The Black Wing (10 page)

the ground, kicking feebly. The ogres suffered as much as the horses, wailing and howling
in panic. The ice storm sliced them into bloody ribbons before they could crawl away.
Crouching beneath their battered, dented shields, the knights inched their way downhill.
Once out of the maelstrom, the warriors scrambled back to their feet. They shook their
heads to clear the awful ringing in their ears and cut the straps from their now useless
shields. But Led was not about to let them regroup. With the few remaining ogres at his
back, he led the charge. Without their horses or shields, beaten and dazed by the hail,
the knights fell before the assault. Led took great pride in slicing Stip-pling's pompous
head from his shoulders. When the fight was over, the smashed and broken bodies of the
knights and their horses were mingled together on the narrow road with the hulking
carcasses of slain ogres. An unfortunate survivor of the hailstorm whimpered pitifully
through its tusks, watching in horror as a tremendous pool of blood pumped unstoppably
from its mutilated thigh. Led stepped up behind the doomed creature and cut its throat to
end its suffering. The remaining ogres didn't object, merely clutched more tightly at
their own bleeding sword cuts or licked their wounds like animals. Watching from the
fringe, Onyx caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her right eye. She swung
her head about. A distance down the road, a knight was struggling to his knees. His armor
was scorched black, helmet gone, hair singed nearly off. It was the young knight she'd set
on fire. Assuming he would burn to death, she'd forgotten about him in the heat of battle.
Blood ran freely down the dented plate mail at one shoulder. His awkwardly twisted leg
also bore the signs of a clubbing. The young knight staggered with a clumsy gait down the
hill, toward the thick woods on the east side of the pass. “Hey!” she shouted. “One of
them is getting away!” Onyx looked frantically back toward the scene of the fight. The
ogres were stripping the corpses, dividing up the dead men's possessions. Led stared into
the shattered wagon, shaking his head sadly. Onyx called again, but no one seemed to hear
her. Swearing under her breath, Onyx touched the knife in the top of her boot and set off
at a dead run after the wounded knight. Rounding a boulder, she entered the forest and
stalked through the brush, looking for signs of the man's passing. She stopped suddenly
and held her breath, listening. In the distance she heard the clanking of his heavy plate
armor. Onyx spied a bloody trail in the leaves and snow and followed it toward the sound
of the jangling armor. She could hear the knighf s ragged, labored breathing as he
struggled to run. Eyes ahead, she nearly tripped over the shield he had dumped along the
way. At last she caught sight of him, half running, half crawling, dragging a leg. He
looked frantically over his shoulder, his brown eyes wide with alarm. Seeing how quickly
the woman was closing the gap, the knight pulled himself up to run faster. In his haste,
he lost control of his wounded leg. The foot twisted to the side and caught on a sapling.
He fell to his face on the ground. Cursing, the knight rolled over and tried to struggle
to his feet again. Onyx launched herself in a flying leap and knocked him back to the cold
ground. Straddling his stomach, Onyx looked into his face. The knight's eyes were the
deepest brown she'd ever seen. His soot-streaked cheeks were ruddy with burns. His
Solamnic mustache had been singed to stubble above smooth lips. To her annoyance he showed
no fear, and was, in fact, similarly evaluating her. “How'd you put out the fire?” “I
dropped and rolled. You forgot about me.” Scowling, Onyx reached back, raised the knife
from the cuff of her boot, and swung it

down in an arc toward his face. The knight wrenched his head to the side and batted at her
arm. The blade bounced off the young man's mailed sleeve and recoiled out of Onyx's hand.
The knife landed in the underbrush several yards away. “You're going to die, you know,”
she said coldly, reaching out to squeeze his throat with her bare hands.

“Eventually.” He tossed her easily from his stomach and onto the ground. Gritting his
teeth against the pain in his leg, the knight rolled onto his knees and pivoted to face
her. His own knife was now in his palm. He waved it before him threateningly. “Please run
away,” the knight invited in a patronizing tone. “I've no wish to compound my
transgressions by killing a woman today.”

“Transgressions?” she repeated, though she knew from the little Led had told her about the
Solamnics that the knights valued honor above all else. “You mean bolting from a battle
and leaving your dead friends to be mutilated by ogres?” she asked archly. His eyes
narrowed in anger. “My comrades were all good men and true, but my dying won't help them
now.”

“That doesn't sound very chivalrous,” she said. “Won't you burn in the Abyss for your
cowardice?” The knight winced perceptibly at her choice of words. “I believe honor and
chivalry must be tempered by wisdom and discretion. I'll be rewarded in the hereafter for
the balance of my good deeds.” The young man shrugged and gave a rueful smile that made
him tense in pain. “But who really knows how one will be judged when the time of reckoning
comes? Today I chose to put that day off, so that I may live to avenge my friends.”

