"Shit. Shit. Shit." I heard through my grogginess. "Shit."
My eyes fluttered open and just after I managed to fall asleep after what happened, considering I'd been awake for nearly a whole day by this point. The container was rocking back and forth, kicking up sand into the air, bucking to and fro. What kind of driving did Silas call that?
"Oh?" Silas suddenly began, looking into a mirror, "So, you're awake, huh?"
"Detective, I've got a fix. Just hold her steady." Abryi interjected from the rear. Then, I heard lasers firing to the sides and rear of the craft. "Gazmoot, I missed." Then, "Didn't I say hold her steady?"
"You try steadying this thing with more of those forsaken beasts jumping in front of you. They're just too bloody fast."
I had no idea what was going on. I was so bleary-eyed that I couldn't even see straight. That in itself was an understatement.
A sudden thud on the front window, I needn't be clear to see, woke me in earnest. A giant three headed, three jawed, dog like creature with wings and claws like a pterodactyl was scratching and biting, trying to get into the craft. The creatures looked eerie and sinister. The only feature on their heads were ears and mouths full of fangs. Their fur was blacker than midnight and it seemed like no light bounced off of it. "What in the good fuck is that?"
"Hell-hound." Hina responded with the least emotion I'd ever heard from her.
Raejadd was right. Something was after me. Only we knew that we were headed to the Sandmarch. Nesbeth knew, since he sent us here. But, did that mean any of the other gods knew?
"What are hell-hounds after us for?"
"To hell if I know why Yog Thalthos the Fallen One's minions are after us. He needs no reason to cause mischief?" Then, Silas added, "He is the Prince of Liars." And, then he went back to, "Shit. Shit. Shit. Get those things off us, Abryi."
"You galumphing mazbruk, I said, I can't do anything about them unless you hold this container steady. Now, if you want me to hit them, don't shake us." Abryi argued.
I finally realized he was working the cannons. The one person who bitched about doing anything for us humans, is bothering saving us. I found that quite ironic.
The lasers fired again and I heard him exclaim, "Gazmoot! I hit one." Then, "Galumphing gazmoot, it's up again."
"Silas," I started, "what is this craft got other than cannons?"
"Nothing." He answered.
I frowned. Something told me those cannons wouldn't fire enough power to actually kill one of those hell-hounds, given you could actually kill a hell-hound. We needed to supercharge them or something.
I quickly got up off the cot and moved to one of the seats in the rear of the container, wobbling the whole way there. If I could just get to the last seat, I probably could manage something. It was really difficult to keep the seat facing the computers, which unlike the front seats were not stationary. This jitney was a unique type of vehicle, it was made for battle and troop transport, just not this kind. If it was anything like those armored crafts used by the Sandlands Federal Reserve, I might be able to pull something off. Anything. I continued to make my way back, almost falling in the process as Silas took the jitney on two wheels to avoid a hell-hound. Somehow, I managed. Somehow.
There were three chairs in the back, each facing a console. Abryi managed the cannons, the best he could, what with the hounds and Silas shaking the vehicle. Hina eyed the radar, relaying information to Abryi. Hey, it wasn't like he could see. Only the front of the vehicle had windows and the cameras on the cannons only provided so much information.
I steadied myself before the computer screen, trying to make it into the chair. It showed the reactor core, a thermonuclear one that had been in vogue since it had been ages that these kind of crafts used regular lithium or alkaline batteries. The reactor read something like a flow chart, pushing seventy-five percent to the cannons and eighteen percent to the vehicle's driving mechanism. The rest went to the computers.
I quickly maneuvered some of the settings before me, as fast as I could manage, after all, time mattered. "Silas, hit the brake!" I commanded over the sound of Silas and Abryi cussing each other.
The jitney stopped dead.
"I hope you have a good plan, Mara."
I popped a button on the console. Immediately, the container went into lock-down mode. All the windows boarded over with steel covers, the clinking of metal stands could be heard outside as the vehicle wobbled into a raised position, locking us into the desert, and worse of all, the hounds didn't let up.
"What now?" Hina asked. "We're solely reliant on radar."
"Abyri, I can only manage it for three seconds, so make it count." I commanded. It felt good to be back in this kind of position. It reminded me of the days with Benny, attempting to corner the automatons into oblivion. "Position the cannons in all directions and don't fire until I say so." I could hear the hounds outside. The groaning of the container said they bucked it, trying to push us over or get inside. Either way, we were sitting ducks. "I charged the output to the cannons to a hundred sixty percent. I'm just afraid it won't be enough to finish them off." I could hear them getting louder, closer, more aggressive. The jitney was really wobbling hard. Then, I heard their snarling from all sides. "Now."
