Raithe suddenly appeared in front of me, sword held beforehim. “What’s the plan?” he asked in a low voice, never taking his eyes from the giant. I swallowed.
“The way out... is below us,” I replied. He gave a single nod, and the skeleton bellowed and lunged, sweeping its huge axe down at our heads. I dove aside, feeling the weapon slam into the spot where we had been, sending a vibration through the platform. Cracks appeared in the floor, spreading like spiderwebs across the surface, but the stones didn’t fall. The monster stepped farther onto the dais, gazing around for us, and the floor under its rotting hooves sagged a little.
That’s it.I darted from the edge and ran beneath the creature’s legs, causing it to bellow with rage. It swung down not its axe, but a huge fist, and I barely dodged the blow, feeling the scream of bones as it slammed into the ground. I pitched forward and rolled, coming up on my knees to face the burning glare of the skeleton. It reached for me, claws open as if to swat me into the ground like an insect.
Something grabbed my waist, yanking me back at the last second, and the monster’s hand smashed into the dais. As Raithe and I hit the ground, the stones beneath us shivered once last time, then crumbled with a roar.
We fell into darkness.
I hit the edge of a slope, stopping my straight downward plunge, though I continued to slide. It was still pitch black; I couldn’t see Raithe or Meeka, could only feel smooth stone beneath me as I slid down what felt like a chute, rocks and pebbles bouncingaround me. For a split second, I panicked, imagining the chute ending and dumping us into a lake of magma.
A light appeared at the bottom of the chute, not the orange glow of lamps or even the ghostly blue flicker of the chamber we’d just come from, but natural daylight. I slid toward it, unable to stop myself, and went hurtling into open air. The light blinded me, and I fell again.
I hit the ground on my back, knocking the wind from my lungs. Fortunately, I hadn’t landed on stone or rock and broken every bone in my body; the surface beneath me didn’t feel entirely solid, and the air I tried desperately to gasp in was filled with dust.
Coughing, I pushed myself to my hands and knees and gazed around blearily.
Rather than obsidian or lava, sand surrounded me, and the steep walls of the chamber around me soared to dizzying heights. Hazy light filtered in from above. I looked up and saw that the ceiling of the massive chamber had fallen in; large chunks of stone and rock littered the rolling sand dunes, and the sky overhead swirled with noxious clouds.
In the center of the chamber, the enormous tree I had seen in the vision soared into the air, branches outstretched to cover the missing ceiling. The trunk was entirely cocooned in webbing, the branches looking like they were infested with millions of spiderwebs. Shimmering threads coiled around the trunk and dangled from leaves and branches, waving in the wind. I looked closer and saw that the threads were moving on their own, writhing back and forth as if searching for prey.
I shuddered, not liking the thought of having to reach intothat mess to find the loom. I could also feel the presence in the room with us, something ancient and powerful, raising the hairs on the back of my arms and neck.
A few paces away, Raithe grunted and pushed himself upright, breaking free of the sand that had half buried him. Seeing me, he reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet, then drew me close, brushing away the sand still clinging to my hood.
“Are you all right?” he asked breathlessly.
I nodded, and saw Meeka pop up from a nearby sand hill. The jair’oa shook himself vigorously, a cloud of dust poofing around him, then began scrubbing his paws over his nose and ears. Turning, he grabbed his tail and cleaned it rapidly from base to tip. I gazed past the jair’oa to scan the rest of the room, searching for that looming presence, but I didn’t see anything but us and the tree.
Raithe followed my gaze. “Is this the room from your vision?” he asked. “The one with the tree?”
“And the millions of spiderwebs? Yes.”
Raithe’s brow furrowed. “I don’t see spiderwebs,” he told me, making me frown. “I do see a tree, but the branches are clear. Do you see something different?”
I looked at the trunk again. There was no way he could miss the shroud of white that covered the trunk and wrapped around the branches. “Meeka,” I called, and the jair’oa looked up from his task of cleaning himself. “Do you see a tree?”
“Meeka see tree.”
“Is there anything strange about it?”
The jair’oa twitched his whiskers. “Branches dead,” he stated simply. “Tree dead, but living. Meeka not see anything else.”
I shook my head. “Why am I the only one who can see the webs?”
Raithe drew in a slow breath. “Because you are the Fateless, Sparrow,” he said. “Remember what the queen told us—only one who steps outside the Weave can see Maederyss’s loom. Those aren’t spiderwebs that you’re seeing—they’re the fates of everyone still bound within that piece of the loom.”
A chill unlike anything I’d ever known crept up my spine. I studied the tree again, seeing the shimmering threads hanging from the branches writhing back and forth, always moving, always searching.
Without realizing it, I’d taken a staggering step away from the tree. Something was wrong here. I could still feel that presence, closer than ever before, watching me. Watching all of us.
At the base of the trunk, the sands began to move.
I drew in a breath. The shallow dunes shifted, then began to rise, causing my insides to shrivel with fear.Vahn? No, he can’t be here. How could he reach this place before we did?
A massive leonine shape broke through the top of the sands and turned a piercing blue gaze upon us. Not Vahn, but a creature no less terrifying. A monster with the body of a great sand cat, though the tawny fur had peeled back in places to reveal muscle and bone. A pair of tattered, skeletal wings sprang from its back, feathers spiraling to the ground as the beast moved. Its face was that of a once beautiful woman, though the left side ofher cheek was wasted away, teeth and the edge of a jawbone poking through the fur. Shimmering strands wove through its body, as if the threads were holding it together. Like a beloved puppet, tearing apart at the seams.
“Fateless. You have come.”
