“Would he do anything for that, Marielle?” Tamerlan asked leaning in. She was uncomfortably aware of his strength and height as he loomed over her. He could snap her like a twig. Just like he’d snapped those poor partiers in the Temple District.
She shivered and then shrugged her answer.
“Would he destroy other cities? Other lives?” he pressed.
“He’s a good man under everything,” she said. But she wasn’t certain. After all, Tamerlan seemed like a good man, too – sometimes. And the things he had done had stained him forever. “Maybe he can control it.”
“It can’t be controlled,” Tamerlan said quietly. “It can only be contained.”
He grabbed her wrists in his hands, but it didn’t feel like he was trying to contain her. The look in his eyes was pleading and the spike in his emotions was a bright orange pulse of desperation.
“Please, Marielle.” His eyes were wide and pleading. “Please help me hunt him down. Please help me stop him from making the same mistakes I did.”
“How?” she asked. But, of course, she couldn’t go with him. She needed to be here to help Anglarok and Liandari.
“Be my bloodhound. Follow his scent. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep us on his trail.”
“He might not be far,” Marielle said. Tamerlan was making it sound like they’d have to follow him for days over mountains and plains. Meanwhile, he might just be next door talking to Allegra.
There was something beautiful about Tamerlan’s intensity. All his features went sharper as he spoke.
“I need you, Marielle. I need your help,” His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “Please.”
She swallowed, pulling her hands away. “Put some clothes on. You can’t go chasing him while you’re half- naked.”
Tamerlan looked down, his face darkening as if he hadn’t realized how little he was wearing.
She really shouldn’t go. She still thought he was dangerous. She still owed more to the Harbingers. And yet – she could have prevented the massacre in the Temple District if she hadn’t let Tamerlan go free that night. She could have prevented the fall of Jingen. She could have prevented everything if she’d just followed her own moral code instead of being persuaded to give him a chance.
Now, she was being asked again if she would try to stop disaster. She was being given a second chance. She didn’t dare pass it up.
“Gather your things and meet me below in ten minutes,” she said. “And be quiet. Liandari is hurt and we are not to wake her.”
His excited expression was worrying, but the hungry scent flickering in the middle of his desperation was even worse. She was going to regret this.
28: Bloodhound
Tamerlan
TAMERLAN HAD BEEN RIGHT about Etienne. He was not next door. He was not in the Spice District. Likely, he wasn’t even in the city. But the route he’d taken was – unconventional.
Tamerlan had no sooner opened the door to the streets – still tightening his belt-pouch straps, slinging his jute bag over his shoulder, and hefting a small satchel Marielle had shoved at him – when she broke past him, nose forward, expression crisp and alert like the bloodhound he’d called her. She sprung from the steps of the inn, rushing into the crowd. Scarf swirling in the wind behind her.
“Wait!” he called, grabbing her arm.
She whirled, expression awash with irritation.
“I need to tell Jhinn where we are. He’s waiting,” Tamerlan said quickly. Despite her small size the intensity of her gaze made him step back.
“Hurry!” she barked, spinning again and stepping almost subconsciously forward.
He ran to where Jhinn had dropped them off along the canal. Hopefully, he was still there. If they were going to track Etienne, they were going to need a gondola.
“Jhinn!” he called before he’d even reached the canal. “Jhinn!”
He reached the railing, leaning down to see him there, standing in his gondola, craning his neck up to see Tamerlan. Tamerlan ducked under the rail and dropped down over the side of the wall and into the boat.
“You’re in a hurry. You look almost as crazy as Etienne did,” Jhinn commented with a yawn.
“You saw him? You saw Etienne?” Tamerlan gasped.
“You didn’t tell me you were spreading those spirits around,” he said.
And just like that, the Legends in Tamerlan’s mind woke up again.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Ram the Hunter.
He stole your recipe! Now you’ve got some competition, pretty man! Lila Cherrylocks.
