She shook her head wildly, her orange curls swaying. "I do not abandon hope. Not yet. You taught me that. You taught me that there's always hope, even in the pit of despair, even in the greatest darkness where no light shines." She squeezed his hand. "And so I still hope. Perhaps it's blind hope, a fool's hope, but it's better than despair. Whatever you choose, my king, I will follow you. I will fight at your side or die at your side. But until then I'll believe that we will live, that we will see Requiem again." She raised her chin, and her eyes shone. "Requiem! May our wings forever find your sky."

Jeid looked up above him. He saw only the dark stone ceiling of the cave, but somewhere above all the rock waited the sky. The sky of Requiem. No, he would not abandon that sky, would never forget the wind beneath his wings, the glow of the stars, or the pale columns of their lost hall.

If we fly out, we will die in the sphinx's smoke. If we stay here, we will starve or fall to the creature in the holes. Jeid kept racking his mind, seeking some solution. Even if he could become a dragon in the narrow tunnels, his claws would be unable to dig in these mountains, not with the walls formed of granite. Death beyond. Death within. How could—

Again screams echoed across the tunnels. Above them rose an inhuman shriek.

Jeid and Bryn leaped to their feet.

They ran deeper into the cave, following the sound.

They raced past other survivors, around a corner, and found a woman trembling and pointing.

"There!" she cried. "There, I saw it!"

Jeid grimaced and ran. He reached a fork in the tunnel, heard another scream, ran down a slope, and he saw it there.

"Stars damn it."

A long black leg shone ahead. Another shriek sounded, too high-pitched for a human or animal. White eyes blazed, perfectly round. A shadow loomed over a hollowed-out body. Smooth legs scuttled and leaped up.

Jeid leaped toward the creature and swung his sword. The blade sliced through air. When he looked above him, he saw many legs folding together and pulling into a hole in the ceiling—a different hole than the one Dorvin was guarding farther down the tunnels. Jeid leaped into the air and swung the sword again. He hit a leg, and the creature screeched and vanished into the burrow.

Jeid's feet slammed back onto the floor. The creature was gone. He looked at his sword and found the blade covered with steaming black blood.

Bryn raced up to his side, panting. "What was it?" she asked. "I saw something. I saw eyes. Spider legs. What was it?"

Jeid stared up at the hole, then back at the blood on his blade.

"Our way out.”

SLYN

 
SLYN