Finale (Caraval, 3)

A full day had come and gone and Legend was still dead. He needed to come back to life. Legends weren’t supposed to die, and Tella wasn’t done with him yet.

“How long does it usually take him to return to life?” she’d asked Julian during their initial journey to the count’s estate.

“It’s usually shortly after sunrise, always less than a day,” Julian had answered. It had been difficult to get him to say much more. Tella sensed there was magic at play that kept him from revealing too many secrets. He did confess that Legend had a connection to all his performers—Julian would sense it when Legend was alive again—and if Legend wanted to find Julian, he’d easily be able to do so. But Legend hadn’t appeared and Julian still hadn’t sensed him.

Tella didn’t know what time it was now, only that it felt like the darkest part of the night as she and Julian exited the count’s estate to head to the Vanished Market.

Jacks had said the Vanished Market could be summoned by going to a set of ruins to the west of the Temple District. Since Nicolas lived outside the city, the trek was several miles. Julian was silent for much of it. The type of silent that made Tella think he planned to hold his breath the entire time Scarlett was away.

Tella could have done the same thing. She was all for making mistakes and doing better next time. But Tella feared that if Scarlett took one wrong step, there might not be a next time.

Tella sent a prayer up to the saints—even the ones she didn’t like that much. She added a prayer for Legend’s safe return as well, but she knew it wasn’t up to the saints.

Legend had only one weakness that could allow him to be truly killed: love.

She’d been trying not to think about it. She didn’t want to remember the way she’d practically begged him to love her just before he’d been killed.

That night she hadn’t fully believed him when he’d said he wasn’t capable of loving her. She’d believed he was just afraid of it because he didn’t want to sacrifice his immortality and become human. And now she understood why.

She told herself to stop worrying. This was Legend, and he was ruthless when it came to magic and immortality. He would never let himself die for love. But Tella still found herself trying to remember the way he’d kissed her the night of the maze. Had he only felt lust, desire, and obsession that night? Or had his kiss been fueled by love? There’d been a moment during the maze when she’d thought the words I want to keep you had sounded possessive instead of romantic. But now, she found herself hoping he’d only felt the feelings she’d found so hurtful that evening.

“We’re almost there,” Julian said.

Tella could now see a vague outline in the distance. In the dark it was hard to tell the difference between stones and shadows, but it looked as if the ruins ahead of them contained a road, lined in fossilized trees, with crumbling archways at either end and a few frighteningly lifelike statues, which Tella desperately hoped weren’t petrified humans.

At least there weren’t any Fates around.

Tella halted just before they reached the edge of the ruins in a perfect patch of pale white moonlight.

“Am I foolish?” she asked.

Julian stopped and looked down at her. “Depends on what you’re referring to. If you’re talking about the fact that you’re planning to make a blood sacrifice to visit one of the Fated places based on the words of another Fate, then no, because I’m here and I’m not a fool. But if you’re talking about anything involving my brother, you might be.”

“Thank you for putting that so gently,” Tella said.

Julian gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “I’m just trying to be honest. When I lie it gets me in trouble with your sister.”

“I don’t want you to lie. I just wish you had something true to say that I wanted to hear.”

He rubbed a hand across his jaw. The combination of moonlight and shadows made him look a little bit like his brother, a little sharper, a little harsher. But even in the dim, Julian’s gaze was softer and kinder than Legend’s ever was.

“If you want me to tell you that my brother will love you someday, I can’t. I’ve known him my entire life. I’m one of the few people who knew him before he became Legend, and he’s never loved anyone. But he has other good qualities. He doesn’t give up or quit, and if you matter to him, he’ll make you feel more important than anyone in the world, and…” He trailed off, as if he wanted to stop, but then added reluctantly, “I do think you matter to him.”

But was that enough?

“Now, come on,” Julian said gruffly. “If Legend were to come back right now, he might kill me for letting you stand in the road so exposed.”

“Wait.” Tella jumped in front of Julian before he could continue into the ruins.

“I just have one more question. He asked me to become an immortal.”

“That’s not a question, Tella.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Tella thought she’d known. She’d wanted Legend’s love, but his death had made her realize she could never ask for his love again.

“That’s still not a question,” Julian said. “Even if it was, that’s a choice I wouldn’t want to make for anyone.” He started to walk past her, but then he stopped and turned around. “If you do say yes, make absolutely sure it’s what you want. There’s no going back from becoming an immortal.”

“Unless I fall in love.”

Julian shook his head. “Don’t count on that happening. Immortals can’t fall in love with each other, and very few humans tempt them to love. No matter what my brother’s done, I’ve never stopped loving him, but he’s never loved me back.” Julian’s voice was perfectly even, as if it didn’t really hurt, but Tella knew it had to destroy him. Legend was his brother. She couldn’t imagine how devastating it would feel if her sister didn’t love her.

