She nodded. "All have left but Angel. She still lurks in the palace, warming the throne as my father is away. And she frightens me more than an army of demons."

Tanin shuddered and said no more. They kept moving through the city, climbing over a fallen column, skirting a shattered statue, and walking down a boulevard where blood still stained the flagstones. Banners hung from roofs. Some showed the god Taal, a slender man with open palms, while others showed the god Kur-Paz, a winged bull. Other banners were more lurid; some were mere sheets stained with blood, and others showed crude images of broken men, of red eyes surrounded with teeth, and of a winged woman of fire. Demon banners.

"My father perhaps is still king by name," Issari said. "But it seems that Angel governs here now."

They were walking by the canal when they saw the first pregnant woman.

She sat on the docks, leaning against a lantern pole, her face ashen. She gazed at Issari with sunken, vacant eyes—the eyes of a soldier who had seen too much, of the sole survivor of a slain family, of one so ill that only the grave could offer comfort. Her belly was grossly distended—twice the size of any pregnant belly Issari had ever seen. It bulged out from her tunic, the skin so stretched it looks ready to tear, and strange figures moved behind that skin, kicking, scratching, tracing the symbols of demons. A rustle rose from within the woman like the buzz of cockroaches, and Issari knew: She is gravid with a demon child.

As they kept walking, they saw more of these poor souls, their bellies large, their eyes glassy, their lips whispering prayers. Dozens seemed to fill the city, maybe hundreds—lying on streets, too weak to rise, demon spawn scuttling inside them, shoving at the skin, begging to emerge. Issari whispered prayers to all she passed, knowing she had no way to heal them, knowing all she could do was claim the throne and banish the horror back into the Abyss.

"Taal looks over you, my children," Issari said as she passed, holding up the amulet embedded into her palm. "His light shines upon you. I am Issari Seran and I am home. I will look after you."

They couldn't reply, only stare with anguished eyes, the creatures kicking within their bellies. Tears in her eyes, knowing there was no more she could do, Issari walked on. Tanin walked at her side, eyes dry but haunted, his blade raised.