Fan the Flame

by September Thomas

  The nero didn’t wait. The first dozen ran forward with a yell, spears thrust forward. The creatures rose, black scales flexing around sinewy muscles. One shot forward, its body uncoiling to an eighteen-foot length, fangs flashing as it unfurled a burgundy-tinged fan around its head. The nero nimbly blocked its strike and flipped in an impossible circle to dodge a second attack. The creature hissed again, that awful sizzling spitting sound, and circled the nero as he spun his weapon.

  “They’re cobras,” I gasped.

  “They’re more than that.” Maat’s arms tensed as the second wave of nero rushed to engage the snakes. Phenex was among them, glittering gold magic at his fingertips. “The only way to kill them is to remove their heads. But that’s not easy. Their blood is acid and their bite is worse. One nick and your muscles will melt.” He motioned with his staff at one nero hacking through the thick vane around one ramalia’s head, flinching when flecks of blood seared her skin. Someone screamed as metal clanged.

  “They’re fast and they’re precise. The only benefit we have is that they’re blind, but they can sense movement through vibrations in the ground and air.” As if proving Maat’s point, one of my pixies dive-bombing from the skies twisted suddenly, thrown when one of the snakes nearly snagged her leg with its fangs. Sand sprayed when her body hit the ground. Rose had followed closely behind her and whooped when she lopped off its head.

  Not far away, Joseph whistled a warning and dropped an invisible pane of air like a guillotine, severing the bodies of several snakes. They continued to flop around as nero rushed in to finish the job.

  “That’s why you’re staying here.” Matt’s lip curled when he shot me another look. “Because your friends are equipped for this. You’re not.” He sneered at my dagger. “That’s barely thicker than the tips of their tails.”

  I’d never wanted to drown someone so much in my life. Before I could flick the lighter and ignite my magic, someone smashed down next to me and I dropped it. I whipped around, shielding my eyes as I scoured the earth.

  “How about we all get through this alive, then argue about it.” Ryder rumbled, leathery wings fanning out behind him. “As good as your mates are at handling blunt weapons, we’re about to have bigger problems.”

  Dozens more snakes spilled over the lip of the hole, slicing through dead bodies like scythes. Several nero fell before our forces could recollect themselves. Phenex unleashed a whirlwind, crushing several in a cocoon of sand. But still, they came. The blunt end of a sword tapped my hand and, with retribution swirling in his red and gold eyes, Ryder winked when he passed it over.

  “It’s not ice, but it’ll do that job.” He drew his own sword, one rippling with black and white lightning at the edges. “See you on the other side.”

  I nearly screamed, my heart shooting to my throat when one snake slipped past the clashing nero and snapped at him. The incubus feinted, sword a blur, and sliced through its underbelly like butter. The creature shuddered, scales smoking, and Ryder lopped off its head. I’d barely released the breath caught in my chest when anther snake was on top of him.

  I didn’t see what happened because Maat, for the third time, shoved me, and I dropped to my knees. Over my head soared a ramalia, and Maat was on it in moments. I went eerily cold, the world felt oddly still as the nero stabbed the snake again and again. Blood soaked the sand and the world seemed to right itself once more.

  Determination coursed through me. I needed to fight.

  I reared back, my blood heating, scouring the sand for the dropped lighter. There wasn’t another source anywhere within reach, and fire was all I had. In my periphery, another beast charged, and my blade swung up in time to meet its foot-long fangs.

  I gave up the search for the lighter, and stood, circling the ramalia as it coiled, hissing in warning. The creatures didn’t even have eyes I realized, feeling calmer as I focused on the immediate threat. It flattened its hood, a move I recognized, and swung as it reared forward. My sword swiped along the side of its head. The creature released a guttural hiss and slipped back again.

  It was far from a death blow, but I drew strength from having actually injured it. The ramalia wasn’t invincible. I gripped the sword tighter, pulse pounding when it lashed out again. Its fangs hit the sand and I moved in, swiping at its neck with a yell. My sword went clean through, the blood spraying and burning my hands, but its head came off.

