Page 31

The inside of a strider wasn’t what I had expected.

Gazing at them from the streets of the Docks District, I’d thought they seemed so large, so majestic.

I had thought the inside would be bright and spacious, with travelers seated at tables on thick silk cushions, luxuriously sipping wine as they gazed through the windows at the endless sea surrounding them.

The reality was not like that at all.

The hallways of the strider were dim and narrow, with low ceilings and flickering lights. Copper pipes were everywhere, snaking

along the roof, the walls, even the floor. Occasionally, they would hiss and leak a thin curl of steam. You could feel the

strider’s movements with every step it took, a sort of lurching stride that rocked you back and forth. The air was warm and

humid and smelled vaguely metallic.

The narrow corridor continued past several wooden doors on either side of the hall. Curious, I stood on tiptoe to peer into

one tiny round window in one door and saw a ridiculously small room with three sleeping alcoves lined with bedding set into

each wall. This is where people sleep—piled atop each other, with no personal space. I shuddered and hurried after Tahba, my fascination with striders fading a little. Though it made sense, if I thought about

it; striders carried a lot of things across the Dust Sea. Every inch of space had to be utilized.

I followed Tahba up a long stairwell that wound its way through several floors, until we reached a final door at the top.

As she pulled it open, sunlight flooded the landing, and a blast of hot, dust-scented air hit me in the face.

“The captain is on deck,” Tahba told me, jerking her head at the open frame. “You’ll know him when you see him. Stay inside

during Demon Hour from now on, you hear? I don’t want to see you pale and shriveled up in my sickroom again.”

I gave her a half smile. “From now on, I’ll try very hard not to die.”

She snorted. “One of those,” she muttered, and walked past me to the stairs. I listened to her footsteps clunking down the

stairwell, then turned and slipped through the open door.

The breeze on deck was dry, chafing my lips, but at least the entire platform was shadowed by thick canvas squares, protecting

it from the relentless glare of the twins. I glanced over the railing and saw the Dust Sea stretching to the horizon in every

direction, and my willingness to be a tiny speck in that vast emptiness faded a little.

“Sparrow!”

I looked up. Halek was striding toward me across the planks, sunlight gleaming off his hair and a bright smile on his face.

Without any hesitation and before I realized what was happening, he crushed me to him in a sudden embrace.

Strangely, though I was surprised, the abrupt closeness didn’t set off alarms in my head. I could feel the desperate relief

in Halek’s embrace, and I tentatively hugged him back, feeling hard muscles through his shirt.

“There you are.” Pulling back, the Fatechaser gave me a relieved, beaming grin. “I told them you would make it. Surviving

Demon Hour on the Dust Sea only to die in a bed just wasn’t your fate. Though Tahba was quite worried. Apparently, it was

touch and go for a while.”

“Really?”

He nodded somberly. “You should have seen our iylvahn friend—while he was waiting to see the captain, he stalked outside your room until Tahba got so fed up, she banned him from the hallway.” Halek gave a soft chuckle and shook his head.

“Ah, d’wevryn tenacity. She wasn’t at all afraid of his kahjai mysteriousness.

Pushed him right out and closed the door in his face. It was quite the sight to see.”

Raithe was worried about me? That seemed odd. I glanced over Halek’s shoulder and saw a pair of figures near the center of

the deck, watching us. One was a stout, red-haired d’wevryn, his beard pulled into tight braids, probably to combat the wind.

He wore a rust-red coat trimmed in copper, the image of a cog stitched onto one shoulder, and a turban atop his head. Most

definitely the captain, as Tahba had said.

A familiar hooded figure stood beside him; as our gazes met, I caught the flash of a pale blue eye and, for a moment, open

relief on the iylvahn’s face. It made my stomach do a funny little dance, and I quickly looked away.

“Ah, and here’s our last lost traveler.” The captain gave me an appraising nod as he walked up, Raithe trailing behind him.

I caught a glint of metal beneath the captain’s coat and realized that he was wearing armor under his clothes.

“I am pleased that you are well again,” he went on.

“My name is Captain Gahmil, and this is my strider. We were on our way to Kovass for a standard passenger and supply run, but then these two”—he glanced at Raithe, looming behind him, then at Halek standing beside me—“show up with the news that Kovass has fallen. Is this true?” He held up a thick hand as Raithe joined us, looming over the captain’s shoulder.

“Forgive me, I don’t mean to imply untruthfulness, but an iylvahn and a wandering Fatechaser are not citizens of the city on the Dust Sea.

” His dark gaze shifted to me again and narrowed.

