They sped down the river as it began to narrow, and her mind raced as she tried to think of what she would say to the woman who had sold her life away.
8: Chaos
Marielle
The tiny port town flashed in the sunlight as they approached. It was mid-morning and the wind was blowing with them, carrying them down the river so quickly that it was all Jhinn could do to turn the gondola and sneak them into the docks there. Marielle tried to help him with one of the long poles they’d cut to serve in place of oars.
On the docks, fishermen were already returning with the catch of the morning, and for the first time in weeks, Marielle caught sight of family boats with small fires burning, food cooking, laundry being hung on lines across the center of the boats, and children screaming and hopping across the decks. Was Jhinn’s childhood like that? She could almost imagine him half the size he was now, leaping and playing like that with Rajit. She began to smile as she glanced at him at the pedals but he shook his head with a knowing frown as if he could read her thoughts.
“I’ll find another boat here to take me to Xin,” Etienne said abruptly. He was gathering his things. Marielle hoped he had enough coin for that. She hadn’t heard a lot of jingling and she knew that she’d already spent what she had in the last village buying food.
She must have looked for too long because when her gaze traveled up again, he quirked an eyebrow. “Are you out of coin?”
“Yes.”
He opened his belt pouch. Marielle had thought he might hand her a coin and was ready to thank him but reject it politely. Instead, he pulled out a letter sealed with wax.
“It’s a bearer letter. It won’t help you until you get to a city, but the banks in any of the five cities will lend to you on my credit.”
“What credit would you have now?” She didn’t mean to be cruel, but his assets must have been wiped out with the fall of Jingen.
“A name and a reputation of power afford more credit than you might imagine,” he said, pressing the letter into her hand.
She stuffed it into her own belt pouch. She didn’t have to use it if she found another way, and it would be impolite to deny him.
“Thank you – ” She would have said more but a groan from Tamerlan drew her attention. She hurried to his side as he sat up.
“Does your head hurt?” she asked immediately as she helped him sit.
He was staring at his bindings. She reached to loosen them but froze when Etienne and Jhinn both shouted “No!” at the same time.
They shared a glance she couldn’t read but anxiety puffed up from Etienne like clouds of smoke in a thick ochre and it rolled off Jhinn like a wave, with fear mixing into the brew like flashes of blue lightning. His eyes were huge as he watched Tamerlan from where he was frozen in place in the boat.
It was Jhinn she looked to for answers.
“I can see her as plain as day,” he said. “Lila Cherrylocks.”
“You’ve been up to trouble, little Watch Officer. Haven’t you?” the voice was Tamerlan’s but the curving smile was not. Nor was the sharp look in his eye. There was none of the gentle tenderness he had for her there – none of the obsessive love that had saved her again and again. This creature was as foreign inside his skin as it would be to see a sheep stand up and ask for roast beef. “Release me and you won’t lack for coin. You were just mentioning that you’re a little short, weren’t you?”
“I thought Ram was controlling him?” Marielle said, looking to Jhinn.
The boy shrugged. “I see him there, too, but someone is holding him back. They’re lost in the fog. The ones who don’t have him are harder to see.”
Superstitious gibberish. And yet it was all true. Marielle shuddered.
“I told you that bindings were necessary,” Etienne reminded her, though the look on his face was just as unbelieving of Jhinn as hers must have been. “Don’t get soft on me now. Wait here with him and I’ll return with food and see if I can book passage to the east.”
Their gondola slid into the dock and Marielle wrenched her eyes from Tamerlan long enough to see that the docks were surprisingly crowded. A horde of people had slowly filled them – so silently that she hadn’t noticed it while she was distracted. While they had been filled with fishermen and Waverunners before, those people were gone, replaced almost magically by silent crowds of people dressed in muddy rags and holding burning braziers. Smudgers.
Perhaps the regular people had fled. It was certainly her first instinct.
