Autumngale

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  He dashed toward the bridge, dodging knots of people with open mouths and wide eyes. They could gape all they wanted. He wouldn’t get this chance twice.

  Three more strides took him to the Echo Bridge and then he was jumping up onto the slick rock-work rails and leaping into the canal below.

  Hopefully, Jhinn was where he’d left him.

  Hopefully, he was faster and smarter than the Harbingers were.

  Hopefully, he knew a good way to dry out on a rainy night.

  He was almost laughing as he dropped through the air.

  10: Visions of a Future Past

  Marielle

  SHE WAS GETTING CLOSER to where she wanted to be. Floating. Drifting from moment to moment, life to life. One moment she was watching as a child helped her father stack rocks to build their neighborhood wall – drawing bounds to keep enemies out. They were full of hope and delight – bronze and apple red swirling around them in a way that made her want to sing with shared delight. A moment later she was watching that same woman – old now and bent – fighting on her small neighborhood wall. She cut back attackers with a knife the length of her forearm. Maybe she won. Maybe she died there defending her home. Marielle didn’t see, though a part of her knew. A part of her knew everything.

  And yet, when you know everything, but you’re still human, it’s impossible to know it all at once. Impossible, that is, if you want to keep your humanity. Impossible, if you want to keep your sanity.

  So, Marielle let herself drift. She let herself cry tears of devastation as she watched one life after another burst forth, live, and then crumple and fade and die. Knowing everything was more painful than she’d ever imagined. And more beautiful.

  And then her nose caught a familiar smell and just like that, she didn’t want to know anything at all except for this. It was just like the first time she’d scented it – when she’d known somehow that life would never be the same again.

  She didn’t know how she followed it, but she did, squeezing between lives and memories, pushing past epic stands and bold speeches, ducking under the tables where back-door dealings were made. The golden scent twisted in the air around her, drawing her closer, closer, closer.

  And then she was standing in a field and she was watching a boy with huge bright eyes staring at the sky. He was drawing birds in flight with a charcoal on a small scrap of paper and his faraway smile spoke of an imagination alive with the delight of living. Behind him, a little girl with long hair and chubby hands, stalked up through the grass, trying to look up at what he was seeing.

  “They’re only starlings,” she said.

  But his smile grew.

  And gold surrounded him.

  And then the scene slipped away.

  Marielle clawed desperately for it, trying to go back, trying to find it again.

  She found him briefly – a little younger this time – running as fast as he could, trying to catch a rainbow in a field that seemed just out of reach, his little face screwed up with concentration and absolute infatuation rolling off him in pink waves. And then he was gone again, as insubstantial as the rainbow had been.

  She would find him again. The golden scent still drew her. It still curled through the air before her. He was out there somewhere. And she would find him.

  Tamerlan.

  11: Hunting Time

  Tamerlan

  IT HAD ALL BEEN A TERRIBLE disaster. Tamerlan’s hands shook as they slid up the canal in the Government District through the damp darkness. Though for once they weren’t shaking from wanting to smoke – just from nerves and excitement. The moon hung in the sky like a single eye – mocking Tamerlan for losing his.

  “I don’t know why you feel bad about smoking, boy,” Jhinn scolded quietly from his seat in the stern of the gondola. “It gives you the power to change destinies. Sometimes for the bad, sure, but lots of times for the good.”

  He seemed unruffled by Tamerlan’s sudden drop into the gondola. He hadn’t even batted an eye when Tamerlan had demanded that they flee the area.

  Tamerlan snorted. “Name one time it was for the good.”

  Jhinn’s long dry pause was only interrupted by his drier tone. “That time you brought a dragon down from the sky.”

  “How about the time I woke one up?” He couldn’t help the bitterness of his tone. “Or the time I killed a lot of priests for no reason.”

  “You said they were harboring the Grandfather.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know they worship him, right? They worship a horrific Legend that will feast on their bones someday.” Jhinn’s grin made it hard to tell whether he felt that was awful or funny.

  “Yes.” Tamerlan was answering, but his eyes scanned the silhouettes of the buildings they passed. Was anyone watching them?

  “And when you were done killing people who are already dead, what happened?” Jhinn demanded.

  Tamerlan shivered. At least it was quiet and sleepy here. No one would hear Jhinn naming his crimes so loudly.

  “I don’t know why you insist on thinking that anything on the land is dead, Jhinn.” Better to change the subject. “You know that I leave and come back to you and when I’m on your gondola I’m alive.”

  “And what is your point, boy?” The younger boy leaned into the turn as they slid through into narrower channel. “The dead act in strange ways. And some of them come back to haunt me.”

  Tamerlan couldn’t help but smile under the cloak of darkness – a whimsical smile. Imagine living a life where everything outside the boats didn’t exist to you? Imagine living with the same few people on the water day after day, year after year, trading with those you think of as ghosts for food and supplies. He could imagine it. It felt – beautifully foreign. Like a song in a different language.

  When he’d freed Marielle and started his orphanage and no one was left empty and fatherless and alone, then he was going to go and explore the world. He was going to see all the places and meet all the people and write down their beautiful tragedies and peculiarly attractive notions in a book. And he would call it the Book of Hearts and it would be in a Library where everyone could read it and ...

