Thirteen #4
a finger at me, then at the storm, and mouthed one word.
Run!
The abomination rose up, clawing the side of its skull with a bony talon, gouging through flesh and rupturing the eye. Rhyne’s
wings opened, and the rock beetle buzzed into the air and flew straight at the monster’s head. The abomination jerked up,
seeming to sense the vibrations in the air, for its jaws opened and it lunged at Rhyne. At the last second, the rock beetle
swerved, and the huge teeth crunched together with the sound of grinding stone.
“Go, Sparrow,” Raithe whispered behind me. “While Kysa has it distracted.”
“What about Kysa and Halek?” I gasped as Ratuk fled across the dunes, the wails of the abomination echoing behind us. “We
have to help them.”
“She’s not fighting it,” Raithe said. “That attack was purely to give us a chance to escape. But Rhyne can fly. Ratuk can’t.
We have to lose it in the storm.”
“Ssssparrrow!”
Vahn’s voice rang out again, enraged and desperate, but I didn’t dare look back.
The sand shrieked around us, muffling sound and making it impossible to see more than a few yards over the rock beetle’s horn.
The abomination roared again, and the dunes trembled as it moved through them, but I couldn’t see where it was, where anything was.
“Human creature!”
I blinked. The wind howled in my ears, but I thought I’d heard a tiny, high-pitched voice out in the storm.
“Human creature, over here!”
I looked down, as a small, furry . . . thing scampered out of the whirling dust and stood on two legs, peering up at me. It
was definitely some sort of rodent, with sand-colored fur, large black eyes, and massive oval ears that were two-thirds the
length of its body. It was bigger than the rats and mice I had seen, but still only a foot tall without its ears. An extremely
long, tufted tail waved behind it as it stood on its hindquarters, gesturing at me with a pink-toed front paw.
For a second, I could only stare, wondering if the suns had addled my brain and I was imagining all of this. Maybe the shock
of seeing the abomination, hearing Vahn’s voice coming from that rotted body, had snapped my mind, and now I was seeing mirages
of rodent creatures who could talk. But I could also sense Raithe’s astonishment behind me, which was both a relief and a
worry. If he could see and hear it too, that meant the talking rodent was real. I just didn’t know if I should be concerned
about that.
The rodent creature blinked up at us, a sharp intelligence shining from its beady black eyes.
“Dead thing coming,” it said, as clearly as any person you would encounter on a city street.
“I can save you, take you into the tunnels under sand. Dead thing won’t be able to follow. Human creatures do this?”
“What about Ratuk?” I asked, ignoring the surrealness of the moment. Speaking to an intelligent rodent creature while an undead
abomination searched the sands for us—it sounded like something out of Halek’s stories. “And our friends, Halek and Kysa,
and their rock beetle, are still out there. We can’t leave them behind.”
“Friends come, too.” The rodent creature twitched its nose, whiskers trembling. “Giant bug thing also. Tunnels big enough.
Once I bring you inside, I go back for your friends. But we must hurry, human creatures. Dead thing almost here. We go?”
“Yes,” Raithe said, his voice also breathless, as if he was forcing himself to speak through the strangeness of this encounter.
“How do we get into your tunnels? Show us where to go.”
It blinked. “Human creatures go nowhere,” it said, and bent to something at its waist. Only then did I notice it wore a leather
belt with a pair of pouches on either side, copper clasps holding them shut. For some reason, the image was so bizarre that
I had to look twice to make sure I was seeing correctly. The rodent reached a white paw into one bag and pulled out something
that wriggled and glowed. Soft, blue-white light spilled from between its claws as it held up what looked like a large, luminescent
caterpillar. “Meeka will blink you into the tunnels,” the rodent said, making no sense whatsoever. “Human creatures ready?”
“Blink . . . us? What?”
The stench of death filled the air a moment before the abomination erupted from the dunes with a roar that shook the sands.
