“And you used Kendra’s wind bag.”
“The sack of gales,” Knox said. “Kendra had it but didn’t even try.”
“She succeeded at other stuff,” Tess said. “Like going to the Phantom Isle and rescuing Bracken and Seth from the Underking.”
“Hard to succeed at anything if she’d been stuck a prisoner of that underwater demon for a million years,” Knox said.
“How would she live a million years?”
“Or until she died. Luckily for her, I was there. I knew if I blew the demon into the razor coral, everyone would be saved. So I did. Wasn’t that hard, really. Just took a little Texas ingenuity.”
“Do they have sacks of gales in Texas?” Tess asked.
“They have courage,” Knox said. “And know-how. And when they were handing them out, I stuck around for seconds.”
“How many seconds?”
“No, a second helping. A double portion.”
Tess rolled her eyes. “How will you kill the next demon? With that stick?”
“A new problem will need a new solution,” Knox said. “I might use some of the moves I’m practicing. Or maybe some other technique. At least I’m not wasting my time with sandcastles.”
“Kendra saved us from the spider eels with a sandcastle,” Tess said.
“Not one like you’re making,” Knox scoffed.
“I like it,” Tess said. “And the fairies like it. Having fairy friends can be useful too.”
As Knox gave the sandcastle a closer look, he had to quietly admit it was impressive. The highest tower was as tall as his waist, sculpted with details like bricks, shingles, crenellations, and windows. Flashes of light signaled fairy magic as the tiny winged women smoothed surfaces and bound sand particles into fanciful shapes.
“I’d rather have friends who know how to fight,” Knox said.
“I like friends who play with me,” Tess said.
“Hey, Knox,” Warren called, exiting the jungle from the direction of the sprawling tree house called the Monkey Maze. “Hi, Tess. Good to see you.”
His tone was an odd mix of purposeful and friendly, almost like a bad actor in a community play putting too much expression into his line.
“Is something wrong?” Knox asked.
“Everything is super great,” Warren said, again with too much expression. His eyes darted up and down the beach as he strolled toward them.
Now Knox knew something was off. Tess watched Warren curiously as well.
As Warren drew near, he lowered his voice and spoke with urgency. “A pair of sand dullions just attacked Savani. We suspect there are more. You two need to get off the sand, but look casual. Hopefully this is just a precaution.”
The fairies started pointing down the beach and chattering over one another. Tess gazed in the direction they indicated.
“Don’t look toward—” Warren began as, twenty yards away, a thick figure erupted out of the beach in a gritty geyser. The monster was at least eight feet tall and made of tightly packed sand, with lumpy shoulders and big, three-fingered hands.
“Run!” Warren shouted, motioning the kids toward the trees.
Fairies scattered as Tess dashed for the jungle, bare feet kicking up sand. Knox followed, stout stick held ready. Warren charged the dullion, sword raised. He ducked when the dullion swung a long arm at him, then rose to slash the creature across the torso, sending a spray of sand into the air but otherwise having little effect. The creature punched at Warren, who narrowly dodged the blow, then failed to avoid a backhand that sent him cartwheeling.
A second dullion surged from the sand up the beach in the opposite direction and raced to cut off Knox’s escape into the trees. The sand creature moved with long, loping strides, and Knox saw that it would beat them to the jungle, so he yanked Tess to a stop.
“Head for the water!” he cried, hoping the dullions might hesitate to get immersed. The ocean around the Crescent Lagoon sanctuary teemed with dangerous sea creatures, but the lagoon itself was generally safe—certainly safer than getting bashed by living sand.
The water was much closer than the trees, and the dullions were out of position to block access to the lagoon, but it would still be a challenge to beat them there. Knox knew he could go faster if he released his sister’s hand, but instead he squeezed more tightly. No way was he going to leave her behind.
Both dullions closed on them, one from off to the side, the other from behind. Knox heard Vanessa calling, and out of his peripheral vision he noticed Warren getting up, too far behind the dullion to interfere.
Knox and Tess reached the wet sand at the edge of the water and splashed forward, first to their ankles, then to their knees. A quick glance back showed that the dullions had almost reached them and did not appear to be slowing as they approached the water. As Knox sprang forward, a mighty roar hit his eardrums like a cannon blast, only to be muffled as his surface dive took him underwater.
When his head emerged, Knox saw both dullions facing away from him as one of the Himalayan cyclopses stormed toward them, maybe Hobar or Baroi. The cyclops carried a club that was broad and flat on one end, like a cricket bat fringed with sharp stones. Working together, the dullions tried to counterattack, but the cyclops made them look slow, chopping with savage precision as he dodged their swings, hacking off arms, then heads, then legs. Each severed limb dissipated into a cloud of sand, and the torsos disintegrated as well once the limbs and head were gone.
“Come on,” Knox said to Tess, pushing her ahead of him before stroking back to the beach.
Very soon it was too shallow to swim, and Knox waded to Warren, who awaited them alongside the cyclops at the edge of the water. Warren had blood leaking from his left nostril, and his eye was swelling shut. Vanessa caught up with them there.
“Are you all right?”
