The Sorcerers of Majipoor

"THERE HAD BEEN OMENS all year, a rain of blood over Nimoya and sleek hailstones shaped like tears falling on three of the cities of Castle Mount and then a true nightmare vision, a giant four-legged black beast with fiery ruby eyes and a single spiraling horn in its forehead, swimming through the air above the port city of Alaisor at twilight."