City of Dust. Michelle Kenney

central, raised dais that must have originally been some sort of displaying table; while a pack of waist-height, hairless birds scavenged around him. They were huge, skinny, and beyond ugly.

      But they weren’t strix.

      Holding my breath, I edged closer. The birds clattered around the floor, occasionally raising their heads to sniff the rank air. With featherless blue-grey heads, brown ruffed necks and tapered wings, they were clearly birds of prey; and at more than a metre tall each, they were also birds to respect. But no creature on our free-living planet could resist Eli, and right now they appeared calm enough.

      ‘What are they?’ I signed.

      ‘Cinereous vulture,’ he responded studiously. ‘One of the two largest, vulturous species of birds on earth.’

      A brief memory of the giant, clawing strix flickered through my head, but I knew he was talking about birds outside Pantheon. Apex predators of the natural world.

      ‘Have been known to eat flesh, but much prefer their dinner deceased.’ He smirked as Max stepped up beside me.

      ‘Yeah, well … when you’re done having tea with the local wildlife, we’ve a job to do,’ Max forced out, scanning the room.

      I followed his gaze and scowled as more silhouettes of stuffed, old-world creatures took shape within the gloomy darkness. A towering elephant and giraffe made the vultures look little more than pecking chickens; while their glassy, yellowed irises gleamed lifelessly from their mottled skins.

      I dragged my eyes away. The stuffed creatures’ stare was almost worse than the vultures’ clear suspicion that Max and I were a potential threat to their new king. I glared at my brother, who sighed before standing up to address the unsavoury group with a series of crude gestures. Then he slowly backed away, taking care to push us through the doorway first.

      ‘So, what did you say to them?’ I signed, once we were back on the road outside.

      ‘I told them my friends were a little chewy; but if they stuck around I knew of a few others who were rotten to the core,’ he responded blithely.

      And right on cue, a dozen dark shapes soared effortlessly out of the window and into the smoky sky above.

      I scowled. Ravenous, cinereous vultures weren’t exactly my idea of the perfect cavalry.