As Moutassim ran and practically dragged Tigrita and Sahelia along with him, fear gripped his throat like never before. Fear for himself, but particularly the fear of losing his beloved Elia. That fear pumped adrenaline through his body and spurred him on, even as the monster's heavy footfalls behind him got louder with each bound.
He stole a glance over his shoulder and saw that in his haste to escape he had overtaken several stumbling crew members, who now separated them from the creature. With the impatience with which one swats a fly, the creature roared and smashed the back of its hand into the head of one screaming crew member, instantly breaking his neck and crushing his skull. It grabbed another fleeing crew member by the arm, seemingly ripping it out of the socket and threw the screaming man into the air.
Moutassim saw Hebron as he struggled to his feet while clutching his groin and attempted to run. The monster saw Hebron too and with one leap closed the distance between it and the captain. Hebron screamed and in his haste to change direction, twisted his ankle and fell. The monster was on top of Hebron the next second and pounded him into the ground with two blows of its massive fists, spraying blood into the air.
"We're almost there!" Moutassim panted when he looked around and saw the longboat on the edge of the beach as it grew nearer. He also saw that several crew members were in the boat and fighting each other.
"They're pulling away!" Tigrita screamed. He saw that she was right. One crew member was in the process of pushing off from the beach, until he was felled by a roundhouse hook from another crewmember.
"You coward! We wait for the emperor!" the man who threw the punch, a burly man with an afro, shouted down at his colleague.
From somewhere deep within, Moutassim dug and found the extra power needed to reach the boat, even as the heavy footfalls from behind told him that the monster had resumed the chase.
"We're here, we're here!" the Emperor shouted, as he splashed into the shallow water next to the boat and pushed Tigrita inside. The man with the afro helped her up. Moutassim turned around for Sahelia.
But Sahelia wasn't there. She stood several steps behind him, still on the water's edge. In the dim light of the dawn sky, he saw tears streaming down her face as she stared into his eyes and her breasts heaved with every breath she took.
Behind her, he saw a chilling sight. The monster was rapidly getting closer. With each bound it took, Moutassim could see its scarred, blackened face. Its bared fangs. It's reddened, enraged eyes. Its massive shoulders and huge fists, more clearly. It was almost upon them.
"Elia, what the hell are you doing! Get over here!" Moutassim shouted, uncomprehending.
Sahelia moved quickly, punching upwards. A massive block of sand and earth shot up in front of Moutassim, knocking the air out his lungs as it struck him in his solar plexus and dumped him back into the longboat.
Moutassim struggled to raise up, grabbing the edge of the rocking boat and wheezing for air. As he tried to pull himself out of the boat, he saw Sahelia make a complicated motion. The creature uttered an ear-splitting roar, as it stopped short just feet from Sahelia. He saw that its fists and feet were being held to the earth. But it couldn't hold. Already, the earth was cracking.
Sahelia spun around and pushed out her hands towards the boat. The boat bucked, catching Moutassim, who had half his body over the edge of the boat, off guard. He fell back heavily against the floor of the boat and when he raised his head, his heart plummeted.
He realized that Sahelia was manipulating the water, pushing the boat away from the shore. Away from her. He stared into Sahelia's face as it grew smaller and then the bellowing monster behind her finally broke free and she turned to face it.
"Elia!" Moutassim screamed, beyond reason as he grabbed the edge of the boat and prepared to jump. But then thick arms enveloped his chest, yanking him away from the edge of the boat.
"Let me go! Let me go!" Moutassim screamed, bucking and heaving against the arms of steel. "I said let me go! I order you!"
Even as he struggled, more crew members held him down until the beach was just a distant line, separated by almost a mile of ocean. And just like that, the invisible power that had been spurring them through the water at breakneck speed disappeared. The suddenness of the stop almost dumped them overboard.
"Elia!" Moutassim cried up at the dawn sky. The emptiness within his soul told him that there was no one left to answer to that name.