Abryi hit the triggers. "I call this the Hound Fryer." Immediately, after the cannons fired, the jitney returned to normal. Outside the window, I could see the hell-hounds. Parts of them were turning to ash and blowing into the wind, leaving big holes in their bodies. Some of them were only half a hound. How they still stood and snarled bewildered me. Yet, there they were. Regenerating. "It didn't work."
"I feared that." I remarked.
"How much power do we have left?" Silas asked.
"Nine percent."
Silas shook his head. "Not even enough to outrun what's left of those hell-hounds. How are we going to drop them now?"
I mimicked Silas with my hands like holding a puppet.
I did whatever I thought was possible given what we had. I couldn't think of anything else. I was sure that we had nothing to defeat regenerating dogs from hell. But, just when we were hoping for a miracle, the hounds started to slink away, almost as if they had been called. I guess even those destined to be chased by hell itself got a break. Or, something like that.
"What next?" Silas said, almost as if he believed it to be too good of fortune. The problem was, he wasn't wrong.
"I don't know." I answered. "But, let's get out of here while the going's good."
And, drive Silas did. It was still a long trek to where we were going. Much farther south than what I remembered, at least to get to the town he wanted. The entrance to the Sandlands was on the border of what used to be Kansas, just south of the Republic of Dakota. And, now that the jitney was going at half-speed while charging, we would be lucky to make it by tomorrow morning.
There was a sudden well in the sand around us, steadily growing larger. We hadn't even made it more than three miles. I didn't want to believe I would see one of those things again. Not ever. Not now.
"Just great." I said, dryly.
"What do you mean?" Abryi sounded quite confused. Then, he glanced outside the front window and noticed the sand. "What the hell is that?"
"Goliath sand dragon." Silas and I said at the same time. Anyone who had half a brain could hear the dread in our voices.
"What is that?" Hina asked.
"Long ago, there was an island called Galapagos. The biggest lizards there were the Komodo dragons. About eight hundred years ago, they moved northward and southward. Those that settled in the Sandmarch grew to immense sizes, eating everything in their path. The residents of this area started calling them by that name." I explained. "All I know is that you're going to want to run for it."
"Except, we have no juice." Silas corrected.
"I, Abryi, King Over the Mountain, son of Thum, nephew of Ghaz, of the House of Rayne," Abryi began, quite long and arduously dry, "have an idea that might save our hides and not reduce us to a whipped gezmar." He finished with just as much, meticulously boringness I wanted to vomit. I had no idea what a gezmar was, but it didn't sound good.
"What?" I questioned, eyeing the well in the sand, ever getting closer. What he didn't understand was goliath sand dragons were speedy, nimble, and venomous, able to leap over this vehicle with ease. We didn't even make an appetizer.
"Just watch."
"Here he goes again." Silas mumbled, as though he had seen him do something like this several times before, and he probably did, but I had absolutely no idea what he meant. "Every single time he gets that look in his eye. I just want to strangle him. Just like the time he fought… Let me not go there. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts." Silas was talking to himself. You knew Abryi was definitely the object of his rant. I was glad it wasn't me.
"Hina." Abryi commanded. "Malda." He thrust his hand out towards Hina as though she would just hand him this Malda thing. Whatever that was. And then, Hina did something I wish I could unsee, scrub from my brain, and burn in the depths of all Tartarus.
Suddenly, without much warning, Hina opened her mouth and with a galumphing heave, began to hork something into existence from her innards. First, there was a golden handgrip that emerged, surprisingly bone dry. Then, the tang and hilt of something that looked so hideously resembling a medieval sword, except with two blades. I wanted to grab my throat and scream in agony for her.
Abryi yanked it from her mouth with such force that you could hear it cut the air and all Hina had to say was, "Just because I can shift myself, doesn't mean that doesn't hurt. And, be careful next time, you almost got one of my stalks." I would have punched him dead in the throat. "You'll want the tethers, I assume?"
He nodded.
"Mara, take the wheel." Silas asked. And, when I traded places, trying to keep the mound of sand away from the vehicle, I watched through the rear-view mirror as Silas and Hina attached thick ropes to Abryi's belt. Then, Silas opened the back hatch, part of which dragged in the sand.
