Tidal Sands

His horse, which had already been swiveling his ears nervously, now reared back, nearly throwing Devrim from his mount.

The sand all around them flowed like liquid, making way for the insidious creatures underneath.

"Wolves!" Someone called. Devrim thought it was Cevdet. But the chaos made it hard for him to tell for sure.

As his horse came back on all fours, the Emperor drew his sword. He looked toward the Cevdet and his face went pale. The two men and their horses were gone. The sand was painted red.

There was no time to think.

"Nurlan!" Dervim yelled over the screams of the women and children in the wagons.

Behind him, the General was scrambling back on his stallion. Although his warhorse had not shied at the shifting ground, another warrior's had rammed into them and sent both Nurlan and his horse sprawling.

All around them, the soldiers were drawing their swords while the Dunesmen fetched spears from their supply in the caravan.

Everything happened in barely the blink of an eye.

Devrim pulled his weapon, unsure if the short blade would do much as it could not reach the ground.

Next to him, the sand slid aside as a monstrous paw unlike anything the Emperor had seen before shot into the sunlight.

It was pale and almost completely hairless, but bigger than Devrim's torso. Its razor sharp claws gleamed in the desert sun.

The Emperor had heard Mairwen's description of the animal, but in her panic, she had not done it justice. The creature under the sand could easily be as large as a cottage, and was far more deadly.

The wolf's aim was off. Instead of capturing Devrim in its grasp, the creature caught the hindquarters of the horse. Its claws dug into the rear of the steed, but did not manage to take hold.

The Emperor thrust his blade backwards, forcing the tip to puncture right above the where one nail met the pale pink flesh.

The wolf let out a muted roar from beneath the sand as its curved claw flew free of its paw. Red covered the back of Devrim's horse with both creatures' blood.

But so far, the Emperor remained intact.

Another paw shot up in between Devrim and the wagons. It was likely another arm from the same creature. In its pain and frustration, it was flailing at anything it could. Devrim wheeled his sword to his side, but he was not fast enough. The mighty claws were aimed right for his head, poised to decimate his skull.

But a spear whizzed past his head and into the soft pads of the creature. Devrim was forced to duck as the shaft toggled through the air like a splinter trying to be shaken off by a child. And the shaft did splinter, but not before the paw made a hasty retreat back into the earth.

Cevdet had been the one to throw the spear. He was horseless and covered in blood, but alive. "Go!" He cried at the front caravan.

In shock, the first driver had pulled the procession to a halt to avoid the undulating ground. Somehow the Cevdet's scream woke her from her stupor, and she flicked at the reins.

The wolves were coming from all sides. Getting out of the ring of viscious dogs was the only option.

From her wagon, Aurora was now standing on the bench beside Hadya and firing as many arrows as she could into the pink paws and arms that were jutting out of the earth like snakes from a hole.

After the first day, the Empress had moved her bow and quiver to the Duneswoman's wagon on the pretext that she liked to hunt small game in the woods sometimes.

Now she was glad for the weapon. The hides of these wolves were not enhanced by a thick coat of fur, so the sharp tips pierced deeply.

Even though the small arrows were nothing compared to the large paws, the projectiles surprised the desert dogs enough to pull back their hand beneath the sand to examine their wounds.

Aurora had a feeling that they would not stay timid for long. So as the carts began moving again, the Empress steadied her stance and redoubled her efforts to keep Hadya and the others safe.

Devrim knew his wife would do what she could to stay alive. While her shoulder was not fully healed from when Taran took her to the sky, it was functional enough for her to still have deadly aim.

The Emperor was forced to set his sights elsewhere. Cevdet was now unarmed. The Dunesman had already proved himself mighty, but without a weapon, he was a meal waiting to happen.

Digging in his heels, Devrim directed his horse toward the helpless Dunesman. The pounding of the hooves in the soft sand attracted a few furious swipes from below, but none landed before the grey-eyed man reached his target.

Devrim pulled the bloodied man onto his horse. Cevdet looked badly wounded, yet his spirit was not broken. "I need a new spear!" he cried.

The caravan had already started its slow progress out of the death trap of wolves. Many of the Imperial troops were holding engaging the horrific creatures to buy the group some time. Devrim wove through the mayhem to get Cevdet another weapon.

"I thought the wolves hunted alone," the Emperor said over his shoulder to the Dunesman.

"They do. Or at least they did." Cevdet pointed off to the side. "Watch out."

Crashing down like a toppling tower, another fleshy paw ripped through the air at Devrim and his horse. Unable to pull his horse out of the way in time, the grey-eyed man leaned to one side and pulled up his leg.

The side of his horse caught the edge of the claw, which snapped the strap of the saddle.

Devrim and Cevdet went careening to the ground as the injured horse ran frantically from the danger. Not that the Emperor could blame him.

Not the two men were caught in an endless sea of paws waving like weeds in the river, waiting to take down anything that they could. A loud crack drew the Emperor's attention. One of the wolves had penetrated Aurora's hail of arrows and grabbed hold of a wagon. The wheel splintered as the cart lurched to one side an began to sink.

"My son! No!" Cevdet yelled. He tried to stand, but the fall had done damage to his already battered body.

Devrim looped the man's arm over her shoulder and they went running to the wagon. Already Children were screaming as they scrambled out of the back of the cart.

The next wagon in the line began to go around the other. Seeing Cevdet and Devrim on foot, the driver reached back and tossed two spears from behind her toward their feet.

Devrim scooped one and immediately plunged it into the sand. The whimper from below let him know he had hit his mark. He tried to give the other to Cevdet, but the man was too weak to wield one any longer.

"Go on without me!" The Dunesman clutched his side.

Not wanting to leave the man helpless, Devrim push Cevdet as fast as he could toward the part of the caravan which was still moving. "Get on the wagon. I'll help the children."

The Dunesman nodded and limped away. Another fighter on horseback caught him up and carried him from Devrim's sight.

The Emperor surged forward towards the children. The sand was ever shifting below him, and making his leg work as if he were slogging through deep mud. By the time he reached the wounded wagon, two other Dunesman were stabbing and hacking against the sand wolves' attacks.

The five children from the back of the wagon were having the same difficulty as Devrim of moving through the shifting ground.

The youngest, a little boy, was buried up to his waist as he struggled against the tide. It seemed he had stopped moving and been pulled down by the current of the wolves movement.

At least it did not appear a creature had a hold of him. If that were the case, the child would have been pulled under already instead of his fruitless struggling.

"Help!" the boy cried.

Coming to his side, the Emperor laid down his spear and dug feverishly at the sand. Nearby, the wagon finally succumbed to the wolves and sunk beneath the surface.

The amount of lost supplies was potentially devastating, but Devrim only cared that everyone inside had made it out. In the sudden movement of the dune, Devrim laid flat on his back and plucked the child from the golden grains of the desert.

It had taken all his strength to take advantage of the loosening sand, and now that the boy was laying on top of him, the Emperor was conducting a strange swimming motion to keep them afloat.

But then the boy was suddenly floating in the air. "I got him," Reyan called as he lifted the child into the air. The boy was small enough that the fairy could still carry him even without his magic.

Devrim nodded his thanks and stood, ready to fight again. The caravan was steadily moving forward. Some of the wagons were already clear of the wolves and were beginning to move more rapidly. But at least half of the procession was either damaged, gone, or still struggling to get out.

Searching for the spear, the Emperor realized that weapon had drifted beneath the surface in the most recent ripples. Before he could draw his sword, a massive paw larger than him broke the surface of the desert..

And pulled him under.