Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  "Anglarok," she breathed.

  "It wasn't him," Tamerlan said gently, pulling off his glove so he could brush her hair from her face where it was tangled in a nest from her frantic battle. "It was a Legend. A Legend who took him back even after he was dead. You mustn't think it was your friend."

  She wouldn't look at him, her face turned to the side as if ashamed to meet his gaze.

  "Marielle," he tried to catch her eyes with his, making his as soft as he could, as gentle as he could. "It wasn't your friend. It was a Legend."

  "I swore to him," she said in a small voice. "I swore to pursue justice with him. He didn't deserve this."

  "It's not your fault."

  "It is my fault!" Her lower lip was trembling, and it made him ache all through to see her in such pain. He wanted to kiss it all away, to draw it out of her with his embrace, soak it into him instead. Tears fell from her eyes, hot and steaming in the cold air, leaving tracks down her cheeks and lining her too-bright eyes in red. "If it wasn't for me, they never would have come here. They would have stayed in Xin, but they came looking for me because I swore to them."

  "It's not your fault Marielle, it's not." He gave her his best smile even though his own heart was breaking, which felt ridiculous as he knelt in the street in the blood of a friend – as he listened to a curse that he was sure was Etienne fighting in the distance, as he listened to a weeping mother comforting her child, as his own heart broke, broke, broke for Marielle and all she'd been put through in the last months. He'd thought he was saving her when he drew her out of the clock, but he was wrong. She still needed saving. "Look at me, Marielle."

  She looked at him from the corner of her eye, guilt shadowing her face. She was too ashamed to even look at him.

  "Look at me," he said gently, opening his eyes wide and innocent, stroking her arms with his bare hands. There was a fleck of blood on her cheek. He wiped it away with a thumb. And in a huskier voice, he asked again. "Look at me."

  She met his gaze, her bottom lip trembling, the tears still rolling accidentally from her horrified eyes.

  "Don't look at anything else. Just me. Can you do that?"

  "Yes." Her voice was raw and choked with tears. "I feel like I've broken my soul. And it can’t ever knit back together again."

  "Then let me put it back together for you," he whispered, taking her face in his hands and stroking her cheek with a thumb. "Let me patch your cracks and bind your hurts and tie you together."

  She nodded as if she was afraid to speak out loud. She felt like a bird caught in the hand – hold it too lightly and it would fly away, hold it too tightly and you’d hurt it. He held her gently, but with a firmness that he hoped would tell her he wasn’t going anywhere.

  He leaned in close and with the most delicate touch possible, he brushed his lips to hers. It was only meant to be comforting, to show her that she was beloved, whole, beautiful – still. But her slightly desperate moan, as if his acceptance stung her raw soul broke something apart in him and instead of drawing back, he pulled her forward, wrapping his arms tightly around her and pulling her against his chest. He wanted to keep her there forever.

  “I’m going to keep you safe, sweet Marielle,” he whispered.

  “You can’t keep me safe from myself. Look what I’ve done.”

  He was already shaking his head as he took her face in his hands again and kissed her fervently – her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, her chin, and her sweet, sweet lips as he whispered.

  “I understand, Marielle. I, of all people, understand. I know who was in that body of Anglarok’s when you killed him. He was already gone. It was nothing but a specter left. And I know how you feel. I know what it’s like to have to do things you never wanted to do. To lose yourself. To break yourself. Just don’t give up on me, Marielle. Keep fighting. Because I really am going to find a way to put you together again. You’re pure wholeness and goodness to me. You’re life. Don’t treat yourself as shameful, because you have nothing to be ashamed of. Ever.”

  He ended his words with another gentle kiss on her lips, closing his eyes so he could focus on trying to offer her everything he had left in that single moment – in giving her the very best of himself. Her response – joyous and enthusiastic – knocked him backward in surprise. Did she –? Was it possible that she wanted his embrace as badly as he wanted to give it? The possibility choked him up and he leaned back into her, his kiss turning passionate and deep.

  If a kiss could heal, he’d heal her like this. If it could bind up wounds and mend a broken heart, she could have all his kisses. Every one. As many as she ever wanted.

  His stomach seemed to drop inside him, and he felt like he was falling, but he clung to her, refusing to stop kissing her. She was the one putting him back together. She was the one righting all his wrongs.

  The ground under them shuddered and with a boom the earth shook around them.

  Earth.

  Ground.

  They’d landed again.

  He gasped, eyes opening in shock. Marielle’s wide eyes mirrored his.

  “I have to get Jhinn while I can.” His words tumbled out. It was the worst thing you could say after a moment like that.

  “The little boy and his mother,” Marielle gasped, her hands falling form him in her own haste.

  They both scrambled to their feet, almost turning away from each other.

  “Wait!” Tamerlan gasped. He kissed her quickly. “Don’t let that be our last kiss.”

  And before she could answer he was sprinting down the street to help his friend.

  16: Dragon’s Landing

  Marielle

  It took a moment for her to clear her head. The scent of him still filled her nose, her mind, her every pore like he was still here kissing her.

