He waited. Waiting was good. It let him catch his breath.
Pick up a small stone from that crack in the masonry.
He picked it up.
Think you can toss it past the Librarians so that they go to check on the books behind them?
Probably.
Do it.
He grabbed the tiny stone, throwing it deftly through the open main doors and to the library beyond and then dodging back to his place against the wall beside the door. His wound flared with pain and he felt a seep of fluid in his shoulder. Great. He was bleeding again.
“What was that?” one of the Librarians asked and then there was the sound of feet on marble.
He peeked around the corner. The other Librarian was writing in her ledger, the scritch, scritch of the quill a steady sound.
Get low.
He couldn’t crawl, not with his shoulder the way it was.
Do your best.
He stayed low, following Lila’s directions as she led him through the doors and past the librarian’s desk to the library beyond.
Simple.
And yet you couldn’t have done it without me.
He really couldn’t.
Why are you here?
To look for any information on King Abelmeyer. I need to find that amulet!
He angled his steps to hug the library wall, careful not to rub against the soaring bookshelves. That other librarian was in here somewhere and he didn’t want to be caught by her.
A waste of time. Abelmeyer may have owned the amulet and it may have been named after him as ‘Abelmeyer’s Eye’ but you don’t really think that it stayed with him, do you? You don’t really think it’s on a statue somewhere or in King Abelmeyer’s grave.
Why wouldn’t it be? He was slinking along a shelf of Dragonblood Plain history. There would be something here about the Eye. If Tamerlan was at home anywhere, it was in libraries. His fingers skimmed the spines of familiar titles.
Legends of the Five Cities
Power, War, and Inter-City Skirmishes of the Early Years
Tombs, Graves, and Markers
He pulled that one off the shelf, carefully flipping the edges of the pages, careful not to damage them.
If you are really adamant about finding this thing, you should just ask us.
Okay, I’m asking. Where is it?
He skimmed along the book. The author had noted every tomb and grave by the name of the deceased. King Abelmeyer’s was a huge barrow on the edge of the cliffs outside the city wall. It should be easy enough to find, though he’d have to dig to get into it. Oh. But there was also a sarcophagus in the city. Well, which one was he buried in, then? And why have two gravesites? The text tangled around the subject as if it was afraid to disclose the truth.
Well, I don’t know where it is, Lila admitted as he searched through the text, but one of the other Legends will. It’s almost certain that one of us knows. Maybe even King Abelmeyer.
I don’t know where this amulet lies, Byron Bronzebow added. But if you find it, you must not keep it for yourself. Wealth is meant to be redistributed to the people.
He’d have to find it first. He’d worry about how to use it to bind dragons and help people after that.
So, smoke your herbs and call the Legends, Lila urged. Someone will know where it is.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Ram sounded heartbroken as he continued his endless chant. It was giving Tamerlan a headache.
And what? Let them destroy Xin, too? Let them slaughter innocents and destroy the peace?
Don’t blame all of that on us. Ram only wants to kill dragons. And that’s what he would have done if you hadn’t called him right before a blood sacrifice! Any fool would have known that he had to stop that. You can’t kill dragons and feed them at the same time.
Dragon! Kill!
Well, Tamerlan hadn’t known. And what other little peccadillos might the other Legends have if he called on them? Would King Abelmeyer turn out to be a conquering General who started a war? Would Deathless Pirate steal a ship and sail off to sea? Would Grandfather Timeless stop the passage of time and freeze them all in place? Who could say? And because Tamerlan couldn’t say, he certainly wouldn’t risk it. Not again.
Waves of pain crashed over him and nausea crept up. He’d better wrap this up and get back to Spellspinner’s Cures.
On a whim, he searched out the next entry about a Legend.
Deathless Pirate is said to be buried off the Dragon’s Spit point. His corpse was never recovered from the golden cage he was locked in. They sank the cage off the point in the middle of a storm so that no one would ever be able to find that precise location again. Or so it is said.
Helpful.
