Sebastian

doesn't feel easy, your life never feels easy, whether you become prosperous or not."
    Sebastian nodded. "And if you find the place where you belong, you can weather the hardships as well as the good times—because life will give you both."
    "What's this, then?" Teaser waved a hand over his jumble of pieces. "You can't have a jumble of landscapes like this."
    Sebastian felt that jolt again. "Yes, you can. Those are Belladonna's landscapes."
    People had begun whispering among themselves, but that statement produced another wave of silence.
    Seeing things Lee had said to him mirrored now in a simple human amusement, Sebastian placed his thumb on one of the dark pieces. "She brought some of Ephemera's dark landscapes together"—he stretched his hand and rested a finger on the bright blue piece of sky—"and she brought together places of Light. In between are the landscapes that are a bit of both. Neither dark or light, just… human. The human landscapes stand between us, but the Den and Sanctuary are connected. Because of her. Which means we each have something to offer the world." And if one is lost, the other won't survive .
    "Enough stories," he said, easing between the people and the table to reach Lynnea. When she started to rise, he rested a hand on her shoulder. "No, sit. Finish the puzzle. I'd like to see it finished."
    "That's enough now," Philo said, making shooing motions at the crowd. "That's enough. Find a chair for Sebastian so he can sit with his lady and have something to eat."
    A chair was found, the crowd dispersed to fill the other tables, and Philo brought him a bowl of stew and pieces of bread.
    As he watched Lynnea, Teaser, and Mr. Finch put the puzzle together, Sebastian couldn't shake the feeling that he was watching a promise being made—the promise that, someday, Ephemera would be whole again.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Fifteen

 

     
     

     
    "That's enough," Glorianna said. As she reached for the papers her brother held, she noticed his hands trembled from exhaustion. "Lee, that's enough."
    He pulled the papers toward him, his fingers tightening convulsively. "There are so many," he muttered as he stared at the papers that held the careful notations of every bridge he'd created over the years, as well as the location of bridges other Bridges had formed that provided access to one of Glorianna's or Nadia's landscapes. "With the other landscapes unprotected, there are so many ways the Eater of the World can—"
    " Enough ." She laid her hands over his. Doubt could form heavy chains around the mind, making each decision weigh so much, no decision, no action would be taken for fear it was the wrong one. She could see him bending from the responsibility he now carried. With the weight of doubt added to the burden, she worried he might break under the strain. "Did you or did you not break the stationary bridges between Sanctuary and the landscapes in this part of Ephemera?"
    Lee nodded. "Except the ones that connect with landscapes controlled by you or Mother."
    "And did you not break the stationary bridges that would provide a way into Mother's landscapes from Wizard City or the Landscapes' School?" She waited for him to nod again. "And you broke the stationary bridges that would lead to the Den from any place but my landscapes."
    He flinched, which made her narrow her eyes.
    "There's the bridge in the woods by Mother's house that crosses over from the Den to Aurora," he said.
    "That one stays. If something happens at home and Mother is blocked from reaching Sanctuary, I want her to be able to reach Sebastian." She studied her brother. "What else?"
    "I… connected one of Mother's landscapes to the Den. There was a stationary bridge in that landscape that led to Wizard City. When I broke the connection between those two landscapes, I felt a… hole, an emptiness that needed to be filled, but none of the landscapes I would have normally connected with that one felt right, so I had to leave it. Then, when I went to the Den to change the resonating bridge into a stationary one… Something in those two landscapes resonated so strongly with each other, my presence was enough of a conduit to make a connection. Took a fair amount of stubbornness on my part to hold them apart long enough to link them properly."
    "Then it was meant," Glorianna said. Before he guessed her intention, she pulled the papers out of his hands, tapped them into a neat stack, and put them in the document box Jeb had made