"I don't get it," said Khisanth. "Why did the picture stop?"
Kadagan shrugged. 'The maynus is not sentient. Dela was unconscious, and it had no direction. Nor did we. Joad and I searched for Dela all that day. Finally, when darkness fell, we sighted her maynus glowing across the field where she had been kidnapped. It was several more days before we realized it had recorded her capture."
Kadagan could see that while the dragon found the globe's ability to project pictures fascinating, she had not been per shy;suaded to help them.
"We do not ask thee to rescue Dela simply because she is Joad's daughter and my betrothed." Kadagan paused, as if he, too, were just fully understanding the impact of what he was about to say. "We are the last of our kind. Without Dela, nyphids will die off entirely."
"Why don't you use the maynus to find out where she is and rescue her yourself?"
Joad colored noticeably at the question, but remained silent as always.
"We know where she is." Kadagan struggled with the words to explain. "Dela sends … feelings, for lack of a better word, to Joad. These feelings led us to a village in the south." His brow furrowed. "When I was sleeping, he slipped into the town to free her."
"What went wrong?"
Knowing the subject was painful to Joad, Kadagan searched for gentle words. "In his desperation to free his daughter, Joad walked into the human settlement unmasked. Thou canst guess, from seeing Dela's capture, the impact Joad's presence had on the humans there. When I realized where he'd gone, I covered myself with clothing I borrowed from a farmer's wash line. I managed to find him, but not before he, too, had been surrounded and rendered unconscious. That
energy drain, as well as his sadness over losing Dela, has brought on his muteness."
Kadagan saw the dragon's disgust at their ineffectual attempt at rescue. "We are neither warriors nor mages, nor are we physically strong. Thou art all of these things."
Khisanth stood and stretched her muscles, then resettled into a comfortable position that resembled an enormous black ball with a head. "Let's assume that I'm interested in rescuing Dela," she mused. Her long snout was perched on her claw arms as she regarded the nyphids with heavy-lid shy;ded eyes and asked, "What could you possibly possess that I would value as payment?"
"We can give thee something that will grant thee unparal shy;leled strength and wisdom."
The horns on Khisanth's head shifted as her eyebrows rose with undisguised interest. Kadagan had to be talking about a very powerful artifact. The maynus globe, perhaps? Its pow shy;ers were certainly impressive enough for it to be the first item in her dragon hoard. At the thought, the salivary glands in the pink folds of flesh next to her second row of teeth sprang into action.
"We can teach thee the discipline of qhen."
Khisanth blinked in disbelief, and her images of a dragon hoard vanished. "You think a tiny creature made extinct by humans," she spat the word in distaste, "has anything to teach a member of the mightiest race ever to exist on Krynn?"
"It is true that nyphids are on the brink of extinction because of humans. They kill us or display us as possessions because what they do not understand frightens and intrigues them. Yet those are also the reasons that dragons have nearly perished."
Khisanth pushed herself up to her haunches and gave Kadagan an indignant poke in the chest that sent him reeling. "We haven't. .. .'nearly perished'! We were ordered to go underground and sleep until . . ." Her voice trailed off weakly, and Khisanth felt foolish as she realized how slim the dividing line was between extinction and the eternal 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.