Page 72 of Fateless

I dodged a corpse that pounced at me from the side, avoiding the raking claws by a hair’s breadth. Beside me, Halek gave a defiant shout as he sent a pair of monsters reeling back, their bodies entirely on fire. “That’s it, I’ve got one left!” he called, ducking a sword blow aimed at his skull. “Figured I should save it for that big important moment. No, no, monster, stay back. Iylvahn, help!”

Raithe whirled and beheaded the monster as Halek scrambled around him. But the Fatechaser didn’t see the pair of undead charging him from behind. Even as I shouted a warning, the massive curved horn of a rock beetle slammed into the monsters, impaling and lifting both into the air, before flinging them away. Rhyne loomed above us, his rider spearing a monster through the skull before kicking it aside.

“Do you require a weapon?” Kysa asked, glaring down at Halek. Her voice hovered on the edge of exasperation. “How does one go into battle so ill-prepared? Had I known you were unarmed, I would have suggested you stay behind with the hive mother.”

“I’m notthatill-prepared.” Halek shook his head, reachedinto his jacket, and pulled a blade I hadn’t known he had into the open. Like the rest of his gear, it was something I hadn’t seen before; a short, straight weapon that was bladed on both sides, not curved at all. Grimacing, the Fatechaser gave it a couple of swings. “I can fight the traditional way if I have to—aagh!” He jerked back as an undead lunged at his face, jaws snapping. “I just don’t like being that close. No, get away, monster!” He slashed wildly as the thing attacked again, and managed to strike it in the neck through seeming blind luck. “Let’s get this over with, so I don’t have to be this close to these things ever again.”

“Quickly, then.” Kysa whirled Rhyne around, taking out another undead as she did. “We are almost there.”

We fought our way through the outskirts of the village as the battle continued to rage around us. Rock beetles droned through the air or plowed into combat, though the numbers of the horde were starting to wear them down. I saw a warrior dragged off his mount by a horde of undead and buried under stabbing blades and ripping claws. Several more were tearing into yet another house beetle, digging at the ground until they found the insect buried beneath the earth. With a cascade of rock and dirt, the huge beetle surged upward, crushing bodies underfoot as it fled. I looked up and saw Vahn still standing astride the abomination, watching everything play out with flat, emotionless eyes.

“Here.” Kysa led us behind a rise, out of sight of the battle raging in the village. Two large, bulky structures stood covered with sheets of canvas. Kysa leaped down from Rhyne, grabbed the cloth, and tore it free, uncovering what lay beneath.

I blinked. It looked like a monstrous crossbow, twice as longas a man, attached to the shell of a beetle half buried in the earth. The iron bolts lying next to it were about ten feet long, barbed, and tipped with a lethal point.

“What in the Void are those?” Halek wondered, gaping at the massive spikes. “What were you all hunting, thunder titans?”

“In the past, these have been used for war with the other clans,” Kysa explained as the rest of us stared at the huge weapon in awe. “But we’ve been at peace since the treaty was put into place. Now we use them to hunt the giant scorpions that sometimes threaten our territories.” She thumped the wood of the ballista with a grim smile. “They can punch through the carapace of a scorpion at five hundred paces. Hopefully, they can do the same to a flying abomination. Stand back a moment,” she ordered, and raised her spear. “I need to wake them up.”

She brought the butt of the spear down, striking part of the exposed shell and sending a hollow thump reverberating through the ground. With the first two thumps, nothing happened, but on the third, the earth under our feet shifted. An enormous black-and-red beetle crawled up from the ground, short antennae waving sleepily as it stared at us.

“All right, it’s up.” Kysa took a step back and gestured to the trio of enormous bolts on the ground. “Help me load it, quickly!”

Together, we hefted one of the huge iron shafts and slotted it into the weapon. Halek and Raithe turned the winch at the rear of the weapon, drawing the cable back with a heavy grinding sound. The beetle stood placidly through the whole process, even with the screams and howls of battle echoing over the rise. It made me wonder if the beetles were trained well enoughthat they could ignore the battle around them, or if they simply couldn’t hear it.

“All right.” Kysa nodded as Halek gave the winch a final crank, locking it in place. “It’s ready.” She stared up at the huge abomination, still beating its wings in a slow, rhythmic pattern overhead as Vahn watched the chaos below. “Let’s kill that thing.”

Using her spear, Kysa poked and prodded the insect in the shell until it turned, slowly and laboriously, to face the abomination. Once she got it into position, she raced around to the back, aiming the shaft up at the target.

“I don’t know if it has the height, but we’ll try. Raithe,” she said, and pointed at the lever. The iylvahn immediately grabbed it in both hands. “Hold,” Kysa muttered, one eye closed as she watched the abomination. “Come on, turn, you monster. Turn. Look at us.”

As if it heard her, the abomination’s head turned, its body lazily shifting in the air. For just a moment, I felt Vahn’s gaze, finding me through the chaos, and a flash of rage as he realized what was happening.

“Now!” called Kysa, and Raithe pulled the lever. There was a deafening snap as the ballista hurled the iron bolt into the air toward the abomination. It flew straight and true, but instead of striking the abomination in the chest, it pierced the monster’s thigh and stuck there, glinting in the light of the suns. The abomination roared, its voice shaking the air, but it was obviously more angry than hurt.

Kysa blew out a breath. “No good,” she muttered. “It’s too far up. We don’t have the height to hit that thing effectively.”

Heart in my throat, I looked up and saw Vahn staring down at us, his glare colder than ice.

“I grow weary of this defiance, Sparrow.”My stomach twisted as my name rang out over the battlefield. “And I find your obstinance trying. You wish me to come to you? Very well. Let me oblige.”

With an almost lazy flap of its tattered wings, the abomination rose, then came swooping down toward the village. Its bony jaws opened, and a gout of sickly green flame seared forth, carving a fiery path through the center of the battle. Screams rose into the air as huts, beetles, and flesh ignited, and the ghastly flames consumed both humans and undead alike.

As the abomination soared over us, I dove behind a boulder with Raithe, feeling the heat of the fire as it roared across the path. The column of flame caught the ballista dead-on; I heard shrieks coming from the poor beetle as it was cooked alive, and I pressed my face into Raithe’s arm.

Memories flooded me, the screams and wails as Kovass crumbled around us. It was happening again. I was watching the destruction of yet another civilization, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The abomination whirled lazily away, circling the village, as Vahn’s voice rang out overhead. “I warned you,”he droned. “I showed you what would happen to those who defied the one true king. This is on your head, Sparrow. You could have stopped this. You can still stop this. Return with me, and I will spare what is left.”

I clutched Raithe’s sleeve in my fist. Therewassomething Icould do. I had told myself I wouldn’t run away any longer, but I needed to do more. To save Kysa’s people, and everyone here, I had to take that final step.

“I have to go back with him,” I whispered.

“What?” Raithe pulled back, a look of alarm crossing his face.

“I can stop this,” I said. “I can’t watch more people die because of me, Raithe. I couldn’t do anything for Kovass. I couldn’t...” My voice faltered as memories flooded in once more, bright and painful. “I couldn’t do anything for Jeran, or Rala, or Dahveen, or anyone in the guild. This... this is something I can stop.”

“No.” Raithe gripped my shoulders, his eyes intense. “Sparrow, listen to me. If you die, the Deathless King will slaughter everyone here anyway. We can’t give up. There’s more at stake than you know.”

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