ts laying everywhere," she said with a little shudder.
	"Dead is dead," Tarrin said flatly as he patted the animal's flank, feeling the powerful muscle underneath those scales.  Tarrin felt its warmth, and, curious, he sent probing weaves into the animal, weaves usually meant to find sickness or injury.  These weaves instead inspected the internal workings of the animal, puzzling out its biology.
	Tarrin whistled. "It's not a reptile," he said in appreciation.
	"What do you mean?" Allia asked.
	"It's not cold-blooded," he explained as he slid his paw along its flank.  "It's warm-blooded.  It's not a reptile.  It's a close cousin of reptiles, but it's not one."
	"Maybe it's in the same family as dragons," Sarraya said. "They're warm-blooded too, and it's very apparent that they're related to reptiles.  You know, scales, big teeth, claws, bad attitudes, that kind of thing."
	"We know that there are relatives of dragons," Allia mused.  "Drakes are their relatives, and Dolanna told me that Wyverns are also related to them.  I've never seen a Wyvern before, so I don't know about that."
	"They're not something you want to see," he snorted, the memory of the fight he'd had with the Wyvern on the riverboat coming up to the front of his mind.  "Strange."  He stood up.  "Alright, I'm done," he told it.  "Go on."
	It looked at him quizzically.
	"You're on your own now, cub," he told it.  "Just be careful out there, and don't try to take anything bigger than you are.  You should be alright."
	With a curious chain of short growls in its throat, the inu turned and started off towards the south.
	"Now there's something you should have tried to tame, Allia," Sarraya said with a grin.
	"It wouldn't be prudent," she shrugged.  "You can't have tame inu and tame sukkand chisa around each other.  They're natural enemies."
	They continued on southwest at an easy pace, as Tarrin mused over what he'd learned.  After looking back on things, he realized that the first time they'd come through the desert, Sarraya had never really had the chance to use that Druidic trick to help him.  The fights he'd had with the local wildlife had been fast and furious, where Sarraya's presence would have only complicated an already complex situation.  And the times when she would heve been very useful, like when the kajat attacked them down in the Great Canyon, she hadn't been there.  That probably would have been the best time for her to calm an attacking predator, but she'd been off scouting.
	It showed one of Sarraya's problems when she taught.  She was a good teacher most of the time, but that was with things she thought he could use or learn.  If she felt it wouldn't work for him or he couldn't use it, she not only wouldn't teach it to him, she also wouldn't even mention it.  Tarrin understood the reasoning for it, because with Druidic magic, there was absolutely no room for error.  By not even telling him about something, she was making sure that he wouldn't get curious about it and try to use something that either wouldn't work or was beyond his ability.  But it still irked him a little bit.
	Tarrin mused a little about that, realizing that he was his own warden in that regard.  He was a curious one, always trying anything someone did that he saw.  That curiosity was coupled to an admittedly strong power and a clever mind, and when Druidic magic was concerned, that could get him into a great deal of trouble.  He was alot like Keritanima that way; when he saw someone do something he couldn't do, he just had to figure out how it was done.  He couldn't help himself.  At first, when he was just learning Druidic magic, he accepted Sarraya's warnings and commands without question, not trying some of the things she did.  But he was more experienced now, more confident, and now she had to be careful.  From the way they talked, Tarrin was probably as strong as Sarraya now, and that put anything she did in the realm of his possibility.  He'd see her do something and try it, and that could get a little tricky, given he may not be capable of it.   But, on the other hand, she'd also be willing to teach him, since he was more confident and more experienced.
	They made camp early, as a small sandstorm roared over them an hour or so before sunset, taking refuge in a very narrow fissure of rock at the base of a broken rock spire.  Tarrin had often wondered about the rock spires.  They were everywhere in the desert, from the most barren sandswept sandfields to the most rugged badlands.  Some were large, some were small, some tall, some short.  But most of them were made of a dark stone that seemed oddly out of place with the sand colored rock most common in the desert.  There were some sand-colored rock spires, but those had seemed most prevalent in the southeastern stretches of desert, and they'd shown alot more effects from the scouring wind than the darker ones had.
	Curiosity driving him, he reached out and put a paw on the stone, sending flows of Earth and Divine into it.  What he discovered made his tail twitch.  The stone was igneous, hardened lava, and as Tarrin followed its root down into the ground, he realized that it had come pouring out when someone or something punched a hole in the ground, a hole that went all the way down to the vast sea of magma upon which the land floated.
