spilling fresh water over the stones into the surrounding pool.
    She'd run home the day she'd discovered the seal. Had rushed back to this garden just long enough to cross over to the landscape that was her mother's domain—a place where she safely could weep out the hurt and bitterness.
    "You must find another place to anchor your landscapes, daughter. You must build another garden in a place that can't he reached by your enemies."
    "There isn't such a place!"
     
    "There is. If you want it to exist, there will he such a place. Break your ties to the school, and I will teach you all that I can!"
    "I'm a rogue now, Mother. If you help me…"
    She looked into her mother's eyes, stunned by the anger she saw in them.
    "You're going to break your ties to your garden at the school. Aren't you?" she said.
    "Sending you to the school was a necessary risk, just as your grandmother took that risk when it was my time to go for the formal training. Now there's another risk, one too great for me to take chances. So, yes, I will break my ties to that garden. But I promise you, Glorianna, I will not lose anything I do not choose to release."
    "But… Mother—"
    "There are things I must tell you about our family, hut not now. Not yet. Just shift your landscapes' anchors to some other place, and do it swiftly."
    "What about Tee?"
    Nadia hesitated. "When the time comes, he'll have to go to the school to train as a Bridge"
    "Another necessary risk?"
    "Yes. Another necessary risk. You'll need a Bridge you can trust"
    "You're placing a large burden on a young boy."
    Sadness filled Nadia's eyes. "No, Glorianna. It isn't Tee who will carry the burden."
    Glorianna shook her head as if that would clear away the thoughts, the weight of despair.
    Its influence. There was too little of her left within these walls to fight against the feelings It coaxed to the mind's surface in order to fill the heart with dark emotions.
    She had to leave.
    Crouching beside the fountain, she studied the tumbled stones in the bottom of the pool. Most of them were just stones without power. But…
    Pushing up her sleeves, she plunged her hands into the pool, shifting the stones to find the three that contained bridges Lee had created for her.
    She'd done what Nadia had asked. She'd found that safe, secret place and made another garden that became her link to the landscapes that were in her keeping. But she came back here, just once, while Lee was in school, and left the three stones. She'd been afraid for him because of his ability to impose one landscape over another. If the Instructors at the Bridges' School had