Lila had Tamerlan perched at the very front of the boat, holding the ferro and leaning over the dark brackish water as she kept his eyes on the Legend. She ignored the whispers between Anglarok and Liandari.
But Tamerlan was listening.
“We gave oath,” Anglarok reminded her.
“Is the oath more important or the Retribution? It’s started, Anglarok. There is glory to be won, a greater name, a new set of beaches on my skin!”
He snorted. “A woman is only worth what weight her word can bear. Stay the course.”
Lila leapt so quickly that Tamerlan – distracted by their words – didn’t have time to mentally brace himself. He heard the shouts of his companions from behind him, but she was already leaping from one boat to the next, ignoring their cries as she chased the Grandfather.
A squawking chicken flew up in front of him and she batted it to the side, leaping right over the head of an old Waverunner woman as she cursed at Tamerlan. Lila narrowly avoided a swinging oar as one gondolier took a swipe at him and then they were at the canal wall, Lila scaling it with lightning speed. She could find a handhold or foothold in rock so slick that Tamerlan would have thought it impossible to climb.
They emerged on the street, running through a clump of Choan guard.
“You there! Join the guard or consider yourself an enemy!”
By the time the guard got to ‘enemy’, he was already past, streaking up the wall of a nearby building – a trade consortium topped by a massive bell tower. He’d seen a tower like that before in Jingen.
The Trade House. It’s a common feature. In there they set the price of goods for the city daily – wheat, flax, oranges, iron – if you can name it, they are selling and trading it in there. They ring the bell to announce changes in the exchange.
The Grandfather seemed set on reaching the bell. His wiry frame was already scaling the white stone tower, red scarf rippling in the morning breeze. Lila followed at an almost alarming speed, as if she’d been climbing bell towers her whole life.
I have been.
As if she had no fear scaling the slick wall.
I don’t.
As if she really thought they could catch the Grandfather up there.
He works his head into the noose! Where can he flee to from the top of a tower? Will he sprout wings and flap away? Fool! He chose my stomping grounds – the world above, the world of thieves and rogues.
And this time she would use the Eye, right? She’d make sure he was bound so they could get himt o the clock.
Haven’t you realized yet that we aren’t going to use your precious Eye?
We?
The Legends.
But Abelmeyer used it on the dragon!
You’re our one link to this world. What good are you to us blind?
But she had promised!
I lie to you. Often. Don’t let it sour your mood.
The city below them looked like the tide rushing over a beach. The ground still shook with rolling tremors, but from the sea, a wave of white washed over the city – the sails and banners of the Retribution were all white gilded with golden edges.
Chaos is when I thrive. People don’t notice a trifle gone in the middle of a war.
How had she become a Legend? He couldn’t imagine her doing anything selfless or noble. She’d already admitted to being a liar.
She snorted. And you thought Maid Chaos could be noble? Clearly, you didn’t understand the depths of her cruelty. Or the Grandfather – do you think him selfless? We all do things for our own reasons. Sometimes, a selfish person might do something that seems selfless to achieve their selfish end. A madwoman might do something seemingly noble for reasons so insane they can’t be delved. Don’t think you can judge by actions. You only ever see a small piece.
Who would have thought that a thief would lecture him on morality?
Do you want to catch the Legend or don’t you?
His arms burned from the effort of climbing. Lila glanced down briefly and his head swam at how much higher they were than the gondola they’d left below. Jhinn was staring up at them, hand shielding his eyes. Hopefully, he got over that and kept fleeing. That fleet wasn’t going to stop just because Tamerlan had.
This tower was so high that he was surprised he hadn’t noticed it before they started climbing.
You were preoccupied.
And they were almost at the top. How was the Grandfather going to ride a dragon from up here? It made no sense.
He’s off course. I drove him up here.
The Grandfather flung himself over the lip of the small wall surrounding the bell and Tamerlan was just a few spans beneath the lip. They’d gained a lot of ground.