	All these dark rock spires were probably the same, the result of a breach into the magma.
	They are the scars left behind by the Blood War, kitten, the Goddess told him, her choral voice echoing in his mind.  The rock spires are what's left of magic that the Demons used to pull lava from the ground and kill the defenders.  Five thousand years ago, this was a lush grassland.  But then the Demons came, punching holes into the mantle and causing the lava to erupt.  That covered large areas of this verdant belt with pools of lava.  The heat and the fumes killed the grass, changed the weather itself, turning this place into a desert.  At one time, this was a hellish wasteland covered with thousands of small hill-sized volcanic cones.  But the winds this area is famous for wore them down, eroded them into a sand that still rests in the northeast sections of the desert, where the sand and dunes are black instead of white.  The normal rock beneath too was worn away, which made the light sand and dust you find everywhere else here.  The rock spires were the cores of those volcanic cones.  If there is a testament to the destruction of the Blood War, my kitten, this is it.  The Desert of Swirling Sands is the last great scar left behind by a war that raged five thousand years ago.
	That sobered him, left him with a grim resolve.  The Blood War had been so long ago, but even now ripples of it flowed through the present, showed themselves here in the wound left behind by its raging, echoed in the songs and tales of the valiant Dwarves, who sacrificed everything to save the rest of the world.  So much destruction and pain, and all of it had been caused by the Firestaff.  Val had used the Firestaff to become a god, then raised an army of Demons to conquer the world.  They turned on him, and Val was forced to help the very ones who had been his enemies, as the entire world was forced to unite to fight off the Demonic invasion.  It was the Blood War that caused the gods to take the position they had now, where the next who used it would be destroyed.  They couldn't allow a god that was not bound by the laws of the pantheon to exist.  Even if it meant another catastrophe on level with the Blood War or the Breaking, they couldn't allow it, because Val had proved that such a one could destroy the delicate Balance which the gods strove mightily to maintain.
	After all, a world destroyed by their own hands could be rebuilt.  The price in the lives of those who lived on that world would be staggering, maybe even insurmountable, but the world would survive.  And that was all that mattered to them.  The Elder Gods cared only for the world as a whole.  The civilizations that lived on it and their accomplishments did not matter in the grand plan of things which was the Balance.  The Elder Gods would grieve for their act, but they would still go through with it, because it was what had to be done.
	You must be able to do what must be done.  He had heard that so many times, and for the first time, he realized that he wasn't the only one in this mad game that had to live with that heavy rule.
	He was shaken out of his sober reverie by a series of low growls coming over the howling wind outside, their pitch and timbre causing him to pick them out from the shrill whistle of the wind.  Tarrin's instincts warned him immediately when he realized that it was an inu, and he rose up to block the fissure to protect Allia and Sarraya, who were chatting behind him.  The owner of those growls stepped around a bend in the narrow, constricting cave, and Tarrin saw with some surprise that it was the inu he had healed.  It had followed them!  If that wasn't impressive enough, the fact that it could keep up with them was itself quite astonishing.
	"What are you doing here?" he demanded irritably of the animal.
	"What is it?" Allia asked, then she rose up and looked under his shoulder.  "It followed us?" she asked in confusion.
	"I guess it likes you, Tarrin," Sarraya laughed.
	"What is it with you and these big animals, brother?" Allia asked lightly.  "First Sapphire, and now an inu.  What is about you that attracts them?"
	"I think we'll have to leave him behind when he brings a kajat into camp, trailing along behind him like an energetic puppy," Sarraya sniggered.
	The inu looked slightly embarassed, but didn't look away, its reptillian, amber eyes unwavering as they looked up at Tarrin.
	"It lost its pack.  I guess it thinks we're its new one," Allia mused.
	"She," Tarrin corrected absently.  "This one is female."
	"Ah, now I see what it is," Sarraya said in a wicked manner.  "First Sapphire, now this one.  I never knew Were-cats were sexy to these warm-blooded reptiles."
	"Don't ever let Sapphire hear you say that, bug," Tarrin warned in a flat tone.  It wouldn't do to send her back out into the sandstorm.  Tarrin blew out his breath.  "Alright, but keep out of trouble," he told her imperiously.
