Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  He glanced at the other man. As usual, Etienne strode through the city like he owned the place, waving off hawkers like servants. But looking like you owned a place and actually owning it, were two entirely different things.

  “News from Xin City,” a crier yelled. “A penny and I will tell you how it has been rebuilt after the fires. Two, and I’ll tell you who holds power there now!”

  Etienne waved him off irritably. Etienne probably knew better than the newscrier anyway. He visited Xin City often – and always without Tamerlan. It was one of many reasons why their hunt for the Grandfather had been delayed.

  The crier tried a last attempt as they melted into the crowd. “Five pennies and I’ll tell you why H’yi burned to the ground while Xin still stands!”

  Like they needed to know. They’d seen the firs themselves. Comparing Xin to H’yi was like comparing a candle to a campfire.

  A child hid from the rain against a stone wall as they passed, his clothing ragged, his cheeks gaunt. The huddle of cloth behind him could be a mother, given up hope after being a refugee for months. Or it could be a child seller. Or a dead man. It was impossible to know. So many orphans in the cities now, and so many belonging to families too poor to feed and clothe them – and all of them needed more than Tamerlan could give. Though he tried to help where he could.

  He pressed a pair of coins into the child’s hand, sinking to his knee for a moment to whisper, “Get something hot to eat, hmmm?”

  The child’s gap-toothed grin made his heart lurch. The boy needed more than a couple of coins. When all this was done and the Grandfather was dealt with, Tamerlan was going to start an orphanage. A place for children who needed more help than a coin could give.

  He hurried to catch up to Etienne who caught his eye before raising a single brow. He didn’t hand out coins on the street.

  “You only draw attention that way,” he said gruffly – repeating what he said last time. “Better to have given the coins to the newscrier.”

  Tamerlan ignored him. Maybe they’d never catch the Grandfather. Maybe they’d never save the cities. But they could do this good thing right now. So, why not do it?

  “News! Hear ye all!” a second crier said from the street corner. Here in Yan, they dressed in red so they could be seen easily. If only it were easier to ignore them. They were thick as flies on the troubled city and they never said anything Tamerlan wished they would say. “Lord Fable has declared this year the Year of the Cantonelles! Cantonelle players will be here to play in every inn and city square throughout the Festival!”

  Tamerlan clenched his jaw. Cantonelles. They played cantonelles in his home Landhold. They were his father’s favorite music. More evidence of Decebal’s growing hold in Yan showed up on the streets every day and every day Tamerlan clenched his fists tighter and pressed his lips more closely together.

  “Dragon cursed cantonelles,” he muttered, but he was distracted. Yan was not a happy city. If his father would stop maneuvering and actually use his power for something good, he could do something about that.

  Lines of refugees filled the streets, choking the pathways even here in the Temple District. The palace was offering a daily dole of bread and soup – but only once a day and only to those who agreed to live outside the city walls. They were marked with woven bands of leather around their heads. Anyone wearing the band could receive the dole. And anyone wearing the band wasn’t welcome within the city walls after dark.

  Despite the lash of the harsh autumn rain, people waited in long hollow-eyed lines.

  And with every look they shot at Tamerlan he shivered. He didn’t have enough coins for all of them. Not even for all the children. Glimpses of them tore his heart to shreds. This wasn’t how they were meant to live. But he was the one who took their homes and stability. He needed to smoke and forget again.

  Yes! Forget again! We wait for you. That was Lila Cherrylocks. She sounded hungrier every time she spoke now. And he was sure she was holding out on him – waiting until he caved and smoked again.

  And yet he didn’t dare do that. The last time he’d smoked, he’d lost the vision of his eye. And with every day that passed without a puff of the Spice, his hands shook more wildly and the voices grew louder.

  Why didn’t Etienne’s hands shake? Was it because he only smoked once?

  Or is it because Grandfather Time went free? His body doesn’t crave the return of a Legend who can’t come back to it anymore, Lila suggested. Which is why it can’t hurt you if you only call up the Legends you’ve called before.

