She moved slowly closer. Somehow she couldn't imagine those shadow things needing firelight or wanting its comfort. But they still might be there all the same. Then she heard a sound and froze. It had not been the skittering, muttering voices of the things, it had been an animal sound, a low groan, nearly pleasant in this strange place. Cautiously, but encouraged by the normal, mortal noise, she crept forward until she could peer into the opening from which the firelight spilled.

It led not to another tunnel but to a rounded chamber. The source of the light was a shallow trench near the front of the cave, filled with something that burned with bright, flickering flames.

And on the far side of the flames an aerian boy was hanging from chains that dangled from the ceiling.

Flame froze again. Her first thought was that this was some kind of trick or trap. She could picture beings like these shadow things laying traps. But when she inhaled she could smell aerian, mostly like the scent of a human, but with the smell of bird's feathers mixed in, along with fire and a faded trace of the shadow things. And there was none of the sense of cold or the indefinable feeling that put her back hairs on end. That was the kind of thing that would be hard to hide, she suspected. So she stood a bit higher and slowly padded into the room.

The boy looked bad. His wrists were raw and bloody, and he dangled from them limply, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. He was thin, to the point of emaciation, and his clothes were ragged tatters. Both of the wings that marked his as aerian rather than human trailed limply onto the floor and one of them was at an odd angle that suggested it was broken. Out of place on such a tattered figure was the torc around his neck. Made of something that was black and matte, like wrought iron, but polished smooth as the finest onyx, it was set in the center with a huge red stone. If it was a ruby it would be worth a fortune. He groaned again as she came in, a soft, hopeless kind of sound. He shifted, his head lifting a little, and his eyes opened. He stared at Flame Song for a few moments with blank incomprehension. She circled around the burning trench to reach him.

"You're not a demon," said the aerian, his voice thin, raspy and harsh.

"No, I'm not," said Flame Song quietly. "And neither are you, so what are you doing here?"

He closed his eyes again. "Dying."

Flame blinked. "I take it from the way you're chained up that you would rather be doing something other than dying just now?"

A tiny, almost inaudible laugh came from him. "Yes."

"Right. One moment." Flame shimmered and shifted. She didn't see any keyhole on the manacles, and in firecat form she lacked hands anyhow. In dragon form, however, she had something much more useful. She was tall enough now to not have to stretch when she reached out and took the chains in her clawed hands. She selected one and brought her long, reptilian muzzle close to it. With great care she breathed out the smallest and hottest flame she could manage. Blue fire streamed out, and the iron chain link she had focused it on quickly turned red. She kept at it until the link was white hot and its neighbors had begun to glow faintly as well. Then she grabbed the chain below the heated link and pulled down sharply with all her might.

The nearly molten link snapped. The aerian hissed in pain as one of the pieces bounced off his shoulder. Then he let out a low moan as he lowered his arm for the first time in who knows how long, the muscles cramped and protesting.

"Sorry," said Flame.

"Small price to be set free," said the aerian.

Flame turned her attention to the second chain and a few minutes later it joined the first, though this time she spread a wing over the aerian and the heated pieces bounced harmlessly off her scales.

No longer held up, the aerian collapsed to the floor. Flame shifted back to her own form. "Are you all right?"

That tiny, dry laugh came from him again. "No, but it seems I might not die after all. Thank you."

"Thank me when we're both out of here," said Flame, still keeping her voice low. "It's a long way to the exit, and there may be a pair of those demons, if that's what they are, between it and us."

The boy slowly climbed to his feet. He folded one wing against his side, but the other still hung limply. "At least I have a chance now, though." He took a few staggering steps, and Flame shook her head.

"You won't have much of one moving like that. Climb on my back, I can carry you. You can grab my fur, don't worry about hurting me."

He nodded and managed to climb on, with a certain amount of awkwardness. He took two handfulls of the long fur at her neck and clung tightly. He was short and slightly built. Even when not starved he couldn't weight very much, and now he weighed almost nothing, an easy burden to carry. He wouldn't slow her down at all. She turned and headed out into the tunnel. She walked slowly but steadily. Her paws were silent, but the chains still attached to the aerian's wrists clinked faintly. Still, she felt she would probably be able to hear the things before they heard or saw her. Probably.