CHAPTER SIX—A GREAT BEAST

“Do not take that tone with me,” Jessamine said, her own demeanor one of serene calm, and yet Shiro knew her warning held some weight.

Surely she would not injure Ali, would she? Iie—she would not. He is my friend. She would certainly make him uncomfortable if he chose to offend her, even in his somewhat inebriated state.

“The power,” Debku breathed as he glanced down at his feet.

“I feel it too,” Raz added. “The aura is massive, and I can see it!”

“What do you mean you can see it?”

“Yes—the milk—it lets us see in the dark.”

“Are you seeing in the dark,” Jessamine said in a mixture of boredom and impatience, “or do you sense the magic through objects?”

“Uh…” He scratched his head and the jinni’s reaction might have—at another time—made Shiro laugh.

Ali stepped forward on unsteady legs. “How do we get off of this thing?”

“And do you think it is dangerous?” asked Captain Ushtan, who shared a concerned look with Gohar.

“We have no way to know,” Debaku said. “But this creature—it was asleep before. We have awoken it.”

“You, have awaken it, Mar’aThulian,” Raz said accusingly.

Debaku looked at him. “If I recall, Abassir—it was you lot who drank from the turtlenuts, forcing me to do something about that.”

“And,” Razul said, stressing the world, “you awoke the beast.”

“Shut up,” Jessamine said. “It does not matter who awoke the creature or for what reason.”

“She is right,” Shiro said.

She touched her forehead, turned around and strode away, disappearing with a poof of mist as she went.

Raz lifted an eyebrow as he glanced toward Shiro. He shrugged at Raz’s questioning stare. Jessamine was not one for tedium, and this situation, to her, would surely be considered tedious, especially if she had to deal with Raz and Ali, of whom she tolerated.

“Maybe if we do nothing,” suggested Gohar, “the creature will find a new place to lay at rest. Then we can simply leave it.”

The ground—or rather the creature’s massive shelled back, trembled and the darkened horizons slid some more as they were traversed away from the beach from where the army was encamped.

Just then a deep and thrumming sound that carried through the skies sounded all around them. They glanced about, and Shiro’s heart lurches somewhat, and yet, that sound, it had been ponderous and slow—not one of aggression, at least from what he could say.

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“Nonono,” Raz said. “That is not good, man. We do not know how long this… thing, will travel for. We could be clear on the border of Kalush by the time it stops, yes? We have to get off.” He chortled. “I could get off now. We all could, save for you poor fools without magic.”

Ali turned to his brother, his face a deadpan expression of pure sardonic annoyance. “Very helpful, brother.”

As Shiro watched them, he wasn’t certain whether they were even aware, but their attitudes had begun to change somewhat. They were less… inebriated? Was that even the word for it?

“Perhaps some of us should go for help,” Debaku suggested. “We could bring ropes and climb—“

“What is that?” Ali asked, and he turned around.

“Look out!” Ushtan bellowed, and he ran toward the adventurers with his Scorpions at his back. Ghohar and Hashem were not far behind.

“What are they?” Raz asked, his tone incredulous and slightly indignant.

Ali looked at him. “How in the hells is any of us to know that?” He drew his scimitar as the shelled creatures scurried forth, their backs arching high and their shells tapering into the air.

They had a somewhat swirling pattern to them, but it was the spikes that made Shiro wonder if they were dangerous.

“Monsters,” Debaku said.

“And a lot of them!” Ali cried.

“Stop worrying, little brother,” Raz said with a smile. He pushed back his hair. “I will make sure your lovely wife sees you again.”

“What—don’t talk of Hafza like that.”

“Like what?” Raz asked as he turned indignantly to Ali.

“Like that—with that tone, man!”

“I do not know what you are talking about—“

“You know perfectly well what I am talking about you camel lover!”

He laughed. “Shiro! Help me, my stupid brother thinks I am saying something strange.”

“We do not have time for your squabbling,” Shiro said. We need to defend against this horde and then get off of this creature’s back!

The shelled creatures, like spiked horns with protruding chitin legs and writhing arms with pincers, clattered and fell, rolling in and among themselves as the horde ambled up the shell toward them.

They piled atop each other, thundering and rumbling like rocks. One of the outliers scurried to Ali, it’s speed increasing suddenly. He cried out in an undignified way—as if he were losing his balance atop a precipice—and he swung his scimitar.

A flash of blue-gold magic wisped off of the curve of his sword and the creature split in half in a spray of luminescent blue blood, it’s shell exploding and shattering backward into the wave of the creatures rolling forth.

Ali flinched, looked down at his sword.

“Whoa!” Raz called. “Where did that come from?”

“I do not know?!” Ali cried through an excited gasp. He swing his sword again and another magical trail wisped off of his blade.

“No way!” Razul said indignantly. “Let me try.”

He lunged forward and swung his blade at another of the outlier monsters, and this time the creature exploded as his sword left a trail of magical energy behind it.

The adventurer whooped and his body tattoos alighted. Ali cried out in astonishment and wonder, and so too did the Scorpions.

“I do not understand,” said Shiro. “Where is their magic coming from? Ali is not that powerful.”

“It must be this creature,” Debaku said in a hurry as the wall of the falling and rolling monsters neared them. “It must have great magical energy—and because these turtlenut trees have been growing upon its back, they have somehow taken in the magic!”

He was bellowing to be heard against the roar of the scratching and rumbling and squeaking of the monsters. If any one of them fell into that swell, they would be devoured, their bones left behind.

“Perhaps you should not have destroyed the turtlenuts!” Shiro replied as he too lurched back against that sudden death while Ushtan and the other Scorpions ran from it as fast as they could.

“Where are you going, you fools!” Ali called. “You have magic, like me!”

He turned to the flood of snapping shell creatures and many of them were now glowing, their once red-yellow chitin now opaque with luminous energy.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Razul said, and he glanced between Ali and Shiro.

“Get back!” Shiro shouted. “Ali—get back!”