Black as a gneeve's maw the plain was where we ran. Chips and spikes of volcanic glass thrown out ages before glittered in the smoky light. We coursed the dim region where geysers of fire and coals belched and spewed as well poisonous mixtures of heated gas.          We ran, the carc and I. We ran as 1. We had far outdistanced all but Bynt and her carc and they pressed us, they pressed the being that was only when Agryn and myself were within a race.          Far fewer had entered the Ghordaq race than had paid the fees and arrived upon the plain because word spread rapidly through the tent streets and the display arenas that there would be a devil pack in this race. Bets soared..          It was Bynt's carc. Bynt had acquired a devil pack and would attach it to her carc just before the race and the carc and she would be under its rule. If it won their rewards would be immense. Even though Bynt would have to pay the pack's price in order to be able to remove it from her carc what remained to her would be vast wealth. Unless the devil patch required all.          There were always rumors and tales that devil packs would demand not only all a rider had won but all the rider owned and all she would win forever and enslaved her and her carc and devoured them when they died. These were tales and rumors. Like most, they contained the truthful seed.