Elbryan could still see the creature, a darker spot in the brush, its back to him, swaying back and forth as it watered a bush.

After the thunderclap the creature swayed drunk-enly, with little tendrils of electricity coruscating across it and making whizzing noises.

And then, into this realm of the lost who could only wait, swayed the creature who had suggested their ill-fate: Mata Safi.

Because, as the creature swayed around in front of us, it was becoming obvious, even to the more short-sighted of the congregation, that we were looking at Leonard Pike.

Time seemed to stop as the creature swayed.

The toad-like creature on the platform swayed its great head slowly as a tortoise does, and contemplated us with its flaming eyes.

There was no report, no puff of smoke and no fire, yet the big creature, which had been rushing at the ship, suddenly stopped, swayed for a moment, and then fell over in the snow, kicking in his death agony.

Tardma, the heavy-worlder directly in front of Kai, pointed in the other direction, toward the firmer land, where a winged creature obviously recovering from a stun blast, was swaying upright.

The creature snorted and swayed, then bleated as it fell.

The creature swayed and dropped to its knees.