The pirate had better know what he was doing! He’d better be a good swimmer. Tamerlan could swim, but he wouldn’t say he was expert at it.
I’m an expert at most things – all things, if we’re talking about the water. One month on my ship and I’d make a man out of you, too. Your hands are lily soft.
He was kidding, right? Tamerlan’s hands were calloused and worn from his work as an apprentice.
Not like they’d be if you were hauling on rope all day!
But now Tamerlan was too distracted to argue with the Legend. They were sinking deep into the water, only the light of the lantern showing the way. The rock of the island was porous with great big bubbles on the surface of the rock. Strange.
Tentacled creatures fled from the light and the edges of fins or tales would flicker briefly along the edges of the lantern glow. Tamerlan mentally shivered at the thought of being down here without the lantern. What would it feel like to have those tentacles brush his leg? Or wrap around his neck?
Deathless Pirate seemed unconcerned. He located a small hole in the rock almost immediately. It was small – no wider than Tamerlan’s body. He’d better not try to wiggle into – no! No! No!
Terror gripped him as Deathless Pirate plunged the lantern ahead of them into the tunnel and then shoved Tamerlan’s shoulders into the narrow space. He was too wide! His shoulders too thick! He’d never fit!
Stop whining. Or I’ll send you for twenty lashes to sober you up! You’ll fit. You have no belly. It’s just the shoulders to maneuver.
Which wasn’t making him feel any better. Sharp rock dug into his shoulders and chest, scraping and ripping painfully at his skin.
Something grabbed his foot and fear shot through him like an arrow.
It’s just that skinny one – the one in black who followed us. He can’t see the light of the lantern with all your bulk in front of him.
Etienne. Okay. At least he was human. Mostly.
And now his lungs were burning, and his heart was racing. There was no way he could get to the surface in time to fill them!
You need to develop more tolerance for holding your breath.
No way he could back up through the cavern in time, either. He was almost wedged as it was, and Etienne was behind him. This had been a terrible idea! He would die possessed, not even in control of his own decisions that led him to this place!
Forty lashes unless you spare me!
The tunnel bent upward suddenly, widening and as soon as his shoulders shoved into the wider tunnel, he shot upward, his hand with the lantern leading the way. It was flickering, but still burning.
His hand broke the surface, the lantern flaring brighter, and then his head broke through and his burning lungs gasped in stale air.
It had been so close. He’d almost died!
You would have died if you were piloting this ship, but lucky for you, I was at the helm.
Etienne burst up through the water, sucking in his own deep breath. The look he gave Tamerlan made it feel like he’d been weighed and graded in the Trade District.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“My lair,” Deathless Pirate said grandly, spreading an arm. “But take a care. There are traps.”
They scrambled to the edge of the pool where a rock lip – smooth but rippled like it was made from water rather than stone– spread out around it. The smoothness went up far above them, but rough steps were carved into the rock leading above.
“When the tide is high this is all much more difficult,” Deathless Pirate said, running a hand over Tamerlan’s face to wipe the water away.
“I imagine that’s the charm of the place,” Etienne said dryly.
“Indeed!”
Deathless Pirate was already sprinting up the stairs avoiding every third one. Hopefully, Etienne was noticing that. It seemed to Tamerlan that the pirate was snickering inside far too much for that not to be a trap.
They raced up the steps and Tamerlan heard Etienne bite back a curse. It must not have been too bad, though, because his footsteps were still right behind them.
The stairs topped out just above the high-water mark, and then they were in the cave.
“You can hide out here if you really have to,” Deathless Pirate said aloud almost as if he was musing to himself. “There are holes in the rock that I drilled in there when I made the place. They let air in and out at low tide and you can close off the doors at high tide. No food or fresh water, obviously, and you can’t fit the whole crew, but in a pinch, it will do.”
Tamerlan wasn’t listening to him. He was gasping mentally at the treasures laid out on shelves and spilling out of chests all around the room. Deathless Pirate’s eyes skimmed over them as if taking inventory. Diadems and coronets crusted in jewels, long sabers with gem-encrusted handles, and ivory carvings lay on shelves or stood in racks. Jade statues made to look like dragons, lions, octopuses, and a thousand other creatures were decked in pearl necklaces, or emerald pendants. Vases with scenes of battle inlaid in their walls stood neatly in rows.
It was everything a treasure room should be.