He was skimming to the next page when he heard a footstep behind him. He ducked and felt a whoosh of air over his head before he stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. The book was dragged from his hands as he fell to one knee, coughing and clutching his chest.
“Fools, all of them. And you’re a fool, too,” a quiet voice said in a menacing tone. The owner of the voice was agitated, his grumble turning to a rant as he spoke. “I told her not to use this as a way to find the amulet. I asked her to promise. And what does she do? The opposite! And now we’ll have fools at every turn! And I told Allegra to keep you in bed and what does she do but let you out to bleed to death in the streets!”
“We’re not in the streets.” Tamerlan struggled to his feet, still gasping, his eyes widening as he saw the man in front of him. Lord Mythos! The ruler of Jingen! The man who had tried to kill Marielle and who had stabbed him through the chest!
He choked on his breath as he tried to form the words to vent his wrath, but the other man just chuckled wryly.
“Didn’t expect to see me again, did you?”
“You’re alive!”
“I’m hard to kill,” Lord Mythos said, examining the book he’d snatched from Tamerlan. “And you are reading a book about graves. Thinking of designing your own?”
He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“No,” Tamerlan said mildly, but his mind was buzzing like a hive of bees. “What are you going to do now that you’re here? Are you going to make trouble for my sister?”
“What does that matter to you, magic thief?” Lord Mythos said and Tamerlan’s eyebrows rose as crossed his arms over his chest. He was a foot shorter than Tamerlan, but Tamerlan still remembered how quick he was with his sword and the way he was standing suggested that he might draw at any moment.
“I never stole magic. A grimoire, yes. Marielle, yes. People’s lives ... I stole those.” Tamerlan felt his voice growing heavier with each admission.
“My city,” Lord Myths growled through clenched teeth. “My people. My dragon. You stole those! I can still sense the magic on you! You took it and you used it to destroy everything that I loved.”
“Then kill me,” Tamerlan said, feeling the blood drain from his face. “I won’t deny any of it. I did all those things. I deserve death.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “Kill me.”
He spread his arms out, flinching from the pain in his shoulder. He wouldn’t run from his fate.
“If I planned to kill you, boy,” Boy? He was barely older than Tamerlan! “You’d already be dead. No, what I want is answers. I want to know how you gathered the magic you used. I want to know where it came from and how to get it back.”
Tamerlan hissed. “Some secrets are too precious to part with.”
The Lord Mythos frowned. “Everyone has their price. Yours is the sister, yes?”
Tamerlan clenched his jaw.
“We’ll work on the price later.” Lord Mythos flipped open the book to the page that Tamerlan had been reading. “Deathless Pirate? King Abelmeyer? Hmmm. You are joining the hunt. Think you’re up for it?”
He looked pointedly at Tamerlan’s shoulder.
“I’ll do what I must,” Tamerlan said. He wasn’t up for it. He wasn’t up for any of this, but it was up to him to make it right. He had a debt too
heavy to bear, a price too steep to pay. He’d just have to do what he could and hope it somehow sufficed.
“Your sister is betrothed to Renli of Yan,” Lord Mythos said, considering Tamerlan. “But not everyone in Xin approves of Yan. And both cities are in a precarious position. With refugees flooding in – my people, now destitute because of your recklessness – and ships on the horizon, and harvest coming soon, there are many avenues for the more ... ambitious ... among us to plant doubts or sow chaos. And if they do – if there is an uprising or a revolution – she would be collateral damage. You went to a lot of trouble to keep her from me in Jingen. What kind of trouble would you go to for her safety here in Xin?”
Tamerlan ground his teeth. He knew a threat when he heard one. And he knew that Lord Mythos planned to use him. But what did he want to use him for?
“I’ll do what I must,” Tamerlan said thickly. But what would he do if he had to choose between redemption and his sister? It would be like making the same choice a second time around. Had he chosen the wrong path last time? He thought so. But would be able to choose differently? Did he have that kind of betrayal in his heart?
