dor shy;mancy the Sleep might have become if the nyphids had not awakened her. The notion made her feel foolish, and black dragons did not like to feel foolish.
Through her angry musings Khisanth became aware of the nyphid's innocent, expectant stare; it did nothing to pacify her. 'What has any of that to do with payment for retrieving this lost female of yours?' Khisanth snapped peevishly. Leer shy;ing down at the slight fellow, she enjoyed the feeling of power her size alone bestowed.
Kadagan, however, was not intimidated. 'Nothing-and everything-when thou art truly qhen.' But the nyphid could see that he was losing the dragon's attention to wounded pride and mounting frustration. 'Thou cpuldst use qhen to assume different body shapes.'
This time Khisanth's horns shifted with cynical curiosity. She had been learning her first spells, those that extinguish light and create thick fog, before the geetna put her to sleep. But shapechanging, that was a difficult and highly unusual skill.
Khisanth donned a mask of indifference, but the fact that she sat down again indicated her interest. 'What makes you certain I don't already know how to shapechange?'
Kadagan's slight shoulders lifted in a shrug. 'Thou wouldst have done so to escape the pit.'
Khisanth inwardly cursed the nyphid's faultless logic. Still, she gave the young creature a skeptical glance. 'Give me some proof of your own ability to shapechange,' she challenged. 'Change into a-' She looked around the field and spotted a creature even smaller than the nyphids on a distant cottonwood. 'Change into a sparrow.'
'I cannot,' said Kadagan simply.
'You propose to instruct me in something you don't know yourself?' Khisanth stood again and looked about for the best direction in which to depart. 'Obviously you've wasted my time, so I'll be go-'
'Male nyphids are the teachers of the race. We are not magical beings, like thee,' Kadagan cut in, his voice still com shy;posed. 'Only the females of our race are magical. Only Dela.'
Khisanth did not take a step, but her gaze remained on the forest across the field. 'But what about the maynus? You use that.'
'Only on a rudimentary level,' Kadagan admitted. 'It is like having a sword capable of slaying an entire clan of fire giants with one stroke, yet only having the strength of arm to peel apples with it.'
Khisanth was satisfied with the explanation. If the nyphid spoke truly and could give her the skills to alter shape, her power would be unequalled. Besides, she reasoned, if the lessons proved to be a bore or a ruse, she could leave at any time.
Still, she had questions. Keeping her broad back to Kada shy;gan, she asked, 'If Dela's so magical and you've taught her to shapechange, then why doesn't she do so and free herself?'
Joad hung his head sadly. Kadagan's lips pressed together into a pale, thin line. 'She cannot employ her skills to escape because the maynus is the source of her magic, and she does not possess it. I fear that even if she had it, she no longer has the physical or spiritual energy to use it. Her captors have kept her covered to prevent the compulsion to touch her. Dela has not felt sunlight for too long. She is despondent___'
'This qhen thing,' Khisanth mumbled, turning around at last, 'will it take long to learn?'
Kadagan and Joad exchanged hopeful glances. 'That is entirely dependent upon thine ability to learn.'
Khisanth smirked. 'If thafs true,' she said, 'then we'll be on our way before two moons rise.' With that, she circled the fire twice and settled down for a night's sleep under twin shy;kling stars, her first in centuries.
The nyphids sealed themselves up in their green pods to protect against predators. In their silent, moonlightless berths, they, too, looked forward to a good night's sleep, their first since Dela's disappearance.
Chapter 3
Sultry summer rain came dowm in a slanted curtain on the rocks and brown pine needles outside Khisanth's lair. The damp feeling should have been as tranquilizing to the dragon's dark soul as a warm-blooded meal. But today, there was little that would soothe her hot temper.
Khisanth was seriously contemplating reneging on her deal with Kadagan and Joad. The nyphids had already vio shy;lated their agreement as far as she was concerned. The yellow sun had risen and set countless times, and still they'd taught her nothing, not one single incantation. They'd kept her so busy doing pointless things that she hadn't even had time to work toward recalling those few minor spells she'd known before the Sleep.