She hadn’t seen Smudgers in a long time and their silence was eerie. The gondola bumped against the dock and Jhinn tied it to the brass ring on the side of the dock. His movements were slow, his eyes on the crowd.
Should they run? But the crowd wasn’t violent. They were just silent and staring. They even backed up to give Jhinn more room to work and when Etienne – anxiety intensifying around him to the point where she had to pull up her scarf to mask some of that heavy paprika scent – stepped up onto the dock, they cleared a space for him, too.
Something was moving forward from the back of the crowd.
Marielle tried to pick out what it was, but the village was hard to see with so many people crowding in. What had been a bustling market and small flocks and herds on the hills nearby was now just a solid wall of bodies with a small ripple running through it.
Jhinn leaned forward just a little further to cinch his rope tight at the same time that Etienne took a step into the crowd.
And then silently, as if a signal had been given, someone grabbed Jhinn’s arm and pulled, tossing him into the crowd like a caught fish. A scream of horror wrenched from him and Marielle had just enough time to gasp, fumbling for Tamerlan’s sword. Hands reached out and plucked her from the gondola, dragging her into a mass of bodies.
She screamed at the horror of their silent attack, but the only sounds she heard were the sounds of the wind and the waves, the flocks on the far hills, and her companions screaming, too.
She twisted, trying to fight a dozen hands that held her and dragged her through the crowd. Had they taken Tamerlan, too? Had they unbound him? He wasn’t screaming with the rest of them – actually, Etienne and Jhinn had quieted now and all she heard from them were grunts and the sounds of struggle.
It didn’t feel real.
But the hands pawing her in smoky silence were real.
And the smell was real, too. She hadn’t noticed it at first in all the anxiety of Jhinn and Etienne at Tamerlan’s awakening, but here in this crowd was a bubbling, stinking oneness. The Smudgers around her did not smell of normal human emotion – not of petty jealousy or loves and hates, not of rank ambition or bubbling creativity. They all smelled exactly the same – with the exact same dull throb of insanity – astringent and sharp.
But as they moved her through the crowd, the scent intensified until they dropped her on the ground in front of something that stank so strongly of Elderflower insanity that she was surprised she hadn’t smelled it from upriver. She’d thought having the wind at their backs this morning was a blessing. Instead, it had left her blind to this.
By the time she squirmed until she could see the source of the stench, she wished she hadn’t seen it.
On a platform made of rubble, a huge unlit pyre set behind her, stood a woman with long dirty hair. Chunks of mud clung to strands of it and matted across her scalp and her clothing was stained and torn as if she paid it no attention at all. On her face was a look of pure rapture and when she opened her eyes and looked at Marielle there was nothing but two empty pits staring at her.
The scream began to bubble in Marielle’s throat at the same moment that Etienne spun free of his captors, his sword out and slashing. They hadn’t disarmed him. Almost as if they hadn’t realized he could be deadly at all. Hands dragged Marielle and Jhinn up over the rubble to the feet of the specter that had once been a woman – the specter Marielle recognized as the poor creature who had once been a Smudger and now was the second avatar of Maid Cha
os.
There was the sound of something thumping on the ground not far away and she turned to see Tamerlan thrown there, still bound, his eyes shut tight. Beside him, they dumped things from the boat. The cast-iron frying pan. Fishing gear. Blankets. Wooden cups. A few half-empty sacks. A small leather purse that Jhinn kept hidden in the secret compartment of the boat.
Below them, in shocking silence, Etienne battled. He chopped down a half dozen attackers, their blood spraying over the rest of the crowd as they fell in absolute silence except for the gurgling of those unable to breathe through slashed throats and his grunts of effort. Eventually, there were too many attackers. The sword was dragged from his hands and he disappeared under the swarming mass without a sound.
A keening sound filled the air – her own fear slicing through her lips against her will. She couldn’t stop it from rippling out of her in waves. She’d seen many horrors by now, but none so horrifying as this.