  She’d never done that before – with anyone – which was why she hadn’t realized that it would make his scent a thousand times stronger until it filled her to intoxication and all she wanted was more and more and more. It was worse – and better, oh so much better – than magic. It fogged her mind and made her love it fogged. It dulled every other sense and she didn’t miss them for a second. She just wanted to drift forever in this intoxicating cocktail of scent and taste and touch.

  She’d almost forgotten the sharp pain that sawed through her moments before it started. Almost forgot to hate herself when he kissed her hurts away.

  She blinked, swallowing hard and trying to force her mind to focus again.

  They had landed. And that meant they had to get off the dragon’s back while they could.

  She shook her head, finally finding her balance and ran to the woman and child. “You need to get out of the city as fast as you can. Can you walk?”

  The woman nodded.

  “We’re in the mountains. You need to head east once you’re out. There will be people east. If you have food or clothing stashed somewhere here, you must be quick to get it.”

  Her child had stopped crying, though he looked at her with huge eyes, shivering in the cold.

  “Here, take my cloak,” she said, wrapping the fur around him. “Bring any fuel or lanterns or warm clothing you have or can find.”

  “We didn’t have the money to leave the city after the fire. And there were stories about what people were doing in the refugee camps,” the woman said. “They treat them like cattle. There is disease.”

  “I understand,” Marielle said. What decision would she have made? With a child? With his whole life in her hands? It was impossible to judge when she’d never had that responsibility. “But you have to hurry.”

  “We have things we collected. We have as much as we can carry.”

  “And the wound in your side? Can you walk?”

  “Can we go with you?” Her eyes were desperate, but Marielle shook her head.

  “We’re going into deeper danger,” she said quietly, looking at the range of mountains on one side of the city. The dragon had settled back in among the peaks. Perhaps he liked it her
e with the rest of his kind. “And we attract trouble and violence. You must get your son as far from here as you can.” She swallowed. “I wish I could do more to help you.”

  “You’ve done enough,” the woman said, her face hardening as she braced herself mentally for a journey through the cold with a child and limited supplies. “We will go east and find people.”

  Marielle nodded. “Go fast. Before the dragon rises again.”

  The woman took her son’s hand and they hurried away, leaving Marielle standing over Anglarok’s mangled corpse in perfect silence.

  Silence.

  That wasn’t right. What had happened to Etienne?

  She looked up in time to see him jogging up the street, sweat slicking his face despite the cold. A rag was tied around his left hand. She could smell the blood, coppery and raw.

  “She was fast but when you slaughtered her friend her fury dulled and when the dragon landed, she slipped away,” he said, shoving a fur cloak at Marielle. “This slipped from her shoulders. It looks like you’ll need it.”

  Marielle glanced toward where the woman and her boy had fled. She needed it more than Marielle did. But they were already gone.

  “Thank you.” She wrapped the cloak around her. “I don’t think there’s time to bury Anglarok.”

  Etienne snorted. “Maybe this time Tamerlan will get his friend loaded up in time before the dragon rises again. We’ll grab our supplies and go.”

  Marielle nodded. There might not be another chance to get off the dragon. And these last few minutes had shown her how pitiless the Legends would be if they were let free.

  “Which way did Liandari go?” Marielle asked as they ran toward the square after Tamerlan. She hadn’t stopped to catch the other woman’s scent. She wasn’t sure if she would have even been able to if she wanted to. Tamerlan’s scent still filled her, surrounding her, intoxicating her.

  “She was headed out of the city by the quickest route. North. Same as we’ll head when we get our gear.”

  Marielle nodded. And what would she do after that? What was Abelmeyer planning to use her for? Hopefully, Tamerlan had learned something – anything – from the book.

  “The shell worked. But only for a moment,” she confessed as they jogged side by side.

  “A moment was all that was needed. Tamerlan almost ruined our plan. That boy needs to learn to think.”

  Marielle shrugged. He had almost ruined it – but in the end, he’d been in the exact right place at the right time. And would she really want a friend who saw a child in danger and did nothing? Tamerlan had been willing to smoke to free him.

  A thought came to her and she stumbled as she tried to freeze and run at the same time.

  “Careful there!” Etienne’s hand reached out to steady her.

  Had that been Tamerlan kissing her and saying those sweet, life-giving things, or had that been the Legend who possessed him?

  Just the possibility of that chilled her.

  Would she always have to worry about whether his actions and words were his own? Would she never know what was true? A tiny blossom of doubt sprang up in what had been pure joy only moments ago.

  For a brief moment, the heavy scent of him filling her nose was not as comforting as it had been.

  The Legends ruined everything.

  They reached the square panting and exhausted. Etienne was already grabbing the sacks they had stowed next to the dam, but most of them were missing, and even more shocking – Jhinn, the gondola, the cart, and Tamerlan were all gone. Marielle spun, looking down every street. She saw no visible signs of them but his scent trail was so thick that she could have followed that golden scent of him – the hot honey and lavender scent that made her want to breathe more and more of it in with every gulp – she could have followed that anywhere.

  Etienne gestured at a muddy patch where a cart track was clearly visible in the mud.

  “Smart. He pushed him downhill. Though how you’d stop a cart once it’s rolling, I don’t know. He won’t be able to pull it once it stops, either. He must be running hard just to keep up.”