  An interesting theory. But Tamerlan had no control over which Legends came over the Bridge.

  I’m an interesting person.

  Half the time he didn’t know if Lila was flirting with him or just being herself.

  Both. Of course.

  Tamerlan couldn’t look anymore at the small children in line, clinging to adult hands with hollow eyes. Children shouldn’t have to bear the debt of their elders.

  He tried to focus on where he and Etienne were going instead. They were nearly in the Temple District. He could see the spires of the Timekeeper’s temples and cathedrals up ahead. The Smudgers wouldn’t be there. They had not returned since the day Tamerlan had released Jingen and they’d fled to the hills north of the Five Cities.

  He glanced at one of their temples. Brazier holders were empty outside the gate. People had stolen the bronze bowls from the holders and the way the door hung ajar suggested that the inside had been raided, too.

  We’ll help the children tonight, Byron Bronzebow promised. This time, you’ll call me, and we’ll do it right.

  Tamerlan’s hand shook as he felt the oil-cloth package in his pocket – the rolls of Spices just waiting to be smoked. Maybe this time he really would call Byron Bronzebow. He and Etienne tried to help the refugees every night – but two people could only do so much. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to call on a Legend to help.

  He swallowed, his mouth dry at the thought.

  It would be wise. A good idea.

  Or maybe not.

  He pulled his hand back from his pocket. He felt eyes on the back of his neck, but when he spun to see who was watching him there was no one who stood out from the crowd.

  He looked up to the upper rooms and roofs above. Nothing.

  He peered down the alleys. Still nothing.

  Maybe he was just getting paranoid.

  Call us! Call us and we will make everything easier. Even Deathless Pirate was making promises now.

  He tried to distract himself with conversation, leaning toward Etienne just as the other man took a scrap of paper surreptitiously from an outstretched hand of a man walking past. If he hadn’t been watching at that exact second, he’d never have noticed the former Lord Mythos palming the scrap of white paper.

  “Strange how all the cities of Jingen are laid out the same way, isn’t it?” Tamerlan asked when Etienne looked sharply in his direction. Just a casual question. He hadn’t seen anything. Or at least, that was what he was trying to project.

  There was a flash of someone familiar up ahead near the canal. Just a flash of something in the thick rain. That wasn’t Anglarok, was it? The Harbinger? It couldn’t be. What would he be doing here?

  Tamerlan felt a little chill run up his spine. Eyes. Watchers. Was he really doing the hunting, or was he hunted, too?

  “It’s not really that strange if you understand why,” Etienne said, but he sounded distracted, too. Probably thinking about what was on the paper.

  Every time Tamerlan saw him, Etienne was watching Tamerlan’s hands shake and trying not to look too obviously at his eye. Tamerlan was no fool. Etienne didn’t trust him. It didn’t matter that they were allies in trying to track down the Grandfather. It didn’t matter that he’d sealed their vow with magic. It didn’t matter that they worked together every night in the refugee camps alleviating the worst of the misery – he still didn’t trust Tamerlan.

  He could never forget that Tame
rlan had smoked the Spices just like he had and opened the Bridge of Legends just like he had. He could never forget that the evil that had possessed him and stolen Marielle was forged in the same flames as the good that possessed Tamerlan and gave his eye to bind the dragon again.

  “It’s a mandala,” Etienne said.

  “Like the ones the Timekeepers carry? And the patterns they walk it the prayer gardens behind their cathedrals?” Tamerlan asked.

  He’d read about Timekeepers. He’d never been much taken by their religion – though the architecture was beautiful. He could sit all day just drawing the arches over their doors. But no. He didn’t worship time. And now that he’d met Grandfather Timeless, he certainly never would.

  “Precisely. Those are mandalas just like the streets and canals of the Five Cities.”

  “That’s a very artistic way to design a city,” Tamerlan said, smiling absently, like he was in his own daydream world. He didn’t want Etienne to see that he was keeping an eye on his hand as they snaked between the long lines of people into an alley that skirted the back of the Timekeeper’s Ivory Cathedral.

