“I know who you are,” the woman said. “Here, take this.” She tossed Aesira a heavy rope before moving to the edge of the ship. “Get ready.”
“Get ready for what?” Did the woman expect her to man the ship? While she’d flown many times over the last year between Vargah and Novaria, she’d never worked on a ship before. “Maybe I can get Stone?”
“He’s busy.” The woman picked up another large rope and tossed it Aesira’s way, filling both her arms. “If you’re going to behitching a ride aboard the Aquila, you’re going to be pulling your weight. Now get ready to toss those down.”
“Down?”
“Fucksake,” the woman mumbled. Aesira couldn’t keep track of her. She moved like a tiny bird zipping about the deck. In one place for no longer than a second before moving onto the next. “When I tell you to toss those lines, you toss them as hard and far as you can. Understand, Commander?”
The annoyance in her voice made Aesira’s cheeks heat. She was the head of her own squadron. Had moved up the ranks quickly and gone head to head with monsters–and won. Yet, this tiny woman had reduced her down to a novice. “Commander?” the woman demanded.
“Understood,” Aesira said through gritted teeth. The ship swayed slightly, creaking and groaning as it sailed around a cluster of pink clouds. But other than the noises of the ship and orders from the woman, everything else was eerily quiet. “Where is Stone? The rest of the crew?”
The woman finished tying off one of the lines. She glanced at Aesira, putting her hands on her hips. “They’re busy, like I said.”
“And my knight?”
“She’s busy too.” The woman was fiddling with something mechanical, not bothering to glance her way.
“Then who were you talking to earlier?” The woman stiffened. “I heard you shouting, so if it wasn’t to one of the crew, who?”
Her eyes narrowed but something scraped against the side of the ship, drawing her attention. “Toss the lines,” she said. “Now!”
Aesira took two steps toward the bow, the heavy ropes bundled in her arms. Dry, scorching wind seared against her lips, but when her eyes tipped down toward the dark sand, she froze.
“Commander. We waited for you. We’ll always wait for you.”
The crawlers from last night.
Fear lodged in her throat, her grip loosening on the lines.
“Drop the lines, Commander!”
“Come.”
“Let us heal you.”
“Let us take your pain away.”
Something about the last words shook Aesira from her stupor.
“They told me they’d make my pain go away.”
The same thing Stone had told her last night.
“Commander! Drop the fucking lines!” The severity in the woman’s voice was enough to wake her up. She shook her head once and tossed the heavy lines over the sides of the ship with all of her might.
It wasn’t until her arms were empty that she realized what she just did.
“Wait!” Aesira spun, finding the woman next to her, as if she’d flown across deck, peering over the starboard bow. “Haven’t we just given them a way to get up here?” Panic leeched the color from Aesira’s cheeks, her stomach dropping.
“Patience,” the woman said. Aesira glanced down at the crawlers and just as she suspected, they began to climb. Their skeletal bodies moved with unnatural speed and even more unnatural angles. Bending and twisting, oily strands of hair swaying in the breeze, bones cracking, teeth chattering.
“Shit,” Aesira murmured. She gripped the pommel of her sword, letting the bite of cold metal be her anchor. The crawlers screamed. Over and over again they screamed. They screamed her name. Her secrets. Her fears.
She drew in sharper breaths, and as the first wraith’s hand reached for her, a burst of heat and light dropped her to her knees.
Flames engulfed the crawler. Its shrieks grew higher and more piercing but through the horrific sound, a laugh rose in its place. Aesira swayed on her knees, her hands pressed tightly over her ears and when the noises began to dwindle, she pulled her sword and stood.
