Something long and glossy propelled through the storm. It looked like a black leather rope with a long spike on the end. It speared through the flying creature, pinning it to the ground. Dark blood poured from the wound on its chest.
What was that?
I crawled on all fours away from the dead monster. My shawl caught in the shoulder strap of my sundress, dragging behind me.
“Xavran!” I called against the sand that surrounded me from all sides.
The cloud to the left of me seemed exceptionally dense, as if the darkness itself had solidified there. Unsure whether I should move toward it or away from it, I held still.
The ground shook. The sand between me and the dark wall rose like a swell, the smell of freshly turned dirt reached me.
That was the crozan!
The giant machine was just a few dozen feet away from me. Thankfully, it wasn’t moving in my direction. It was passing me by.
I had to find Xavran.
What if the flying predator had dropped him into the path of the moving crozan? He could be crushed by his own machine.
Panic exploded through me.
“Xavran!” I screamed.
The wind tore his name to shreds the moment it left my lips.
Crawling on my hands and knees along the giant moving vehicle, I searched the ground. Blinded by the wind, I had to trust my sense of touch more than my sight.
My hand landed on something cool and flexible, like a piece of tarp or plastic. I picked it up before realizing it was the wing of the flying thing. The dead flying thing. I was back where I started, lost in the darkness of the storm.
A huge head of another creature appeared from behind the dead body. This one was coal black, with two mandibles, sharp and long like swords.
“Oh no...” I froze as the creature’s unblinking round eyes focused on me.
The black, leathery “rope” with the spiked tip rose from behind the monster and curved above its head. The spike was aimed at me.
Fear gripped my throat, and I ran. I tripped and fell, only to scramble back up in the desperate dash for my life.
The “rope” shot forward over the creature’s head. I lurched sideways. The spike sank into the sand, missing me by barely an inch.
Horror froze my limbs. Any moment now, the monster would yank back its tail—or whatever the hell that “rope” was—and whip it at me again.
Instead of a hard yank, however, the long appendage just shook limply. The spike inched out of the sand, then tilted over.
I ventured a glance over my shoulder.
The creature had climbed over its winged victim. This monster had a long, hard-plated body with several dozen skinny legs along each side.
It had nearly doubled over, curling the end part of its body over its head to attack me with its long, flexible tail with the spike.
It was motionless now. Its thin legs dug into the sand. Then, it tipped over on its side, still curled into a hoop, like a giant, spiked tire. A wave of sand rose from its impact with the ground and showered over me.
I whimpered, gathering my arms and legs under me.
“Susanna!” the familiar voice tore through the wind.
I plopped back on the ground, afraid to believe my eyes as Xavran appeared from the thick sand clouds churning around us. He rushed around the dead monster to me.
His armguards were off. A milky-white liquid was dripping from the sharp horns on his forearms. Judging by the sudden demise of the last monster, I assumed this was the creature’s blood on his arms.
“Susanna!” He dropped to his knees and grabbed my shoulders. “Are you hurt? Wounded anywhere? Did the pheiza get to you?”
I understood he must be talking about one of the dead creatures.
“No. I’m fine. Neither of them hurt me...” Gripping the horns on his shoulders, I leaned into his chest. “It’s so, so good to see you, Xavran. You have no idea...”
Relief spread warm and thick through me, making me feel lightheaded. He wasn’t lying crushed under the crozan. The winged thing hadn’t snapped his neck. And no other deadly desert creature got him...
Fear receded, and I sobbed into his chest.
“There, there.” He buried his face into my hair, soothingly stroking my back. “It’s all good now. I’ve got you.”
He’s got me.
When I was in his arms, nothing scared me. Not the storm, not the nightmarish creatures, not the mafia back home. With Xavran by my side, I could deal with anything.
I drew in a deep breath, wrestling my panic under control. We had to figure out what to do next. “We fell off the crozan. We need to make them stop and pick us up.”
The machine was so enormous, it was still moving past us, its dark mass visible through the veil of the storm. We just needed to get the attention of the crew somehow.
He kept stroking my hair, shielding me from the wind. “The crozan never stops. Even if someone heard us, which is impossible in this weather, they would not be able to stop it for us.”
Panic lanced through me again.
“They can’t just leave us behind. What are we going to do?”
“Right now, we have to find shelter. When the crozan has passed by, we’ll be in the open.”
He shifted me to his side, peering through the storm at the dead creatures.
He was right. The massive shape of the moving crozan was shielding us from some of the wind. I could only imagine what it would be like once its protection was gone.
“Come.” Xavran dragged me through the raging wind toward the dead centipede. “Get in here.” He directed me inside the circle formed by its body.
Once I sat down next to the creature’s arched back, Xavran freed my shawl from the shoulder strap of my dress. He then tied the corners of the shawl to the long skinny legs of the monster. They stuck above us like the spikes of an umbrella. Stretching my shawl over them, Xavran created a semblance of a roof.
The wind kept blasting ferociously, but it was much calmer inside our makeshift shelter.
“Better?” Xavran sat next to me, and I leaned against him.
“Yes. Thank you.” I exhaled a shaky breath.
Everything was better with him by my side, even the brutal sandstorm in the most hostile part of the planet.