Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Her smile was sad – almost reluctant.

  “I’ll hold onto your paper,” she said, reaching for it. Was that all she could give? Perhaps. Perhaps she couldn’t ever forgive him, but she could do this one thing – a small favor. A small gesture.

  “Thank you,” he said, as he held it out to her because he was grateful that she hadn’t mentioned all the things she couldn’t give.

  His heart lurched a little as she strode away, closing her door behind her. She deserved redemption – wherever she got it. She didn’t even need it. Only the foul needed their sins atoned for. Only the bloodstained. Only people like Tamerlan.

  With a sigh, he went into one of the empty rooms, quickly cleaned up and reordered his things. He’d wait a few minutes before he snuck out. A quick rest and then he’d go out hunting his own redemption.

  23: Hunting Redemption

  Tamerlan

  Tamerlan’s arms shook as he opened the package Jhinn handed him. They’d slipped through the locks and out to the river and into the Bay of Tears without a glance backward.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked again.

  “Just do it, boy, and stop whining about how dangerous it is,” Jhinn demanded. “I have your sword, don’t I?”

  He did have Tamerlan’s sword. He was holding it in both hands as he waited for Tamerlan to smoke the herbs and transform into a Legend.

  Come on! Do it! That was Byron Bronzebow. And behind him was the never-ending chant that sounded behind Tamerlan’s every thought, Dragon. Dragon. Dragon.

  If obsession had an avatar, it would be Ram the Hunter.

  If only he could choose which Legend came through and took him over. It would be easier to do this if he knew.

  There are ways to push the balance more to one of us or the other, Lila said in his mind.

  Now she told him! How did he do that?

  Ha! I’m not letting that slip yet. Not until I’m sure that it’s me you’d be choosing.

  Well, that was no help. Tamerlan swung the door open on the lantern at the front of the gondola and carefully lit the end of the little paper tube holding his herbs.

  “I can’t believe you kept so many safe,” he said to Jhinn right before he sucked in his first puff of smoke.

  “Are you kidding me? If you died, I could have sold them for a fortune,” Jhinn said.

  Tamerlan shivered. Imagine selling them! Imagine setting these loose on the street where anyone could use them however they wanted! The thought made his toes curl and his stomach lurch. He pulled in another puff.

  “Maybe hold onto that roll-up this time, yeah?” Jhinn said. “I bet you could keep the spirit around longer if you puffed on it again half-way through.”

  It wasn’t a bad idea. Although the Legends tended to have a mind of their own about what they were going to do.

  Dark waves lapped against the gondola and the bright moon picked out the silver edges of the waves as Tamerlan waited for the smoke to have its effect. The breezes were warm, but the smoke still lacing their edges set his teeth on edge.

  Hunting treasure, are we? A wheedling voice asked.

  He should be used to this by now, but as the Legend took over his body, Tamerlan shook inside. Legends send he didn’t murder Jhinn! Legends send he didn’t destroy anything!

  I don’t slaughter my sailors. Then I’d have to do the rowing.

  He’d actually gotten Deathless Pirate! He’d wanted him, and here he was!

  Sometimes that can help. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. But no one calls on the sea without me listening.

  Did that mean he’d always get Deathless Pirate if he smoked on the sea?

  Don’t think you can control us, boy. We aren’t birds perching on your shoulders. Now, what are we doing out here and what treasure do we seek?

  Was Lila right? Could Deathless Pirate really know where King Abelmeyer’s Eye had been hidden?

  Abelmeyer’s Eye, is it? Cackling filled his mind. It’s always some trinket that men want. Some object that glitters in the sun. Trust me when I tell you, they don’t last. That is, unless you hide them. I can take you to where the Eye is. Oh yes, I can. I stole it just like Lila says. And I hid it in my cave of treasures. And now that you mention it, I might like to see if the other things hidden there are still ... secure.

  Really? For once he wasn’t going to have to ride in the mind of a Legend who wanted something drastically different from him! For once, he could actually work with the one who came.

