My hand went to my forearm, where the Sathis hound’s needle teeth had sunk all the way to the bone. True, the queen had saved us, and she had healed my arm, but at what cost? Halek, Kysa, and Raithe had given up a piece of their lives.
“Halek is right.” Raithe’s voice was a stranger’s, his expression cold and blank as he looked at us. “The queen isn’t like the other Deathless. She takes care of her people. She’s protected this city for thousands of years. Sparrow...” His pale eyes finally shifted to me, the mask slipping for just a moment. “If I believed she meant you harm, I would have never asked you to come.”
I glared at him. “I don’t believe that, Raithe,” I said, and my voice shook even as I tried to stop it. “You’ve never been able to tell me what your queen wanted, or why I had to speak with her. You’ve been keeping secrets all this time, and I didn’t question it, because I trusted you. But now...”
My eyes stung, hurt and anger burning even hotter through my veins. The fear I thought I had let go of—that everything Raithe had done, everything we had shared, the times we had laughed together, comforted each other, protected each other, it was all to bring me to his queen—came rushing back. How much of that had been real? And even if it was real, how much of it mattered? His duty and loyalty had always been to her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered, gazing at Raithe through blurry eyes. He studied me, his expression carefully guarded, the emotionless mask of the kahjai. “There were... so many times you could have told me, Raithe. On the strider, inDamassi, out on the Barren Steppes. You never said anything about the queen being Deathless. Were you afraid I would leave if I found out?”
“Yes,” Raithe said simply.
My stomach turned over. I stared at him, stunned, and he let out a quiet breath. “I thought the thief I met in Kovass, who watched the Deathless King destroy her city and everything she loved, would run away and not look back if she knew she was going to see another Deathless,” he said.
Bile burned my throat, and I turned away from him, hating both the iylvahn and the truth. Because the Sparrow he had met in Kovass, the Sparrow who belonged to the Thieves Guild,wasconcerned only with saving her own skin. She had been wary and reluctant to trust the kahjai assassin in the first place; if she’d known his queen was Deathless, she might’ve fled his presence altogether.
Or maybe she wouldn’t have. Maybe she would have trusted him regardless. But it was useless to speculate what might’ve happened. That had been long ago. A lifetime, it felt like.
Kysa let out an explosive breath. “We waste time,” she said, and her voice was hard. “The sun is setting, and as Halek said, we cannot turn back.” Turning to Raithe, she narrowed her eyes and gestured with her spear. “Take us to your city, then, iylvahn. Let us meet with your queen and see what she wants with the Fateless. But if I don’t like what I hear—if you have led Sparrow straight into the clutches of another Deathless who wants to use her—you will be the first one I come for. I promise you that.”
Raithe didn’t answer. He nodded, then walked away,disappearing into the shadows that now cloaked the bottom of the Maze. Kysa whistled for Rhyne, and my stomach clenched as I looked around for Ratuk. The rock beetle stood passively in the same spot, his beady eyes locked on mine, and a lump rose in my throat as I walked up to him.
“Ratuk.” I reached out and put a hand on his carapace, my vision blurring. “You did good,” I whispered, blinking the tears away. “You’re going to be fine, I promise. I won’t let anything else happen to you.”
The rock beetle made a puzzled chirping sound, nosing me very gently with his horn. I swallowed the tightness in my throat and stepped back. “Come on, then,” I whispered, and gathered the shredded remains of my courage. “We have a meeting with a Deathless.”
Four
Raithe said nothing as he led us through the rest of the Maze.
I walked beside Ratuk, not wanting to put even the slightest strain on the grievously injured rock beetle, hoping that, somehow, he would be all right. Beside me, Kysa rode Rhyne in stony silence, her eyes hard and her spear continuously gripped in one hand. No one said anything. Even Halek was quiet as he walked behind me, sensing that this was not the time for lighthearted jokes. Truthfully, I barely felt or saw any of my companions; my mind had turned inward, reliving all the moments that had brought us here, realizing the full extent of Raithe’s intentions.
