Pain struck him as hard as the water. It forced his breath out of his lungs. He released the rope, clawing his way to the surface of the cold water, pain and panic welling up inside of him. Would the weight of his sword and belt pull him into the clawing depths of the canal? And yet, it still wasn’t him controlling his body. It was all Lila. Maybe she didn’t find things so fun anymore.
I’m having a blast.
And then he was sputtering on the surface, sucking in as much water as air, the sword dragging him down in the water. Strong arms pulled him up from the drink just as Lila fled his body.
So long, pretty. Let’s do this again.
Her timing was perfect. She’d left just before he leapt from the wok into the flames.
The woman holding him as he spewed out water and vomit had a single lock of dark hair hanging long over her harsh face while the rest was cut short. And the sharp expression on her face wasn’t the only pointed thing digging at him. The tip of her sword blade nicked his throat.
“You’re not as hard to find as you think you are,” she said. “I wonder if you’re even easier to kill.”
This woman is surely insane, Byron Bronzebow said from his mind. Tamerlan couldn’t have agreed more. Try to charm her to get her on our side.
Charm her? He’d be lucky to survive her.
Say something unbelievable, Lila suggested.
How would that help anything?
Trust me.
“I’m harder to kill than you might think,” Tamerlan growled.
She laughed and the sword tip eased back just a hair.
Keep going. She’ll respect bold words.
“If you really want to set Marielle free, then maybe you should come with me,” he suggested. “Right now, I’m the only one who can free her.”
“I’m listening,” Liandari said, her look turning considering.
But now Tamerlan was panicking. That was the most outrageous thing he could think of. First, defiance. Then a suggestion that they become allies. What crazier thing could he say?
Tell her your plan! Lila urged.
But he didn’t have a plan!
Then now is the time to make one up. Deathless Pirate suggested. The simpler the better.
“We will head to the sea,” Tamerlan said, scrambling in his mind. After all, the Grandfather had been reading about Queen Mer. And that meant the sea. Hopefully, he hadn’t lost the book in the fall. He thought he still felt it inside his shirt. “That’s where Grandfather Timeless has gone.”
Liandari smiled wider and she moved her sword back to threaten Jhinn who regarded it with as little worry as he would a dead fish. “Go get Anglarok, boy.”
Tamerlan gasped as the sword left his throat, looking around him carefully. A dark shadow waved from the bank and Jhinn steered the boat toward it.
“I think you should trust me to guide us,” Tamerlan suggested, “and I’ll trust you not to try to kill me along the way.”
Her laughter was echoed by Anglarok’s as he leapt into the gondola from the shore.
“Well?” Liandari asked.
“He smells of truth. Why not give him a try?”
“Or I could kill him right here,” Liandari said and the sword was back to threatening Tamerlan again. She was far too fond of that thing!
“That didn’t work out for you last time,” Tamerlan said. “And it won’t work out for you this time, either.”
He’d have to smoke more spices. Could he pull them from his sleeve and light them without tipping his hand?
“But then you’d never get what you want,” a new voice said from the land.
Etienne leapt from the bank into the gondola, sending it rocking and Jhinn cursing.
“Watch it! If you flip it now, I’ll lose the whole rig.”
“What are you doing here?” Liandari asked but her sword was still at Tamerlan’s throat.
“Looking for him,” Etienne said, nodding at Tamerlan, but his eyes stayed on the Harbingers.
“Then why don’t you ask him whatever you came to ask?” Liandari said. “I’ll just keep my sword handy. And then when you’re done, you can go. I have plans for this boy.”
Etienne shrugged, but the way he stood seemed like he was tensed for something. “Did you find a clue to the Grandfather?”
Tamerlan hesitated. Shouldn’t they deal with the people holding weapons on them first and worry about books later?
Etienne coughed. “Well?”
Liandari let the edge of her blade touch his throat again.