The rodent creature let out a squeak and stuffed the glowing caterpillar into its jaws, then bit down sharply. For a moment,
its eyes glowed with the same brilliant light, though the luminance faded almost immediately. Without warning, it sprang into
the air, leaping at us with long, powerful back legs, and landed on Ratuk’s head. The rock beetle let out a snort of alarm,
but the rodent creature stared right at me.
“Breathe,” it whispered.
Sound cut out, and the world went black as everything inside me stopped moving. My heart didn’t beat, my blood didn’t flow,
my lungs didn’t pump air. I gave one singular gasp, only to find there was nothing to draw in.
The darkness winked into light again. I finished the gasp, warm air rushing into my lungs . . . and the world had changed.
We were no longer in a vast desert, a sandstorm screaming around us and an abomination bearing down to crush us in its jaws.
There was no wind, no stinging sand, no sound. We stood in a dimly lit tunnel, the flickering light of a lantern at our feet,
but the walls weren’t made of stone or rock; they were clear, like melted glass. I could see the desert sands through the
blurred walls, pressing all around us.
“What is this?” I whispered. “Where are we?”
“Safe,” said the tiny creature in front of me.
“These our tunnels. Dead thing won’t be able to get in.
” It twitched its enormous ears, gazing up at the smooth, crystalline ceiling.
“Dead thing is still up there. I go to get your friends, bring them here, too.” It looked at me again, tilting its head.
“What is human creature’s name, so they know I am not enemy? ”
“Sparrow,” I rasped, still feeling like everything was happening too fast. “My name is Sparrow. And this is Raithe. And Ratuk
is our rock beetle, in case they still need convincing.”
It bobbed its head, making its huge ears wiggle. “I come back soon,” it told me. And right in front of my eyes, it winked
out of sight. One second it was there, standing atop Ratuk’s head, the next, it was gone, and I was staring at an empty space.
I drew in a breath. “I just saw that, right?” I muttered, not really knowing who I was asking. “There was a rodent standing
there a second ago, talking to us?”
“Yes,” Raithe murmured. He reached up a hand and ran his fingers along the smooth glass ceiling overhead. “I’ve heard legends
of creatures who could perform spells on the level of the ma’jhet, but they all supposedly went extinct when the Deathless
Kings vanished.”
I swallowed. “Well, we’re seeing lots of things these days that are supposed to be dead.”
Like the soul of my mentor bound into an undead abomination, crawling with worms and in terrible pain, because I didn’t go
back with him to the Deathless King.
Nausea bloomed in my stomach. Pulling away from Raithe, I slid out of the saddle and dropped to the ground, stumbling a little as my feet hit the strange, slick surface.
Putting my hand on the solid wall of the rock beetle, I leaned against Ratuk as my gut threatened to crawl up my throat.
“How could the king do that to him?” I whispered.
“Vahn was the one who brought him back, who gave up everything for him.” Even me.
I heard Raithe land lightly beside me a moment before his hands closed on my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Sparrow,” he said, and
I turned in to him, choking back a sob. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, as I closed my eyes and tried to forget
the horror of what we had seen. “All the Deathless had ways of extending the lives of their subjects,” Raithe continued. “Even
beyond death. And what some kings did to their servants is unforgivable. But you have to believe one thing.”
He drew back slightly, cupping my cheek as I glanced up at him. “This is not your fault,” he said solemnly. “What happened
to Vahn is not on your head, Sparrow. The leader of the ma’jhet knew what raising the Deathless King would mean. Vahn was
aware of what could happen, to him and all those who serve the Deathless. And if you had gone back to Kovass with the Guildmaster,
that would apply to you, as well. This punishment is not justified, but do not let him convince you that it is your fault.”
A shadowed look crossed his face, anger and sympathy flickering in his gaze. “Though I suspect the Vahn you knew is little
more than a shell now, half mad with pain and the horror of what has happened to him. He is lashing out and might not be aware
of what he’s saying.”