More screeches pierced the winds, growing sharper and hungrier.

Jake pictured the mummified grakyl back at the museum.

Out in the skies, the same beast had come to life and multiplied into a ravaging horde. The Greeks had called them Harpies, but he had another name for them.

“Grakyl,” Marika said.

It could only mean one thing.

Jake mumbled it aloud, “The Skull King has found us.”

11

BLOODY SKIES

The horde headed toward the ships like a plague of locusts.

Egyptian guards poured up from below to join the slaves. Weapons appeared in every hand as if by magic: bronze swords, bows, spears, and javelins. Jake and his friends were driven flat to the deck as a large man raced over to guard them, carrying a huge mace with a stone head.

Then the attackers struck.

Grakyl crashed into the balloon, clawing and ripping at it. But the rubbery material resisted their assault. More monsters dropped to the ship, to be met by thrusting spears and hacking swords. A flurry of arrows soon feathered the skies. Angry screeches turned to pained screams. Blood flowed over the decks and rained down as stricken beasts flew past.

A large shape shot down out of the sky and struck their guardian square in the back, sprawling him flat. Jake scooted to help, going for the man’s dropped mace. But as soon as Jake moved, another grakyl landed on the rail and perched there with wings outspread. Its bald head, crested by a bony ridge, cocked toward him, fixing him with a pair of baleful yellow eyes. Jake read nothing but hunger in that gaze. Flat, batlike nostrils flared and sniffed for his scent. The grakyl leaned down and hissed, baring fangs.

Jake scrabbled back but had nowhere to go.

Then something heavy swept past Jake’s head with a glint of steel. It looked like a grappling hook or an anchor. The barbed hook struck the beast in the chest, ripped it off the rail, and sent it sailing out into the sky. Jake traced the anchor line to one of the flaming skyriders. The man cut the rope and sent the grakyl plummeting downward.

All across the deck, the war raged. A grakyl swept down and snatched one of the Egyptian guards by the shoulders and dragged him screaming up into the air. A javelin flew and pierced the chest of the monster, killing it instantly. Man and beast crashed back to the deck.

“My sword!” Kady said. Her fencing bag was slung over the unconscious guard’s shoulder. “I’m going for it!”

Whatever fear she had about flying was gone. There was a fight, and she wanted a part of it. Her eyes practically gleamed.

Jake didn’t argue. They needed weapons.

The fighting grew fiercer as they crawled as a group toward the downed man. Bach’uuk picked up the abandoned stone mace as they went. Pindor found a short sword. Marika grabbed a spear.