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  I watched, numb with cold and fear, my hands gripping the reins, as Laish stepped forward to meet the flowing horde. There must have been thousands of them—tens of thousands. The white snow was black with their bodies. Even as huge and imposing as Laish was in his dragon form, I was frightened for him.

  If his change into a massive fire breathing monster bothered the Skitterlings, they didn’t show it. They rushed forward, flowing like a horrible, hairy, many-legged tide and I knew it was me they were aiming for—me they wanted to kill. And Laish was the only thing standing between me and being swarmed and eaten by the awful horde.

  “Get back!” he roared in that deep, inhuman voice. “The human girl is mine!”

  They paid no attention—still they came and now I could see their individual heads and faces. So many of them and such strange mixtures—bird-spiders, goat-spiders, bull-spiders, grizzly bear-spiders…I even saw one as big as a fishing boat that had the head of a great white shark. That one was looking straight at me with flat black eyes, its jagged teeth gnashing in eagerness to get to me.

  The shark-spider was coming faster and faster but before I could open my mouth to scream, Laish opened his. A vast jet of liquid fire belched from his glowing throat. He sprayed it back and forth, covering as many of the Skitterlings with it as he could, like a fireman working a fire hose.

  All around piercing, hissing shrieks went up. The spider creatures curled into flaming balls, writhing wildly in the snow, trying to put themselves out. But Laish’s fire was like napalm—it stuck to their hairy hides and refused to be extinguished.

  But despite the swath of death and destruction he cut through their ranks, there were already more Skitterlings coming. Thick and fast they poured from the mouth of the Jealous Heart, scrambling over the bodies of their fallen comrades, eager to reach us—eager to reach me.

  Laish breathed his liquid fire at them again and again. The air was filled with the sounds of dying screams and the stench of scorched flesh and still they came. They were a hundred yards away now…fifty…twenty…

  “Go!” Laish roared at me, taking a moment between jets of flame. “Go now, Gwendolyn!”

  “I don’t want to leave you!” I protested, though my heart was in my mouth. What could I possibly do against the awful Skitterlings? If given the right materials I might have whipped up a really good curse. But effective witchcraft takes time and that was what we didn’t have. Still, I didn’t want to leave Laish alone, especially when I was the cause of the awful trouble we found ourselves in.

  Apparently he knew I wouldn’t change my mind.

  “Kurex,” he shouted to the horse, whose ears pricked forward at once. “Take her—go!” He added some words in that harsh language that hurt my ears and then, before I could protest, Kurex was galloping again, taking me down the mountainside and into the flat, snow covered plains below that Laish had called the Drowning Pools.

  “No! No!” I tugged hard on the reins but the big horse wasn’t listening to me at all. He neighed and surged forward, taking me away from the battle.

  I turned my head, the freezing air whipping my hair into my face, and saw an awful sight—the Skitterlings had reached Laish and they were swarming him. Hundreds of them covered his head and scaly sides. He whipped his long neck and tail back and forth, shaking them off, trampling them beneath his clawed feet, and always breathing more and more fire but it did no good. No matter how many he killed there were always more coming…always more and more and more.

  My last sight of him was of a writhing mass covered in the many-legged bodies. A great spout of flame emerged from the mass, shooting straight up into the dirty gray sky like a flag of surrender or defeat. And then Kurex galloped down over the crest of high hill and I could see no more.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Gwendolyn

  I cried and cried and the tears froze on my cheeks. We were far from the battle now and Kurex seemed to be picking his way carefully through the field of snow although he had galloped for as long as he could. I clung to his back, half frozen in the lightweight dress Laish had conjured me to wear in the scorching desert. Here in the frozen wastes of Stygia, the dress was almost useless. I was certain he had planned to give me something much more substantial to wear once we got here but he hadn’t had a chance—and now he might never get the chance. He might be dead—or what served for dead with demons, whatever that was.

  No, stop—don’t think like that! I told myself but I couldn’t help it—my mind went on and on. Though I wished I could push the awful thoughts away they just kept coming. Could a demon of his status be killed? Laish had seemed to think so—he had told me that if the Skitterlings overcame him I should stay with Kurex. But could he really be gone? It didn’t seem possible. And yet—

  “Please, Mistress…”The soft, pleading voice broke my train of thought and I looked down to see where it was coming from. “Pl-please,” begged the voice again.

  The freezing wind, which seemed to be eternally blowing in this level of Hell, whipped the snow by Kurex’s front hooves aside and I saw the edge of what appeared to be a wide, deep pond. Leaning out of it, her lips blue, her teeth chattering, was a girl who looked to be about my age. It was impossible to say what color her hair was—it was dark with water—but her pale skin had a distinctly bluish tint to it too. Clearly she was freezing to death.

  “Oh my!” I tugged on Kurex’s reins, pulling him up short though he snorted and stamped. “What happened to you?” I asked, scrambling off the horse. “Did you fall in?”

  “No, they th-threw me in.” Her green eyes were wide and pitiful. “And I c-couldn’t get out.”

  I pushed the leather satchel I wore crossed over my chest to one side and was just in the act of leaning over to offer her my hand when I remembered what Laish had told me—that Minauros had been made to punish rapists and Stygia to punish murderers.

  “Wait a minute.” Though it went against every instinct I had not to grab the girl and drag her out at once, I hesitated. “Who threw you in? And why?” I demanded.

  “Why…” She leaned further out of the pool—almost close enough to touch—and her green eyes seemed to gleam. “They did—the ones as punished me. The ones as wanted me to drown forever.”

  “And what did they punish you for?” I asked, not liking that gleam in her eyes. I couldn’t help thinking of the pits filled with lost souls in Minauros, doomed to eternal agony and torment. Could this be the same kind of thing?

  “Only just for strangling my little sister, Mistress.” The green eyes were glowing now. “But she was fucking my man—what else was I supposed to do?”

  She lunged forward suddenly, flopping halfway out of the pool lightning quick like some huge, awful fish. Before I could step backwards, one ice cold hand had closed around my ankle.

  “What are you doing? Let me go!” I grabbed on to Kurex’s stirrup and tried to pull away from the girl in the pool but her grip was horribly strong. Slowly but surely I felt my hold on the stirrup loosening.

  “I don’t think so, Mistress.” The girl didn’t sound so pitiful anymore. Her teeth had stopped chattering and her eyes were glowing like two poison stars. “I think you’re going to join me.”

  “No…no!” I gasped but the stirrup slipped from my hands and then I was sliding across the frozen ground, being dragged into the icy pool by the vengeful soul. “Let…me…go!” I snapped, kicking out at her with my free foot. She only laughed and dodged. Even when I did manage to connect, she simply shook off the force of my kick and kept dragging.

  I twisted wildly when I felt the icy water touch my feet and then my ankles and calves. This was all happening so fast! It hadn’t even been a whole minute since I’d slipped off Kurex’s back to answer what I thought was a cry for help. Now I was about to be drowned for my foolishness.

  Hadn’t Laish told me I should trust no one but him? And to keep to myself if we were ever separated? And what had I done? Ignored his orders yet again. I swore to myself if I