Reluctantly, Tamerlan pulled the sodden book out of his shirt handed it to Etienne. “See for yourself.”
Liandari scowled as she watched Etienne take it. He snorted, opened it, and began to read. Someone had left one of the pages dogeared.
“And her avatar remains in the sea’s embrace, awaiting the time of the return of Legends,” he read. “The Grandfather goes to free Queen Mer?”
“Yes,” Tamerlan said, hoping he was right. Anything to keep this chaos from spinning out of control.
“And these two?” Etienne asked. As if the Harbingers were Tamerlan’s guests and not threatening him with blades. “What are they doing here?”
“I think you’re done with questions now. Time to leave.” Liandari twisted and her sword darted toward Etienne.
Etienne reacted so quickly that Tamerlan could hardly duck, parrying Liandari’s testing thrust. She looked surprised as he pressed her back with the strength behind his blade.
“We want the girl,” Liandari said as if she were negotiating. “She’s the key to finding the one who opens the Bridge of Legends – the one who endangers us all. Why do you think that our people have returned? Why do you think we’ve come to your five cities?”
Little does she know, he’s right here in front of her! Lila was laughing in Tamerlan’s mind, but he didn’t feel like laughing at all. He stepped back to where Jhinn stood with his paddle held at the defensive. Anglarok stood casually between them and Liandari. He wasn’t fighting them, merely keeping them from interrupting his lieutenant as she tested Etienne.
“And I’m willing to spill your blood right now if it means getting the information we need to get her back,” Liandari said.
“I don’t have that information,” Etienne said coolly as his sword met hers in a careful parry. The swordplay seemed like more negotiations.
“It sounds like it’s in that book.”
“Only if you know how to read it. Which you don’t.”
Think Tamerlan, think! They were hunting for him. They weren’t afraid to use violence. They were heavily armed. This game Etienne and Liandari were playing wouldn’t last forever and then they’d be tying him to a chair to torture him again.
There was nothing for it. He had to smoke.
He looked at Jhinn who raised an eyebrow and nodded emphatically. He was thinking the same thing.
Desperately, he pulled a roll of Spice out of the oilcloth pouch in his sleeve and ducked behind Jhinn to light it with Jhinn’s gondola lantern. The roll lit immediately. He bought it to his lips, sucking in smoke as quickly as he could.
“You stay put!” There was tension in Anglarok’s voice but it eased when he saw what Tamerlan was doing. “Those things are a filthy habit. I had a friend who got a big lump in his mouth from doing that. Grossest thing you ever saw.”
Come on! Come on!
He’d sucked in too much smoke too quickly. He turned to the side and was noisily ill into the canal as the grunts and clangs of a fight continued above him.
Too late to worry about the fact that an entire fleet is after you. Just don’t get caught, Deathless Pirate suggested as he snatched up Tamerlan’s body. Easy for him to say. He was already dead.
“It seems your man doesn’t have much of a stomach for violence,” Liandari said to Etienne as they fought. “Maybe the same is true of you?”
He shouldn’t be smoking again. He’d said last time would be the last.
It’s better this
way. Doesn’t it feel good to surrender control? To let someone else take the reins? Even if it’s just for a moment?
Deathless Pirate drew his sword, leaping to his forward.
Anglarok swung toward Tamerlan but the butt end of his harpoon hit Jhinn as he turned. The boy fell back with a cry. Deathless Pirate leapt over his fallen body, yelling a war cry as he slashed his blade aggressively at Anglarok.
“By the bones of my dead, I’ll cut you down!”
The look of shock on Anglarok’s face filled Tamerlan’s vision.
Don’t kill him! Don’t kill him!
They didn’t need another death on their hands.
No need. This is fun!
Deathless Pirate lunged forward, snatching Anglarok by the throat and lifting him up in one hand.
This had been a mistake.
Mind and will must be powerful. Know what you want! Calling me is never a mistake.
There was a cry of frustration from Etienne as Liandari battled him back to the ferro.
