The shape sharpens, becoming a fluffy silver beast that looks like it could swallow me in two mouthfuls, twin metallic sabers protruding from either side of its upper jaw—so long they reach well past its chin.
Big pale eyes stare at me, unblinking, slit through with a line of slate that contracts and tightens.
Contracts and tightens.
Like it’s imagining what I’d taste like lanced through by its munching maw.
“Fait Hatdah!” one of the males behind me yells, pointing past. As if I can’t already see the enormous creature perched over the other side of the river, certainly large enough to stomach all three of us.
“I really hope that thing can’t—”
It leaps.
My heart drops.
For a moment, all I see is this massive creature flying through the air, claws outstretched, like it’s reaching for me—lips peeled back from its bared teeth. Until one of the males grabs my arm and yanks me backward.
I fall into a pile of limbs, a heavy thud telling me the creature has landed on our side of the shore.
Fuck.
I scramble to get up again.
Get away.
Finally making it to my feet, I whip around, finding the animal between us and the river. It oscillates between an argent haze of barely-there shape and a strong, sturdy feline with a tufted tail and flowing mane that tangles with the wind. Like the tendrils are dancing with Clode.
My heart leaps into my throat as it lowers onto its thick, powerful haunches, the piercing tips of its sabers almost scoring across the ground.
It looks me right in the eye, lifts its upper lip, and snarls.
I sigh.
I survived a thunder of Moltenmaws and nearly choked to death on Sabersythe saliva only to be eaten by this thing?
“Fait Hatdah gah te nahh,” one of the males beside me says, the tone of his voice laced with a twinge of wonder. “Fait Hatdah. Fait Hatdah … comá feir Kholu.”
Fait Hatdah? What the fu—
My eyes widen, heart skipping a beat.
Fate Herder …
It’s the fucking Fate Herder.
The creature is more legend than reality, so rarely spotted in the flesh. Those who have seen it are often considered crazy or delusional, boasting stories about the beast nudging them to make a different decision from the one they’d intended.
Physically nudging them. Like a bossy handler.
The creature’s slit pupils swell, its large flat tongue coming out to lick across its muzzle, as though in confirmation of the revelation.
My shoulders loosen, some of the tension leaving my body.
Surely this thing doesn’t go around eating folk …
Surely.
Flicking a glance behind me, I wonder which of the two males the creature’s here to herd, my heart stilling when I find them both on their knees—looking at me with reverence. Certainly not like I just heaved my guts all over myself in front of them.
Weird.
“I’ll just … move out of your way,” I say, holding the Herder’s jarring glare as I step to the right.
It prowls sideways, keeping itself firmly positioned between myself and the river, a low growl boiling in its fluffy chest.
I frown, passing a glance over my shoulder at the others, certain they must have also moved—my heart plopping into my stomach when I see them still in the same place, looking at me with raised brows.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
No.
Not happening.
Narrowing my eyes on the creature, I shift my weight like I’m about to leap to the left, then throw myself right and sprint along the bank as fast as my legs can take me, curving toward the river—
A snarl cuts through the air a split moment before something big and dense charges into my side, knocking me off my feet. I careen along the ground, certain flesh is grating off my shoulder as I grind to a halt in the dirt.
Groaning, I lift onto my grazed elbows so I can look right into the slit eyes of the creature now doing slow, prowling arcs between me and the fucking river. “No!”
It growls, the sound like a sawtooth slice.
Maybe it does go around eating folk.
“I want to go that way!” I say, pointing in the direction the water is flowing.
The Fate Herder begins tightening its arcs in loping strides, crushing the space between us, its message blatant.
Get the fuck up.
“This is a heap of spangle shit,” I mutter, pushing to a stand.
It continues to move in sweeping arcs, pushing closer with each prowled step.
I walk backward, keeping my eyes mostly on the animal, though passing the odd glance over my shoulder. It doesn’t take me long to realize where it’s herding me.
Toward the warriors.
I stop, widen my stance, and narrow my eyes on the beast. “I am not going with them,” I say, pointing at the males.
It roars—baring a maw full of honed teeth, its breath buffeting me with such force I have to squint. The sound bounces off the canyon’s sheer walls like an echoing volley.
Maybe I am going with them after all.
Groaning, I tip my face to the sky and close my eyes, dragging my fingers through my wet, tangled hair.
All I want to do is slit Rekk Zharos’s throat. Is that too much to ask?
“Fuck!”
My curse bounces off the walls, hitting me over and over.
Pretty sure going to war with this thing wouldn’t end well. And I can’t hunt Rekk if I’m dead.
Dropping into icy resignation, I spin and charge toward the warriors, cutting a few sharp glances at the creature now prowling close enough to my heels that it could snap at them if it wanted to.
Reaching the two males, I stop, throwing my hands up in a show of displeasure. “Let’s get this over with, whatever this is. Try anything questionable and I’ll gut you both with my nails.”
Frowning, they stare at me for a long while, pass some words between themselves, then dip their heads at me, almost like a sign of … respect. They do the same to the creature at my back, then gesture toward a path that clefts through the sheer, rust-colored cliff on this side of the river.
“Comá, Kholu.” They gesture me forward. “Comá.”
No idea about the other word, but comá must mean come.
Truly, honestly, the last thing I want to do.
I cut my majestic, mythical beast another scathing look. “Unless Rekk Zharos is up that path, nice and cornered for me to slaughter, I’m going to be pissed. Just so you know.”
The Fate Herder licks its chops, steps closer, and nudges me forward with its big fluffy head.
Muttering beneath my breath, I trail the warriors, pausing at the base of a stone staircase cut into the cliff, casting a forlorn look at the river.
One step closer, sideswipe to the head.
The Fate Herder growls, and I growl back, baring my teeth at the beast. “Stop being so bossy,” I gripe, charging up the stairs, chased by the sound of its great paws padding on the stone behind me. “You won.”
The pathway is like a crack formed in the world’s crust, weaving off in all directions, seeming to go on.
And on.
“This is quite the tour,” I mutter as we cut left up another vein of stairs. Or perhaps I’m just impatient, being herded by a massive feline close enough that I can feel its hot breath puffing against the back of my neck.
We take another turn, the air thickening with the rich smell of roasting meat. We move between a tall, lofty entrance framed by …
Bones.
Two colossal bones so large they can only belong to one thing. A dragon that died before it had a chance to soar into the sky, curl up, and turn to stone, instead rotting where it fell.
My eyes widen as we step past the macabre entrance into a massive chest cavity four times the size as I imagine Rygun’s to be. As though the mammoth beast fell many phases ago, its corpse swallowed by the elements.
It’s been mostly hollowed bar a few swooping pinnacles reaching for the clefts in the ceiling—holes bored between some of the thick arching ribs, allowing sunlight to pour down.
The ground is pocked with domed tents made of smooth animal hides all stitched together, reminding me of Rygun’s saddle blanket, the tents like tumbled boulders, painted to look like the scorched terrain in this part of the world. Likely camouflaging this place from anyone soaring above who might otherwise look down the holes in the ceiling.