Page 29 of Fateless

“This is for theCircle,” I hissed at him, more terrified than angry now. “It doesn’t work that way and you know it, Jeran.”

His face darkened, his eyes going cold and sullen, but he didn’t say anything.

Putting a hand on my satchel, I backed away from him. My stomach twisted, and I felt pulled in two different directions, but I couldn’t waver. Vahn was counting on me, too. “I can’t give this to you,” I told Jeran. “I have to deliver it to Vahn, and only Vahn. Look, let me get rid of this thing, and then we’ll figure something out together. There are other ways we can clear your debts—I’m the best thief in Kovass, remember?” I tried to smile at him, but he just stared at me, stone-faced and silent. I sighed, briefly closing my eyes, and turned away. “I have to go,” I said, feeling his bleak gaze on the back of my neck. “Vahn is waiting for me. Iwillhelp you, I promise, but not like this. I’m sorry.”

As I started for the door, I heard the scrape of wood from a nearby shelf. “I’m sorry, too,” Jeran muttered, almost too low for me to hear. Puzzled, I turned back—and saw him lunge at me, a broken plank held in both hands. Then wood filled my vision, and I knew nothing else.

Eleven

Cold water splashed against my face.

Coughing, I opened my eyes and winced. They were blurry with water, and I tried raising a hand to wipe it away.

I couldn’t move.

I was sitting in a chair with my arms tied behind the chairback, my wrists bound tightly and secured to the wood. My ankles were also bound, lashed together and tied to the chair legs, rendering me immobile. After a moment of panicked confusion and futile struggling, I blinked the last of the water from my eyes and looked up, my heart pounding in my ears.

The iylvahn crouched in front of me, pale blue eyes staring from beneath his hood. Up close, he looked even more beautiful and alien, with high cheekbones, charcoal-gray skin, and strands of silver-white hair hanging over his eyes. He watched me, neither smug nor threatening, just silent. Calculating.

“Where is it?” he said at last.

I tried to swallow my fear, but it stuck in my throat, making my voice raspy and breathless. “What?”

“The soulstone.” The assassin’s voice was ruthlessly calm. “The thing you took from the crypts in the ancient city. The black stone with runic markings. Where is it?”

“I...” My thoughts spun. I was suddenly cognizant of ahorrific pounding in my head and the feeling of dried blood in my hair. “I don’t know.”

The assassin moved, so swiftly I wasn’t even aware of it. One second, he was crouched in front of me; the next, his face was only a foot from mine and something cold was pressed against my throat. I could feel the razor edge of his blade barely touching my skin, and knew that if it moved just a hair closer, I would be bleeding.

“You can tell me now,” the iylvahn said, still in that same calm, deadly voice, “or you can die here. Those are your only options.”

“My satchel,” I whispered.

“Your satchel was empty,” the iylvahn said. “It was the first thing I checked. The soulstone is gone, taken by whoever knocked you out and left you here.” He leaned back, thankfully taking the blade from my neck, though his gaze still seared a hole through my face. “Who are they? Where are they taking the stone?”

Jeran.I bit my lip. Saving my own skin was one thing; selling out a fellow thief whom I’d known all my life was another. Even after everything, even after his betrayal, I wasn’t going to give Jeran to this killer. He might’ve deserved it—he might’ve even sold me out had the situation been reversed—but he was still my friend, and a fellow thief. I didn’t want him to die.

“What makes you think I know where they are?” I asked the iylvahn, daring to look up at him. “It was a random attack by a random lowlife—if you hadn’t noticed, there are a lot of them around here.” His expression didn’t change, and I tried to give a careless shrug. Difficult to do with my hands tied behind myback. “I wasn’t being careful, and they got the drop on me. I don’t even know who they are, much less where they went.”

“You’re lying,” the iylvahn said quietly. His blade came up again, not against my throat, but held between us. “I’ve killed a lot of people.” The assassin said this as if he were discussing the weather. “I study my targets, and I know them very well. And you...” Those pale blue eyes narrowed to slits. “I tracked you through the ancient city. I hunted you in the crypts below the palace. You were my target, and yet you managed something none have ever succeeded at. You escaped. You literally slipped through my fingers, and nothing I tried, despite my years of experience and hunting down the most dangerous men to ever walk the sands, was successful in catching one slip of a human girl.”

I swallowed. “I was lucky,” I said, dropping my gaze. “It’s something I’ve been blessed with.”Or cursed with, I thought, upon reflection. The iylvahn didn’t move, and I looked at him again. “I’m not special,” I told him. “I’m just a thief who gets lucky from time to time.”

The kahjai shook his head. “It’s more than luck,” he said simply. “You shouldn’t have been able to even reach the soulstone. The curses and ancient guardians kill any trespassers who set foot in the palace. But you were able to move through the palace untouched. Like a shadow, or a mirage.”

“Hardly untouched,” I argued. “Or didn’t you see the mobs of skeletons and skull beetles chasing us?”

“I did,” the iylvahn agreed, nodding. “And I saw that they stirred only after the Fatechaser stepped onto the platformor touched something he was not supposed to touch. You, however...” He paused, regarding me with a look that was frightening in its intensity. “They couldn’t sense you. They couldn’t see you. As if you weren’t even there.”

“Halek.” I suddenly remembered the Fatechaser who had offered to lead the assassin away so I could escape. “What did you do to him?” I asked the iylvahn, suddenly afraid I knew the answer. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know where the Fatechaser is,” the iylvahn said. “He led me on a merry chase, but when I finally caught up and realized you weren’t with him, you had already gone.”

“You didn’t kill him?”

The assassin shook his head. “I don’t kill those who are not my targets,” he continued, making me slump in relief. “The Fatechaser is either still in the undercity, or he made it back to the surface. Or he died trying to leave. Whichever way, he is not my concern.

“Regardless”—the iylvahn’s blade came up, the tip pressing into my cheek, his gaze focusing on me once more—“I followed you back to the surface as quickly as I could. And after doing a quick search of the area, I found you here. Without the soulstone.”

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