Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  When Tamerlan found him, he was going to shake some sense into that fool. If they hadn’t found the little book before the Bindery burned, they would have lost everything in that one fool move of his – they might still lose it if they didn’t win this skirmish against the Harbingers – or perhaps he should say, the Legends.

  Tamerlan checked over his shoulder to see only a silhouette of Marielle looking at something in the sky. Something huge and white and very near. No time to see more. She was safe, at least. He spun back bringing up his own sword, relief surging through his veins that she was okay. As long as she lived and was whole and safe, that was all he asked for.

  All? Then LET US IN!

  Another hammering shook him internally as this time Deathless Pirate tried to seize him. He was dirty in his tricks, hitting Tamerlan with mental blows and making his hands and feet jerk against his control.

  He watched helplessly as Etienne and Liandari fought, his own internal battle rendering him useless.

  Liandari darted in with a lightning-quick attack. Etienne countered it, but as his blade turned the edge of hers, he leapt suddenly forward, almost suicidal in his audacity. That wasn’t like Etienne. That was like the Grandfather. He hopped suddenly from in front of Liandari to behind her – time not a constraint – and flung out a hand, blasting something like a burst of wind from his palm and into Anglarok behind him. Anglarok was finally stumbling through the door of the building, still tangled in smoke, his cloak on fire around the edges. Etienne’s blast threw him down the street to where he landed in a heap on the ground. Smoke poured up in the air in a yellow-tinged pillar, but the fire seemed to be out.

  Tamerlan’s heart was beating so fast that he thought he was going to choke on it. Liandari’s blade whipped toward him and he managed to seize control of his own hands just in time to bring up his guard. He barely shoved her attack aside, using all his strength as a substitute for her superior skill. She spinned away, whirling to attack Etienne and then back again to Tamerlan.

  “Abelmeyer,” he gasped as he countered the strike, finally getting a chance to lean in with an attack of his own. Deathless Pirate’s worst had come and gone, and he was mentally free again – for now. Why didn’t Etienne blast Liandari, too? Maybe he’d used up every scrap of magic that he had stolen in that single burst.

  A waste.

  But that was the Legends for you. They cared nothing for frugality or caution. They only saw the goal of the moment and lunged for it.

  It’s been good for you all this time, pretty. You shouldn’t judge us now. We’ve been good friends. We could be far worse enemies.

  “How did you know it was me?” Liandari asked, but the glitter in her eye told him he’d guessed correctly. Abelmeyer was in her mind, controlling her actions like she was nothing more than a cloak thrown ‘round his shoulders.

  “You fight like a man with one eye,” Tamerlan said simply.

  There were sounds of a scuffle behind him but before he could look, Abelmeyer attacked with twice the fury he’d had before, blow after blow barely deflected by Tamerlan. He was not as good of a swordsman as Abelmeyer. He was barely hanging on. He should have easily been beaten by now by even Liandari, never mind King Abelmeyer inside her skillful body.

  His brow wrinkled at that thought even as he fought on. Had some of the things he’d learned while possessed by the Legends rubbed off. Did he possess their skills now, if only he tried to use them?

  Ridiculous! You couldn’t possibly have our skills!

  Then why did Lila sound so desperate to deflect him?

  He threw himself into the fight, trying to relax and let his arms work easily instead of controlling every motion – if he really had these skills then this should be like walking – something he could do better if he wasn’t thinking too hard about every muscle movement.

  Etienne fell to the ground with a pained cry his sword clattering off the ground. Who was he fighting with? Tamerlan was the one battling Liandari – or rather, Abelmeyer.

  There was no time to look. The city dropped suddenly beneath him and the strong sensation of falling made his belly tumble while at the same time his feet were still on the ground.

  The sound of ground smashing into ground – almost more a feeling than a sound crashed through him. Dust and ash and bits of debris formed sudden clouds over everything at the same moment that Tamerlan’s bones seemed to shudder and scream in pain as they struck the earth. The dragon had landed – but only for a moment and then the ground shifted and Tamerlan could feel them lifting from the ground again.

