Chapter 35
—Danek—
“Behind you!” Danek called.
Connak ducked as Danek drew a bow and shot an arrow straight into the chest of a sandwraith.
It flew back, losing its jagged metal mask on impact.
Danek picked it up, studying the tribal sun glyphs etched into the center.
The absence of the mask, once covering its nose and mouth, exposed its face to the elements.
Smart, Danek thought. The masks protected them from sandstorms, something Danek needed as he spat out more grain. Leaning down, he studied the wraith in front of him. Its ash-coated skin fissured like cracked clay. Large, scaled patches hung loosely around the sandwraith’s face.
“That combination indicates desert illness,” Connak said, sifting through the wraith’s scraps of armor. He tossed a few patched chains and bronze plates, observing the bone adornments before tossing those as well. “Try not to touch it.”
“What exactly are we looking for out here?” Danek asked.
“Any signs of where King Vaerin’s army is coming from. Shadow weapons, maybe. Sometimes we don’t know. We—”
“Go where the wind takes us.” Danek rolled his eyes. “Okay, Commander, but why are we scoping a sandwraith hideout?”
“Well,” Connak drawled out, glancing at Danek behind his shoulder. “This isn’t part of the mission.”
Danek sprang backward. What was the Hollow Blades Commander angling for? Surely Connak didn’t plan on getting them killed. Danek trailed the dunes to the dead wraith and folded his arms. “Explain, Commander.”
Connak stood and placed his hand on Danek’s shoulder. “Training for you. A sandwraith is one of the most dangerous creatures in the desert.”
“We have a war to worry about.”
“We don’t stop training because we’re at war.
” Connak motioned Danek to follow him up the dunes.
He pointed toward a ship-like structure buried partially in the sand, barely covered with a ragged cloth.
Half-dressed people walked around in circles, spinning a wheel, burying anchors into the ground.
It was a large feat, one that appeared to tire the skinny slaves easily.
The harsh sun beat down on them, pooling sweat on Danek’s forehead.
He lifted his arm to brush it away. It made no difference.
Behind them, large hills of sand extended for miles.
He took a drink of water from his canteen and tucked it into his belt.
How Connak managed to survive out here was beyond him.
Danek hated the desert. His last encounter with the sand involved glass beetles, and he didn’t want to find out what else existed out there aside from the sandwraiths.
Connak collected the dead wraith’s jagged knife, hooking it into an empty scabbard. He waved his hand over the creature’s beady eyes before lifting it to the sky, as if offering its soul back to the world. Then, he covered it with sand.
“So, what’s the plan?” Danek asked, adjusting his own sword.
“I’m thinking we go in, swords blazing,” Connak laughed.
Danek peered over to the ship again. More slaves dragged their chained feet around in circles to dig a trench into the sand. “I’m sort of trusting you not to get me killed.”
“This’ll be quick,” Connak assured him. The rumbling under Danek’s feet told him otherwise. The sand beneath them sank into itself. Connak sprinted forward, pushing Danek out of the way. “Fuck! A leviathan! Move!”
Danek tumbled down a hill of sand, the grains pushing against his pores. The heat seared his skin as he rolled before finally landing harshly in another heap of burning sand. As he lay there, he stared into the harsh, blue sky. That is, until a shadow lurched over him.
A wall of sand tore skyward as something vast broke the surface.
The scaled leviathan was black with shimmering hues of purple and blue.
Longer than a river barge, it burst into the sky, its armored hide glittering like deep onyx.
It had webbed wings on its back, a creature that could only have belonged in the sky yet preferred the deep depths of the underworld.
The ground shuddered under its emergence, dunes collapsing in waves as the creature’s gaping maw split wide, lined with teeth jagged as shattered glass.
Its bellow rolled across the wasteland, a sound that swallowed the wind.
Then…silence. It plunged back beneath the dunes in a plume of golden grit, vanishing as if the earth had devoured it.
It was a creature Danek had never seen before.
His heart thundered. The ground rumbled beneath his body, closing in like an oncoming quake.
The sand heaved, rippling in massive arcs as though the desert itself came alive to hunt him.
On the horizon, a black-sailed sled skimmed the surface.
A sandwraith draped in ash-stained rags, mask gleaming in the sun’s glare, rode its edge.