  I don’t take orders from anyone. I do the ordering. But yes, today we are of an accord. Our interests align. Let’s go find this treasure.

  “Boy,” Tamerlan heard his own voice saying, but it was Deathless pirate controlling it. “We appear to be in the Bay of Tears. Is it so?”

  “Sure,” Jhinn said, lowering the sword.

  “And do you know of a small flat island about a half of a league from the shore just out from Dragon Spit Point?”

  “Bare Island?” Jhinn asked. “Sure.”

  “Let’s row there now, then, aye boy? And we’ll see what we will see.”

  Jhinn shrugged.

  “You do the rowing,” Tamerlan said, “and I’ll do the steering.”

  Jhinn paused, clearly reluctant to leave his beloved boat in Tamerlan’s inexperienced hands, but after a moment he shrugged again and moved to the oars.

  It was maybe an hour of hard rowing – all from Jhinn – before they reached the small island. He’d better puff more on the roll-up or Deathless Pirate could disappear before they got further than the island.

  Is that the way of things? Then keep these coming.

  They puffed on the last bit of roll-up before tossing the ash into the sea.

  “You’ve been followed,” Deathless Pirate said in Tamerlan’s voice. “First rule of pirating – don’t let them see where you’re going.”

  Tamerlan tried to see what Deathless Pirate was talking about, but the world beyond the light of the lantern hanging from the ferro of the gondola was dim, and even in the light of the full moon, the shadows were long and inky.

  But don’t worry about your mistake, boy. I will be here long enough to teach you better. Now that you’ve taught me your little smoking trick, I think I’ll stick around for a long time. They call us Legends. They look to us with fear and longing, worship our power, flinch from the consequences. We do not flinch. We do not waver. We do not wonder what it would be like to have this kind of power. We learned long ago how to get what we want. And what I want is life. And I want to live it through you. And think about it, boy – can’t I do more with your life than you can? I’ve heard your foolish cries for redemption. No one needs redemption. What you need is to embrace yourself, your goals, your desires. Together, you and I are going to do that.

  And just like that, their goals were no longer aligned.

  Oh, we’ll get the Eye. I’ll give you that much.

  If only he’d laid out other ways to signal Jhinn. Jhinn wouldn’t suspect anything was wrong unless they threatened his life and Deathless Pirate seemed to like him.

  All good Captains need seamen to follow them.

  He should have thought this through better.

  Their boat hit the shore, skimming up on the flat white sand of the island. Clumps of loose grass grew throughout it, white driftwood piled in tangled heaps to one side and, bird dung was everywhere. But there was nothing else here. No trees. No pool of water. No structures. Not even rocks. Just a flat skiff of sand that was probably invisible during high tide.

  Yep.

  “I didn’t bring a shovel,” Jhinn said casually.

  “No need,” Tamerlan heard himself say. “I buried layers of coconut fiber mesh under the sand. It covers this entire island. It holds the water and you can’t dig through it. Shovels are as useless as wishes on Bare Island.”

  “Did you think you could sneak away?” an authoritative voice asked as a second boat skimmed up the sand.

  Jhinn’s jaw tigh
tened, but Tamerlan didn’t even feel Deathless Pirate flinch.

  “More treasure hunters,” he said coyly with Tamerlan’s voice.

  Lord Mythos frowned. He was dressed in fresh black, a wide satchel slung over his shoulder and a hired boatman at the stern. He must have followed Tamerlan the whole way. Had he used magic to disguise himself? He claimed not to have it anymore, but he had used it to heal Tamerlan.

  “You can join me – for a price,” Tamerlan heard his voice say. Lord Mythos’ frown deepened. He glanced at Jhinn and then back again.

  “I thought your price was redemption?”

  “Redemption doesn’t fill a treasure cave, now does it?”

  “I’m just here for the Eye,” Etienne said. He leapt from the boat, tossing the boatman a leather purse. “I’ll return with these others. Thank you for your work.”

  He shoved against the prow of the boat, launching it back to the sea as Deathless Pirate leapt out of his own boat.