  Either something had hurt the dragon, or it had landed for a brief second and when it did, the whole city shuddered and broke again. Tamerlan swallowed down bile – trying desperately not to think about how vulnerable they were – like gnats on the back of a dog. Every shake, every leap, every roll, a chance for them to die. And the dog didn’t even know.

  Liandari cursed and pulled herself up from the dust. Tamerlan swallowed and then scrambled for his sword. When had he lost it? If he didn’t get it right away, she’d skewer him!

  There! A coating of dust covered its shimmering blade. He stumbled up to his feet, sword immediately raised in a guard position, but she was gone, rushing off into the smoke and darkness loosing a stream of curses.

  Confused, Tamerlan turned to Etienne but the other man was on his knees, mouth wide open, staring in the distance. When Tamerlan turned to look at what he was staring at, he felt his mouth go dry, too.

  DRAGON. Ram’s voice was clear and guttural in his mind – filled with the rage of ages of hate.

  Mountains. There were mountains all around them as the dragon H’yi banked to the side, letting them see the entire range below and in the bright, crystal-sharp air around them, Tamerlan could see the entire range of mountains all tangled up in one another. His jaw felt like it might drop, too.

  No.

  DRAGON.

  And now Ram’s voice carried as much excitement as hate – like a hunter with his prey walking into sight.

  The entire range of mountains were dragons. Not just one dragon like the ones that slept under each city of the Dragonblood Plains, but hundreds of dragons, one on top of another on top of another, curling and twisting around each other so that where one dragon began and the other left off was a mystery. He’d seen a mirror like that in the Lord Mythos’ palace – the frame had been tangled dragons with wolfish grins on their faces. These dragons were not grinning. They were sleeping. And there were so many more than the ones carved around the mirror.

  Tamerlan felt like he couldn’t breathe. Like a single indrawn breath might wake them all and their eyes – bigger than a human palace – would open and stare at his soul.

  H’yi finished banking and this time when he landed, Tamerlan was ready, bracing himself as the city shuddered, groaned and then was still.

  He gasped in the sudden silence. His breath coming in ragged spurts as if his lungs knew they might be his last.

  They had landed between the mountains of dragons. And from what he could tell, they were staying here – for now at least. One dragon in the midst of hundreds. And a few small, edible humans huddled on his back.

  DRAGON. DRAGON. DRAGON.

  Ram the Hunter, dragonslayer, Legend-trapper was going insane in his head. As if Tamerlan wasn’t already mad enough for the both of them.

  DRAGON. DRAGON. DRAGON.

  His chant was like a booming drum leaving Tamerlan gasping, reeling, clutching his head in pain even as his legs urged him to run – but not away from the dragons – toward them.

  Fight! We must destroy them before they destroy the entire world!

  Ram was insane. Utterly insane. Tamerlan spun, trying to find Marielle in the shimmering light of the moon catching on the dust in the air. She was there behind him, staring up at the moon, her arms locked around Rajit as if she had just pinned him in a guard-style hold before the dragon touched down.

  Both the Harbingers were gone – vanished in
the commotion. They hadn’t saved Anglarok. They hadn’t stopped Abelmeyer.

  He gritted his teeth in frustration. The Harbingers would be back – and it would be worse because now they’d tested them and knew exactly what they were facing.

  "H'yi has landed," Etienne gasped from beside Tamerlan. "This might be our one chance to get off his back and flee this city."

  "Into the mountains?" Tamerlan asked. "With no supplies? No map? No idea where we are?"

  "Better than dying in a city with no food, very little water and no way to escape - except this one." Etienne's eyes were bold and certain.

  Tamerlan swallowed. "What about Jhinn? I can't just leave him here. He rescued me again and again when no one else would."

  "I'm not leaving this city - not here in these icy mountains," Rajit said.

  "You'll go where we take you." Etienne's words were cutting. He was already issuing orders. "Marielle, you'll Scent out what supplies you can. You have two hours to find us what we need."