I am the greatest climber who ever lived. The greatest schemer. The most triumphant of all. See why you should give yourself to me? Let me guide you down a fresh path – a path to prosperity.
He wasn’t even sure if survival was an option for him. Never mind prosperity. And both those things came far below redemption. He just wanted to get right again, somehow.
Sure. We can do that, too.
They flipped over the edge of the wall into the bell tower like a fish over the side of a boat, landing in an artful crouch. Tamerlan’s knife was in his hand before he’d stuck the landing.
“And who is possessing you today?” the Grandfather asked from where he leaned against the massive brass bell. His reflection was warped and twisted in the bell – just like the Legend being reflected. “Maid Chaos is gone. I’d like to know whose avatar to target next.”
“You’ll never find it,” Lila laughed in Tamerlan’s voice. “It’s not revered like yours is. There aren’t religions built on me.”
“Ram the Hunter?” the Grandfather asked, and Lila laughed again.
“Hardly.”
“I was Time for a while – still have some of those tricks up my sleeves.” He shot his cuffs dramatically and sparks leapt out from them. “I can find out where anyone’s avatar was put. All I have to do is to go and look.”
Lila laughed again. “Well, that assumes you’re free to look. And for once, I want what the kid wants. I want you back in that clock.”
The Grandfather’s smile looked more like a death rictus.
“Then catch me – if you can.”
He shoved the bell, hard. It barely moved, though a small gong sound – as if the clapper had barely brushed the massive bell – filled the air.
Leaping onto the lip of the small wall around the bell, he leaned out over the city below like a bird about to catch flight. As he spread his arms, Lila was already dashing forward. As he lifted his face into the sun, she was leaping toward him.
What was she thinking? She was going to kill them! His heart was in his throat, racing so fast that his vision was blacking in and out.
The Grandfather dove from the tower, leaping up and then somersaulting to leap headfirst in his dive. Lila tumbled after him – less graceful, more flailing arms and legs than an actual dive.
Tamerlan screamed inside. Fear and panic flooding through him like water through a canal. He was going to die! What had she done?
Bright purple and gold sparks danced around the Grandfather and he began to whirl in midair. He was about to pop out of this time and place and into another – again. He had the luxury of that.
Lila clenched the smoking roll of Spice between his teeth and the lit end flared brightly as the wind sped around it.
Smoke it! Let me stay!
He had no chance of getting free of her – not like that!
Get free and you will die. I’m your only hope.
Beneath them, the city rose up like a living map about to swallow them up.
He sucked in the smoke.
He felt a sudden push.
Oh. This is a surprise.
31: Yellow and Purple Sparks
Marielle
She had Tamerlan in her clutches, the weasel! She’d tossed her red hair and laughed just before she grabbed him and th
rew him at the Grandfather back along the canal and she was laughing still. Laughing as she drove him to his death. She smelled of careless certainty. The minty smell of that certainty was so strong that it almost overwhelmed the elderberry of her insanity. And the glint in her eye as she rode him down changed everything.
It was still wrong to take over someone else’s mind. It was still wrong to let them do that to themselves. It was maybe even evil.
But sometimes you had to do something unthinkable to save someone. And Tamerlan needed saving as badly as she did.
Marielle blinked as she popped into space beside Lila where she clung to Tamerlan’s back. Surprise was her only advantage. Before the Legend could notice her, she pushed with all her might, grabbing Tamerlan with her ghostly arms from behind, sinking her face into his shoulder. They had to be quick. They couldn’t lose their one chance!
She had him! What a heady feeling! His mind and body were suddenly as much hers as her own ever had been. She could feel the beat of his heart in her chest, the breath of his lungs in her mouth. His golden scent – hot honey and cinnamon flooded her like the warmth of sunshine. But there was no time to bask.
She pulled his arms back and pulled his feet together so that he flew through the air more swiftly, angling toward the spinning Grandfather. His limbs were powerful as they moved, the ease of his movement a joy.
