Anne Bishop - Ephemera 1 - Sebastian

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SEBASTIAN

Ephemera Book 1

By

Anne Bishop

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

From the Front Flap:

Her worlds have been described as “vividly painted” (Lynn Flewelling) and “lavishly sensual” (Library

Journal). Now, award–winning, bestselling author Anne Bishop invites you into a new realm, one that is

ever–changing, caught between the Light and Dark forces of the heart...

“Let your heart travel lightly. Because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape.”

Long ago, to stop the onslaught of the Eater of the World, Ephemera was split into a dizzying number of

strange and magical lands connected only by bridges—which may take you where you truly belong,

rather than where you had intended to go.

Now, with the Eater contained and virtually forgotten, the shifting worlds of Ephemera have been kept

stable by the magic of the Landscapers. In one such land, where night reigns and demons dwell, the

half–incubus Sebastian revels in dark delights. But then in dreams she calls to him: a woman who wants

only to be safe and loved—a woman he hungers for while knowing he may destroy her.

But a more devastating destiny awaits Sebastian, for in the quiet gardens of the Landscapers' school, evil

is stirring. The prison of the Eater of the World has weakened—and Sebastian's realm may be the first to

fall...

Intoxicating, erotic, and intensely romantic, Sebastian is for those who know on which side of the

heart—Light or Dark—their passions lie.

From the back cover:

Praise for award–winning author Anne Bishop:

“Rich and fascinatingly different dark fantasy.” –Locus

“A terrific writer...the more I read, the more excited I became because of the freshness of [her] take on

the usual high fantasy setting, the assurance of [her] language, all the lovely touches of characterization

that [she slips] in so effortlessly.” –Charles de Lint

“Lavishly sensual...a richly detailed world.” –Library Journal

“Vividly painted...dramatic, erotic, hope–filled.” –Lynn Flewelling

“A darkly fascinating world...Vivid and sympathetic characters...lavish and sensuous descriptions, and

interesting world building...Many compelling and beautifully realized elements. A terrific read.” –SF Site

“Intense...erotic, violent, and imaginative. This one is white–hot.” –Nancy Kress

“Mystical, sensual, glittering with dark magic.” –Terri Windling, co–editor of The Year's Best Fantasy

and Horror

“[Anne Bishop's] poignant storytelling skills are surpassed only by her flair for the dramatic and her deft

characterization...a talented author.” –Affaire de Coeur

ALSO BY ANNE BISHOP

THE BLACK JEWELS SERIES

Daughter of the Blood

Heir to the Shadows

Queen of the Darkness

The Invisible Ring

Dreams Made Flesh

THE TIR AEAINN TRILOGY

The Pillars of the World

Shadows and Light

The House of Gaian

ROC

Published by New American Library, a division of

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,

Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2,

Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,

Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,

New Delhi- 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany,

Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue,

Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, February 2006

REGISTERED TRADEMARK——MARC A REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLIC AT ION DATA:

Bishop, Anne.

Sebastian / by Anne Bishop.

p. cm.—(Ephemera #.1)

ISBN 0-451-46073-1

I. Title.

PS3552.I7594S43 2006

813'.6—dc22 2005019668

Set in Centaur MT

Designed by Ginger Legato

Cover art by Larry Rostant

Cover design by Ray Lundgren

Printed in the United States of America

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's

imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business

establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or

third-party Web sites or their content.

For

Pat York

who crossed over to other landscapes.

I'm glad you were part of my life.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Blair Boone for continuing to be my first reader, to Debra Dixon for being second reader,

to Kandra and Doranna for maintaining the Web site, and to Pat and Bill Feidner for all the things that

make them special.

Long ago, in a time that has faded from memory, a mothers tears forged the bridge that, ever after,

connected the power of the living, ever-changing world to the human heart.

—Myth

Chapter One

Present

Standing at the kitchen counter, Sebastian closed his eyes and inhaled slowly and deeply to savor the

smell of freshly ground koffea beans. Better than a woman. At least, a more sensual experience than the

last two he'd been with.

When an incubus found sex boring, it was time to take a break—or think about another line of work.

Pushing that thought into the mental trunk where he'd shoved so many unpleasant memories, he followed

the rest of the instructions for brewing the koffea beans.

What would it be like to rise in the first wisps of dawn and come out to the kitchen to grind the beans

while someone who truly mattered was snuggled in his bed, waiting to be awakened with a nuzzle and a

kiss—and a cup of freshly brewed koffee? What would it be like to stand outside, cup in hand, and

watch the day come alive?

