Angels and Djinn, Book 3: Zariel's Doom by Joseph Robert Lewis Page B

head smashed down to the ground as its body slumped backward and collapsed. Instantly it lost the clear shape of a living thing, and even to Iyasu’s keen eyes the legs and neck and tail all seemed to vanish into nothing more than a mound of old mossy wood, skeletal bushes, and tangled yellow grass.
    Only the head still resembled a head, though vaguely. Iyasu crept forward and knelt down beside it, peering into the remaining eye, which still glowed faintly. But then the light died, leaving only a dark rotten hole in an old cedar log.
    “It’s gone,” he whispered.
    Hadara took back her dagger, and Rahm rested his sword on his shoulder. They both wiped away a faint sheen of sweat, exchanged a chaste kiss, and walked away from the corpse without another word.
    Iyasu reached out and laid his hand on what had been the brow of the taneen only a moment ago. The moss felt like moss and the bark felt like bark.
    “It’s just… gone.” He looked back at Azrael. “I’m sorry.”
    The angel turned slowly and followed the others, leaving Iyasu alone.
    He sat there a moment longer, wondering why he felt so sad, so empty, so hollow.
    It was just an animal. It wanted to eat us.
    And yet…
    It would still be alive now if we hadn’t come here. If I hadn’t come here.
    How rare are taneen? I’ve never even heard of them, let alone seen one. And now there is one less in the world. And maybe none at all.
    Because of me.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered to the cedar skull. “I’m so sorry.”
    Then he stood up and walked back down to where the others were standing together, waiting for him. He walked up to the huge man with the huge sword and looked up into his dark, grinning eyes, and he said, “You’re going to take us to Simurgh. Now. You’re going to take us because lives depend on it. Thousands of innocent lives. Whole cities could burn and be swallowed by the earth, until the roaring flames drown out the cries of the dying and the white sands cover the places where children once laughed and played. You’re going to take us to Simurgh because we saved you from the beasts of Dalyamuun. And you’re going to take us because you just murdered an innocent creature right in front of my eyes, and I did nothing to stop you, and if that death is in vain then I am going to kill myself with your sword.”
    Rahm peered down at him, his keen eyes wrinkling deep in thought. “For the sake of argument, why would I care whether you live or die?”
    “You wouldn’t.” Iyasu gazed up at him. “But the Angel of Death would.”
    Rahm looked sharply at Azrael. “She won’t kill me. She can’t kill anything. You said so yourself.”
    “That’s right,” Iyasu whispered. “Whatever she does to you, you can be sure that you won’t die. You’ll never die, no matter what she does to you .”
    Rahm grimaced. “We can reach Simurgh in three days if we leave now.”
    Iyasu nodded. “After you.”

Chapter 9
    Zerai stood on the beach, gazing out across the dark expanse of the Sapphire Sea. The water looked strangely gray beneath the colorless sky, and not a single bird glided above them or floated on the waves. But there was something out there, far out in the center of the channel, he could see white shapes sailing south, but they didn’t look like any ship he had ever seen before.
    Something’s wrong here.
    Days of walking had brought the clerics from Odashena through the forests and hills of Tigara to the very edge of the western kingdoms and now…
    “Now we need a boat.” Zerai glanced over at Adina and Samira. “But I think we’re a little short on trees.”
    They hadn’t seen a single acacia since the previous evening, and standing on the high bluffs above the sea there was no sign of anything larger than a blade of grass to the north or south.
    “We don’t need wood,” Samira said calmly. “I can fashion us a sturdy ship from the grass and reeds. With a little help from Adina, I can have us safely at sea within the