The Black wing

Chapter 6

Onyx sat on the inn's long wooden front potch, her back to a square support post. The sky to the east was still dark purple, though approaching lavender. Few people were moving about yet, as first light began to creep between the buildings. A layer of winter ice and snow covered the whole town, giv shy;ing the place a false sense of peace and stillness.

Despite Bert's advice to avoid the bounty hunter, whis shy;pered over a breakfast of fried bread and eggs, the raven-haired young woman was waiting for Led. If she was to free Dela, she had no choice but to join his band.

To Onyx's irritation, the sun was poking over the rooftops when she finally caught sight of Led striding through the street. He wore a glossy, polished leather breastplate and shoulder guards over a forest-green tunic. His muscle-hug shy;ging wool leggings were tucked inside the calves of laced

boots that cuffed below the knees. Wet from bathing, his hair looked darker than it had last night, and his beard and mus shy;tache had been neatly groomed.

Behind him was a ragtag group of grubby ogres, snorting and scratching their thick green hides. Most wore uncured animal pelts decorated with feathers and small animal skulls and carried large clubs or crude spears. One had a copper cauldron strapped upside down on his melon head in lieu of a helmet. Strangely, Onyx found ogres much more repulsive now that she had spent time among humans.

"Dawn passed quite some time ago," she said stiffly.

Led gave a mock bow and laughed. "Good morning to you, too."

"These are the creatures you were concerned might not accept me?"

"You were expecting Knights of Solamnia?"

"No. I knew, uh-" Onyx stammered "-I expected they were ogres."

He looked at her strangely, then shrugged. "You take what you can get. Ogres are fairly good fighters, and they listen well enough, just so long as Toba clubs them now and then."

Led pointed to a hollow-cheeked man with an exotic slant to his eyes. He wore an overlarge coat with the fur collar turned up. Dwarfed by the ogres, the wiry little man snarled as he kicked one brute aside with a blade-tipped boot.

"That's Toba," Led offered. "My lieutenant. He keeps the ogres in fighting shape, one way or another. He lived in Sala-sia, near Taladas, which is crawling with ogres. That's where he learned how to handle them."

Searching her memory, Onyx vaguely recalled the homely man from the vision in the globe. Led's voice drew her into the present.

"I'm glad you decided to join me." His green eyes were fixed on hers, probing.

The black-haired young woman could not suppress a scowl. "I almost left. I'm not accustomed to waiting for any shy;one."

Led smirked ruefully and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Blame them. They don't move very fast in the morning."

Onyx jumped from the porch to her feet and slammed her dark hands onto her hips. "Then don't tell someone dawn, when you mean midmorning."

It was Led's turn to scowl. "Let me tell you the three rules this party has," he said evenly, employing great effort to con shy;trol his temper. His green eyes narrowed beneath thick, arched brows. "First, you do what I say, when I say it, with no questions. Second, if the cargo I'm paying you to guard is threatened, you will fight like a damned hellhound and won't stop until I say it's over. Third, if there is a battle, nobody searches bodies or gathers loot until the enemy is dead or run off."

Onyx hooked her thumbs under her rope belt noncha shy;lantly. "So whaf s this precious cargo I'll be guarding?"

Led tensed. "You're violating rule number one."

Frowning, Khisanth decided on a new tactic. "What do I get in exchange for following your rules?"

"A share of the loot," Led replied.

"One share? And how many shares do you take?"

Led snorted. "More than one. Don't be obtuse."

Onyx lifted one eyebrow. "Do you really think one share is a fair split for a mage? The same share as one of those mind shy;less ogres?" Onyx cast an artless, wide-eyed look at the throng milling in the slush behind Led.

The brown-haired man fidgeted imperceptibly. "No. More than that."

"How much more?"

"Whatever I decide." Led twirled one end of his red-brown mustache. "I'm the boss."

