"Requiem!" he shouted. "Fly to me. Fly!"

He beat his own wings, flying as fast as he could, streaming forward, shouting for her.

"Father, they have me! They're dragging me back. Father, help!"

Jeid watched in anguish as bloated, laughing, crimson demons emerged from the darkness, each several times Requiem's size. They grabbed the little dragon, wrapped their claws around her, and tugged her away. She screamed.

Jeid roared, the horror pulsing through him. Little Requiem, dead all these years, was here—his daughter was here! Being tortured, afraid, needing him.

"Requiem!" He tried to reach the demons grabbing his daughter, but they vanished into shadows, taking the little dragon with them.

"Jeid, what do you see?" Laira shouted somewhere; her voice sounded marks away.

Jeid kept roaring, kept flying into the darkness, trying to find her, to save his daughter. Did he see her soul here, trapped and cursed in an afterlife underground? He cried her name again, but she wouldn't answer, and all he heard was the demonic laughter that echoed all around him.

"Jeid," said another voice, frail and weak. "Help me . . ."

She materialized in the darkness. His beautiful Keyla. His first wife.

"Keyla!" he cried.

She hovered before him as a woman; she had never possessed the magic of Requiem. Her cheeks were sunken, her skin white and brittle, and instead of teeth, maggots filled her mouth. Her hair had grown wispy, and her fingernails had grown into claws. She was nothing but a corpse here, rotted away, rustling with worms, naked and shriveled, but her voice was the same. And she pleaded with him.

"Help me, my husband. Save me, Jeid. Save me. It hurts so much. They're clawing inside me . . . the creatures . . . they've been clawing for so many years."

Keyla tossed her head back and screamed. Demon claws reached out from the shadows, grabbed her, dug into her. Jeid howled as he flew, but he couldn't reach her either, even as the demons tugged her back, casting out cloud of blood.

The voices of his fellow Vir Requis echoed around him. Laira and Issari were crying out to Sena, begging demons to release their brother. Dorvin was screaming and cursing at other demons, demanding they release his sister Alina. Other dragons cried out names of their own lost ones. Were the souls of the dead truly trapped here, tortured eternally, or were these only visions?

"I can't see the other fallen," Jeid whispered. He heard Issari and Laira still crying out to Sena, but he couldn't see the dead prince. He couldn't see the fallen Alina, even as Dorvin screamed at the demons supposedly torturing her.

"It's a vision!" Jeid shouted. "Dragons of Requiem, hear me. Follow my voice! Follow my fire!" He blasted out flame. "You see only dreams. Only illusions the demons cast to torment us. Fly with me! Blow your fire with mine."