Sebastian shook his head. Why was he rubbing salt into emotional wounds, thinking about things that

couldn't be? He lived in the Den of Iniquity, which consisted of a few blocks of crowded buildings and

cobblestone streets—a place that, most likely, had been an unsavory part of some large city, nothing but

a dark smudge in a daylight landscape. Then a Landscaper had altered the world, turning those streets

into a separate landscape, and that had changed the feel of living on those streets, had changed the

taverns, gambling houses, and brothels into a carnal carnival.

But it was more than a place where human vices were openly enjoyed, more than a place where humans

who didn't fit into the daylight landscapes and demons like the incubi and succubi could live. The Den

was at the center of a cluster of dark landscapes some of Ephemera's demon races claimed as their own.

It was a place where those demons could purchase supplies or buy a drink in a tavern without being

hated or driven away because they weren't human.

It was also a place that had its roots in the darker side of the human heart, a place where the sun never

rose.

He'd been a bitter fifteen-year-old boy when he'd stumbled into the Den. Having escaped his father's

control two years before, he'd disappeared into the landscapes and struggled to survive. The dark human

landscapes were too desperate and frightening even for a boy whose demon nature eclipsed whatever

human blood might flow through his veins, but the people in the daylight landscapes didn't want something

like him living among them, and he'd been driven out of village after village as soon as the people realized

he was an incubus—and that hunger for the emotions that were produced by sex was something that

couldn't be hidden or denied for long.

So when he found the Den and felt the dark, edgy, carnival tone of the place, he'd embraced it with all his

heart because he'd finally found a place where being an incubus didn't make him an outcast, a place

where the never-ending night suited who and what he was—a place where he could belong.

And he still belonged here. The Den was his home. But now, as a man who had recently turned thirty…

I'm so tired of the night.

A sudden yearning for something washed through him, making his heart ache, filling him with a need and

a longing so powerful it staggered him. He braced his hands on the counter and waited for the feeling to

pass. It always did.

But the yearning had never been this powerful before, had never swept through him like this. Didn't

matter. Those feelings came and went—and nothing changed.

Disgusted with himself for not being content with what he had, he plucked a mug off the wooden

stand—and almost dropped it when someone knocked on the cottages front door. He never brought

anyone to his home, never invited anyone to visit. The only two people who ignored that demand for

privacy were his human cousins, Glorianna and Lee, and neither of them would sound so hesitant about

applying knuckles to wood.

He'd just ignore it; that's what he'd do. He'd ignore it, and whoever—whatever—was on the other side

of the door would go away.

The door creaked open. Sebastian's heart pumped against his chest as he set the mug on the counter,

careful to make no sound. Just as silently, he eased the biggest knife he had out of the wood block.

Maybe he wouldn't win, but he'd go down fighting.

"Sebastian?" a voice called. "Sebastian? You here?"

He knew that voice, but he still hesitated. Then he swore silently and slipped the knife back into its slot.

There were very few things in the Den that couldn't be bought, but trust was one of them.

Moving to the doorway that separated the kitchen from the main living area, he peered into the room and

studied his visitor.

The other incubus stood on the threshold, almost bouncing with nerves. Yet his eyes were bright with

curiosity as he looked at the simple furniture and the framed sketches on the walls.

"What do you want, Teaser?" Sebastian asked.

If Teaser noticed the harsh note in Sebastian's voice, he ignored it and bounded into the main room. Then

he stopped, spun around, and closed the outer door before moving toward Sebastian with the cocky

swagger that was at odds with his boyish good looks.

Women were often deceived into believing he acted the way he looked. With Teaser, sometimes that

was a serious mistake.

As youths, they had trolled the Den's streets together—blond-haired, blue-eyed Teaser projecting an

image of a boy out for a bit of naughty fun, while Sebastian was the handsome piece of danger with his

sable hair and sharp green eyes. They'd played their games of seduction, providing physical sex to

women who crossed over to the Den from the daylight landscapes or using the power of the incubi to

connect with another mind through the twilight of waking dreams, feeding on the emotions they created

by being fantasy lovers. Unhappy wives. Foolish girls who wanted the romance of a mysterious admirer.

Lonely women who craved the warmth of a lover, even if that lover came to them only in dreams. They

were all prey to the incubi.

For five years, he and Teaser had rented adjoining rooms at an expensive bordello and trolled the Den.

