The azi was primed and ready, snorting out thick gusts of smoke as we slid down its neck. We had scarcely settled when it rose, wings flapping, sending up small tornadoes of dust, causing soldiers to scurry out of its way. Kance watched as the daeva took us into the clouds. We watched as the army pushed forward, banners of red and gold streaming across the plain to meet the Drychta’s black and yellow. We circled the empty space above them, waiting for Kance’s signal.

A blast of trumpets sounded below, and my thoughts spurred the azi into action. It swooped, and a fireball cut down a swath of soldiers in its path before most were even aware an attack had commenced. Desperate, they turned, fleeing the burning ground, many of them running straight into the Deathseekers’ line of fire. The flames they channeled from their hands were smaller than my daeva’s, but enough to accomplish their aims. Kalen’s Wind runes gleamed, mapping a constellation across the sky that goaded the fires into spreading among the demoralized Drychta. The Odalian army marched forward, fresh and eager to join the fight with the Yadoshans converging, cutting down enemy stragglers too slow to move out of their way.

A terrible rumbling came from the direction of the mountains. The azi’s heads huddled together and hissed, its mind prodding gently at mine, asking for control. I relinquished my hold, and it landed on the ground, sending troops from both sides scattering. Danger, it whispered to me, dangerdangerdanger.

“Tell the Odalians and the Deathseekers to retreat!” I barked at Kalen. “Something big is coming their way!”

“You heard the lady!” Kalen yelled back at the troops, amplifying Wind so that his voice carried clearly across the battlefield. “Stay back if you value your lives!”

The Odalians were quite willing to obey, the Yadoshans a shade more reluctant. “What is the azi telling you?” Kalen asked me tersely.

“I don’t know yet, but it feels foreboding.”

As soon as I said the words, I had a vision of scaled claws fighting their way up through the surface of the ground, dripping black, acid-like vomit in their wake. I clutched at Kalen’s arm. “The indar.”

“I don’t see any—”

My words proved prophetic. The ground moved beneath us without warning, a terrible earthquake that threw allies and enemies alike off their feet, as if the whole world trembled with fury. A fissure appeared before us and widened, the soil breaking apart as something black and malevolent scratched its way to the surface. The azi sneered, all three heads breathing contempt, as the new daeva cawed at the air with a high-pitched cry that I swore could be heard all the way to Istera.