  I wiped my hands on my pants, hoping the thick fabric would hold up against the acid. As I turned to find Maat in the mess, I spotted the lighter near the ramalia’s tail and darted forward, narrowly snagging it as I raced past, then nearly fumbled it again when I ran into Maat bent over the body of his own ramalia.

  He straightened, coppery eyes assessing. Then he nodded. But I didn’t have a moment to appreciate our sudden comraderie as another snake shot forward. I yelled, pointing behind him and he whirled, easily deflecting its attack with his spear. I turned my back on Maat, keeping an eye out for danger and squeezed the lighter when I spotted the second snake, but sand was caught in the gears and it wouldn’t light.

  I shoved it in my pocket and whipped out my sword as the beast attacked, beating it off with short, animalistic yells, ignoring the deep ache in my hands that was my magic. The nero and I fought, back to back, fending off snake after snake. Their bodies mounted and the sand churned black with blood beneath our feet, the acid eating through the soles of our boots.

  I finally found my opening when I thrust my sword through one particularly large ramalia’s head, barely saving Maat’s life when the snake knocked his spear clean away. I grabbed his hand, dragging him from the bodies before we collapsed. No ramalia were in immediate reach, and I pulled out the lighter again, brushing away the sand as fire magic surged. Maat snagged another spear, and when he turned back I snicked the trigger, flames roaring to my hands.

  The relief knotting my muscles was glorious and I nearly lost myself in the giddy release of power.

  Maat’s eyes went comically wide. “You can—you have—”

  “Yeah. Handy little trick.” I started to grin when I saw the dark shadow rearing up behind him. “Watch out!”

  I swung my sword, flames racing up the length of the blade, as Maat flattened against the sand, his trust in me incredible. The snake drew back, ribbon of a tongue flickering, but I swung again and again. It retreated, something about the fiery blade confusing it, and I finally found my opening. I sliced through its neck, the heated metal sealing it the wound.

  As it collapsed, dead on the ground, I dropped my sword with a yell. The heat had melted the steel. Maat rose, mouth slightly open, staring at the blade with a mixture of reverence and confusion. I shook with adrenaline, searching for my friends as the battle raged, thankful it seemed that we were finally gaining the upper hand.

  The pixies had one ramalia surrounded and were taking turns jabbing at it. Nearby, Ryder and Joseph worked in tandem with a group of nero to take down three others. Phenex braced his hands on his knees as he gasped, his back to the gaping hole in the ground. Filleted bodies littered the ground around him.

  A shaggy, dark horse reeking of seawater and dripping with kelp surged up next to me. Finn snuffled my back and shoulders, nosing the holes in my clothing. My hand shook as I patted his remarkably soft hide.

  “I’d wondered where you’d gotten off to,” I said.

  He huffed a weak whinny and thrust his head to our right, where a few of the camels and horses were clustered. Most of our bags were ground to a pulp in the center of the mess, but he’d herded a few of them, including one of the camels laden with precious sacks of water, to safety.

  “That was smart,” I said, “really, really smart.”

  Maat was already on his knees, wrapping gauze around a nero’s injury as I moved toward one of the pixies who wasn’t moving. I bit my lip, ignoring the sick feeling curdling my insides, and called out to her when the earth rocked again. Once. Twice. Three times.

  Everything in my guts liq
uified when the hissing started. This was louder somehow, more sinister. The longer it went, the more power it seemed to possess. I tried to move and found I couldn’t. My mind whirled as I struggled, as I watched my friends struggle, their bodies stiff with fear caused by whatever magic this thing possessed.

  My head buzzed and nausea churned as it emerged from the hole, one massive scale after another. The dozens of ramalia scattered around us looked like toothpicks compared to this monster. Foot by foot it slid out, body coiling and winding beneath it as it rose high. Its tongue flicked and the rising sun reflected off its scales, blinding me with its luster.

  Until I realized that brilliance was magic.

  My paralysis broke, my magics bursting forward, when a thundering voice clanged in my head, the vibrations driving me to my knees.

