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twisted and fought. His hands locked on her wrists, burning them. Sasha held on.
    “No you don’t!”
    A torrent of energy coursed through her.
    The acolyte gaffed. His eyes shone like moons. His body stiffened, cracked, and turned ashen.
    Sasha shoved him away. His body fell and broke into pieces.
    Gasping, she searched for her sons. The first thing she saw was the draykis. Armored to the neck in heavy metal, horns twisting on its head, it engaged her sons once again. Rerry’s blades glanced away. Samaz’s punches and kicks were futile. The dragonettes were discharging everything they had. Nothing slowed it.
    It struck hard.
    Rerry fell.
    Fast.
    Samaz collapsed.
    It flicked the dragonettes away and faced off on Sasha.
    “Don’t you hurt my sons again!” Sasha said.
    It cocked its head and strolled right at her with a demonic look in its eyes.
    She summoned everything she had left, lifted her arms over her head, and unleashed it at him.
    The draykis stopped.
    Nothing happened.
    The draykis laughed and came right at her again. She sagged to her knees.
    Rerry came. Samaz came.
    The draykis pounded them down with supernatural strength.
    Crying out, Sasha rushed over and covered her boys.
    “It’s too late for them,” the draykis said. “It’s too late for all of you.”
    The tiny citrine dragonette blasted lightning in its face.
    “Argh!”
    The draykis swatted it away.
    “Fleas! Be gone! I have death to deliver to these other feisty ones.”
    Its sword scraped from its scabbard. The metal glinted in the moonlight.
    “For Barnabus,” it said, raising the sword up high.
    A shadow dropped from the sky.
    Whump!
    A cherry-scaled dragon landed behind the draykis. The draykis was to it as a dog is to a horse. The draykis spun and struck. Its steel glanced off the dragon’s armored belly. Fast as a snake, the dragon’s maw clamped over the draykis entirely. Metal and bone crunched. The draykis squirmed then squirmed no more. The crimson dragon slung the mangled corpse into the dirt. Fire surged from its mouth. It disintegrated every evil being in the camp.
    Sasha gaped when the dragon turned to her. Its belly was a lighter shade of red, and it had small twisting horns and long black eyelashes. “Th-Thank you,” Sasha managed to say.
    The dragon dug its claw into the earth and made a circle with two slashes through it. Sasha knew that symbol. Bayzog had shown it to her before. A thrill rushed through her. It was the sign of Balzurth, the Dragon King.
     

 
    CHAPTER 9
     
     
    Gorlee the changeling stood guard inside the cage of The Deep. He was one of half a dozen, guarding just outside the rim of the well that led down there, past the phantom, into the realm of the damned. He wore a uniform of Barnabus and was in the form of a man, the same as all the other guards. Now, he stood near the lip of the stone pit, staring into the blackness.
    “I wouldn’t get too close,” one man said. His face was rugged and sad. “The phantom’s been known to snatch guards once or twice.”
    Gorlee didn’t respond. His eyes were fixed on the blackness.
    The guard grabbed him by the shoulder, saying, “Young fella, you’d be wise to listen to me.”
    “Huh?”
    “I said, get back from that pit,” the guard said, “and that’s an order.”
    “Oh,” Gorlee said as the older guard hooked his arm and pulled him away. “Sorry.”
    “You’ll be sorry alright if you wind up down there. Nothing but a city of torment down there.” The guard wiped his forearm on his brow. “Say, what’s your name, anyway?”
    Gorlee didn’t have an answer to that. He didn’t know. All he knew was what Selene told him. “Uh, Jason,” he said.
    “Well, Jason, stop being so stupid.” Some of the other guards laughed, but the moment was cut short by a frightening wail that came from within The Deep. “Great Guzan, I hate this place,” the guard said. “The entire world’s run by monsters now.”
    Some of the guards gave the older one