  “It’s not made that way for the art,” Etienne said. “Tell me, Tamerlan, why do you think that we built our cities on the backs of the dragons?”

  “So that you could slaughter innocent girls and be conveniently close to dump their blood all over the dragon’s spines?” And this time the smile Tamerlan gave Etienne was cold and tight.

  Etienne might not trust him, but Tamerlan didn’t really trust Etienne either.

  The other man gave him a sharp look.

  “Watch that we haven’t been followed,” he snapped.

  He was impressive. He was still talking casually as he unrolled his slip of paper, counting on Tamerlan to be looking the other way as he quickly read it. But Tamerlan hadn’t been fooled. He read the paper over the shorter man’s shoulder, even as the former Lord Mythos continued to speak.

  “Blood is what binds the dragons in place, certainly, but we also spell them to remain docile and frozen. Otherwise, you’d still have dragons and as you’ve so elegantly put it, we’d still have to ‘dump blood all over their spines’ but they’d be able to move and flame and generally object to the whole process. This way, they lay still and sedated.”

  He paused and Tamerlan looked back over his shoulder. Was that a harpoon he glimpsed at the end of the alley? Maybe they really were being followed. A tingle ran down his spine.

  He should have looked earlier, but if he had, he wouldn’t have read the slip of paper.

  “Does that mean that Jingen will rise again? I only bound him. There’s no mandala on his back.”

  Etienne was still talking, though his tone had turned smug. He thought he’d tricked Tamerlan, didn’t he?

  “Likely he was stunned at first, but yes he will rise. That is what the streets are for. A mandala of power. And as things move along the mandala – in this case, feet and carts and boats – the magic is renewed and strengthened fresh every day. Now, pay attention, we are almost at the Cathedral.”

  Tamerlan turned around again and followed Etienne but he wasn’t thinking about mandalas of power or city design. He wasn’t even thinking about the glimpse of harpoon he’d seen. He was thinking about what he had read on that slip of paper.

  Tonight. Dusk. If you are late, we will be gone.

  -The Whisper.

  Who was The Whisper and what games was Etienne playing while Tamerlan was trying to save the world?

  5: Ivory Cathedral

  Tamerlan

  It would have looked like lurking to anyone watching, but as they stood, studying the Ivory Cathedral from the back alley, Tamerlan’s mind was flooded with memories of the last time he’d stood in front of a cathedral. He rubbed his blind eye almost without thinking – a nervous tick he’d picked up. He’d never bothered with a patch. Other than being milky white, the eye looked fine.

  He drew in a deep breath and tried not to remember what it had been like outside the Cathedral of the Clock, watching it burn to the ground as Marielle was trapped inside the clock right in front of it. He should have chosen differently. He should have chosen her.

  “You’re sure he’s in there?” he whispered.

  “According to my sources, but there’s only one way to find out.” Etienne led him further down the alley to the back side of the cathedral. “We climb.”

  Etienne looked down and Tamerlan hid his shaking hands behind his back. He could still climb. If there was a chance to get Grandfather Timeless – any chance at all – he would take it.

  The failed leader is correct. I feel him close. Abelmeyer was not very complimentary where Etienne was concerned – none of the Legends were. They thought that any leader who lost their city couldn’t be used for anything again.

  Not true. I could think of a few uses for him.

  Well, Lila had a different perspective, but in fairness, it would probably be worse to be useful to Lila than worthless to someone like Abelmeyer.

  He’s not as pretty as you are, but he’s pretty enough for me.

  And her comments always made him blush. Especially when he remembered she was looking at Etienne through his eyes – eye. With flaming cheeks, he grabbed Etienne’s arm.

  “We’ve chased him and lost him over and over. We need a better plan. A trap or some other way to hold him. Chasing him again and again with no plan is insanity.”

  “I have a plan,” Etienne said shortly.

  “Then explain it to me. Explain it, or I won’t go in with you.”