Around her, the derelict crowd was smiling, their empty eyes and empty scents a poor match for their angelic expressions.
Maid Chaos smiled, too. And then she gestured to the pyre behind her, and the crowd was reaching for Marielle again. She screamed and screamed until her throat was hoarse as they carried her to the pyre. Jhinn’s screams echoed her own and the scent of despair mixed with his horror – the only fresh scent in this dead village. She fought, but there were too many hands. She felt Jhinn fighting nearby. But two were not enough against hundreds.
And as they tied her to the pyre and cinched the knots tight, she smelled something brand new.
Fire.
9: Tangled Hope
Tamerlan
He was desperate to see and yet Lila had his eyes shut tight while she worked at the bindings.
Almost there. Almost there. That pretty girl of yours should tie better knots.
Was she dead already? He couldn’t tell with his eyes shut tight and couldn’t do anything about it with Lila controlling his body. He’d woken to her control. Any advantage he’d had before in the meditation state was gone now. He had not a shred of authority over his own body. Maybe he would never have a shred of it again. He shouldn’t have let Marielle say vows to him. He shouldn’t have said them back.
But it was hard to regret the best – the purest – the most whole day of his life. Not when it was the one thing he could hold onto as his life was slowly stolen from him. Still. She was bound now to a pawn of the Legends. And that was a tragedy.
At least I don’t want her dead. You can be happy about that. Ram would be fighting to make her an avatar. I don’t want that at all. When I’m done getting us free, I’m going to run as far and as fast as I can go. She can live whatever life she can, and I will do the same.
And Tamerlan would never see his wife again. Never glimpse that sweet determined look in her eyes or be swept up in her view of the world – so clean and sharp and fresh when to him it was all so blurry and difficult.
Think of me. I’ll be stuck in your body. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I’m very feminine. You’re a terrible fit.
Yes, it was Lila who was the victim here. He gave a mental snort. It was hard to keep himself from railing at her mentally, but there was no point in that. It would only leave him hopeless. And it would only slow her down as she fought to free them. Maybe if they were free, he could take back control.
I have you fully now. And the effect will not wear off. Best to be glad it was me and not one of the others. If I was Ram, I would destroy all you loved. If I was Deathless Pirate, I would set up a tinpot dictatorship and debase myself in revelry. If I was the Admiral, I would be the scourge of your people. Be glad you rolled the dice and got Lila. The worst I’ll do is steal a few trinkets. And you might even find that you like that.
He doubted it.
He could smell fire. Feel it on his face. Smell it in his nose.
Was that the rest of his spice they were burning?
Not that it matters. You’ve already sworn not to smoke it anymore.
For all the good it did him.
It turns out that once the path has been trod enough times, we can find it all on our own. Isn’t that nice? We can take you against your will and there’s nothing you can do about it. Forever.
If only he’d realized sooner. Soon enough to help the Grandfather rather than stop him. Soon enough to destroy them all.
Well, think of it this way, we’ll do more with your life than you ever would. You were going to start an orphanage. You married the daughter of a prostitute. What a waste. I will use you to amass wealth like the world has never seen. We will buy and sell cities. We will rule in luxury and comfort all our days. I may even find that I enjoy your company in my mind.
Never!
But before I do, I have a little job to do. I don’t want all the Legends killed, but I’ve never liked the Maid and now she’s burning all our stuff.
His eyes shot open at the same time that his hands were free. They grabbed his belt knife so quickly that he wasn’t even sure it had happened even though they were his own hands. Lila was sawing through the ropes around his feet, her eyes quickly assessing the situation. They skimmed right over Marielle and Jhinn tied to a burning pyre.
Oh no.
They were going to die!
Panic filled him even as Lila kept looking, assessing, deciding. She was bouncing up to her feet while he was still panicking. She took two steps and snatched up his sword from the heap of things from the gondola that was burning in the pile beside him. He hissed as his hands burned against the hot metal, but she didn’t hiss. She didn’t even moan. She was plunging his sword into someone’s back while he was still reeling from the pain of its burning hilt.
