Page 62 of Fateless

My stomach churned, wondering if he regretted that now. Maybe my death would have been for the best. One unimportant thief dying to stop the rise of a Deathless King? It seemed a small price to pay.

Raithe gave a small, sad smile and faced forward again. “I’m glad I didn’t,” he said quietly. “I thank Maederyss that Fate—or luck, or whatever you wish to call it—was on your side that night. But the queen won’t see it that way. I had a mission to stop whatever corruption was lurking beneath the city, by whatever means possible. By the time I knew what I was really dealing with, it was too late. And now I can only face the consequences of my failure.”

“What will happen to you?” I whispered.

“It depends,” he replied. “I... have never failed a mission before, so I’m not entirely certain myself. But on the rare occasion that a kahjai cannot complete what they are sent to do, they aren’t usually punished.” A bitter smile twisted one corner of his mouth. “Then again, those failures don’t usually involve the destruction of an entire city and possibly all the kingdoms beyond. Because I didn’t stop the Circle, thousands of people lost their lives, and millions more will meet the same fate. If the queen does see fit to punish me, I can’t say that I blame her.”

Fear and defiance flared within. Without stopping to think, I reached out and put my hand over his, making him blink and glance at me in surprise.

“If she does, she’ll have to punish us both,” I told him. “This is not your fault, Raithe. You did everything you could to stop it. I...helpedit happen. She has more reason to blame me for the rise of the Deathless King than you.”

“You’re the Fateless,” Raithe said quietly. “You’re too important. She won’t act against you.”

That made my stomach do a weird little twist. He said it with such confidence. Raithe knew something about the Fateless that he wasn’t telling me, but asking him about it now, when he was admitting something so painful, seemed wrong. I didn’t know what I could do against the queen of the iylvahn, but if the Fateless was so important, I didn’t have any problems leveraging that to help Raithe.

I squeezed his hand. “Well, if she wants my cooperation at all, she won’t act against you, either,” I told him. “You’re the reason I’m here. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Raithe murmured. Leaning in, he touched his forehead to mine, and my heart leaped. “But thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Aw, you two are so lovely together,” Halek commented, making me jerk up. Raithe eyed him with weary annoyance. The Fatechaser grinned and took a sip from his waterskin. “Kysa says we’re going to stay here through Demon Hour,” he went on breezily. “She’s setting up a tent for us so we don’t get cooked. Just in case you want to help.”

“Me?” Raithe lifted a slender eyebrow. “What about you, Fatechaser?”

“Oh, I already tried to help, but she shooed me away after I sort of made the whole thing collapse.” He winced and gave a helpless shrug. “It’s a very strange tent—I had no idea what I was doing, really.”

Raithe shook his head and rose. I glanced over and saw Kysa under one of the few scraggly trees, working on a strange tent, indeed. It didn’t look like it was made of cloth, but sections of transparent, shimmery green curtains strung together. Like the membranes of an insect’s wing, only much, much larger.

As Raithe walked away, Halek sat beside me and handed me his waterskin. I nodded and took a sip of cold spring water, knowing the coolness wouldn’t last. The Fatechaser watched me, then bumped my shoulder with his own, his grin mischievous.

“Stop it.” I glared at him over the waterskin. “It’s not what you think.”

“No?” He leaned back, still smiling broadly. “So youhaven’tbeen sneaking glances at our good assassin for the past threedays? And hehasn’tbeen watching you like a mournful sand wolf cub when he thinks you’re not looking? And Kysa hasn’t been shaking her head and rolling her eyes at the both of you because you’re both blindingly oblivious to what is happening? All that is just in my head.”

I shoved the waterskin into his chest, making him topple backward off the log. “It doesn’t matter,” I said, as he landed on his backside with a grunt. “Nothing can come of it, Halek. He’s an iylvahn and I’m... just a thief. Sooner or later, he’s going to realize that.”

“Sparrow.” With a series of small grunts and huffs, Halek clawed himself upright on the log again. “You don’t think he already knows what you are?”

“I don’t know!” Frustrated, I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I don’t know, Halek,” I said in a softer voice. “Everyone keeps telling me that I’m the Fateless, that I’m special, though they won’t tell me how or why. I don’t feel special. I don’t feel like I’m any of these things that they say.”

I didn’t know why I was telling this to Halek. Maybe because he had always felt safe and unassuming. Maybe because he always did just what he wanted, and Fate seemed to favor him even as he was trying his best to catch it.

“I’m not brave,” I went on in a whisper. “I’m not a warrior. And I feel like Raithe expects me to do... something. Something big, involving the Deathless King. But I’m not that person. I’m a thief from Kovass. How can I be anything more?”

“Because you choose to be,” Halek said simply. I glanced at him, and he gave me a strange half smile. “Destiny is a funnything,” he said. “I know in Kovass, they believe that your fate—what you’re supposed to be—is set in stone. A beggar can’t become a merchant, a merchant can’t become a king, and so on. But what if you could?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“What if a beggarcanbecome a king?” Halek said, as if he wasn’t casually blaspheming an entire belief system. “What’s stopping him? Fate?” He shrugged. “That doesn’t seem to apply now. Your story hasn’t been written. You can change the destiny of everyone around you. Thief, warrior, hero, queen. You’re the Fateless, Sparrow. Be whatever you want.”

Whatever I want. It sounded so easy, though it went against everything I had been taught. To become something else. Could I really be more than just a thief?

The bigger question: Did Iwantto be more than just a thief?

It was strange under Kysa’s tent. The shimmery green cloth or membrane or whatever it was looked thin and fragile but was surprisingly strong. It rustled when you brushed it aside, and though it seemed transparent, it repelled the sunlight quite well. We left Rhyne and the sand dragons tied up under the trees at the water’s edge, and Rhyne immediately buried himself halfway in the mud, looking even more like a shiny black boulder. As Namaia rose over the horizon to join her sister, the four of us huddled under the rustling green tent to wait out Demon Hour.

As expected, it was warm in the tent when both twins stood directly overhead, but thankfully not unbearable. I sat against the side, being careful not to lean into it too much, and listenedto Halek valiantly trying to coax Kysa into a game of Triple Fang, which the insect rider adamantly refused. Raithe sat across from me, an amused smile on his face as he watched the pair.

I yawned. The heat and the low murmur of voices were making me drowsy. Dropping my head to my chest, I relaxed and let my eyes flutter shut, listening to the voices of my friends.

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