	Having a little trouble turning around in the very tight space, the inu turned and laid down in the fissure with her head facing outside, keeping watch on the entrance to their refuge.
	"What are we going to do with her now?" Allia asked, looking at the inu.
	"Nothing," he shrugged.  "If she wants to follow, let her follow.  We can't do anything about that."
	The inu remained even after the sandstorm was over, and that irritated Tarrin just a little bit.  He didn't want to be nasty to her, but he didn't like the idea of her following along behind him either.  Not that it bothered him or he feared her, but if she followed them, she wouldn't hunt, and she was going to get weak.  If she followed too long, she was going to get too weak to hunt once she did break off.  Tarrin felt kind of responsible for her, but he knew the instant he fed her, he'd never get rid of her.  And taking an adult inu home with him would cause Jesmind to absolutely explode.  He went to sleep worrying over that, understanding that he'd have to run her off in the morning, for both the good of both of them.
	It turned out that Allia totally destroyed any chance that they would ever get rid of the inu.  When Tarrin woke up the next morning, he came out of the fissure to see his Selani sister feeding the inu a rather large umuni.  She had a strange, bright look in her eyes, and she was stroking the animal's sand-colored flank gently, almost affectionately.  The inu seemed to enjoy the attention, even sidled up against the Selani and growled in a playful manner, nuzzling at her side with her wickedly toothed snout.
	Tarrin groaned.  "Allia!" he admonished in expasperation.  "Now she's going to follow us around all the time!"
	"Let her," she said with a strange kind of enthusiasm.  "Sarraya may have joked about it, but now the idea of taming inu intrigues me.  They would be excellent hunting partners.  Inu are swift and intelligent, and we respect their ability."
	"What about the domestic flocks?"
	"Some of those sheep-herding men use dogs to control their flocks," she shrugged.  "Dogs are predators.  It would just take some training on both sides to keep them from fighting."
	"It's a bad idea," he warned.
	"I'll find out in time, won't I?" she asked pointedly.
	Tarrin blew out his breath.  "Alright, have it your way," he said shortly.
	"Naturally."
	"Before you get too attached to idea, you should consider what we're going to do with her when we go up to the Cloud Spire."
	"Take her with us, of course."
	"Are you out of your mind?" he said hotly.  "If I take an inu up there, they may throw us off!"
	"They would throw you off if you took a kajat," she said calmly.  "But not an inu.  She's too small to be a danger, and you and Sarraya can explain things to her so she doesn't cause any problems."  She patted the inu's flank fondly as the big predator bent down and ripped the umuni carcass apart with her long, dangerous teeth, swallowing it in huge, bloody chunks as she held the remaining carcass down with her wickedly clawed foot.
	This was an argument he knew he was destined to lose.  He knew when to cut his losses and at least bow out with some measure of dignity.  "All right, but I'm not going to help you in any way.  She's your burden."
	"Yes you will," she said absently.  "You'll argue, and you may even try to put your foot down, but we both know in the end, I'm going to win."  She flashed him a bright, affectionate smile.  "Because you love me."
	"Sometimes love really stinks," he said with a snort, turning and stalking away.
	They didn't have to slow down much for their new pet.  The inu that Allia named Talon could keep up with them rather well, a testament to her stamina and her will to keep up.  Inu were born runners, but Tarrin hadn't realized how much like the Selani they were until he saw Talon and Allia together.  They had the same basic survival instincts.  Both inu and Selani were nomadic, going to where the food was, and that meant that both groups were used to travelling great distances.  Inu were fast sprinters, but they were also effective distance runners, able to eat up the longspans with an easy stride that they could hold for hours on  end.  He realized that the Selani had probably learned from the inu when they first came to the desert, for the inu's hunting tactics were similar to the Selani's.  They used ambushing tactics, running down a meal in a furious sprint, and a pack cooperated during hunts meant to bring down more than one prey animal, with one group chasing meals to where the rest lay in wait.  The Selani did the same thing, able to either run down lone prey or chase them into an ambush set up by the rest of the hunting party.  The Selani had found the desert a harsh, forbidding place when they first arrived, so they probably turned to those who thrived here and learned the secrets of survival from them.  Selani were alot like inu, and it was no surprise that someone had finally noticed that.
