Bridge of Legends: The Complete Series
Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2020.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
BRIDGE OF LEGENDS: THE COMPLETE SERIES
First edition. April 5, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 Sarah K. L. Wilson.
Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson
Summernight
DEAR READER
1: Summernight Procession
2: Advice of a Friend
3: Scenter
4: The Queen Mer Library
5: Patrol
6: Desperate Measures
7: To Catch a Thief
8: Plans and Hopes
9: Lord Mythos
10: Now or Never
11: Bridge of Legends
12: Grimoire
13: A Curious Crime
14: A Curioser Invitation
15: Noxious Threat
16: Legend Ball
17: Unexpected
18: Sunset Tower
19: Byron Bronzebow
20: Scent of a Name
21: Queen Mer’s Son
22: To Catch a Law Breaker
23: A Gamble
24: For a Sister
25: Rampage
26: Shaking Shame
27: Cold Regret
28: The Chase
29: The Others
30: Summernight
31: Silk Dresses and Swords
32: Hope Twists
33: Breath of Ash
34: Lady Sacrifice
35: Ram the Hunter
36: Flight from the Seven Suns
37: Wake the Dragon
38: Gondola Dash
39: Flotsam Hope
Epilogue
Appendix
Dawnspell
1: Adrift
2: Xin City
3: Hooded Help
4: Cure Mistress
5: A Matter of Debt
6: Whorls and Maps
7: A Sister’s Price
8: Betrothed and Betrayed
9: Windsniffer
10: The Hunt
11: At Home in a Library
12: Chaos Bubbles
13: A Strange Pairing
14: Wind Rose
15: Black and White
16: Tenacity’s Plaything
17: In Tune
18: Rope and Riots
19: Sins of the Father
20: In a Flurry of Wind and Dust
21: Black Plumes
22: Spiral to Destiny
23: Hunting Redemption
24: Map of Deeds
25: Open Eyes
26: Hail the Conquerors
27: Empty Hands and Empty Promises
28: Bloodhound
29: Sealed in Prisons
30: In the Dark of Night
31: Desperate Times
32: Cathedral of the Clock
33: Grandfather Timeless
34: Pendulum
35: Abelmeyer’s Eye
Epilogue
Autumngale
1: Burning City
2: Rain on the River
3: Inside the Clock
4: The Whisper
5: Ivory Cathedral
6: Queen Mer
7: Stalking Shadows
8: Searching Through Time
9: Kidnapped
10: Visions of a Future Past
11: Hunting Time
12: At Home in a Library
13: Meeting of Players
14: Ghostly Guardians
15: Cogs and Gears
16: Lies and Rumors of Lies
17: Choan
18: At Sea
19: Out of Reach
20: Isle of Mer
21: King Abelmeyer
22: Scent of Gold
23: Orange War
24: Chaos Born
25: Stalking Madness
26: Beneath the Embalmer’s Guild
27: Chaos Incarnate
28: Come back!
29: Unthinkable
30: Bell Tower
31: Yellow and Purple Sparks
32: Triumph of the Mother
33: All is Ever Lost
34: Whisper of Rebellion
35. New Legend
36: Fight for Footing
37: Close the Clock
Epilogue
Winterfast
1: Too Silent
2: On a Dragon’s Back
3: So Little Water
4: On a Whiff of Madness
5: Blood is Not Thicker
6: Rajit
7: Scent of a Story
8: From the Shadows
9: Trapped in a Bookbindery
10: Stalked through the Shadows
11: The Road to Ice
12: Too Late
13: What the Histories Say
14: Chase through Bones and Ash
15: Murder
16: Dragon’s Landing
17: Cave Pictures
18: It Can Always Get Worse
19: Into the Darkness
20: What the Lady Sacrifice Died to Hold
21: Journey of Faith
22: Where Journeys Take Us
23: A Voice in the Darkness
24: When Fate We Call
25: And Fate Replies
26: Never Fast Enough
27: Betrayal
Epilogue
Springhatch
1: Running River
2: Ice and Water
3: What Lies Beneath
4: Winter Cold
5: Promises Made
6: Promises Kept
7: Dragonblood Plains
8: Chaos
9: Tangled Hope
10: Arise Vagrant Lord
11: Crushed and Broken
12: Never Say No
13: To Know and Not Know
14: Exodus
15: From Depths to Heights
16: Touch of Queen Mer
17: The Heart of Choan
18: Son of Mer
19: Regrets and Guilt
20: The Welcome of Yan
21: Denials
22: On the Wrong Foot
23: Thievery and Destruction
24: Crown
25: Flight of Yan
26: Three Days
27: Landfall
28: The Other Side of the Ocean
29: Fevers and Nightmares
30: Into Xytexyx
31: Whisper
32: Egg of Dragons
33: Breaking an Avatar
34: Deliverer of Death
Epilogue: Gifts Make a Giver
Behind the Scenes:
For Cale, always.
Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson
Dragon School Series
First Flight
Initiate
The Dark Prince
The Ruby Isles
Sworn
Dusk Covenant
First Message
Warring Promises
Prince of Dragons
Dark Night
Bright Hopes
Mark of Loyalty
Dire Quest
Ancient Allies
Pipe of Wings
Dragon Piper
Dust of Death
Troubled War
Starie Night
Ascendant Light
Dragon Chameleon Series
Rogue’s Quest
Paths of Deception
City of Ice
Mist of Power
Silver Eyes
World of Legends
Chase the Moon
Shadow Quest
Creeping Darkness
Golem Siege
Memory of Mountains
Color of Victory
Dragon Tide
Dragonlet
Dragon Staff
Desperate Flight
Bubbles of Hope
Waves of Destiny
Tides of Change
Keys of Power
Rock Eaters
Underworld
Chosen One
Tangled Fae
Fae Hunter
Fae Captive
Fae Nightmare
The Unweaving Chronicles Series
Teeth of the Gods
Lightning Strikes Twice
Thunder Rattles High
Summernight
Book One
DEAR READER
Please note the map and list of Legends that follows this note. You will likely find them helpful as you read. Enjoy this tangled tale and may your fortunes be much better than those of the five cities of the Dragonblood Plains!
Sarah
1: Summernight Procession
Tamerlan
Legends were coming alive.
Or at least, that was how it felt to Tamerlan as he braced himself against the jostling crowd in the rising mist of the morning. Stale water, anticipation, and the smell of feast-day cakes baking filled the air, warring for dominance. He leaned a little farther over the edge of the railing.
“Come on, little fellow! You can’t stay there or you’ll fall right in!”
He was inches from scooping up the stray dog – a small sharp-nosed black puppy with wild scared eyes. He’d been edged to the very brink of falling into the canal and if Tamerlan couldn’t scoop him up he’d fall right in. The canals of Jingen were no place for dogs. Their slick sides weren’t made for ease of climbing – especially for someone with four feet.
He pushed a little farther, smelling oranges and roses on the breeze as he hung over the railing. Was that Dathan below? His fellow apprentice hung from a sign pole below the railing, looking out over the canal. Fool! He would fall right in
“Excuse me, Apprentice,” a merchant said, jostling past him, his conical hat knocking two other people in the face as he passed. He smelled of oil and figs and his thick belly pressed Tamerlan even closer to the railing. Quiet curses followed him but Tamerlan kept quiet, his face screwing up with concentration as he finally scooped the puppy up.
“Got you!”
The poor little thing tucked his nose into Tamerlan’s armpit, shaking from nose to tail. He wouldn’t be able to keep it. Alchemist Apprentices were little better than property themselves. But he could find a safer place than the edge of a canal.
He pressed through the crowd, keeping the puppy held tight to his leather apprentice apron as he searched for a quiet alley. How many more people would join the crowd before the gondola procession passed through the District of Spices? Already street vendors pushing laden box-carts pressed against priests carrying smoking braziers. Goodwives wearing crisp aprons barely managed to keep hold of bright-eyed children in the press of the crowd.
The people of the Alchemist’s District were layered over the canal like the tiers of a cake, some looking down from red-shingled roofs, some from high windows or balconies, others from along the rail on the street, and some – like his friend Dathan, below – lined the slick, narrow walkways along the canal.
Tamerlan slipped into the alley, glad to find it mostly abandoned with the crowd so obsessed with the coming procession. There was a set of steps leading to a back door and underneath it, a safe looking shadow.
“Will you be okay here?” Tamerlan asked the puppy, tucking him into the space under the steps. “Just keep your head down and no one will notice, yeah? That’s what I do.”
He gave the puppy a last stroke, leaving regretfully. In a perfect world, he could bring the puppy back to his lonely room in The Copper Tincture. In a perfect world, he wouldn’t have been sold as an apprentice to Alchemists, but instead he’d be a librarian or a monk. Something that required a lot of reading and thinking. Something that didn’t involve manhandling crates of spices until he thought his mind would go dull from boredom.
He slipped back into the crowd. He should check on Dathan. He’d been late with his duties three times this week and if Master Kurond caught him hanging from a flagpole, he’d be put on short-rations for a month.
He eased through the crowd and down the crowded steps to the canal below, ignoring angry looks and fierce curses. The rock here was slick. Someone was bound to slip and fall in. It wouldn’t be Tamerlan. He kept a hold of the rockwork, his eyes fixed on the bend of the canal.
An orange cat slid through the crowd – a bad omen. Tamerlan’s mouth went dry at the thought. He wanted no more bad omens. Acid washed up into his mouth and he swallowed it down, ignoring his churning belly. The cat was grabbed by a pair of hands hanging out from a Waverunner boat and pulled inside.
