No, she was mistaken about that. Because even now as the Grandfather disappeared and he thought he’d lost him. Even now as frustration frizzled through him and he reached in his pocket and withdrew another roll of Spice – even now his thoughts were of her. His thoughts were of her in the clock and of the people of the Dragonblood Plains who would suffer because of him. Who would have expected such selflessness – such a sliver of sweet compassion under so much tangled bitterness, guilt and hurt?
She could smell it all woven through the honey and butter golden scent of him, twisting through like colored fibers in a golden rug.
She just wanted to hold him and let him cry until it had all leaked out of him in hot salty tears.
“Well, that’s that then, isn’t it?” he said aloud before taking a long pull on his fresh roll of spice.
Admit it, she prodded. You’re disappointed.
“Devastated,” he said aloud again. It was almost as if he were afraid to speak with his thoughts to her – as if he was shying away from the intimacy.
Can’t you just let someone hold you and help you for a moment, Tamerlan? Can’t you just cave in for a single second instead of carrying it all yourself?
“You don’t understand,” he said – aloud again in an empty library.
What didn’t she understand?
If I give in, even for a moment, even for a fraction of a moment ...
This time he spoke with his mind. And it was oddly intimate. Like the touch of two friends. Like the words of a long-time lover – so few, but so full.
...I’m afraid I’ll break.
And what if he broke? Maybe that would be best?
Then who ... He almost seemed to choke on the thought – as if it were too hard to think. As if just thinking it was already breaking him ... will put me back together?
She reached with her mind for him. Reached the only way she knew how – in a way with no barriers and nothing denied. She reached with all her heart. She shouldn’t. She already knew how dangerous it was to give all of yourself to anyone, never mind someone who was ...
Insane? Hopelessly addicted? Guilty?
But she felt him taking her embrace, drawing all her mind and soul in like a puff of that smoke until she was swirling in his mind like it swirled in his lungs, until she didn’t know where her longings ended and his started. Until she could touch where his heart was raw and his personality aching. Touch it with healing hands. Kiss it better – or at least try.
It was only the space of a single breath – and yet a world passed between them in that breath. He trembled under her touch – strong, powerfully strong, and yet so delicate in his pain. She couldn’t heal it all – didn’t try. She just sat with him in it.
I understand, she tried to tell him.
Understand what?
Understand everything.
And when he breathed out, she breathed out with him.
I’ve lost the Grandfather, he said eventually. And that means that I can’t get you out of the clock.
Not quite, Marielle said. Do you still have my shell?
He pulled it from his belt pouch and she felt him smiling as he looked at it.
Would he mind if she took back control?
Before she could ask, he was letting go and the authority over his body returned to her. She lifted the shell to his lips and blew gently. She’d seen this in the ages upon ages in the clock and now she knew what it was – knew how a great of a gift she’d been given when Anglarok gave it to her.
It was a shell of echoes. Other shells might echo the sea but this one echoed magic. And she had the power to trigger it. She blew again and yellow and purple sparks began to rain down on them. Blew a third time, and they began to spin.
I had no idea it had such power.
It was just an echo. An echo of what had been here a moment before.
It was hard to let the moment in the library go. Hard to go back to the chase when there was still so much for them to settle.
If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck in the clock forever. Do you really want that?
Of course not. But she’d grown used to his mind. So used to it that she didn’t want to leave.
Then don’t. His invitation was a mental whisper, lifting every hair up along the back of her neck. Stay with me.
With a pop, they left the Library and with another, they landed in the square of the palace in Xin. Marielle recognized it immediately, and even if she hadn’t she would have known where they were when she saw Allegra standing on the battlement addressing the crowd in just the same way that Lady Saga had only months ago when she’d been here with Etienne and the Harbingers.
She scanned the crowd for the Grandfather as Allegra’s words boomed over the crowd.
“It is finished. The Whisper has taken Xin City.”
Oranges formed a pulpy sludge beneath their feet and the people around them were streaked in sticky juice and blood, huddled in thick cloaks against the sea winds. Flies were already beginning to buzz, drinking in orange pulp and human blood with the same voraciousness. What a horrific celebration.
Here, too? Will any city be left?
Choan had fallen to the Retribution, Yan to Variena and Decebal, and Xin to the Whisper. That left only H’yi.
H’yi is a burnt-out hulk – barely a city at all.
Worry filled her, rising up like tidewaters. Were they ruined? Were they all ruined?
And then she caught sight of the Grandfather in the crowd, pushing through with a snarl on his face and a book in his hand. He seemed almost mad as he forced his way through the crowd. She took off running while Allegra’s words followed her.
“We are your rulers now and we hereby declare an end to the nonsense that has ruled this city. There will be no more religions. The Smudgers are already gone. The Timekeepers are not welcome here. You will clear the Temple District immediately and it will be refurbished for industry. For long years, Xin city has been chained by superstition and ancient customs. Those end today.”