  But Tamerlan's mind wasn't on supplies or a journey through the mountains. His mind was on Jhinn. How would he get the boy out of this city without leaving the water? He couldn't abandon him here, and if this was their only chance to leave, then he had to take it - but not without his friend. Betrayal was no way to repay loyalty. Cruel indifference no way to thank a heart of kindness.

  "Could you smell out a winery?" he asked Marielle gently.

  "What?" she seemed surprised by his question, but she stopped listening to Etienne's list of required supplies to hear him out.

  "A winery would have carts that hold barrels - and it would have barrels. I think that if I split barrels lengthwise and strapped them together and then coated the seams with pitch, that I could place all of that in a large cart and fill it with water and I could float Jhinn's gondola from the puddle he's stuck in to the cart and then he could be pulled out of the city."

  "To where?" Ettiene asked aghast. "Even if you managed to get him out of the city - down cobbled roads and maybe even downhill, it would still be nearly impossible to pull a cart with all that weight. We have no oxen. We have no horses. We could maybe - the four of us - pull it out of the city, but we would be vulnerable from attack by the Harbingers the whole time, and on top of that, when we got him out of the city what would we do? We will struggle to walk through the mountains, never mind pull a heavy cart. And what if the water leaks? What if it drains away? Your pitch job will be fast and dirty. It won't be reliable. A rig like that - it's a very long shot. It's not worth your time or risking all of our lives. Sometimes a sacrifice has to be made. This is one of those times.”

  Tamerlan felt his hands trembling again, but this time not with fear or madness. This time he was angry.

  "Sacrifices need to be made?" he asked stiffly. "Like when you tried to sacrifice Marielle?"

  "Are you ever going to stop throwing that at me?"

  "I don't know - are you ever going to stop trying to sacrifice my friends?" Even to his own ears, his voice sounded petulant. He fought to control it and his next words came out as a growl. "They aren't mountains, Etienne. They're dragons. None of us stands a chance clambering around on the peaks of dragons. And you're right, Jhinn might not survive the journey. But I'll die before I abandon a friend. Even if that means added risk. Even if that means impossible tasks to perform. Look up at the mountains, Etienne. Look at how they sparkle in the moonlight, at the skiffs of snow coating their scales. Even still, you can see that they live beneath that shimmering veil. They are only waiting to wake and destroy us all."

  Etienne shivered, his gaze sliding across the dragons sleeping forms just past the city. If anyone knew what power those dragons held, it was him.

  It is us. Ram said. It is the Legends who know. Each made a sacrifice to save their people.

  Which begged the question - why were they so intent on letting the dragons loose now. What changed?

  None of them expected the Grandfather to kill their avatars. None of them expected that they wouldn' t come back again. Sacrifice is one thing. Sacrifice for nothing? You've tasted that. Tell me, would you do it again?

  Would you?

  Ram was silent. Maybe that meant 'no.'

  It means yes. I won't just do it again, I'll do it again and again until the end of time. And I will use whoever I must to chain the dragons and bind them in place - just like I did then. I will use you. I will use that girl you love. I will use the dark-eyed boy of the plains. I will use anyone and everyone to keep them chained to this earth.

  Tamerlan swallowed. Ram was insane. Everyone knew that. Tamerlan never should have expected anything else.

  "I'll take you to the closest winery," Marielle said, dragging Rajit over to Tamerlan. "But then I'm going to help Etienne. He's right. We'll need supplies if we're going to survive those mountains. And staying here is not a good choice."

  11: The Road to Ice

  Marielle

  The smell of urgency rolled off Etienne in crashing waves of intensity as Marielle led him through the city.

  "He's mad to try it. Mad!" Etienne said, irritated beyond reason by Tamerlan.

  "He's being a good friend," Marielle said, not for the first time. "He's being the person who got us this far."

  She was still wincing from the devastated look Tamerlan had given her when she told him she was going with Etienne.

  "I don't like you out of my sight," he'd said, so earnestly that his lower lip trembled. "I want to keep you safe."

  "I understand that," she'd said, trying to be gentle. "But Etienne is right. We need supplies. And he needs my nose to find them."

  "Please don't go."

  "I must."