Onyx shrugged under her purple tunic. Turning on her heel, she took a step toward the inn's front door. "Not my boss. Find yourself another mage-if you can."

Led considered her as she stomped across the porch. She was more like a man than any woman he knew. She knew magic, too, and Led had never met a mage in all his travels, let alone one willing to do mercenary work. He let out his breath, sending tendrils of white fog into the chill air.

'Tell you what, Onyx."

The young woman stopped in her tracks, her back as straight as a pillar. She did not turn around.

"Give me a better demonstration of your, urn, skills," he said softly. He eyed the villagers passing in the icy street. "Then I'll reconsider your pay level."

Onyx hesitated, considering how far she should take this tack. Her goal was to earn Led's trust, become a member of his party. Perhaps she should just agree to whatever he said.

Led took note of her hesitation. "Of course, if you can't cast spells, then you wouldn't be of much use to me…." He spat casually and turned to leave.

Onyx's reptilian-slitted pupils flared inside yellow irises. "Now who's being ridiculous? I was merely scouting out a secluded spot for a demonstration." She looked at him archly. "Unless, of course, you'd like me to throw a fireball down the street?"

"Lower your voice and come with me, then." Leaving the ogres and Toba behind, Led took Onyx by the elbow and pro shy;pelled her toward the mews between the inn and a wattle-and-daub house.

Onyx ducked through the door of the deserted building and jerked her arm away. Flexing the tension from her shoul shy;ders, she concentrated on controlling her breathing. She'd been bluffing about a fireball, which was still beyond her ability. She closed her eyes and focused on a simple spell, basic to the dark nature of a black dragon.

"Hey, whaf s going on?" cried Led, his voice cracking with surprise.

Onyx opened her eyes. She and Led stood in absolute blackness. Her dragon sight allowed her to see Led in the dark. He was groping about wildly, unable to determine up from down. Led wavered like a stalk of overripe corn in a summer wind, then crashed to the ground.

With a wave of her hand, Onyx dissipated the spell. As the darkness slipped away like mist, leaving sunlight, she extended a hand to Led. He slapped it away.

"I was talking about a demonstration of your fighting skills/' he said. "Don't ever use your magic on me again." Flustered, he twisted his clothing back into place under his armor. "You'll get the same shares as Toba until you prove yourself in battle." He crossed his arms over his chest. 'Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," Onyx said, rocking back on her heels.

Led jerked his head to indicate she should lead the way back to Toba and the ogres. It was not just bruised pride that made the human wonder at the wisdom of taking into his party someone more powerful than he. Led was a man to whom power was everything. Still, he reasoned, stealing it was far less taxing than earning it.

A short time later, Onyx stood in flesh-pinching brigan-dine armor, waiting for a stable hand to bring in another horse for Led's approval.

Led had chosen this "lightweight" armor from his per shy;sonal collection because, "It's the best quality suit the jack shy;anapes who calls himself the village armorer can alter to your size without ruining it."

The armor was composed of a layer of small metal plates riveted to an undercoat of soft leather. Over that was a man shy;tle of noise-muffling quilted cotton batting. If the armor had not been so uncomfortable, Onyx would have been amused by the irony of protecting her human flesh with a parody of her dragon form. At least it kept her warmer than her tunic and leather jacket had.

Following a few nips and tucks at the armorer's, Led selected a short sword from his weapons cache and buckled it around Onyx's waist. "Even if you never use it, just wear shy;ing it will make people think twice," he'd said.

Now Onyx stood girded as a warrior, watching as the sta-bleboy led a black mare to her and held out the reins. Onyx took the lengths of leather awkwardly.

Nodding with satisfaction, Led patted the mare's shiny flanks and said to the boy, 'Tell your master we'll take her." Counting coin from his pouch, Led dropped ten into the boy's hand. "Not one piece more." The boy scampered off between piles of dirty yellow hay.

