An arrow whistled and slammed into Bryn's leg.

She howled with pain. She fell. She slammed against the floor.

The men roared with laughter.

"Drag her over!"

"We're going to bed her here in the caves!"

"Chop off her hands first. She won't need those and I'm famished."

Bryn screamed. Her eyes watered. Her blood gushed.

Get up.

She screamed again. Her hands balled into fists.

Get up!

She leaped to her feet. She ran again, the arrow still embedded in her. Every step blazed with agony. The archer fired again, and she winced and jumped, and the arrow clattered between her legs. The Widejaws laughed and she kept running, rounded a corner, and gritted her teeth. Tears of pain flowed down to her lips.

I'm going to find you, Jeid. I'm going to fly with you again.

"Where are all the others?" rose a voice behind her.

The other men spat and cursed. "Damn maggots hiding deep. We'll find 'em."

Bryn did not think she could keep running. Every step was too painful, and every breath shot an inferno through her lungs. Dorvin had wanted to stay behind, to guard the entrance while the others fled, but Bryn had insisted on this task. She wanted to do this for Jeid, for the man she loved, for her king.

I will not let you down.

She kept racing, step by step, until she saw it ahead—the crude, narrow tunnel the demon had carved, a burrow leading out of the caves and into the sky.

The Widejaws laughed behind her, taunting and jeering. Bryn ran, leaving a trail of blood.

JEID

 
JEID

The demon was growing restless, tugging at its harness, snapping its teeth, and clawing the air. Jeid dug his heels into the mountainside, clutching the wooden shaft which connected to the digger's harness. Dorvin stood across from him, grumbling as he tugged his own shaft.

"Free me . . ." hissed the demon. "I released you. Free me . . ."

Jeid shook his head. "So you can devour more of us? No. Not until we're all out of the mountain. Not until we shift as dragons and fly, scales protecting us from your claws."

Golgoloth hissed out its laughter. "My claws can cut through granite and metal. They can easily pierce the scales of a dragon." The creature licked its lips, and its tongue flailed, the blades upon it flashing.

Jeid looked back at the tunnel. The last few Vir Requis were emerging: a wounded man, his legs bandaged; an elderly woman wrapped in a thick cloak; and a mother and her young child.

"That's all of them," Dorvin said, grimacing as he struggled against the thrashing demon. "I counted."

The survivors huddled together—seventy-three in all, pale and thin, shivering in the cold night.