“Touch nothing,” Deathless Pirate said, breathless as he surveyed his wealth. “The wrong weight on any shelf will open a sluice and fill the cavern with water.”
It must have been difficult to get so many heavy, priceless things in the cavern.
I put them in here before I sealed the island up with the coconut fiber. We dug down to place them here. Some of those chests wouldn’t ever go through that cavern. Even you won’t fit if you put much more muscle on these shoulders.
“And the Eye?” Etienne asked from behind them. There was tension in his voice as if it were all he could do to stay frozen in place in front of so much wonder.
But as he said the words, Tamerlan’s eye caught a single ruby the size of a human eyeball. A flaw in it made it look like a narrow pupil resided inside it – shaped like a cat’s pupil. Or a dragon’s. He gasped at the same moment that Deathless Pirate laughed. The Eye hung from a fistful of chains wrapped around each other to make a cord thicker than both Tamerlan’s thumbs put together.
“That has a special protection. I knew that someone would want it. Which means you might be out of luck, little man,” Deathless Pirate said, grinning widely at Etienne.
“And why is that?” Etienne asked carefully.
“I rigged the protections on that one with magic – cost me enough, that’s for sure! – and they can only be dispelled with magic.”
“What kind of magic?” Etienne asked. Tension sang in his voice.
Deathless Pirate eased past the items on the shelves to a small fissure in the rock to one side. In all the wealth before them, Tamerlan hadn’t noticed the fissure before. It glowed softly – a blue glow that flickered like light beaming through water. Deathless Pirate moved carefully around the shelves to make sure he didn’t bump any as he leaned toward the fissure.
“Blood magic. Only a drop of blood from the Dragonblooded will release the amulet from where it sits. But you don’t look like you have the blood.”
“I don’t,” Etienne admitted.
Deathless Pirate leaned forward until his face was right in front of the fissure.
“What’s that?” Etienne asked, carefully inching forward until his face was pressed up against the fissure, too.
Someone had set glass into this part of the rock and through the glass, you could see through the dark currents of the ocean to where someone had sunk a tall man-sized iron cage. It sat on a slight angle from where it struck the ocean floor. So close to the island, the floor was shallow, close enough for them to clearly see the cage, clearly see the blue light glowing from what was within – close enough to see the man with eyes wide open and a look of horror on his face. His clothing wafted gently in the current. His long black hair swirled in the motion of the sea. But his hands were frozen where they clutched the bars. His mouth frozen in a rictus of pain and his eyes frozen wide. His flesh had not deteriorated or
been eaten by fish. If he wasn’t so still, Tamerlan could have sworn he was alive.
Tamerlan’s mind shivered in horror. Someone had sunk this man and he hadn’t died.
“You can’t kill avatars,” Deathless Pirate said in his voice. “You can only trap them. And when they are finally free, they roam the earth again.”
Tamerlan tried not to think. After all, Deathless Pirate could read his thoughts. But it was no use. His own voice whispered the words he was trying so hard to avoid.
“The time has come for me to stride once more on the tide of man.”
Tamerlan gritted his mental teeth. He never could have predicted this possibility. Letting one of the Legends out into the world of men would be so much worse than just letting them out to play from time to time through the Bridge of Legends!
He felt a sting of pain and then Deathless pirate was whirling as Etienne scrambled back, the tip of his knife dripping with blood – Tamerlan’s blood. Dragonblooded blood.
He gasped as Etienne flicked it onto Abelmeyer’s Eye, snatched up the Eye, and tore out of the treasure room and down the stairs.
With a roar, Deathless Pirate chased after him, lantern in hand.
You didn’t tell me you were of the blood!
He hadn’t asked.
By the time they’d reached the stairs, Etienne was diving into the pool. And by the time they reached the pool, the lantern flickering, he was out of sight. Tamerlan sucked in a huge breath and then dove down. He tried not to feel panicky at the thought of making this swim a second time. After all, hadn’t he done it once before?
He was surprised that Deathless Pirate was chasing the Eye with such fervor. After all, he’d seemed taken with the idea of freeing his avatar.
Fool! Don’t you realize that the Eye has the power to bind and free? Why do you think I wanted it in the first place? It wasn’t like I was interested in helping you toward your petty goals! I was always here for what is in that cage. You should have told me you were Dragonblooded!
They pushed through the rock, Tamerlan wincing at the pain as the sharp edges bit and dug into his skin, the brackish water stinging his open wounds.
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 than
kful 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.
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 37