He was just going to have to defy them and enter the city anyway. He couldn’t hold off the Legends and fight for Marielle much longer. He could feel exhaustion pulling him toward sleep. He needed to act while he still could. He was running out of time.
He blinked as a man appeared before him. Had Tamerlan’s mind been wandering so far he hadn’t seen the approach? The man was dressed like Liandari had been in a long dark coat with rows of silver buttons and slashes at the hips and under the arms to make movement easier. Tattoos in a light orange traced a line under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose.
Tamerlan blinked, trying to gather his thoughts. He needed to plead his case to this man. He needed to be bold and charming. He tried to smile, but instead, his words came out as a plea.
“Please. Please, listen.”
“I am Ki’squall Tandari Felk of ship Salt Winds of the Shard Islands of the Eight Sea,” the man said. “Charged with overseeing the abandonment of this city and the gathering of the Last Defense.”
“The ‘Last Defense’?” Jhinn sounded so alert and sharp.
“We are gathering a small group of our people to defend the avatar of this city. Foreigners are not among them. You must turn your boat around.”
“How are you calling them?” Jhinn asked. “With a glowing mark of pain?”
“What?” the man asked. But surely the guards must have mentioned it to him.
Tamerlan tugged down the collar of Marielle’s shirt to show the bright glow of her map tattoos. She moaned, eyes fluttering open for a moment.
The Ki’squall said something in another language that sounded like a curse.
“Get her inside. Do you know the way to the palace?”
“Yes,” Tamerlan said.
See? They gather their best and brightest to defend the avatar here. You will not destroy the Admiral. You will not destroy any of us before we take you once and for all.
“Then hurry. Clearly, fate has determined that she will stand with us. I’ve seen the tug of the Windrose, but I’ve never seen such an extreme case. You need to hurry. No, wait.” He flung up a hand as Jhinn began to leave. “I’ll come, too.” He threw a dark-eyed look at the guards. “No one else re-enters the city. You have your orders.”
He leapt into the boat, standing at the bow as Tamerlan settled back down to the floor of the boat and Jhinn leaned into the pedals.
“An interesting motor you have there, boy,” he said as they pedaled into the lock and waited for the man in the little shed beside the lock to operate the wheel and raise the water level so they could enter the city. “Where did it come from?”
“I made it,” Jhinn said shortly. Tension was in his every movement. And no wonder. He could barely look at the Ki’squall, he hated them so much. Heretics. Tamerlan had almost forgotten that Jhinn saw them that way. To him, they were worse than the dead men who walked the earth because they could have been alive and chose death instead.
“You could make a fortune selling them in Quavitlos or Xytexyx,” the Ki’squall said.
Jhinn seemed to shrink from his words.
Tamerlan cleared his throat, trying to diffuse what could be a difficult situation. “You said you’ve never seen such a strong pull on a Windrose. Is something wrong? Will it kill her?”
The Ki’squall shook his head, but his brow was furrowed. “I don’t think so. They aren’t made for that. They are made to call the Windseeker or so that fate may draw them to the place they most need to be. But I’ve never heard of anyone dying from that. In fact, stories of such a strong reaction as this one are exceedingly rare.”
“Rare,” Tamerlan repeated as his heart sank. That didn’t sound hopeful at all. If it was rare, then no one was going to know how to fix it.
“Usually it’s just a pull. An undeniable pull. It’s possible that if you fought against the pull you could harm yourself, but no one fights it.”
“Because they know that they have to follow?”
“And because it’s their duty to follow,” the Ki’squall agreed. “Did she fight the pull?”
“There are things we have to do ...” Tamerlan’s voice trailed off. They should have noticed right away and done something. They should have known that Marielle would have been fighting it on her own and that she wouldn’t have let them see the fight until she was losing. That sounded much more like her.
See how all her fighting only made it worse? That was Lila in his mind. Your fighting is the same. Each battle only wounds you further. Surrender to us. Surrender and we will give you money and prestige. We may even keep the girl for you.