Raithe’s queen was a Deathless. All this time traveling with me, protecting me, hiding me from the king, he had been planning to turn me over to another Deathless. Just as Vahn had intended to do with the Deathless King. I remembered the times I had asked Raithe about the iylvahn queen, who she was, what she wanted, why she wished to speak to me. He had always been evasive in his answers. This was why.
What have I told you about trust, Sparrow?Vahn’s voice echoed though my head, cold and practical, causing my stomach to twist wildly.It is a weakness that will destroy you in the end. You trusted Jeran, and he betrayed you. You trustedme, andlook what happened. Theiylvahnand his people will do the same.
My eyes stung, and my throat burned with poisonous tears. Vahn, Jeran, and now Raithe. I had trusted them, and they had lied to me. The Guildmaster had been right all along.
No more.I clenched my fists, banishing the tightness still gathering in my chest.Enough of this, Sparrow. What’s done is done. You’re here now, and you said you weren’t going to run away. The queen has called for you, and youhave tomeet with her. But no one in this city can be trusted, not evenRaithe. Especially notRaithe.
Namaia had slipped below the horizon, and the shadows cloaking the floor of the Maze had grown very dark when Raithe led us around a bend in the pass that ended at a solid wall. Sheer cliffs soared up on either side, boxing us in, and there was no way out but back. For a moment, I thought the iylvahn might’ve lost his way, though it was hard to imagine the calm, efficient assassin becoming lost in his own Maze.
And then there was a chilling, even shorter moment when I feared Raithehadn’tlost his way. That this had been planned, and the Deathless queen would appear with a burst of light and a terrible smile, to snuff the life from all of us.
Raithe paused, his gaze meeting mine over his shoulder, as if he knew what I was thinking. “This is one of the gates into the city,” he said. “It reacts to the presence of the iylvahn, no one else. We are very close to Irrikah now. Fatechaser, insect rider...” His gaze shifted to Kysa and Halek. “If you wish to leave now and not enter the city, I can find someone to guide you back to the beginning of the Maze. I won’t force you to step through the gates if you don’t want to.”
He didn’t offer me the same, I noticed. I guessed he wasn’t giving me a choice.
“Do not insult me, kahjai.” Kysa’s voice was calm and harder than steel. “I did not make a vow to protect the Fateless only to leave her at the gates of a Deathless city. Sparrow is still under my protection, because I no longer trust she is safe under yours.”
If Kysa’s words affected Raithe at all, he didn’t show it. With a nod, he glanced at Halek. “And you, Fatechaser?”
If this had been a normal evening, Halek would’ve laughed and regaled us with a story of how he had always wanted to see the mysterious city of the iylvahn, and how nothing would keep him away now that he was finally at its gates. Tonight, he simply nodded. “I’m here,” he said. “I’m not about to leave. Don’t worry, Sparrow,” he added, and smiled. “They won’t get rid of me that easily.”
Raithe didn’t answer. Turning, he walked to the looming cliff before us, stretched out a hand, and pressed his palm to the rock.
At his touch, the curtain of stone seemed to ripple, looking more like water than solid rock. It melted away, revealing an enormous gate behind it, a pair of huge statues flanking an archway protected by heavy stone doors. With a groan, the doors parted, swinging outward with a rumble that echoed through the canyon. A short tunnel lay beyond the arch, and a rush of warm air wafted through the opening, smelling of water, earth, and something I couldn’t didn’t immediately recognize. A moment later, I realized the scent was... vegetation?
Raithe’s eyes glowed faintly in the shadows cast by the looming cliffs around us. “Welcome to Irrikah,” he said softly. “Notthe introduction I would’ve hoped for, but we’re here. The queen’s palace is at the highest point of the city. Follow me, and stay close until we reach the summit.”
