Excerpt:
Tom had never been to the city of the demons before, and it smelled of death. He stood and shivered by the bridge over the river, his skin prickling with danger. It was madness to cross – but then he was in danger if he stayed, too. He slipped across on the shadowy side, ready to call upon the stars to hide him.

On the other side of the bridge was a path made of square stones, and the rows of square clay houses started. Tom walked along carefully, but it was not long after dawn and the demons were still at their morning feasting. There were so many it was like looking into a rippled pond – everything reflected, and multiplied, and however often you turned, everything all around you was the same.

And then a little way ahead a door opened. Tom, caught by surprise, pressed himself against a rough clay wall – but the demons who came out were too busy with each other to notice him. They were pressing their lips together. Then the male walked away, but the female and her calf followed it with their eyes until it turned the corner.

Tom nearly vomited. There were slave-ropes that tied that male to the others. Tom could not see them, but he sensed they were there. Ropes that tugged at its mind and forced it to return so the others could feed from it.

Tom backed away, shivering. Suddenly he understood the danger of the demon city. It wasn’t being killed: it was being held, and having your mind tied so that you could never be free again. Even Larn was not as cruel as that.

He turned and fled.

“How did you make yourself disappear?”

Tom shook his head. That wasn’t the sort of thing you could explain, because it wasn’t the sort of thing you could understand: not with words, anyway.

“I called on the stars, “ he said.

It put out a hand and touched his again, and they both winced away again at the difference in their temperatures.

“You can’t be dead,” it said, but its voice was wavering again. “Not if you can move about. But you can’t be human.”

Tom didn’t know what human was.

“What are you?” asked the demon.

Tom opened his mouth and then closed it again. This demon was young and it clearly knew nothing about the Tribe. He heaved a sigh.

“Lost,” he said.