“Give me the book,” she said.
Deathless Pirate tossed Anglarok overboard like unwanted cargo. He hit the water with a splash.
“Keep him from the boat with that oar, boy!” he called over his shoulder to Jhinn and then he was bouncing forward on the balls of his feet. He snatched Liandari up by the waist in a single armed hug, tossed Tamerlan’s sword into the bottom of the boat and grabbed her wrist with his sword hand, grinding her wrist bones in his grip until her sword fell, too.
Behind them there was a loud thunk and a moan as Jhinn obeyed, prodding at Anglarok with the oar while he tried to keep his feet under him. He swayed as he stood – still recovering from the hit he’d taken. The second that Liandari’s sword fell, Deathless Pirate grabbed her waist in both hands and hurled her into the canal.
“To the oars, boys!” he cried. “Pull for all you’re worth! Pull, you ragged sails!”
There was a splash and a moan and then Deathless Pirate had an oar in each arm and was rowing so hard that Tamerlan thought he might tear the muscles in his shoulders. But it was good. It was so good just to ride this amazing power and capability - if only for a short time.
Etienne’s jaw muscles tightened as he leaned down to get face to face with Tamerlan – a small action, but he had to be feeling the same pressure Tamerlan was. After all, he’d opened the Bridge before, too. These two were here to hunt him, too.
“I have affairs to attend here in Yan,” Etienne said quietly. “This ... interruption ... hasn’t changed that.”
“We have bigger concerns,” Deathless Pirate said with a grimace. “Unless you want your throat slit by that violent woman and her Scenter. Come with me. Let’s go find the Grandfather.”
Jhinn snickered in the back of the gondola. He must be okay if he was finding humor in this.
Tamerlan risked a look behind him to see two sodden people pulling themselves up along the canal. They knew he was headed to the sea. They wouldn’t be far behind. Already, they were hailing another gondola as it slid down the canal. He heard the commotion as they demanded that it follow them.
“Of course, I want Marielle free,” Etienne said. “But I need a few more days here to finish what I started before I go heading off on another wild chase.”
“Not an option,” Deathless Pirate said. “We are pursued by enemies. There is no time to stop to let you off.”
Etienne made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat.
“Unless you want to swim for it.” Deathless Pirate sounded gleeful at the suggestion.
“I’ll stay with you,” Etienne said curtly.
Behind them, the gondola took off quickly with Anglarok and Liandari in it.
“Then help me row, dangerous one,” Deathless Pirate said. “We have enemies to outdistance. And a woman to save from a clock.”
Etienne leaned in close. “I know that you’re in there, Tamerlan, and when you resurface, I’m going to make you pay for this.”
But he took an oar and threw his back into rowing as Jhinn stayed frozen in place at the stern, staring at their pursuers as he steered the gondola through the rainy canals under the light of the autumn moon.
14: Ghostly Guardians
Marielle
If it hadn’t been for the scent, she would have never found him. In this murky haze of souls forging their paths over one another, through each other, around each other, finding just one person was like finding the moment an idea was born. It was nearly impossible. But the scent propelled her on.
There he was! His scent filled her like breath, licking up and over the edges of her walls until she felt like she could melt in it. She moved toward the scent, feeling in the darkness of time and space until she thought she might almost be able to touch ...
A specter rose up – beautiful and terrible. Her long red hair whirled around her as her hand thrust out and she hissed, “He’s ours. Be gone!”
And then she was tumbling away, spinning through time and space again.
She needed to find him again. She knew now that she could. If she could find the scent she could follow it. But next time she would need a plan for dealing with the red-haired woman. Because she was beginning to forget and she desperately needed to remember.
