Her lungs felt as if a bonfire was lit inside her chest, each breath burned deep and hard, the fiery sensation spreading across her breasts. Up and down, over and over, her feet csped in the stirrups, standing up as the horse raced through the bone streets. Its hooves clopping against the bone road with hollow thumps that rang out into the night sky.

  She gnced back at the mob of creatures following her through the street. Sweat dripped from her brow, cascading down her dark skin. A slip of air escaped her lips as her eyes lingered on the creatures behind her. Twenty, thirty, fifty even? She had no clue how many things were chasing her, only that they yearned for flesh to feast upon.

  She turned back to the streets in front of her. Creatures climbed over buildings to join the fray, adding even more beasts to their numbers. She pulled the reigns left and right to dodge the monsters as best as she could. The bodies dragged behind her were leaving bloody trails for the beasts to follow. They licked their lips and howled, growled, and grumbled behind her, hungry for fresh meat.

  The emaciated horse was panting heavily. She could feel it was slowing down now, tired of all the running.

  If she didn’t figure something out soon, she would be joining the corpse brigade in the beasts’ stomachs. Her eyes scanned the street ahead of her, a slight breeze was picking up, blowing in her eyes. Buildings lined the streets ahead of her. A mp pole stood tall above the street, made of bone, a ntern hanging from the horizontal bones.

  Azandrae quickly made up her mind. This was her stop. She just had to make the jump off the horse, and the rest was up to the poor horse to save itself. With a quick gnce behind her, bouncing up and down, she stood on the horses back, holding the reigns for her dear life. She staggered left and right as the horse bounced in its sprint. The beast neighed out as it felt the shift in weight on its back.

  The mp pole was right ahead of her now. Just one jump, how hard was that? She chuckled nervously as she bent down, ready to jump. The horse just about passed under the pole when her legs pushed off, lifting her into the air. She released the reigns and shot her hands up to wrap around the pole.

  Her chest smashed into the ntern holder. Breath escaped her lungs, refusing to come back. Her arms slipped, dropping her inches that felt like miles to her. The horse ran off ahead and with no rider to direct it, it ran for its life. The horde of abominations raced underneath her, grunting and chirping as they ran after the horse. Thousands of thuds of the monsters’ feet stomping below her filled her with dread. Dropping now was a death sentence.

  She slipped her arm up over the pole and wrapped it under her armpit to stabilize herself. Her lungs burned even more as she tried to breath in, each breath was a chore to take in, almost as if the air refused to enter her.

  Finally, she took a deep breath, wrapping her legs up over the pole and pulling herself on top of the mp pole. She held the vertical poll with her remaining strength, just taking in all the air she could get.

  The st of the creatures had raced off after the horse, ignoring her, either willfully, ignorantly, or full of bloodlust. Either way she was relieved to have a break. Darkness overtook her eyes as she rexed and let her body rest for a moment. She couldn’t let herself rest too long here. She had a mission to complete. Her mother was in danger every second she remained in this hell hole.

  Az stood on the pole; the horizontal shaft shook under her weight. She held the mp pole tight, not wanting to fall. Az looked around the street, trying to get some sort of bearing. The chapel was looming there in the distance, just a few streets away. She could make it easily if no more monsters tried to eat her.

  Wind whipped up around her, pulling at her. Dust and debris took off into the air, all heading for the chapel. She held the pole tight, trying to not get ripped off the tall structure. An eerie green glow emanated from the chapel, piercing cracks in the structure and beaming out into the night sky.

  As her eyes lingered on the Basilica’s chapel, the roof burst open. Bone rained down all around her, cttering onto rooftops, smashing into the street, and nding all around the Basilica des Bone. She shielded her eyes from the explosion, hearing something terrible emerge from the chapel. She lowered her arm and gasped.

  “Holy hell…” She looked at a massive snake, made of bone and tendon, raised a dozen stories in the air, something rge, cd in bck armor was clutched in its jaws. “Rigor!” She shouted reflexively, reaching out to him.

  Her eyes shot back down to the chapel, “Mom!” Her mother was supposed to be in that chapel. She was in danger now of being crushed and maimed by the terrifying serpent, if she wasn’t already dead.

  She gnced back at Rigor. The Death Knight was bashing his fist down on the snake’s skull to no avail. His axe was scraping the thick white bone, but no damage was being dealt to the spellbinding monstrosity.

  While the snake was busy with Rigor, she could sneak in and save her mother. That would be the easiest way. She could take off and leave here with her mom and never look back, but her eyes never left the Death Knight. The man had gotten her this far, helped her take revenge on Copperhead, and saved her from the jaws of death. Without him, she would have never even stepped foot in the Basilica. Guilt rushed over her.

  What would her mother say? What deep insights were hiding in her memory? If she was her mother, what would she do in this moment?

  Az shook her head, “What would I do in this situation?” Her mother’s words may have helped her, but her actions were her own. She got this far on her own blood and sweat. Her choices led her to this moment. What would she do?

  She swallowed hard. Her throat was dry and scratchy. Her mother was tough and could take care of herself. For now, Rigor was the one who needed saving, and she would repay him tenfold, but how? She hadn’t a clue, but there must be something around here for her to use.

  “Think, think, think, Az, there’s something here to use…”

  She gnced to the nearby building. A gss window on the second floor, with a small ledge below was within reach. If she could jump to it, she could lower herself down and find something to help Rigor with. Her feet found solid footing on the pole. She bent down, holding onto the poll for leverage and pushed off with all her might, vastly underestimating her new found strength.

  Az soared through the air, crashing right into the gss window. She tumbled inside the dark room, rolling across the floor. She winced in pain and grunted. Her arm was burning with pain. A long shard of gss stuck from her bicep; crimson blood beaded from the wound.

  “Hell’s sake.” She whispered as she grabbed the shard and ripped it out quickly, “Shit.” She tossed the shard across the room and grabbed her knife sheath. She pulled the belt from the loops and sinched it around her wound. Better first aid would have to wait.

  Looking around the dark room, she stood and checked her body for more wounds. She was fine for now, but where was she? The room was thick with dust and random crates. She took a step towards them, ready to rummage about when the floor boards beneath her bowed under her weight.

  Az froze. A sharp crack came from under her foot. “Shit.” The floor gave way under her, snapping downwards. She fell through the second floor to the first, her momentum carrying her down through the ground floor where she smashed through the bone flooring once again and smmed down hard onto something cold. A metallic hum rang out.

  Dust swirled all around her in a hazy cloud. She groaned while holding her back, coughing and fanning the dust away from her face. She grabbed ahold of something cold and hard to steady herself. It wasn’t bone like the other structures here. The dust settled down and Az found herself on a rusty old steam ship, covered from head to toe with metal casing.

  “What in the world is this?” She looked around, finding a hatch on the top of the steam boat. She tugged on it, pulling several times before it opened. She slipped inside and looked around the near pitch-bck room. A dozen barrels were pilled inside, covered in decades of dust. She wiped the grime away, revealing the words ‘Caution, Gunpowder, store carefully.’

  She looked at the engine. A pile of coal was still stashed away for use. A pn started to form in Azandrae’s head. If she could just get the thing to start… It was risky, but it just might work.

  *Please donate to my Patreon!