“Oh, will you?” Onyx lashed out with her nails and raked his face, drawing three thin
lines of bright red blood on his left cheek. Scowling, the knight lunged toward Onyx with
the knife. The cold blade bit into her shoulder, bringing an involuntary yelp of pain to
her lips. She looked up at his young face in angry disbelief.

The knight shook his head almost sadly. “You can't act like a ruffian and expect to be
treated like a lady. Stick to your spells, witch. You aren't very good at hand-to-hand
fighting.” Humiliation made Onyx's blood boil like molten metal in her veins. Her fingers
came upon a fist-sized stone. Scarcely moving a muscle, like a cat creeping up on a field
mouse, she closed her hand around the cool rock. Onyx swallowed an evil smile, smelling
revenge.

Suddenly, the young knight raised his forearm and his fist shot forward in a quick,
effortless, bone-snapping punch to the bridge of Onyx's nose. The rock dropped from Onyx's
fingers. “Not much good at all,” she heard the knight say distantly. As daylight spun into
darkness, her last vision was of the young man's face. She would never forget, nor
forgive, the pity in his brown eyes.

The cold air brought Onyx back to consciousness. There was no sound around her but the
wind whispering through trees. Her arm and face throbbed. Even her eyes ached. She lifted
her cheek off the wet leaves and wrenched her swollen lids open. What was she doing in the
woods? Where was everyone? And what was the matter with her face? Onyx touched a finger to
her nose, then winced from her own touch. Her entire face was swollen and tender and caked
with blood. The knight's final blow came to mind all too vividly. There was no sign of him
now. She had no idea how long she'd been out cold. The light filtering through the trees
was dimmer than she remembered. Led would be looking for her.

Dragging herself up, Onyx painfully followed the knight's bloody trail back to the pass.
Earlier, she had sprinted through these woods like a deer; now it hurt just to walk
slowly. Cresting the hill where the ambush occurred, she blinked in disbelief.

The bodies of the dead knights and their horses lay in the pass, plucked clean of their
gear, some half-eaten by ogres. The smashed wagon remained in its place. The area where
Onyx's magical hailstorm had pounded down was still covered in shards of ice. But Led, the
ogres, and their two horses were gone.

Only a blind man could have missed the bloody trail left by the knight and Onyx's charge.
Led could easily have followed it to her, if only he had looked. Which could only mean
that he hadn't bothered. The human had abandoned her with less thought than he had his
lieutenant, though Toba's mysterious disappearance coupled with her own might have spooked
the man. Perhaps he thought there was something sinister prowling the woods, stalking his
little group. That wasn't beyond the realm of possibility, especially since he was, or had
been, transporting a kidnapped faerie creature.

Still, the thought that he had abandoned her so easily angered and humiliated Onyx at the
same time. Her hands curled into fists. Before she could decide what to do about either
emotion, she sensed more than saw a presence nearby and whirled about “Who'sKadagan!” Like
a feather, the nyphid drifted down from the cliff face. His brown hair had lost some of
its glow; his eyes, too, were dull. New lines had formed around his mouth and eyes,
turning his normally thoughtful features sour and sad. His two-foot frame was now so
emaciated that beneath the furry vest, his green tunic hung like a dirty sack from his
shoulders.

“Kadagan!” she cried, rushing up to him. She had never been so happy to see anyone. “I'd
hoped you'd followed us.” Onyx's smile fell. “You already know what happened ... to Dela.”
“Yes.”

Onyx peered around him. “Where's Joad? I could use some of his herbs right now. I ran into
some trouble, as you can see. Is he nearby?” “He is dead.” Onyx's heart jumped. “How?” she
finally gulped. “Did some other humans catch him alone? Not Led!”

“No, it was nothing like that,” Kadagan replied flatly. “Seeing Dela's death was simply
too much for him.” Onyx put her swollen face in her hands and sighed. “I'm sorry, Kadagan.
I did what I could to save her.”

“Didst thou? It seems thou hast found thy human form less disagreeable than anticipated.”
Both the question and the statement startled her, and instantly put her on the defensive.
“I've learned to tolerate it, if that's what you mean. What's that got to do with any-
thing?” “Only thou knows the answer to that.”

Onyx's eyes narrowed angrily at the nyphid's typically cryptic response. “How was I to
know a stupid ogre would break open the wagon before I had a chance to rescue Dela? I
commanded the maynus to give her energy, but it was already too late. If the maynus
couldn't save her, what else could I do? What did you expect me to do?”

“I expected thee to rescue Dela.” Kadagan closed his blue eyes wearily. “None of that
matters anymore. The time of nyphids on Krynn is over. I came to say good-bye.” “What will
you do now?” she asked softly. “I will give back the energy I have gathered throughout my
life, to enlighten others.” “Are you going to seek out more qhen students? Are youhey,
what are you doing?” The nyphid stood with his eyes closed, swaying softly like a seedling
in the breeze. His face grew even more gray. Onyx shook his shoulders and called his name,
but he didn't answer.