  “You dreaming again, boy? What happened after you killed all those priests?”

  Tamerlan sighed. He wouldn’t be writing a book today. “We stole a boat and fed the refugees.”

  “You brought food to the poor on a boat?” Jhinn snorted. “Yes, I can see why you’re worried. Terrible deeds done tonight. They will fear your name in the canal gossip and set charms to keep you at bay.”

  “Laugh all you want. It’s dangerous to call the Legends. And I did it twice. Once to get the Grandfather. Once to fight those Harbingers.”

  Jhinn spat. “That was wise. You must avoid the Retribution at all costs. Accept nothing from them!”

  Tamerlan felt his jaw gingerly. Jhinn had helped him find dry clothes after his own were soaked in the canal – why were they always guard’s clothes? Did Jhinn have a secret connection with the Palace Guard pursers? – and he’d helped apply a salve to Tamerlan’s injuries, but they still stung.

  “All I got from them was a beating.”

  “Be sure it stays that way. They are dangerous people.”

  Tamerlan pulled the yellow shell from his belt pouch. It was wet but intact. He looked at in the light of the moon. They’d said they’d given it to Marielle. Had it been dangerous to her? The opening of the Bridge of Legends by Etienne had been what sealed her fate. Not this shell.

  Jhinn’s breath drew in sharply. “They gave you that?”

  “It was Marielle’s. They say they gave it to her.”

  “Don’t touch it. It’s cursed.”

  “How?”

  “Just don’t touch it, okay? Put it away. And then pay attention. We need to sneak now. We’re almost there.”

  Tamerlan tucked the shell away and looked up. Jhinn was right. They were almost to the tall building at the University District. The one Lila kept harping on.

&n
bsp; I told you. Get us to that building. Open the Bridge, and I’ll take care of everything.

  But that was what he was worried about.

  I won’t kill anyone. This time. We’ll just break into the palace and find the Library. You and Etienne couldn’t get into it without discovery. The Palace library will have what we need – books you haven’t read yet about the Grandfather. The key will be in there somewhere and then we can find him again. Or do you want to spend another two months searching every hidey hole from here to the sea?

  Besides, there might be a suggestion in one of those books for a solution that doesn’t leave you blind.

  He didn’t even have months. Not with Marielle stuck in that clock. How long would she keep her humanity? How long would it be until she lost herself entirely?

  He gritted his teeth.

  “Can you hear them talk to me, Jhinn?” he whispered. “The Legends? They never stop.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Jhinn said, but his eyes were on their goal. “But you could probably quiet them if you wanted to.”

  He couldn’t. He’d tried and he couldn’t.

  “Anyone else would think I was mad.”

  “Mad is better than blind,” Jhinn said, still distracted. “That Lord Mythos doesn’t even see them.”

  But was it better? He could never escape their cloying words, dragging him deeper and deeper into their view of the world.

  You already smoked the Spice twice tonight, Lila crooned. Just do it one more time. Just do it with me.

  She could be so charming when she was trying. And it was so easy to listen. Especially right now when he’d just smoked twice before. After all, if he’d already compromised his morals, what was one more time? He could stop again tomorrow and never do it again.

  Exactly.

  It couldn’t hurt for this. And there was no other way he was going to get into the palace. Etienne said it wasn’t worth the risk. There were guards posted at every gate. And they were alert in these troubled times. He’d already waited for hours on other nights, staring at this palace and wondering how to get in.

  And it will feel good.

  This was the only way.

  “What did she mean about you going blind?” Jhinn asked. “Is your good eye troubling you?”

  “Etienne wants me to trap the Grandfather by sacrificing my other Eye,” Tamerlan said, surprised by the calmness in his voice. He didn’t feel that calm.

  Jhinn snorted.

  “Tell Etienne that he has two eyes. He can sacrifice one before he makes you lose the other. There is more than one way to fillet a catfish.”

  Tamerlan’s fingers drifted up to touch the ruby necklace under his shirt. “I don’t think I’d trust Etienne to do that. He has his own purposes.”

  Jhinn eased the gondola into a shadowy mooring. “Then I guess you should go to the land of the dead and get us some information. Find another way. I’ll wait here for you.”

  Tamerlan leapt from the gondola with the coil of rope they’d brought with them. “If I don’t come back in an hour, get out of here. I don’t want you to get caught up in this.”

  Jhinn rolled his eye. “Are the dead speaking to me again? It must only be my imagination.”

  It was such a silly belief. But sometimes Tamerlan wished it was true. He wished it was true as he stalked into the shadows at the base of the looming Court of Trespasses. After all, if it were true, he would be guiltless. He’d never committed any crimes on the water.

  And if it were true, then he wouldn’t be the only fool listening to people who weren’t even there.

  He wished it was true as he pulled out a roll of spice and lit it in the street brazier. Wished it was true as he wet his lips with his tongue and then brought the roll up to it, sucking in the sweet, sweet smoke of power.

  And the Bridge opened.

  And Lila Cherrylocks grabbed his body so fast and hard that he stumbled.

