Page 95 of Blood of the Sands

A smile tugged at my lips, but I tamped it down.

“We’ll use our sabers,” I started.

“How will we get close? I’m not sure about you, but I can’t walk through molten rock.”

“You know how we’ve practiced throwing rocks?” I asked.

“Yes. Are you going to throw rocks at it? I thought you just said we will use sabers.” Keera looked quizzical.

“You’re about the size of a boulder.”

Keera stared at me as if she expected this to be some sort of joke and she was waiting for the punchline. When all I did was shrug, her eyes widened.

“You’re going to throw… me?”

“That was my plan.”

“And how is that supposed to help us?”

“If you can get on its back, you can find a weak point without having to approach it on foot. Besides, you stole my kill in the hunt at the Trials just fine by jumping down from above with a knife. We’re just going to be using your strategy again.”

Her expression was incredulous. “And what will you be doing after using me as a projectile?”

“I’ll be the distraction.”

She opened her mouth to argue, clearly not keen on the idea of being launched straight at a beast of legend, but it was too late to turn back. Rumbling shook the ground beneath our mounts’ hooves, as if threatening to split open. Even Alza, as used to bursts of magic as she had become, pranced, showing the whites of her eyes as they rolled back in their head.

I motioned for us to dismount. This fight would be safer on foot. Neither of us would have attention to spare for spooked horses.

We continued creeping forward on foot. I drew my saber from across my back and a metallic shink to my left told me Keera had done the same. As we crested the ridge of a dune, a smoldering graveyard came into view.

Blackened patches of rock led into oozing magma, still glowing a reddish orange. Charred bones littered the ground, the skeletons of horses and humans intermingled. I swallowed and looked away quickly when my eyes caught on a skull small enough to belong to a toddler.

“Sands,” Keera cursed under her breath. When I followed her line of sight to where she was looking, I was inclined to agree.

Curled up on a steaming pile of magma was a lizard three times the size of Alza. A long snout rested on scaley hands, each finger tipped with a claw as long as my dirk. As the creature snored, it became apparent where the rumbling in the earth was coming from. Smoke rose from its nostrils as it exhaled, curling into the pale-blue sky and making the normally piercing light of the sun hazy. Its eyes were closed.

“Do you think we could sneak up on it?” Keera murmured, voice little more than a breath.

“I’m all for trying.”

Carefully, we crept down the far side of the dune, doing our best not to make a noise. As we got closer, it became more difficult to avoid small bones that would crunch under foot. The scent of charred flesh grew thick as we approached, gagging me.

We halted at the edge of the patch of gradually hardening lava the wyrm used as its bed. I dared not touch it with my boot even to test its temperature, the billowing smoke telling me that it would likely burst into flames. I blinked against the stinging of my eyes.

Keera waved, grabbing my attention. She mimed throwing, and my heart sank. She had apparently changed her mind relatively quickly about my plan being a good one. Standing as close as we were now though, I couldn’t see any weakness that she might be able to exploit even if I did get her onto its back. If what Lord Dhara said was true, the only soft spot would be its underbelly, and laying like this, its vulnerability was completely hidden.

Another step closer, and Keera was standing between me and the creature, looking impatiently over her shoulder, as if now that we were here, she didn’t know why I would hesitate to launch her like an arrow from a bow. I took a deep breath in through my nose, considering my options, and regretted it immediately. Between the smoke and the burnt carcasses around us, I choked. I swallowed to suppress my cough, but it was too late.

The moment I made a noise, the wyrm’s eyelids snapped open, a second translucent membrane underneath blinking away its sleep. Burning orange eyes without a pupil fixed on us immediately and the creature let out a roar so loud I was sure our horses were fleeing.

Faster than I would have thought possible for a creature that large, a clawed hand shot out, swiping at Keera. I leaped, tackling her to the ground. We rolled in the sand, the creature’s claw just catching on my hood and ripping it free from my head. As it fluttered to the ground, we both sprang to our feet.

The wyrm pushed to stand, the squat, angled legs looking too short for the bulk of its barrel like body. Thin, vestigial wings lifted and fluttered from the middle of its back, causing the smoke around it to whirl and eddy in dizzying patterns.

Keera made to dart forward, but the wyrm opened its mouth, releasing a waterfall of molten lava. She leaped back, the red-hot ooze sizzling inches from the toes of her boots. With a flick of my saber and a lick of magic, I sent the nearby skull of a horse flying at the creature. It smacked it just between the eyes with a solid crack, confirming that its scales were hard as bone. Still, its triangular head swung in my direction and away from Keera.

It snarled, showing far fewer teeth than I would have expected on a beast so fearsome. I didn’t have time to contemplate as another bout of lava shot from its mouth, this time in a long stream, jetting at my face. I leaped over it, tugging at the strings of the desert around me to heighten my jump. I flipped in midair to land on my feet once more.