I want her as avatar. That was Ram growling.
Another can be found as an avatar. He could keep her on the side.
And who will make love to her? You? Ram sounded furious. We will never give him his own hands back to caress her with or his own lips to kiss her with. I’m not so cruel as to tease him with false hope. She is nothing but a complication. Best to use her as an avatar.
Perhaps the Admiral will be affectionate to her, Lila suggested. If it pleases Tamerlan, it’s a small thing to allow.
We won’t be letting him have control, either. He’s not of us. He’s from another world and time.
Tamerlan tried to force their voices away, but they only faded a little.
“You should have followed the first pull of the Windrose,” the Ki’squall said as they sped down the canal. It was almost shocking to see how empty the city was. They saw only one boat headed the other way and packed with people – the homeless, tattered and barely holding the rails and the Retribution who had clearly found them in the alleys and under the bridges of Choan – a barge. The rest of the canals were empty.
Wind howled down the empty streets, sending an empty basket tumbling all the way down the length of it. It didn’t catch on a street vendor cart because there wasn’t a single one in the streets.
The silence was deafening.
In one window, a rug hung forlornly as if someone had hung it in the morning to air out and then fled without remembering to bring it back in the house – or possibly without caring to do so. Why tend to a rug you couldn’t take with you when your whole city was forfeit?
Well, we could just let her live, Lila said after a long moment. Tamerlan tried to block her out as he gently caressed Marielle’s hair, but it was impossible to block out your own thoughts. I think Tamerlan would like that, hmm? That won’t really inconvenience us. Just surrender, Tamerlan and I will let your girl live, Lila said. She can go and be a Scenter in whatever new City Watch they make. She’ll be happy and you won’t have to kill her. I’ll even fake your death for her and she can go remarry some nice strapping young man with shoulders like yours and ... well, it will be best for everyone.
But Marielle wouldn’t go of her own free will. She was more determined than a terrier with a rat in its teeth, clutching it to the death. And if Ram the Hunter took him and not Lila Cherrylocks, then he would destroy Marielle. He glanced back at Jhinn who was shaking his head wildly.
That’s why you need to choose me, pretty boy, Lila said. While you still have a choice between Ram and me.
There is no choice ...
Ram’s mental voice kept ringing in his head long after he was done speaking ... or maybe he was chanting the words because all Tamerlan heard as they proceeded through the empty city was: there is no choice, there is no choice, there is no choice.
He heard it as they swept through the rest of the city, speeding down canals usually packed with traffic. He heard it as they swept through the unguarded archway that led into the canals of the palace. He heard it as he lifted Marielle in his arms, cradling her as he stepped from the gondola to the platform beyond. He heard it as Jhinn made a displeased sound in the back of his throat.
“There’s always a choice,” Jhinn said aloud, his face dark with concern as he peered past Tamerlan to an open door where a ring of the Retribution stood around a cage made of bone. “Don’t forget that.”
&n
bsp; Tamerlan tried to nod, but it was hard to think with the words still echoing in his mind.
17: The Heart of Choan
Marielle
Pain rippled through her mind, pounding, pounding in her skull until her very teeth ached with it. Thoughts had fled hours ago. Or maybe it was minutes. She felt like she’d been in pain a lifetime or an hour or ... time was meaningless in the depths of pain. It no longer ticked to a familiar rhythm, no longer slipped away with idle thoughts and daydreams. It marked the seconds like they were hours. It drew out minutes like years. It was everything and nothing. It ate her away until she was only pain frizzling and agonizing at every edge and point.
And then there was less pain. She could almost breathe as it lifted. She could almost think.
She felt arms around her – stable and secure, warm and affectionate. They cradled her against a muscular chest and she sighed into its strength and warmth. Tamerlan. When she surfaced it was always Tamerlan who was there. Who wouldn’t want to keep that forever?