  Sorry, pretty man. I didn’t want to risk anyone else grabbing harder than me this time. Let’s go find the Grandfather.

  She drew a breath of smoke through the roll of paper and another and another. Why was she being so amenable? He thought he’d have to negotiate with her.

  She threw the paper aside and stepped on it and then she was scaling the slick stone walls of the Court building, climbing with a speed he’d never possessed.

  I like breaking into places. Besides, it occurs to me that if I do what you want from time to time, you might not dread opening the Bridge so much. After all, why hesitate when it can benefit both of us?

  That seemed uncharacteristically reasonable of her.

  I’ll show you reasonable.

  Her voice in his mind was too sweet. It made him nervous.

  It should.

  They were already at the top of the building, tying their rope to a decorative gargoyle dripping from the corner of the structure like hardened candle wax.

  She was throwing the grappling hook before he could gasp.

  I like these arms, she said in his mind as the hook clattered onto the roof of the palace, far across the moat. With my old arms, I never would have made that toss on the first try – if ever. Keep this muscle up and we’ll go far.

  Tamerlan’s cheeks heated. Strange that they would still react to his emotions even though his arms obeyed only Lila. Etienne drilled him in sword work whenever they weren’t hunting the Grandfather. He wasn’t close to good yet, but he was getting tighter, stronger, more disciplined.

  Yes. And I like it.

  Lila tugged the line one more time, satisfied at the tightness as she tied final knots on this side. She’d better know what she was doing.

  It’s harder with one eye, but I’m getting the hang of it.

  Everything was harder with just one eye. He’d been learning that.

  And here we go!

  Before he could object, she slung a leg over the rope so that she was hanging upside down, gloved hands holding the rope, and boots sliding along it as she began to descend hand-over-hand from the height of the Court building to the Palace.

  If he dropped...

  If his arms were too tired or his hand slipped ...

  Queasiness washed over him.

  Stop fretting. I can feel you trying to tense. I’ve done this a thousand times.

  But he hadn’t.

  It doesn’t matter.

  Tamerlan let his eyes drift out over the dark city, studying the city braziers and the way they made patterned reflections over the canals like flickering lace. Following the lines of lanterns where people were busy Drawing Bounds, still celebrating this odd Autumngale holiday despite the heavy rains at harvest and the lines of refugees. How odd. How very human to cling to surface things as if they were the bones of their lives while the actual bones melted away.

  And then they were on the palace roof, slipping through the shadows like the shade of a ghost. Lila found a door down through this defending outer shell and into the palace within like she’d been born in this place.

  I practically was. Well – not my actual birth, but we thieves talk about our “births” to our new life as the time we made our first snatch. When I took the Portrait of a Young Man Named Avatar from this palace it was not my first snatch, but it was my first one that I was truly proud of.

  So, she’d been here before! Did that mean she could find the library?

  In my sleep, pretty man. In my sleep.

  The palace was well-lit despite the late hour. And yet, Lila was hardly seen. Where she didn’t slip quietly in the shadows, she walked with an unquestionable confidence as if she owned the entire palace. Night maids bobbed curtsies to her as they passed. Guards on the night shift made brisk salutes.

  It was an epic deception.

  Or it would have been.

  Tamerlan was just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief when they stepped into the Library – a towering room filled with books to the ceiling and lit by the light of the moon filtering through a domed glass ceiling. But he was bre
athing too soon. A woman stood in the doorway of the Library. A woman holding a candle in a holder and dressed in a filmy nightdress and silk shell.

  Her hand flew up to her mouth and she almost screamed before Tamerlan’s hand joined hers and Lila grabbed her shoulder and pushed her against the nearest bookstack.

  “Not a word or you’re dead,” Lila whispered in Tamerlan’s voice and he shuddered at his words. If he could have said anything other than this, he would have.

  There was only one other person who could make him feel so protective and so at home and she was locked in a clock in H’yi.

  Let me speak! He begged the Legend. Please let me speak!

  The moment his tongue was free he breathed her name.

  “Amaryllis.”

  12: At Home in a Library

  Tamerlan

  HE PULLED HIS HAND away from her mouth, though Lila kept her pinned against the shelf with the other hand.

  She opened and shut her mouth twice like she was afraid to speak before finally breathing, “Tam! Oh, dragon’s blood, Tam! I thought you were dead. Our father – ”

  “I don’t want to talk about Decebal.” Lila was giving him the freedom to use his own voice though she kept control of his body looming over his little sister. “I want to know that you’re okay. That you’re not being hurt.”

  “Hurt!” she said it like it was a joke. “The only one who is hurting me is you.”

  Lila eased back slightly but she still kept Amaryllis in place.

  “Do you want to marry this man? This Renli?”

  Her eyes went wide. “Of course I do, Tamerlan. Do you have any idea ... you don’t, do you? Tam, they were going to sell me to be the Lady Sacrifice! If Renli hadn’t stepped in. If father hadn’t convinced him to marry me ... I’d be dead right now!”

  Tamerlan couldn’t control the anger in his voice. “Father? Who do you think they were paying the sacrifice fee to?”