Raithe went perfectly still, gazing up at the sky, his eyes suddenly dark. Tension hummed through his body, the muscles coiling beneath his skin. “Something is coming,” he muttered, just as Kysa rounded a boulder and gave us a grim look. For a second, I thought she would be angry or disgusted, but though her words were sharp, they weren’t directed at us.
“You need to see this. Now.”
We hurried back to the campsite, where Halek was standing at the cliff’s edge, staring out over the desert. Near the rock wall, Rhyne was snorting and tossing his head, his massive horn scouring the stone. Worried, I looked for Ratuk and saw him pressed against the other side of the rock face, away from Rhyne. Whether it was to avoid getting smacked by Rhyne’s horn or because he, too, could feel the wrongness in the air, I didn’t know.
I walked up beside Halek, gazing out at the emptiness of the desert as he was doing, and my blood chilled.
Something was moving across the sky, casting a tatteredblotch against the stars. Something huge, hazy, and dark. It almost looked like smoke, or some kind of strange, living cloud. But the more I watched it, the more unnatural it seemed. The wind shifted, and the stench of rot, decay, and dead flesh drifted to me on the breeze, making my stomach turn.
“What is that?” I whispered, squinting against the darkness.
“Here.” Halek turned and held out something that glittered in his hand. A small tube of copper and glass, five inches long and wider on one end. I blinked as I recognized it.
“When did you get a farseer, Fatechaser?” Kysa wondered.
Halek shot me a furtive wink. “Picked it up in Irrikah,” he said breezily, and thankfully did not elaborate. “It’s not as fancy as a d’wevryn cloudgazer—no offense, iylvahn—but you’ll be able to see what you’re looking at.” He shuddered suddenly, looking at the black cloud moving slowly across the sky. “Though sometimes, you wish you hadn’t.”
I held the farseer to my eye, peering through the glass at the distant horizon. For a few seconds, I swept the tube back and forth, trying to find the cloud. It blurred as I caught sight of it, then slowly came into focus.
My stomach dropped. It wasn’t a cloud at all. It was a massive, decaying abomination with exposed flesh, tattered wings, and a huge skull that showed gleaming bone through rotted scales. An ancient dragon straight out of legend, the corpse brought back to horrifying life. I had seen one once before, when Vahn had shown up in the Scarab village to claim me. He had been riding one of these abominations, and only the Deathless Kings had the power to resurrect such ancient creatures.
This one was even more horrible than the last. Its flesh crawled with thousands of huge black beetles; they buzzed around it in a terrible swarm, burrowing into the rotting skin and crawling over the bones. Worms wriggled through its rancid flesh as well, huge pale maggots, writhing and squirming and sometimes falling away to the earth.
“Goddess.” I dropped my arm, which was shaking. “Why is there an abomination out here?” I asked, my voice sounding far steadier than I felt. “Kovass is miles away across the Dust Sea.”
“I think we know why it’s here,” Kysa said. She looked at Raithe, who nodded grimly.
“It’s looking for us,” Raithe muttered. “After Vahn failed, the Deathless King knew we were going to Irrikah. He knew we were going to meet the queen.” He stared at the abomination, his eyes hard. “The Deathless King knows about the Loom of Maederyss, same as the queen. That’s why an abomination is out here, miles from everything. The king sent that thing to find us.”
I felt sick with fear. The Deathless King had finally taken a personal interest in me. Before, Vahn had been carrying out the king’s wishes, and it was Vahn’s magic we’d been fighting against. That had been difficult enough, but at least it had been a barrier between us and the godlike power of the Deathless King. After the fall of Kovass, the king had not bothered to deal with one insignificant street thief. But now that we had killed the leader of the ma’jhet, that indifference was gone. The Deathless King’s ire had been awakened. I was now more than a thorn in his side, and he had decided to take care of this little problem himself.
“It’s heading west,” Kysa murmured, watching the cloud of darkness draw farther and farther away. “Straight across the desert.”
Toward the World Scar.
“Yep,” Halek sighed. “How much you want to bet that thing will be waiting for us when we get there?”
I shivered, hugging myself in the sudden cold, and felt Raithe step closer, his hands closing gently over my arms. “We’ll deal with it when it shows itself,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about it tonight. I do suggest we move out at suns rise, though. I’ll keep watch until dawn.”
“I will, too,” Kysa announced. “Not that I don’t trust your overwatch skills, iylvahn, but just in case you are distracted with... other things.” She did not look pointedly at me, but I got the implication, loud and clear. “Besides, I want to keep an eye on the rock beetles. They are considerably riled up, Rhyne especially, and I fear will not be going back to sleep tonight.”
Halek snorted. “You’re assuming any of us are going to sleep after seeingthat.”
Thirteen
I didn’t sleep. Icouldn’tsleep. I sat cross-legged in front of the fire, blanket draped over my shoulders, and stared into the flames. Watching images dance over the coals. Vahn. The Deathless King. The queen of Irrikah. And me. One small thief who was expected to inherit the power of a goddess.
Across the firepit, Halek lay in his sleeping roll with one arm flung over his face. Despite what he’d said earlier, the occasional snore echoed from his side of the camp. Even on a night like this, with undead abominations darkening the skies, the carefree Fatechaser could sleep through anything. I wished I could sleep. I wished I could forget everything for a few hours. My mind fluttered like a moth, flitting back and forth between a torch and the darkness, unable to settle on one thing. One moment, I was terrified of the Deathless King and the abomination that was surely waiting for us at the World Scar. The next, I remembered Raithe’s touch over my skin, the feel of his lips on mine. I wanted to go looking for him, even if it was just to talk. But Kysa was awake as well. I saw her graceful shadow moving around the rock beetles, and I didn’t want to have to face her silent—or perhaps not so silent—disapproval.
A glow had infused the distant horizon, tinting the sands pink, when I felt a soft touch on my shoulder. Raithe stood there,a silhouette against the predawn sky, appearing as silently as a ghost.
“It’s nearly time,” he told me. “I know it’s still dark, but I thought you might want to get up a little earlier to take care of Ratuk.”
“Yeah.” I nodded and got to my feet, shivering as the blanket fell away. “I should do that before Kysa comes for me. Thanks, Raithe.”
He caught my hand as I stepped back, making me pause. “You’re shaking,” he murmured, and my heart began a stuttering beat in my chest. Raithe stepped closer, sliding one hand up my arm and causing that entire side to tingle. “I will protect you, Sparrow,” he said. “From whatever comes at us. Even if the Deathless King himself shows up.”
“I know,” I whispered, not voicing my true thoughts. Because if the Deathless King himself appeared now, there was nothing any of us could do to stop him. He would end our existence as easily as the queen had destroyed the Bone Horror in the labyrinth. Raithe would try to protect me, and he would die. We both knew it. “I know you would,” I went on. “That’s one of the things that scares me.”
