Three
Raithe. Why didn’t you tell me?
I took one staggering step back from the figure before me, knowing I could never outrun her. It was pure instinct, a sand
mouse fleeing a snake.
“You will not survive if you run, Fateless.” The queen’s voice was calm, but the power below the surface froze me in place.
“Not with that wound. The bite of a Sathis hound will not heal without magical intervention. It will continue to bleed until
you pass out and die.”
I dared a glance at my arm. The entire sleeve was drenched in red; blood trickled from my fingers and dripped in a steady
stream to the rocks. My stomach went cold, and I looked up at the queen again.
“Don’t be afraid.” Those impassive eyes never wavered. “I can heal you. However, I must return to the city to do it. Unless
one of your companions is willing to trade a bit of their life for yours?” She gazed around, her attention drawn to Ratuk,
still lying on his back with his legs moving weakly. “Perhaps the rock beetle will suffice. It appears too injured to recover.”
“Leave Ratuk alone,” I gritted out. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but there was no way I would let Ratuk trade his life for mine. The rock beetle had probably saved our lives already.
“My queen.” Raithe appeared, ghosting past me like a shadow. Without hesitation, he dropped to one knee before the iylvahn
woman and bowed his head. “Forgive the Fateless. She doesn’t understand. Her only experience with a Deathless has been in
Kovass, when the king destroyed the city right in front of her.”
I glared at him, betrayal hot in my veins. He’d known. All this time we’d been together, he had been taking me to see another Deathless, knowing full well the horrors I had gone
through in Kovass. Knowing the betrayal, the trauma, and the devastation that both Vahn and the Deathless King had inflicted.
“Ah. I see.” The Deathless queen gazed at me again, and to my shock, I saw sympathy in her eyes. “I have already exhausted
the life in this area to destroy the Bone Horror,” she said, glancing at the monstrous abomination lying crumpled by the wall.
“I did this without touching you or your companions, but if I am to heal you, some living creature must agree to offer a bit
of their life in exchange. Not much,” she added, as my insides chilled with horror. “Just enough to close the wound—as I said
before, it will not heal on its own. We can either go to Irrikah, where there will be life in abundance, or someone close
to you can make the offer.”
We have the soulstone. We have the life that must be traded. That had been spoken by a ma’jhet, moments before Vahn killed Jeran in cold blood on the altar of the Deathless King. The
life he traded to bring a Deathless back into the world. Or, another Deathless, it turned out. That was how the magic worked. The ma’jhet sacrificed the living to gain power, and the Deathless stole life from everything around them.
I shook my head and nearly fell as the ground swayed beneath me. “No,” I rasped, while the queen continued to observe me as
if I were a particularly stubborn child. “I don’t want anyone . . . trading their life for mine.” Never again.
“I know this concept can be frightening,” the queen said, and her voice was soothing. “But understand, Fateless, that I only
do this with permission. If I am to take life from someone else, I must have their consent. That is the bargain between the
iylvahn and me, and how we have existed for hundreds of years. I protect and nurture the city, but my power comes from my
people, and I take only what is freely given. Their life is a gift that I use to keep this kingdom safe.”
“Sparrow.” Raithe’s low, somehow broken voice drifted up from before the queen. Still on his knee, he turned his head very
slightly, gazing at me over his shoulder. “She speaks the truth. The iylvahn have supported the queen since before the end
of the war. Let her do this. We can’t lose you.”
I clenched my fists, feeling the flare of agony pump even more blood down my arm. As it spattered wetly to the ground, I narrowed
my gaze at the kahjai, ready to tell him what he could do with his truth. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling the most clear-headed
at the moment; all I knew was the shock, hurt, and betrayal churning inside me like a storm.
“Sparrow! Raithe!”
The drone of beetle wings cut through the stillness. Rhyne buzzed over the wall and landed a few feet away, and both Kysa and the Fatechaser leaped out of the saddle. The queen didn’t move, but Raithe whirled around and stood, placing himself, I saw, between us and the Deathless.
“Sparrow, are you all right?” Halek lunged to my side, his gaze going from me to the iylvahn woman looming over us. “We saw
you go down, and there was that light and then that monster just exploded, so I have literally no idea what is going on. Who
is this? Do we need to rescue you?”