Then, when he turned twenty, Sebastian could no longer ignore a growing need for something beyond the

Den and the sexual games, so he walked away from the colored lights and the dark buildings. He found a

dirt lane that began a few steps away from where the Den's main street ended—a lane he was certain

hadn't been there before. He followed it, not sure if he was just taking a walk or really leaving the one

place he'd felt at home.

That was how he found the two-story cottage. It didn't look like it belonged in a landscape like the Den,

but it wouldn't have been there if it hadn't belonged. That was the way things worked in Ephemera.

He went inside, wary of being caught by whoever laid claim to the place. But it wasn't inhabited. Half the

rooms were empty, but there was enough furniture left haphazardly in the other rooms to set up a

comfortable bedroom, living area, and kitchen. He found linens and towels, as well as everything he

needed in the kitchen to prepare and eat a simple meal. He prowled the rooms for an hour—and realized

something inside him had relaxed, as if he'd taken his first full breath in months.

Finding cleaning supplies in a cupboard in the kitchen, he dusted, polished, swept, and scrubbed until the

cottage was clean and the furniture arranged to his liking. Then he went back to the Den, removed most

of his possessions from the room he rented in the bordello, and moved into the cottage. A week later,

when he returned from trolling the Den's streets, he discovered someone had planted a moonflower

beside the cottage's back door.

That was when he realized this place had been waiting for him to find it, to want it. She would have

known the moment something in him had changed enough to match the cottage, and the moonflower was

her way of saying, "Welcome."

In Ephemera, there were few secrets of the heart. And nothing could be hidden from Glorianna

Belladonna.

He had lived in the cottage for the past ten years, still a part of the Den and yet apart from it.

"Didn't see you around yesterday," Teaser said, pulling Sebastian back to the present. "Just thought I'd

stop by and… see."

He'd spent yesterday sketching—and had burned all the sketches when he realized he'd been trying to

capture daylight memories of Aurora, his aunt Nadia's home village. Things he'd seen as a child during the

times he lived with her. Then his father, Koltak, would show up again and take him away, dumping him

on some woman in the poor section of the city where Koltak lived—a woman who was paid to tolerate

his presence and provide him with food and a place to sleep. Half the time he lived on the streets, running

wild with other abandoned children and remembering all over again how barren and miserable his life was

supposed to be. Then Nadia would arrive and take him back to her home.

Nadia's and Koltak's battle of wills, and the cycle of loving acceptance and coldhearted misery, finally

ended when he'd gotten away from his father the last time Koltak arrived at Nadia's house to take him

back to the hated city.

"I was occupied," Sebastian said, pushing aside the memories.

Teaser grinned wickedly. "Still offering comfort to aging spinsters and lonely widows? You need to look

for something a bit more lively. Someone with a bit more kick. Can't imagine any of them are much fun

when you cross over to give them a ride in the flesh instead of just romantic dreams." Then he sniffed the

air. His eyes widened. "Is that koffee?"

Sebastian sighed. He'd ground enough beans for two cups. Looked like he was going to share. "Come

on, then."

When he walked back to the counter, Teaser was right behind him.

After eyeing the bag of koffea beans, the grinder, and the perk-pot, Teaser whistled. "Got the whole

setup. Maybe giving spinsters and widows sweet dreams and hot nights is more lucrative than I thought."

He paused. "But you don't usually buy from the black market."

Sebastian took another mug from the wooden stand and filled it with koffee. "I didn't get this from the

black market. This was a gift from my cousins." As he turned to hand the mug to Teaser, he caught the

flash of fear in the other incubus's eyes, noted the slight tremble in the hands that accepted the mug.

The prissy prig humans in other landscapes called the incubi and succubi vile demons, although enough of

those humans craved the kind of sex that could be had only with an incubus or succubus partner to

provide the Den's residents with a good living. But there were more dangerous demons that roamed their

world, and the incubi and succubi could end up being prey as easily as any human. It had taken him a few

years to realize the reason other demons who came to the Den were wary of him wasn't because he was

a badass demon; it was because of his human connection. They didn't fear Lee, who was a Bridge with a

rare ability to impose one landscape over another, but Glorianna…

No demon wanted to incur her wrath—because Glorianna Belladonna was the Landscaper who had

created the Den of Iniquity.

Filling his own mug, Sebastian leaned against the counter, sipped his koffee, and said nothing.

After a few minutes, Teaser said, "This place. Its… nice." He looked at the small table tucked against the

wall, where Sebastian ate his meals, then at the larger table in the dining area. "It looks… nice."