  “Let’s see how good you are at claiming it, hmmm?” Deathless Pirate challenged.

  Don’t kill him. Please don’t kill him! Tamerlan thought desperately.

  It was strange not to have the other Legends in his mind, but now that he was possessed by Deathless Pirate, their voices had disappeared. Even Ram’s constant refrain was gone. If he wasn’t so worried about what Deathless Pirate was up to, he would have found it a relief.

  “We’ll make a game out of it,” Deathless Pirate said. “Whoever finds the Eye first, keeps it.”

  The Lord Mythos was silent, regarding him warily as Tamerlan laughed in a pitch just a little too high and then took off, striding across the island.

  Anyone watching Tamerlan right now would think he was insane. Jhinn and Etienne probably did. He shouldn’t have risked this. He could have found the Eye on his own.

  Oh no, you wouldn’t! A pirate’s lair has traps. And the first trap on this lair is the tide. Lucky for us, it’s low tide right now, or we’d have to wait for the tide to change and on an island this boring I might resort to torturing one of these fine companions just to pass the hours.

  Tamerlan gritted his teeth inside. This was the kind of thing he was worried about. He’d have to let Deathless Pirate take control of the hunt or risk seeing Jhinn hurt just to entertain a ghost.

  24: Map of Deeds

  Marielle

  Sleep did not come for Marielle. She didn’t even try. She sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the recipe on the page Tamerlan had asked her to hold and thinking about what he’d said.

  He liked her too much. She wasn’t sure why he’d decided that she was valuable. Why had he saved her back in Jingen? Why did he tell her now that she didn’t need forgiveness? Why did he have to be so beautiful and such a devil all rolled into one? A silken-tongued tempter and a blood-slicked murderer. A sincere, hopeful boy and a man who’d seen too much.

  Tamerlan was complicated and Marielle didn’t need complicated right now. She needed solid things.

  She shivered as the word ‘solid’ brought back the memory of solid blocks of stone whirling through the air and sweeping people off their feet, crushing them, battering them, destroying them. Her life since the beginning of Summernight had been nothing but chaos and destruction, death and tragedy. Perhaps, when Jingen rose into the air, the world had actually ended? Perhaps she was just living in the dried-out husk of what had once been the world.

  A knock on her door sent her leaping to her feet.

  “Come,” she said, a little breathlessly, stuffing the paper back into her boot.

  Anglarok opened the door. He was bent with weariness and his clothing was dirty and torn.

  Marielle spoke first. “Would you like me to take a turn watching over Liandari?”

  “It is not honorable to trust the care of the Ki’Squall to anyone not of our people,” he said.

  Marielle nodded, not knowing what to say.

  “You saved her life.” Maybe it was hard for him to concentrate on just one thing. After all, he’d just lost four companions and his leader’s life was still in jeopardy. “That makes you honored among us.”

  Anglarok dropped to his knees. Marielle gasped, reaching forward to steady him, but he waved her away.

  “Honored one, please receive from me this gift in payment of the debt of honor we owe you.”

  He held out a shell – a conch, like his turquoise one, but this one glowed a canary yellow with a sparkling silver rim. Again, she couldn’t determine its scent and yet she could see colors with it. It was small enough to fit in her palm. A quarter of the size of his other conch, but still magnificent.

  “I can’t,” she protested. “Really.”

  He drew a knife from his belt, lightning fast, his face hard. “Then, take what you are owed.”

  “The knife?” she asked, confused. It looked almost as valuable as the shell. Carvings of ships in high seas covered the aged ivory handle and the blade was sharp.

  “My life. As her Windsniffer, it is my duty to pay her life debt. You may take my life in return for the one you saved, or you may take an object of equal value.”

  He was joking, right? But he didn’t seem to be joking. He seemed to be deadly serious.

  Gently, hoping that he wouldn’t suddenly lunge with that knife at either her or himself, Marielle reached for the shell.

  “You think this shell is of the same value as your life?”

  He nodded. “It is smaller and untested, unbonded, but it has the same potential as the conch I carry. The magic it contains is worth more than a single Windsniffer life.”