“Halek.” Kysa’s warning tone sent chills up my back. The insect rider moved close, her spear not raised, but ready. Raithe
also took one step forward, watching us with narrowed eyes, and my heart sank. He would protect his queen, a Deathless, from
the rest of us. Bile burned the back of my throat as I stared at him. He had chosen his side, and it wasn’t with me.
“Enough.” Despite the tension, the queen’s voice remained as calm and unruffled as ever. “I am Sahmessyia, queen of these
lands, and yes, I am what your kind call Deathless. Rest assured, you have nothing to fear from me, but your Fateless is dying.”
Halek jerked up at that, then seemed to notice the puddles of red at my feet. “I can save her,” the queen went on as his face
paled. “It would take little effort on my part, but there is a cost involved. My power comes from the life energies around
us. To heal the Fateless, I must take a small portion of that life into myself, but I will not take it without consent. Someone
must offer that power willingly.”
“Sparrow,” Halek breathed. He looked horrified, not at the Deathless queen looming over us, but rather at the blood streaming down my arm. Glancing up at the queen again, his jaw tightened. “Easy decision,” he said. “I’m offering. Take it from me.”
“Halek,” I rasped, but at that moment my legs decided to give out. Halek caught me, lowering us both to the ground, as my
vision blurred and darkness wavered at the edges. “Don’t do it,” I whispered, clutching at his shirt. “I don’t want anyone
else trading their life for mine.”
“Sparrow, we’re not going to lose you.” Halek’s voice was more serious than I’d ever heard before. His blue eyes were determined
as he met my gaze and smiled. “Even if I have to sell part of my soul to a Deathless, you are not going to die here.”
“I have no interest in your soul,” the iylvahn queen said. “Just your life. And only a small piece of it—not enough to matter.
You will not miss it, I assure you.”
“Take mine, then,” I said. Even though the thought of it terrified me. The last thing I wanted was to have a Deathless turn
her life-draining power in my direction. But I couldn’t let my friends sacrifice themselves, either. “Halek doesn’t have to
do it,” I panted. “Use my life energy, and no one else has to suffer.”
“It does not work that way, Fateless.” The queen regarded me as if I were a small child failing to understand a simple concept.
“I cannot take the life force of the one I am trying to heal. Another soul must make that sacrifice.” She raised her hand
in a casual gesture. “Of course, the power does not have to come from a single volunteer. Others may share the burden, if
they wish.”
I felt Kysa move up beside me, her gaze on the iylvahn queen. “My people swore they would never again bow to the will of the Deathless,” she said tightly. “We would rather die than be slaves to the magic of tyrants.”
“Warrior of the Scarab Clan.” The queen tilted her head very slightly at Kysa. “I remember your people. You were not mine,
but I know your stories.”
“Then you know our stance on magic. And the Deathless.” Kysa gazed down at me, then at the blood staining the ground, and
her face tightened. “But the Fateless is part of my clan, and I will not allow another to take a blow that can be shared.
If it will save her life, do what you must and take your power from me. This once, I am willing to make that offer.”
“I am, as well.”
This time, even the queen’s expression registered surprise as she turned to Raithe. “Even you, kahjai?” she asked. “Willing
to offer part of your life for a human? Why?”
“I swore I would protect the Fateless until we reached Irrikah,” Raithe answered in a voice dead of emotion. “I vowed I would
get her safely through the Maze to the city within, and we are not there yet. This is part of my duty. The Fateless will get
to Irrikah, as I promised, and then my obligation will be done.”
Raithe’s words settled like poison in the pit of my stomach. So, everything he’d done had been just to bring me to his queen. Even the time he stood up to Vahn, the day I nearly lost him. Even that was only to get
me to Irrikah safely. Was anything we’d shared real?
“Interesting.” The queen gave the kahjai a lingering look, then turned back to the rest of us.
“You have loyal friends, Fateless. Even my own, it seems. Very well.” She raised one arm in my direction, elegant fingers splayed wide.
“I ask one last time,” she said, though the words weren’t directed at me.
“What is lost is lost for good, and what I must take can never be given back. Are the three participants willing to offer a part of their lives to heal the Fateless?”
“Yes,” said Kysa, and Halek echoed her. I glanced at Raithe and, through blurry vision, I saw him nod once, though he wasn’t
looking at me.
The Deathless queen turned to me. “This will hurt,” she warned. “But only for a moment. Try to endure, Fateless.”