white, and the lips and mouth bright crimson. But most startling were the eyes, which promised incredible yet sinister intelligence.
Khisanth eyed the beast warily at a distance. 'You speak as if you've met such a creature.'
'I am one.' The creature stepped fully into the bubble. His body, half the height of a dragon's, was thick and muscular and covered with sleek, pale fur. Like the face, the rest of the creature was vaguely simian, except for an unnaturally long tail that ended in bony barbs. The creature moved through the lightning environment with an easy grace that told Khisanth he was no stranger to this realm. 'How is it you were foolish enough to come to my little plane without the means to leave?'
'If you're as powerful as you say, you already know the answer to that,' Khisanth said boldly.
Pteros gasped at her reply. 'Actually, a lightning elemental brought us here against our will,' the old dragon explained hastily. 'Perhaps you've seen it, a globe-shaped creature filled with white bolts of lightning?'
'I knew the elemental to which you refer, yes.' The crea shy;ture's meaning was unmistakable. 'That one won't bring unwanted creatures here anymore.' He raised one brow. 'You would both be wise to choose your words carefully, lest you give the impression you don't like the realm of Fraz.'
With no apparent physical effort at all, the creature whirled across the bubble at tremendous speed. He stopped a short distance behind the two dragons.
'Very well, Fraz, now that you've killed our elemental, can you return us to the Prime Material plane?' Though her tone was bold, Khisanth was wary of this creature who had dis shy;posed of the elemental, something Khisanth was not at all sure she could have done in this place.
'If s within my power to send you anywhere you want to go, and some places you'd rather avoid, too. Because I find you and your lost friend so amusing in a helpless, pathetic kind of way, I'm willing to help you. You must do something for me first.'
Fraz allowed that to hang in the air for a few moments before continuing. 'While I have many friends, I have even more enemies. In that regard, I am truly wealthy. I'd like you to engage one of them in a true contest of fighting skills. You needn't slay it.'
Pteros summoned the nerve to ask, 'Why must we fight someone you don't even want us to kill?'
The creature drifted close to Pteros and stared into the dragon's eyes. 'Because I am the most powerful creature in my realm, and it would amuse me.'
'What if we refuse your challenge?' asked Khisanth.
'Call it a command, call it an order, call it a request you can't refuse.' The creature's tail flicked like a caf s, motionless except at the tip. The bony spikes clicked against each other as they flexed. Then Fraz shifted so he appeared to stand on all four limbs, like a gorilla, and walked through the air on his knuckles. He circled around the dragons twice, never looking away.
Abruptly Fraz tapped his chin with a razor-sharp nail. 'There was another creature here recently from the Prime Material. He tried to refuse. Perhaps you met him, a slight fel shy;low with slanted eyes and charred flesh?' Though the refer shy;ence to Yoshiki Toba had meaning for Khisanth alone, she was suitably impressed.
The creature's sinister eyes shifted from side to side as if he were concentrating. Fraz pointed a fingernail at Pteros. 'Charred flesh would be your fate.' He turned his gaze on Khisanth. 'You, on the other hand, would be forever trapped in my cozy realm, which would be the greatest punishment for you, if I'm reading your mind correctly.'
The dragons were silent. 'Good, I see you've agreed to my contest. You will be fighting a storm giant. He's a crafty old fel shy;low named Comenus who has been a thorn in my side for too many centuries. Seeing how two mighty black dragons pitted against a lone giant isn't much of a contest, I've decided you'll fight not as dragons but as serpents. Feathery serpents, I think, for variety.'
As he spoke, the beast traced a glowing symbol in the air with a yellowed fingernail. The completed symbol hung before them, and Fraz positioned his talon beneath it as if bal shy;ancing the glyph. A puff of breath started the device spinning and spitting tiny sparks. Suddenly, with a flick of Fraz's finger, the sigil split in two and flashed across the bubble to burn into Khisanth and Pteros. Color swam before Khisanth's eyes.
