Page 152 of The Divine Lies We Weave

“Shit,” she said.

Rajesh straightened and cursed. “Get everyone up here! We’ve hit the Haunted Sands!”

Haunted Sands…?

Leela’s heart raced, beating against her ribcage. The Gilded Thorns grabbed weapons. Others ran below deck. The whirring of cannons sounded, and moments later, they fired balls into the mass of bones. Despite them being skeletons, they were stealthy, movements agile as if they were covered in muscle.

Animals emerged. Bats, Tigers, Foxes, and Hawks. Each formed a Flame and attacked the skeletons.

Someone grabbed Leela’s arm and turned her around. Rajesh shook his head at her, giving her a stern look.

“Get below the deck,” Rajesh ordered. “We can deal with this.”

“I can fight,” Leela argued. “Not well, but I can!”

Rajesh tilted his head. “I don’t have time to protect you and worry about my crew.”

She ripped her arm out of his grip. “I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for so long anyway.”

A vein popped in Rajesh’s neck, and she knew it took everything inside him to agree.

“Fine,” he said. “But use a jawblade.”

Leela nodded and bolted off to the weapons rack on the other side of the deck. Hollow skulls leered back at Leela from across the sands. Skeletons climbed aboard the ship. She knew before the Flames split the realms apart that the mortals had their own monsters in their world. The skeletons were representations of all the souls lost to the sands near the Kithium border.

Leela grabbed the jawblade and swung just as a skeleton heaved itself onto the deck. The jawblade was heavier than what she was used to, the hilt made of gold with a curved polished blade. Grunting, she kicked the rest of the skeleton to the ground. When she glanced overboard, there were many gripping the sides of the ship, using the dangling ropes to haul themselves up or climbing over the others.

She swept a look at the rest of the crew. Bones coated the deck. Grunts and groans from the crew created a haunted symphony. Hot air stifled the crew as they swung weapons or shot the cannons through the white bones covered in red sand. With each fire, the ship shook, and Leela had to steady her footing to avoid going overboard into the sea of skeletons.

Rajesh took down a horde has they flanked him on the quarterdeck. He pierced one skeleton through the chest, dragging his sword up until he knocked its skull off. He gave another a kick in the knee, and the skeleton clattered on the ground as it broke into many pieces. The last one held a weapon, chkking it against Rajesh’s.

A skeleton jumped before Leela, knocking her back into the present.

She cried out as her muscles arched up to the danger. She imagined she was fighting Hema. Leela remembered how she was taught to step, weaving and moving like a dancer would across the stage. Each footstep was used to overpower her target.

She swiped right, digging into the skeleton’s spine. She yanked back her blade, arching again with more force and cleaving the opponent in half. It cried out, clattering on the ground, and she stomped on its skull, which shattered like glass at her heel.

A part of her felt guilty. Another knew it was either them or her.

Something grabbed her hair, and she cried out. She was flung backward, head hitting the ground and wrist bending.

A skeleton wrapped its fingers around her throat.

Leela kicked and punched. Despite the skeleton being all bone, there was a force with its hands. White dots started to splatter across her vision as the skeleton pressed down with unimaginable strength. She tried to punch it in the face, aiming between the eyes where normal people with skin and muscle would have had their noses broken and their brains racked.

Luckily, the skeleton reared back enough for Leela to wriggle free.

Spluttering, Leela inched toward the sword she’d dropped. As soon as she grasped the hilt, she swiped it over the skull’s neck.

Dead.

Again.

Coughing, she grabbed the railing and hauled herself to her feet. Her eyes burned, lungs wheezing as she tried to compose herself in the heat. In her bleary sight, she noted Rajesh battling a horde of skeletons as they continued to climb the rutters.

Animals snapped at bones. Silver blades cut the skies. Cannons continued to blast through the air, striking the oncoming storm of white bones. It was total and utter chaos, and Leela couldn’t feel more alive.

Time to fight more, mortal.