And she could. He was her husband, her deepest love and that meant she could keep him forever.
She let herself breathe, exhaling the pain, inhaling new hope. Her skin across her neck and chest was still tender, but her mind was clearing. Little shivers of hope rocketed through her like comets. She couldn’t quite catch them, but they were there again.
She could feel movement now – the gentle rolling of steps as she was carried. Voices rose around her.
“This way, foreigner. Bring her here. We make preparations for the unthinkable.”
“And what is that?” Tamerlan asked, his deep voice rumbling through his chest against her ear. Her breath hitched a little at the joy of hearing it again. She’d been worried back there on the island – worried that he would be lost to the Legends so quickly. But he was still here. Still himself. Still sane.
She let her eyes flutter open to see a man dressed like Liandari leading them through an open door into the massive Grand Hall of the palace. She smelled Jhinn behind her, his scent a tangle of concern and anxiety. It was hard to even see the details of the hall with the strong scent of anticipation masking everything else and clouding the room in the spring green color of its scent. Tamerlan’s scent – as intoxicating as ever and mixed now with threads of devotion and loyalty every time he looked at her – spiked with the insanity scent she’d started to associate with Legend, but it was nothing compared to what was in the Hall – there was something with a scent so strong that it was cutting through that spring green color. She squirmed to get a better look at where that scent was coming from.
“Easy, Marielle,” Tamerlan’s whisper gusted across her cheek sending little goosebumps over her flesh. “It’s okay, sweet love of my life. I’ve brought you where you need to be.”
But she was distracted from the shivers his words stirred in her by the ring of men and women surrounding a bone cage. Suspended, inside was a glowing aqua specter – a man dressed like the Ki’squall but more elaborately. He knelt in the cage, frozen with his head tilted all the way back and a scream in his throat.
She’d seen this being created through Tamerlan’s eyes when they made their Admiral into an avatar. She choked back rising terror at the sight of it, her insides trembling uncomfortably at the sight and her stomach heaving.
“Set me down,” she gasped through a raw throat. “I can walk.”
Tamerlan set her down instantly – steadying her with his hands as she wobbled on weakened legs. Nausea roared through her, making her head light, but she fought against her bucking stomach. Tamerlan leaned in close, as if he could shelter her with his body, his eyes earnest as they locked on hers.
“Are you ... can you stand?”
“Yes,” she breathed, grateful that he was blocking the view of the avatar.
“I was worried about you,” he whispered. “You are my life, Marielle.”
He took her face in a hand, caressing her cheek with his thumb as his fingers threaded through her hair to cup her ear. Not caring at all about the audience watching him, he leaned in, pulling her to his chest and bent to kiss her – softly, tenderly at first but with growing urgency.
And then he shook, as if with some diseased tremor.
She pulled back with a gasp. His eye shuttered painfully, and he hissed in the back of his throat, snatching his hands from her as if she were burning hot. The agony on his face was painful to watch.
“Tamerlan?” she asked, hearing her voice quaver.
His good eye spun wildly, the other covered by its black patch.
“Run!” he gasped.
She was frozen in place. What should she do? Did he see some danger behind her? She spun, but there was nothing behind her except for that hideous avatar and the ring of the Retribution standing to guard it. They drew their weapons, the sound of steel whispering into the descending night. They were all standing on the defensive, though, not like they were going to attack her.
She was already shaking her head in confusion when she turned back to Tamerlan, but the gaze she met was not his. It was steely hard, a glimmer of rage in the depths of his eyes. He slid his own blade free, a cruel sneer on his face.
She stumbled backward, panic thickening her tongue and making her legs heavy and clumsy.
No.
Not this.
They had him. Somehow, they’d taken him against his will.
But who was it?
“Lila,” she asked tentatively.
His laughter was harsh and mocking. “You wish.”
She was still fumbling for the knife in her belt as one of the Retribution called out, “Treachery!”
They surged past her.
