The Black wing

Chapter 4

Under cover of darkness, Khisanth, with Kadagan clinging to her neck, soared over the eastern cliffs of the bay known as the Miremier. Guided by the nyphid, the dragon was learning the names of the lands over which they flew.

The terrain just south of the long narrow forest of End-scape was unremarkable for anything but its rugged coasts on both the east and west sides of the peninsula. Impossibly long stretches of flat, unforested land continued south until, abruptly and without foothills or even forest, the easternmost ridges of the Khalkist Mountains jutted out of the earth like jagged fangs.

The flat land might have made for good farming, if any humans cared to go into the far northern reaches of the Ogre-lands, to face the isolation of life beyond the populated vil shy;lages of either Kernen or Ogrebond. It was a strange and silent stretch of land, surrounded by lonely rain-washed cliffs.

The nyphid and the dragon shared a new spirit of, if not mutual respect, common purpose. Khisanth was learning qhen even more quickly than Kadagan had hoped, for the dragon was a very bright student and was learning, above all, to control her ever-ready temper. Her muscles were toned by long daily flights. With a little more practice, she would be able to master the rudiments of shapechanging. With a little more mental discipline, both teacher and student knew that Khisanth would be ready to fulfill her end of the bargain.

In light of this fact, Khisanth had persuaded Kadagan that she was ready to begin shapechanging. Kadagan himself had said she must see, firsthand, a human female in order to assume its shape. It would also be helpful, Khisanth had rea shy;soned, for her to see the village where Dela was being held. The young nyphid had given a fairly detailed description of Styx from his own journey there with Joad, but Khisanth had a difficult time envisioning it. She'd never seen human dwellings before.

"Something puzzles me mightily, Kadagan," said Khi shy;santh now. "How have these humans come to govern the world? By your own words, they are weakly built, to the point of perishing from simple indigestion. They aren't the least magical by nature. Only after a lifetime's study can a very few of them wield even paltry spells.

"You've said they can do almost nothing for themselves," the dragon continued. "Beasts of burden plow their fields and pull their wagons. They use bows and arrows to bring down prey larger than the smallest rodent, and even those they will not kill with their bare hands or teeth."

"That's all true," noted Kadagan. "Yet they can walk freely, while nyphids and dragons must hover in shadows, for fear of retribution."

The dragon shook her head vigorously. Kadagan clutched her neck more tightly against the sudden turbulence. "Tell me, how have they subordinated so many more powerful races?" Khisanth demanded. "Why would anything but a worm fear them? They aren't nearly as strong as dragons. They can't even fly! I will hate being one of them!"

The nyphid's expression softened at the dragon's plight, and he added with gentle confidence, "Thou wilt understand their crude power after thou hast been one. They are emo shy;tionally complex. Their many facets make some weak and small, but give others a fire that inspires followers."

"I will never follow or fear them," said Khisanth, scowling. "As dragon or human, I will bow only to the Dark Queen." She snapped her head up, to punctuate the end of the discus shy;sion.

Recalling Kadagan's qhen teachings to live the moment, the dragon concentrated on something more pleasing. She watched the ground below with vain pleasure, catching glimpses of her graceful, menacing, moonlit shadow as it skimmed from cliff face to dusky bay and back. At full exten shy;sion, she was the most beautiful creature of her limited mem shy;ory-powerful, gliding silently over the unsuspecting land. What a world it must have been when those of her kind had traveled wingtip to wingtip in the skies-but that had been long ago, before the banishment known as the Sleep.

"There is Styx," Kadagan said abruptly into the dragon's ear. Khisanth followed the line from the nyphid's tapered fin shy;ger to a dimly glowing collection of lights in the distant southwest. The village was cupped around a calm, indigo blue bay, and its back was pressed against a low ridge of mountains.

"Remember to keep thy distance," warned Kadagan. "For Dela's sake, we cannot risk detection."

"Why would they assume a dragon flying overhead was looking for a kidnapped nyphid?"

