Jeid's wings stretched wide, gliding on the wind. Laira and Maev slept upon his back, both in human form. Around Jeid, the other nineteen dragons also carried sleepers. The last survivors of Requiem had been traveling across the sea for days now, taking turns flying, the dragons carrying the humans upon their backs.

Now, after so long aflight, Jeid saw the distant shore of Eteer.

The sun touched the horizon, casting last flickers of red light like blood spurting from a dying man's mouth. But the ruins of Eteer burned with their own light. Scattered fires blazed among piles of bricks, cracked columns, and fallen walls. The city must have once been massive—truly a place to dwarf every village in the north combined. A white dragon flew above the ruins, and two beams of light blasted out from the beast, one white and the other silver. Thousands of demonic creatures shaped like giant, desiccated men fled from the rays, screeching until they vanished into darkness.

Those in human form woke up upon the dragons. They stared toward the distant ruins.

"Issari!" Laira cried, clinging to Jeid's neck. "It's Issari!"

The Vir Requis who were in human form leaped off the dragons' backs and shifted. The dragons' numbers swelled to fifty. All but Laira shifted; the queen remained in human form, her magic gone, clinging to Jeid's horns.

"Issari!" Laira cried again, rising to stand on Jeid's nape.

Hovering over the ruined city, the white dragon turned toward them. She lowered her feet, and her two beams faded.

The northern dragons reached the coast and shot over the beach. Below lay the corpses of many nephilim and men, and blood stained the toppled city walls. Beyond lay hills of rubble. The sun dipped below the horizon, leaving them in darkness.

"The others have gone into the pit!" Issari said when they reached her. The white dragon pointed at a hill that rose from the ruins. Shattered columns rose here in a ring like broken teeth, surrounding a chasm like a black mouth. Dark light seemed to emanate from the pit; though black as tar, Jeid could clearly see the columns, the ruins around them, and the chasm, as if staring at an astral world, a painting in many shades of darkness. He did not need to ask to know; here was the pit of the Abyss. A sickening, gut-twisting energy rose from it, palpable evil like smoke that invaded his nostrils. He was reminded of the demonic miasmas the sphinxes could spew; the same unholy aura clung to this place, invisible but just as sickening.

"Where's Tanin?" Jeid said, looking around for the red dragon, praying his son was not among the dead on the beach.