As the edge of the lake came into view, a chill wrapped around me like damp, grasping fingers. I shivered. The bridge stretched over the water, looking disturbingly thin, cobbled together with stone and wood and detritus. It creaked horribly under Ratuk’s weight, bending like a sheet of parchment as he stepped onto the rickety planks. I held my breath, expecting it to snap and plunge us into the cold, dark waters of the lake. But either luck was with me, or the jair’oa were better builders than I thought, because the bridge stayed intact even as two boulder-size rock beetles crawled their way over it.
Behind me, Raithe shivered as well. “Look into the water, Sparrow,” he murmured as we reached the midway point of the bridge. Blinking, I peered over the side into the shadowy depths, and my skin crawled.
The bottom of the lake glowed, the faint white light coming from millions of star grubs. They covered the ground in a writhing, squirming blanket, crawling over each other in drifts and mounds. I didn’t know how deep the blanket of grubs went, but I couldn’t see the actual lake bed beneath the unbroken sea of white.
We reached the island in the middle of the lake. It was small, treeless, and barren, save for a wide, flat pedestal in the verycenter. A stone sarcophagus, carved in the image of a man holding a shallow bowl, rested atop the pedestal. By the glow coming from inside the bowl, I could guess what it was filled with.
The three Rememberers stood in a loose triangle around the sarcophagus, the white one at the head of the pedestal. They weren’t alone. Several other jair’oa had gathered around the sarcophagus, perhaps a dozen in all. A few of them were furiously consuming star grubs, shoving the larvae into their jaws one after the other. They all turned as we lumbered up, standing tall on their hindlegs and pricking their ears.
“Human Fateless.” The white jair’oa beckoned to me. Her eyes, I saw, were no longer red but pure white, matching the rest of her fur. Her jaws and muzzle glowed with a milky white residue that made my stomach turn when I realized what it was. “Many star grubs we have consumed,” she rasped, sounding breathless. “Filled ourselves with magic to perform this ritual.” She glanced back at the gathered jair’oa, looking grim. “It will take much magic and many jair’oa to send you where you need to go. But we cannot wait any longer. Undead thing has found you.”
A muffled roar echoed overhead. Beyond the glass, the sand swirled, then parted, revealing a massive rotting form sliding over the dome. It moved like a giant snake, leaving sloughs of skin and flesh smeared over the glass. Curling its neck, it tilted a blind eye down through the glass, seeming to observe the scurrying creatures below it. Its jaws opened, and the air trembled as it roared, beetles and worms spilling from its mouth to slide down the dome.
“Sssssparrrow...”The voice echoed through the city, raking into my mind like claws. The abomination’s skull dove forward, hitting the dome and recoiling with a hiss.“You are here. Within the thousands of tiny souls that squirm beneath me. When they are gone, you will have nowhere to run.”
A chilling screech raised the hair on my neck as it sliced a bony paw down the glass, leaving four claw marks glimmering in the dome.
“Human Fateless, hurry!” The white jair’oa sprang onto the sarcophagus, raising her crystal staff over her head. She gave a high-pitched squeak, and the rest of the jair’oa scattered to the edges of the island, forming a loose circle around us. Their eyes glowed white as they sat up on their haunches, tails waving, and stared at us.
“We send you to the other side now,” the white jair’oa said. Heart pounding, I looked around at the others; Kysa and Halek were still atop Rhyne, who huffed and tossed his head at the circle of jair’oa. Raithe stood beside me with Ratuk at our backs. I spotted Meeka atop the sarcophagus, perched on the edge of the bowl with his back to us. His paws glowed as he scooped up armfuls of star grubs and stuffed them into the pouch at his belt. None of the Rememberers or the other jair’oa seemed to notice.
Magic flickered, then flared all around us, the same energy I’d felt just before Meeka blinked us into the tunnels, only much stronger. The white jair’oa gazed at me, whiskers trembling, as the magic continued to swell. “Farewell, human Fateless,” she said, raising her staff over her head. “Remember us, for we shall not forget you. Remember our kingdom, and may the creatorking’s blessing go with you.” As the abomination roared overhead, she raised her staff higher and slammed the tip down between her feet.