  “…MY CHILDREN…”

  I gagged on the anger and pain those two words contained, the agony of the monster impossible to ignore. It shook my core and I nearly threw up from the power left zinging through me as it withdrew. When I finally gained control over myself again, I gaped at the creature with its scales glittering with hints of gold, its head sweeping high over the battlefield in a pained frenzy.

  I knew that voice. Or at least a version of it.

  I threw out my magic, but it slid over the beast like grease. I’d never felt magic like this, like it was warped into some dark version of itself as if time had rotted it away. But the magical part of me that seemed to know things, a part of me I’d learned to trust through trial and error, recognized that magic no matter how cold and twisted it felt.

  This had to be one of the Great Beasts.

  Its sinuous body curled again, hood flaring wide.

  “No!” I screamed, ripping Maat’s spear from his limp hand.

  The hissing subsided and the snake’s head whipped around. My outburst seemed to do the trick, shaking everyone from their stricken paralysis. Finn’s glowing eyes caught mine, a million messages flowing between us, and I scrambled on his back, my fingers twisting in his thick hair as he jumped forward, sand spraying beneath his backward hooves.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I yelled at the snake as we charged. “Snap out of it!”

  Phenex recovered first, his magic uncoiling in a violent burst. I leaned against Finn’s neck, streamlining our bodies. I couldn’t let the djinn strike. I didn’t know what would happen if he did, but I had a feeling that trying to destroy one of the keepers of magic wouldn’t go well for anyone.

  I drew my arm back, the length of the spear bulky and unnatural in my grip, but I had an idea. Maybe if I hit It with magic, all of my magic, I could snap the Great Beast from this daze. I remembered that water magic had the ability purify, so, with the last dregs of my magic, I froze blood to the long blade, hoping it would be enough as I heated the metal beneath the ice.

  Finn snorted, his sides heaving, as we charged past nero. He knew what I did—I couldn’t throw this thing. I could barely keep it up let alone straight.

  But I had to.

  “Joseph!” I called, “A little help here!”

  And I threw it.

  Wind whipped around me, catching the weapon and carrying it high. I scrambled for my lighter, using my knees to keep hold of Finn as he charged, the world blurring past us. The snake flexed Its hood, already moving out of its path, but Joseph tapped the spear as I pressed the lighter down, igniting the fire magic as it hit the Beast’s body.

  It reared back as the powers of three Gods crashed into it.

  “…I KNOW THIS MAGIC…”

  Its tail lashed, catching Phenex and sending him flying.

  Finn skidded and I flew off his back, hitting the sand with a punch that knocked the air from my body. I rolled and smacked into the snake’s body. It froze, Its head two stories up swaying as It hissed.

  “…GOD?…”

  “You got that right,” I gasped, dizzy at my proximity to danger and Its immense power. I pressed my palms against a scale the size of a car window. “Time to burn that evil out of you.”

  And I hit It with everything I had.

  Invisible flames of my magic scored through the Beast’s trunk, ripping along a line that may as well have been a trail of gasoline, burning away the dregs of icy, dark energy holding It captive. The snake’s body coiled around me, squeezing me tight, the near-constant hiss turning to white noise in my ears, but I kept myself open, glorying in the uncurling of vivid, healthy green strands of Earth magic. Only when I was certain the blackness was gone did I extricate myself from Its being.

  The snake’s head dipped low, one fang as long as my body brushed my side.

  But I wasn’t afraid.

  Whatever was eating at the Great Beast was gone. It wouldn’t hurt me. The connection between us gaped wide and I hovered there, hands flat on Its scales.

  “…BEWARE THOSE WHO EMBRACE THE DESERT…”

  I blinked, dazed from the thunder of Its voice, and stumbled as It slipped into the crack of the earth once again. I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to feel, even when Finn wrapped his arms around my shoulders, shaking me as he screamed in relief and frustration.

  I spun in his hold and met Phenex’s hooded gaze, the fury around him hot and potent.

  He’d warned me against Geoffrey, but was Phenex really the bigger threat?