A cheer burst from the crowd. Marielle barely managed to squeeze Tamerlan’s body between the roaring people as they forced themselves forward, squeezing against the palace as if proximity alone could grant them a sliver of Allegra’s power. But tattered clothing, blood-soaked bandages, and ruined fruit spoke a different story.
“There will be no more sacrifices. No more feast days. No more holidays that honor the Legends. If you see a shrine, a plaque, a statue, a tribute OF ANY KIND dedicated to a Legend, I order you to destroy it!” Allegra’s words blazed across the wind that carried them through the square. “I am Allegra Spellspinner. I sell cures. And I am here to cure Xin!”
The roar of the people made her head ache.
I told Etienne she was a dangerous woman.
She was most certainly that. Marielle still wished she knew what her relationship to the former Lord Mythos was.
I think she wanted him to be her lover.
Unlikely. A woman like that cared for nothing but power.
Maybe she also cared about power over a man who once had been powerful.
That wasn’t how Marielle thought. Who cared who had power or didn’t? Power was only ever meant to be used for the good of humanity and the service of the law.
You are a rare pure gem in a well of snakes.
She felt his cheeks flushing at her emotion and quickly pushed it down. That was too weird.
There he was! Their quarry.
The Grandfather surfaced from the crowd again, pushing out toward the stairs that led down from the Government District to the districts below.
Marielle shoved through the crowd after him.
Careful! No need to hurt anyone!
Justice would be served. She was going to put the Grandfather back in the clock. If anyone deserved the sentence – it was him.
No need to trample anyone in the process!
She wasn’t going to trample anyone. She was just going to catch him!
How long had Tame
rlan been following the Grandfather? How long had he almost caught him? The City Watch had a name for that – dog trailing. And when you Dog Trailed someone for a really long time there was this thing the veterans talked about – this thing where you began to think you’d never catch him. It made your responses slower. Reduced your creativity.
Hey!
But Marielle had the advantage. She hadn’t been dog trailing for long. She had to get to him before he took to those stairs. Her eyes were sweeping across the crowd, looking for an opening. She was moving before she was even certain, leaping up onto a passing hand cart and jumping from there over a knot of people carrying barrel staves and hammers. What had happened in this place?
No time to think of that.
Tamerlan could leap better than she could. And he had balance like a cat. She landed him on a balustrade at the top of the stairs, allowing him a single breath to catch himself before leaping again with all his strength.
The Grandfather’s back was to them as he reached the head of the staircase. He wouldn’t see them. There was no chance this time that he’d spiral away. She landed on his back like an angry cat, clawing for his throat through the thick purple scarf. It came loose, tangling around one of Tamerlan’s wrists at the same time that his thumbs sank into the other man’s windpipe and squeezed.
Don’t kill him! He needs to be alive.
She wasn’t going to kill him. She was going to subdue him. She’d seen Carnelian do this once. Even her name shot regret through Marielle, but she had no time for that now. With all her might, she pressed down as the Grandfather spun in her grasp, forcing her to adjust her grip, until his eyes met hers. There was no laughter in them now. His eyes rolled back until all she saw were the whites and he slumped heavily on the cobblestones.
Hurry! The crowd doesn’t like this.
He was right about that. They were closing in, a growl already in their throats. With a worried sound, she hurriedly wrapped the scarf around the Grandfather’s limp wrists, cinching it as tightly as the silk allowed and then threw him up over Tamerlan’s thick shoulders.
How strong was he? He took the weight of the Grandfather as if it were no more than a sack of potatoes.
And now what? I might be able to carry him, but I’ll struggle to fight like this.
Fight?
She looked around him and her eyes grew wide at the sight of a ring of revolutionaries – that was who they must be. None of them wore a uniform. Their clothing said dockworker, bouncer, tavern drunk, blacksmith’s apprentice, librarian – she could go on. Dozens of careers represented and all with tools of the trade – hammers, barrel staves, cargo hooks, and truncheons – rather than usual weapons. But that didn’t make them any less deadly.
“Is that a palace guard uniform I see on you, boy?” the tavern drunk called.
What was Tamerlan wearing? Marielle looked down to see the blue tabard that Etienne had given him so long ago. Uh oh. In a revolution, the only thing you didn’t want to be was part of the old city structure.
“We’re done with your kind here!”
They closed in around Tamerlan and the Grandfather and Marielle brought up the shell one more time. Would the echo be too faint? Could she still get enough magic to travel with it?
She blew gently. Nothing.
Blew again. Nothing.
A blow crashed into Tamerlan’s lower back and she flinched, falling to one knee. The Grandfather felt suddenly too heavy. But they were so close! So close to having him finally in their grasp!
With all her might, she blew into the shell, thinking of how she used to hop through time and space without a problem before she took over Tamerlan. She could do it again. She could.
She just had to get them to the clock!
Sparks flew and they whirled in place. Purple and yellow. Yellow and purple.
It was working!
The cylinder of Spice dropped from Tamerlan’s mouth.
And Marielle dropped from his mind like a heavy brick.
35. New Legend
Tamerlan
The sparks faded, leaving him gasping for breath with the unconscious Legend over his shoulders.