“He used the girl with the Windrose to get past the guards. Someone, grab his gondola!”
There was a scream as she raised her dagger – just in time to see Tamerlan carve his sword through one of the Retribution with the smooth efficiency of a butcher. She gagged as the man fell, eyes lifeless and body mangled.
If that wasn’t Lila, then it certainly wasn’t the Legend raised from among these people. And that meant it was Ram. Ram, who wanted more than any of them to stop her and imprison the dragons forever.
Her breath hitched in her throat and she spun, turning her back on them all and rushing over to the bone cage. This wouldn’t be as simple as destroying Deathless Pirate had been. The cage was locked, and her arms couldn’t reach through the bars. There was a trick to this. She remembered watching Carnelian pick locks. She could do it. She just had to focus.
Behind her, Tamerlan grunted and someone screamed. Ram was winning. He always won. She jiggled her knife into the lock trying to ape what she’d seen the guardswoman do. Just like this ... and then this...
The knife popped out, slicing her thumb wickedly and she gasped.
The door of the cage swung open with a snick of the lock.
Blood. It was always blood when it came to magic. She scowled as she opened the door. Could no one think of a peaceful solution? Must it always be blood and gore and death? She bit her lip, hearing herself as she eased into the cage beside the shade of what had once been a man. Here she was, disdaining violence and she was about to destroy the remnant of this man. Ridiculous. Weak.
She shook her head at herself. Glancing nervously over her shoulder to see Tamerlan holding off two of the Retribution, his blade so fast she couldn’t keep track of it. His gaze met hers – violent and full of rage. She shuddered and spun back to the avatar.
“Don’t!” he roared from across the room. “Don’t you dare touch him!”
She fumbled with the door of the cage, shutting it behind her with an ominous click. That should buy her more time. Somehow. But how would she destroy this Legend? Deathless Pirate had been simple. One blow to his disintegrated body and it had shattered into a thousand lifeless shreds. This one was half-there still. Like a corpse that had not yet putrefied.
Swallowing, she tried stabbing it with her dagger. The dagger caught in the chest of the
avatar – substantial enough to provide some resistance, but not enough to harm him. She drew it out and slashed his throat, biting her lip with horror as she did it. It tore like slashed meat – and that was all. Nothing. No blood. No death. Nothing.
Sobbing tearlessly, she grabbed the avatar and tried to shake it, but it felt dead in her hands, lifeless, useless. This was not what she expected at all.
The screams behind her had quieted. She had only moments.
Desperately, she sawed at the neck of the avatar, her knife too small for the task of decapitating what had once been a human being. Her cuts were rough and raw-edged.
She heard the cage behind her snick when she still wasn’t through the spine. She dropped the knife and grabbed the head in both hands, wrenching it from the body and letting out a warbling cry of horror as it finally came loose. The light around the avatar faded at the same time that the body tumbled forward, a sea of black pearls pouring from the open neck and flooding the bottom of the cage, spilling out onto the floor beyond.
What in all the starry skies was this?
She flung the head away like it could infect her with evil. It landed in the sea of pearls, mouth opening and more pearls spilling onto the floor of the cage. She stumbled to the side, wiping her hands on her trousers and vomiting into the pearls.
She had just done the unspeakable. She had just damned herself in every possible way.
She would have collapsed, but the cage door squeaked open and violent hands grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her from the cage, flinging her out the door and onto the ground. She skidded through blood and gore, and rolling black pearls, trying not to see what was all around her, what she was practically bathed in.
The hall was silent except for her panicked breathing and the sound of the cage being slammed shut.
“It took them hours and all the magic they had to make that avatar,” Ram said with Tamerlan’s voice. He leaned over her, his eyes inches from hers as he spoke and she shuddered, a cry of terror ripping through her as she shut her eyes against that look on his face. The face that should have meant warmth and comfort. The face that meant the end of her. “I will work much more quickly.”
Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series Page 89