Page 73 of Fateless

“People are already dying.” I shuddered as the abomination cast its huge shadow over us. “What is more important than saving this village and those who are left? Why shouldn’t I go with Vahn if I can stop this?”

“Because without the Fateless, there is no future, for anyone.”

I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

Raithe paused, closing his eyes as if struggling with himself. Finally, he gave a heavy sigh and bowed his head. “The queen of my people is a seer,” he murmured. “Someone who can glimpse the future. Recently, she had a vision,” he went on in a near whisper. “In this vision, she saw the Deathless rise up to the heavens, to the place where Maederyss sat weaving the Tapestry of the World. And she watched as the Deathless slew the goddess of Fate.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. I stared at Raithe, a numb horror creeping over me. Suddenly, nothing was sacred, and nowhere in the world was safe. If the Deathless King could kill even a goddess?.?.?.

“The Weaver perished,” Raithe went on grimly, “and the Deathless claimed the Tapestry of the World as their own. All the threads within the tapestry became bound to the will of the Deathless. And as the temples of Fate and Maederyss burned, a new god rose up to enslave the world, holding everyone’s lives—and their very fates—in their hands.

“That is why the Fateless is so important,” Raithe continued, as I stood there trying to catch my breath. “The queen’s visions have never been wrong, but the Fateless can defy prophecy. Fate and destiny have no hold on them, even if that destiny is the death of a goddess and the end of all things.” He pressed his palm against my cheek, his expression a curious mix of sorrow, regret, and determination. “If there is a chance to save this world from the Deathless King, Sparrow,” he whispered, “you are the only one who can.”

The breath left my lungs in a rush, and I struggled to draw it back in. Words seemed inadequate for what I was feeling. A world where the Deathless King had killed the Weaver and was now the new god of Fate. And I, somehow, was supposed to stop this?

Raithe pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you. The queen should have been the one to explain everything.” His eyes opened, searingly bright, gazing down at me. “But you can’t give yourself to theDeathless King, Sparrow. If you die, all hope dies with you.”

“But everyone here...” I cast a look at the battle, where flames and blood and screams filled the air, and felt pulled in a thousand directions at once. “They’re going to be killed if I don’t go back with Vahn.”

“Do not insult my people with thoughts of surrender.” Kysa appeared, not mounted on Rhyne, but sweeping around the boulder to glare at me. Her helmet had been torn off, and gore covered one side of her face, but she stood tall and proud with Rhyne at her back. “You came to us for aid—it is against our honor to turn over someone who is under the protection of the clan. The Scarab Clan does not submit. We will not bend to the will of tyrants. We will fight, and we will die, as a choice. Do not let my people’s deaths be for nothing.”

“Besides, who said anything about dying?” Halek gasped, staggering around to join us. Soot covered him, streaks of black across his face and hands, and his hair had turned gray with ash. He raked a hand over his scalp, sending a dust cloud into the air, and grinned defiantly. “We’re still alive. And there’s still one more ballista left, right?”

“Yes.” Kysa looked up at the abomination circling overhead. “But it’s going to be almost impossible to shoot down now,” she muttered. “Even if we had the height, it’s too fast. We need it to stop moving if we’re going to have any chance of hitting it.”

I peeked around the rock, though the burning, shriveled remains of the first beetle ballista, and saw the second still standing, its bulk covered with cloth. Glancing up at Vahn and his enormous undead mount, I clenched my fists.

“Get the ballista ready,” I told them, and rose, taking a deep breath. “I’ll get Vahn’s attention. Just be ready to shoot that thing when it stops moving.”

“Sparrow...” Raithe stood as well, his expression conflicted.

I put a hand on his chest before he could say anything else. “You can’t come with me, Raithe. This is between me and Vahn.”

“I know. I just...” With a sigh, he leaned in and kissed me, making my heart seize. I felt his hands on the sides of my head and shivered. “I trust you,” he murmured, his eyes intense as he drew away. “Be careful.”

“Sparrow.” Halek grabbed my arm as I stepped back. “Here,” he said, and pressed something round and warm into my palm. I looked down and saw one of his fire globes cradled between my fingers, and my stomach clenched. “My last one. I think you might get more use out of it now.” Halek smiled. “Just in case.”

The battlefield seemed strangely muted as I sprinted back through the village, though it was far from silent. Flames roared, licking at structures and the blackened corpses scattered along the path, and the shouts and howls of those still locked in battle rang through the air. But everything felt hauntingly tranquil after the pandemonium of the first attack, with the charred, torn bodies of both warriors and undead a gruesome testament to all the deaths that were, technically, on my head. Vahn had come here for me. I had to make this right.

“You cannot run, Sparrow.”

I looked up. The abomination glided above me on tattered wings, and I could see the Guildmaster atop its skull, his eyes scanning the battleground. Looking around, I spotted one of thestone spikes, pointing at my target like a finger. Setting my jaw, I hurried toward it, as Vahn’s words droned overhead like a chant of doom.

“There is nowhere to go,” Vahn continued, as the abomination wheeled lazily around again.Nowhere to run. Stop hiding from me. For once in your life, stop trying to escape the things you cannot change. We both know how this is going to end.”

Reaching the spike, I leaped onto the rocky surface and raced up to the very point. Glaring up at my former Guildmaster, I took a deep breath.

“I’m not hiding!”

The abomination jerked in the air, rearing up and pumping its wings. On its skull, Vahn gazed around the battlefield, searching for my voice.

“I’m not hiding, Vahn!” I called again, and lifted my arms from my sides. “You want me? I’m right here.”

Both abomination and blood mage turned, their gazes finding me below. Slowly, the monstrous undead creature drifted down until it was hovering before me, the downbeat from its wings blasting my face. My hood was blown back, and my heart pounded, but I stood firm and forced myself not to move, as both the abomination’s and Vahn’s gazes seemed to pierce right through me.

“No more,” I said quietly, knowing, somehow, that my words would reach him. “Enough, Vahn. I’ll come with you, if that’s what it takes to stop this.”

“Well.” The corner of his lip turned up in a humorless smile. “I will say, I am surprised. The Sparrow I knew would have let theworld burn before she decided to stick her neck out.”

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