Sebastian

being stupid?" Sebastian muttered.

    "Great sex?" Teaser replied with a cocky grin—which changed into something close to panic. "Not sex.
    Box of sweets. That's better. Much better. Or flowers. If you can find any."
    Daylight , Sebastian thought, he's like a hoy who's just realized his mother has done the same things he's trying to get his sweetheart to do. What is it about Lynnea that brings that out in him ?
    Philo came through the swinging door that led into the kitchen, sparing the two incubi from saying anything more about the woman getting settled in Sebastian's room.
    "Last customer served," Philo said, setting down a tray that held a basket of Phallic Delights and a bowl of melted cheese. "Not that there have been many customers today. Didn't do much cooking, so there's not much left, but I can make you a cold beef sandwich."
    "Not for me, thanks," Sebastian replied, "but I'll take something back to the room for Lynnea."
    Philo bobbled the tray, almost knocking over the whiskey bottle. "But… I thought you were taking her to the Landscapers' School."
    Sebastian knocked back his whiskey. The room was warm and stuffy, but he needed the liquor's heat.
    "The school is gone."
    This was why he'd wanted to talk to them in private, but it was hard to tell them what he'd seen at the school, and reliving those minutes when he and Lynnea were running for their lives put a chill down his spine even whiskey couldn't thaw.
    Philo left the table long enough to fetch another glass. After pouring a generous measure for himself, he refilled Sebastian's and Teaser's glasses. "So the Bridge is going to cut us off from the rest of Ephemera."
    Sebastian nodded. "From everything except the other landscapes Belladonna holds."
    "That's going to cut down on business," Teaser muttered.
    "Business isn't the problem." Philo rolled his glass between his hands. "What about us? The folks who live in the Den? Where's the food going to come from? We can't grow our own, and if things are going bad in the daylight landscapes, folks there might not be willing to sell their surplus, especially to the likes of us."
    Had Lee considered that when making the decision to break the bridges that connected Glorianna's landscapes to the rest of Ephemera?
    "What about the lektricity?" Philo added. "I have a meat freezer and a big chiller for other kinds of food.
    If the lektricity goes, we won't even be able to store up much."
    "We'll take it a step at a time," Sebastian said. "First we spread the word to everyone who runs a business in the Den—brothels, taverns, gambling houses, shops. Everyone. If anyone sees a change in the landscape, especially pools of water or that sand, they're to report it."
    "To you?" Philo asked.
    Sebastian hesitated, then nodded. "I promised Lee I'd do what I could to hold the Den."
    The other men shifted uneasily.
    "What else?" Teaser asked.
    "We need to locate the bridges that connect the Den with other landscapes," Sebastian said. He knew the location of one, and it worried him. The bridge he and Lynnea had used to cross over to the Den from Nadia's house had been two boulders set on either side of a woodland trail that ended at the open ground at the back of his cottage. If whatever had been inside his home returned, would it be able to follow that path back to Aunt Nadia's house? The people who had died in the school were proof enough that Landscapers were as vulnerable as anyone else to the creatures the Eater of the World could bring into a landscape. "And I want to know about any strangers who come into the Den. Especially if they don't feel… right."
    Philo and Teaser exchanged a glance, but before either could speak, someone knocked frantically on the closed door.
    When Philo got up to answer the door, Teaser said, "I'll get a demon cycle and ride around to locate the bridges. But I'm not going to cross over."
    "We'll have to eventually to find out what landscapes they connect to," Sebastian replied. "Especially since Philo's right. We're going to need food."
    Philo returned to the table with Mr. Finch trailing behind him.
    "Oh," Mr. Finch said, wringing his hands. "Sebastian. Teaser." He glanced at Philo. "You're busy."
    "What's wrong?" Sebastian asked, regretting the sharpness in his voice when Mr. Finch flinched and looked ready to bolt.
    "I closed my shop," Mr. Finch said, looking at Philo pleadingly. "I said I had to meet you. Is that all right?"
    "That's fine," Philo said, "but why did you close your