"I'll take her price out of your first pay," Led told Onyx. Adjusting a strap, he laced his fingers and held them out to boost her onto the back of the horse. "She's a nice piece of flesh. Her coloring suits you, too." Onyx placed her left foot in Led's hands and swung her right leg over the horse with great difficulty, unused to maneuvering in the cumbersome armor.

Led watched her clumsy handling of the beast with sur shy;prise. "Surely you haven't traveled entirely by foot all your life?"

"Not by foot, no," Onyx said. The mysterious glint in her eye suggested her magical abilities. Led looked properly impressed.

"I've got to check on a special order the cartwright's been promising me," he told Onyx after watching her first awk shy;ward attempts to ride the mare. Promising to return in short order, he left her to her own struggles in the paddock.

Onyx was relieved to see the backside of his long-legged stride so she could practice without his green eyes on her. Used to being a mount of a sort to the lightweight nyphids, she did not like the feeling of sitting on a horse one bit. The ride was jarring, not smooth like flying. More disturbing to Onyx, though, was the idea of turning control of herself over to an animal not half as intelligent as she.

Slowly, she learned to control the animal instead of allow shy;ing it to control her. Her shoulders ached from the effort to direct the animal, as well as the weight of the armor. The sun had risen past the midpoint, and the mare beneath her had churned the paddock to ankle-deep mud by the time a now-helmeted Led returned on horseback himself.

To her surprise, he was accompanied by his entire band of ogres and flanked by Toba, who sat upon the buckboard of a small, windowless box of a wagon, reins in hand. Khisanth sprang from the mare's back and led the creature by the leather bridle through the paddock gate.

"Yoshiki Toba, Onyx," Led said simply by way of intro shy;duction. "She's our new hand." Led's lieutenant eyed her willowy, muscular form skeptically, but said not a word. Obviously adding a woman warrior to their ranks was noth shy;ing new. Onyx wondered at Led's reasons for not telling Toba of her spellcasting abilities, but she knew she had already strained Led's tolerance for questions.

"You're doing better on the horse," Led observed. "Just in time, too."

"We're leaving now?" Onyx glanced from the last ranks of ogres up to the small wagon behind Toba.

Led pushed back the helmet he'd donned since she'd last seen him. "Any problem with that?"

"No!" she said quickly, her mind racing. How will I tell Kadagan and Joad I'm leaving? I don't even know where I'm going! "I was just surprised, is all."

"Me, too," said Led. "That fool cartwright has been string shy;ing me along, taking a month to build this little wagon, if you can believe that."

"What kind of cargo requires a wagon specially made for it?" she asked artlessly.

"Something thaf s going to make me rich, once I get it to its new owner in Kernen," he said with a mysterious smile, then wagged his finger. "You've forgotten rule number one again, Onyx." Led dropped his helmet back over his face. "Take the right flank, and make certain you remember rules two and three." With that, he gave a shrill whistle and circled his arm once over his head.

The group set off for the southeastern gate. Onyx had to spur the horse to a trot to gain her place on the right of the wagon, opposite Led.

Once outside town the small train turned toward the mountains. Thin woods lined the road, thickening as the way led farther from town. Aside from an occasional sneeze or curse from one of the ogres, the group was silent. Onyx won shy;dered whether Kadagan and Joad were watching from some shy;where. If Dela was in the strange wagon Toba was driving,

surely Joad would know. If she wasn't-I'll deal with that if it turns out to be true, thought Khisanth.

They established a steady pace, headed through the foothills, toward a place Led called Needle Pass, the only siz shy;able gap through the Khalkist Mountains within a hundred miles. The gray clouds had been chased from sight by a strong, chill wind. Onyx swayed in her saddle with each of the mare's steps up the steep, rocky incline. She tried repeat shy;edly to listen for any sound from the wagon, but her keen hearing revealed nothing.

After a short time on the trail, Onyx's entire body ached. She concentrated on the horse's mane, let the color and tex shy;ture absorb all her thoughts. Slowly, the pain in her legs diminished. The weight of the armor no longer strained her back or curved her spine.

