Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

“It turns a gear that multiplies the power which twists a shaft that turns a propeller. And that propeller moves us forward with surprising speed. I’d thank you for it, but I’m relatively sure you had no idea that you’ve been helping me design this. Those ghosts of yours can be very useful if you catch them unaware.”

  He hadn’t had any idea. He’d been obsessed with finding the Grandfather. His eyes widened. Had Jhinn been fishing the knowledge of this out of his mind without him even knowing it? He really was going mad.

  “It will get us to Choan days faster than usual. We can even go upriver with it more quickly. Those demons won’t catch us with this.”

  Tamerlan felt his cheeks heat. “I’m afraid that they’re always with us. With me.”

  “I don’t mean your ghosts, boy. I mean those Harbingers.” Jhinn spat. “Devils. Both of them.”

  “And Etienne?” Tamerlan asked, amused.

  Jhinn shook his head. “That one should have stayed in Yan.”

  “I don’t think he had a choice,” Tamerlan said. Deathless Pirate wouldn’t have let him leave. A boat drifted by beside them smelling of the cinnamon tea that was so popular during Autumngale. His belly rumbled. “Do your people celebrate Autumngale?”

  “Not the same way. Autumngale for your people is the time to remember the civil wars. For us, it was the time that Queen Mer chose us and made us alive. It’s a time of creation. We celebrate by creating things.”

  “Like the gears and pedals on that device?”

  Jhinn shot him a proud grin. “Yes. Isn’t it beautiful? I can make more, too. When this is all over. But first we free Marielle from the lands of the dead.”

  “If you were smart, you wouldn’t stay with us. You’d go off on your own and build those machines and live a good life.” It bothered him that he was holding the other boy back.

  “I’m smart enough, but life on the water can be boring. Life with you is not boring. I plan to stick around. Now, think, boy. How do you catch this Grandfather? Stalking him has proven useless. You need a trap, Tam.”

  “I know, but I can’t think of anything, and I don’t want to lose my other eye – not unless I have to.”

  “Catching the Grandfather is like trying to net a fast fish. You need to drive him into a set – into a net or trap he can’t get out of.”

  “How do you trap a Legend?”

  “With bait. Stop chasing him and let him come to you.”

  It sounded so simple, but he had no idea how to do it. “What can you use to bait a Legend?”

  Jhinn shrugged. “Find something he wants. Easy.”

  But it wasn’t easy and as the day wore on and they reached the Alabastru river, Tamerlan still hadn’t thought of anything and he was beginning to think he could see that gondola in the distance upriver – following them. How long until it would catch them? And what would those Harbingers do if they ever caught up again?

  The ruins of H’yi rose in the distance – partially burnt out buildings and blackened ruins. A gleam of light in the center of it might have been sunlight glinting off the clock. His heart lurched at the thought. She was just over there. It felt as though there was a string from her to him, pulling him all the time and the further away he went, the harder it tugged at him.

  Two months hadn’t been long enough for the city to be rebuilt after the fires. Not long enough for the population to be restored. Not long enough for plants to grow over the ruins of Jingen city on the back of the slumbering dragon next to the riverbank. He’d put that dragon there with his eye. But at what cost?

  Was saving the world worth losing a person you cared about? Marielle had given everything for H’yi and no one even remembered her name.

  He was still deep in his musings hours later as he took a turn pedaling the boat so Jhinn could sleep.

  Just let us out and you can forget. Maid Chaos whispered in his mind. I’ll take you for a merry ride.

  You want to plan a trap? I’m the master of traps. We can start in H’yi. You want to go there, don’t you? That was Lila.

  He played with one of his paper rolls and thought about who might cross the Bridge of Legends and come to him. Their voices all the time were wearing through his resistance. Wouldn’t be easier to let one out? Then he’d only have one voice in his mind, controlling his thoughts, driving him slowly insane.

  “I hope you aren’t thinking of doing that,” Etienne said grimly, sitting beside him to look out over the devastation.