Suddenly the corners of the nyphid's mouth pulled up in a mysterious smile. His paper-
thin eyelids fluttered open and took on that same faraway look Dela's had before she died.
“Stop this, Kadagan!” Onyx snapped. “You can't leave”

His birdlike shoulders withered like a leaf between Onyx's hands. “No!” she cried
heavenward. Kadagan couldn't be gone! There was so much she wanted to learn, things that
only he could teach. Something landed on Onyx's upper lip. She brushed it away angrily. It
was a firefly the third one she'd seen on this cold winter day. Then Onyx remembered her
trip with Joad to the beautiful, mossy grotto. It was the first time the elder nyphid had
spoken to her. With a voice husky from silence, he'd told her that the grotto remained
green and covered with fireflies the year round.

“Each spends its lifetime gathering energy. They give it back to us by illuminating the
night. That is a life well spent.” Khisanth finally understood why Joad had broken his
silence and taken her to the grotto. She understood, too, why a pair of fireflies had
appeared above the wagon when Dela died. And she wondered whether Joad and Dela had known
to wait for Kadagan, if they expected him to follow them so soon.

Khisanth slowly lowered herself onto a boulder. She felt light-headed from all that had
happened, and she could barely breathe through her swollen, broken nose. As she sat there,
Onyx glimpsed something shiny and black, lying in the dirt. Slipping from the boulder, she
stooped and retrieved the object. An angry knot formed in her stomach as her fingers
closed around a large, egg-shaped onyx stone. The young woman clenched it tightly, as if
she could still feel the warmth of Led's hand on it. In her dragon form, she would have
crushed it to black dust.

Crouching on the cold ground of the pass, Onyx's mind ran through all that had happened on
this very bad day. The more she thought about it, the madder she got. Everything had gone
sour: she'd failed to rescue Dela; all the nyphids were dead; the knight had broken her
nose and gotten away; Led had left her to die.

The more she brooded, the more her anger focused on Led. He'd abducted Dela, incited the
fight with the knights. He had fanned her fascination with her human form and then seduced
her. Seduced her as a human, Onyx reminded herself. It was this body's fault that she'd
fallen for all Led's talk. A blush rose to her cheeks when she realized just how
completely she'd been taken in. Her body had betrayed her as surely as Led had. Khisanth
could not set things right where the nyphids were concerned, but she could have her
revenge. In the time it took her to close her eyes, Khisanth felt her human form stretch
painlessly, until her long arms became clawed, her wings sprouted, her tail took shape.
Good riddance, she thought. Springing skyward with her hind legs, the black dragon

spread her wings, caught a gust, and was airborne. A party like Led's left very noticeable
tracks. The trail west was easy to follow. Mostly it kept to the road. Onyx spotted the
group near dusk. Led sat with his back to a boulder. As on the night before, the ogres
were gathered behind him, already asleep. Two fires burned low. In the form of an owl,
Khisanth hovered just above the treetops to keep them in sight while forming her exact
plan. She soared up into the darkened sky beyond the reach of the firelight. At the apex
of her climb, she willed herself back into her dragon form. Diving now toward the sleeping
ogres, she summoned the acid up her long throat. Her breath blanketed the sleeping ogres
in deadly acid fog. They awoke screaming in surprise and anguish, but their cries died as
quickly as they did. Led jumped to his feet and backed in horror from the grisly scene. He
was totally at a loss to explain what had happened to the ogres, for Khisanth was already
beyond the range of his limited human vision. He thought he saw a shadowy, winged form,
but it was nothing he could identify. His mind raced through the possibilities. He knew of
no bird that large, certainly none that was capable of slaying ogres by dissolving them.
He stood with sword in hand, waving it back and forth nervously, looking skyward. One ogre
on the fringe of the group had been spared the full force of Khisanth's spray. Its left
hand and much of its skin was burned away, but it was alive and nearly insane with panic.
Foolishly it scrambled to its feet and started to run, a Solamnic long sword slapping
uselessly at its side. Eyeing the creature, Khisanth soared back to the camp, opened her
jaws wide, and unleashed a thin stream of steaming acid that hit the fleeing ogre on the
right leg. It dropped, shrieking and weeping, to its knees. Drawing the sword, the ogre
pivoted on its knees and slashed the weapon skyward in a pathetic attempt at self-defense.
Its yellow eyes turned on Led for help, but the human had disappeared. A huge, shadowy
form slowly dropped into the range of the firelight, then landed on a rock. In the shelter
of the trees, Led froze with horror. A dragon! The bounty hunter's breath stopped, and his
hands turned instantly cold. He had heard of such creatures but never really believed in
their existence. He felt terribly exposed, afraid to move. As stealthily as possible, he
stepped farther back behind a tree trunk. Khisanth hopped down and approached the injured
ogre. Trembling with fear, the creature continued to wave its sword pathetically at her
from its knees. “I had a change of heart just after I let loose that acid,” Khisanth
purred. The ogre's fear intensified at the sound of her voice. He dropped the sword. “Acid
is a painful but quick way to die. I'd rather your boss and I have time to savor your
screams.” Khisanth sank her teeth into the ogre's right arm at the shoulder, severing bone
and muscle with a great tearing sound. The creature's horrendous wails cut the air.
Khisanth savored the sounds as she bit off the ogre's limbs one by one, then dropped the
torso into a snowdrift. Unconscious at last, the ogre twitched once. His blood puddled on
and melted the snow, and then petered out. Khisanth turned her tawny gaze on Led, who
stood partially hidden behind a tree. Ever so slowly she slithered to the edge of the
clearing, coming face-to-face with the bounty hunter; he merely watched her come, fear
holding him in place. The dragon reached out a claw and lightly scratched Led's right
cheek. Trembling, he touched a hand to his cheek and saw blood on his fingers. “W-What are
you going to do with me?” he managed to gasp. “I haven't decided yet,” she said
laconically. He looked up at her, nervous beads of sweat rolling down his brow. "I've heard