  Marielle followed his gaze to a down-hill path. They were close to the center of the city – but depending on how the dragon was lying and the layout of the streets, it could be possible to get as far as the city walls without having to stop. If you were very, very lucky, then you might even line up with the right street to go over a bridge and through a gate and out of the city.

  “The chances of that seemed slim,” she muttered. But his scent was laced with confidence and hope. Maybe he knew something she didn’t. Or maybe that was just Tamerlan – always hoping, always trying, always loving despite all odds. She could still taste him on her lips and in her mind. She wanted to kiss him again, to be sure it was all real.

  Etienne snorted. “I think this is a foolhardy plan of his. I am not fond of Tamerlan Zi’fen. I worry that eventually, his father will shine through. And I wonder what happened to his seven other brothers. Where are they in all this mess? Are they at home cooling their heels? And what is to stop him from joining them? He has no connection to our lands and cities. But there is one thing about him I do know.”

  “There’s a but to all this?” Marielle said, nearly rolling her eyes as she began to jog down the road, that Tamerlan had taken. It would lead out of the city. And maybe they could catch up with him along the way.

  “Yes. He’s lucky. He trips over important things. He just ‘finds’ what he needs at the right moment. That’s someone useful to have around. Just watch. We’ll get out the city gate and discover him and Jhinn and that ridiculous cart of water all there and in good order.”

  Or they’d find it smashed to bits and Jhinn suicidal on the side of the street somewhere. That was also possible. She could smell Jhinn – barely – in the intoxicating tangle of Tamerlan’s trail. Jhinn’s scent tasted anxious and slightly desperate.

  With worry in her heart, too, she ran.

  Hopefully, the mother and son were finding their way out of the city. She patted the shell that was back in her belt pouch, watching the shadows in case Liandari popped out of them and worrying like crazy for Tamerlan and Etienne. She wouldn’t be able to smell Liandari if she was lying in wait. This trail was too strong, too powerful for anything else to penetrate it.

  “Are we going to go into those mountains and look for whatever Ram found?” she asked Etienne as she ran.

  “You tell me. I thought you were the one with the plan that the rest of us couldn’t be trusted with,” he said wryly. But his words had a sadness behind them – as if he was actually admitting she was right to be worried about that.

  “Do you feel hopeless, Etienne?” she asked.

  “Frequently.”

  “Right now?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then what keeps you going?”

  “I’m not the kind of man who quits. Most people quit right before the solution comes. Right before they finally make good. I will not go out that way. They will find me clawing my way on my belly with bloody fingers and every nail missing before they find I quit at anything.”

  “I think that’s better than luck,” Marielle said gently.

  “Tenacity is always better than luck,” Etienne agreed. “Unfortunately, the alchemist has that, too.”

  Marielle chuckled as she ran. But at least she had Etienne trusting them again.

  And there was only one Legend out hunting them now. They had to just get out of the city before the dragon launched again. Then she would try to track her way through the mountains by smell alone to find whatever it was they needed. It was a long shot – but everything about her life since Etienne hung her up and tried to slit her throat, had been a long shot.

  It was an hour before they reached the edge of the city and slid through the gates in the bright afternoon sun. The sun here had a strange almost white quality that was different than the yellow-gold of the sun on the plains. A dusting of light snow blew down in icy particles from the sky
, leaving rainbow-hued patterns in the air but not gathering in piles on the ground or accumulating anywhere. It made the cobbles icy and slick as they stepped from them and out what had once been the gate onto the rock beyond.

  There were more tracks here – skidding over the light snow on the ground and leaving wavering tracks. Which meant they were still on the trail of the run-away cart. The rock of the mountain here drifted slightly downward and Marielle could see where the cart tracks followed the incline and went around a banked curve and out of sight. The scent trail went with them, stronger somehow in the fresh air.

  She scrambled along the slick rock until a hand grabbed her arm. “How long are we going to follow them for? Maybe we should decide where we are going to go from here?”

  “And leave all that luck for someone else?” she asked coyly.

  He snorted.

  But now she was getting nervous. Unlike in the city, the snow here stayed on the ground, slowly accumulating flake by flake to blanket the earth in a light covering that hid everything she wanted to see. And the fresh, effervescent scent was so cleansing that it seemed to wash away all other smells until all she could smell was snow, snow, snow.

  She could still follow Tamerlan and Jhinn’s scent trails, but it worried her that they seemed to block out all other scents. What was she missing?

  There were other smells she didn’t recognize on the edge of her senses – strange smells she couldn’t place that tickled her nose just enough that she knew they were there, but not enough to identify them. Were they walking into a trap?

  They were about to turn the corner when Etienne paused, hand thrown out to make her stop, too. He drew his blade slowly, shaking his head as if he were uncertain about something.

  They turned the corner and emerged in a rocky haven between the high rock walls. As the center was a small lake, glowing brightly. The cart was broken against a rock beside it, the barrels split and one of the wheels completely off the axle. But the gondola was floating along the shore of the lake and a very wet, very shaken looking Jhinn perked up the moment he saw them.