Its scream ripped the air, raw and triumphant. “Shaaaaii-KAR!”
A battle cry, a damn good one. Danek would have appreciated it if he had time, but the lizard-like creature exploded from the ground again, knocking Danek off his feet.
Danek summoned the wind to blow him to the side, and he stumbled before the leviathan could dive back over him.
The sandwraith landed on its sled, whipping around furiously.
Danek pulled out his bow and launched an arrow at the reins.
He missed, and the burrowing creature exploded again.
Danek coursed the breeze through his veins and shot up into the sky right before the leviathan swallowed him whole.
The dragon-like fangs barely missed his shoe.
His heart threatened to explode as he dove into the sand.
Danek hooked his bow into his sling as the wraith spun around him.
Danek palmed its armor. It didn’t slow it, and Danek was dragged behind it, feet sliding through the coarse grains until he stabilized against the boat-like planks sailing in the sand.
The sandwraith turned and swiped at Danek with a hooked spear.
It grazed his arm, but Danek’s adrenaline kicked in. He barely felt the nick.
Where the hell was Connak? If the sandwraith was the most dangerous creature in the desert, where did the leviathan come from?
Danek gritted his teeth, snatching the sandwraith’s arm.
The creature hissed at him and slammed its spear into Danek’s leg.
Danek cried out but managed to wrap his hand around the weapon.
The sandwraith dropped the reins of his burrowing lizard, and they flew into the air.
They both reached for the spear when they tumbled back through the sand.
The air was knocked out of Danek’s lungs, and he didn’t have time to think about the pain searing his leg as blood trickled down.
He’d heal it later. Danek scanned his surroundings, highly attuned to the waves of sand to his left.
The lizard would be there soon; he had to think quickly. What would Connak do?
Danek grunted. He’d go wherever the wind took him.
He called the breeze, frazzled that he had no idea what he was doing, nor how to beat this creature.
He barely armed himself again as he cursed under his breath.
The sandwraith exploded from a hidden sandpit, grabbing for him.
Danek threw himself into the air immediately.
He ripped his bow from behind him and drew his last arrow.
Danek couldn’t fight the wraith and the leviathan at the same time.
Lining up his vision, he released. Danek pushed the scorching breeze forward with his arrow until it met the wraith straight in the eye.
The creature squealed, twitching uncontrollably in the sand.
Guilt crept into Danek. He landed in the sand, looking for the waves to indicate the desert monster’s presence.
The leviathan closed in. What could he do to stand a chance against something the size of a ship in a desert so hot his eyes began to see things?
An idea sparked.
He chugged water from his canteen with what little time he had left. He panted, and his body dripped with sweat as he conjured the wind. He couldn’t start small this time. The breeze poured in like a storm, electrifying and pressured. The sand and dust kicked into the air.
A sandstorm.
Danek’s vision blurred, the leviathan now out of sight. When he gained enough speed, he curled the wind and swept his hands into a circular motion until the sand took form into a spinning torrent of destruction.
Pushing the funnel toward the leviathan, Danek jumped into the center and rode it through the desert. The wind was strong, swirling specks of sand everywhere. Danek was invigorated from being in control of something so powerful and destructive. Yet this wouldn’t be enough.
The massive creature remained burrowed underneath.
He could kick up the sand, but the creature would only go deeper. The drain of magic already threatened him. Danek had to decide: Use his magic to depletion or fail and get eaten by a massive creature.
Danek shuddered as raw magic pulsed through his veins, heat biting at his skin.
He thrust his hands forward.
The dunes rippled like a living ocean, and the waves swelled higher until they tore into something monstrous.
From the molten gilded haze of swirling sand, another leviathan rose—his leviathan.
It had colossal, scaled plates glimmering in blue and gold as if hammered from sunlight and deep-water sapphire.
It was as he had imagined it, a feat of conjuring that shocked him.
Not once did he believe he could do that.
A growl ripped across the wasteland, low and resonant, vibrating through the dunes until the earth trembled.
Heat shimmered around its form as its spine arched.
The mirage bellowed toward the horizon, golden eyes blazing like twin suns.
It was immaculate. The kind of creature Danek would ride to the very ends of the earth if he could.