15: Cogs and Gears
Tamerlan
The Yan Canal was a man-made channel formed years ago to keep Yan City connected to H’yi and Xin. It bridged the space between the Alabastru and Cerulean Rivers. Barges headed up the river, loaded with heaping cargos – oranges and seafood brought up from the sea for the Autumngale feast, timbers and stone to finalize summer repairs and projects before the cold of winter, thick sacks of grain and crates of dried fruits to fill the storehouses. Family boats floated in both directions, filled with laughter, squawking chickens, the clang of hammers working, and the quiet conversation of the boat nomad peoples. It was a picture of bounty and culture and of the ever-moving nature of life on the Dragonblood Plains.
Tamerlan glanced at Jhinn. Did he look at his people with envy? He didn’t have a family boat to return to like they did. Most of the gondoliers had a gondola tied up to a family boat. None of them lived in their gondola like Jhinn did.
“I left that behind a long time ago,” Jhinn said when he noticed Tamerlan looking. “My gondola is better. I don’t need other people.”
Tamerlan nodded. If the boy wanted to be alone, that was his business. Sometimes Tamerlan wished he could be alone – even if only in his own mind.
We only want to help you. The dragons must be stopped, and order restored, King Abelmeyer said in his mind. As the only living person we have a connection to, we want to help you save our children’s children.
And how could he say no to that? But he was going crazy in the loudness of his mind. Crazy as he tapped his fingers along the gunwale of the gondola while Etienne slept in a heap of cloth at the front of the gondola. He should sleep too.
Was Marielle going insane inside the clock?
How did you know if you were losing your mind?
His eyes scanned the canal behind them constantly. He’d lost sight of their pursuers at daybreak – but it didn’t mean that they weren’t still there. He didn’t have Deathless Pirate’s superhuman strength anymore. And just plain Tam didn’t have the strength to row like a machine. He should smoke again. He should let the Legends help.
“Tamerlan? Tam?”
He rubbed his eyes. He was vulnerable to them when he was tired. He needed sleep if he was going to hold off the constant temptation of smoking again.
“King Abelmeyer?”
Tamerlan looked up from the yellowed waters of the canal.
He blinked as he glanced at Jhinn’s concerned face. “Oh, sorry. I missed that, Jhinn.”
“You’ll get her out, Tamerlan. And you’ll find a way to calm your demons.”
“Thank you,” he said gravely, smiling at the younger man. He paused a moment before adding, “You don’t need to keep transporting us, Jhinn. We can find
another boat. You are too selfless, friend.” He put his face in his hands. He was so tired. When was the last time that he’d slept? “I don’t know why you stick by me when no one else cares.”
Jhinn’s face turned hard. “Because I couldn’t help someone else – someone like you. He was a brother to me, but he roams the lands of the dead now. His spirit drifts like the winds. There should have been another way to save him.”
“That doesn’t mean that you owe me anything,” Tamerlan said gently.
“And you don’t owe Marielle anything. We choose who we’ll care about. And owing people doesn’t factor into that. Loyalty isn’t about who owes who. It’s about who you choose to tie strings to – who you choose to keep caring about even when no one else does. It’s not about reciprocity. It’s about ... I don’t know. But it’s not about that.”
Tamerlan was silent for a long time. He pushed away the voices, trying to drown them out as they responded.
You can use a person like that.
Loyalty is a commodity that can’t be bought.
Give yourselves to the great cause!
That wasn’t how he felt. He felt – humbled.
“I’m deeply honored by your friendship, Jhinn,” he said.
“I’ll ignore the things your demons say about me,” Jhinn said with a sly grin. “They might be useful to me yet.”
Tamerlan felt his cheeks grow hot. “How do you see them when no one else does?”
Jhinn shrugged, looking away. Maybe he didn’t know why. Maybe it made him uncomfortable not to know.
Tamerlan tried changing the subject. “How are we moving so quickly?”
He’d just noticed that they were outpacing the barge next to them. And no one was rowing.
Jhinn snickered. “Remember that device you were helping me with? Look.”
Tamerlan followed his pointing finger to where he was pedaling in the bottom of the boat. What in the world was that?
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 49