Page 20 of Fateless

“And... where is that?” Halek wondered.

“I have no idea,” I confessed. “And by the way, yes, Iamlooking for something in particular. I just can’t tell you what it is.”

The Fatechaser nodded, seeming unconcerned. “Fair enough.” He smiled. “Well then, shall we go and see for ourselves?”

We climbed from the ditch onto the streets of the ancient city, still gazing around in wonder. Kovass was the largest city this side of the Dust Sea, a sprawling behemoth of wealth, industry, and power. Because of the underground ocean, the city possessed the one thing that no one could live without: an infinite supply of water.

This city, broken, crumbling, and shattered, made Kovass seem small. In its prime, it must’ve been staggering.

“This is amazing,” Halek mused as we walked down one of the raised streets. He kept his voice hushed, barely above a whisper. The city around us was eerily silent and dead, but I couldn’tshake the feeling of eyes on me, watching from hidden nooks and crannies. “Can you imagine what it would’ve looked like at its peak? I wonder how many people lived here.”

“And what happened to them when the city fell,” I muttered.

The street emptied into a large square, shattered white stone columns surrounding the perimeter. I couldn’t be certain, but the stones beneath our boots felt like marble. Which would’ve been ludicrously expensive. I’d heard that the king’s palace in Kovass had floors made of marble and gold, but us poor commoners had to be content with limestone and mud.

In the center of the square stood an enormous statue of what I thought was a person, though it was hard to tell, as the top half of the figure was missing. I looked down at the map again, Halek peering over my shoulder.

“I think we’re here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the map that did look like some kind of open square. “Looks like we’re getting closer.”

A breath of wind smelling of dust and dry leaves whispered through the square. It slithered across my skin and raised the hairs on my arms. At my waist, the glowstone flickered and went out.

My stomach turned, and I instinctively looked around for a place to hide. The openness of the square made my skin itch. It felt like the eyes of the city had turned inward, searching for the intruders in its midst. I darted across the stones to the nearest clump of shadow, leaving Halek to scramble after me.

Reaching one of the broken columns, I ducked behind it and peered out at the square. Halek pressed close, his heat andnearness making my nerves prickle.

“Did you see something?” he whispered. He had smartly closed his hand over his own glowstone, dousing the light. I pressed a finger to my lips and scowled at him, and his other hand went to cover his mouth.

A sound drifted across the stones—faint, shuffling footsteps, like someone dragging a wounded foot behind them. Biting my lip, I watched as something emerged on the other side of the square.

It was humanoid, and at first, that was all I could see. Wrapped in tattered gray rags, it limped slowly across the ground, dragging a long strip of cloth behind it.

My skin crawled, and an icy chill crept up my spine. There was something inherently...wrongabout this creature. Not natural. As it continued across the square, drawing closer to our hiding place, the dragging cloth caught on a jutting corner of rock. The creature was jerked to a halt, but with a tearing sound, the cloth tore away, revealing dry, bleached bones underneath.

I bit my lip to stifle a horrified gasp. There was no skin, no flesh, just stripped leg bones that somehow still carried the shuffling body across the square, its top half still wrapped in rags. I could see why it was limping now—its left foot was missing. The broken ankle joint made faint clicking, scraping sounds as it hobbled over the stones and then vanished into the shadows.

Behind me, Halek let out a slow breath. “Undead,” he whispered. “I’ve heard rumors that sometimes, in the darkest, most cursed places, they still walk.” He paused, as if pondering thatstatement, then flashed a wry grin. “This is indeed a cursed city. Iamlucky I ran into you today, Sparrow. Just think of what I would’ve missed.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “You have a strange idea of luck,” I whispered back. My voice shook, but only a little. Walking skeletons? Cursed undead? Neither Vahn nor the Circle had prepared me forthis. And the thought of running into more undead made my blood curdle. How many more skeletons roamed the broken streets and crumbling alleyways of the undercity? I didn’t want to find out.

“Come on,” I whispered to Halek. I was not having fun on this mission. I no longer wanted to prove myself to Vahn or the Circle; I just wanted it to be over. “Let’s go. The sooner we find what I came for, the sooner we can leave this place.”

We continued into the dead city, much warier now. I scanned every shadow, nook, and dark cranny for skeletons, straining my ears to hear the scrape of bones on rock. The streets remained silent and empty as we picked our way through ruined buildings and over crumbling walls, the smell of stone and the faint scent of decay clinging to everything.

As we made our way over a cracked stone bridge spanning a yawning chasm, the stones under my boots trembled and an ominous rumble echoed through the air. Instinctively, I leaped forward, just as the entire section of the bridge I had been standing on crumbled and fell. Behind me, Halek gave a yelp and tried to lunge to safety, but he was in the center of the crumbling section and wasn’t able to move fast enough. He plummeted with the falling rocks, but at the last second, his hands hit the edge ofthe hole, jerking him to a halt and leaving him dangling over a drop into nothing.

“Halek!” Heart pounding, I knelt and grabbed one of his wrists to stop him from sliding into the abyss. I set my jaw and pulled as Halek kicked and scrabbled and finally clawed his way back onto what remained of the bridge.

I fell to my backside on the stone, pebbles digging into my palms, and Halek dropped to his knees, sucking in air as we waited for our heartbeats to return to normal.

“Well.” Halek looked up at me with a weak grin. “That was exciting,” he panted. “Nothing like a near-death experience to make you feel alive. Though it would’ve been embarrassing if my fate was to fall to my death in an abandoned city.” He grimaced and sat back on his heels, regarding me with solemn blue eyes. “I think I owe you my life.”

I shook my head, waving it off. “Don’t worry about it.” I didn’t like to be owed things. Sometimes people got strange about debts, and I didn’t want the attachment that came with them. “Just buy me a drink later and we’ll call it even.”

Halek nodded and glanced at the section of missing bridge. “I’ll do that. Though it looks like we’ll have to find another way back,” he observed wryly. “I could probably jump that gap, if something nasty was chasing me, but I’d rather not have to.”

He stood and dusted off his knees, then held out a hand to help me up. I took it, but as he pulled me to my feet, I caught something from the corner of my eye.

Across the destroyed section of bridge, back in the direction we’d come, a figure was watching us from the shadows.

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