Hawks cried out as they circled above the lumbering party. The wagon's wheels creaked and rumbled over the frozen ground, occasionally crunching a rock or shattering a frozen puddle. Led's horse was perfectly abreast of the two that pulled the wagon under Toba's direction. The human's face was impassive, eyes always scanning ahead, his posture in the saddle ramrod straight.

Hours later, as the sun slipped over the western horizon, Led chose a campsite. The spot lay near a small pool that was constantly fed fresh water from a swiftly flowing mountain stream. Led gave a shrill whistle. The wagon rolled to a stop next to Onyx, the ogres behind it. Toba jumped from the buckboard and began firing off orders. The ogres established a makeshift camp in the narrow clearing, digging fire pits with their claws, while Led's lieutenant unhitched the wagon and posted himself as guard over the precious cargo. While Toba was about, there would be no examining the cart to see if Dela were inside.

Led sprang from his saddle and stepped around the wagon to help Onyx from hers. He settled the woman atop a large rock, then fished around in his leather pack. "Jerky?"

He held out a red-brown shriveled strip that looked like animal hide picked clean and left too long in the sun. She hes-

itated, not sure what to do with it.

"Better eat while you can," he said, holding it closer to her. Led tore off a piece of the jerky and chewed it vigorously. "It'll be a while before Toba gets a fire started and any food cooked."

He noticed then that the woman was watching the ogres, who towered over the shouting Toba. "You may not think they look like much, but you wouldn't believe where we started with them. No organization at all. None of them could even wield a club with any accuracy. They relied mostly on crushing opponents to death." He looked appre shy;ciatively at their ten-foot frames. "Not a bad technique, either, when you think about it."

"Why do they work for you?" Onyx asked. She watched the wiry Toba strike a violet-colored ogre with a club. The creature dug marginally faster, a vicious snarl erupting through its pointy green teeth.

"I killed their chieftain." Led took a long pull on a wine shy;skin that hung from a frayed string on his right shoulder. "They hated him," he continued, wiping his mouth on the back of his fringed leather sleeve. "Blogrut was even greedier than most ogres, driving them hard, feeding them little, and giving them less than nothing of what meager booty they managed to find.

"We make sure that they're fed regularly, and that each of them gets some bit of treasure now and then, even if it's just a shiny button." He ducked his head through the wineskin string and handed the leather bag to Onyx. "They're as loyal as any human troops, so Toba and I sleep in shifts."

Within minutes the ogres had scraped out fire pits, gathered wood, and started several fires: large ones for warmth and a smaller one for cooking.

Led pulled some thick blankets from his saddle pack and tossed one to Onyx. "Unless you can sleep through an ogre's snoring, you'll want to bunk down here by my fire." He dropped his blanket and settled to the ground, leaning against the soft bundle. As Onyx did the same, Toba stepped up with three steaming platters of brown stew.

They ate the same way they traveled, in silence. Onyx smiled at the irony of sharing bread and meat with these people she might shortly have to kill.

"What's funny?" asked Led, mopping up the last of his plate with a lump of hard bread.

"Nothing," Onyx lied. "If s good to be out of town."

"You prefer the open spaces? Me, too," Led replied.

Onyx felt suddenly talkative, though she wasn't sure why. "It isn't the buildings I mind," she explained. "If s the people. I feel uncomfortable surrounded by strangers. I have to watch what I do and say too closely. I like more freedom."

Obviously bored with such prattle, Toba gathered up the platters and strode back to the cooking fire. Watching him go, Onyx wondered if the nyphids were also watching. She wished she knew enough about the maynus to use it to contact them. If nothing else, she suspected Joad could confirm whether Dela was in the wagon.

