Page 51 of Crown of the Dunes

I grit my teeth and finished my gruesome task, the metal cuff falling from the guard’s now severed wrist. I snatched the manacle as I stood, holding it in one hand and the dirk in the other.

I whirled around, holding the knife before me as I took in the scene. Keera had drawn her saber and slashed at the tricrith. A clang rang out as it batted away her strike with an armored pincer. Its black exoskeleton glistened iridescently in the desert sun, the thick and glossy coating telling me it would not be easily penetrated.

With Keera facing the creature head on, the side facing me was relatively unprotected. I charged, aiming my dagger at the joint between two segments of its thick body. Before I could strike, it scuttled sideways. As one of its many legs swung out, I threw myself back, but my boot caught in the loop of chain still trailing from my wrist.

I stumbled and threw my arms out to regain my balance, punching straight into the flailing leg. The handle of the blade wrenched from my hand, sending the weapon spinning off over my head.

My failed attack caught the creature’s attention, and it whirled on me. As it spun, one of its pincers clipped Keera in the side, and she dropped to one knee with a yelp of pain. My heart leaped in fear for her even as the creature fixed me with the dark, beady eyes set close on the top of its head. Its chelicerae waved menacingly at me as all three of its tails curled forward, ready to strike.

And I had no weapon.

The whisper of the desert in my mind told me to dodge just before the first tail shot forward, fast as lightning. It whooshed past my face, and I ducked under the second strike. The third strike came too fast, and while I leaned backward to get out of range, it wasn’t enough.

The stinger skittered over my mask and a sizzling filled the air as the venom smoked and spat on the metal surface. Pounding footsteps to my right indicated that Keera had gotten to her feet. She tried to take advantage of the creature’s focus on me to land a blow, but one of the tails turned toward her. A puff of sand rose as she rolled beneath the strike, the stinger missing her narrowly.

She came to her feet a few yards away from me, and we both hesitated, the tricrith’s tails still poised and swinging menacingly at both of us. With three stingers and two of us, we were outnumbered—even more severely as the only weapon I had was a chain.

My gaze darted down to the length of heavy metal links in my hand and my stomach lurched. Quickly, I gathered it up into a loop, narrowly avoiding dropping it as I was forced to dodge a swinging pincer.

I held both ends and stared up at the trio of stingers, all moving and striking independently. It was a mad idea, but the voices of the desert crecendoed in my mind, blocking out any mental voices telling me this wasn’t wise. If I was going mad, I might as well act like it.

I shouted wordlessly, and all the stingers flicked toward me at the sign of an impending attack. As they did, I threw the loop of chain, holding on to the end bound to my wrists, just as I would to rope a wild horse—like I had when I caught Alza.

Breath rushed out of me as the chain encircled all three tails, the loose manacle on the end catching to trap them. The angry clack of pincers filled the air as the tricrith found itself caught.

I hauled against the chain, even as the creature flexed its muscular body. The manacles scraped my wrists, and my boots began to slide across the ground, as much as I tried to dig in my heels.

“Keera, now!” I shouted.

She didn’t need further encouragement, charging forward with an untethered scream. Before the creature could react to a second attacker, she drove her saber into its open maw. With a sickening crunch, the tip burst through the exoskeleton between its eyes.

Eight legs skittered against the ground as it convulsed in its death throes. The tails thrashed as well, yanking on the chain with enough force that I crashed to the ground on my side with a painful thud. Without my resistance, the tails slipped free, but it was too late.

Black blood spilled from the creature, spreading out to coat the sand with an oily sheen. Keera wrenched her saber free and backed away. With a few more horrible thrashes, the creature fell still, legs and tails curling into a tight ball.

An eerie silence that only comes after a battle settled in the air.

I pushed to my feet, taking a few large strides toward Keera. I grabbed her arm, turning her toward me to make sure she was uninjured. She stared up at me, golden eyes piercing my mask, glowing with the thrill of battle despite the furrow between her brows.

Her cheeks were flushed with sun and exertion, and escaped tendrils of hair clung to her forehead and neck as she panted.

I reached for the edge of my still-sizzling mask, the adrenaline coursing in my veins telling me I needed to kiss her this very instant.

Before I could, I was reminded we weren’t alone.

First came one cheer, then another. I turned toward Kelvadan, where the crowd had retreated toward the wall. Now that the creature was felled, they approached again, hollering and whooping at our victory.

I glanced over my shoulder, over the tricrith’s curled corpse, finding Aderyn and my father standing on the other side of the rent it had torn in the earth, their backs to the still-burning funeral pyre. Aderyn’s expression was hard and unreadable as she watched, but my father’s eyes were wide and full of something that looked dangerously soft.

A hand touching mine drew my attention, and I found Keera intertwining her fingers with my own, despite the fact that my wrists were still bound.

The cheers grew louder as the crowd approached.

“Hail the Champion of Kelvadan!” the shouts rang out.

They grew so loud, that I almost couldn’t make out the words Keera murmured, but I could still feel them through the tether at the top of my spine.

Thank you.