She scrambled across the hull, her wet clothing hindering her movements, grabbed the railing and pulled herself up. It was a sturdy bridge made of rock and stonework and she could see how it lasted when so much else didn't, but the strength was leeching out of her in the cold and she was struggling to think coherent thoughts.
THE DRAGON H’YI HAS AGREED TO GIVE YOU FOUR HOURS TO FIND YOUR CLOCK AND DO WHAT YOU MUST.
She froze, her hands and feet trembling, panic surging through her. Four hours? That was all? She spun in place, looking at the unfamiliar city. Nothing looked the same half-submerged under flowing water. She wouldn’t even know how to get to the clock, never mind what to do once she was there.
She didn’t even know how they’d survived the drop.
WE ASKED H’YI TO SEND OUT HIS STRENGTH TO SHELTER YOU.
Magic? She felt like laughing. He’d saved them with magic? That seemed a little too convenient.
SHOULD WE ASK HIM NOT TO SPARE YOU NEXT TIME?
Steps pounded down the bridge and Etienne arrived beside her, soaking wet and gasping.
“Magic,” he said, and he stank of it – the heady, vanilla and lilac scent of it swirling around her like warmth would if only she had any to find. “It was magic that kept us alive – but whose or how – I don’t know.”
In the water below, Tamerlan and Jhinn heaved and the gondola flipped over. The ferro and lantern from the front of the boat had snapped off and the oars were gone, but the motor Jhinn had made was still there, strapped in place.
Jhinn started bailing immediately. There was still eight inches of water inside the gondola.
Tamerlan pulled himself up onto the bridge, water flowing from his heavy clothing.
“We need to get warm somehow before we freeze to death,” he said.
“I don’t have time for that,” Marielle said. “We have four hours before the dragon moves. Four hours to do what we need to do and leave.”
“Leave?” Tamerlan seemed shocked.
Etienne raised a single eyebrow. “The drop from the dragon’s back to the ground is just as far as it was from the top of the water to his back. We might not survive that drop.”
“Perhaps he will set us down on the ground,” Marielle said.
Etienne’s eyes narrowed. “Why is he clinging to the cliffside, Marielle? Why did he catch us at all?”
She swallowed. His fists were clenched. If the Grandfather suspected ... even for a moment ...
She shook her head to clear the thought. Even thinking it might be too much.
“Listen, there’s something I need to do,” she said through chattering teeth. “I just need a bit of time to do it. You men stay here and I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Absolutely not,” Tamerlan said, his eyes on her chest. She started to blush until she realized he was looking at the lump under her shirt where the amulet was. She hadn’t needed it to still the dragon. But he must still suspect what she might do with a thing like that. Maybe it had enough power to destroy the clock.
“We will go with you. Jhinn will take care of the boat.” Etienne turned to Jhinn. “You’ll survive until then?”
Jhinn nodded stiffly. His attention was on clearing the boat of water, but his eyes kept drifting to his motor. Was he worried that it hadn’t survived the fall? His anxious scent could mean anything. They all smelled heavily of that smoked paprika, ochre trails swirling around them.
“It would be best if you stayed here,” Marielle said to Etienne. She needed some reason for him to stay. Some reason to keep the Grandfather as far away as possible. She bit the inside of her lip, thinking. “You should gather wood and find a brazier. We’ll need a fire, so we don’t freeze to death.”
“If this dragon moves or if we try to go over the falls to the river below, we’ll die faster than hypothermia can kill us,” Etienne objected, his eyes glittering dangerously. He suspected. She was sure of it.
“It’s best that we spilt up,” she said.
“Fine.” He seemed torn, his face clouding like he was trying to work out a problem in his head.
“Come on, Tamerlan,” Marielle said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling before anyone could reconsider. If she didn’t get moving now, then she’d lose her chance. And perhaps Tamerlan could help. He’d used the Eye once. Maybe he could coach her to use it again if that was the only way to bring down the tower.