We will find him and bring him to justice. No nobles for us! Byron Bronzebow.
The cruel cackling of Lady Chaos rang out behind them all and then a new voice stuttered to life.
There’s no treasure in this burned out hulk. Try north. Raiding inland cities can be fun if you know how they’re fortified. Deathless Pirate.
Now that he’d called a new Legend, he was stuck with him.
“Etienne had a spirit with him?” Tamerlan asked.
“He was possessed by one just like you. If you think I’m gonna smoke that stuff, you can think again. I kept your stash, and I rolled more for you, and I lied to Etienne and told him I knew nothing about any of that, and told him to hire someone else to take him upriver, but I’m not calling any spirits myself. That’s your job.”
Tamerlan’s heart was in his throat as he asked, “What spirit did you see with him?”
“Possessing him, you mean? Grandfather Timeless. And trust me, he’s not a nice grandfather. A cruel old man is more accurate.”
Dragon’s spit in a cup! He’d been taken over by Grandfather Timeless? But how long could that last? One smoking would only last a few hours.
“He had herbs with him,” Jhinn said. “I don’t know if they’ll be enough, but they were stuffed into a satchel and I could see the edges of some of the leaves sticking out.”
“Can you follow us through the city? I’m tracking where he went with Marielle, but his path might not go along the canals.”
“Shouldn’t we just go to the river? That’s the way out of the city.”
“But on which side? I don’t know where he’s headed. But I would guess it’s somewhere out of town.”
“I would guess it’s wherever the Grandfather wants to take him.”
Tamerlan nodded briskly. He needed to get back to Marielle before she tore through the city without him.
“Here,” Jhinn said, grabbing his bags and tossing them into the boat and then shoving a small whistle into his hand. “Blow this every few minutes and I’ll hear it and stay close in the canals.”
Tamerlan grinned. “You’re a good friend, Jhinn.”
“Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold!”
Tamerlan blew the whistle, and then, with a laugh, he hopped onto the lip of the canal and ran to the nearest staircase and back up into the street.
Where was Marielle? Not where he’d left her, and no surprise there.
He blew the whistle when he reached the point where he’d asked her to stay and then he ran on, glancing up each alley and side street until he finally found her hopping up and down on her toes at a crossroads.
“Come on!” she said, grabbing his arm the second she saw him and surging through the growing crowd.
“Best honey wafers! Break your fast this fine Dawnspell!” one vendor was crying as they passed his red cart, their feet flying across the cobbles.
“He went this way,” Marielle said, weaving between a man pushing a barrow of lumber and a woman wheeling a cart of honey in jars.
“Watch it!” the man with the timber said. “We need this to rebuild my shop! Dragon take you if I spill the load!”
“As if timber is more important than honey on Dawnspell!” the woman argued, her red face growing redder. “There is no Xin without the holidays. No shop at all without customers and the ceremonies keep us from the judgment of the Legends!”
“Ha! Tell that to my wif
e!”
But their voices were already fading as Tamerlan blew the whistle beside a canal railing and then Marielle gripped his arm, dragging him down a lonely side street and emerging on the other side near to where the cliffs rose up into the Government District.
Tamerlan felt worry crawl in his belly. What if Lord Mythos wasn’t leaving town at all? What if his plans involved the palace here and Tamerlan’s sister? He swallowed down rising bile. The thought of the Lord Mythos near his sister again brought back too many memories. He looked down at his hands and the memory of them bathed bright in blood made him shudder.
He blew the whistle, hoping Jhinn could hear from so far away, but they were already ascending the stairs up, up, up the white cliffs between the Districts.
“This way,” Marielle said. Her eyes were bright with the hunt. Every muscle tense, every sense employed. She was beautiful as a hunting bird, as a falcon, as a hawk wheeling in the air. He imagined her in another life, soaring on wings with perfect feathers, bucking the updrafts, diving in wide arcs, hunting by sight and scent until her prey was cornered and helpless. As he had been when she’d let him go. As Etienne would be when he was found.
