He roared and flew down the mountainside toward the forty sphinxes. Dorvin flew at his side, and dozens of other dragons flew behind them.

We must burn them before hundreds more emerge behind Bryn.

"Requiem!" Dorvin howled. "Slay the enemy!"

The silver dragon blew his dragonfire. Jeid joined his flames to the blaze. Around them, a dozen other dragons blasted out their wrath.

Shooting up the mountainside, the sphinxes screeched and spewed their demonic miasma.

Fire and smoke crashed together.

The inferno blazed across the mountain. Jeid's fire tore through the smoke, roasting the tiny demons that buzzed within. At his side, Jeid saw the noxious cloud wrap around a lavender dragon, saw the demonic parasites flow into the dragon's nostrils and throat. The dragon screamed, her face bloated, and her scales cracked as the demons coursed through her. She fell against the mountainside, writhing, and lost her magic.

Jeid grimaced and blasted flames again. Two sphinxes ahead caught fire and shrieked. Two more swooped from above, and Jeid soared, goring one with his horns and lacerating one with his claws.

"Die, you toad-licking sons of sows!" Dorvin laughed as he fought, clawing, biting, burning. The silver dragon streaked across the battle, fangs dripping blood.

Dozens of sphinxes and dragons tumbled, spun, and shot across the night sky. Fire rose in pillars. Foul smoke blasted everywhere. A blue dragon breathed in the poison, twisted, and crashed down in human form. A blast of fire took down a sphinx; the creature became a man again and tumbled, his skin ablaze. Two sphinxes crashed into a dragon, ripping into her hide. The Vir Requis fell as a screaming girl, slammed onto Jeid's back, then rolled off and tumbled down to the mountain.

Corpses rained in the night.

Jeid refused to let the horror overwhelm him.

"Fight them! Don't breathe their smoke. Burn them dead!"

The battle swirled like a typhoon of red and black and blazing blue fire.

Jeid sliced open another sphinx; its blood and organs rained down, and Jeid roasted the sphinx as it screamed. He glanced back at the mountain. The hole still gaped open.

Where are you, Bryn? Jeid blasted out more fire, roasting more of the creatures.

The hole remained dark and empty.

Bryn, and hundreds of other sphinxes, still waited to emerge.

BRYN

 
BRYN

She raced through the tunnel, stumbling, an arrow in her thigh. The Widejaws howled and hooted behind her, getting closer. Their torches crackled, and their shadows fell upon her. Bryn grimaced, sweat and blood covering her, and ran on, limping, dizzy, seeking the exit, seeking the sky.

"Requiem!" The words shook as she panted. "May our wings forever find your sky."

The tunnel sloped up steeply, forcing Bryn to climb on hands and knees. Her blood kept dripping. Her head spun. When she looked behind her, she saw the Widejaws climbing in pursuit, only feet away now. Their mouths opened with lurid grins, tongues licking their chops, their saliva dripping.