Dawnspell

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  But as they reached the end of the tunnel, he began to feel his limbs growing clumsier. His lantern clattered against the rock as he took control of that hand again.

  Watch it –

  Deathless Pirate’s voice faded from his mind and then he was left with one arm sticking through the entrance to the tunnel, the other shoulder wedged so hard he didn’t know how to free it. He fought at the wedged shoulder, dropping the lantern, and in the descending dark his lungs lit on fire before everything went inky black.

  Dawnspell

  Day Three of Dawnspell

  26: Hail the Conquerors

  Tamerlan

  TAMERLAN’S EYES OPENED to darkness. He sat up, sucking in a huge, fearful breath before he realized he could see the silver moon outlining everything around them. He wasn’t underwater. He wasn’t dead.

  “I see you’ve returned,” Etienne said. He was dressed again in the black clothing he favored and pulling on one set of oars while Jhinn pulled on the other set. Around his neck hung the Eye.

  “We got it,” Tamerlan said sagging in relief.

  “Yes, we’re quite the conquering heroes,” Etienne said dryly. “And the magic is finally dissipating. Whatever trick you pulled back there did not make you a very likable person.”

  Tamerlan glanced at Jhinn who shook his head.

  “No,” Etienne said, “Your friend didn’t give you away. But I have eyes and ears, and – shockingly – a brain to operate them and enough experience with magic to read the residues. I recall a text I read back in my school days in the Queen Mer Library – a library which unfortunately is no longer with us.”

  Jhinn shoved Tamerlan’s clothes toward him with a toe and Tamerlan smiled gratefully, pulling them on as Etienne continued. It was cool in the sea breeze and he was shivering as he dressed. The sword was even back in its scabbard waiting for him. He wished he’d grabbed one of the other treasures to give to Jhinn while he was in the cavern. Adventure might be what Jhinn sought, but it didn’t pay for bread.

  “It was an ancient text,” Etienne continued. “A text about the Legends. You know the ones – like Deathless Pirate whose treasure trove we just plundered? And this text seemed to suggest that there was a special magic that could access them – the Bridge of Legends. How this could be done was unclear, only that it would take someone who had skill with herbs. You were an alchemist’s apprentice before the fall of Jingen, weren’t you, Tamerlan? I seem to recall that being a feature of Marielle’s investigation. I remember visiting the room of the Butcher of the Temple District and seeing herbs there.”

  Tamerlan swallowed, focusing all his attention on dressing. He didn’t want Etienne to notice how rattled his words made him.

  “And when you spoke to your father earlier it was clear that the two of you are well educated. I remember that Landhold Zi’fen contains an excellent library. Have you also read of this Bridge of Legends, Tamerlan?”

  “I don’t recall reading a book about anything by that name,” Tamerlan said lightly. It was the truth, though not the whole truth. The recipe for the Bridge of Legends had been a single page, not a book. Was Marielle keeping it safe?

  Tamerlan finished buckling the sword belt on his waist and looked out to sea. Or rather, toward Xin. They were just outside the locks for the city, cruising through the quiet of the pre-dawn harbor.

  “How long was I out?” he asked.

  It was Jhinn who answered. “Etienne saved you from drowning. He says he pulled you from a cavern.”

  Tamerlan looked at Etienne’s smug expression. He forced a smile in return. “Thank you.”

  “When you threw up all your water, I left you to sleep a bit,” Jhinn said. “You’re going to need sleep if the two of you go to trap that dragon.”

  “Thank you,” Tamerlan said again, this time more sincerely. He owed Jhinn debt upon debt.

  Etienne was tucking the Eye into his coat now that they were close to the locks.

  “We’ll keep this between ourselves,” he said briskly.

  “All of it?” Tamerlan asked. But why would Etienne tell anyone his secrets?

  Etienne lifted a single eyebrow. “Perhaps.”

  Dawn had broken by the time Jhinn pulled up to the side of the canal and Etienne hopped out.