“Tamerlan?” her question interrupted him, and he shook himself. He’d paused as the daydream swallowed him. There was no time for that. None of the Legends were safe and one on the loose wasn’t something to wink at. Not even Grandfather Timeless.
Grandfather Timeless is the most dangerous Legend to be loose! He has plans. And this is his festival.
“Sorry,” he said with a half-smile and Marielle nodded sharply, pulling him through the crowds. “Can you smell which – I mean, can you smell if he’s set one of the Legends free?”
He grabbed her by the arms, pulling her from the path of a rumbling cart at the last second. Her eyes never left her trail. Tamerlan could have traced it with chalk even though he couldn’t see it himself, just by following her gaze.
“I can smell magic. That’s all. And him. I can smell him.”
A pang of jealousy flashed across his heart at the thought of her doing something so intimate as drawing Etienne’s scent into her lungs. Now, why would that bother him so much? Why should he feel jealousy over something he didn’t own and never could?
She stepped out across a surge of people and Tamerlan forced his way forward, using his body to block the crowd from bowling her over. She really wasn’t watching anything except for the scent!
“I think he’s possessed by Grandfather Timeless,” he said as she led him out of the heavier crowds to a small walkway between buildings. A last elbow struck him in the ribs, and he breathed a sigh of relief as they cleared the crowds. Honeysuckle hung heavily on arches over the path and she seemed momentarily distracted by the scent of it before she continued on her path. “It is said that Grandfather Timeless wrote all our lives in time already, before they were ever lived or even conceived of. He chronicled every daydream, every idle thought, every shattered hope.”
She glanced back at him, a mixture of curiosity and revulsion in her expression. Why revulsion?
Girls don’t like men making decisions for them, Lila Cherrylocks offered.
“Then why live life at all?” Marielle asked. “If it’s already been written?”
“Because the joy is in the living,” Tamerlan said simply.
“Joy for who?” Marielle asked as they emerged where a canal ran alongside the Government District.
Tamerlan blew his whistle and then looked down at her. “Well, that’s the big question, isn’t it?”
He winked, but she just shook her head as if he was exasperating her. Didn’t she like thinking about life’s big questions?
Not when she’s trying to get something done.
Jhinn’s little gondola emerged a moment later and he waved to them with a smile.
“Is that what the whistle is for?” Marielle asked, surprise in her face.
“How else would he find us?”
“Good,” she said, her expression sharp, her tone all business. “I think he left town through a back way at the rear of the Government District. I smell water and brass there. I suspect there are locks for the gondola. Let’s go.”
“Still on the trail?” Jhinn asked as Tamerlan and Marielle stepped from the canal step to the gondola he’d just pulled up alongside them.
Marielle scrambled to the front of the boat, sitting on top of the smooth wood that covered the forward compartment.
“This way,” she said, pointing ahead.
Tamerlan boarded a bit more carefully. He’d worn everything that Etienne had provided for him – including metal armor. One false move and the gondola could capsize, and he would sink to the bottom.
He settled himself carefully on the seat.
“Lose the metal,” Jhinn said wryly. “And get ready to row. I have a bad feeling that he’s well ahead of you by now.”
29: Sealed in Prisons
Tamerlan
“I’VE LOST THE SCENT. It smells like it’s hours old, but that just doesn’t make sense!” Marielle said, her voice wavering as they reached the bottom of the locks and shot out past the wharves and into the river.
This branch of the Cerulean – known as the North Branch – was rough. A wind was rising, blowing from inland and bringing the scents of growing things and fecund earth.
Marielle stood, holding the ferro and leaning out over a new lantern – when had Jhinn found time to replace that? – and scenting the wind. Her face was screwed up in a mixture of perplexity and frustration.
“It was here a moment ago and now it smells hours old. That makes no sense!”
