A ray of sunlight passed through the canyon, making me blink, and the queen was gone.
Halek pulled me to my feet, holding me steady as the ground tilted. Regaining my balance, I raised my arm and carefully pushed back my tattered sleeve. My forearm was a mess of blood, both sticky and dried, smeared across my skin. But the holes in my arm had vanished, leaving behind smooth, unbroken skin. Even the swirling green tattoos of the Scarab Clan looked untouched.
Theiylvahnqueen isa Deathless. A Deathless just saved my life. AndRaithe...
I clenched my fist and looked up. The hooded figure of the iylvahn stood where his queen had vanished, watching me.
“Sparrow.” Kysa’s firm voice snapped me out of my glare. “What of Ratuk, warrior?” she said. “Look to your mount.”
Ratuk. Oh no.
I hurried to where the beetle had fallen. He still lay on his back and was trying valiantly to right himself. His legs scrabbled and waved in the air, but he was so heavy that he couldn’t turn over. I put my shoulder against his shell and heaved, but it was like trying to move a boulder.
“Halek, help me,” I panted, and the Fatechaser also put his back against the downed rock beetle and shoved.
“Oof, nope, that’s not going to work,” he grunted after a moment. “Does anyone have a really long lever?”
“Step aside,” Kysa ordered, and gave a sharp whistle that brought Rhyne lumbering over. The other rock beetle dug his horn beneath Ratuk’s shell and slowly walked forward, pushing him until Ratuk finally flipped over onto his feet. Ratuk snorted, shaking his head, and buzzed his wings like a dog shedding water. I gave a sigh of relief as he turned to me with a huff; the rock beetle seemed indignant and slightly disoriented, but not badly hurt.
My relief faded as I saw Kysa staring grimly at Ratuk, shaking her head. “He’s injured,” she stated, making my stomach clench. “Look at his wing. The left one.”
The rock beetle’s wings were normally hidden under their shell. Heart pounding, I turned back and gave Ratuk the order to open them. The rock beetle obliged, splitting his carapace and spreading the inner membranes, and my heart dropped. Theshimmery green curtain of his left wing had a huge rip in the center, splitting the membrane nearly in two.
“He won’t be able to fly with that,” Kysa said, sounding graver than I’d ever heard, as if she had to announce the news of someone’s death. “Thankfully, it wasn’t torn off completely. The membrane should heal on its own, but it’ll take time.” She glanced at me, dark eyes narrowing. “You’re going to have to be very careful with him from here on out. Another injury to that wing might cripple him forever. And if that happens, the kindest thing to do is to put him down.”
“Put him down?” Horror clutched my heart with icy fingers. “Just because he won’t be able to fly? He’d still be able to walk and do everything else, right? If he’s not in pain...”
“And what happens when he tries to fly?” Kysa asked softly. “If the membrane is torn off, it will not grow back. He won’t understand why he can no longer do something that was as natural as breathing is to us. Are you going to let him struggle and crash into things as he tries over and over to figure it out?” She paused and looked at Ratuk, her normally stoic expression shadowed with concern. “A rock beetle whose spirit is broken won’t fight for you,” she went on. “It won’t follow commands. Sometimes it won’t even eat. Such rock beetles become hollow versions of themselves. In battle, they’ll refuse to fight, simply letting the enemy tear them apart. Or worse, they’ll flee from conflict entirely.” She shook her head, her eyes sympathetic. “That is no existence for a warrior. Should the worst happen, it is kinder to end their suffering than let them linger on in pain.”
“I...” My heart twisted. Ratuk hadn’t been with us long. Ihad just barely learned how to fly with him. But he had saved us from the abomination, and he had never shown any fear or hesitation. What Kysa wanted me to do...
Her jaw tightened. “You don’t have to make that decision today,” she said. “His wing should heal, given time. But the welfare of the mount is the responsibility of its rider. You must decide what is best for him.” She paused, both her voice and her expression softening. “This is the worst fear for any warrior of the Scarab Clan,” she said. “I would not trade Rhyne for anything. But I know that, one day, I might be forced to make this decision. And I pray that I am strong enough to carry it out when the time comes.”
My vision blurred with tears, and I squeezed them back, feeling buried under a landslide of emotion. Too much had happened all at once; I wanted to slip away from everything, find a dark shadow, and hide from the world until I was no longer drowning. For a second, I missed my old room in the Thieves Guild. It was humble and small, but filled with trinkets and things I had collected over the years. It had always been my corner, my private haven. There was no place I could feel safe now.
“Sparrow.” Halek put a hand on my arm, smiling as I glanced up at him. “He’ll be all right,” he told me. “He’s just as tough as Rhyne, but even more importantly? He’s got you as his rider. How many rock beetles can say they’re carrying around the Fateless?”
I sniffled. “It didn’t help him today.”
“Or maybe it did,” Halek countered, his smile still in place. “That abomination would have killed us all. Do you think thequeen of the iylvahn would’ve popped in for anyonebutthe Fateless?”
Mention of the queen sent a chill down my spine and caused my stomach to turn wildly. I staggered back from him and looked at Raithe, who had come forward a few paces but was still watching us in silence.
“When were you going to tell us, Raithe?” My voice shook as I glared at him. He didn’t answer, and I stalked forward. “When were you going to tell me that your queen, the one you convinced me to speak with, the one I ran away from Kovass to meet... When were you going to tell me that she was aDeathless? That seems like a pretty big thing to leave out.”
“I, too, would like to know,” Kysa echoed behind me. And though her voice was calm, I could sense the anger directed toward the hooded figure before us. “You know my clan’s history with the Deathless,” the rider went on. “You know our thoughts on magic and its uses. You brought Sparrow to us to shield her from the Deathless King’s servants. And yet you deliberately led us here, knowing we would eventually meet one of the very creatures we have been fleeing this entire journey.” She took a step forward, her boots crunching over the rocks, to stand beside me. “If there is a viable reason for this secrecy, iylvahn, I should like to hear it.”
“I don’t have a good answer for you.” Raithe’s voice was hollow, and he wasn’t quite looking at any of us. “Not one that you would accept. I made a decision, knowing I would have to face the consequences when we got to Irrikah. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I clenched my fists. “I watched Kovass fall, Raithe,” I said. “I watched the Deathless King destroy everything I ever knew, and you were right there with me. You saw what he did, you heard everything, and you still never told me. Even when Iaskedyou about the queen, numerous times, you never said anything.”
“You lied to us, iylvahn.” Kysa’s voice sent a shiver up my back. She took another step forward, and I saw she was gripping her spear tightly. “Nearly half my clan was destroyed fighting the abomination the Deathless King’s servant brought down upon us,” she went on, staring hard at Raithe. “They died willingly, to protect the Fateless from the Deathless King. And now I find out that you serve another and you have been leading Sparrow right to her.” The deadly spearhead came down, pointed at the iylvahn. “If not for our battles together, the times we stood against the same enemy, I would call for a blood duel right here.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Kysa, Sparrow.” Halek stepped between us and Raithe, both hands held up in a soothing gesture. “Fighting each other isn’t going to help anything now,” the Fatechaser said in a surprisingly reasonable voice. “Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are, but this is not the greatest place for a discussion. Why don’t we get into the city and away from all the things that want to kill us before we try to figure this out.”
“Into the city,” Kysa said flatly. “Where the Deathless queen is.”
Halek shrugged. “We came all this way,” he said. “We can’t turn back now—where would we go?” He gestured at the ruined body of the massive abomination. “Besides, let’s not forget thatthe queen just saved Sparrow. If she wanted us dead, she would’ve let the abomination take care of it.”