2: Ice and Water
Tamerlan
Tamerlan followed Marielle with an icy hand gripping his heart.
Now, Ram said in his mind. You’re alone now. Grab her and drag her into one of these buildings and I will show you how to form her into the perfect avatar to bind this dragon!
His hand was twitching to obey. He swallowed down bile at the feeling. He was shaking already, not from the cold, but from fear. If his self-control failed for even a moment, he might find his own hands destroying the woman he loved.
Anything to stop the dragons. I will sacrifice my own soul. My loved ones. My life.
That was Ram. Ram! Not him.
He had to keep reminding himself of that. He had to hold on to the little scraps that were left of his mind as the Legend ravaged them and made them dance to his twisted tune.
“Where are we going?” he asked Marielle mildly. He needed something to hold on to. Something to think about other than what Ram was shouting.
“I can’t tell you that,” Marielle said, though she seemed very certain of her path, occasionally sniffing the air like she was scenting something. So much of the city was submerged by water that only the Temple, Government, and University districts seemed to have any dry land at all and even those streets were flooded in places, their canals choked to overflowing. Ahead of them, water washed across the street, waist-high in places.
“I will help you if I can,” he said, but he tasted the lie in his words. He would help. But Ram would not. And he didn’t dare smoke – not even for a moment. Ram would be sure to take hold of him if he did. And then all would be lost.
Ram is not the only Legend left. There had been a time when Lila’s was the clearest voice he heard. Now, she was so faint he could barely pick out her voice. It wouldn’t be her barreling over the Bridge if he opened it. It would be Ram. And Ram would sacrifice Marielle in a heartbeat.
She brought it on herself. Freeing dragons. Sacrificing humans. She is a witch and a traitor and you will be serving all mankind when you spread her out and make her body immortal and her soul bound to the Bridge and the Dragon.
He shivered. This was almost worse than when the Legends took his body. Now, they had taken his mind. He wasn’t himself.
He might never be himself again.
Marielle stopped and put a hand on his arm. His heart broke at the kind look in her eyes. Broke because he knew he would fail her, even as it swelled with joy at her touch. He could hear the venom and death raging in his mind at the sight of her. He could feel his muscles tensing, ready to break her fragile body and wreck that beautiful golden trust she was offering him.
“Trust me, Tamerlan. I have a plan,” she said simply. “But I can’t tell it to you. Not now, and not even after this part is complete. Do you understand?”
He nodded. His tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth and refusing to speak.
Don’t agree with her! Her plans are nothing. It is our plans that matter.
Not theirs. Just Ram’s. He refused to agree to the idea that they were a team. He’d do anything to protect Marielle.
Her life for thousands. A small price. A small choice. Only a villain would choose otherwise.
Then he was a villain. And he didn’t care. He was already damned for the choices he’d made. Why not one more?
They were moving again, wading through waist-high water and then climbing upward again on the other side. Marielle was angling toward the Temple District. He shivered at the thought of that place. The place where he’d lost her to Grandfather Timeless, lost his eye, and then the place where he’d won her back
and lost Liandari and Anglarok. She wasn’t going back there again, was she?
If she tries to set him free, you will have to kill her at once. We don’t dare let any Legend go free now. They must remain and do their duties! And we will make more. We will need many, many more ...
No wonder they called him the Nameless Legend. No wonder he was shunned. He was a horror. Maid Chaos might revel in the death of innocents, but at least she had been mad. Ram the Hunter was sane as anyone and these choices of his were made of logic and duty – and yet they were more horrible than the madness of the Maid.
Don’t speak to me of horrors. Do you know what will happen if you set them free?
They went through the portal. They were gone.
The laughter in his head – bitter and pained – hurt.
Gone for now. But the portal is open. They will be back, and they will slaughter innocents in your name. Do you want to watch children torn apart before their parents? Do you want to watch a man helpless as a dragon incinerates his wife and family? Do you want to hear a mother crying in the streets, her arms empty? Her children dead in a ruined building thanks to your dragon friends? Go ahead. Live that life. Live that agony. All because you were too weak to stop her. Too weak to make a single sacrifice.
