They reached into their robes and pulled out their own scale amulets, all in different colors. Eeras, still pale, reached down to the flat stone and raised a single blue scale that lay upon it. He held his own last remnant of magic.

"You too will be cured," Auberon said, looking at Laira and Maev in turn. "You too will drink the tillvine essence and joined the Cured."

Maev spat. "Like the Abyss we will. I'd sooner eat mammoth shite."

Laira raised her chin. "We will never join you, Auberon. You are false. You are cruel. Your piety masks your hatred. I know men like you. My father is one. We refuse to join your order. Free us now."

The old druid sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Sometimes we see others like you . . . consumed, stubborn, blind to their own disease. But they all turn. They all accept the tillvine. You will stay here upon the boulder, watching the skies, feeling the wind and rain, reflecting, dreaming . . . until you drink of our juice. And if you do not drink, you will drink nothing at all." Auberon stroked Laira's hair. "Sweet child, do you not understand? You will abandon your magic, or you will abandon your life."

With that, the druids turned and crossed the valley and entered their grassy huts.

Laira and Maev remained outside upon the boulder.

The clouds thickened and rain fell. Laira kept struggling but the bonds were too strong. The sun set and the storm grew, leaving her wet, in shadows, and crying out in rage.

ISSARI

 
ISSARI

The nephil swarm descended upon the city of Goshar like flies upon a carcass.

Issari stood at the southern gates in human form, staring up at the unholy host.

"But we were almost free," she whispered. Her fingers tingled. "We were almost home."

The nephilim hid the sky. The children of demons and mortal women, they were shaped as men, as tall as dragons were long. Their frames were skeletal, their flesh mummified, their eyes red and their teeth long as swords. They seemed like corpses, gaunt and reeking, and they flew on insect wings. They laughed as they landed upon roofs and walls, tearing into the people of Goshar. Their claws tore into flesh and dug out innards to feast upon. Their cries rolled over the city.

Fire blazed above and a roar tore across the sky—Tanin flying overhead. A lone dragon, he charged toward the nephil army.

Issari looked at her people. The children of Eteer filled the streets, thousands of them, awaiting salvation. Now they cried and pointed at the nephilim. A few of the creatures descended into the crowd, snatched up Eteerians, and tore them apart. One nephil ripped the limbs off a screaming boy and scattered them. Another dug the entrails out of a woman, laughing as he stuffed them into his mouth.

There is no salvation, Issari thought, numb, frozen. After all we've traveled through, we die here.