Page 49 - Microsoft Word - FANG EMPIRE - NOVEL.docx

worked in silence, wrapping each of their feet with cloth and using the rope to secure the surplus

material around their ankles forming soft slippers for quiet walking. Zuba motioned for them to

move to points on the perimeter around Sygnosis. They moved quickly with military precision.

Sygnosis bit into the bandit’s neck and ripped his head clean off. It dropped to the ground

like an overripe apple. His broken jaw hung open and his eyes bulged upward. Cane crept into

position behind Sygnosis. He took off his satchel and removed an eighteen-inch metal pipe stuffed

with a clay paste. He inserted a braided horsetail fuse into the paste, and then quietly pressed the

pipe into the dirt until it stood on its own. Raki repeated this procedure from his position to the left

of Sygnosis. Cane crept over to the right side and implanted the pipe in the ground. Zuba watched

and waited on the hill for them to complete the sequence. They finished and returned, then each

removed a net from their satchel and unfolded them. The net’s cloth braids were interwoven with

unbreakable metal thread. Thick, sticky black molasses coated the nets and got onto their hands.

They attached the three long nets together at the ends by lacing twine through the holes. Zuba gave

the signal and they moved to new positions twenty feet to the left and right carrying the large,

molasses-coated net.

Sygnosis continued her feeding. Zuba’s hunters carefully attached a spring-loaded device,

of Zuba’s own design, on each corner of the net and pushed the spiked ends into the dirt. Zuba

reached into his satchel and removed a special canister mechanism. He crept around behind

Sygnosis where the metal pipes with fuses stuck out of the ground. He pumped the flexible

canister ever so slowly like an accordion until it produced a small flame. The innovative walls of

the canister prevented the light of the flame from illuminating the night. He counted down to

himself, “one, two, three,” and then ran like the wind to light each of the fuses one after another.

Once lit, they burned down into the clay paste inside the metal tubes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Like Chinese fireworks, twenty-foot-high sparks shot out like fountains from the pipes,

illuminating the night sky. Sygnosis screamed like a banshee and dropped the bandit’s headless

body. She flipped down from the tree, landed on her feet, and leapt like a gazelle into the air to