Marielle? Marielle?
She was gone. His mind felt dull and achy without her.
We’re still here, pretty man.
Lila was no consolation. Not compared to Marielle.
If you like being commanded by a woman, then smoke again and I’ll be here to hold your hand. I can do more than that hawk-nosed law-girl anyway.
He ignored her as the ground beneath him bucked and heaved. He was on a balcony somewhere and the railing shook back and forth, the rails rattling like dry bones as they rubbed against each other.
This place was fancy – a palace perhaps? Marielle had been trying to take him to H’yi – could this be the palace there? He didn’t know if it had been burnt with everything else. But there was a tang to the air – a tang he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t spent so much time with Marielle. Was that saltwater? Was he near the sea?
He pushed himself to his feet, wobbling under the weight of the Grandfather and stumbled toward the shaking railing.
This was not just a palace – this was the Great Hall in a palace. Like the Great Hall in the Seven Suns palace, this hall was not just massive but also full of curiosities. The wreck of a ship, carefully positioned on its side, cleaned, and fitted for an audience to sit within and still be able to see the hall, was on one side, a plaque near the bow to explain its origins. Was that Queen Mer’s bust on the ship’s head?
A waterfall fell from one of the other balconies, arranged over a series of rocks with statues of fish and squid worked between the falling water. It plunged into a pool below.
He didn’t have time to note the fish skeletons, the coral, the strange art made of pearls – an eerie sight after witnessing the death of Mer’s avatar – because in the center of the Hall was something far more captivating.
Were those leaders of the Retribution below?
They stood in a silent ring, blowing into shells – but these weren’t little palm-sized shells. These were shells large enough to hold Tamerlan inside of them.
Look! They still have that?
What had King Abelmeyer so concerned?
Dragon. Ram sounded the same as always.
Queen Mer’s Conch! Lila sounded awed. Strange – he didn’t hear anything from Maid Chaos. She was gone now – gone forever.
Was anyone else missing? That was a chilling thought. Or was it? Would it really be so bad if more of them were gone?
If we’re gone, then you have to figure out all of this on your own. Think you’re ready for that, pretty man?
He wasn’t. He didn’t even know what they were doing down below.
You don’t? Watch carefully.
Dragon. Dragon.
He leaned against the rail and looked down. It wasn’t like he could creep out of here with an unconscious prisoner on his shoulders anyway.
The leaders of the Retribution – and that was definitely who they were! – were dressed in closely tailored coats with wide slashes cut in armpits and at the hips to allow movement. Their hair was cut short except for a long lock in the front. The length of the lock varied from one to another, suggesting rank of some kind. Each of their faces bore tattoos of different color in what looked like coastlines or maps. On one woman, it was a ragged shoreline drawn in burnt orange just under her eyes and across the bridge of her nose. Another had a light blue mountain range up her left cheek. Sepia trails split and crossed on the forehead of one of the men – a craggy, hard fellow with arms thicker than Tamerlan’s. There were more – too many more for him to note them all, but it gave them a rakish look of born adventurers.
They blew into the massive conch shells which were arranged in a ring around one man – a man standing in a whale-bone cage. He stood still, almost calm, though his eyes were wild. Clothed only in a short pair of trousers, his bare skin was so full of tattoos swirling out of the
windrose on his lower ribs, that there wasn’t a bare patch left.
He seemed important.
He would have to be, Abelmeyer said. Only the worthy are chosen as Legends.
The ground heaved again, and a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling, smashing on the floor beside the cage – yet no one stopped. The blowers kept blowing, their conches making a low, eerie sound, and the man in the cage didn’t flinch. He was perfectly still despite his tortured eyes.
Do you see the north star between his eyebrows?
It was tattooed there in red.
It is the ancient sign of a Fleet Commander of Mer. If I were going to judge, I would guess this man led the fleet before this moment.
What were they going to do to him?
They’re going to make him a Legend.
Tamerlan gasped. A Legend? What did Abelmeyer mean by that?
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon.
How do you think we became Legends, Tamerlan? We made a sacrifice for our city. We bound the dragons with our lives and blood. When the Grandfather destroyed Maid Chaos’ avatar it woke the dragon Choan. And here we are, watching these people fix that. They will chain Choan again before he can rise and destroy the city.
The floor beneath him shook again, so hard this time that the balcony rippled under him like the waves of the ocean. Tamerlan clenched his teeth as they chattered in his head. There was nothing for it. He’d just have to keep trying to put the Grandfather back into the clock. Whatever madness this was could be dealt with later.
Do you think so? It’s possible that very soon, there will be another voice in your head.
He shuddered. If only Marielle was still there. She’d held back his madness.
The man in the whalebone cage lifted up into the air, glowing faintly. His eyes rolled back into his head. A strange sound emerged from him – like a scream with his mouth still shut. What did it require to make a Legend?
A lot of things. But one of them is making the avatar – and no one survives that process.
They were going to kill him?
Worse. They’re going to make him immortal.
No time for panic. No time for regrets. With a sigh, he shook himself.
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 58