She was cutting through the crowd like a thresher through wheat while he was anxiously trying to catch glimpses of Marielle. The fire wasn’t very high yet. Had it licked her flesh or was she whole?
Let’s find out!
They’d all turned their backs to him as if he was nothing and now that Lila was slaughtering them, they didn’t know. They died in silence, the ones in front of them none the wiser until their turn came. Lila had killed more than twenty of them before the avatar of Maid Chaos noticed and lifted a hand toward them.
She wasn’t fast enough.
Lila charged, yelling as she went. She used Tamerlan’s shoulders to batter Smudgers out of the way as he went directly for the Maid. In his body, she was dauntless. She was leaping into the circle around Maid Chaos before the crowd could react, her sword streaking toward the Maid like the flame of a dragon.
Maid Chaos flung up an arm to defend herself and the sword struck with the awful green-stick snapping sound of breaking bone. Her arm was cleaved in two, the part of it with the hand attached sailing into the crowd like a piece of split wood.
Tamerlan gagged on bile, but Lila was unaffected. She spun, meeting an attack he didn’t realize was there. Hands that had been reaching for him from behind fell like wheat to the reaper and then she was turning back to Maid Chaos.
“I like this sword,” she said. “We’re definitely keeping it.”
The new avatar had a weapon now. She must have grabbed it from someone in the crowd. A fisherman’s harpoon flashed in her hand but as grizzly and magical as Maid Chaos might be, she was taken by surprise. She met Lila’s bevy of attacks with skill, but she had only one hand.
Lila knocked her harpoon back and then reached in past the other woman’s defenses, closing Tamerlan’s free hand around the avatar’s neck and squeezing so tightly that he thought his finger joints might pop.
“I love the reach of these arms of yours!”
Instead of his fingers breaking, the structure of Maid Chaos’s neck crumbled in his fingers like sand. She shuddered, bucking against the sudden destruction of her body. He blocked out her face, seeing, but refusing to acknowledge what he saw. He hadn’t asked for this.
Don’t want to save your pretty wife from burning to death?
Of course, he d
id.
Then look.
He looked. He tried not to remember, but he looked and watching that eyeless face die would have driven him mad if he wasn’t already insane.
And then it was done, and the avatar was thrown to the floor. It was almost impossible to believe it was him throwing her to the floor. That it was him scrambling up the pyre through the licking flames. They weren’t high yet. They hadn’t even reached the place where Jhinn was slumped and where Marielle fought at her bonds. But they were growing with every moment. There was no time to spare.
Lila leapt over the flames and up the wood.
Behind Tamerlan, he heard the sound of shuffling feet, but he didn’t dare look back at the crowd. Not when Marielle was fighting for her life. He was trying to get a good look at her face when Lila dropped the sword onto the ground and reached for her.
He almost sighed with relief. They were going to free her.
Lila wrapped his hand around Marielle’s throat and he just had enough time to register the look of shock and betrayal in Marielle’s eyes before he began to squeeze.
No!
The denial roared through him.
Anything but this!
Do not take her life with my hands!
Better than death by fire.
There didn’t need to be death at all! He battered against Lila, but she was too strong. He couldn’t get through. He couldn’t budge her!
As she choked the life out of the one person who was life to him, he shoved every ounce of himself against her. This was his body. It belonged to him. It was meant to be filled by him. It was never meant for her.
He knew he didn’t have a chance. He knew it was all over now, but he fought, battering against her sense of self. He imagined it was a bridge extending across the spirit world to wherever her soul was meant to be. Mentally, he shoved her across the bridge and cut it in two.
He had his hands back so suddenly that he gasped, pulling them from Marielle’s neck like dropping a hot coal. His breath choked in his own throat as Lila fought back
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 84