  Chapter 21

  “We have one, maybe two days of water left.” Maat flung the broken end of a tent pole away in disgust. “Even if we had horses and we were able to push them harder, we’d still have a good five days ahead of us.”

  Finn swore and Ryder threw his arms up as he stalked away. I pressed my fingers to my burning eyes and wished this were all some great nightmare I’d wake up from soon. My thirsty veins shriveled up even more.

  Behind me, the flames of the funeral pyre lapped hungrily at the broken remnants of our camping supplies. Alongside it lay seven bodies covered in sheets. Six nero had given their lives in the fight against the ramalia. With a pang, I glanced at the smallest sheet and immediately wished I hadn’t. Wisp, one of the quieter pixies with a knack for fletching arrows, had died in Briar’s arms as she tried to stop the flow of blood from a gaping chest wound.

  Rose swiped at the black lines of mascara trickling down her cheeks and clutched at Briar’s hand. “Basically we’re screwed, yeah? All that for nothing?”

  Finn was still wrangling our animals. The ramalia had killed a few, but most had survived. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for many of our supplies—of which many had gotten trampled or were missing. Joseph and I had thankfully gotten our bags back, though I really only cared about the copy of The Word he still hid.

  “Not necessarily.” Maat leaned against his staff, the very one that I’d chucked at the Great Beast. He eyed me skeptically, the gem on his forehead flashing in the sun. Something about it drew me in now that I could see it in the daylight. I’d always sensed magic from the stones before, but had dismissed it as part of the powers inherent to the nero. Now I wasn’t so certain. Maat wasn’t the only one looking to me for answers. The other nero ranged from curious to resentful.

  I splayed my fingers wide, shaking my head from my cross-legged position on the ground. I’d felt broken and beaten before the fight, now I was drained of everything except my desire to live. “I can only work with what I’m given. You already know there aren’t any tributaries nearby, the air is some of the driest I’ve ever felt, and while I can sense a reservoir below, I’m not able to reach it.”

  It itched like mad, too, because I was so close I could practically taste the sweet, cool water.

  Maat wasn’t giving up the good fight. “Maybe if you tried a little harder, dug a little deeper…”

  “Not gonna happen.” My spine curved and I stared at my blood-speckled hands, then out over the battlefield where the corpses of the ramalia heated under the desert sun. Before long the stench would grow overwhelming. I hated what I was about to suggest and I met Maat’s hard expression he
ad-on. “The only thing I can do is maybe, maybe purify what little liquid I can pull from the sand. But something tells me even you would hesitate at drinking the blood of your fallen friends. Even then, most of the blood is mixed with the acidic blood of the snakes… I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to filter out.”

  Behind me, one of the nero coughed wetly and a few others turned their faces away in pain and disgust. To his credit, Maat didn’t flinch. He actually appeared to think it over for a few minutes, then shook his head. “No. I don’t think that’s an option.”

  The emerald, I realized as he turned away. It looked like a fragment of the emerald I’d found at Phenex’s home. We mostly traveled at night and the jewelry typically looked like flecks of black on their faces when they weren’t covered up by hoods or hats. But here in the daylight…

  Ryder’s arms tightened around my waist. He’d wrapped himself around me after pulling me from Finn’s hold, muttering useless words into my hair about how I would be the death of him someday. In my ear, he whispered, “I can teleport, but with a group this large I wouldn’t be able to take everyone. Factor in the distance and the fact I can only take us to somewhere I’ve already been…”

  I squeezed his thigh. He’d admitted to me before we’d left that he’d tried teleporting to the Lost City, but couldn’t determine which way to go in whatever weirdness was his magic. “That’s not an option. You’d drain yourself dry.”

  His lips brushed my neck. “Fine, but I will get you out of here if it comes to it.”

  “Which it won’t.” I snagged some orange-tinted hair from the top of his head, and he allowed me to angle him so I could see his face, ensuring he’d see the intent on mine. “It won’t.”

  His golden eyes narrowed, a lazy smirk quirking his lips, but his attention snagged on the funeral pyre and he swallowed whatever he’d been about to say.