Birds and beasts fled at Njrea's raw scream. Blood flowed across her skin, coated the scaled feet of the snatcher, brought a smile to Trals's face. He could simply let this continue and destroy a flawed tool with a perfected one. But then how long would he have to wait before he could crush the Slavers? The awesome power of the paarsoot was surely worth a little more sacrifice.

Trals had trained his snatcher well. When he whistled, Srav's head stayed up and away from Njrea's ...