Page 4

According to the teachings, every life—every soul—was a thread bound in the Tapestry of the World. You could not change your

placement in the Weave; once your thread was set by Maederyss, the Weaver of Fate, you had to accept your place in the story.

A pig farmer could never become a king, a merchant could never become a noble. If it was your destiny to be a beggar, the

lowest of the low, that was your place in the story, and it was a blasphemy against Fate to wish for more. The only thing

you could do was to strive to be the best at your given path, to accomplish as much as you could with what you had, and pray

that in the next life, Maederyss would recognize your great deeds and give you a better place in the Tapestry.

It worked the opposite way as well. If you were particularly evil, corrupt, selfish, or cruel, you might find your next existence even worse than your present one.

A greedy prince might find himself cursed to be a beggar in his next life, or a heartless noble might return as a butcher or gravedigger.

Some scholars even argued that in the worst cases, you might not come back as a higher creature at all.

You might find yourself crawling around piles of waste as a dung beetle or sand fly.

But since no one remembered their previous lives, and since dung beetles never wrote down their memoirs, this aspect was hotly debated among the philosophers and scholars of Fate.

For the rest of the people, commoners especially, the belief was that you must do the best you could, and your fate would work itself out in the end.

Of course, there were those among the rich and noble class who thought they could buy their way into a comfortable next life.

Which was why, in the Garden District, the Temple of Fate rivaled the majesty and elegance of the king’s palace on the hill.

Standing beneath the overhang of some noble’s balcony, I gazed at the imposing structure before me and briefly wondered why,

of all the things they could ask me to “procure,” the Circle wanted me to steal a tapestry and not, for instance, the ruby

gemstone eyes from the carved statues on the rooftops. Or the solid gold candlesticks rumored to grace every corner within.

But I knew the answer. Even if it terrified me. Gold and gemstones were expensive, but physical expressions of wealth meant

nothing to Maederyss. The Tapestry of the World, though it was only a weak mortal impression of the real Weave, was far more

significant.

And I would be taking it. From the Temple of Fate itself. Literally from right under the goddess’s nose.

I took a deep breath, calming my heart and my mind as I continued to survey the street around the temple. There were no crowds

walking the sidewalks, no throngs of humanity to blend into and become invisible. The streets were dead, and the heat radiating

from the stones was an almost physical thing, pressing down on me. Peak Demon Hour had arrived.

A block down, one of the guard cupolas stood on a corner, its blue-domed roof shimmering in the heat.

I spotted movement through the tiny open windows and knew that most of the patrolling guards would be sheltering in those small havens, drinking or throwing dice while they waited for Demon Hour to end.

This had been a large part of my plan; normally you couldn’t walk ten paces in the Garden District without running into a guard or a patrol who did not look kindly on common street rats and would either run you out of the district or drag you off to jail on principle alone.

But now the streets were vacant, and no guard I knew of would leave his shelter during Demon Hour to chase down anyone suspicious.

As long as I wasn’t directly spotted, no one would come after me.

Across the wide stone road, the doors of the Temple of Fate stood open, ostensibly inviting everyone in off the streets. But

I knew better. To put it bluntly, poor people were not welcome in the Garden District, and while that was not an official

decree, the merchant princes were ruthless when it came to protecting their wealth. If a guard beat a thief to death in an

alley or dragged a beggar through the streets to throw him out of the district, everyone looked the other way.

A pair of guards stood at the front entrance to the temple, though they looked half asleep.

Certainly, they weren’t expecting anyone to come creeping across the rooftops and around the side of the temple, and then leap onto the sill of one of the open arched windows along the wall.

I slithered through the window frame and dropped to the floor, darted behind a pillar, and took a deep breath.

I was in, and I hadn’t attracted the attention of the guards.

Of course, the question of the goddess herself taking notice of me was one I could do nothing about.

The only uncertainty there was, would she do something about it?

