11. Rajesh #2
The crew didn’t need to be told twice. Those hunkering downstairs sprang up onto the deck or ran to the cannons underneath.
Vessels prepared their Flames, and the deck was suddenly filled with an assortment of Bulls, Bats, and Hawks.
Multiple shadows emerged and zipped forward, merging into a bigger, materialized versions of a Flame.
Bulls rose to their two hind legs, hooves turning into sharpened claws.
Bats stretched their wings and took flight alongside the Hawks, which were as big as the mast howling in the wind.
Rajesh’s gut sank, deeper and deeper. He didn’t have time to be sorry for himself. He had to move. Had to ensure his crew could kill the angstent before the two-headed monster swallowed them, or worse, threw its body over the ship and left them stranded thousands of miles from their home base.
He stood still, centering his gravity to the deck and shutting his eyes.
He let his shoulders relax and his mind level, despite the raging emotions inside him.
The Scorpion’s shadow slunk through his body, starting from his spine, hitting each vertebra with a spike of heat, and then dripped down into the base of his tailbone.
When he opened his eyes, a purple scorpion stood beside him, and his animal shadow had disappeared.
Pinchers hit the cold skies, its pedipalp as big as several Rajeshs.
The Scorpion’s beady eyes stared ahead, locking on to the angstent bursting from the sands as it raced through the red desert and sprinted forward like an impenetrable wave.
“Do what you must,” Rajesh ordered.
The Scorpion with all six legs jumped from the deck and landed on the sand, scampering toward the angstent.
Rajesh ran to Navya. Her Peacock stood like a graceful dancer beside her, ruffling its feathers with the hundreds of eyes. With the Peacock, the ship flew as if the wind were its prey.
“I’m sorry,” Navya said, focusing on the angstent. “I swear I knew it was coming. I… I was distracted.”
“Don’t worry about the past when we can’t change it,” Rajesh assured. “What matters is getting out of this without losing our own. Keep us steady!”
Navya nodded. “Rajesh…?”
“Yes?” He met her gaze, the familiar emerald eyes entrancing him as they had for many years. Only ever intriguing, never anything more.
“Stay safe,” she said.
Rajesh nodded. He couldn’t say whatever she wanted him to say. Besides, he had an angstent to destroy. A crew to protect.
He grabbed a godsblade from the weapon rack against the shrouds and prepared to fight. Hema stood to his left, her Silvery Fox poised and its tail swaying. Vedant’s Bull stood on his right.
“Ready?” Rajesh called.
His crew nodded.
Tanmay continued to drive them over the dunes.
A chorus of schwiiing echoed as the crew unsheathed their weapons and the Flames took flight or fought beside their Vessels.
It wasn’t like this was their first angstent to kill, but the last time they fought one, he’d lost half his crew and his ship’s mast broke.
The serpent-like monster would use the sands to hide and hit from the higher points—it wasn’t an easy opponent at all.
Breathe… Focus…
The ship lurched as the angstent soared into the skies.
Sand fell in a rivulet of grains and hit the deck.
Rajesh used his arm to cover his eyes, the sand tapping against his bare skin.
When he was able to look, he craned his neck back and watched three Bats attack the second angstent’s head.
Five Hawks circled before shooting down with glistening claws and attacking from the middle.
Multiple arrows pierced the sky, flinging forward with the blood of a poisonous Flame. But the angstent’s scales were hard to penetrate, and most of the arrows sank into the sands.
Rajesh realized the sword wasn’t going to cut the angstent’s emerald scales and grabbed a bow and arrow.
He ran to the ratlines and climbed the rope, trying to stay steady as the ship swayed around the hulking monster.
He heaved himself up until he got to the crow’s nest. The wooden banister bashed against his hips, and he hissed in pain.
There was no point in trying to attack and kill. It was best to survive and escape.
From the crow’s nest, Rajesh surveyed his crew and the deck. He watched as the Flames in the skies attacked the angstent, aiming for the eyes.
How would he get his crew out of this alive?
Vessels and Flames fought alongside one another, trying to defeat the beast together.
Fear choked the mortals’ breath, their hands desperately twitching at their sides.
All of them had families, some still back at the den or in the Awakening.
Some might not make it out of this alive, but Rajesh had to ensure they all didn’t die tonight.
Rajesh steadied himself against the banister and notched his arrow into the rest of his bow, aiming toward the stern of the ship.