“You were born in Kovass, or so they tell me. Is the city lost? Has a Deathless King truly returned?”

I gave a solemn nod. “We fled the city as it was falling,” I told the captain, whose mouth thinned until it vanished into

his beard. “The Deathless King lifted his own ancient city from beneath Kovass, and everything else crumbled. Honestly, I

don’t know what has happened to Kovass, how much of it is left, if anyone survived. I just know that the Deathless King is

there now, and I don’t want to go anywhere near him again.”

“We told you, Captain,” Raithe said quietly from behind the d’wevryn. “Turn this vessel around. If you keep going, you’re

putting yourself and all the lives aboard in danger. A Deathless King is not something you can survive.”

“I know what the Deathless Kings are, iylvahn,” said the captain, a bit shortly. “Your kind are not the only ones with long

memories. The d’wevryn have our own legends of the Deathless, and our grudges last forever. We remember, even though the troblin

and the humans have forgotten. We know what it was like under the heel of the Deathless Kings.” He glowered at Raithe, then

sighed heavily. “I just have a strider full of cargo and investors and passengers bound for Kovass. If I’m going to turn this

vessel around, I’d better have a damn fine reason to endure the screaming and wailing that’s going to come from this.”

“A fallen city and a risen god seem like a pretty good reason to me,” Halek said.

“Indeed.” The captain’s jaw tightened. “I will make the announcement.” He sighed. “Right after our scout returns. I sent her to investigate Kovass from a distance, and I wish to hear her report.” He raised his head and gazed at the sky. “In fact, I believe she is coming back now.”

I followed his gaze. A black spot hovered in the sky, silhouetted against the cloudless blue. As it drew closer, a droning

sound began to vibrate in my ears. With a shock, I realized that this was the creature in my dream, the great black insect

with transparent wings and curling antennae, descending from the sky like some kind of terrible nightmare. My skin crawled,

and I tensed, but Halek put a hand on my arm and squeezed gently.

“Don’t panic,” he whispered with a secret grin. “That’s Rhyne. He’s a rock beetle. I know he looks terrifying, but he’s actually

very well mannered.” His grin widened, and he lowered his voice even further. “The one you should be afraid of is his rider.”

Rider? Utterly confused, I looked back just as the massive insect touched down on deck. It wasn’t completely black, I realized.

The translucent membranes of its wings were a shimmering emerald, and a faint metallic green tint covered its shell. A huge

horn, nearly four feet long, protruded from its face, curving into the air.

“Captain!”

Part of the huge beetle suddenly detached from the rest, and a figure leaped down from its back, making me start. Only then

did I see the ridiculously small saddle strapped behind the insect’s enormous head. I hadn’t seen the rider at first because

they wore chitinous black-and-metallic-green armor that blended into the shell of their mount. A helmet with the same curving

black horn as the beetle covered their face.

“Kysa.” Captain Gahmil stepped forward, brow furrowing. “Report,” he said sharply. “What have you seen? Were you able to get to Kovass?”

“Get everyone inside.” With one hand, the rider stripped off their helmet, revealing the face of a young woman. Her voice, low and smoky, was the one I’d heard on the Dust Sea when I’d thought I was

dreaming. Straight black hair fell to her shoulders; her eyes were dark and her skin was pale, as if it rarely saw the sunlight.

She looked only a couple of years older than me, but the hardness in her eyes and the set of her mouth hinted that she was

the same kind of dangerous as Raithe. She had seen fighting, and death, and was no stranger to either.

“Get everyone below deck,” the woman repeated, making the captain frown. “Quickly! It’s coming.”

“What? What is coming?” the captain sputtered, clearly flustered but trying not to show it. The insect rider ignored him and

turned to her mount, fiddling with the saddle straps. Captain Gahmil scowled. “Kysa, I am your captain,” he said in a voice

of forced calm. “I order you to slow down and tell me exactly what is going on.”

A hollow thump rang out, echoing over the strider, and the entire vessel shuddered as something huge struck its side. A shiver went through

me as well.

The insect rider turned, a spear in one hand and a terrible look of grim resignation on her face. “Too late. It’s here.”

Hurrying to the railing, we peered over the side.

Something was crawling up the vessel. Something massive, with a segmented body the color of sand and eight jointed legs that nearly spanned the length of the strider.

It wasn’t a spider, or an ant, or a scorpion, but some terrible, blasphemous mix of the three, with a bloated, pale abdomen, four serrated mandibles half the size of its face, and a pair of shiny black eyes atop its head.

It peered up at us, a soulless, alien predator, before its jaws opened in a piercing hiss and it skittered up the side.