It looks human, Sebastian thought, feeling as if he'd been caught doing something lewd. In public. In a

human landscape, since doing something lewd in the Den was commonplace. Embarrassed that anyone

had seen evidence of his need to stay connected with whatever humanity he might claim, he felt the old

bitterness well up inside him.

Nadia wasn't blood kin. She'd been married to his father's brother and had no reason to fight with Koltak

over the well-being of a half-demon boy. But she had fought—and had won often enough that there were

islands of time throughout his childhood when he'd known what it was like to be loved and accepted.

Everything good that he had experienced in the human landscapes had come to him because of her.

That was why the cottage had tugged at him. That was why it looked like a human home instead of an

incubus's lair. He had the room at the bordello for seduction. This place reminded him of how he had felt

when he lived with Nadia and Glorianna and Lee. When he'd still had some connection with the Light.

But if the other incubi and succubi found out he lived like a human, the malicious teasing would never

end—and he'd end up being an outcast again.

He swallowed the last of his koffee to choke the bitterness back down. "Why are you here, Teaser?" he

asked roughly.

Teaser drained his own mug, started to set it aside, then hesitated, crossed the kitchen, and carefully

placed the mug in the sink, as if keeping the cottage tidy were of the utmost importance. When he turned

back to face Sebastian, his expression was bleak. "We found another one."

Currents of power dance through Ephemera, this living, ever-changing world. Some of those currents are

Light, and some are Dark. Two halves of a whole. Nothing has one without some measure of the other.

That is the way of things.

And there is no vessel for focusing the Light and the Dark that can compare to the human heart.

How do we tell people, who are still shaken by the horrors the Eater of the World set free in Ephemera,

that this thing they fear cannot be destroyed completely because It was manifested from the darkest

desires of their own hearts? How can we tell them they planted the seeds of this war that shattered the

world? How can we tell them it was their own despair during this fearsome time that changed rich

farmland into deserts? How can we tell them that, even with our guidance and intervention, the link

between Ephemera and the human heart is unbreakable, and the world around them is nothing more or

less than a reflection of themselves?

We can't tell them—because, despite the dangers that exist within it, the human heart is our only hope of

restoring Ephemera someday. Nor can we let people completely deny the part they play in the constant

shaping and reshaping of this world.

So we will teach them this warning: Let your heart travel lightly. Because what you bring with you

becomes part of the landscape.

—The Lost Archives

Chapter Two

Three weeks earlier

Lukene gathered the frayed threads of her patience as she pulled out a chair at the study table and sat

down next to the sulking girl. She'd been kind and understanding the first time this complaint had been

voiced. And the second time. And the third. But no matter how many times she explained it, the girl

refused to acknowledge the truth.

"You're not going to promote me to Level One Landscapes are you?" the girl asked, her tone one part

desperation and two parts hostility.

Lukene sighed. "No, Nigelle, we're not. The Instructors considered your abilities very carefully before

making the decision, but it is our conclusion that you haven't, as yet, achieved the skills necessary to

advance. Until you have fulfilled all the requirements, you will not be granted a Landscaper's Badge."

Nigelle pressed her fists against the top of the table. "I've been studying for four years. You have to

achieve Level Two or better in five years in order to remain and continue studying for the higher levels.

How am I supposed to fulfill the requirements for two levels in a year's time if you won't promote me to

even the first level?"

You can't, Lukene thought. And that is a blessing for us all. "What is the Hearts Blessing?"

The girl's eyes darkened with anger. "Is this another test, Instructor Lukene? Although I don't see the

point in asking a question every child knows the answer to."

Guardians and Guides, let me finally explain this in a way she'll understand. "Then it should be a

simple question to answer," Lukene replied. "Heart's Blessing."

Nigelle sneered. "Travel lightly."

Lukene nodded. "Travel lightly. Because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape. That is

true for every person who lives in this world. It is especially true for Landscapers, because we are the

sieve through which Ephemera manifests what is reflected in all those hearts. The resonance of our hearts

provides the bedrock through which the currents of Dark and Light flow, keeping people safe from the

turmoil of their own feelings while still allowing the true desires of the heart to become real. We are the

bedrock, Nigelle. Other people, and Ephemera itself depend on us to find a balance between the Light

and Dark aspects of ourselves in order to filter the Light and Dark currents that are this world's

Anne Bishop - Ephemera 1 - Sebastian

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