“Just a cat, Apprentice!” a goodwife laughed at his expression. Her face was bright with excitement. “And now a meal for the Waverunners!
He didn’t believe those nasty rumors. Just because the Waverunners never left their small house-boats and gondolas didn’t mean they ate cats. Or at least, he didn’t think so. And if they did, it wasn’t important today.
The crowd murmured with anticipation, a thousand voices whispering the same hopes, a thousand eyes dancing with visions of the season. Some enterprising fool was even playing a lute beside the stone steps that led to the streets above, his tunes a litany of seasonal songs, blessing the waxing of summer, the roundness of fertility, the call of the river, and the strength of growing warmth.
There was something about Summernight that made people forget their everyday lives as the days bled into the night, snatching minutes and hours that didn’t belong to them until the longest day of the year crowned the season.
Tamerlan made his way carefully through the crowd, trying not to step on feet or elbow anyone. He felt tight and ragged inside. He’d heard a rumor yesterday. Just something in passing. But it had him worried. If the Legends would truly rise and walk the city again on Summernight – as the tale went – then why couldn’t they rise now? Why couldn’t they come when he might need them? Legends were as useless as wishes.
Enough of that. He wasn’t a dreamy boy anymore with the luxury of imagining Legends walking the earth. He was a man with responsibilities – like keeping his friend out of trouble.
If he didn’t get to Dathan in time the fool might even break an arm - then he’d be in real trouble. He tried to keep from glancing at the canal. He’d look when the procession arrived. He’d watch then. But what if she went by and he never even caught a glimpse? Or what if it wasn’t her at all, but he never found out. What if guilt and grief still ate at his heart a bite at a time? He shook his head, trying to clear it.
“Dathan!” He called to his friend as soon as he saw him. Dathan stood out in the crowd just like Tamerlan did by wearing the uniform of Alchemist apprentices – a thick leather apron and rolled sleeves to reveal arms burned with acid scars. They were all fresh scars. Dathan had only been an apprentice for a year – bought from a destitute farm family in a landhold to the east of Jingen. He’d taken to city life better than Tamerlan had – he was more social – but it was only last week that Tamerlan had to hunt him down and help him finish his tasks before sundown. They’d traveled by gondola on this very canal. Strange how last week felt a million years away.
Dathan was stretched out along the sign pole, trying to get the best possible view of the procession when it finally turned the corner into the Spice District. Tamerlan rubbed sweating palms on his apron. He needed to get his friend down before that procession arrived. What if Dathan saw his relief when it turned out his suspicions
were groundless – or watched him break when he turned out to be right? He’d never live that down.
And he would break.
He was close already – his nerve endings all alert, his hair on end, his senses sharper than ever. But he needed to deal with the problem in front of him first. Dathan might fall into the canal and drown if he wasn’t careful. His tools – strapped to the apron as usual – would sink him to the bottom in the blink of an eye if he lost his grip. He wouldn’t bob right back up like the street urchins across the way who even now were diving to find coins in the wrecks of ruined gondolas.
The sound of a dozen throats sucking in their breath made him stand on his toes to look. Had the procession arrived?
No. Just another fool falling from the street above to the canal ledge. A duck quacked loudly and took off, feet slapping the water as he fought to gain height.
“Get off me you son of a -!”
Chaos swirled as some people dove for lost belongings and stooped for coins while others tried to grab for what had never been theirs.
The poor fool who fell was kicked into the canal and left to sputter and grope at the slick stone walls. Unless he found a friendly gondola, he’d have to swim a long way to find an entrance to street level again.
Tamerlan lunged forward, scrambling along the narrow stone ledge – just wide enough for a hand-cart – that rimmed the canal.
“Dathan!” he called. He was prodded with elbows as he passed. He felt the blows – there would be bruises tomorrow – but this was his chance. That was a chance worth gambling on. “Let me help you down! It’s not safe up there!”
He tried not to flinch at the cries of pain from the crowd where he passed. He wasn’t trying to injure – but he chewed his lip as he watched Dathan rocking on the sign pole. He still hadn’t noticed Tamerlan and that perch was tenuous, the sign pole creaking under the weight.
He climbed up the side of the wall, fingers feeling for the cracks between the stone as he tried to reach his friend. The toes of his worn leather boots scraped along the side of the slick stone wall, catching any purchase they could find. Dragon’s guts, but it stank along the canal! What was rotting in those murky waters?
“Son of a Legend! Would you stay put?” one of the onlookers cursed, dodging Tamerlan’s kicking feet. “First one fool, then another!”
“Dathan!”
“Tam! Look at the view! Come on up!”
And then he was level with the sign pole. Fresher air prevailed here. Peonies and roses in garlands were strung along the rail to the street above for the Summernight Festival. He breathed them in, trying to find calm in their familiar scents.