  “We need to talk in private,” Tamerlan said in a low voice before he left the gondola. Etienne was waiting, but what he wanted to say to Jhinn couldn’t be said here and if he left Etienne alone he was afraid that the other man would slip away with the Eye and Tamerlan would lose his chance to stop the dragon and make right all his wrongs. “Meet here again in an hour?”

  Jhinn nodded and Tamerlan trotted after Etienne. He never looked back once, striding purposefully through the waking streets to Spellspinner’s Cures. He opened the door and Tamerlan barely managed to duck in behind him before it shut.

  “Where were you?” Allegra, still fully clothed, practically ran from behind the counter toward them. Her face was flushed, and dark rings were under her eyes. “We were all set. The timing was perfect. And you were nowhere to be found!”

  Her gaze was fixed on Etienne who glanced purposefully at Tamerlan. “We can talk about this later.”

  “We will talk now.” Her words sounded like a threat.

  Etienne dodged her grasping hand, slipping through the door to the inn, but Tamerlan was not so lucky.

  “You owe me, too,” Allegra said. Last night she’d practically driven him away when he tried to help and now she was demanding repayment?

  “Yes,” Tamerlan agreed and her eyebrows rose.

  “You admit it.”

  “Thank you for healing me.”

  He wanted to slip after Etienne. He was worried about what the other man was going to do with the amulet, but he did owe the healer. She’d saved his life.

  “How thankful are you?” she asked, stepping in a little closer than Tamerlan would have liked.

  “Umm ... very thankful?”

  “Thankful enough to do a favor for me?” She asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder as if she owned him. He stepped back into the counter, swallowing against a pressure in his throat.

  “I guess it depends on what that favor is,” he said, his voice wavering more than he would have liked. She reminded him of the crocodiles that sometimes swam along the brackish edges of the Alabastru River. The look in her eyes was cool and calculating as she looked him over.

  His face grew hot. There was a creaking sound behind her, but he didn’t look away. He was afraid of what she might do if he was distracted.

  “Do you have any experience laying siege to a palace?” she asked sweetly.

  “Not exactly. Although I did cause a stir the only time that I set foot in one.” Why did everything she said sound like it meant things he didn’t understand?

  There was a rustling sound in the storeroom. No wonder. In a city on a fast, the mice probably looked to spices for some kind of a food source.

  “Any experience charming your enemies?” Had she winked that time?

  “None at all,” he said clearing his throat.

  “Etienne keeps squirming away, but I think you could be useful,” Allegra said. Why did those words make his hands feel clammy?

  “I’m sure I can’t be nearly as useful as he is,” Tamerlan said, his voice shaky.

  She looked at him for a long time, his heart beating faster from fear with every second. She reminded him of Master Juggernaut. Not a bad man, but when he wanted something, he got it, no matter how many competitors stood in the way and no matter who tried to stop him. And he usually got it on the terms he wanted. Tamerlan had a bad feeling that he was being weighed and evaluated for sale right now. He didn’t know how long he waited like that, but he didn’t look up when the door squeaked again. It must not have closed properly the first time.

  “I’ll let you know when I have need of you,” she said eventually, wetting her lips in a way that made him want to run in the opposite direction. “You should get some
sleep. The inn will have breakfast wafers in late morning to break your fast.”

  Tamerlan’s mouth watered at the suggestion of food. He was so hungry he could eat just about anything. The tiny honey wafers the city would eat today to break their fast wouldn’t be nearly enough, but he’d take them and be grateful. Of course, right now, he’d just be happy to get out of Spellspinner’s Cures with his skin still attached.

  “Sleep well,” Allegra said with a smirk.

  He nodded quickly and hurried away from her, through the squeaking door. He was faster than those mice as he scurried up the stairs to the door of the suite and slipped inside. Marielle’s door was ajar, and Etienne’s was closed. Tamerlan crept to his door and knocked softly, hoping not to disturb anyone else. A familiar smell wafted from under the closed door, but Etienne only opened it a crack, just wide enough to see a sliver of his face.