"After the disturbance Joad and I caused, they will be sus shy;picious of anything unusual. But thy presence is nothing compared to thy nature. Lest thou forget, the return of drag shy;ons is still just rumor to much of the world. The villagers of Styx would be most surprised and alarmed to sight one of your kind."

"No one will see me," Khisanth said confidently.

Taking in the dark ridge of mountains at Styx's back, Khi-santh banked and flew southeast, paralleling the far north shy;east edge of the village. "I should be able to see what I need from the foothills above Styx," she explained. Reaching the northernmost peak, Khisanth slowed her speed, dropped her elevation to just above the tree line, and lowered her right wing ever so slightly to swing westward.

The dragon became aware of a dim, flickering glow from the forested foothills below. Curious, cautious, Khisanth dropped back behind a spiky pine and fluttered her wings just enough to remain aloft. Kadagan clung to her craning neck as she peered down into a small glade that would have gone unnoticed if not for the firelight illuminating it. A dozen or more creatures were reclining around a small campfire. The flames made the orange tusks that protruded from their jowly mouths glow like hot coals.

"What are they?" breathed Khisanth.

"Ogres."

Khisanth vaguely remembered them from the maynus, lurking in the background at Dela's capture. By comparison to the two-foot-high nyphids, ogres were huge, perhaps ten feet tall, with sloping foreheads that made them look witless. The warty yellow, brown, and violet flesh beneath their green hair was covered with torn scraps of animal fur that stank even at a distance. Despite the foul stench, Khisanth found the underlying scent of living flesh inviting.

If thoughts of their taste weren't invitation enough to strike, Khisanth spied gem-studded swords near each crea shy;ture, the precious stones winking at the dragon in the fire shy;light. Picking their teeth with the bones of their recent dinner, the sleepy ogres did not notice the threat that hovered in the shadows beyond the trees.

'Thou art planning to attack."

Khisanth had to force herself to think enough to respond. "Instinct tells me to, yes." Spittle flooded her maw in antici shy;pation of the feast. Blood hammered at her temples and burned in her veins at the thought of the treasure.

"It is most unwise-"

The pounding in Khisanth's head prevented her from hearing anything but her own blood-thirst. She didn't even notice when, sighing, the nyphid extended his gossamer wings and fluttered earthward into the protection of the leafy branches beyond the glade.

Unable to contain her hunger for another second, Khisanth spiraled downward like a black tornado. She only distantly heard the ogres' screams as they spotted her circling in the dimness above. They panicked, and every ogre jumped to its feet. Thinking only of running away, they slammed into each other and fell back down in a tangled pile. Several stumbled and landed in the fire, setting their greasy hair and clothing aflame.

Pulling up short just eight feet off the ground, Khisanth snatched up an ogre by the chest. The creature's purple eyes flew wide open before Khisanth's fangs cut through the flesh and laid its chest bare. The dragon landed with a hop, looked inside the cavity to the heaving heart, and sighed. That deli shy;cacy would have to wait until she had dealt with the others.

Khisanth whirled to find a second ogre brandishing a thick branch in its talons, slashing the air before the black dragon. Khisanth bit through the club with a satisfying snap, then tore off the ogre's arm. She thrilled to the unaccustomed tex shy;ture of the limb sliding down her long throat.

In the fighting that followed, Khisanth was aware of only her own sound and speed, the ogres' fear and blood. She sim shy;ply acted and reacted. As with flight, the dragon discovered that she instinctively knew what to do. Her entire body was a weapon, effective beyond anything these ogres could imagine. Her talons slashed like sabers, her teeth impaled like spears, her tail whipped and smashed like a battering ram, her wings beat and buffeted like windstorms. There was no escape for the ogres, and turning to fight was hopeless. One after another they died, screaming, stumbling in their own gore.

The campsite was strewn with torn bodies, blood still pumping from dying hearts. Khisanth's red-flecked face looked up sharply from the last kill and saw that only one more ogre stood between her and the treasure.