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Kelita traced the elaborate patterns on the sarcophagus. The carved figures of warriors in the middle of battle. Traced a diminutive spear, as it was about to be thrown in artistic combat. Traced one of the many fallen heroes that surrounded the edge of the stone coffin.
The bodies of the other fallen imperial soldiers from the battle had long been claimed by family, who were presumably washing and preparing them for honourable burials. But Agdel was no ordinary soldier. A Genda royal, heir to his father Agamon's crown and the apple of his father's eye. Agdel would be transported later today, past the besieging Sieberons if need be, back to his kingdom.
Before that, Kelita intended to spend time with her cousin, reminiscing. She was dressed for mourning, in a long black gown with intricately carved silver waist beads. She sighed and sat next to the coffin, looking inside.
Agdel lay in black dress armour, his hands crossed on his chest over the golden hilt of a sword. He could have been sleeping, but his face had the dull pallid look of the dead. More tears rolled down her cheek as she stared at him. Sheba breathed rhythmically in a corner of the room as she slept.
"You will be avenged, cousin," she murmured, as she propped her jaw and braced on the sarcophagus. "You will be avenged."
Even as she fantasized about Votrek's severed head at her feet, her mind ran on the last time she had seen her cousin. How he had probed her about her sister. One of several people, including her husband, who she had hidden the reason for her hatred to her sister from.
Yes, it was hatred. Kelita wasn't ashamed to admit it to herself. She and her sister were once close, even if she did always feel a little resentment at her sister's rapidly developing magical powers that she inherited from their father.
That was until four years ago, when she discovered a new, more violent reason for resenting her sister. And it all started one sunny day when Moutassim arrived in Genda, to bring her home after one of her visits with her family.
Kelita had been practising her dancing when a servant ran in to announce that her husband had arrived. Six years into her marriage, there was still hope that she would conceive an heir. She was still happy and in the honeymoon period. Excited, she had immediately fled from her dancing instructor, giggling all the while.
She had taken the stairs two at a time, leaping as gracefully as an antelope and burst on to the balcony.
Sahelia was there, staring down at Moutassim as he trotted in on his stallion, followed by Agdel and a long retinue of attendants. People lined the street leading up to the palace, cheering and throwing flowers in his path. The Emperor's smile was infectious.
But Kelita's own smile died while she stared at the enraptured look on young Sahelia's face. Something inside her broke, as Kelita recognized the lovestruck look she always wore when she was in Moutassim's presence. In that moment, she realized just how replaceable she could be, if Moutassim wanted to maintain an alliance with Genda and beget an heir.
"Sahelia!" She had snapped.
Sahelia had jumped and almost fallen from her perch on the edge of the balcony. The guilty, shuttered look that had enveloped her face was unmistakable.
Not another word was said about it. But since that day, she kept one eye on her husband and two eyes on her sister. When Sahelia moved into the imperial palace, she watched. On her seventh wedding anniversary amid the trumpets and the dancing, she watched. Every dinner they held as a family, she watched. When she sat next to her husband in the throne room while he heard petitioners, she watched.
And every time she caught Sahelia staring at her husband in the lovestruck, enraptured manner she once had, the coldness and torment in her heart grew.
There was a rapping on the door. In fact, it slowly came to Kelita that someone had been rapping on the door for the past five minutes.
"Enter," she called.
A servant opened the door and bowed, the morning sunlight streaming in over his bent back. She squinted, while Sheba lazily raised her head.
"Yes, what is it?" Kelita asked.
"I'm sorry, your Majesty," the boy was practically trembling. "But Morabi has escaped from the dungeons."
"Oh." She said. The boy looked confused. Probably expecting the famous Kelita temper tantrum. She had a sudden insane urge to laugh.
"I mean, oh no! How could this happen? Find him!" Kelita said in an unconvincing tone. The boy bowed and retreated.
She turned back to Agdel and resumed tracing the outline of the coffin.