Stepping out from behind the pillar, I hesitated, involuntarily holding my breath. Waiting to see if I would be struck down

by lightning, or if the ground would open up to swallow me whole. When nothing happened, I relaxed and began a careful but

steady walk toward the far wall, my eyes wide as I gazed around the chamber. I had never been inside the main Temple of Fate.

I’d heard stories of its grandeur, but nothing could have prepared me for the reality.

It was noticeably cooler inside, shaded from the relentless glare of the twins. The main chamber was cavernous, soaring to

an impressive height, with gold-veined marble columns and a painted ceiling that showed off the ridiculous amount of wealth

that had gone into building the temple. The tallest of the huge windows lining the walls were tinted with painted glass that

displayed beautiful patterns and blocked the sunlight. The floor was polished white stone carved with narrow rivulets that

allowed water to flow across the floor from a central fountain and empty into shallow pools on either side. Bushes, flowers,

and exotic plants surrounded the pools, which were filled with actual live fish. My mouth dropped open in amazement. Fish,

the most expensive meat you could buy in Kovass, was worth twice its weight in gold, and was considered a delicacy only the

merchant princes and the king could afford. But here in the Temple of Fate, the fish were actually swimming around. They were

tiny, colorful creatures, most barely larger than my thumb, but they represented a king’s fortune darting around the bottoms

of the pools.

For the briefest of moments, I was tempted to grab one.

It would be easy enough to dart my hand into the pool and snatch a tiny, jewel-bright fish.

But I didn’t want to kill the poor creature, and besides, finding a buyer would be extremely problematic.

Our fence, Nazzir, would probably have a heart attack if I plunked an exotic fish on his desk.

Swallowing my amazement, I forced my gaze away from the obscene display of wealth and continued across the chamber.

At the far wall, past several aisles of smooth stone pews lined with plush red cushions, the enormous statue of Maederyss

the Weaver, Goddess of Fate, loomed over the chamber.

Some images pictured Maederyss as a giant spider, methodically weaving the tapestry with her long, jointed legs. That was

why it was considered bad luck to kill a spider, and having one in your home was considered a blessing from the Weaver. Maederyss

was also pictured as a beautiful woman hunched over a loom, eyes focused on her eternal task. Never sleeping, seeing all.

But some artists and sculptors took a bit of creative liberty with the goddess of Fate. This statue of Maederyss showed her

kneeling behind the altar with her arms outstretched and palms up. An enormous length of cloth dangled from her fingers, gold

threads glittering in the light.

The Tapestry of the World.

Or an interpretation of it. Obviously, no mortal could re-create the real Tapestry of the World.

It was said this cloth had been woven by the most skilled rugmakers in Kovass, using the finest dyed silk from across the Dust Sea.

Intricate patterns were designed through the weave, with gold, silver, and turquoise threads laced throughout the cloth.

It was made to impress, and it did its job well, but I doubted it looked anything like the real Tapestry of the World.

Staring up at the huge statue, I felt my stomach tighten. The Circle said to steal the tapestry, but the actual weave was

enormous. Two people would probably be needed to move it. There was no way I could fit the entire tapestry into my satchel.

But I couldn’t fail this task, the Circle, or Vahn. The Circle had to know how big the target was, and they’d specifically

asked me to get the tapestry. They wouldn’t have sent me if they didn’t think I could do it. I had to complete this task alone,

but the cloth was far too big for one person to carry.

So... what if I took just a piece of it?

Horror filled my stomach. I ducked behind one of the gold-veined marble pillars in a dim corner to catch my breath.

It’s not the real Tapestry of the World , I told myself, leaning against the slightly cool rock.

You’re not going to be cutting the threads of millions of lives.

This is just silk and cotton and normal cloth.

In the city’s biggest Temple of Fate. With the stone eyes of the Weaver herself staring right at me.

My heart was racing, and I felt slightly sick. For a second, I considered offering a prayer of forgiveness to Maederyss, but

I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Of course, if Fate already knew what I was attempting, nothing I was about to do

would matter.