Khisanth paused to consider the last ogre. Its cured-hide loincloth was of high-quality deer instead of bear, and much less moth-eaten than the others, suggesting some care. This ogre was noticeably bigger than its comrades, its dusty, sweat-streaked forehead a little less sloped. Something about its heavily scarred face suggested enough intelligence for the creature to realize that this was its dying day. Yet there was an absence of fear in this one, too. Khisanth noted that the ogre's eyes still gleamed with a feral light as she slithered over the corpses, preparing her attack.

"You dragon?"

Khisanth stopped short. "You know what I am?"

"Hear stories."

"What have you heard?"

The ogre drew back warily. A weak, threatening growl rumbled through its filed orange teeth, as if warning her to keep her distance while it thought.

"Tell me what you know, or I'll kill you slowly," Khisanth growled, leaning in.

The creature had been chieftain of this small band of ogres and had killed enough foes to realize that mercy in exchange for information was unlikely. The ogre's eyes shifted from side to side, looking for something to help it. Bursting into motion, the tall warty creature stooped and snatched up a sword lying in the dust. The chieftain's attack was straight shy;forward and ferocious, wasting nothing on cleverness. The ogre simply lunged and drove the point of its sword toward Khisanth's breast.

Ever wary, the black dragon lashed out with her right claw. The dusty sword was torn from the ogre's hand, sent spinning across the clearing until it disappeared in the dark shy;ness among the trees. The ogre's eyes hopelessly followed the weapon for only a moment. It looked back again quickly, hatefully, at Khisanth.

She threw back her head and opened her toothy jaws in laughter at the creature's impotent rage, displaying slimy chains of pink-tinged slaver.

The ogre's scarred face testified to countless scrapes with death, and it called upon that hoarded experience for another ploy. Keeping its eyes locked on Khisanth, the ogre reached down again and snatched up the torn corpse of a fallen com shy;rade, holding it by its ankles. A rake of Khisanth's claws had ripped away the creature's shoulders and head just moments before. The chieftain swung the gruesome torso in a circle overhead and launched it at Khisanth before she could dodge away. The gory bulk slapped her in the left eye, a broken rib slashing across her leathery eyelid. Her own blood streamed from the gash and mingled with the corpse's.

Squeezing the throbbing eye shut, Khisanth could see the desperate ogre scramble over broken weapons and dead bodies. If the creature reached the woods, she would be unable to follow.

Khisanth pulled back her thick lips and constricted her abdomen. The black dragon's gorge rose, and she felt the hot, salty acid race up her long throat, storm over her crimson tongue, and roar through her tightly drawn lips. As it hit the air, the steaming bile exploded into a shimmering mist and blasted across the clearing in a five-foot-wide stream of ruin. Plants withered and dissolved in the awful vapor. Droplets fell and sizzled upon the remains of bodies in the path of the blast, filling the air with a noxious green fog and the scent of burning blood.

In less than a heartbeat the full force of the blast slammed into the back of the fleeing ogre. The corrosive river splashed around the beast's shoulders and head, eating through its deerskin clothing and past to its flesh. The chieftain's death scream pierced the air for a second before fading into a stran shy;gled gurgle. Then the forsaken creature fell forward on the hideous remains of its face.

The only sound in the still clearing was the hungry sizzle of acid burning through bone. When it had finished its meal, the darkened liquid bubbled and soaked into the dirt and ashes, burying itself.

An eerie, whispering wind rose to fill the silence in the clearing. Khisanth stood among the wreckage, her hind legs a bit shaky. The bloodlust that had driven her was gone, leaving her weak and light-headed. The blast of acid had left a sour taste in her mouth. She bent her head to feast on the corpses, if only to cover up the bitter taste in her mouth and renew her strength.

A beam of light suddenly sliced across her path. Khi-santh's gore-covered face popped up and looked toward the night sky. The moon had cut through the clouds, and the angled beams of bluish light provided a pathway for Kada-gan. He slid along the moonlight and landed soundlessly at the dragon's hind feet.