He wanted to cry at the images that filled his mind. His chin trembled as he choked back tears. He hadn’t realized that Ram could manufacture memories in his mind. That he could make Tamerlan see horrors that would not leave. He wanted to curl into a ball and sob until there was no more Tamerlan left, but the images didn’t stop, didn’t relent. His feet followed Marielle but his mind was tortured by Ram as the Legend whispered to him, your fault, your fault, your fault.
“Tamerlan?” Marielle’s voice shocked him out of the memories, and he met her gaze with gratitude. Real. She was real. He stared at her like she could anchor him. She cleared her throat. “I need you to tell me how to use the Eye.”
“Why?” he gasped. Was she going to trap the dragon like Ram wanted?
And then we bind her to it forever.
She was calm and certain as she spoke. “Tamerlan I need to destroy the cl – ”
Her words cut off as Etienne leapt from the shadows and knocked her to the ground. The sound of bone hitting cobblestones jarred him.
He yelled through his teeth – a wordless roar – and charged.
Etienne!
He should have known there was something wrong with the man. He thought he could see the Grandfather – or his ghost – both inside and not inside Etienne, moving with him and through him. He grabbed the other man by the coat and lifted him off Marielle’s prone body, throwing him through the air.
He blinked. Had he just done that? On his own? Without a Legend to help? He swallowed as Etienne hit the crystal casing of the clock and slid down the door of it to the ground.
Wait.
Tamerlan looked up. They were at the clock in H’yi where Marielle had been imprisoned. He blinked again. The sky was darkening. How many hours had they trudged through the cold and wet to get here? He looked around him, stunned, worried. He’d lost track of time. He had been lost in his own horrors. He felt like he was missing chunks of time completely. He blinked, stupefied, and looked at his hands. Had he been about to do something with them?
A body flew out of nowhere and knocked him off his feet. He landed in a puddle with a splash and the feeling of cold water seeped through his cloak and clothing.
He felt dazed but he clawed his way up in time to snatch his sword out of his scabbard just before a blade snaked toward him. The clash of his own sword against the other sword almost made him jump. What was happening to him?
Kill him! Kill the Grandfather!
He didn’t bother ignoring that order. It sounded like good advice. He plunged forward, sword streaking out like a bolt of lightning toward his target. Etienne turned the blade cleverly, but the expression on his face – the deadly wickedness mixed with ancient malice – was not Etienne at all. The Grandfather had him.
Kill! Kill!
Tamerlan lunged again. Faster. Harder.
Again, his blade was turned. He spun into a defense and strangely, his body seemed to know what to do. It twirled to the side, his blade arm sweeping out and his wrist flicking so that Etienne’s sword was turned away and jerked from his hand. It fell to the cobbles and rolled.
He almost smiled until Etienne scooped up a loose cobblestone from the street and flung it at him. There was barely time to dodge. He leapt to the side, nearly falling as his cloak tangled around his legs. He could hear the wind as the brick sped by. So close!
The other man was a wraith, moving rapidly so that Ram could hardly counter him. Tamerlan could hardly counter him.
Wait. Who was he?
Steel bit into flesh as his momentary lapse distracted him. He hissed, throwing his blade up just in time to deflect a follow-up strike. His left arm screamed in pain. Something there wasn’t right.
He hadn’t checked on Marielle before he’d begun to fight but he heard her moaning now and spared a glance in her direction. She held her head with one hand, stumbling to her feet.
Legends send she was okay! Legends send she hadn’t hurt her brain it that fall!
We need her alive for the procedure. Funny that you still pray to us when you know what we are – and can unleash us at any moment.
He choked on the words but at that moment, Marielle jammed her hand against the clock and both Tamerlan and Etienne froze.
“Yes,” Etienne gasped.
Ram flooded Tamerlan with pain, making his head spin. He turned to the side and vomited, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
He was losing his grip – on himself, on his thoughts, on everything.