	Talon herself surprised Tarrin a great deal.  She was very intelligent, playful, and seemed quite happy to stay in their rather unusual pack.  She seemed a formidable, intimidating predator to him, but at the same time she was affectionate and very social, and surprisingly gentle.  It amused him that he realized that he'd done the same thing so many others do, only see the bad side in a thing.  He'd judged the inu from a bad experience with a pack and their fearsome reputation, but hadn't once thought about how they lived.  A pack of wolves seemed dangerous and forbidding, but wolves themselves were very social and intelligent animals, capable of great expressions of devotion and love to members of the pack.  Inu were like wolves that way.  They were ferocious, and they were dangerous, but they were also mothers and cub, mates and pack members.  To members of the pack, they were cordial, even compassionate, dutiful and loyal, and protective.  That, he realized, what was caused them to attack in what some thought was a suicidal manner.  They weren't attacking mindlessly, it was a powerful instinct to defend the pack against a dangerous enemy.  That instinct to defend caused them to be wildly aggressive, attacking even things like kajats, because the concept of pack lived on even if the entire pack was killed in the fight.  Even the last surviving inu thought in terms of pack, as we instead of I, and would continue to fight on for the pack.  It took the realization that the entire pack would die unless someone retreated to make them break off from an attack.
	Talon had adopted Tarrin and Allia as her own pack, and she had assumed a place in it.  Inu were exactly like wolves; they had a hierarchy of command that ran from the leader all the way down to the lowest member.  She assumed that lowest place willingly, not willing to challenge the mighty Tarrin over his role as leader, and sensing that Allia was just as deadly.  She wouldn't challenge Sarraya because she was a Druid, and that left her in the most submissive position.  Besides, she was a very young inu, and the youngest occupied the lowest ranks.  After all, they still had much to learn.
	Allia seemed entranced by the inu, and Talon seemed just as taken with Allia.  She had gained the animal's trust, and after Tarrin used Druidic magic to speak directly to it--something he'd done with Sapphire before she could speak--some ground rules were laid down and some Selani was taught so she could obey Allia's verbal and hand-signed commands.  After that, the two of them would go off and hunt together, and they would often drag back animals too big for either of them to catch alone.  Or at least seemingly.  Allia's intelligence and understanding of her environment and the animal she was stalking allowed her to take on virtually any animal in the desert.  It would be a bit dangerous, but she could do it.  But with Talon's help, they could easily bring down any size prey animal, from the largest sukk to the most heavily armored kusuk.  It seemed odd that Allia would choose an inu as a pet, but on the other hand, a sleek and deadly raptor fit in with his sister's personality.  The fact that Talon was just as big as Allia only made it seem even stranger.
	There was no doubt as to who Talon's favorite was.  She was friendly with Sarraya and Tarrin, but she behaved like a puppy around Allia, prancing about and almost trembling with delight every time the Selani stroked her scaled flank.  She was right by Allia's side almost all the time, and Allia was so trusting of her that she'd even let the inu groom her.  She had no fear of the animal, but it seemed to him that fear of Talon was woefully misplaced.  She was a deadly predator, but she was also an animal with a pack mentality.  Since she'd adopted them as pack, it made her as safe and secure a travelling companion as they could have.
	Sarraya found the whole thing quite amusing.  "Next thing you know, Kerri's going to bring home a kajat," she teased, giving Tarrin a wolfish grin one fine desert evening, as the two of them sat on a short rock spire, staring out into the desert to make sure no little surprises were close enough to cause any problems.
	"As long as she feeds it, it's her problem," Tarrin snorted, which made the Faerie burst into laughter.
	Several days of light travel as they adjusted to the inu seemed to fly by, but not without news of the outside world.  Keritanima and Jenna projected out to him about every other day with news.  Keritanima's news was redundant, for they were safely entrenched in his grandfather's house in Dusgaard, and were surrounded by an army of watchful Ungardt.  They would probably be just as safe in the arms of the Goddess herself.  The only real news there was that Auli seemed to be playing games with the human that had been altered to take his place.  Fox, he was told, was an overly clever young man with a penchant for causing trouble, and someone like that would immediately catch Auli's attention.  Tarrin wondered if the young human knew just how much trouble he was getting himself into.  It wouldn't seem too strange for outsiders to see that, for Tarrin and Allia were quite close, and were known to tease and play with each other from time to time.  Triana would be there to step on it if it got out of hand, though.  She was visiting about every other day or so to keep an eye on Jula and make sure things were going alright for them.
