Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [18]
Garm trotted in a wide circle around the golem, watching it warily.
Eir had not lowered her mallet, and her other hand hovered near the chisels on her belt. “But why?”
“Why, what?” asked Snaff, lounging happily in the metal collar of the creature.
“Why make this thing?”
Snaff slid down the broad torso of the creature and landed on the thing’s legs. “I just feel that every golem ought to have a good head on her shoulders—especially the eighteen-foot-tall ones. Not that the Arcane Council agrees. They’re churning out golems with no heads at all—easy to build, sure, but they’re as dumb as posts. What’s the point of that?”
“He doesn’t do anything the normal way,” Zojja noted.
Snaff glanced fondly at his creation. “I think I’ll call her Big Zojja.”
Normal-size Zojja stomped her foot and stared daggers at him.
“And she’ll have quite a ferocious look when she gets into combat.”
“Into combat?” Eir asked.
Snaff nodded. “She’s a war machine.”
“War machine!”
“Why not? Wars shouldn’t be fought with flesh and blood. Somebody might get hurt. I’m hoping to revolutionize war—make it the province of golems without people involved at all. Let them bash each other’s brains out. The nation with the best golems wins.” He gestured behind him to another stone table where a second metal warrior lay. “I’m what you call a philanthropist.”
Eir laughed. “We pronounce it profiteer.” She slung the mallet at her waist and wandered between the tables, surveying the golems.
“They’re a special design of mine,” Snaff said. “Cephalolithopathic.”
Zojja broke in, “It means ‘psychic blockheads.’”
Snaff smiled patiently. “You see, these golems are designed to be fitted with massive basalt heads, which provide resonance points that channel energy into these powerstones”—he lifted what looked like a golden laurel and pointed to the small powerstones embedded around it—“which infuse the signals through the cranium of the wearer, allowing remote experience of somatic sense and reciprocal control of motor functions.”
“What?”
Zojja sighed. “You can control the golem with your mind.”
“Precisely,” Snaff said. “Very experimental. No one else is even close to doing this sort of thing. It’s difficult not to wax poetic about one’s own inventions.” He carried the golden laurel to his apprentice. “Would you be so kind, my dear? After all, it does have your head.”
“Fine,” Zojja said, taking the golden laurel. She slid it down until the ends rested on her ears and the middle cradled her skull. The moment gold contacted skin, the powerstones began to glow.
“It’s working!” Snaff said, clapping his hands as if he had expected it wouldn’t. He turned and pointed toward the golem’s forehead. “It’s working! You see?”
The large powerstone in the golem’s forehead glowed with crimson light. Ripples of energy spread out across the golem’s face, somehow seeming to soften the stone. When the ripples rolled across the creature’s eye, a black iris formed, and a pupil opened, shining red light.
“It can see!” Snaff cried.
The golem lurched up from the table, metal feet pounding stone, and took a booming step toward Eir.
“Look out!” she shouted, and dragged Snaff back from the gigantic foot.
Growling, Garm retreated as well.
But Zojja stood unmoving in the path of the golem. Well, not actually unmoving. She lifted her leg, and the golem took a thunderous step toward her. She lifted her other leg, and—
“Look out!” Eir shouted, snatching Zojja out of the path of the golem.
The golem’s foot boomed brutally just behind Eir.
Zojja squirmed in Eir’s grip, her feet kicking the air as if she were a child having a tantrum.
Behind Eir, the golem broke into a loose-limbed run.
Eir held Zojja out at arm’s length. “What’s she doing?”
Snaff’s voice sounded distant and sad. “She’s running away.”
Eir turned to see the huge golem