"Yeah, how do you like that?" Dorvin laughed and kicked the creature. "Not so fun when you're the one hunted, is it?" He kicked again, driving his boot into one of the demon's eyes. The eyeball popped and leaked white fluid.

"Dorvin!" Jeid roared. "Stars damn it. Don't hurt the beast. We need it to dig."

But Dorvin was still kicking, driving his boot again and again against the creature. Its abdomen, previously hidden in the hole, was large and soft and covered in small hairs; it twitched and jiggled whenever Dorvin kicked it.

"Yeah, feel the pain!" Dorvin shouted, but now his laughter was gone, and red rimmed his eyes. "Just like the people you hurt. Scream! Just like they screamed." Dorvin let out his own hoarse cry. "Just like you demons killed my sister. You're mine now, you puke-drinking son of a—"

"Dorvin!" Clutching his harness with one hand, Jeid shoved Dorvin back with the other. "Stop that. Not now. We need this creature."

The demon began to laugh. It was a sound like bubbles rising in tar, like dead children crying from underwater, like fear rising in the night. It turned its many eyes toward Jeid.

"You will suffer, children of Requiem." Golgoloth hissed as it laughed, spewing out smoke and droplets of rot. "I have foreseen your future. One of you three will die today. You will die in pain. You will die screaming." It chuckled, body twitching. "There is nothing but failure in your future, nothing but agony."

Jeid clenched his jaw and leaned against his harness, shoving the creature across the floor. "And you will dig, Golgoloth. You will dig silently or we'll take another one of your eyes." He turned toward Dorvin and Bryn. "Help me. Let's shove him against the wall. He'll dig." Jeid nodded firmly. "It's time for the dragons of Requiem to return to the sky."

TANIN

 
TANIN

Tanin sat in the tent, eating little, watching the famished young boy scarf down plate after plate of food.

"Chew," Tanin said. "Don't bolt it down."

But Fin didn't seem to hear. The young Vir Requis reached across the table with his one good arm and grabbed a bread roll. The other arm was no larger than a babe's, ending with a hand the size of a walnut, but it too clutched a chicken leg. Fin alternated between bread and chicken, taking a bite from each in turn. Before him, several emptied plates lay across the table, covered with the crumbs of meat pies, the bones of a roast duck, and a few last grains of rice cooked with pine nuts.

"The poor boy spent many days flying." Issari glared at Tanin. "Let him eat. The poor thing's half-starved."