	The news from Suld wasn't as light-hearted.  The strange inciter still hadn't been caught, and the crowds he was whipping into a frenzy in whichever square or marketplace he appeared in that day were getting bigger and bigger.  Jenna had a real problem on her hands with him, and no matter how hard they tried, he always seemed to slip away during the chaos of the riots he would incite.  On the king front, she reported that she had made significant progress.  She had dropped Arren's name in the right places around Suld, and now there was open verbal speculation about the worthiness of the respected duke of a far-flung desmense.  That was the first step to getting him on the throne, and Jenna told him she intended to go see him in a couple of days and order him to accept if the throne was offered to him.  And she would make sure that it was offered to him.  Jenna had a great deal of power, and her power inside the boundaries of Sulasia rivalled the monarch's.  Picking a king was well within her abilities.
	Jesmind had still yet to talk to him, and that was bothering him a little bit.  She knew he was angry, but he figured she would have put that aside to make sure he was alright.  That wasn't normal for her, and he realized that maybe he was going to have to put his anger aside for a little while and check on her himself.  He was depending on her to let him keep tabs on his daughter, Mist, and Kimmie as well.  Then again, tht may be one of the reasons she wasn't talking to him.  Jesmind had shown a great deal of jealousy over him, and he had the feeling it was because Mist and Kimmie, her two rivals, were right there.  If they weren't around, she'd probably be alot less jealous, but with them there, she felt she had to compete for his attention.
	Probably not.  As a reason, anyway.  Jesmind could do something that Mist and Kimmie couldn't do, and that was talk to him any time she wished.  That she wasn't using her advantage meant that something else had to be bothering her.
	He knew that it had to be Jasana.  Having to punish her that severely had strained her, but she knew it had to be done.  That was another reason to talk to her, if only to cheer her up a little bit.
	The next morning, the four of them ran with a sandstorm threatening from behind, and they came over a rise and looked over the very gentle hills that crowned the distant cloud on the horizon, not yet hidden by the wavering air caused by daytime heating.  They pulled up and looked at it a long moment.  "Here we are," Allia said.  "We'll be there by the midday heat."
	"I wonder why we haven't seen any Aeradalla," he growled, looking around in the sky.  "The last time we came, we saw a bunch of them before getting this close."
	"I was wondering the same thing myself," Sarraya agreed.  "I didn't think we were this close, seeing as how we slowed down so Allia's pet could keep up with us."
	"They don't normally go in this direction," Allia said.  "They seem to hunt to the south of the Cloud Spire.  You don't see them very often when you approach from other directions."
	"As often as they fly just for fun, you'd think that we would have seen some of them by now," Tarrin fretted.  "It's strange."
	"Well, by this afternoon, we'll know," she told him sedately.  "Let's move, brother.  We're wasting valuable travel time."
	"We'll find out now," he said bluntly, setting his feet.  "I'm not about to wandering around up there unless I'm sure of things."
	"How do you propose we do that?" Allia asked.
	"Easy."  He put a paw to his amulet. "Ariana."
	"I forgot about that," Allia chuckled.
	There was an interminably long pause.  "Ariana," he called again.
	"Tarrin?" came the startled reply.  "Is that you?"
	"Would it be anyone else?" he asked archly.  "Where are you?"
	"At home," she replied.
	"Good.  I'm about twenty longspans northeast of you right now.  Why aren't there any Aeradalla in the sky?"
	There was a long pause, then her laughter reached him.  "What are you doing in the desert?" she asked brightly.
	"That's not important right now," he told her.  "What's going on?"
	"It's the imbralla," she told him.  "A religious observance.  For one ride we don't fly unless we're hunting or moving from tier to tier.  We do it memory of our distant past, when we had no wings and couldn't fly.  After the imbralla, we have a grand holiday to honor Shaervan and the gift he gave us.  You're just in time for it, my friend," she laughed.  "The imbralla ends the day after tomorrow."
	"Do you think we'd cause much of  row if me and a friend or two come up?" he asked.
	"Not at all," she replied.  "I think you'd be the only outsider we'd allow in.  Andos hasn't forgotten what you did for him, you know.  Neither have I.  Do you know I'm the richest merchant in Amyr Dimeon now?" she asked with a laugh.  "I also just happen to be the Queen," she added with a smug little smirk in her voice.  "I'll tell Andos you're coming, and if he doesn't allow you to come up, I'll do the allowing for him."