But Tella sensed Julian didn’t want her pity. He turned around almost as soon as he finished and walked toward the ruins with a quickness to his steps that made it clear he didn’t want her to catch up right away.

When he did slow down, they searched the ruins together in silence. He’d said all there was to say, and even without Fates lurking nearby, they knew they needed to be discreet. They didn’t use torches to seek the hourglass symbol, which Tella feared they would never find. Julian claimed to have perfect night vision, but despite what he’d said about not lying earlier, she was doubtful of this claim.

“Found it!” he said, smug and too loudly.

The hourglass was no bigger than a palm, hidden inside of a dilapidated stone arch, and gleaming as if lit by magic. It gave just enough illumination for Tella to see that spikes jutted out from the top of it, as if begging for the blood Tella needed to use in order to summon the market.

“Are you sure you still want to go in alone?” Julian asked.

“Every hour inside is a day that passes out here,” she reminded him. “If for any reason Scar tries to use her key to find you, it’s not safe for her inside the market. She could get caught by the Fallen Star if she takes too long to return to the Menagerie.”

“What if she looks for you instead?”

“Now that’s sweet of you,” Tella said. “But I think we both know that she won’t come looking for me with the key.”

Tella had only watched from the hayloft when Scarlett had first returned, so she’d not heard all that had been said between Scarlett and Julian, but she’d seen the way Scarlett had looked at him. It was the look some people lived their whole lives waiting for, and others lived their whole lives without receiving. It was the look that Tella had kept hoping she’d see from Legend.

“I’ll always be her sister, you can’t steal that role from me. But I think you’re her first love now, and you should be. If you kept choosing your brother over my sister, I wouldn’t think you deserved her. All that I ask is that you don’t muck it up. Don’t just love her back, Julian, fight for her every day.”

“I intend to.”

With that Tella pressed her fingers into one of the spikes at the top of the hourglass and let her blood drop onto the etched stone.

Ethereal light poured from the archway. Suddenly, Tella saw an old, crooked road lined with foreign trees on the verge of losing all their brilliant red leaves. Between the trees, tents spread out like colorful bird wings, all littered with bits of nature and wear. These were not the magical tents that Tella had seen during the first Caraval. Legend’s tents were perfect stretches of smooth silk, while these were covered in tattered brocades and lined in weatherworn tassels. Yet there was still something unearthly about them. Just as Tella turned her head to nod good-bye to Julian, she swore the tents all shifted, and for a moment the wears and tears disappeared and they looked even more dazzling than the tents of Caraval.

Tella boldly stepped through the arch and into the Vanished Market.

It felt like entering an illustrated history book. Women wore bell-sleeved dresses with dropped waists and low-slung belts made of heavy embroidery, while the men wore homespun shirts that laced up in the front, and loose pants tucked into wide-brimmed boots.

Between the tents, children dressed in similar clothes pretended to fight with wooden swords, or sat braiding wreaths out of flowers.

“Greetings! Greetings! Greetings! The Vanished Market is at your service. You might not walk away with what you want, but we’ll give you what you need!” hollered a man dressed like a herald, as Tella ventured farther in.

Clearly they were used to visitors from other times. None of them seemed to care that the calf-length dress and worn leather boots she’d borrowed from a servant did not fit in. If anything, it seemed to excite everyone.

“Hello, sweeting, would you like something to brighten up your ashen complexion and bring your beloved back?” A woman wearing a thin gold circlet around her brow held out an amulet full of blushing pink liquid.

“What about some fresh roasted seaweeds?” another vendor called. “They heal broken hearts and noses.”

“She doesn’t want your rotted weeds. They don’t cure anything! What the young lady really needs is this.” The merchant across from him, a heavily wrinkled man with several missing teeth, thrust out an elaborate beaded headdress as broad as a parasol, with streaming veils as thin as spiderwebs. “If you are not careful, milady, soon your skin will be as lined as mine.”

“Don’t tell the girl that. She’s beautiful!” cried a dark-skinned woman in an ivory wimple. Her shop was the most crowded of the bunch. There weren’t even tables inside, just glistening piles of the peculiar. “Here, peer into my mirror, child.” The woman shoved her arm in front of Tella.

“I’m not—” Tella broke off as she caught a clear gaze of the mirror. Its edges were covered in thick swirls of molten gold, just like the Aracle—a Fated object that Tella had relied upon a little too much when it had been trapped inside of a card.

Tella didn’t know if it was the actual Aracle now free from the cards, but she quickly averted her eyes and took a rapid step back, before it could show any ill images of the future.

“In the correct hands, it will reveal more than your reflection,” the woman cooed.

“I’m not interested! I like my reflection as it is.” Tella continued to stumble away. After that she tried her best not to be distracted as merchants attempted to sell her brushes that would ensure she’d never lose her hair, drops that would turn her eyes any color she wished, and a disturbing dessert called hummingbird pie.

