They crashed through more sphinxes, emerging into the thick of the battle. Blood, fire, and demon smoke swam around them. At Jeid's side, a yellow dragon screamed as sphinxes tore into her. Scales rained and the dragon fell, a woman again, her entrails dangling.

"Dragons of Requiem!" Jeid cried. "Rally here and fly north! Fly to the mountains! Flee!"

Three young dragons—barely larger than horses—tried to fly toward him. Sphinxes blasted them with demonic smoke, then tore the dragons apart. The Vir Requis fell in human form—butchered children, their limbs severed, their chests cracked open. Four more sphinxes slammed into another column. It cracked and crashed down, crushing another dragon.

"Dragons of Requiem, to me!" Jeid roared. "Laira and Maev! Dorvin! Clear us a path."

They blew their fire together. The flaming pillars joined into a blazing inferno. Sphinxes shrieked, burned, and fell. Trees burst into flame. The three dragons began to drive forward, shoving a path through the enemy. Jeid flew above them, roaring for all to hear.

"Dragons of Requiem, follow! We fly north."

A few dragons joined him, flying in his wake. Sphinxes closed in behind them, and Jeid spewed his flames, holding them back. A crowd of other dragons flew toward Jeid, trying to join him; the sphinxes tore them apart, and only three dragons reached Jeid, lacerated and crying out in pain. One dragon held her human babe; the screaming child was too young to shift.

"Blow fire in a ring!" Jeid shouted. "Hold them back and keep flying."

The other dragons flew above, below, at his sides. Some tried to join the ring of fire. Most never made it.

"Fly north!" Jeid bellowed, hoping they heard. Only fifty dragons flew behind him, blowing walls of fire around the group. "Dragons of Requiem, flee! Flee to the mountains! Flee to the forests!"

The dragons flew, a thousand sphinxes flying in pursuit. Some dragons flew behind Jeid; most flew in the distance, hidden behind smoke and flame. The setting sun painted the forests red. When Jeid looked behind him, he saw the bloated faces of the sphinxes, their lion bodies, their dank wings, and beyond them the burning forest and fallen hall of Requiem. Then those columns faded, and all he saw was the nightmare of smoke and blood.

"Slay the dragons!" rose a cry—Slyn's voice. "Keep the golden female alive and slay the others. Bring me their skulls!"

Jeid blasted his fire toward the enemy, but he was down to sparks. The sphinxes laughed, their jaws opening wide, their teeth red with the blood of Requiem.

"Requiem, fly!" Laira cried ahead. "Fly to the mountains."

They flew for hours, flew until the sun vanished beneath the horizon, flew as the sphinxes chased, as the sky burned, as more dragons fell. They left a path of their dead behind them.