Once his hips were perpendicular to the stern, he pulled back on the string with three fingers, ensuring it was tight and his shoulder and arms were leveled into a T.
Closing one eye, he steadied his aim on one of the angstent’s eyes with an arrow dipped in the ashes of the Flames and made to penetrate the tough skin.
He took a breath, raised his elbow an inch higher, and released.
The arrow shot through the skies with no interference and whizzzzzzed.
A golden weave laced itself around the arrow, the Flames’ ashes merging into the wood and igniting it.
It didn’t land.
“Fuck!”
Rajesh ground his teeth and notched another arrow. And another. And another. The ship was swaying too much for the arrows to hit their moving target, as the angstent was too eager to bite the Bats and Hawks circling them to focus on the ship.
Rajesh shook his head but loaded another arrow. He aimed at the angstent, praying that this one would sink into its prey. He took a deep breath, easing the blood pounding in his ears.
He released the arrow. Gold split the air and funneled until it hit the target. Right into the eye on the angstent’s first head.
Rajesh punched the sky. “Eat that, angstent!”
The angstent reared back with a piercing scream. Two fangs flashed in the night sky as the tail end of the angstent burst and black ichor darkened the sands.
Rajesh’s crew scrambled out of the way of the oncoming blood but kept attacking with whatever arrows they had left.
The angstent calmed and turned three yellow eyes to the ship, peering right at Rajesh. The happiness was short-lived as the angstent shot back into the sands.
“Fuck,” he cursed. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
He scuttled down the mast and jumped back onto the deck. His crew peered over the edge, waiting and watching for any shuffling grains.
“Where? Where is it?” Hema asked, panicked. “Where has it gone?”
Rajesh tightened his hold on the banister and watched the red sand at the edge of the ship shift. Navya kept them steady. Tanmay was at the wheel.
Rajesh’s breath was stuck in his throat as he waited for the angstent to reveal itself. But the sands were still, and there was no movement aside from the ship’s. No matter how hard Rajesh focused. No matter how long he watched.
“Maybe it’s—” Vedant started.
“Don’t say it,” Rajesh snapped. “Get back into position. All of you. It will come back again. We’ve only angered it.”
“You angered it,” Vedant muttered.
Rajesh flashed Vedant a deadly look. It took all of Rajesh’s patience not to punch the man in his face and make him bleed out on the floor.
“We—”
Hema’s words were cut off by another piercing scream. Sand rained down on the crew, and everyone took shelter. Scales glistened as it continued to rise, higher. The frill around the angstent’s head fanned out as its eyes steadied over the crew and shadowed the entire ship.
Rajesh grabbed onto Hema, pulling her out of the way as a rock hit the deck.
The other end of the angstent rose with a terrifying scream rattling the earth like thunder. The ship lurched to a hard left, and the wheel shook from Tanmay’s grasp. The crew stumbled across the deck, unable to hold their positions as the starboard side was hit.
Rajesh crashed to the ground with Hema in his arms. When he steadied himself and ensured he hadn’t hurt his crewmate in the process, he swung his head around as the angstent settled on either side of the ship.
It was as if Rajesh were looking in the mirror as the two-headed angstent glared at them from either end of itself.
Rajesh’s chest tightened.
The angstent flashed its forked tongue, a hiss echoing.
“Well, shit,” Rajesh muttered.
He didn’t know what to do. It continued to rise, and if it rose any higher, it would wrap itself around the ship and crush it between its emerald scales. This ship was strong, made out of the Flames’ bones, but it was nothing more than wood to splinter to the angstent.
“Aim for the eyes!” he called. “Archers! Hawks!”
He helped Hema to her feet before grabbing his weapon. Archers moved to his side, aiming for any of the four leering eyes.
Where are you?
Moving!
Move faster!
He had no idea where the Scorpion had gone. The Flame needed to act soon, or Rajesh’s crew would die. He would die, never having found the wish-fulfilling tree, and possibly never getting back to Leela.
A sharp ache crept through his chest. Rajesh bit his lip. He didn’t have time to think about her right now, or what could have been.
He still had a crew to save.
Rajesh aimed at the angstent’s eye. He shot arrow after arrow, anywhere the angstent couldn’t move out of the way. But his fingers were trembling, and the arrows weren’t landing.
The first head of the angstent snatched a Bat from the sky, and a body thumped to the ground beside him. The second head grabbed a Hawk, and another body, one running toward Rajesh, suddenly fell—dead—at his feet.
Fucking hurry!