Abryi jumped out of the moving vehicle, only to scramble to the top of the roof. And, with a loud war cry, he screamed, "Rain Splitter!" He leapt down off the roof as the dragon reared out of the sand, slashing it down the right side of its face, but drawing no blood. I watched as Abryi split his own tether to the craft and continued to hack and slash at the dragon. It was a useless effort, their hide was legendary. They were known to take cannon fire with no effect. But, Abryi was determined. He continued nevertheless, continued and hoped for a better outcome, I suppose.
"Does he have to name everything?"
Silas laughed. "He's seen way too many twenty-first century cartoons."
"The empire hasn't seen battle since the Forsaken Civil War that thrashed the capital, Ashe'gard." Hina remarked. "Even then, it was no contest for Abryi. He has more time on his hands than anyone I know."
Abryi suddenly did something I couldn't even think to expect. "Malda, glow!" I heard him exclaim and watched as his dual-bladed weapon began to gleam with an iridescent luster of greenish-yellow light. He took a few steps away from the creature as it eyed the now glowing blade. He held it high.
"He's seriously going to use that technique?" Silas and Hina commented to themselves, loud enough that I just heard them.
"What technique?"
Silas looked as though he really didn't want to say, almost as though the technique would explain itself. And, since Abryi had the attention of the dragon with his glowing blade, it stopped moving. It wasn't even going after the jitney and I was circling the fight. However, Silas felt, he decided he should tell me, and began like this, "Abryi's race, the Amali, or more specifically, Abryi's family, the lez Raynes, have a blood pact made with a particular deity. I won't say which. Most times, it wouldn't matter, seeing as there are few things in the mortal realm that require such power; but, Abryi can call upon this deity's power quite literally, much in the way the ancient Greeks tried to do."
I stopped the vehicle and walked over to Silas. I wanted to hear this and the sand dragon wasn't even focus on us anymore. "So, Abryi can call forth a god?"
"Well, not exactly. This technique gives him godlike powers. It doesn't call forth the actual god in question, just his power. That said, he'd better finish this off quickly or else we all are bloody doomed."
"What do you mean?" I asked, wringing my hands. He was making me nervous.
"Let's just say you don't want to see what he gets like when he overuses that power. And, stopping him? Well, last time it came down to Nesbeth himself." Silas sounded quite grave and serious. If it took a god to stop a god, what were we going to do? Though, that did explain where Nesbeth went now and again. Probably to mettle in others affairs.
Suddenly, Malda began glowing black.
"Here it comes." Hina remarked. She sounded as dry as Silas. Just what had they seen?
Abryi brought his hand back, screaming aloud, "Black Slash!" He swung with all his might. I watched as pitch black flames burst forth from the blade's surface and continued forward until it made contact with the goliath sand dragon. There was so much blood that I thought the thing would just keel over right there. However, it managed to maintain its footing. "Silas, ready the harpoons."
"H- har- harpoon?"
Silas ignored me and began rolling forward two harpoon guns, immediately bolting them into place at the far edge of the vehicle. I was quite shocked to notice that the jitney had been outfitted with specific locations for the harpoons. Silas wasted no time firing at the dragon. He even sunk both harpoons into its flesh as Abryi came running back into the container, only stopping to clean Malda in the sand.
"Nice shot." He commented as he tossed Malda to Hina. He then proceeded to help Silas reel in the dragon. "I figured that if I left it alive, it could take us where we want to go while we charge up the battery. This way, we should reach in about five hours."
It was true that crafts didn't exactly travel on sand very well or as fast as the vehicles of the twenty-second century. But, they were more reliable. This? This was unheard of. No one bothered tethering a dragon. How was he going to make it do his bidding and without turning around to eat us when it got the chance? I queried in my head. I desperately wanted to make sense of what was going on in that brain of his. But, unfortunately, I had no idea. I didn't think anyone else did either.
Nevertheless, as we were dragged along by the sand dragon, it never once turned on us. Abryi only minimally coerced the creature into the direction he wanted it to go. Maybe it feared that Abryi would attack it again, what with his sitting upon the roof of the jitney, or maybe it was stupid. Whatever the reason, we somehow managed to reach our long awaited destination. Haddock-Upon-the-Desert. The abandoned oasis of the Sandlands.
And, there were no more hell-hounds.
I immediately regretted coming with them. Something stronger than a regular chill swept up my spine. There was a feeling in the air. It said to me, the worst of it was far from over. How right it was. I just didn't know yet.