  Marielle swallowed. Was it more troubling that he held his own life in such poor esteem or that he was offering her a magical object for no other reason than that she’d saved a life? She would have done that for anyone.

  “When someone saves a life,” Anglarok said, as if explaining to a child, “the value of that life belongs to the one who saved it. If it is not purchased back, then the work and life of that person will belong to the savior. The Ki’Squall must not be in your debt. That is why it is my duty for the sake of her honor and my own to buy her life back from you with my own, or with an object of equal value. It’s a matter of the Real Law.”

  And there it was again, this Real Law that she never seemed to be able to nail down.

  “I would be honored to accept the conch shell,” Marielle said as formally as she knew how. No one was going to die just because she had saved Liandari, and no one was going to be a perpetual slave, so accepting this gift seemed like the best option. Even if Jhinn had warned her not to accept anything. Even if she was more than a bit nervous that it had a color in her monochrome vision without any scent attached to it. “Thank you.”

  The gift left her shaken. She’d just been thinking about Tamerlan and the undeserved regard he’d showed her. And now the most honorable people she knew were telling her that she owed him the debt of her life. What gift could she give him of equal value to her life?

  “And there is the matter of recording your honor,” Anglarok said, standing finally. “Come, we’ll do it together as we watch over Liandari.”

  “Recording?” Marielle repeated, trying hard not to stare at the conch. It was so beautiful that she was having trouble looking away from it. She kept it in her palm as Anglarok led her to Liandari’s room and sat with her in the chairs beside the bed where Liandari lay, insensate.

  “Your Wind Rose was the start, but we record the maps of our lives, a representation of everywhere we have been with honor. You conducted yourself with honor in this city today, so today we will add this city to your map.”

  “You mean you’re adding to my tattoo?” Marielle asked, feeling the sting of the one she already had as she spoke. She hadn’t been prepared for additions. It gave new significance to the tattoos all over Anglarok’s skin.

  “Yes. It is a matter of honor.”

  And what could she say about that?

  25: Open Eyes

  Tamerlan

  D
eathless Pirate had taken complete control of Tamerlan’s body and Tamerlan could feel his exuberance in the way he ran across the sand island.

  I haven’t been this young in a long time.

  He’d yanked the gondola lantern off the ferro before he went – much to Jhinn’s irritation – and was scrambling over the sand island, the lantern bobbing with every long stride. He was looking side to side, though what he could be looking for was beyond Tamerlan. The island had no clear shape, no structure, no trees or rocks or anything to make any part of it stand out.

  Many have sought my treasure, but I did not make it easy to find.

  He reached the other side of the island quickly, Etienne following in his footsteps.

  “Where are we going ... Tamerlan?” Etienne asked, pausing before using Tamerlan’s name, almost as if he suspected that was not who he was really speaking to.

  “Under the side of the island. Only good for low tide,” Deathless Pirate said through his mouth. His voice was breathless with excitement. “Why don’t you come? We’ll show you a sight you’ve never seen, hey?”

  “And the lantern?”

  “Good construction. Made to keep water out. Should burn long enough to get us there.”

  Etienne shivered, but Tamerlan was already stripping. Great. The Legends never seemed to care much about his modesty. They dressed – or undressed – him like a doll they played with.

  He was down to his smallclothes before he knew it, tossing his clothing at Jhinn with a laugh.

  “Hold onto these for me, sailor!”

  Jhinn mock-saluted with a saucy expression but the look in his eye was sharp. Did he see the spirit? Did he know Tamerlan was possessed? Probably.

  “Ready?” Deathless Pirate asked, but he didn’t wait for Etienne to finish undressing. He waded out into the water.

  One step. There was cursing behind Tamerlan as Etienne struggled out of his clothing.

  Two steps.

  “Hurry or you’ll lose him!” Jhinn urged him.

  The sand shelf dropped suddenly and Tamerlan plunged into the water, sucking in a deep breath the moment before his mouth and nose were submerged.