The enemy was close now, not a mark away. Jeid growled and rose in the air, his twenty dragons behind him. He could see the demons clearly now—some scaled, some feathered, some naked and dripping, others dry and lanky, some covered in hooks, others in fur, some limbless, some wingless, all creatures worse than any imagined in nightmares. Upon the beasts, leading the assault, rode a man—the only mortal of the host. He wore armor, and he bore a khopesh, the curved blade of the south. He stared across the darkness at Jeid, and their eyes met.

King Raem of Eteer, Jeid knew. The Lord of Demons. Laira's father.

Laira seemed to see the tyrant too. She soared upon her roc to Jeid's right, the western flank of their host. Her seventy rocs rose around her, their riders nocking arrows and howling their battle cries. "Goldtusk, Goldtusk!" The rancid vultures added their shrieks to the din, and their talons stretched out, ready to dig into demons.

"Leatherwing!"

To Jeid's left rose the tribe of ptero-riders, their chests painted white and red, their spears bedecked with feathers and beads. Oritan rose before them upon his mount, chanting for his tribe.

The demons chanted too, their voices mocking.

"Tear off their scales one by one!" one creature cried, a shaggy thing with a warty red head.

"Slay the birds and break the reptiles!" roared another creature, a naked strip of meat beating hooked wings.

Jeers rose among the host.

"We will feast upon dragon bones!"

"We will wear skins of scales!"

"We will drink blood from dragon horns!"

Above them all rose the voice of King Raem, mocking and cruel. "Bring me the weredragons alive. They will beg for death in the courts of the Abyss."

With a thousand cries, the dragons swarmed toward the mountain.

Jeid roared and blew his fire. Around him, his dragons answered his cry.

"Requiem! Requiem!"

The pteros flew from the west, their riders firing spears. The rocs flew from the east, their riders firing arrows. Jeid charged forth, leading the dragons of Requiem, crashing into the host of the Abyss.

LAIRA

 
LAIRA

My father.

Riding her roc, Laira stared at the host, and her eyes met his. Her heart seemed to freeze within her.

Raem Seran. The man who exiled me. Who hunts me. Who unleashed the terrors of the underground. The man I feared for so long, the man who will kill me if he can.

"Father," she whispered.