  Etienne swallowed and for the first time he looked uncomfortable. “I’ve thought about this for a long time. You’ll have to use the Eye of Abelmeyer. We’ll grab him and when you get your hands on him, you’ll use the Eye.”

  Tamerlan gasped. “It took one of my eyes last time.”

  “A terrible price,” Etienne agreed, his face hard as a rock. “But I can think of no other option.”

  “Can’t I just do that anywhere? I just decided to use it with the dragon and then he was bound. Why grab him at all if we plan to use the Eye. We could do that right here.”

  Etienne snorted. “Weren’t you watching? The Eye only Binds. But if he jumps through space and time – and don’t you think he might be doing that if he keeps eluding us? – then we would be binding him somewhere, but we wouldn’t know where and someone else might find him a free him, nullifying your sacrifice. Besides, if we don’t have him in hand, we can’t put him back in the clock to free Marielle. So either you use the Eye like a fool and miss our chance, or we surprise him, then you use it and we can haul him off to the clock because we know where he is.”

  Tamerlan’s mouth twisted sourly. This had been the plan all along. To steal his other eye. Fury bubbled up within him, but as quickly as it bubbled up, it dissolved again. Wouldn’t he do anything to save Marielle?

  “Lead on.”

  Etienne looked skeptical, but with a small shake of his head, he grabbed the masonry and began to climb.

  Tamerlan looked around. Was anyone watching? It was broad daylight – but with the rain pelting down, it made sense that no one was looking up. Everyone on the street had been ducking low under hoods or canopies.

  Smoke and I’ll help you with the climb, Lila tempted him.

  Smoke and I will bless your arm for battle, Abelmeyer offered.

  Tamerlan cursed under his breath and hurried to climb after Etienne. The gaps between the stone were wide enough. He could do this part without help. Even with shaking hands.

  You’re a fool not to take our help. It’s offered freely,” Lila said.

  If by ‘free’ she meant with all the strings possible tied to it, then sure, it was ‘free.’ He’d take it if he had to – but not unless it was either his life on the line or catching the Grandfather.

  If you’d smoked that first night after you gave your Eye, we would have had him right away. You’ve wasted months for nothing. It’s just blind pride and stubbornness that deprives
you of the power you could have. Forget your arrogance. Come back to us. That was Deathless Pirate. His impatience was the most palpable.

  “What makes you so good at this, Lord Mythos?” Tamerlan muttered as they climbed. The crack in the masonry he was holding was too narrow. He bit his lip and pushed harder.

  There was a wide window just above them and Etienne angled toward it.

  Watch it. You nearly lost your hold! Don’t cling so tightly to the wall, it puts unnatural pressure on your muscles.

  Easy for Lila to say. She wasn’t the one trying to scale the side of a building in the rain with a sword tangling around her feet.

  You could have smoked and then it would be me!

  Ease up, Legend! I’m doing all I can, and I don’t need a critique of every action in my head! He growled to himself, blowing rain from his eyelashes as he climbed.

  Lean back! Hang from your fingertips instead of trying to pull your torso so tight to the wall!

  He risked trying it her way and immediately the climb was easier.

  See? I told you so!

  If the opportunity presents itself, it will be I who take the boy to greatness. That was Abelmeyer.

  Tamerlan scrambled over the ledge of the window into an empty room filled with dust and discarded items.

  Etienne clenched his lips tightly together and gave Tamerlan a concerned look.

  “Crazy yet?”

  Tamerlan scoffed.

  “You were muttering to yourself,” Etienne said, still looking wary.

  “Let’s just find the Grandfather.”

  Had he been speaking to himself? Sometimes he didn’t know anymore.

  You were. This is all too much for you. Accept help!

  “We had to come this way. They’ve doubled the guard on the doors. No outsiders. And you know as well as I do that if we don’t surprise him, he’ll slip away again. Just like he did last time. We grab him. You use the Eye. We finish this.”

  Etienne didn’t need to explain it to him. Just because he was fighting voices in his head didn’t mean he was a fool.