Focus, Marielle!
If she timed it just right ...
Marielle? Dragon’s Spit! Are you in my mind?
Yes.
She shuddered at the admission, flinching from how it stained her.
Don’t leave. Please don’t leave!
He sounded so desperate. Lonely.
Don’t let me die alone – or worse – don’t let me die with all of them fighting for me like scrabbling dogs.
Marielle reached for the Grandfather, physically and mentally. Loud sounds like cracks and pops of a fire filled her mind and then their vision was nothing but purple and yellow sparks as they were sucked into the whirl of the Grandfather.
She emerged on a butte overlooking a wide plain. The scents of it filled Marielle’s nose – no wait, that was Tamerlan’s nose. And they weren’t her usual scent abilities. They were just regular smells – the smells of grass and fragrant bushes. She felt blind for a moment with this dull nose until she saw the colors.
They made no sense! They weren’t full of scent. They were just there – everywhere. Not swirling or trailing or glowing, just there as if each object had its own. And they were vibrant and full and distracting. They were so stunning that it took her a moment to realize that the Grandfather was creeping along the edge of the butte looking down.
He’s going to see me.
But he was wrong about that. Marielle could still smell the Grandfather’s emotions – sort of. It was like trying to smell through a thick scarf, but it was still there if she fought for it. What she smelled most was interest and excitement swirling around him in wide bands. He was watching something.
Tamerlan? Are you okay in there? I’m sorry that I stole your body. I just didn’t want you to die.
Dragon’s spit, Marielle! Do you think I’m angry about that? I’m relieved. I’m glad that you’re okay – that we both still live!
Marielle crept Tamerlan closer, careful not to make a sound. They needed to get the Grandfather. Now. Before he leapt again. And she didn’t dare leave Tamerlan yet. What if the Grandfather leapt and Tamerlan couldn’t chase after him?
He pulled a deep breath through the tube of Spice in his lips. Strange that he could choose to do that when she had control of every other aspect of him. It tasted almost good. Like smoke, sure, but fragrant and almost tasty. She breathed it in like life. The longer he had it in him, the longer she’d stay to help.
Don’t go, Marielle.
He felt so familiar. His body felt like home. And yet it was nothing like hers. Large where hers was small. Narrow where hers was wide. Wide where hers was narrow. It gave her a giddy feeling of being totally at home in a foreign place.
She just had to be sure that no one else could shove her away the way she’d shoved Lila. She could still see them there, floating around her – the Legends. They wanted Tamerlan back. They lurked just over the Bridge, biding their time, waiting for their chance, with wicked, gleaming red eyes.
Didn’t he see that when he called them? Didn’t he see that they wanted him, not to help him, but to own him like a slave, like a shared avatar used to give them second life?
She could see it plainly. The Grandfather was a problem for the Dragonblood Plains. But these Legends were just as dangerous. They were consuming her friend’s soul.
Do you see what he’s looking at?
She wasn’t looking at that. She was trying to maneuver silently behind him. If she could hit him over the head with something, or stab him with the knife Tamerlan still held ...
Did he need to be alive to replace her in the clock? She wasn’t a murderer, but this might classify as self-defense.
It’s the Smudgers! They fled from the five cities to somewhere north and west. This is them! Look at their burning braziers!
Knowing that didn’t help them to catch the Grandfather. And that was her only goal.
They all went somewhere and no one knew where or how, but do you see what they’re doing? They have that woman lifted up on a platform, pinned spread eagle over it in the sun. That must be awful. She’s probably going mad from the heat. Are they passing smoking braziers under her?
She needs to be rescued.
She took a careful step toward the Grandfather, easing her weight onto the balls of her feet and then lifted the other foot. It was harder to maneuver Tamerlan’s body. She wasn’t used to such long legs or to so much weight in the shoulders.
Look! Something’s happening! Look!
But she was trying not to look. One more step and she’d be on him.
