I took a furtive breath. There was no running away now, even if I wanted to. And I didn’t want to, I realized. I wanted to discover, once and for all, who and what I really was. With Kysa, Rhyne, and Halek beside me and Ratuk a hulking shadow at my back, I stepped forward, beneath the arch, and into the city of the Deathless queen.
Through the arch, we entered the wide stone tunnel, and the air within felt strange. So strange, I didn’t have a word for it. I was used to the dry desert air, feeling it suck the moisture from my body; this was almost the opposite: steamy and somehow... wet. I hadn’t known air could be wet, but there was no other way to describe it.
Then the tunnel opened up, walls falling away, and my mind went completely, utterly blank while I stared at the vista before me.
Raithe had spoken about Irrikah once. Back in Damassi, I had asked him what the iylvahn city was like, and he’d said that, because of the way the queen’s magic worked, I wouldn’t remember anything we spoke about. I would recall that we’dhada conversation. I might even remember that it was about the city, but all the details of Irrikah itself would slip from my mind and be lost. It was just another way the iylvahn queen kept her people safe.
He was right; I couldn’t remember anything of what he’dtold me about Irrikah. I couldn’t recall if he’d mentioned it was this beautiful, this... green.
The city before me defied belief. I gazed at a rising, terraced mountain with arches, bridgeways, and curving roads that spiraled up toward the peak. Even though it was evening, the city glowed with light from thousands of luminescent spheres, set atop lantern posts or strung across the roads. Elegant buildings seemed literally carved out of the mountainside, white stone walls and pointed roofs soaring to unnatural heights. The entire city was draped in water and vegetation; waterfalls flowed from standing pools, cascaded over archways, streamed down the sides, ran to the massive lake at the base of the mountain. The walls of Irrikah were covered with green; flowering bushes lined the pathways, vines hung from walls and dangled over terraces, and great trees, their leaves and branches larger than any I had ever seen, grew throughout the city.
It was stunning and awe-inspiring and completely impossible, and for a few heartbeats, I could only stare in dumbfounded amazement. I could sense Raithe a little to the side, watching me, but his expression was hidden by his hood, and at that moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off the city.
“Weaver’s mercy,” Halek whispered beside me. “I’ve been a lot of places, but... I’ve never seen anything like this.” His blue eyes were wide as they swept over the flowering walls and shimmering curtains of water. “So, this is the legendary hidden city of the iylvahn. I can see why they want to keep it a secret.”
“Yes,” Kysa echoed. She, too, gazed at the iylvahn city in amazement, though her eyes were shadowed with suspicion. “Itis beautiful, though I wonder how much life the queen must sacrifice to keep it this way.”
“Fateless.”
I tensed as a pair of figures stepped onto the road to face us. They were iylvahn women, tall and graceful like Raithe, with elegant features, charcoal skin, and shapely pointed ears. They were also stunningly beautiful, white hair falling halfway down their backs in identical fashions, twin pale blue gazes peering down at me.
“The queen sent us to meet you,” one of the iylvahn said, smiling at me. “It is an honor to have you here in Irrikah, Fateless.”
“We know you must be tired,” said the other. “If you and your companions will follow us, we will show you your accommodations. You can rest and relax a bit before your audience with the queen. Kahjai...” She looked at Raithe, standing quietly to the side. Her smile faltered, her expression turning stiff. “Your mission is done,” she told him flatly. “Your services are no longer required here. Return to the conclave to await new orders.”
Raithe hesitated, then he bowed his head. “Understood,” he said in a voice devoid of emotion. “Fateless, it has been an honor,” he continued, as my insides churned and squeezed themselves into a knot. He wasn’t even looking at me when he said it. “Goddess willing, our paths will cross again.”
I bit the inside of my lip as Raithe walked away. He didn’t pause, and he didn’t look back. I watched, heart aching, as the kahjai who had protected me the entire journey from Kovass to Irrikah slipped quietly into the trees lining the path to the city and disappeared.
So, that’sreally howit is,Raithe? Everything you did was to get me toIrrikah, after all. And now that I’m here, your task is done. I... guess I’m supposed to forget about you.
I closed my eyes, and Halek put an arm around my shoulders, a silent reminder that, even if Raithe was gone, I wasn’t alone. I squeezed his hand gratefully, feeling the weight of the iylvahn’s impassive gazes on us all.
“Come.” The two iylvahn stepped back, gesturing to the path ahead. “Please follow us, Fateless. It is a rather long walk to the palace.”