“That’s good to hear. Because if you want things to remain stable, and if you want her to live, then you will have to help me.”
“Help you do what?” Tamerlan felt like he was balancing on the edge of a knife as he awaited the reply.
“Help me find Ablemeyer’s Eye before this whole city tears itself to pieces.”
12: Chaos Bubbles
Marielle
“This way!” Marielle led the way through the Government District toward a massive stairway that would take them down to the Spice District below. She was almost at the head of the stairs when strong arms grabbed her, pulling her from the surging crowd and dragging her against a nearby wall.
“She’s a Scenter! Look at that scarf!” He was a big man, twice her size. She fought for her knife, but her arms were pinned to the wall.
“The City Watch isn’t going to help us find the Eye,” his companion said – a smaller man and soft around the middle.
“She’s not City Watch. She’s not wearing a badge. She’ll help us whether she wants to or not. Won’t you little woman?”
Marielle spat, her belly clenching at the thought of being forced to scent for these two men. If they handled her so roughly in public, what would they do when no one was watching?
The man slapped her with his meaty palm, leaving her blinking at the stars filling her vision.
He growled, “We can – ”
His head flicked from his shoulders so quickly that Marielle barely had a chance to gasp as blood sprayed across her scarf and clothing. The head made a heavy sound as it hit the cobbles and then the grip on her arms were gone and she was sliding across the wall to avoid his tumbling corpse.
She looked up, her jaw falling open at the sight of Liandari casually flicking blood off the end of her blade. Her single forelock of hair was slightly askew and she carefully stoked it back into place.
“You said something about following you?” She tilted her head to the side, inquiring as a pair of harpoons jammed through the smaller man’s neck.
Marielle gasped, her eyes scanning the crowd for the City Watch. If this was her beat, she and Carnelian would have all of them in the hurry-up wagon before they could jab another harpoon. But no one was watching. Everyone seemed suddenly very intent on their own business, the scent of fear sizzling in lightning blue around their hurrying steps.
“You can’t just kill people in the streets!” she protested.
“We just did,” Liandari said. “Wouldn’t your Windsniffer find them and bring them to justice if I had not?”
Marielle’s gaze flicked to Anglarok. His scarf was wrapped around his face, obscuring his expression. Windsniffer. He was just like her. He didn’t just sniff the wind, he also pursued injustice.
“Yes,” she said a little breathlessly.
“Then we have no problem here. Lead on.”
Marielle clenched her jaw and hurried through the crowd, ignoring the furtive stares of the people around her. Fear flickered along the edges of the crowd in lightning blue sizzles, but there was more than that. There was a deep throbbing yellow-orange greed, scalding her nose like washing soda. And there was more than one person looking at her with a rusty scent rising up from them. They wanted her ability. They thought it could help them find the Eye.
Marielle quickened her pace. It would be better not to be anywhere near the crowd right now. Even with six deadly warriors at her back.
By the time they arrived back at Spellspinner’s Cures, Marielle was holding her breath. The scent was too much, even with the scarf wrapped around her head four times. She burst into the shop, gasping for breath as she walked into the clean room.
Dust hung in the air from a recent sweeping, but a young woman was furiously scrubbing the floor and calming the dust. Another pair of women worked on the windows, carefully polishing the glass. Marielle had almost forgotten about Dawnwait, but the calm of their concentration – jasmine in slate grey puffs – soothed her. There was a faint whiff of something else, too, but in the natural scents of the cures in the back of the shop, the scent was overpowered. Hmmm. A puzzle for another time.
“What is this place? I thought you were taking us to the inn?” Anglarok said at the same moment that Allegra bustled in.
“What’s the meaning of this, Marielle? We are not a hostel.”
“Etienne sent them,” Marielle said, still gasping breaths of relief to soothe her scalded lungs.
Allegra smelled of annoyance and ... conspiracy? Deception? The pink-purple, fragrant lily scent of deception tangled around the dusty mustard color of her annoyance, but you didn’t need a Scenter to see how irritated she was.
