The jair’oa blinked at him and cocked his head.
“Really?” Halek went on. “You just eat those glowing worms? Why, when there are so many other wonderful things you can consume?” He shuddered. “To each their own, I suppose, but if I had a choice between eating a magic worm or a slice of suncake with fresh night-cactus berries, you can guess what I would choose.”
“Creator king gave jair’oa star grub,” Meeka said, as if it was obvious. “Jair’oa eat star grub. Star grub give life and magic tojair’oa. Not need... suncake.” He wrinkled his nose and sneezed again.
“Dammit,” Halek sighed. “Now I really want suncake.”
I felt Raithe’s silent amusement at my back. Kysa returned, giving Halek a stern look, as if she knew what he’d been saying even if she hadn’t heard it. “We should set a watch tonight,” she said, glancing from Halek to Raithe. “I don’t know how far we are from the nest, but I do not want that abomination to take us by surprise again. One of us needs to be on guard at all times, especially as we get closer to the World Scar.”
Raithe nodded. “I’ll take first watch,” he offered, and rose elegantly to his feet. “The rest of you, get some rest. We’ll need to move out at suns rise. Sparrow...” His piercing gaze went to me, and my stomach fluttered. “If you have nightmares, or sense anything wrong at all, come to me.”
“What about me?” Halek wondered, not quite able to keep the grin from his face as he gazed up at Raithe. “What if I get night terrors and can’t sleep? Will you comfort me too, kahjai?”
“No,” Kysa said, before Raithe could say anything. “But I might. With the end of my spear. In your backside.”
“You know, if we were anywhere else, I’d say don’t tempt me with a good time,” Halek drawled, and quickly held up his hands as Kysa turned on him, half raising her spear. “Ah! I joke, I joke, please don’t kill me.”
Raithe shook his head. My skin suddenly tingled as he touched my back, a brief, gentle caress. “I’ll be close,” he said. “Try to get some sleep.”
He walked away, and the night was suddenly colder in hisabsence. After a moment, Kysa walked back toward the rock beetles, leaving me, Halek, and Meeka by the fire.
I drew my blanket further around myself, then noticed Meeka staring into his pouch. It was hard to tell with the jair’oa’s furry facial features, but it looked like he was frowning.
“Meeka?” I asked, and his ears twitched. “What’s wrong?”
“Star grubs moving strangely,” the jair’oa replied. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled free a grub. It squirmed weakly in his claws, and he wrinkled his nose at it. “Why grubs move strangely?
“It looks a little sick,” Halek observed, and Meeka cocked his head at him.
“What ‘sick’ mean?”
“Oh, of course.” Halek rolled his eyes at me. “The favorite magic mice of the king don’t get sick, either.”
“Meeka is not mouse.” Meeka shook the grub in his paws, then shoved it into his mouth, biting down sharply. “Tastes fine.”
Halek made an exaggerated retching sound, then gathered his blanket around him and stood, yawning loudly.
“Well, since I’m likely to get poked awake by a spear in a couple hours, I’m going to sleep,” he announced, glancing at the tent sitting a few feet away. A cutting wind blew across the dunes, making the fire flicker, and he shivered. “Brr! Yeah, time to go bury myself under a few quilts, I think. And we have to move out at suns rise—that’s not going to be fun.” He stared over the fire, his eyes on something at the edge of the darkness. I followed his gaze and saw Raithe’s lean silhouette sitting on a rock with his back to us, facing the empty desert. “You know,” Halek mused, “if I were a good person, I wouldnothope that our kahjai friendjust stayed out here and took all the watches himself, so I could stay under my warm blankets and sleep. If I were a good person.”
The wind moaned, curling around the campsite and making my skin prickle. Halek shivered again and ducked his head. “But, I’m not. I’m cold, and I don’t like being cold, so I’m going inside. I’m guessingyou’regoing to stay out here a bit longer?” he added, looking at me. “Maybe find some other way to keep warm?”
His grin was wicked and knowing. I picked up a pebble and threw it at him, and he ducked with a snicker. “Okay, okay, I get it. Don’t let me stand in your way. Sweet dreams, Sparrow.”
He slipped through the tent flaps and disappeared inside. A little while later, Meeka yawned, showing off a pair of very large incisors, scratched an ear, then hopped into the tent behind Halek. His long tail vanished through the crack, and I was truly alone.
I looked toward Raithe, fighting a war within myself. Truthfully, Iwastired. My eyelids were heavy, and exhaustion clawed at the edges of my mind. But I knew what would be waiting for me if I dared close my eyes. Screams. Dying. The faces of those I’d known, staring at me in accusation. Because I was Fateless, unraveling the destinies of everyone I met.
A chill went through me. Wasn’t that what I was trying to do now? Unravel someone’s fate so it wouldn’t get to him? Or was I fooling myself that it could be done? It hadn’t worked for Jeran, Vahn, Rala, anyone in the guild. How long would it be, before the faces of those closest to me now joined the ones in my dreams?
I hesitated a moment longer, then grabbed a forgottenblanket on the ground and rose. The cold breeze ruffled my hair and thrust icy fingers into the folds of my own quilt, as if trying to yank it away. I clasped the edges tighter around myself, set my jaw, and started toward the lone figure sitting on the rock at the edge of the firelight.
Raithe blinked as I came up to him, looking puzzled and slightly concerned, and something else that I couldn’t quite place. Something almost... hopeful. “Everything all right, Sparrow?” he asked softly.
I nodded. “I just...”Wanted to see you?Inwardly, I winced. I couldn’t tell him that; we saw each other every day.
“Here,” I said, holding the extra blanket out to him. “I know you’re a deadly kahjai and all, but even you feel the cold. And I figured I would... come and join you, because I’m probably not going to sleep tonight.”
His brow furrowed. “You should try,” he told me in that same soft, concerned voice. “The journey is only going to get harder from here. I know the nightmares are frightening, but if you don’t rest, your body is going to start giving out. At the very least, you’re going to be exhausted when we reach the World Scar.”
