Shadow's wings sliced into the velvet night, and every powerful beat brought them closer, alluringly closer…

Zian could feel Shadow's rhythm echoing in his chest. Adrenaline coursed through his veins like quicksilver. They were now so close he could smell the tang on the wind as it whipped tantalisingly past his face, tousling his lank curls.

The waxing moon cast a maniacal glint in his sunken eyes and his lips curled with a grin that, had there been anyone left to see it, would have made their blood run cold.

Zian had sacrificed much on this quest - his friends, his family, his humanity. Filled with an all-consuming need to reach the Place, he no longer ate, nor slept despite his bone-weary exhaustion. He seemed to exist on pure desire and hatred alone.

Yet as the Madness filled his mind like the rising tide, he did not seem to mourn the loss of his soul, but rather seemed to relish the memory of many a dagger thrust into a friendly back. Now Shadow was his only companion, and only in her reptilian eyes did he find some relief from--

In an instant Zian was snapped out of his reverie and had to clamber to maintain his perch on Shadow's wide back. He jumped forward, barely managing to get his arms around her thick, armoured neck. As the stench of blood reached his nostrils he understood Shadow's sudden swoop from the sky.

His deep gravely voice rang out in the moonlit stillness. "Drop it, Shadow!"

A mournful screech that would have struck terror into the heart of any sane person, escaped her terrible jaws, spraying Zian with a sickening mixture of gore, saliva and feathers. But he was insistent.

"Now is not the time for catching owls. Not when we're so close…"

Sadly, she let the mutilated body of the bird fall from her knife-like fangs and go spinning into the darkness far below. She craned her long neck back, seeking a word of praise from her master, but he was already lost in his crazed hallucinations.

The image of the stone citadel was burned into his eyes. He could see the glass pillars in the centre of the city atop of which stood the source of the cold, green light that haunted his dreams.

He could taste the rotting flesh and the sun-whitened bones that lay in the gutters, hear the screams of butchered babies on the sacrificial altar.

He could feel the cold fire as it seized control of his skeletal body. He was powerless to resist the force as it coerced his claw-like hands to free his dagger from his belt. It urged him to drive it into the fleshy part of Shadow's belly, unprotected by scales. The last human part of his brain seeped away as the will to kill his only friend grew too strong.

Unsuspectingly, his loyal and trusting friend flew on.