“And how does he expect me to house five more drifters?” Her mouth was tight.
“Drifters?” Anglarok’s face went red, his emotions escalating suddenly to scarlet fury. “You address the Ki’squall of the Harbingers, merchant, and you will pay for your insolence!”
“Wait!” Marielle yelled, leaping to get between the two of them. She felt ill at the memory of a head falling heavy off the lifeless body of the man in the District above. These people would slay Allegra without thinking. “Stop! There will be no paying for anything right now. By the authority of the Jingen City Watch, you will halt this disruption of the peace under Article V section 34, which states that no citizen may cause or threaten to cause bodily harm over an insult or perceived insult but must take their case to the arbiter for a decision.”
Allegra was looking at her wide-eyed like she’d grown a second head, surprise in raspberry clouds mixed with a sudden burst of pineapple insight.
“I’ll find a place for you all in the back while we wait for Etienne or until I can find an alternative situation,” she said, carefully. “We’ve finished cleaning there. I have no food, I’m afraid, not during the fast, but there is green tea.”
There was a long moment as Marielle held her breath. Liandari glanced at Anglarok who gave a quick nod before she looked back at Allegra.
“We will tolerate that. For now.”
Marielle felt a stab of fear at the injured pride on both sides, washing off of them in waves of indigo blue. This was not going to end well.
“And I’ll add the cost to what you owe me,” Allegra said to Marielle through gritted teeth. And there it was. The threat that she knew was coming.
“Is Tamerlan awake yet?” she asked.
“Awake and long gone,” Allegra said, as she led them into the back.
Marielle froze, hesitating for a moment.
Gone? He was already gone? She needed to find him! He shouldn’t be wandering out there on his own. She had questions for him. She’d fought to keep him alive and now he was just ... gone. Didn’t he owe her more than that?
But he didn’t, did he? He’d saved her life. She’d saved his. They were even. Except for this price that Allegra plan
ned to exact from her.
A hand rested on her arm. She looked up to see Anglarok’s face looking down at her over his scarf. He pulled the scarf down before he spoke and she did the same, trying not to be bowled over by the pungent scent of Allegra’s wares.
“You aren’t planning to go back out there again, are you? You could smell that crowd. It is not safe for Windsniffers outside right now. That hunt has them on edge. They see us only as bloodhounds. Stay here with us and drink tea. I have a gift for you that will be worth whatever price this daughter of a shark is demanding of you.”
He smiled a fierce but magical smile and Marielle couldn’t help but smile too, despite the shiver in her bones. Jhinn had said not to accept any gifts. But she had a creeping suspicion that Anglarok and the others wouldn’t take ‘no’ without insult.
They found a place between bales of spices. A small table and chairs were set up there, and bales of sweet-smelling grasses were set around the edges – comfortable places to sit or lay items on. Around them, bales of spice rose to the rafters and clumps of dried herbs hung in bunches as big as Marielle, drying in the warehouse. The bales dampened sound and it felt as if they were cut off from the outside world as Allegra settled them in.
“Tea will be here momentarily,” she said through clenched teeth. “I will return to be sure that you have what you need. And now, if I may borrow Marielle for a moment.”
She seized Marielle’s arm in her vice-like grip and with a smile for the Harbingers – as false as the fragrant lily smell attached to it, she marched Marielle out of the room made of bales and into a small side room where citrus peel had been carefully sliced and was left on the table half-threaded onto drying lines.
“Did Etienne say why he is helping these foreigners?” she hissed.
“They come from the sails in the distance,” Marielle said. “They are forerunners of that invasion – or whatever it is.”
“Dragon’s spit in a cup! He’ll ruin everything. He said no more?”
“He didn’t say anything,” Marielle said.
“Dragon’s blood and ashes!” Fury poured off her in red waves and Marielle coughed, choking on the sudden smell pitch. “Well, I was planning to keep you waiting, but it seems my hand is tipped. It’s time to collect payment.”
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 29