“...and so the young king, pressed on all sides by lords who wished to have things their way, and to weaken the power the crown possessed over them, gave in at last to temptation. He commanded the wizard to open a portal into Hell, and to bring forth the demons therein, and to compel them to fight on the side of the king. And lo the lords were filled with dismay, and their armies fled, and all went down to darkness.” —Neued of Gershire, year 28 of the reign of Emhyr Demonking

“You shouldn’t go near the castle, Famine,” said Malice as they glided away from the cattle pens where they had fed for the evening. “I don’t know why Flay tolerates your curiosity.”

Famine wanted to ignore him, but Malice was her nest-brother, and she knew him well. Denied the natural hunt of prey by the strictures they lived under, he would instead chase down the answers he wanted.

But she, too, was a hunter. “Why are you afraid of my curiosity?” she challenged instead of answering.

His lip curled back, revealing fangs, and his luminous yellow eyes narrowed slightly at the insult to his courage. “Because it is forbidden! You know that we are to remain apart from the humans. We have our place, and they have theirs. They are not like us.”

“Of course they aren’t like us. If they were, what would be the point in watching them?”

“What’s the point at all?” The words became a snarl of frustration. “If you are caught, you’ll be punished. Surely nothing you see in them could be worth that.”

Famine knew she had no answer that would satisfy him. To avoid the argument, she canted her wings slightly, swooping away from her brother and heading toward the human city while he continued with the rest of the flock toward the eyrie.

Far below, the glittering lights of the palace beckoned her closer. The cool wind flowed over her, whipping her hair back from her face, caressing her outstretched wings, and she felt her heart lift. For this moment, at least, she was free.

The spires of the palace provided a convenient place to perch. Although the cloud-shrouded starlight was more than enough illumination for her eyes, she knew from experience that the human guards would never see her. Folding her wings tightly against her body, she dug the claws of her hands and feet into the mortar between stones, crawling vertically down the walls so that she could peer into windows unobserved.

The humans fascinated her, although she wasn’t certain why. After all, they were weak creatures compared to her kind. They had neither claws nor horns, and had only four limbs, lacking the webbed wings that let her take to the sky as easily as a hunting hawk. They were fragile, needing to forge armor and weapons to protect themselves even from each other. Contemptible.

But still, they fascinated.

At first, Famine visited her favorite haunts: the ballroom, where the humans whirled around and around, their clothing bright as jewels; the garden, where couples mated in secret beneath the moon; and the throne room, where the king held court and passed sentence on those brought before him.

But tonight the windows had little to show her; it seemed that the tide of court life had reached one of its periodic low points, and everything was still. Bored, Famine climbed, until at last she found herself overlooking a balcony in a section of the palace she had never visited before. Golden light spilled out from the room inside, making the pale marble seem to glow, a flame amidst the darkness.

And on the balcony stood the most beautiful thing that Famine had ever seen.

Tousled black hair tumbled down over his forehead, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses shielded his brown eyes. Ebon trousers clad his slender legs, and his tunic was dark as well. Although it was sumptuous beyond belief compared to the rags the king gave Famine’s flock to wear, the outfit would seem painfully plain beside the jewels and brocades of the rest of the court.

Famine froze, unable to tear her eyes from his face. Her heart beat painfully against her ribs, and she wondered for a moment if he were a sorcerer who had cast some terrible spell on her to punish her for spying. But he seemed unaware of her presence. He merely stared out, a troubled look on his face, as if his thoughts pained him.

She didn’t know how long he stood there, or how long she watched from her hiding place. But when he at last turned and went back inside, closing the doors to the balcony behind him, she felt as if a lifetime of gazing on him would not have been enough.