vessel

'Destiny,' said the chosen one, 'is a load of old cobblers.'

The scholar's eyebrows bristled on his face like startled cats. 'You'd do well to heed me, Martin. The prophecy is—'

'The prophecy!'

'—quite clear. We'd not have called you here if we weren't sure.'

Martin snorted. 'That's fine. That's great. Listen, I'm supposed to meet this—what did you call him?'

'The Hollow King. It's written.'

'What's written?'

'Well.' The scholar sniffed. 'A great many things. Men have spent their lives—'

'All right, all right.' A sigh. 'What's the first step?'

The scholar drew himself up. 'You'll set foot in the Deeplands,' he intoned. 'You shall join with the nomad tribes and, with them, delve . . . what are you doing?'

Martin had tugged a scrap of paper from his vest pocket and was supporting it on one knee. His pen jittered out the words deeplands and nomad tribes. 'Go on,' he said.

A smile softened the scholar's face. He put a hand on the other man's shoulder. 'There's no need for study, child. The prophecy will come to pass.'

'Exactly,' he said, nodding. 'That's why I need to know. Can't avoid what I don't see coming.'

The hand slipped off Martin's shoulder. 'Oh, child. You don't understand. The prophecy will—'

'You won't mind filling me in, then.'

The scholar wrung his hands. This wasn't how it was meant to go. 'I'll not see you mock destiny's word.'

Martin snorted. 'Fine!' He jammed his shoulder up against the claustrophobic library shelves and squeezed past the scholar, books flapping and thumping to the floor behind him.

'Wait, child—'

Waving the scrap of paper over his shoulder: 'No Deeplands, no nomad tribes. Got it!'

'Don't be a fool!' Kneeling to pick up the fallen tomes, the scholar cried, 'You're to unseat the Hollow King! Did you not hear the seer? You're a man without soul, yet living! A vessel—' his throat growing hoarse '—for destiny!'

Without looking back the chosen one turned a corner and vanished behind soaring bookshelves. His call bounced back down the hall and rustled the pages of frayed and ancient histories.

'Nope!'