  “Why haven’t you jumped into the river and swum back?” Tamerlan asked a bit harshly. “If you had plans back there, you know I can – won’t stop you now. You could just go.”

  Etienne hesitated. “I’m not sure there’s any point to that now. Last night I might have changed her mind. But today ... not today.”

  He was reading a slip of paper over again. With a sigh, he handed it to Tamerlan.

  “I suppose there’s no more point in keeping it from you.”

  E.

  It’s been a pleasure. But if you see no way to the future I want, then I see no way to the future you want. The Whisper withdraws our support. We’ll back another.

  A.

  “’A’ is Allegra,” Tamerlan interpreted aloud. “A dangerous woman.”

  Etienne snorted. “That’s like saying that the dragon Jingen over there is dangerous. It’s true, but not true enough.”

  “What did she want from you?”

  “Something I couldn’t give.”

  Him, Lila said. Trust a woman’s intuition. That’s bitterness in that note. She wanted him.

  Tamerlan watched his face. Watched the sorrow, disappointment and bitterness washing over it.

  “When did they buy you for the government?” he asked bluntly. “Were you in your teens?”

  “I was five when they bought me to be heir of Lord Mythos. I didn’t even know what it meant. I wasn’t even from Jingen. I was from Yan. I grew up with the Lord Fable as the legendary ruler of our city, not the Lord Mythos. They are the same, of course, but even the name was foreign to me. But they wanted a clever boy. Clever and malleable.”

  “I wouldn’t call you malleable. Neither would Allegra.”

  “Well, that didn’t stop them from molding me.” The bitterness hung thick on his tongue. “For all the good it did me. My city ruined. My people destitute. They stand in line for bread. It hollows their souls.”

  “And Allegra won’t help you? She won’t use that secret organization of hers to back you in ... what? Opposing Yan and Decebal in ruling that city? Is that what you wanted? Revolution?”

  Etienne’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t expected Tamerlan to guess, had he?

  “Sometimes revolutions are necessary.”

  “Necessary for your people or necessary for you?”

  “My people need me. And I’d give anything to help them.”

  “Except what Allegra wants?”

  He flinched. “I didn’t know she’d take rejection so poorly.”

  There was another long pause where the only sound was the sound of the gears whirring as Tamerlan pedaled.

  “She’s not the kind of woman who takes ‘no’ well,” Tamerlan agreed. “How did you meet?”

  “There are many skills you learn when they’re grooming you to lead. You need to know every aspect of the city you will rule. You were surprised when I scaled a wall in the rain. That’s a small thing compared to the things I was taught. One thing was siphoning magic from sleeping dragons – just enough to keep the city safe in small ways. Like holding off plagues. I met Allegra six years ago – when the old Lord Mythos ruled. It was the year that the Green Plague hit Jingen and Xin. Do you remember it?”

  “Barely.” He’d been bought that year. He came to the city months after the plague was gone.

  “It was virulent and terrible. A man would sneeze and five hours later be dead in the streets. A child would go to bed whole and never wake. It haunted our cities. And Allegra was one of the Cure Mistresses fighting it. I was sent to help t
hem with the authority and magic of the Lord Mythos at my disposal. That’s how we met – destroying the plague. I knew what kind of woman she was almost immediately – the kind of woman who could do anything.”

  “Even foment revolution.”

  “Revolution is only the change of power. She could be a queen like Queen Mer. A Legend in her own right.”

  “You sound like you’re in love with her.”

  “It would be crazy to love a woman like that. She would consume you alive.”

  Tamerlan chuckled. That seemed exactly true of Allegra. But he had a feeling that Etienne might like to have been consumed by her.

  “And why do you have no apprentice of your own?”

  “I should have one by now. But look at me.” Etienne barked a laugh. “I’m almost as crazy as you are, Tamerlan. Hunting a Legend. Turning down perfectly good offers of power. Working with my enemies. I’m adrift on the seas of power. I can sense that a huge wave is coming, but no matter how I scramble, I can’t avoid it and I can’t find a way to ride it out. It will swallow every city of our Plains whole in a single bite. And there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “Nothing but keep fighting.”

