Sai sighed and poked at his food, Cuatete watching his every move. Coatl-ome glared at him. "Are you not going to eat that?" she asked. "You normally enjoy the saurian steaks."

  Sai sighed yet again. "We're never getting out, are we?" he asked.

  Nichal dropped his food, jaw agape. Coatl-ome merely narrowed her eyes. "Melancholy doesn't suit you," she hissed.

  Sai stood and walked to the wall. Cuatete snatched his food as soon as his back was turned. He leaned his forehead against it, sighing yet again. "I was never a very good orc," he said. "I was small and weak, and I didn't even have the decency to die like the small and weak should. I taught myself to write instead of fight. I studied dragons instead of smashing them." He pounded a fist against the wall. "So maybe this is what I get. Maybe the world has no use for bad orcs who refuse to die."

  Coatl-ome held up a claw to stop Nichal from rising and going to the orc's side. Her eyes glittered. "But Syn does," she said.

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  Sai let out a pained chuckle. "Sure," he said. "As a plaything. Or a pet. The same way I keep your kin." Then he lifted his head and turned to face them. "But I'm not shackled, am I?" He walked to Cuatete's side. The raptor licked her chops. "Syn has me caged, but my mind and my actions are still my own. So if I am a pet, I can still bite." He placed his clawed hand on the side of Cuatete's face. She leaned into it. "Maybe I don't have the type of strength orcs value," he said. "But I have my own power, and I am just as dangerous as any orc." Sai's claws twitched, and Cuatete fell lifeless to the ground without a sound.

  "Master Sai!" Nichal screamed. He scampered to Cuatete's side, sending his stool skittering across the floor.

  "You just shattered the brain of your pet," Coatl-ome said.

  "Bad you enslave them!" Nichal cried. "Worse to kill them like this!"

  "Dangerous," Sai said. His voice was that of the Eternal Nightmare. Then he coughed and headed for the door alone. When he spoke, his voice was again his own. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a god to thwart."

  Coatl-ome watched him leave, then turned her attention to the maroon quezpal weeping over the corpse of a raptor. She sighed. "I hate this place."