Walking into Irrikah was like walking into another world, an idea that sounded strangely familiar, as if Raithe might’ve told me that before. Ironically, I felt the loss of his presence even more keenly, wishing he was here to share his city with me. We crossed a gently arching bridge over a river and entered the oasis-like city of the iylvahn. Everywhere I looked, I saw different shades of green, with vivid splashes of color scattered throughout. Emerald and pink, white, yellow, purple, and every shade in between. The roads were shaded with trees, leaves rustling overhead. Birdsong echoed in the approaching dusk, and I caught glimpses of brilliantly colored creatures flitting through the branches. No drab dust sparrows here. Everything about Irrikah was alive, elegant, beautiful. The vines and flowers, though they grew everywhere, were not wild or tangled but carefully maintained to look as natural yet as pleasing as possible. Even the structures and bridges seemed hand-carved out of stone, their walls lovingly shaped, as if designed by the will of a talented giant.
And then, of course, there were the iylvahn.
No one openly stared as we made our way up the winding streets and across whimsical curving bridges hundreds of feet in the air. There was no blatant gawking, no whispers that followed us down the paths. But the presence of the iylvahn was unmistakable. They were everywhere, walking down the roads or standing in doorways, their pale eyes glowing in the shade cast by overhanging branches. They were all different, and yet, like the stories in Kovass said, they were universally tall, graceful, and beautiful. They moved through their city like songs in motion, not a single movement wasted or clunky. As if they knew everything had been designed for them and they were part of this surreal, glorious landscape.
I felt even more grubby and out of place, a common dust sparrow surrounded by elegant peafowl. The urge to disappear, to slip away and hide in the shadows, rose up stronger than ever, but there was no place I could run to. Drawing further into my hood, I kept walking, following our guides up the winding streets, past shimmering waterfalls and through tunnels of vegetation, toward the enormous palace at the summit of the mountain.
Halek drew close and gently bumped my shoulder with his own. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” he whispered. “I’ve wanted to see the hidden city ever since I heard the stories as a boy. I spent years looking for information about it—poems, stories, pictures—but there was nothing. Not even a limerick.”
“That’s because no one remembers the city,” I said, making his eyebrows shoot up. “Raithe told me as much, before we camehere. He said it’s part of the magic the queen uses to keep her people safe. Once we leave, our memories of what happened in the city will fade. That’s why outsiders knowofIrrikah, but no one remembers how to get there or even where in the Maze it is.”
“Really.” Halek’s brow furrowed. “So, we’re going to lose all our memories of what we do in Irrikah, huh? Kind of a shame—memories are all I keep of a place. Ah, well.” He sighed. “It was good while it lasted. Maybe someday I’ll find my way back.”
“It makes you wonder, though.” Kysa’s voice echoed behind me. The insect rider had dismounted from Rhyne at the gates, perhaps not wanting to be the only one riding through the city atop a giant rock beetle, or maybe she wanted to be physically closer to us. “Irrikah has existed for hundreds of years,” Kysa went on. “Surely there have been visitors, scholars, or even curious minds, who have jotted down their experiences while in the city. And yet there are no books written about it, no journals, not even vague sketches. No physical evidence of Irrikah outside the Maze. How is that possible? Unless the queen sends her kahjai to take back anything that might unravel Irrikah’s mystery and silence any who would speak of it.”
The cold in my stomach spread to the rest of my body. Had Raithe ever done that? The kahjai were the assassins of the queen, sent to remove the “weak threads” from the Weave at her command. I wondered if Raithe had ever been tasked to silence someone who knew too much about Irrikah, because the queen demanded her city, her people, and her own existence be kept a secret.
“Hmm,” Halek mused. “Maybe I won’t compose a poem about the wonders of Irrikah, after all.”
We were fast reaching the summit, and the amount of vegetation and waterfalls only seemed to increase the closer we got to the palace. After ascending a set of curving steps to the final terrace, we ducked through an arch and stepped into a magnificent garden. The air was nearly overpowering with the scent of flowers, and petals rained down on us from overhead branches, drifting to the cobbles like ash. A strange, spindly creature peered down at me from a limb, looking almost like a tiny furry human with a long, slinky tail. It gave a strange hooting cry, before it leaped into the branches and vanished from sight. From a cluster of flowers, a jewel-bright bird barely the size of my thumb zipped through the air to hover in front of me, its wings moving too fast to be seen. Halek, a huge smile on his face, raised a gloved hand to the tiny creature. The bird zipped up to him and hovered over his fingers, regarding the Fatechaser curiously. Then, faster than thought, it darted away, vanishing in a blur of green and red. Halek beamed.
At least he was enjoying himself. I might’ve been more in awe if my insides hadn’t been a squirming mass of fear and nerves, knowing that, somewhere beyond this paradise, a Deathless queen waited for me.