"Did you see the battle?" she asked the nyphid eagerly. Kadagan nodded. "Thou fought brilliantly, striking with the power and unpredictability of lightning."

Khisanth's brows raised at the pleasing comparison. Resuming her feast, she spoke only between gulps. "I used the qhen technique and fought on instinct. You would have been proud of how I just let myself be a dragon. Nothing can stand up to the power of a dragon who knows qhen."

"Thou knowest nothing of qhen," said Kadagan, his voice and bright blue eyes as cold as ice.

Khisanth's head snapped up. "How can you say that?" she gasped. "You've seen how I've studied and practiced."

"It is not a skill to employ when it suits thee," said the nyphid with silent fury. "It is a way of living."

"How can you say in one breath that I was brilliant, and in the next say I know nothing?"

"Greed blinded thee to thy goal. Qhen is focus, and patience, among other things. What hast thou accomplished, and what not?"

Chortling, Khisanth puffed out her chest. "I knew I could overpower fifteen ogres, and I proved it!"

"To whom hast thou proven what thou already knew?" The dragon bristled. "I also have a full belly, and gem-studded weapons with which to line my cave." "Was thy goal to slaughter a band of ogres?" "No, but-"

"Hast thou furthered thy goal to study Styx or sight a human female?"

"No, but-"

"Could the ogre thou spoke with, undoubtedly their leader, have furthered either goal if thou hadst not killed it in anger and lust?"

"No!" Khisanth snapped defensively. Frowning, she thought for a moment, then had to mumble, "How do you mean?"

"Perhaps, living so close to Styx, it knew something of the village, or even of Dela."

Khisanth thought about that for a moment. "The ogre was not going to tell me anything."

The nyphid surveyed the stinking goo that was once the chieftain. "Thou hast ensured that with thy thoughtlessness."

Khisanth looked up with angry eyes. "Have a care, little creature," she muttered, her tone low and threatening. "I tol shy;erate you when you are useful. When you are not-"

The little nyphid was not cowed. 'Thou cannot control me in a meaningful way, if thou cannot control thyself."

Khisanth's first instinct was to pluck off the nyphid's wings, but on some level she realized she would only be proving him right. The dragon turned away from her teacher in frustration. Hoping to calm herself, she ran her long, moist tongue over a small abrasion on her left foreleg.

Khisanth stopped abruptly. Kadagan's displeasure had soured her mood so that she found even the taste of blood was dulled. Moving clumsily over the mounds of bodies in the small glade, Khisanth thoughtfully hooked her claw into another ogre corpse and dragged it to the growing pile of bones in front of her. The task of separating ogre bodies from their treasure was tedious with her large claws, which were not suited to such fine work. She neither wanted nor expected the help of Kadagan's slender fingers. His silent observation of her work made her burn with unspoken fury, yet she did not express it, would not give him the satisfaction of proving she couldn't control her temper.

Kadagan surveyed the wreckage around the campsite, then looked to the moon traveling across the night sky. "It is late," he muttered. "We will return to thy lair."

"What about Styx?" Khisanth asked. "We still have time to observe, and perhaps spot a human woman."

"We will return to thy lair/' Kadagan repeated firmly. "Only dogs are about at this late hour. Further, after tonight's display, I would not allow thee near Dela." Before Khisanth could fire off an angry defense, the nyphid issued an order. "Use thy acid to destroy the evidence of thy folly." Snatching up a loincloth from a dead ogre, he darted out of the way.

Startled by the tone that brooked no insolence, Khisanth obeyed. When she finished, she saw that Kadagan had fash shy;ioned the filthy loincloth into a sling that accommodated the swords she'd pilfered from the dead ogres. His thoughtful acknowledgment of her desire for treasure angered her since it engendered the first pangs of guilt she had ever experienced.

"Canst thou fly?" Kadagan asked, considering her wounds. "I did not expect to need Joad's services on this trip."