In the split second before the staff hit the sarcophagus and everything went white, I was almost sure I heard the chilling sound of breaking glass.
Sixteen
I opened my eyes with a gasp.
Hot air flooded my throat, and searing light burned my gaze. I bent over, coughing violently and raising a hand to shield my face from the light of the suns. When I could breathe again, I straightened, squinting against the light, and looked around for the others.
I was alone.The desert stretched out before me, endless and barren in every direction. I couldn’t see Raithe, Halek, Kysa, or the rock beetles. I couldn’t spot their silhouettes on the horizon or against the empty sky. I couldn’t see anything but sand, dust, and Namaia, halfway sunk into the western horizon.
For a moment, I panicked, but then a shadow fell over me as Rhyne materialized at my back. One second the sand was empty, the next, a huffing, snorting rock beetle popped into empty air. On his back, Halek completed a yelp that he’d started in the city, and Kysa peered around warily. A moment later, Ratuk and Raithe appeared on my other side.
“Sparrow.” The kahjai leaped off Ratuk, catching me as I threw myself into him. Beneath his tunic, his heart was pounding, too. “Are you all right?” he asked, bending his head close to mine.
I nodded, taking in a quick breath of relief before pulling back. “I guess we all made it.”
“Just in time, too,” Halek said. He hopped out of Rhyne’s saddle, landed in the dust with a thump and straightened, stretching his arms over his head. “Goddess, it’s good to see the suns again. Was I the only one who was sure that dome was going to shatter? Buried alive with a colony of talking rats isn’t the glorious death I would’ve hoped for, but I guess it would have been an interesting one. At the very least, I’m certain no Fatechaser has ever done it before.”
I swallowed hard, remembering the terror sweeping through the city as the monstrous abomination coiled around the glass dome overhead. If Vahn had broke through... “We should’ve left sooner,” I whispered. A poisonous lump settled in my stomach, and I clenched my fists. All those lives, an entire colony of innocent creatures, drowning under sand and beetles... I felt sick thinking about it.
“We can’t know anything, Fateless.” As usual, Kysa’s voice was brutally pragmatic. “We don’t know what happened after we were teleported away. The abomination might not have broken through. Perhaps it no longer sensed our presence in the city and left to pursue. But there is nothing we can do to change the situation. You warned the Rememberers of the danger, and they accepted the risk when they chose to help us. We can only accept their sacrifice and move on.”
“I wouldn’t agonize too much over it, Sparrow.” Halek gave me a sympathetic look and a half smile. “Take it from someonewho’s spent lots of nights in cheap, rat-infested rooms. Small furry creatures are extraordinarily hard to get rid of, and they’re survivors. Even if that thing did break through, it wouldn’t be able to kill all of them. They’ll scatter into their tunnels and hidey-holes, and reemerge as soon as it’s gone.”
I nodded. Halek was probably right, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I remembered the pile of jair’oa kits squirming against me, their wide-eyed innocence as they watched the world around them. “I hope Meeka’s family is all right,” I said. “I didn’t see what happened to him when we teleported away; I wish I could have told him thank you.”
“No need to thank Meeka. Meeka didn’t do anything.”
I started. The jair’oa poked his head over Ratuk’s saddle, ears twitching, as he peered down at me. “Meeka!” I exclaimed, as Rhyne snorted indignantly and made a tossing motion with his horn. Ratuk stood quietly with his usual stoicism, not even seeming to notice his tiny passenger. “What are you doing here?” I continued, and the jair’oa tilted his head, his long tail waving. “Did you get teleported with us by mistake?”
“Not mistake.” Meeka leaped off Ratuk and landed soundlessly in the sand. “Rememberers sent Meeka with human Fateless,” he said. “Said that Meeka must go. Meeka is here on their order.”
“Why?”
“To help human Fateless get goddess loom.”