“Dragon’s spit and the entrails of the Legends!” The Grandfather’s vulgarity spilled out like a cup knocked over. “They’ve made her again.”
Now was the time! While he was distracted!
Wait! Do you see it? She’s tearing the ropes up! She’s ripping the bracing from the platform. She’s leaping down!
Marielle sprang forward, stabbing toward the Grandfather, but he twisted away as if he could see her lunge behind his back. He spun, caught her gaze, spat a curse, and then the purple and yellow sparks erupted.
Marielle leapt forward, catching his coat with a hand as he whipped through time and space.
Did you see that? Didn’t you see that? Tamerlan was babbling. I think they put a spirit into her with all that smoke. I think – is it crazy that I think they put Maid Chaos into her? That she might be Maid Chaos reborn?
What was crazy was that he was so obsessed with it. What mattered right now was the Grandfather. What mattered was putting him back in the clock. They could deal with any violations of the law that the Smudgers had made later when both of them were whole and free of Legends.
The law never rested. It never slept. It would come for those Smudgers with slow, trudging steps.
But this will never end, Marielle. Not if we don’t stop it at the source.
What did he mean by ‘we’? Since when was it their job to stop all evil? It was her job to enforce the law. Both the laws of the cities and the real law. But the fates of Legends and worlds were not hers to be responsible for. As if she wasn’t already burdened enough!
That’s fine, Marielle. You don’t need to take this on. You’ve done enough.
His words were compassionate, and yet they stung. He made it sound like she wasn’t sufficient. Like she’d settled for something less than his great cause.
No, no, not at all. It’s just that all this is my fault. And I have to find some way back into humanity. Some way out of the madness. Some way to heal all the wounds I’ve gouged, rebuild all the buildings I’ve crumbled, wash away the tears I caused.
The way he said that –
like he was drowning, like he just wanted air for a moment ...
The only way to do that is to find evil at its core and destroy it. The only way is to break the chains our people have been put under and finally set them free.
What did that have to do with the Smudgers? What did that have to do with the Legends?
I don’t know yet. I just know that I have to keep diving deeper until I find the source.
The whirling stopped and they fell back into time.
32: Triumph of the Mother
Marielle
The Grandfather was hard to catch. She couldn’t blame Tamerlan for taking so long to catch up with him when the Grandfather slipped through her own fingers so fast that she could barely gasp and he was gone. And Tamerlan’s body didn’t work like hers, didn’t run like hers, or jump like hers. What made it worse was that she didn’t want to have to think about the fact that she was currently possessing him. It was – a violation of sorts.
Your mind is nice inside mine. Like a pool of fresh water. Cool. Transparent. Easy.
It didn’t help that his thoughts caressed her mind, swirling gently around it, seeming to be everywhere at once like an embrace.
She tried to force away mindfulness of that kind of intimacy and focus on the work at hand. They had a Legend to catch. And if she let Tamerlan go right now one of the other Legends would grab him and do whatever they wanted with him – and that wouldn’t mean catching Grandfather Timeless.
He was on the rooftops. She could smell him if she focused. He smelled of insanity – the elderberry scent astringent even in her weakened ability to smell – and of the charcoal mists of time that puffed to cloud the memory. She focused on that smell, letting her mind name it and remember it so that she could follow it anywhere. And then she opened Tamerlan’s eyes.
They were balanced on a rooftop.
She’d thought at first that it was Choan, but the white waves of the invaders were not present. The tang of the brackish sea was not there. No ... this was another city of the Dragonblood Plains. Beneath her, in the streets, the Orange Wars were waging as people tossed oranges at one another and engaged in mock skirmishes. There was some laughter. Some scuffling with minor injuries. Marielle had never liked Autumngale. The scent of competition and brotherhood swirling through the air in carrot orange and the smell of apple cider was nice, but the complicated swirls of musky green envy and the puffs of russet ambition irritated her nose.
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