Khisanth stood slowly and stretched her wings high. There was some stiffness. The descending moon shone as a fuzzy blotch behind the translucent, leathery membranes, except in a few places where it streamed through jagged tears in the flesh. She would be sore for several days, but Khisanth was certain she could make the flight back.

Taking three powerful, rabbitlike hops she sprang into the air. Then the dragon dipped her left wing to pivot north toward her lair in Endscape.

Summer gave way to autumn while Khisanth applied her shy;self to her studies. The leaves turned golden and tumbled from the trees. Ambling in the form of a white-striped badger through grasslands gone stiff and brown, Khisanth was con shy;templating the stride and stance that made her form uniquely that of a badger. She had long sharp claws like a dragon, but-

Khisanth's head jerked up. She heard soft rustling ahead in the tall grass, coming toward her. She stood only half as high as the weeds, so she could not see what approached. Baring her teeth against possible predators, she waited.

Joad popped through the grass and waved her on. "Come," he said, his voice old and scratchy from lack of use.

Khisanth's badger body nearly fell over with surprise. "You talked!" she rumbled.

"Of course," Joad said simply, as if his speaking were nothing unusual. "Thy progress has renewed my strength. I am grateful." His old gray head bowed.

Khisanth had thought of late that the elder nyphid looked better, not so sad, his lightning-blue eyes less hollow. She was strangely gratified.

"And now I have a surprise for thee in the forest," he rasped. "Come." Seeing the badger's eyes focusing, he reached down and laid a soft hand on her head. "Do not change-a dragon would be far too large to follow where I lead thee."

Thrilled at the change in Joad, intrigued by the mystery of his surprise, Khisanth followed, past the pods the nyphids would soon have to abandon when the grasses died entirely. Nyphid and badger entered the trees, tiny booted feet and splayed claws crunching over mounds of fallen brown leaves. The forest looked more spacious to Khisanth than when she'd first seen it, but she wasn't certain if that was because the leaves had dropped from their branches or because, as a badger, she was so much farther from the canopy.

Cresting the near side of a hillock, Joad turned left and fol shy;lowed a narrow, twisting gully downhill. Rounding a sharp corner, the gully joined with a trickle of water, scarcely a stream since it came only to where the fur on Khisanth's bad shy;ger legs gave way to paws. As she splashed in the cool water behind the mysterious nyphid, Khisanth's curiosity grew with each step.

Joad stopped so suddenly, Khisanth's pointed snout met with the back of his legs. He jumped to one side of the gully and gave her a clear view of an abrupt drop, the small stream of water forming a narrow waterfall. Joad leaned over and looked down, waving Khisanth to do the same.

Creeping forward cautiously on the opposite bank, the badger peered over the edge and was amazed. The drop was short, perhaps one and a half times the nyphid's height. But that was not what amazed Khisanth. Like a furry blanket, lush green moss covered every dead branch and rock below in a six-by-six-foot swatch. Somehow it had sustained its rich emerald color long after the underbrush around it had turned brown. The forest seemed to be holding its breath; a damp green scent filled the air.

"It remains green year-round," said Joad.

"How? The stream?"

Joad bobbed his head toward the center of the collection of mossy rocks. "Their energy," he said mysteriously. "Look, they know we're here."

Squinting, Khisanth saw thousands of the yellow-tailed glowbugs that often hovered near the nyphids at night. The insects crawled through the green cracks between the rocks. She could hear the faint sound of tiny, fluttering wings. "Why are they all gathered here?"

"They always return here to pass the daylight hours. Each spends its lifetime gathering energy. They give it back to us by illuminating the night." Joad paused, then gave a happy sigh. "That is a life well spent, I think."

With that, the nyphid led the way back up the ravine. Khi shy;santh was silent, pondering the great wisdom she was certain she'd just witnessed. But like most of the nyphids' lessons in qhen, Khisanth did not immediately understand the mes shy;sage.

The difference now was that she was content to wait, for Khisanth knew that one day Joad's message would be clear to her.