Page 17 of Fateless

“Very cryptic,” I muttered. “At least this part is easy.”

Easy, but not pleasant. I hugged the tunnel’s narrow walkway, avoiding the water that flowed through the center channel. Eventually, it would empty into the Dust Sea and be swallowed in the sand. Out of sight, out of mind. Overhead, life in Kovass went on, the bustle of daily life filtering through the drains above and echoing down the endless tunnels. Vendors shouted, civilians milled on the streets, and guards patrolled, the stomp of their boots ringing over the stones. No one suspected that a lone dust rat was creeping through the tunnels below their feet.

I didn’t like it. I wanted to see the sky over my head; thecramped, claustrophobic tunnels made me jumpy. Also, it really,reallystank down there.

I walked for a long time, eventually reaching the intersection marked on the map and turning due west. The tunnel went on, seemingly endless, as I kept looking for the cryptic “door.” Nothing stood out to me, and after a while, I began to worry that I had become lost. Had I missed it somehow? The instructions didn’t give me a lot to go on, but I hadn’t seen any doors, mysterious or otherwise, on my journey through the sewers.

The tunnels grew darker, the walkway I was on getting even more narrow and crumbling. I was on the verge of turning around and retracing my steps when I heard something in the passage beyond.

Freezing in place, I held my breath and listened. Footsteps, walking quietly toward me down a side passage. Someone, or something, was coming toward me.

I closed a hand around one of my daggers, easing back a step. I hadn’t expected to run into anything down here except rodents and bugs, but all sorts of stories existed about things living in the sewers—everything from deranged madmen that ate human flesh to giant roaches mutated on waste and filth. Not that I believed those stories, but none of them sounded pleasant.

I teetered on the verge of fleeing. Of slipping down a side passage and avoiding whatever was coming toward me in the tunnels. But I was also afraid that if I left this particular passage, I would never find it again. I would lose my way in this labyrinthine sewer system where all the tunnels looked the same. And then I would either have to return to Vahn empty-handed, orstart over from the beginning. Neither was an appealing option.

Pressing my back against the crumbling stones, I waited.

The footsteps grew louder, and a voice began drifting through the tunnels, low and mumbling, too soft to make out the actual words. A normal person who had somehow gotten lost in the sewers? Or a disease-ridden cannibal who had lost all semblance of sanity? My heart pounded, and I tightened my grip on my dagger. The person might be harmless, but in my world, it was better to be safe and assume the worst than to be wrong and dead.

I waited until the footsteps were just around the corner, then, with a yell, I lunged, aiming my dagger at what I hoped was neck-height of the stranger. I caught a split-second glance of a startled face, sun-bleached hair and wide blue eyes, before my brain registered that I knew this person. Or at least, I’d seen him before.

“Aagh!” the stranger yelped, smoothly leaping back from my blade. His reaction was immediate; he moved so quickly, I wouldn’t have been able to stab him even if I was truly trying. “Wait wait wait, don’t hurt me,” he said, backing away with both arms raised. “I don’t have anything that you want, I swear.”

“You!” I exclaimed, lowering my weapon. The boy from the rooftop blinked at me, looking just as surprised to see me as I was him. “What are you doing down here?” I demanded.

“What am I doing here?” He shrugged, and that bright grin came creeping back as he recognized me. “Just going where the threads of Fate take me.”

“Fate took you into the sewers?”

“Well, I took me into the sewers.” He laced both handsbehind his head, looking nonchalant. “But I was following where Fate told me to go. I’m a Fatechaser, you see. That’s what we do.”

I shook my head, confused. The Fatechasers were an enigma to pretty much everyone. They wandered the kingdoms and the lands beyond, chasing their fates. Whateverthatmeant. How could you chase your own fate? It made no sense to me, but I wasn’t going to ask him to explain. It was widely stated that talking to a Fatechaser about Fate was akin to repeatedly bashing your forehead against a brick wall, something I wasn’t eager to experience. “But why are you in the sewers in the first place?” I asked instead.

“I really have no idea.” The Fatechaser grinned, completely at ease with the idea. “I just had the strangest feeling that I needed to go into the sewers today. But now the answer seems obvious.” He cocked his head, regarding me in a curious, appraising manner. “I was fated to run into you. That’s the only reason I can see for being here. So here we are.”

“Here we are,” I agreed, and took a step back. I didn’t have time for this, whateverthiswas. “And here I go. So now you can find the nearest ladder out of here and head on back to the surface. It’s not safe down here.”

“Leave?” He seemed genuinely surprised. “Oh no, I can’t leave. I was supposed to find you. We were supposed to run into each other.”

“What?”

“Our first meeting on the rooftop? That was no coincidence. And now I run into you again, wandering through the sewers?” He shook his head with a smile. “There are no accidents, not withme. Our fates are intertwined, our paths connected, and we have to follow them wherever they take us. There’s a reason I ran into you.”

“No, there’s not,” I insisted. I couldn’t have this boy following me into the city of the Deathless King. He would certainly get himself killed. “You can’t come with me,” I told him. “Not where I’m going. Leave now.”

“Sorry,” he said cheerfully. “I don’t question what Fate points me at. Unless you’re going to kill me here, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

I scowled. I didn’t want to hurt this boy, but if I didn’t scare him off and keep him from following me around the city, either he would die, or I would. He might be a Fatechaser, but he had probably never ventured into a mysterious underground city filled with traps, strange magics, and ancient curses. He didn’t seem the type to pick his way through locks, avoid enemies, and keep himself hidden. Or... maybe he was? I admittedly knew very little about Fatechasers, but it didn’t matter. I could not, under any circumstances, fail this mission. Which meant I wasn’t going to be able to look out for him or pull him out of danger if he needed help. I did not need this distraction, even if he was strangely charming.

I was going to have to drive him away. Even if I didn’t want to. He was just going to get us both killed, otherwise. Raising my dagger, I stepped up and pressed the blade against his sternum, the point just shy of drawing blood. “That can be arranged,” I said, feeling him stiffen. “You can’t follow me if you’re dead.”

His piercing blue eyes met mine, unafraid, and the smile he offered held the barest hint of resignation. Raising both hands from his sides, palms turned out, he continued to smile and hold my gaze. “If it is my fate to die in a sewer today, so be it,” he said calmly. “Not the glorious end I would’ve hoped for, but at least my killer is beautiful.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot. He wasn’t being honest, of course; people would say anything with a knife at their throat. But hewasentirely serious about dying in a sewer if that was his fate.

Dammit.Well, he had called my bluff, and I certainly couldn’t kill him now. Not that I was going to, anyway, but it would’ve been impossible with those blue puppy-dog eyes gazing at me without a shred of guile or fear. Stepping back, I lowered the blade with a sigh and glared at him in exasperation.

“Fine,” I said. “Do what you want. Just remember, you’re on your own. Don’t expect me to save your skin if we run into something dangerous.”

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