"Burn them all!" he cried. "Bur—"

A sphinx ahead of him—it was Slyn, his human head now bloated and perched upon his lion body like a boil—opened his mouth and spewed out black smoke that swarmed with flies. The foul miasma spread across Jeid.

Pain drove down Jeid's nostrils, ears, and jaw. His head spun. His eyes watered. He couldn't roar; he could barely breathe.

Poison.

The cloud floated around him, and Jeid coughed, struggling to beat his wings, to stay airborne. With watering, burning eyes, he saw that these weren't actually flies in the smoke. They were tiny demons with human faces.

His wings would no longer flap. He fell.

He crashed down against the marble tiles of his hall, cracking them. It took every last bit of strength to cling to his magic, to remain a dragon.

Fur and claws flashed. As the battle raged above, Slyn plunged down like a comet and slammed against Jeid. The sphinx drove his claws under Jeid's copper scales, and the bloated, wide-jawed face leaned down and hissed.

"So easy to kill . . ." the sphinx whispered. "No harder than stepping on a lizard. Die knowing that your wife will live. Die knowing that she'll bear my sons."

Slyn closed his jaws around Jeid's neck and bit down hard.

Blood spurted. Pain filled Jeid but rage too.

I did not defeat men, rocs, and demons to die in my own hall.

Ignoring the pain, he shoved against the cracked tiles and rose. He swung his tail, driving the spikes into the sphinx.

Slyn opened his jaws to howl, freeing Jeid.

The copper dragon took flight and rained down his fire.

Below, Slyn scuttled along the marble tiles, dodging the flames. Jeid beat his wings and reached out his claws, trying to grab Slyn, only for two more sphinxes to dive down and crash into him.

Golden scales flashed.

Laira swooped, rammed her horns into one sphinx, and knocked it down. Jeid burned the other. Gashes bleeding on his back, Slyn vanished behind smoke and fire.

"Jeid, they're all over Requiem!" Laira shouted. The golden dragon bled from a cut on her forehead. "A thousand or more. They're tearing down the trees and—"

Stones rained and dust flew.

Jeid glanced aside to see a marble column crack and come tumbling down. He grimaced and shoved Laira aside; the column slammed down behind them, missing them by a foot.

A dozen sphinxes roared and flew toward the two dragons, blasting out their foul smoke. The miasma approached, thick with the miniscule demons. Jeid and Laira soared, narrowly dodging the cloud of poison, only to crash into a sky of sphinxes.

"Jeid!" Dorvin cried somewhere above. The silver dragon was battling several of the enemy, blasting out fire and lashing his tail. "These goat-shagging piss-drinkers are everywhere. By the Sky Goddess's teats, there's more of them than boils on a witch's arse."