  The look in his eyes of longing mixed with guilt and responsibility had almost gutted her. But she was right. They needed to be practical about this and as heart-warming as his loyalty to his friend was, they would all die if they went into the mountains without basic supplies.

  "That's my point," Etienne said with a dark glare. "The person who got us here is a problem. He's the one who loosed a dragon to save a girl he barely knew. He's the one who brought the Legends back to save her again. He thinks with his heart and not with his head and that's a problem. You're not a fool, Marielle. I know you. You understand why we have to think this through, why we can't let mere emotions rule us in something this important. We need a real plan to deal with the Retribution. A real plan to get through the mountains. A real plan to save the five cities."

  "I wish the dragon had landed back on the plains," Marielle said. "It makes me nervous that he's set down here. Do you think he can wake the other dragons?"

  "I don't know," Etienne's scent was laced with anxiety, his eyes wild when they caught the moonlight. "What's keeping them bound to the earth? That's my question. Who is doing the rituals? Who is walking the mandalas? It makes my neck itch, Marielle. I don't like it."

  "I don't like it either, Etienne," Marielle agreed. She was always surprised by how much the two of them agreed. They both wanted the cities to be back to peace and order and they both agreed it should be done practically. "And I'm worried about what the Legends want from both of you. Worried even more that they can still speak to you in your minds. That shouldn't be happening. Not without you opening the Bridge. I swear that they're trying to take control of Tamerlan by force."

  Etienne looked uncomfortable at that.

  "And don't tell me that your shaking hands are from nerves, Lord Mythos. You're fighting off the Grandfather. I know what a nasty piece of work he is."

  "Marielle," Etienne said suddenly, steering her gently into a wall and planting on hand beside her face so he could lean in close. For the first time in a long time, he smelled entirely of himself – rust and mandarin oranges. It felt a little too intimate to scent him in this position and Marielle's cheeks heated in response but either he didn't feel the same way, or it didn't bother him. "You know that I won't let him take me over or be swayed by his charms. Please tell me that you understand that."


  Marielle nodded. His closeness made her heart race - it was both threatening and oddly inviting.

  He chuckled. "I can never seem to work with Tamerlan like I can with you, Marielle. He only sees me as a villain of every drama, but I know that you know the truth - that I've only ever wanted to serve my people in whatever way I must."

  "I know," Marielle breathed.

  "I asked you before for your help - to pledge your lot with me."

  "And I gave it to you."

  "I'm asking again. Help me stop the Legends. Help me quell the dragons. Help me save my people."

  "I will, Etienne. I want what you want."

  He sighed, as if suddenly relieved and she let out her breath, too.

  There was a scream in the distance and Marielle nearly dropped the sack of things in her hands. They'd gathered a sack each of dried foods, flints, knives, a tent, and warm blankets that they'd salvaged over the last two hours and they were making their way back toward the square where Jhinn had been left.

  "That wasn't Jhinn?" Marielle said quickly, but she knew it couldn't be. It was in the wrong direction.

  Etienne was already shaking his head. "One of the Retribution?"

  "It didn't sound familiar," Marielle breathed. "I don't like fighting them."

  "Of course not. But it's not them. It's the Legends controlling them."

  Marielle swallowed. "When the Grandfather took you over did you see what he saw and feel what he felt?"

  Etienne didn't answer.

  "I thought so," she said. "So, it is them we are harming. And they are trapped in their own bodies with no way to stop themselves."

  His mouth had formed a hard line. "I think we should go back to Jhinn. We've found what we could."

  "I think we need to find out who was screaming," Marielle whispered back. "I'm worried it was Tamerlan or Rajit."

  They'd left the traitor with him. Tamerlan had insisted, saying that bringing him with Marielle was too big a risk - he might give her away. And besides, Tamerlan could build faster with a second set of hands. Marielle had been reluctant to agree. The boy was untrustworthy. And it made her nervous how many risks Tamerlan was willing to take to save her from even the slightest harm - how many sacrifices he would make for her. Sometimes it seemed he would let the world burn to keep her from being singed.