Counting the petals of a wild rose, she fumed, viciously plucking out the stamen of the fuchsia-colored one she held in her left claw. Inanity! A thorn found its way to the tender flesh between two scales, and she flung the denuded flower from her angrily.
Kadagan had left her the prickly pile of blooms with instructions to contemplate the essence of a rose.
'What in the Abyss does that mean?' she'd ground out.
'Thou must discover what makes a rose a rose.''
'Thaf s obvious. It looks like one.'
Kadagan had smiled indulgently and said as he left, 'That would be the conclusion of one who is not qhen.'
At first, Khisanth had swallowed her annoyance and risen to the challenge Kadagan had flung at her. Her immense claws were clumsy tools for plucking fragile, pale pink petals, as futile an exercise as using a broadsword to find the wishbone in a tiny sparrow. Yet Khisanth was determined to prove to Kadagan that she had as much patience as he, and so she'd concentrated on separating the velvet-soft petals with the pointed tips of her claws. She held handfuls of petals to her flared nostrils and inhaled until the spicy fragrance was as familiar to her as rats or moist earth. Her long crimson tongue sampled both petals and stems until they no longer tasted bitter. But as time passed, measured by the number of petals Khisanth had plucked, her forced patience waned, then died.
Khisanth slowly paced the confines of the small cave Joad had found for her. It was not what the black dragon would have chosen for a lair. Her horns scraped the arched ceiling when she stood up straight in the regal, threatening pose she liked best; thus, when not asleep, she was forced to either stand with her long neck hunkered over, or sit on her haunches like some eager giant hound. She wouldn't be able to stretch and flex her wings here when the nyphids removed the annoying splint on her right wing.
Bats and small birds had called the cave home before Khi shy;santh had arrived, but she had already consumed those she had not frightened away. A large, stagnant puddle of water in the farthest corner of the cave was the only source of plea shy;sure for Khisanth in the lair. After meals on hot summer days and nights, the dragon liked to splash the fetid water up to her neck with her tail, then lie on the cool, dark stone-and-dirt floor.
At least it was dim inside the cave. Khisanth pondered the nyphid's adoration of light. They needed sunshine; she sought the solitude of darkness. Why had she agreed to fol shy;low the training of creatures so opposite to her own nature and needs? Greed, of course. The answer didn't shame her. Instead, it supported her decision to force them to teach her as promised.
Just then Khisanth froze and cocked her head to the side. Someone or something was approaching her lair. The under shy;side of her long tail made a soft scraping sound as she scut shy;tled to within twenty feet of the opening, where the shadows would still conceal her. She pressed her bulk up against the left wall. The burning green acid that constantly roiled in her stomach stood waiting in the back of her throat.
Kadagan bounded through the opening to the lair. Shak shy;ing rain droplets from his luxurious hair, the nyphid took one look at the scattered remains of roses. 'Thou hast been busy,' he said, oblivious to Khisanth's threatening posture.
The dragon stepped from the shadows in the foulest of moods, one eye half-closed in a furious squint. 'Don't you know better than to approach a dragon's lair unannounced? I nearly boiled you in acid.'
The nyphid looked neither concerned nor surprised. 'I was aware of thee. Besides, I do not fear my own death.'
'Not fearing it and walking foolishly into it are two differ shy;ent things,' growled the dragon.
'Come, Khisanth,' said Kadagan as if she'd not spoken. He stepped from the cave. 'The rain has stopped.' Still grumbling under her breath, the dragon followed the nyphid to the ridge of trees downhill from the lair, where Joad waited cross-legged on the ground. 'Let us see what thou hast learned.'
'I've learned that I'm sick and tired of your games.' Khi shy;santh impulsively snatched Kadagan up by the