  “Wasn’t saving your life enough, Alchemist? Now you want to disturb my sleep as well?” he asked.

  “I want to talk about the amulet,” Tamerlan whispered. “We need to use it right away.”

  Etienne looked around dramatically before asking dryly. “Is the dragon attacking the city?”

  “No,” Tamerlan said, irritation setting his teeth on edge.

  “Then maybe it can wait an hour for me to take a quick nap. Go away and let me sleep.”

  “Do you promise that we can make a plan to destroy this dragon after you sleep?”

  His tone was severe. “When next we speak, we’ll talk all about it. I promise.”

  He closed his door and the sound of the deadbolt was clear in the silence of the inn. Either Tamerlan could wait, or he could break down the door. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

  Why was Marielle’s door open? Had she left? He snuck across the suite and peeked inside. She lay sleeping, her hand stretched out as if it had held something, though there was nothing there. He closed her door carefully and snuck to his own room, stripping off his wet clothing and taking the time to hang them up before falling into the bed. He fell asleep the moment his eyes shut.

  27: Empty Hands and Empty Promises

  Marielle

  MARIELLE WOKE WITH a start. A bang reverberated through her room as someone opened her door so quickly that it bounced off the wall. A half-naked Tamerlan stood in the doorway, breeches tugged on but the laces not tied, no boots or shirt or anything else on.

  She sat up, leaping to her feet. She’d fallen asleep fully clothed, her collarbone still stinging from her fresh tattoo of Xin and the paper he’d given her – the illuminated page from an ancient text – clutched in her hand. It was gone now.

  Her gaze raked across the bed. Had Anglarok come in here and snatched it? She’d been debating with herself last night when she fell asleep. She hadn’t decided whether she should tell him that a clue to the Bridge of Legends had been right there in her hands. After all, Tamerlan had entrusted it to her.

  “He’s gone,” Tamerlan said spitting a violent curse. His light-colored hair was darkened by water and the ripples of his muscles – while dry – were pebbled with gooseflesh in the cool of the morning.

  Marielle rubbed her eyes, swallowing awkwardly. She’d seen her share of people dressing and undressing in the Watch Officers barracks, but they rarely burst into her room an hour after dawn. Light poured in through the window behind her and a tiny tinkling began the hourly bells as they sounded around the city.

  Could he mean Anglarok? Had she lost her chance to make this decision at all?

  She waited as the bells finished ringing, brushing off her own shirt and breeches and running a hand through her tangled hair. At least he didn’t know that the page was gone, too.

  “Who is gone?” she asked with careful composure as the last peal of the bells died off.

  “The Lord Mythos. Last night we found Abelmeyer’s Eye.” His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and he smelled of desperation – and worse, of the siren-sweet scent of magic that he’d worn when first she met him.

  “You’ve been around magic,” she said sternly. “What have you done?”

  He was so beautiful – and so terrible – like a devil sent to the world to tempt and seduce her and then dance on her tattered soul. She pushed back the golden scent of attraction, refusing to give into it. He wouldn’t be her undoing no matter how often he showed up half-naked and beautiful in her bedroom.

  “I’m telling you what we did!” Tension filled his voice. “Me, and Jhinn, and Etienne stole the Eye from Deathless Pirate’s treasure trove. Etienne claimed he needed to sleep for an hour, and locked his door, but now he’s gone.”

  There was another scent now that he said that – a faint smell.

  “Aniseed?” she said aloud as she tried to figure it out. “And something else. Something familiar ... wait! There was aniseed on the page you gave me.”

  Tamerlan’s gaze flitted around the room and then locked onto hers.

  “Did you fall asleep reading it?”

  Marielle looked at her bed and swallowed. She’d slept on top of the blankets. They were hardly even rumpled. But there was no page there. Someone had certainly taken it. If not Anglarok, then Etienne.

  “Yes,” she said. She scrambled onto the bed looking over the side. No page. It was gone.

  “Come on,” Tamerlan said, purpose filling his scent and swirling around Marielle, too, like a ribbon drawing her after him.

