Instinctively, Haku snarled, hackles up and hair lifting as if in a breeze. A demon? She smelled almost human, even among the near-overpowering stink of the ship. Perhaps she had been human once, perhaps she had been a spirit.

He didn't care, because by now there was a dragon where the boy had stood, as tall as she at the shoulder and barking his challenge to the undead, the chamber around them, and the world in general. This wasn't right, this wasn't fair, and he wanted out. Alessa's attacks had shielded Haku's pod from the onslaught by the way it was positioned, but no more. He rose into the air and roared again.