Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [111]
“Don’t prolong it . . .”
“I have to save you.”
“You can’t.”
“The queen—she summoned me. I have to go to her.”
“It’s pointless. We haven’t enough warriors. They’re eating through us. The defenders are all dead.”
“It’s never pointless—”
Dylan hacked a laugh, looking up into his kid brother’s eyes. “Funny to hear that from you.”
With that, Dylan Thackeray shuddered to stillness.
Logan leaned forward and kissed his big brother’s forehead. “I won’t let you down. The defenders are not all dead.”
Logan stood and pounded the door. “In the name of Queen Jennah of Kryta, let me in! I am Logan Thackeray, her champion!”
A wooden beam grated, and the door creaked open. Logan forced his way through the gap, only to find a sword at his throat. “What business have you opening—wait, you’re Logan Thackeray!”
“Where’s the queen?”
The guard hitched a thumb up the stairs. “Five floors up, surrounded by Shining Blade. Nothing gets past them.”
“Safe,” Logan said, “but only if we win the battle in the courtyard. Which way to the dungeon?”
“Down those stairs, but watch yourself. Hundreds of charr down there—nastiest brutes you ever want to meet.”
“Yeah,” Logan said, “just the guys we need.”
He rushed down the spiral stairs and came to a deep chamber of barred cells with a corridor between them. A set of keys hung on a hook by the wall, and Logan snatched them up. He marched down the corridor between the cells.
When the inmates caught sight of him, they growled and hooted.
“Silence!” Logan shouted.
“Who are you to command us?” barked a grizzled warrior missing an eye.
“I am Logan Thackeray!”
“Logan Thackeray? Friend of the famous Rytlock Brimstone?”
“The same.”
“Slayer of the Dragonspawn and Morgus Lethe and the Destroyer of Life?”
“Yes, yes—all of that,” Logan said.
“Who cares?” the one-eyed charr bellowed, and his fellows barked with laughter.
“You care!” Logan shouted angrily. “Or, you should, because right now, the minions of a new dragon have slain your armies and are assaulting this keep!”
A shout of glee went up from the cells, and the one-eyed warrior snarled, “Good luck to them.”
“May I remind you that you are in the keep? You’ll be crushed in your cells—or worse.”
“You’re the one who trapped us, human!”
Logan held up the keys. “And I can release you—if you will fight beside me.”
Laughter roared from the cells, a deafening sound.
“You are a stupid young man!” the one-eyed warrior growled.
“How’s that?” Logan asked.
“Because we’ll swear anything to get out, and the moment we’re out, we’ll kill you.”
“No, you won’t.” Logan lifted the Blood Legion amulet from his neck. “Because I am your brother.”
“Bring that emblem here!” said the one-eyed charr. “Let me see that!”
Logan stepped up before the charr, whose single eye scrutinized the amulet.
“He stole it! He took it off Rytlock’s corpse.”
“No! He gave it to me willingly,” Logan said. “We have a common foe. These crystalline ogres are not just attacking the humans in Ebonhawke. They are attacking your people on the plains outside.”
“Damned ogres!”
“Fight beside me! Don’t wait in your cells for them to come kill you. Swear to fight, and I will release you.”
“I swear it on the Claw of the Khan-Ur,” growled the one-eyed charr, spitting on the floor.
Logan jabbed the key into the lock and turned it, hauling the gate open.
The charr strode from the cell and snorted, “I’m Flinteye. And you don’t stink as much as most humans.”
“Greetings, Flinteye. You don’t stink as much as most charr.” Logan flashed him a smile. “You think any of these others want to fight ogres?”
“Let’s find out.”
Logan turned to the other cells in the corridor. “All right, listen up! You can sit in here and rot and wait for the ogres to break in and kill you, or you can come with me and get weapons and fight these monsters. Who wants to kill some ogres?”
KRALKATORRIK
Big Zojja kicked her way down into the sands. Great plumes of grit flew out of the trench she was digging, curving in a wide semicircle from one side of the northern archway all the