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.