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Unlike other soldiers under his command.
One was snatched up by a ghostly claw and tossed into the sea. Another charred to gray ash within the flames and collapsed into a pile of dust, quickly swept away by the rain and wind as if he never was.
Heba pressed herself against the enclosure walls and grasped the hilts of her daggers. But she didn’t immediately leap into the fray.
What could she possibly do to help them? How did she fightthat?
The monsters were ten times her size if not more, and wielded godly powers. What if she created more danger for Shai by putting herself at risk?
But she wouldn’t go back inside, she knew. She needed to see how this unfolded with her own eyes. So, she clawed her fingers into a wooden plank behind her and held on for dear life. Remembering the rope Shai tied around her waist, the same one he ordered everyone to wear, she secured the end to a wooden post in case she lost her footing.
She could barely see through the deluge, the unrelenting rain blurring her vision. It seemed that only three men remained on deck now, despite Shai’s efforts to save his comrades.
The largest serpent gripped the ship’s ram horn figurehead jutting from the bow. Then, it flapped its mighty wings backward, pulling the ship along at a dizzying speed deeper into the whirlpool the other serpents created.
They were all going to be drowned! Sunk to the bottom of the waves.
What did these terrible creatures want? Why were they angered? What could she possibly do to convince them to spare her men?
As if Shai was thinking the same, he shouted something up at the serpents closing in, stepping in front of his remaining guards.
She couldn’t hear what he said, only that the lead serpent seemed to suspend in mid-air, hovering in place, spearing Shai with its soulless black eyes.
But then it unleashed a torrent of gray fire upon Shai and his men, engulfing all of them in flames.
Heba screamed with fury and despair, but she could barely be heard over the churning wind and rain.
Yet, one of the creatures heard her. Saw her. Squinted its reptilian eyes and bared its densely packed rows of jagged teeth.
And came straight for her.
Chapter Fifteen
“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for. If it is worth attaining, it is worth fighting for.”
—Oscar Wilde
In a matter of moments, in the blink of an eye, six of his best warriors were gone.
Gone.
There would be no bodies to bury if they managed to survive this. Nothing to take into the afterlife. His men were dust and ashes, or lost to the churning, unforgiving waves.
Shai could only defend himself against the monsters’ attacks. His efforts hadn’t protected his men. He couldn’t even afford them a moment of thought given the unrelenting assault by these flying serpents.
Where he came from, they were calleddragons.
But of course, he’d never seen one in the flesh. Barely ever seen one depicted in drawings or carvings. He’d only heard them described by the village elders or traveling storytellers weaving tales to gullible children, perhaps invented to make them behave and mind their parents.
There were gods in his people’s mythologies too, just like the Egyptians. Different, yet similar in the most basic ways. Gods of sky, earth, sun and moon. Gods of light and darkness, life and death.
Some of his people were more superstitious or pious than others. Shai himself had always been too practical to pray to external forces beyond his control. He’d always relied on his own hard work and will.
But this was proof—undeniable, physical, fantastical proof—that dragons were real. Perhaps all of those myths and legends he’d been told as a boy were real.
They’d come out of nowhere, the six shadow dragons.
He and Heba and been watching the sunset together, dreaming about a future full of hope and new beginnings when the ominous roll of thunder made them both turn around. A fast-moving formation of dark clouds approached their ship from behind, lightning streaking from within its opaque masses.