  He was across to Etienne’s door in a heartbeat, shoving against it. It was locked.

  “Stand back!” He stepped back a few paces.

  “You don’t need to – ” Marielle began but Tamerlan ran at the door, shoulder first. He crashed into it and with a loud splintering crack, the door burst open.

  The next door in the suite opened immediately and Anglarok stuck his head out, piercing her with a look.

  “Are we under attack?” he asked sharply.

  “No,” she said, her mouth dry at his violent look.

  “Then keep silent and do not disturb us. I’ve only just soothed the Ki’squall to sleep.” He retreated back into the room and shut the door quickly and silently.

  Marielle breathed a sigh of relief and followed Tamerlan into Etienne’s room. She could have told him that the room was empty. She hadn’t smelled Etienne behind the door. What she did smell, was the exact same scent of haunting spices that she’d smelled in Tamerlan’s room back in Jingen. She spun, looking at him as he stood alert in the doorway, his eyes running over the room.

  She was seeing the same things he was. An open window. An untouched bed. The remains of a fire in the grate. Herbs scattered across the floor.

  “It’s the magic you were meddling with back in Jingen, isn’t it?” Marielle asked, the realization bursting out of her before she thought about whether it was a good idea.

  “I .. I ..” he was stuttering, but he wasn’t looking at her. His hands were running through his hair while he studied the room like he was reading his own death warrant. His mouth was open as if the answer were about to fall from it, but instead, all that poured from his parted lips were swirls of guilt mixed with fear. “I have to go after him.”

  Really? Still no answers? He was still going to leave her in the dark? Ignoring the splintered door, she grabbed his arm and dragged him to where the herbs were scattered on the ground. A tiny trail of smoke wove up from the ashes on the grate to the chimney above.

  “Do you know what this is?” she asked him quietly. “Do you know what he did with this?”

  “Yes,” the words sounded like a confession, like she’d ripped them from his lips. She was going to get answers. Had he been in some kind of altered state when he rescued her? Was that it? Was it maybe not magic at all?

  But it smelled like magic.

  She steered him toward the bed and pushed him down into it so he was sitting on the edge and she could look him in the eyes. He was so tall. It was hard to be firm and intimidating when dealing with a man who was a head taller than she was.
<
br />   “Are you able to perform magic like Etienne can sometimes?” she didn’t want to mention the shell in her pocket or how she had access to magic now, too – even if she didn’t really know how to use it.

  “No,” he breathed. His light-colored eyes were locked on hers, his expression so vulnerable as his scent deepened. The guilt in it – the aching anxiety of it – was growing in color and intensity with every heartbeat.

  “But I smell it on you, just like I smelled it then.” It was everywhere in this room – turquoise with golden sparkles. Vanilla and lilac licking at the edge of every thought like flames on the edge of a page. She wanted more of it. She wanted as much of it as she could get.

  “I have a ... recipe ... to tap into things that go beyond what I can do,” he said. “Did you read the page?”

  She hadn’t read it, though her eyes had brushed that one phrase, ‘Bridge of Legends.’ It stood out to her like a beacon in the night. After all, it was what Liandari was searching for. A way to bring back the Legends. She didn’t want to admit how much she knew to Tamerlan. She needed to keep this to herself until she knew what the best thing to do with the information was. It felt like violating his trust not to share what she knew – but how far could she trust him?

  She shook her head.

  “Etienne has used it,” he said and the look on his face was haunted. “And it’s ... it’s terribly dangerous.”

  “How dangerous?” she said, trying to stay calm. But the things Tamerlan had done in Jingen had been – awful. Horrific. Earth-shattering. They’d certainly destroyed everything she knew.

  “Dangerous enough that the Butcher of the Temple District might seem tame compared to what could happen next. We need to find him, and we need to stop him before he destroys everything around him – like I did,” Tamerlan said, fists clenched. He stood up suddenly and she had to step back.

  “Maybe he won’t,” Marielle suggested. “The only thing Etienne has ever loved is his city. Maybe he just wants it back.”