dragons like treasure,“ he said. ”Take anything of value you see.“ The dragon gave a
hoarse, raspy laugh. ”Do you think, human, that I need your permission to do anything?“
”N-No,“ he stuttered. ”I'm in charge now.“ The dragon wagged a sharp claw at him. ”Come
into the light, where I can see your green eyes better. Did I ever tell you, Led, that I
thought they looked like wet emeralds?“ Unable to refuse, Led stepped back into the camp.
The dragon's question puzzled him. The beast knew his name, spoke as if they'd met before.
There was something vaguely familiar about the dragon's voice, but... Surely a man would
remember if he'd ever met a dragon. ”What a difference a day makes, Led.“ The dragon's
tone was lazy. ”Just yesterday you were saying that dragons aren't as smart as humans. And
here you are today, at the mercy of one___I guess that means you're a stupid human.“ Led
blinked. The dragon's words had a familiar ring; he closed his eyes and feverishly
searched his memory for the meaning. When he looked up again, though, all thoughts of the
mystery fled. Onyx stood before him, her arms crossed, unashamed of her nakedness. Her
nose was broken, and dark bruises circled both eyes like a mask. The woman looked into
Led's green eyes and saw confusion turn slowly to comprehension. ”You left me to die,
Led.“ Wide-eyed, he looked at her. ”1 couldn't find you.“ Onyx's eyes were narrow slits.
”You obviously didn't look very hard. There was a path to me a mile wide.“ ”I looked,“ Led
said quickly, his tone pleading, ”but I was afraid to hang around the scene of the battle
for fear of discovery. I thought you'd disappeared just like Toba.“ ”I didn't,“ Onyx said
coldly, then her voice became almost brittle. ”Speaking of your lieutenant, would you like
to see him?“ ”You know where Toba is?“ The woman raised one brow and smiled maliciously.
”I have an idea.“ Her fingers clutched the thong that held the maynus and swords. ”Free
him,“ she told the globe. As if from thin air, the charred and bloody body of Yoshiki Toba
tumbled to Led's feet. Jumping back, the mighty mercenary could not suppress a scream.
”Well, I guess that nearly makes us evenon that score, anyway. I killed your friend. You
caused the death of mine.“ Onyx said. At Led's puzzled look, she added, ”The creature in
the wagon. The one you kidnapped, she was the last female of her kind. You killed her. You
killed her father and betrothed, as well. My friends.“ Led looked more confused still.
Perhaps his fear is dulling his wits, the woman thought. ”My gods, you're dense.“ Onyx
gave him a patronizing look of pity. ”Is your ego so great you actually think you talked
me into joining your little band?“ She threw back her head and laughed. ”It was my plan
all along. I tricked you. I was going to rescue the nyphid you'd kidnapped. I would have
stolen her from under your nose if you hadn't mishandled the situation with the knights.“
Onyx tapped a finger to her chin. ”Now that I think about it, we're not even at all. But
then,“ she purred, ”I'm just getting started.“ She began to pace around the frightened
human. ”I suppose you think I enjoyed our little encounter last night, too. Don't flatter
yourself. It was all part of my plan.“ Onyx couldn't keep from blushing at her own
reminder of their union. She rubbed her temple as if it pained her. Led suddenly seemed to
regain use of his senses. The old, fearless smile came to his lips. He reached for her
hand, his own trembling. ”You spoke in riddles last night, with