But Marielle wasn’t opening the clock. She pulled the amulet out of her shirt, grabbing it with the hand covered in blood from her fall.
Oh no. He couldn’t remember how King Abelmeyer had used the Eye before – but he knew these things liked to activate with blood. And Marielle’s blood was all over Abelmeyer’s Eye now.
“No,” he gasped. “Please don’t!”
He’d done all this to save her from his fate. Why was she so intent on sacrificing herself? She was like a living Lady Sacrifice, constantly throwing herself at the flame. He bit the inside of his cheek, stumbling forward.
“No!” Etienne echoed him, but the panic in his voice was even stronger. He jumped toward her but mid-leap the world flashed white and disappeared.
Tamerlan tasted blood, blinking as his vision began to clear. Purple after-images danced across his vision. He didn’t know how long he stood there blinking, but by the time he could see again, his body was numb from the cold, his feet heavy as bricks. He stumbled forward to where Marielle had collapsed on the ground, the clock behind her was melting toward her body. What kind of heat would melt a clock?
He sheathed his sword and lifted her in his numb hands, seconds before the molten glass and metal touched her body. She was soaking wet and cold to the touch. Was she ... did she ...
He was too scared to finish the sentence. He settled for clutching her to his chest, letting un-shed tears shake through him as he carefully backed away from what had once been a clock. He almost tripped over Etienne.
“Gone,” the other man said. He was kneeling, his eyes fixed on the molten clock, the look of relief on his face so stark that Tamerlan could barely hold back the bitter jealousy raging through him. He knew immediately what the Lord Mythos meant by the word, “gone.” He was free. The Legend that had held him was gone forever.
Tamerlan coughed, tasting blood through his lungs, his own heart ripping apart with more fury and jealousy than he realized he had. He didn’t know how much of that was the red hot rage of Ram the Hunter inside him and how much was his own last desperate twitches as he tried to deny what he knew in his bones – that he was a dead man walking. That he would never walk free like Etienne. That his mind and body would be the price he paid for the fre
edom of everyone else – and the price he paid for the crime he committed when all of this started, and he called up Lila Cherrylocks in the smoke.
Absolution wasn’t free.
Atonement had a price.
He was paying it in tears and blood and pain, and the full price wouldn’t be paid until his life had been forfeited.
How had he ever thought otherwise? How had he ever dared to hope?
He stumbled through the ruined streets of H’yi, numb, the most precious person in the world in his arms. When he found Jhinn again, he was going to make him swear to bring her to safety. And he was going to make Etienne swear to keep her safe. But he couldn’t stay near her. Not now that he knew the truth.
3: What Lies Beneath
Marielle
Marielle woke to confusion. One of her eyes wasn’t working. She rubbed it, blinking.
“Shh. It’s going to be okay, Marielle,” Tamerlan said. “You’ll get used to it. It just feels strange at first.”
With Tamerlan’s words, her memories returned. She’d used the amulet. She’d destroyed the clock. Oh, sweet Legends, she’d given her eye for it! She gasped.
“Shh. It will be okay. It will,” he said, comfortingly, rocking her as she hadn’t been rocked since she was a tiny girl. But she could smell his anxiety mixing with the insanity of the Legends that was swirling around him thicker and thicker every moment. She clung to his golden scent of honey and lavender instead.
“How long,” she said thickly. Swallowing and trying again. “How long have I been out?”
“An hour,” Etienne said from nearby. She blinked her good eye – it was closest to Tamerlan’s chest. Why wasn’t it seeing correctly, either?
Oh. It was dark. A splashing sound met her ears. That explained the rocking. Tamerlan was carrying her. And Etienne was walking beside them.
“You should let me take a turn carrying her,” Etienne said. “She’s too heavy for you alone.”
It sounded like an old argument. Like he didn’t expect Tamerlan to listen.
“No,” Tamerlan’s words were firm. “I have her.”
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 80