Every vendor was friendly and a little too eager, as if Tella were the first guest in centuries, which might have been the case, since the Vanished Market had been trapped in a cursed Deck of Destiny, too.

“I have shoes that will keep you from ever getting lost. They’re yours if you trade me all of your pretty locks of hair.” This enthusiastic vendor already had a heavy pair of shears in his hands.

Tella was certain he’d have chopped off all her hair without any permission if she’d not quickly darted into the next tent. It was emptier than the others, with nothing but a pair of turquoise-and-peach-striped curtains that fell from the fabric roof to the dirt floor.

A strikingly beautiful girl, about Tella’s age, with flawless skin and lovely cobalt eyes the same color as her hair, sat in front of the curtains on a tall stool. She greeted Tella with an incandescent smile, but Tella swore that paintings had more depth in their eyes. Unlike the other vendors, this girl didn’t offer to sell anything. She just kicked her legs back and forth like a young child.

Tella almost turned to leave, when another woman slowly shuffled forward from in between the curtains. This one was much older, with wrinkled skin and dull blue hair that looked like a washed-out version of the young girl’s. They had the same cobalt eyes as well, but while the younger girl’s were vacant, this crone’s eyes were sharp and shrewd.

Tella felt as if she were looking at two different versions of the same person. One had lost her youth while the other had lost her mind.

“Are the two of you sisters?” Tella hazarded.

“We’re twins,” replied the older one.

“How?” Tella blurted. Not that it mattered. All she should have cared about was that this was the place she was looking for. But something about these twins filled her stomach with lead.

The younger sister continued kicking her legs pleasantly while the elder sister’s lined face turned somber. “A long time ago we made a bargain that cost us far more than we’d expected. So be warned. Do not trade with us unless you are willing to pay unforeseen costs. We offer no returns or exchanges. There are no second chances. Once you purchase a secret from us, it’s yours, we will remember it no more, just as you will forget whatever we have taken from you.”

“Are you trying to get customers or scare them away?” Tella asked.

“I’m attempting to be fair. We don’t set out to trick our patrons, but the nature of our bargains means no one ever truly knows what they are gaining or losing.”

Tella didn’t actually need to be told this. She knew a bargain made in a Fated place would probably cost her more than she realized. But if they possessed a secret that would reveal a weakness capable of killing the Fallen Star, she couldn’t turn away. Fates were dangerous, but they kept their promises, and the Vanished Market promised people who entered would find what they needed. And Tella needed a secret. She needed it so that her sister would no longer be in danger, so that people wouldn’t be strung up like marionettes, and so that no one else could be killed like her mother, Legend, or Nicolas.

“All right,” Tella said. “What will it cost me to find out a secret about a Fate?”

“Depends on the Fate and the type of secret.”

“I want to know how to kill the Fallen Star.”

“That’s not a secret, precious. Immortals have only one weakness. Love.”

“But he must have another weakness—one he doesn’t want anyone to know about.” A way that would get her sister out of danger, because if love was the Fallen Star’s only weakness, then Scarlett was the most likely person to defeat him, or die trying.

Tella couldn’t let her sister die. And yet she felt as if she could hear the clock on Scarlett’s life ticking as the younger, blue-haired sister continued kick-kick-kicking her feet while the older one closed her eyes in thought.

“I do have one of his secrets,” she said after a time. Then she turned to her younger sibling. “Millicent, dear, open the vault.”

The youthful girl pulled on a brassy tassel that Tella hadn’t noticed before and the heavy curtains behind the older woman immediately parted, revealing row after row after row of shelves lined in ancient treasure chests. They came in all sizes and colors. Some appeared to be crumbling with age, others shined with wet varnish. A few looked no bigger than Tella’s palm while several were large enough to fit dead bodies.

After a minute or so the older sister returned from between the shelves holding a square chest of red jasper with a heart on top of it that had fire painted around it. At a glance the orange and yellow paint appeared slightly chipped, and a little dull. But when Tella lifted her gaze up toward the older sister’s face, the image flickered and for a moment she saw genuine flames lick the heart.

“If you use the secret inside correctly, it will help you defeat the Fallen Star. However”—the woman held the box closer to her chest—“before I can let you have it, I will need a secret from you.”

“Do I get to choose the secret?” Tella asked.

The woman gave her a peculiar smile, one that lit her eyes without actually moving her mouth. “I’m afraid your secrets aren’t valuable enough to trade, Miss Dragna. The secret we want belongs to your daughter.”

“I don’t have a daughter.”

“You will. We have met you in our past and in your future, and we know you will have a daughter someday.”

“Do you know who the father of this daughter is?” The new voice was low and deep and the sound of it made Tella’s heart race twice as fast.

She spun around.

Everything in the Vanished Market blurred, colors merging together as if the world around her was moving too fast, except for the handsome boy standing in front of her, taking up the entire doorway to the tent.

Legend was there.