  He laughed – a cynical laugh. “Do you know how the dragons first came to the Dragonblood Plains? They came from the mountains. The dragonblooded were fighting amongst themselves and in their fighting, they created a terrible weapon. And once it was created, they could not defeat it. They fled their mountain homes to these plains. They married the people here. Lived with them. Mixed blood with blood. Until one day when the dragons followed them. And all their sins came home to roost. What can we do to avoid the terrors we have wrought? What can we do to avoid the fates we’ve twisted for ourselves? If anyone could do that – well, he’d be saved. Saved. Don’t we all want to be saved?”

  Tamerlan felt his eye burning at the thought of that. If there was one thing he wished he could be, it was saved. Saved from the voices. Saved from the guilt. Saved from the waves that tossed him back and forth like driftwood.

  “What kind of trap will hold the Grandfather?”

  “The clock held him,” Etienne said.

  “But what kind of bait would tempt him? I don’t like your plan to give up the rest of my vision to sedate him. I think we should try something else first. I think we should set a trap and wait for him to trip it.”

  “Now, that is a very good idea. It will require some thought.”

  And they sat together and listened to their demons as they raced to follow the twists and turns of the river.

  16: Lies and Rumors of Lies

  Marielle

  He loved bunnies. He was cooing to them as his father spoke in the background. He seemed too old for that – fourteen maybe and his full height though a little gawky, but the sweet expression on his face as he tended them made him look younger than he was. Azure faintly tinged him with the scent of aspens – gentleness.

  “He’ll be fine for the Alchemists. He’s clever. He reads. Valuable. You’ll be happy you paid such a low price for him.”

  He was trying not to listen, that was clear, as he put them back in their hutches, petting each head and offering green plants to them. It was a goodbye. And the sad swirls of wisteria scent that spun around him mingled with his golden warm honey and cinnamon scent and drew her in. She wished she could comfort him. Wished she could help him. Wished she could draw every thread of that wisteria purple from him and cast it away until he was all golden beauty without this thick wrapping of sadness.

  He flickered. And then he was in a gondola beside Etienne and they were both staring at the sleeping form of a dragon, half-buried in mud. And he smelled just as sad in the boat. Puffs of wisteria filled the boat and drifted behind him down the river.

  A spirit that looked like a King shot up from his form, ghostly and pale blue.

  “You’re not welcome here,” he said to her, authoritatively.

  She gasped. He could see her? Then the red-haired woman had not been a mistake at all. There were spirits claiming Tamerlan.

  “He’s mine,” the ghost said.

  He flicked a finger and she tumbled away, rolling through history and time. She was standing in the swirling snow beside a man wrapped in rags, a sword in each hand and a wild look in his eyes. A cage stood beside him, door flung open, and inside it, a single shell lay. It pulsed turquoise with magic. The man licked his lips and then the vision was gone and Marielle tumbled back into the whirl of time.

  17: Choan

  Tamerlan

  “And how are we going to get through that?” Tamerlan asked as they passed the city of Choan on one side and the city of Xin on the other bathed in the orange beams of the setting sun. Gulls swooped and called as they ended their day and the hurry of barges and riverboats grew more pronounced as they rushed to arrive at their destinations before the sun finally set.

  But for Tamerlan and his companions, the night had just begun.

  Beyond Choan, the Retribution fleet had drawn closer, until it was almost upon the city. White sails filled the horizon. And it was through those sails that they would have to pass to get to the Isle of Mer.

  He read the passage about Queen Mer for what must be the thousandth time.

  Queen Mer stays to guard us still and her avatar remains in the sea’s embrace, awaiting the time of the return of Legends. For she was placed among the arms of the sea and in the embrace of the tide she was set. She was honored on the Isle of Mer and enthroned in majesty there until the Day would come once again.