When her vision cleared, she saw, where Pteros had been, a snake with wings. His body was all black, with two large wings that had red spots at the base. He resembled a mon shy;strous, serpentine blackbird, like those Khisanth had seen so many times in the swamp. Glancing down, Khisanth saw that she looked the same.
The dragon despised being compared to a snake. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed patience, but it alluded her. The infuriated dragon tried to belch murderous acid from her stomach to blanket and obliterate Fraz, but all that came forth was a weak growl. Instead of being angry, Fraz seemed tremendously amused, laughing out loud at Khisanth's feeble effort to attack. 'No! No! Please don't burp on me, oh mighty dragon,' he mocked. In a blink, he turned deadly serious. 'That is all your acid is to me.'
Fraz abruptly opened his mouth, far wider than it should have been able to go, wider than his jaws could allow, and then wider still, until his maw was twice the size of his head. He exhaled, filling the elemental bubble with heat and stench.
But a swirling cloud appeared before Fraz. His mouth returned to normal and closed. 'Move forward to see what I am showing you,' he commanded. The dragon-snakes moved up reluctantly as the mixing colors formed shapes and pic shy;tures. A huge man, with light green skin and dark green hair, dressed in a flowing tunic, sat in a titanic chair. A massive sword rested across his knees. 'This is your foe, Comenus. Concentrate on this place you are seeing, and whichever direc shy;tion you travel, you will arrive there. Remember this place. Proceed straightaway to Comenus. He's expecting you.' The image, as well as Fraz, dissolved into a swirling cone of colors, but the undulating laughter echoed in the bubble for moments afterward.
Khisanth searched her mind for some qhen advice of Kada-gan's. What she fixed on was not qhen at all, but the reason Kadagan had given her for choosing her as the instrument of Dela's rescue:
'Dragons and humans have long been enemies, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'
'We need to find Comenus.'
'You, a snake, are planning to fight a storm giant?'
'I'm not staying here forever.' Khisanth didn't care whether Pteros followed her or stayed behind. All his tales of heroism aside, he was proving to be nothing more than a tired, timid old creature.
'How will you find him?'
'By concentrating on him, as Fraz said.'
'Wait for me!' she heard Pteros call, more afraid to be left alone than to follow.
Khisanth darted through the bubble and into the seething tumult beyond. Once removed from the protection of the pocket of elemental air, the two snakes were buffeted like leaves in the wind. Moving in a continuous direction took tremendous effort. Khisanth had no idea where she was going, but she concentrated on the image of Comenus. After much fluttering, she spotted something approaching through the seething clouds and flashing lightning. She slowed down to get a good look. Pteros winged up alongside.
The approaching object was becoming more distinct through the turbulence. Comenus. The storm giant was enor shy;mous, far larger than Fraz's image had made him look. The giant would have been much taller than Khisanth, and nearly as massive, even in her natural form. His skin was pale green, his beard and hair a darker shade of the same color. A narrow jeweled crown circled his brow. Across his shoulders was draped a tunic of silk and spun gold, while tores of gold and electrum circled his biceps.
Comenus sat on a throne that appeared to be made of dark clouds shot through with lightning. Lying across his lap was a sword half as long as Khisanth's body. Propped against the back of the throne was a bow as thick as a tree, with arrows like lances. The throne was propelled through the air by some invisible means, like everything else in this realm. As the chair approached the two snakes, it, too, slowed then stopped, a mere fifty or so paces away.
Khisanth had hoped to find Comenus in another elemental sphere so she could talk to him. Out here, in the deafening
thunder, she could not hope to communicate with the giant. As if in response to her thought, the thunder died away, the lightning stopped flashing. Even the wind dropped. It made sense, Khisanth guessed, that a storm giant would have con shy;trol over the elements.
After he had silenced the storm, Khisanth expected Comenus to address her, but he sat impassively. So Khisanth broke the silence. 'You must be the storm giant, Comenus.'
Instantly the giant was on his feet, shouting in a voice that outdid the thunder, 'Fraz has sent you to slay