Led slid over next to Onyx, their elbows touching. She stole a glance at his profile; a brown weed was clamped between his white, even teeth. She had never been so close to another crea shy;ture without killing it. Led exuded some unfamiliar, inviting scent that made her want to lean in and smell his skin. The impulse brought her nose halfway to his neck before her new human senses jerked her back. Led gave her a curious glance. Then, to her surprise, he reached up with a gloved hand and swept a strand of hair from her forehead.

Led pulled the weed from his lips. "What's that in your hands?" he asked, looking at the two stones she was shuffling between her fingers.

"These?" she looked down. "I found them along the trail and thought they looked interesting."

"Let me see." Taking them from her dark fingers, Led tipped the stones toward the firelight. One was pure black, with alternating bands of slightly lighter hues. "Hmm," he said. "This big egg-shaped one is onyx."

"Really?" She reached out eagerly to take the stone back.

Led yanked his hand away and smiled. "I think I'll keep it, if you don't mind. To remind me of you."

Onyx looked intently into his face. Behind his grin, the human was deadly serious. Her heart thrummed wildly. They fell into an awkward silence and stared into the fire, listening to the sounds of night.

"We haven't really discussed what I need from you," he mumbled without looking at her.

Onyx jumped. "What are you talking about?"

"I was asking what protection your spells could provide." His green eyes twinkled with amusement. "What did you think I was talking about?"

"I… didn't hear you," she muttered. Led saw her red face, and he smiled. "Is it your goal to be a bounty hunter all your life?" she asked, hoping to change the subject.

Led chuckled. "Actually, I'm a jack-of-all-trades. My first 'goal,' if you will, is to wake up every day with all my parts intact." He turned deadly serious. "My second is to be filthy rich. The package in the wagon is going to ensure that."

"It must be very valuable."

Led snorted. "You wouldn't believe whaf s in-" He looked anxiously over his shoulder to the other fire pit, where Toba watched the slumbering ogres. "Never mind."

He spit the weed from his teeth. "I've been thinking about what I'll do afterward. You mentioned dragons before." Led relit his pipe and squinted at her through the pungent haze. "Have you heard about the armies gathering in the south?"

Onyx leaned forward. "Armies?"

"I've heard, like you, that dragons have returned to the world. If they have, and nobody seems to know for sure, some people say there's going to be a war. A big war, with dragons on one side and who knows what on the other; probably the Knights of Solamnia, anyway. In a war like that, mere's lots of opportunity for someone with brains. And if dragons are everything the stories say they are, I know which side I'd want to be on."

"So why haven't you joined them already?"

"I've been a grunt before, like them." He jerked a thumb at the ogres. "I'll never go back to it. Besides, everything's changed now that I've met you."

"I don't understand."

Led looked at her closely. "With my experience and know-how and your magic, we could lead such an army."

"Tell me more about dragons," she said, her back stiff despite her efforts to look indifferent.

"Rumor says that the core of this army and its greatest strength are the human generals who ride dragons into battle."

"Are you saying these dragons not only allow humans to sit on their backs, but they follow the directions of such obviously inferior creatures?"

Led gave a startled laugh. "Thafs an odd way of putting it. Dragons may be smart for animals, Onyx, but they're still just beasts. They're not civilized; they have no culture or society like humans; they live in the wild like animals."

"How do you know this? Have you ever seen a dragon?" she asked in a clipped tone.

Led fell back against the blanket roll with a snort. "I don't have to. If they were even half as smart as humans, why would they have agreed to go away for thousands of years?"

"Those dragons who were banished had no choice but to go underground-they were ordered by their goddess, Takhisis," she said a bit defensively.

"Some goddess," he laughed, then leaned forward again with interest. "That name sounds vaguely familiar. Wasn't she one of the old gods of evil that the Seekers talk about?"

"Seekers?"

"Boy, where have you been?" he cried. "Seekers are the cler shy;ics of the religion that's risen since the Cataclysm to take the place of the old, false gods who caused that catastrophe. Like this Takhisis."