  It seemed clear enough. Queen Mer’s avatar was somewhere on or near the Isle of Mer. And the Grandfather was headed there for some unknown reason. What did he want with her? And was this the kind of bait that Tamerlan needed to set a trap for the Grandfather?

  Bait is something you put in a trap before your prey gets there, Deathless Pirate reminded him. This is not your bait. Turn your mind away from the thought.

  But if he could find out why Grandfather Time was so set on pursuing Queen Mer, then maybe he could figure out what he wanted. That was how you found bait – understanding what your prey wanted ...

  We should stick to the original plan, Abelmeyer argued. Stalk the Grandfather and catch him. All this business with traps and bait is too much like Ram the Hunter. It will drive you mad.

  The problem with having voices in your head was that it was hard to formulate plans when they kept interrupting all your thoughts with objections. And for that matter, if Queen Mer was a Legend, why was she never in his head?

  Because she’s never won the right to steer your body, Abelmeyer said. She’s been preoccupied with other things.

  Tamerlan shivered.

  A barge of oranges floated by, heaped high and full with the round fruit and set on delivering them into the city. The Retribution flotilla hadn’t stopped the orange ships. How strange. With them waiting there like a dragon waiting to leap on its prey, you’d think they would stop them, but the delivery was here, just in time for Autumngale.

  Around the barge, a small skiff floated by, carrying a group of refugees. It was easy to recognize the hollow-eyed looks of people who had grown used to the idea that there was nothing left for them but ashes. These must be people from H’yi still filtering into Choan. Perhaps they had tried to survive for a time in the ruins there. Usually, Byron Bronzebow would be clamoring in Tamerlan’s mind – but he was oddly quiet.

  There had to be some way to help all these people. There had to be some way to rebuild the lost cities – Jingen and H’yi and bring back the prosperity they once had.

  “No one else cares,” Etienne said, looking at the same boat. His mind was in the same place as Tamerlan’s. “I want to make everything safe again, but no one else cares. Oh, they say that they care. You should hear your father wax eloquent on the matter in the balls Yan has been hosting.”

  “What are you doing attending Landhold Balls, Etienne?” Tamerlan asked, pedaling past the skiff. He didn’t want to thin
k about his father. He’d avoided the man’s public appearances assiduously.

  He threw his irritation at the thought into pedaling. The pedals made them faster than any other boat on the river, and yet that gondola behind them was still gaining. His mouth formed a thin line as he looked over his shoulder to see it in the distance. It was always there. Always shadowing them. What magic could make it as fast as Jhinn’s little device?

  “I’ve been searching for cracks. Looking for ways to restore balance. The Five Cities are important. They must be restored, and the people kept strong. You aren’t the only one with the ability to hide in the shadows.”

  “Looking for ways to gain power again, you mean,” Tamerlan said bitterly. “That is, until you scorned Allegra.”

  Etienne shot him an angry look. “I’m here with you right now, aren’t I? Does this look like I’m grasping at power?”

  Tamerlan shrugged, but it couldn’t dislodge the guilt. “Sorry.”

  Jhinn’s snores in the bow of the boat continued unabated.

  “How will we get past that blockade?” he asked, still pedaling. They might be at odds in their view of the world, but they still needed each other to catch the Grandfather and put him back in the clock.

  Etienne was watching the slowing traffic. It was down to orange barges and family boats now. Every reputable boat had scurried to safety as darkness descended.

  Tamerlan lifted the coal in its small cage, planning to light the gondola light behind him but Etienne threw up a hand.

  “Not yet,” he said. “Wait.”

  He was tense, watching the boats.

  “The flotilla lets the orange boats through. They stop fishermen and other traffic, but they let the orange boats through.”

  “Sure,” Tamerlan said, but his eyes were drifting back to the gondola following them. Was it his imagination, or had they sped up again? How were they doing that?

  “It makes sense to blockade us from the sea. To weaken the cities by stopping trade. It makes sense if you are waiting to scoop them up when they grow weaker.”