"We want more." Their voices were dry as old bones. "We want your flesh too."

She pulled out her amulet and held it before her.

"Leave!" She took a step closer, letting the sun gleam against the talisman. "You may never eat more human flesh. Nor will others of your kind. Leave!"

They flew closer, almost reaching her. One's claw caressed her cheek. Another demon's tongue licked her neck. She refused to cower or flee.

"We want more."

"You will have no more!" She raised her amulet as high as she could. "Here is the sigil of Taal, the god who banished your queen five thousand years ago. I banish you too! Leave this city. Fly to the sea and nevermore return to this land. Leave now or feel Taal's light."

The amulet shot out a beam, blinding, crackling, searing. The demons screamed, beating their wings madly, slamming against the balcony railings, ripping into stone, clawing at their faces. One demon ripped out its own eye, a horrible mimicry of Shedah's mutilation.

"Leave!" Issari shouted.

They're too strong, she thought. They've grown too large. They will not be cowed. Yet she snarled, stepped closer, and placed the amulet against one's flesh.

"Feel this burn and flee this place."

The demon skin sizzled, raising foul smoke. The amulet blazed red, and Issari cried out, for it burned her hand. She would not release it. She pulled the amulet back—it tore free with ripping skin—and placed it against another demon.

The creatures howled.

They wept blood.

They turned and fled the balcony.

Issari panted, her hand burning. She stared at the bloated demons; they were the size of the ships in the canal. They flew across the city, wobbling, crying out in anguish. The smaller demons watched from below, cawing up at their swollen friends. Only once did the three turn back, and when Issari held out her amulet again, they turned and kept fleeing. She stood watching from the balcony, shining her light, until they fled across the shore and vanished over the sea.

She dropped the amulet. It clanged against the floor, red-hot. When she looked at her palm, she saw the sigil of Taal branded upon her.

She stumbled back into her chamber, fell to her knees, and trembled for a long time.

TANIN

 
TANIN

Tanin woke up upon a dragon's back, saw only sea around him, and yawned.

"Still no sign of land?" he asked, tapping his sister's scales.

He rubbed his eyes, yawned again, and sat up. He was in human form, but his sister flew as a dragon, her scales green, her horns white, her mouth full of fire. She looked over her shoulder at him, and her eyes narrowed.

"Are you blind? No land. No damn land. Not a sign for three days now." Maev blasted flame over his head, nearly searing his hair. "And we're running low on food. We turn back."