	Allia smiled, and Sarraya laughed.  "She hasn't changed," she snickered.  "That's the same girl we saw flatten the nose of a fresh patron in that bar."
	"From barmaid to queen. What an interesting turn of events," Tarrin chuckled.
	"I'll tell you all about it when you get here.  Do you need me to come and get you?"
	"I can get up on my own."
	"I rather thought you could.  I've seen you fly before in Suld.  Remember where the palace is?"
	"One of those four buildings on the top tier surrounding the obelisk, right?"
	"Just so.  It's the one facing north.  I'll tell the guards to expect you."
	He was about to reply, but a power of staggering greatness suddenly broke in between them. "Tarrin, come back immediately!" it was Ianelle's voice, and she sounded frantic.  Almost panicked.  "Tarrin, you have to come back right now!"
	"Ianelle?" he asked in confusion.
	"There are Demons on the grounds, honored one!  We need you!"
	Tarrin was shocked, and Allia and Sarraya both gasped.  Demons on the grounds!  No wonder things had been so quiet!  They were going to lure him back by attacking the Tower, because that's where his mates and children were!
	Well, it was going to work.  "I'm coming right now!" he said quickly, letting go of the amulet.
	Demons on the grounds!  The horror of the battle of Suld rose in him again, but this was a different kind of horror.  The guards and Knights would have no way to fight against Demons, and only someone with an extensive knowledge of Sorcery could fight against them.  Tarrin and Jenna had that knowledge, and she would need him to help her.
	Everything was out the window now.  They were attacking the Tower, and it held many things that were precious to him.  The Goddess, his sister, his mates, his children.  So much of his life tied up there, and he could not turn away, no matter how dangerous it may be to go back.
	Without a thought, without even a warning, Tarrin enveloped the four of them in the weaves of Teleportation, and they vanished from the desert, within sight of the goal they had decided upon when they arrived, within sight of a goal they did not reach.
	So close, yet a world away.
 
Chapter 11

	Because he had no idea what was happening or where things were taking place, Tarrin Teleported them back outside the towers, in the sand-filled area where the Knights trained their cadets.  It was the one place that he knew would be empty at that moment; if there truly were Demons on the grounds, then every body that could swing a sword would be fighting against them.
	He felt it the instant he arrived.  The Weave was literally thrashing around the Tower as he felt several powerful Circles scattered through the grounds, all of them wielding High Sorcery.  Even from that distance, he could feel what they were doing, and he was a bit startled at their ingenuity.  Sorcery could not harm a Demon, since it was a part of the world.  Only things not of the world could harm one.  Since they couldn't use Sorcery, what they were doing was sucking all the Wizard and Priest magic they could get their hands on out of the Weave.  Because both forms of magic were other-worldly in origin, and therefore could do injury to a Demon.  At that moment, Tarrin seriously doubted that any Wizard or Priest anywhere on the entire planet could cast any spells.  If he tried, the power of the Sha'Kar and the katzh-dashi were intercepting the power before it could reach them, pulling it back to the Tower grounds, and then unleashing it as raw, magical force.  They couldn't shape the Wizard magic because they weren't Wizards, and the same applied to the Priests.  They had to use both types of intercepted magic in their primal states, but that primal state was more than enough to do significant damage to anything it struck.  Raw magic was a destructive force, not a benign force.  The power they could unleash in the real world wasn't even a fraction of what was in the Weave; Tarrin realized that doing what they were doing was horribly inefficient, and only a small portion of the magical energy they drew actually managed to manifest in the real world.  They had to draw vast amounts of energy to form an attack with enough power to kill.  That was why they hadn't already wiped out all the Demons.
	Tarrin had never thought to try that before, but it was more than possible.  The power of both forms of magic travelled through the Weave, and while it was in the Weave, it was subject to the power of a Sorcerer.  Since it was not a spell, it was more of a trick, it was not one of the things he'd picked up when he was turned.
	Tarrin swept a weave of Mind through the entire grounds, searching.  They were everywhere.  Demons literally surrounded his position, nearly two hundred of them.  He couldn't tell what type they were, only that they were Demons.
	He moved swiftly, drawing h