She trailed off, as if reluctant to voice what she feared. My heart was pounding in my chest. I hadn’t known any of this about Raithe, the kahjai, or the queen. I did know one thing: We were not welcome in this beautiful city, with its insular, beautiful people. Even though they smiled and bowed and were perfectly polite, to the iylvahn, outsiders were to be hated and feared.
The conversation with the two kahjai had not started up again, and a prickle of warning ran up my spine.Time to go, Sparrow. Before the highly trained assassins notice that you’re eavesdropping.
I had started to move, to slip away from this corner and back to safety, when a hand slammed into the wall next to me, making me jump out of my skin.
“Well.” The female kahjai loomed over me, gazing down with cold eyes. “Look what we have here. The Fateless herself, I believe.” Her head tilted, pale blue eyes watching me like a sand hawk. “They say you were a thief in Kovass. I believe it.” She stepped closer, pressing me against the wall, as her companion joined us. Now there were two highly lethal kahjai boxing me in, and nowhere to run.
“Did you learn anything interesting, Fateless?” the female iylvahn asked. She raised an arm, a dagger appearing in her fingers from nowhere. “I heard that, in some outsider cultures, they cut off your hand for stealing,” she went on as my stomachtwisted in fear. “Within Irrikah, stealing secrets is an offense that will get you killed. Shall I save the queen the trouble?”
“Sparrow! There you are!”
Halek’s voice broke the tense silence, and the Fatechaser stepped to my side, smiling easily at the two iylvahn. “Sorry about that,” he said, seeming unruffled by the cold glares of the kahjai. “This was my fault. I thought I saw our friend and sent Sparrow to call him over.”
“Your friend,” the male kahjai said flatly.
“Yes. Tall, hooded, mysterious? Looks a lot like you from the back?” Halek made a vague gesture at nothing. “My apologies. It was a simple misunderstanding. Come on, Sparrow,” he went on, taking my arm. “I need a partner. You said you would learn this dice game with me. Still up for it?”
I took a quick breath to find my voice. “Oh, right,” I breathed, trying to sound as casual as he did. To ignore the pulse racing in my ears. “Sure, Halek. Let’s go.”
The kahjai stared a moment longer, then stepped back. Relieved, I started to walk away from the two deadly assassins, but the female kahjai’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Raithe,” said the assassin in a hard voice, “is not your friend. Kahjai are no one’s friends, especially not outsiders. He might’ve protected you on your way to Irrikah, but do not mistake that duty for anything else. We are loyal to our queen and our nation—those who forget that tend to disappear.” Those cold blue eyes narrowed. “Remember that, Fateless.”
I swallowed. Before I could think of a reply, a chill slid up myback, and the feeling of being watched crept over me. The two kahjai looked across the room, and the woman smiled.
I knew who I would see even before I turned around. Raithe stood in the entrance of the tavern, outlined in hazy moonlight. His pale blue eyes met mine across the room, though his expression was hidden in the shadows of his hood. My racing heart stuttered, my feet suddenly frozen to the floor of the sylgellia.
“Raithe.” The two kahjai stepped around us and walked up to the iylvahn in the doorway. For a moment, he didn’t acknowledge them, his gaze fixed on me. Then the female kahjai stepped close, putting a hand on his arm, and he finally turned away. They held a quiet discussion in the doorframe, voices too soft to be heard, but I saw Raithe’s lips move as he spoke to them both. The female kahjai said something that caused his gaze to flicker to mine again, his eyes hard and flat. She shook her head and trailed a finger down his arm, and I clenched my jaw so tight my teeth throbbed.
Without another glance at us, the three kahjai turned and left the tavern, vanishing into the shadows. I stared at the empty doorway, teetering on the edge of slipping into the night and following them. But this was Raithe’s city; he would know how to evade me, and he was probably expecting me to go after them. Besides, if I did catch up, what would I say? What would I ask the kahjai? He had already made it clear that he wouldn’t tell me anything, just as I had made it clear that I didn’t want to see him anymore.
Halek stepped close, his voice a murmur. “If you want tofollow them, just say the word,” he said. “I’m always up for tailing three highly trained killers through the shadows. I don’tthinkthey’d murder us in a lonely alley, but it would be exciting nonetheless.”
I took a deep breath and turned from the door. “No,” I decided, shaking my head. “What’s the point? You heard what the other kahjai said. Their loyalty is to the queen. We’re outsiders here. It’s better to just... forget them.”
Forgethim.
Halek’s gaze was sympathetic, but he nodded. “Well, come on, then,” he said with a smile. “We may be outsiders, but I bet we can still score big at their dice tables. You and me, Sparrow, cleaning house in the iylvahn’s own city. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?” His eyes sparkled, and he held his arm out to me. “Up for learning a new game? We might win some fun trinkets before we leave for the World Scar.”
I forced a smile. Raithe was gone; I didn’t want to think about him right now. I didn’t want to think about Deathless queens, kings, or looms of the goddess. Tomorrow we would leave the city and start what was probably the most dangerous journey of our lives. But right now, I wanted to forget all that, and focus on something Icoulddo.
I stepped up to the grinning Fatechaser and slipped my arm through his. “Let’s do it.”
Eight
Chancellor Llorek came for us at suns rise the next morning.
“Greetings, Fateless,” he said, smiling as I opened my door. If he noticed my rumpled clothes, haggard face, and tousled hair from a night of no sleep, he didn’t comment. “It is nearly time for you to leave us. Are you ready?”
I nodded, and the chancellor’s smile widened.
“Good. Follow me, then. I believe your two companions are being summoned as we speak.”
Kysa and Halek were waiting for us in the next hall. The insect rider looked as poised and unruffled as usual, but Halek’s hair stood up at odd angles, his eyes were bloodshot, and suspicious stains marred his shirt. We’d stayed in the tavern playing dice and card games until the wee hours of the morning, and Halek had been drinking through most of it. That had not stopped either of our lucky streaks, and we’d left with a few interesting trinkets, including a silver ring, a feathered bracelet, and a farseer: a glass-and-copper tube that magnified whatever you pointed it at. We’d stumbled back to the palace near dawn, whereupon Halek had announced he needed to “answer the call of nature.” I’d left the Fatechaser in the hall and retreated to my own quarters, but the little sleep I’d gotten had been plaguedby nightmares, so I had lain atop the covers with my swirling thoughts until morning.
I stifled a yawn and glanced at Halek. “You look how I feel,” I said with a grimace. “I hope you at least made it into your room.”
Kysa snorted. “The fool showed up inmyroom at dawn, because he couldn’t see straight enough to find his own,” she said. “He nearly had a spear hurled at his head, but luckily for him, I recognized his terrible singing.”