It was Onyx's turn to give a bitter laugh. "Let me assure you, Takhisis is not a false god." Onyx locked her arms around her knees and considered how much she wanted to reveal to Led. "Do these 'Seeker clerics' possess magical skills, which only a god can grant?"

"I don't think so…" he answered. "That's why no one believes in magic anymore-" His voice trailed off. But Onyx

could do magic. In the awkward silence, they both considered

the implications of the odd conversation.

"So, are you interested?" Led asked at last. "In joining the army with me, that is?" he added quickly with a suggestion of a light-hearted smirk.

Onyx ignored it. "Only on my own terms. I'm not im shy;pressed with a system that subordinates a dragon to a human rider," she said firmly.

Both sat silently for a few moments. Something Led had said earlier puzzled Onyx. "What does this word 'evil' mean?" He looked at her strangely, half smiling, waiting for her to grin back. "You're joking."

Her tawny eyes were wide with innocence. Still not sure if she was baiting him, Led felt a bit foolish as he proceeded with a definition anyway. "If s a word cowards use to explain things that frighten them, like murder or theft. For myself, I don't believe evil exists."

Onyx mulled over those concepts. "So people think this evil is a bad thing?"

"The cowards do, yes. But I think it's very natural for the strong to eliminate the weak."

She shook her head vigorously. "It confounds me that humans control Krynn."

"I don't quite understand you, Onyx," Led said, his own dark head shaking in response to Onyx's. "First you make it sound like I'd be a fool not to join this army, yet you condemn its system, then defend the goddess who banished her own dragons. You're a bag of contradictions, Onyx." Led's green eyes sparkled as he reached out unexpectedly to stroke her dusky cheek. "I'm glad you're my ally, not my enemy."

Onyx realized distantly that he'd actually insulted her, but the thought was chased away by the sensations his touch evoked in her. Knocking his pipe against a rock to extinguish it, he leaned forward and brushed his lips in a warm trail where his fingers had just passed. His calloused hands took her by the shoulders. His fingers slid down her arms, lingering on her wrists. He continued downward and rubbed her slim fingers between his rough ones.

Onyx froze. For the first time in her life no instinct she understood told her how to react. As a dragon, her thoughts ran almost exclusively to the basics: satisfying hunger, seeking shelter, acquiring treasure. These tasks were colored only by the indulgent joy she got from flying or swimming.

But she noticed a much greater range of sensations as a human. The texture of cloth or the feel of cold air on bare skin, the distinct flavors of cooked food, the way her pulse quick shy;ened from an admiring glance. The only looks she'd received as a dragon were fearful or envious, both of which pleased her greatly, but in a very different way…"You're a beautiful enigma, Onyx," Led said again softly, his whiskers tickling her cheek. His warm breath was a pleas shy;ant mingling of sweet wine and pungent pipe smoke. "I like solving a good mystery."

Onyx self-consciously took a pull on the wineskin, aware that the trees beyond their fire pit were already listing in her watery sight. She fought against the effects of the wine, even as she felt his fingertips dance down her spine through the thin cloth of her tunic. The young woman gave a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.

Led pressed his lips ever gently down the bridge of her nose. "I'd kill any man who tried to harm you," he said in a husky voice, moving to sink his teeth into the lobe of her left ear in a manner even more disturbing than his unexpected possessiveness.

Some voice inside warned Onyx not to trust him. But dizzy from wine, she could not see how trust entered into these feel shy;ings he aroused. She trusted no one but herself anyway. She was in control and could stop this at any time. Besides, she told herself, if she was to learn in the qhen way what it was to be human, she must experience all that she could as a human. Live for the moment.

Onyx gave in to the wine, to Led, and dismissed her self-control. Instinct far different than she'd experienced as a dragon brought her dark, slim hand up to the back of Led's neck and pulled his bearded face down to hers.

Under a black, starless sky Onyx's senses spun away to the heights she had reached only in dragon flight.