Makes perfect sense. Grandfather Timeless controls time. I feel like I shouldn’t have to say that.
Lila Cherrylocks must have been insufferable when she was alive.
I didn’t spend much time with idiots, so it wasn’t a problem. Clearly, he’s bending time to his will. You’re lagging pretty far behind. This would be a good time to open the Bridge and catch up!
Of course, she would say that. She was just itching to get out. But what good would having Lila Cherrylocks be in a boat? She couldn’t row any faster with his arms than he could, and she couldn’t bend time.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth! You’d be surprised at the kind of things I can do.
Uh huh. Like going off on her own quest and completely forgetting what he was after? No. Tamerlan had learned his lesson. He couldn’t rely on the Legends and he wouldn’t try.
His resolve began to fail after the first few hours in the beating sun.
Marielle had slumped in the bottom of the boat, worn out from trying to smell a scent long cold, while Jhinn and Tamerlan rowed against a hard wind, bucking against the waves battling against them one after another. Even on a good day, it would be difficult travel, but with their current frustration and discouragement, it was worse. It wore at them until Marielle fell asleep. Jhinn and Tamerlan fought the waves in silence. The wind was too loud to hear each other speak and they were too frustrated to have anything encouraging to say.
It was well past noon when they found the hulk of a family boat floating in the river and a few minutes later when they found the boat that had saved them, both families huddled against the harsh wind.
“Your boat looks like it burned,” Jhinn called over the wind. “Mer send you all were saved!”
“Mer had nothing to do with it!” one of the women on the boat said, shaking an angry middle-aged fist at the sky. “It was a man dressed in black. He demanded to know what time it was and when we told him, he lit our boat on fire! He said it was ‘too late.’ As if we have any control over the time of day! We lost everything! Everything.”
Her husband patted her on the shoulder, his own eyes hollow and worn and as Jhinn exchanged consolations with them, Tamerlan felt his blood running cold. He shook Marielle awake.
“Do you smell him now?”
She woke to immediate sharpness, scrambling to her feet and thrusting her nose
forward.
“He was here,” she confirmed. He’s all over this place. It’s fresh. Only a few hours old.”
Jhinn said his goodbyes, and Tamerlan spoke condolences, but Marielle’s eyes were fixed on the horizon as they pulled back into the river.
“Just up ahead,” she called over the wind.
Tamerlan felt his mouth go dry. They were not far behind. In this wind, Jhinn’s fleet craft and two men rowing just had to be enough to overtake the Lord Mythos, possessed or not.
But when they reached the next bend of the river, Marielle was shaking her head again.
“I don’t understand it. It’s like he’s here one minute and then gone the next! The trail has vanished. It smells days old!”
Tamerlan patted her arm.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Maybe we’ll find it again.”
But as she slumped again, discouraged, he felt his own mind racing. What would happen if you had a Legend possessing you who could hop through time? Could you go back and fix mistakes from the past?
Unlikely, Byron Bronzebow said sharply. Things that happened tend to stay happened.
But Etienne was hopping and jumping in time. So why wasn’t he headed to Jingen to fix their mistakes and restore the city? That’s what Tamerlan would do if he was given the chance and he could have sworn that Etienne felt the same way. Of course, if anyone knew how fickle the Legends could be, it was Tamerlan. Maybe Etienne wasn’t getting what he wanted from the Legend any more than Tamerlan usually did.
A Legend inhabiting a person through the Bridge of Legends is not a powerful enough connection to do so great a Feat as restoring a city.
Lila pronounced ‘feat’ like it had a capital letter – like it meant something akin to ‘Legend.’
Legends produce Feats. They are our great acts. Like when I stole the Abercauler Crown. Or when Abelmeyer used his Eye to chain the city dragons. They are our great acts that define our lives and generation. To step back and restore an entire city? That would be a Feat. And to do that, a Legend would have to walk in the flesh.
“But that’s impossible,” Tamerlan said.
Dawnspell Page 17
