Page 33 of Fateless

Nearly a dozen skeleton creatures broke the surface, rising from the glassy water, and the smell of decay filled the chamber as they turned their hollow eyes upon us. They were different from the ones in the ancient city; these were much bigger, their canine jaws capable of crushing my skull. They wore the tattered remains of golden armor and carried shields in one hand and curved swords in the other. They didn’t shamble across the room; they moved with smooth, lethal intent, stepping from the water onto the narrow stone path, blocking our way forward.

I cringed. Raithe drew his blade and shoved me behind him as the monsters stepped toward us, their jaws gaping open in silent snarls. Pinpricks of green light glimmered in through their eye sockets, slowly growing into dancing flames. “The king’selite guardians,” he muttered. “The Circle must’ve raised them to protect the ritual.”

I glanced toward the exit, wondering if we should run, and saw more skeletons had stepped onto the path behind us. “We’re surrounded,” I told the assassin, who didn’t turn around. “Should we run?”

A tremor went through the chamber, spreading ripples through the water and causing dust to rain from the ceiling.

“There’s no time,” Raithe said grimly. “The ritual is happening.” He brandished his sword. “I’ll deal with these,” he said. “You get to the ritual site. Do whatever you can to stop the summoning, or at least stall it. Remember, if the Deathless King is resurrected, everything you’ve ever known will end. We cannot allow the Circle to summon him back into the world.”

The closest skeletons were almost upon us; I could hear the scraping of bones as they raised their shields before them. The stink of death was overpowering; I stifled the urge to gag and tried to focus on what the assassin was telling me.

“Sparrow.” Raithe spared me a split-second glance. “Do you understand? You have to stop the Circle. Everything will fall if the Deathless King rises again.”

“Yeah.” My mouth was dry with terror, but I forced the words out. “I get it. Stop the Circle. I’ll try.”

And the monsters lunged.

They came in silent and fast, with none of the clattering of the skeletons in the ancient city. I barely had time to blink before one was upon me, sweeping its sword down in a lethal arc. Instinctively, I ducked, and felt the blade catch the very top of my hoodand knock it back. Staggering away, I saw the monster step forward, raising its sword again, but Raithe whirled, sweeping his own blade at its neck. The skeleton quickly raised its shield. The iylvahn’s sword hit the shield with a ringingclangthat echoed through the chamber, and his pale eyes flashed to me.

“Sparrow, go!”

I went, darting around the monster as it turned toward Raithe, and splashed my way to the other side of the room. In the doorway, I looked back and saw that five of the creatures had surrounded the assassin, eyes blazing as their swords rose and fell, but so far, the kahjai was holding them off.

Wondering if this would be the last time I saw the iylvahn alive, I turned and fled into the tunnel.

Fear clawed at me as I crept down the passageway, trying to breathe normally and not in short, panicked gasps. My heart was pounding, and my palms were clammy with sweat. How was it that just yesterday I was sitting on a rooftop, watching the circus with Jeran and not thinking of anything that had to do with soulstones and forbidden cities and Deathless Kings? Now an iylvahn assassin expected me to stop the rising of an ancient godlike being by... doing what? I was just a thief. This was way out of my league.

I came to the end of the tunnel, and the circular chamber surrounded by pillars came into view. I ducked behind one of the columns, and when I peeked out into the chamber beyond, a chill like nothing I’d ever felt before infused my whole body.

Six Circle members in robes and skull masks stood around the stone altar, arms raised, chanting in unison. One tall, robedfigure stood at the head of the altar, and his skull mask was the terrible visage of a demonic-looking horned creature. The other Circle members had their heads raised, but the horned skull stared down at what was before him on the altar.

Jeran lay shackled to the stone surface, eyes wide and terrified as he struggled against the chains. I bit down a gasp, my hands flying up to cover my mouth. He had been gagged, and his muffled cries were drowned out by the chanting of the robed figures around him. The black soulstone hovered a few feet above his chest, seeming to suck in the torchlight as it floated there. My insides twisted, horror flooding through me like a wave, and my legs nearly gave out beneath me.

The horned skull figure paused, observing the prisoner before him. Slowly, as the droning chants seemed to reach a crescendo, the figure raised its arm, a curved dagger with a serpentine blade as black as night glittering in its hand. My heart clenched, and I lunged from behind the pillar.

“Wait!”

I staggered into the torchlight. The droning voices abruptly stopped, and six pairs of hollow eyes turned on me. On the altar, Jeran looked up, his own eyes flaring with hope. He tried calling out, but his voice was muffled by the cloth.

In the silence, I seemed to stand in a spotlight, all eyes focused in my direction. What was I supposed to do?Stop the summoning,the iylvahn had said.Or at least stall it.

“What’s going on here?” I asked, grateful that my voice didn’t tremble as I spoke. “What are you doing to Jeran? Where’s Vahn?”

“She’s here.”

It wasn’t the horned leader who spoke, but one of the other robed figures, its cowled head turned to stare at the skull at the head of the altar. “The Fateless has come,” it said, nearly hissing the words. “Now we can finish what we were supposed to finish tonight. The sacrifice does not matter, any life can be traded, but before the king returns, the Fateless must die.”

Fateless?I didn’t have time to puzzle out what that meant, and fear was suffocating my mind. “Where’s Vahn?” I asked again, trying to speak clearly. “Does he know what you’re doing? Jeran is part of our guild—the Guildmaster is not going to be happy if one of his members is hurt or killed.”

“Sparrow.”

At the head of the table, the horned figure raised his arm, took hold of the skull mask, and pulled it away. A familiar face stared out from beneath the hood, eyes dark and solemn, and my heart froze.

“I’m sorry, Sparrow,” Vahn said as I stared at him in disbelief, not wanting to accept what was in front of me. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I didn’t think, when I brought you to the guild all those years ago, thatyouwould be the one to usher in the new age.”

“Vahn?” I shook my head, my mind reeling. “No. You’re part of the Circle?”

He smiled without humor. “A good ruse, was it not? No one suspected a thing. But it was necessary. The Guildmaster can see everything that happens in Kovass. I needed to be Vahn the Guildmaster so I could watch for the arrival of the Fateless.” He sighed then, a furrow creasing his brow for just a moment. “I hadbegun to suspect it might be you, Sparrow. I hoped it was not. I hoped that you were just a talented thief whose luck defied all odds. But when you returned with the Tapestry of the World, I could no longer deny it. You were the one who could breach the ancient city, defy the curses and guardians who protected it, and retrieve the soulstone of our king.”

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