"Leading the assault into the Abyss," said Issari, beating her wings in front of him. "I remained behind to drive off the nephilim, the spawn of demons and mortal women. Let us follow into the darkness." The white dragon's eyes flicked up toward Laira. "Sister, shift too! Into a dragon!"

Laira said nothing, perhaps lost for words. Jeid answered for her. "Laira will ride me into battle, firing arrows from my back." He looked over his shoulder at her; his wife stared back, her eyes determined, and reached for her bow. Jeid cried out, his voice ringing across her and billowing her cloak. "Dragons of Requiem, follow! Follow into darkness and fear no demons. We fight for Requiem!"

He pulled his wings close together and swooped toward the hill. The columns shook and tilted below like teeth in a widening mouth, and it seemed to Jeid as if the hill were a great beast eager to swallow him whole. He narrowed his eyes, blasted down dragonfire, and shot into the darkness.

Silence engulfed him.

His dragonfire could not pierce the darkness.

As he dived down, Jeid looked over his shoulder. The other dragons had faded into smudges, shadows flecked with shards of light, figures beyond a dream. They too were blowing fire, short blasts of white and blue that flickered more like lightning than flames. Strands of blackness coiled everywhere, a soup of a foul, invisible smoke. The world had changed, time stretched and slowed and quickened, a world of muffled sounds, of blotches of darkness and light, of distant screams.

"Jeid!" rose a distant echo of a voice, a voice from worlds away. "Can you see anything?"

It was Laira's voice. Jeid couldn't even feel her weight anymore. Did she still ride him? He kept gliding down into the darkness; it seemed an endless pit.

"Nothing!" he shouted. "Can you hear me, Laira?"

His voice seemed to vanish into the nothingness. She did not reply. White scales flashed beside him, and he glimpsed Issari flying near, shouting to him, but he couldn't hear her words, and soon the white dragon vanished. Other dragons appeared and disappeared around him, ghosts flickering in and out of existence, only snippets of their voices reaching his ears.

"Papa!" rose a voice. "Papa, please. My stomach hurts. Help me. Please."

Jeid narrowed his eyes.

He gasped, then roared with pain and rage.

A small, fragile dragon was flying toward him, a mere toddler.

"Requiem!" he cried.

She flew, wobbling, trying to reach him. Her little claws stretched out. Blood dripped from her mouth.

"Father!"

Jeid's eyes watered. "My daughter!"

The little dragon kept flying his way, reaching out to him but never getting closer. The blood gushed from her mouth, and her eyes dampened.

"Papa, my stomach hurts. It hurts! I ate something bad. Help me." She beat her wings mightily but only seemed to be growing more distant. "Help me. They locked me here in the darkness. I'm scared."